FISHING IN THE MUD BY JOHN BERRY

I was scheduled to guide a young couple, on her first fly fishing trip last Sunday. The day before, I was in Memphis celebrating Christmas, with my family. I checked the weather and I must say that it looked pretty grim. There was a huge front moving in that promised heavy thunderstorms and tornadoes. I called my client and we agreed that the conditions were bad. They were in the area for a few days and we agreed to touch base on Sunday and see if we could fish on Monday. We got so much rain on Sunday that we had flood conditions on the White and Norfork that fishing on Monday was out of the realm of possibility but we made a commitment for Tuesday.

Tuesday arrived and I checked conditions. Crooked Creek and the Buffalo were in flood and all of that muddy water was ending up in the White. The water was backed up on the Norfork all the way to the dam and the White was backed up to past Rim Shoals. When you encounter situations like this, you head upstream, until you find clear water. There was none on the Norfork and very little on the White. I decided to fish in Cotter. Though the water was off color, it is my home water (I live in Cotter) and I pretty know where all of the hazards are. The problem in fishing in off color water is that you cannot see obstructions and you have to move carefully.

I met my clients, Ralph and Taylor, at 7:30 AM and we drove to Big Spring Park in Cotter. They were bundled up, for the near freezing weather, with no sun. The river was off color and it looked like about 3,000 CFS (cubic feet per second or about one full generator). I began, with a brief casting class, for Taylor. She picked it up quickly. I then rigged the rods and got the boat ready to launch. I put a pink San Juan worm, on each rod, along with an AAA split shot and a strike indicator. I put a different dropper, on each rod, to see what would work.

We began drifting, in front of the park, but got no takers. We decided to motor upstream, to the area, between the new highway 62 bridge and the old railroad bridge. On the third drift, we hit a big brown, on a cerise San Juan worm. It put up a good but short fight. I think that Ralph was experienced enough, to bring it in quickly. He had fished Alaska a few months before and was adept at handling large Salmon. It turned out to be a fat twenty five inch brown that was his largest brown ever. We took some photos and carefully returned the trout to the water.

At noon, we broke for lunch. The temperature was hovering around thirty four degrees and everyone was chilled to the bone. Taylor was particularly cold. I invited them to my house for lunch and a warm up, as I only live about five blocks away. We drove to my house and I took my Yeti, with the lunch in it, into the house. We ate at the dining room table and luxuriated in the warmth. I made a pot of fresh coffee and we all had a mug. I went into my fishing armoire (where I store all of my extra equipment) and found my sack of hand warmers and toasty toes and passed them out. They were well received.

We returned to the river. Fortified by lunch, coffee and some warmth we were ready to face the afternoon. The water rose a bit and cleared some. We began picking up some trout on our dropper midge patterns. We fished till about four.

My clients had enjoyed the day despite the condition. We had landed a trophy brown and some nice rainbows

John Berry is a fly fishing guide for Blue Ribbon Guides in Cotter, Arkansas and has fished our local streams for over thirty years.

THE LAST GUIDE TRIPS OF 2015 BY DENNIS SCHULE

I would like to start this week by wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas (none of that Happy Holidays stuff) and thanking all of you for visiting our Blue Ribbon Guides’ website and for fishing with us as clients in 2015.

My guide season was supposed to be finished last week but lo and behold some avid fly fishermen wanted to get in a little fishing before the year ended, which was good with me. 

I received a call from Ronald who said he and his wife, Kathleen, would like to fish for two days just before Christmas.  Ronald and Kathleen are from South Dakota and would be in the area visiting family for the holidays.  So, we booked them for December 23rd and 24th.  The first day was a float from Bull Shoals State Park down to Whitehole.  As it has been for most of the year, we fished with a considerable amount of water and there was no wading.  Both Ronald and Kathleen are very good fly fishermen and fish out west numerous times throughout the summer.  This day brought plenty of fish but nothing of any real size.

On the second day we fished the Rim Shoals area which also brought plenty of fish along with two very nice streamer caught browns.  Ronald and Kathleen had never fished large articulated streamers on heavy sink tip lines before but quickly caught on and mastered the technique. After their shoulders began to ache we switched back to nymphs and finished the day down river from the Crooked Creek confluence.  Overall it was a very productive two days of fishing on the White River and Ronald commented that the White River is every bit as good, if not better than any of the western rivers that they fish.

That brings us to Christmas day.  I received a call a couple of days ago from Nancy who resides in Fayetteville. Nancy said her husband is deployed in the middle east and would not be home for Christmas.  Nancy said her son, Tyler, is an avid fisherman and wanted to learn how to fly fish.  I told Nancy that I had the perfect place to teach him how to become a fly fisherman.

I met Nancy and Tyler at Dry Run Creek at 8 AM.  Tyler said he would like to use the new equipment he received for Christmas.  I took a look at what he had received and discovered that he had made quite a haul.  Tyler received a new TFO rod and reel with a RIO line.  He also got a new pair of Redington waders.  I took Tyler across the street to the state park and worked with him on his casting and explained the fly fishing process.  Tyler is a very quick learner and picked up the casting in short order.  Then we headed over to Dry Run Creek.  I tied on a San Juan Worm and showed Tyler how to side arm cast.  As luck would have it Tyler caught a nice 16" rainbow on the very first cast.  Needless to say Tyler was immediately hooked on fly fishing.  Tyler continued to catch fish for the next three hours.  Although nothing gigantic was landed, Tyler continued to catch 16"-18" rainbows and browns.

Finally about 11:30 I said we had to call it a day and Tyler reluctantly reeled in his line and we headed to the parking lot.  I told Tyler that he did a fantastic job for his first time with a fly rod.  He promised that he would continue to practice his casting.  At that time Nancy got out her checkbook and started writing a check for my services.  I thought about it for a minute and decided that since her husband was serving our country and could not get home to spend Christmas with his family, I just couldn't charge her for the day.  I told her to put her checkbook away and to tell her husband, thank you very much for his service.  Nancy was overjoyed. 

With all the crazy stuff going on in this world right now, I realized on my way home that this is what Christmas is really all about -- not all the junk you can buy in a store but to be able to give something to someone from the heart.

Merry Christmas, Tyler and Nancy!

2015 A YEAR IN REVIEW BY JOHN BERRY

For me 2015 has been a mixed bag. Part of it was good and part of it was not so good.

The year began well enough. He fishing in the late winter and early spring was pretty good. I was busy guiding and my clients did well. Somehow I managed to totally miss the caddis hatch. To begin with, I don’t think that it was as prolific or as heavy as it has been in previous years. In addition, I was always in the wrong place at the wrong time. My clients and I did well on the nymphal stage particularly with prince nymphs and the emergence with my green butt soft hackles. We just never caught any really good dry fly action on that insect.

In March we had the best Sowbug Roundup ever. His year we made a fundamental change to the fly tiers dinner. We made it much more casual and added music. Rather than have a sit down dinner we served heavy appetizers with wine beer and soft drinks and enlarged the auction. The changes were well received and we had record attendance.

The next month tragedy struck. My ninety four year old father had a stroke from which he never recovered. Dad was a world war II veteran and a force of nature. At ninety four he walked three miles a day, did yoga and his hobby was ball room dancing. He drove at night and had an active social life. He was always immaculately groomed, was well spoken and had courtly manners. He was the guy that first took me fishing.

A week later it got worse. My brother, Dan, passed away. He was the one who got me involved in fly fishing. He was my fishing buddy, my business partner and my best friend. We traveled all over the United States to fish. We hiked a portion of the Appalachian Trail to fish for small brookies, flew to Utah for big browns and Yellowstone for cutthroats. He was the best fly tyer and fly caster I ever met. I miss them both.

Midsummer was much better for me. We had low water for most of it on the Norfork and I finally got into some great dry fly action. This year’s sulphur hatch was quite late. I didn’t see them until late June. It was not prolific but it was reliable and the trout really keyed in on them. I caught it on several occasions and it provided me with some of the best dry fly fishing that I have had for several years. I managed to take a fat nineteen inch rainbow on the top and I was able to introduce several novice clients to dry fly fishing.

The rest of the year has been plagued with high water. We had a brief respite for a few weeks that provided for some spectacular fishing then we got a seven inch rain, which sent the lake levels up. We have just about gotten them back down and as I write this we have several days of rain in the forecast. Hopefully it will be light.

Finally it has been a great year for Tilley, our fishing dog. She is an English Labrador Retriever. My wife, Lori has been training and showing her all year. He has six obedience titles and is two thirds of the way to her seventh. We expect her to earn that at a dog show two weeks from now. She is also about half way to her championship in conformation. We hope she completes that next year.

Like I say it’s been a mixed bag. Maybe next year will feature lower water and great hatches!

John Berry is a fly fishing guide for Blue Ribbon Guides in Cotter, Arkansas and has fished our local streams for over thirty years.

SOWBUG ROUNDUP FLY TYING CONTEST 2016 BY JOHN BERRY

As many of you know, the most important fly fishing event of the year is the Sowbug Roundup. It is a three day celebration of fly tying that is scheduled for April 14, 15 and 16 in 2016 at the Baxter County Fairgrounds. Fly tyers from throughout the United States will be there and we usually draw a tyer or two from abroad.  Am on the Sowbug committee and I believe that the next Sowbug Roundup will be the best one ever.

My job on the committee is chairman of the Fly Tying Contest. This has become an integral part of the show and I really enjoy doing it. I invite each of you to enter the contest. There are nine categories, nymph, dry fly, wet fly, streamer, smallmouth bass, bass, warm water, salmon/steelhead and salt water. In addition there is a best in show. The winners of each category and the best in show will receive a plaque (the perfect thing to hang over your tying desk). The real prize is the bragging rights for winning.

Rules have been kept to a minimum. The entrant must tie the fly submitted for judging. Each entry must include the name, address, phone number and email address along with two flies for each pattern submitted. You need to include the recipe for the fly and instructions on how to fish it. You may submit as many patterns for as many categories as you want. All flies submitted will become the property of the contest and will not be returned. Any fly that contains insect parts (legs wings, etc.) will be eliminated from competition. Commercially tied patterns will not be accepted. The decision of the judges is final. Committee members and judges are not eligible to participate in the contest.

To participate, all you have to do is send your flies, recipes and fishing instructions to me, John Berry, at 408 Combs Ave. Cotter, Arkansas or you can drop your entries off at Blue Ribbon Fly Shop by Monday March 7, 2016. The winners will be announced on Friday April 15, 2016 at the Sowbug Roundup Shindig which will be held at St. Peter the Fisherman Catholic Church beginning at 6:00 PM. This event has become the top fly fishing social event of the year.

The idea behind the fly tying contest is to identify and acknowledge those talented tyers among us that nobody knows about. The best example of this is Chad Johnson. He is a respected local guide that has entered the fly tying contest for the last three years (the first year it was sponsored by the Baxter Bulletin) and has won the Best in Show in every one of them. He has become a bit of an institution in the local fly fishing community because of the quality and effectiveness of his streamers and bass bugs. He is now teaching fly tying and is a designer for Umpqua Feather Merchants, a large supplier of flies. This year he is going to retire from competition and become one of our judges. We are very proud to have him join us and we all look forward to having a new tyer rise to the top.

My only regret is that, as a committee member and judge, I cannot enter the contest.

John Berry is a fly fishing guide for Blue Ribbon Guides in Cotter, Arkansas and has fished our local streams for over thirty years.