A couple of weeks ago I was one of several guides working a corporate group at River Ridge Inn. This group was a bit different from the other corporate groups that I have worked, in that the guys brought their wives. That was a very nice touch except for the fact that it was brutally cold with heavy winds. It was so extreme that many of the wives decided to not fish and went on a shopping expedition to Branson.
Richard, the angler that always organizes these trips, requested that I guide him and his wife Jan. I am always glad to fish with him, as he is an accomplished fly fisher, but was a bit concerned with taking Jan out for her first fly fishing experience in the tough weather conditions. Luckily for me she was a good sport, had brought plenty of clothing and wore all of it.
The first day began with a casting lesson and she picked it up quickly. We launched the boat and fished near the lodge in case she got cold. As luck would have it, she did well and out fished Richard. It was only a half day trip and we were back at the lodge before she got cold.
The second day was meaner than the first with heavy winds and wind chills in the teens. She was quite the trooper and was ready to go right after breakfast. We fished hard all morning and caught several trout but by lunch she was ready to call it a day. We returned to the lodge for a warm meal and some coffee.
Richard was not ready to quit and we returned to the river. We fished in several locations and the going was slow. We were both dressed comfortably and the cold did not bother either of us. We finally located a spot that was loaded with several trout and settled in to land some fish. We were catching two or three nice trout on each drift and Richard was in his element. We mostly caught rainbows but Richard landed a fat thirteen inch brown.
A couple of drifts later he hit a big fish. When it took a two foot leap from the water I knew he was onto a nice brown. I was a bit concerned because Richard was stripping it in. I always prefer to fight big fish on the reel but there was no time or opportunity to get it on the reel. Then as I looked around I remembered the heavy cover of downed trees in the area. We had already lost several flies in the area and I was worried that the big trout would wrap a log and break off. He expertly worked the fish out of the heavy cover and eventually led it into my big boat net.
It was a gorgeous fat twenty one inch brown and it was the best fish that anyone on this trip had landed. Richard wanted a photo. I looked for a place to land the boat but there was none. I had him hold the trout in the net suspended in the water while I motored to a spot to land it. This took a few minutes but the trout was still in good shape, when we got there. I pulled out my waterproof camera and set up the shot. When I pressed the shutter button I got a no battery light on the digital display. I had recharged the battery a couple of days before but it refused to function in the deep cold. I should have kept the camera warm in my interior jacket pocket. I was disappointed but Richard reminded that we had landed much larger fish in the past and he was ok with the loss. We fished a while longer and the called it a day.
I think there are some fish that are just camera shy.
John Berry is a fly fishing guide in Cotter, Arkansas, for Blue Ribbon Guides and has fished our local streams for over thirty years. John can be reached at (870) 435-2169 or
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