Ozarks in Autumn, Round 2

Having taken the same basic trip at the same time with the same group (two of my boys, a friend and me) two years in a row, I supposed it could have been dubbed our second annual Autumn Ozarks Adventure. Whatever the name, we made the trip a week or so ago, and much like last year, enjoyed some excellent fishing and had a bunch of fun.

We spent most of this year's fishing time working the Buffalo and White rivers, hitting both rivers in several spots. My 12-year-old son Asher also got to spend a delightful day catching trout from Dry Run Creek, which is a wonderful youth- and handicapped-only, catch-and-release trout stream. The other two explored a bit on the Norfork River during part of that day, but didn't find much to their liking. I just followed Asher and stayed busy taking photos.

The Buffalo was mighty low and a bit slow. We did catch some fish, though, and the Buffalo is such a beautiful river that wading along its edges or floating it is always delightful. We started fairly far up the river and hopped from access to access, walking river banks and wading. The White yielded plenty of trout, including a few truly fabulous flurries.

This year's trip also include stops at a handful of disc golf courses, including one in Mississippi that we visited along the way and four in Arkansas.

We split our nights between camping and cabins and enjoyed both in different ways. Best meal, by my take any way, featured cheap steaks cooked over coals beside the White River.

Dry Run Delight

I spent today at my favorite creek to NOT catch fish. You see, I don't get to fish at Dry Run Creek. It's a youth-only stream. That's exactly why I like it to much, though. This little Ozarks creek is a gem for young anglers, and it's incredibly fun for me to watch my boys catch fish.

And boy did Asher catch them today. He landed 25 trout, with fish up to about 4 pounds, and he got at least 10 almost in before they shook free. Since it was a November weekday, Asher had the whole creek to himself.

I had heard that late fall was prime time to visit Dry Run because fish from the Norfork River would pile up in the creek. Was that ever true! I've probably been there a dozen times (all but the two most recent with my older son, Nathaniel), and I've never seen more fish in the creek.

While Asher fished Dry Run and I watched, Nathaniel and our friend Caleb fished the Norfork. Tomorrow's plan is for all of us to fish the White River, but it looks like we might get a bunch of rain. We'll see!

Autumn Ozarks Adventure

Objective are simple: Explore rivers, enjoy autumn in the Ozarks and catch fish. Agenda is lightly defined. Likely stops include the Spring, Norfork, White  and Buffalo rivers (plus Dry Run Creek for Asher). Little Red is a possibility, too. How and exactly where we fish and where we put up the tent each night will depend on river conditions, weather, results and simply what we feel like.

That's a nicety of November. Campgrounds are uncrowded, so no reservations are necessary.

We leave tonight and should be in Arkansas by daylight and fishing by mid-morning or so. Crew includes my 17- and 11-year-old sons and one other friend. Trout and smallmouths are the primary targets, but I'd be surprised if we don't catch some rock bass, misc. other panfish and who knows what else.

We'll likely float the Spring River with help from a friend. Everything else will be wading or bank-fishing, so river conditions will dictate quite a bit, especially in the tailwaters.

I'll certainly pack several cameras, and truth be known, gathering work photos, video clips and other content has to be also part of my objectives list. This one is a little different from normal media trips I take, though. We're just going fishing and letting the photos opportunities happen. Of course, I don't think good material will be hard to come by while as we fish four or five Ozarks streams during the first week of November.

I supposed I'd better get back to packing and to getting stuff done so I can travel tonight!

A Few of my Favorite Things

Since my return from the Rebel Trout Trek, quite a few people have asked about my favorite stop we made. So far, I haven't been able to answer that, or even narrow it that much, and I'm not sure if I ever will. Several stops, though, offered a favorite "something," so I thought I might highlight some of those. This might turn out to be Part 1 of a blog. I'm not sure yet!

Favorite Wildlife Sighting

Despite Asher and I having seen bison, antelope, elk and much more, including a few bears, my favorite wildlife we spotted was the group of the 10 bighorn ewes that were right across Rapid Creek from us in the Black Hills. They ignored us completely while we fished, and it was indescribably cool watching how they walked and bounded along the edge of the cliff.


Favorite Forest

Similarly, we roamed through a lot of very pretty woods on our trip. Still, no other forest struck me in quite the same way as the old-growth forest that bounded the North Fork Skomoshish River in Olympic National Forest. Enormous trees and boulders, most of which were blanketed by moss, and a forest floor covered with ferns and woodland wildflowers, created a fairytale-like display of colors, designs and textures.







Favorite Mountains
One thing that surprised me on the trip was how much the mountains varied in character from one
location to another, including some areas that weren't that far from each other. The specific group of mountains that struck me the most was the aptly named Snowy Range, which is located just west of Laramie, Wyoming. The Forest Service campground we stayed at is open from "snow to snow," the campground hosts told me, and on average that means Aug. 1 through Labor Day! The entire recreation area is higher than 10,000 feet, with the highest peaks a few thousand feet higher, and it's dotted with high-country lakes. We passed within touching range of a couple of big patches of snow as we hiked to a few of the lakes to fish.

Favorite Fish

This one is really a tie because Asher caught two piggish rainbows on back to back presentations at Dry Run Creek, and while we think the first was a tiny bit bigger than the second, I can't say that I enjoyed seeing him catch one more than another. Either would have been the largest fish of any kind that Asher had ever caught, and both provided a mighty nice launch for the whole trip. I also had a favorite fish of my own, and if you followed the trip you probably could guess which one it was. I think I'll save that, though. I'm thinking of more favorite things from the trip, even as I write, so there needs to be at least a Part II.

Final Preparation: Rebel Trout Trek

It's getting real now. I started this morning getting four new tires for the Fiesta, making certain it was fully travel ready, and have spent most of today packing, taking care of things around home, charging batteries, clearing SD cards, and doing other things to prepare for travel.

I can't believe six months have passed since the crazy idea about a cross-country, father/son trout trek started spinning in my head. Now it's truly upon me. The car is partly packed, and we plan to pull out of the driveway in less than 30 hours. Soon Asher and I will be driving toward Arkansas. By this time on Monday, he'll be wrapping up his first-ever afternoon at Dry Run Creek.

Dry Run crowds concern me a bit. Nathaniel and I were always able to visit during spring or fall, when school was in session, and I saw on Facebook tonight that a giant brown caught recently at Dry Run earned national acclaim. It's not a big creek, so having more than a few angles there could really limit opportunities. We'll  take what we get, though, and I'm excited for Asher just to see the stream and it's offerings.

Tomorrow we'll ready Asher a Dry Run box with all single-hook, barbless lures, and will finish packing the car. I'll also wrap up whatever work still needs to be done. Then hopefully we'll get to sleep at a pretty good hour. And speaking of sleep, I'd better go find some of that now!

#RebelTroutTrek

The Basic Route

If you check out this blog from time to time, you've likely learned by now that a little later this summer (beginning July 20), my 10-year-old son Asher and I will be making a 3 1/2-week, cross-country trip to explore western trout waters and will be blogging our journey for Rebel Lure Company. The above mapquest route planner provides a look at where we'll be traveling.

The route depicted is far from exact. I typed in several places where we will stay in sequence, but it doesn't include things like the three-day loop around the Olympic Peninsula in Washington or various fishing side trips. For similar reasons, it may not be that actual route I'll end up choosing in some cases. That said, it does depict the basic flow of travel fairly well.

The western loop portion begins and ends at Cabela's worldwide headquarters in Sidney, Nebraska (Point P), where we'll pick up some gear we will be using on our trip. Fishing, excepting Asher's stop at Dry Run Creek in Arkansas, begins in Deadwood, South Dakota (Point D) and ends in Laramie, Wyoming (Point O). By my best estimate, with side trips included, we'll travel between 7,500 and 8,000 miles.

Best places to follow the Rebel Trout Trek will be at rebellures.com and on the Rebel Lures Facebook Page, but I'll also be posting thing's here, on the Jeff Samsel Fishing Facebook page, on my Twitter and Instagram feeds and on the North American Fisherman website. Asher will also be blogging our travels, so if you want to keep up with things from a 10-year-old's perspective, bookmark Asher's Blog.

Arkansas Welcome

We left home might early this morning (about 3:30) so that we'd have a little play time before gathering for dinner at Mockingbird Bay Resort on the banks of Norfork Lake in Arkansas' Ozark Region. I'm happy we left when we did. Nathaniel got to fish a little while on Dry Run Creek and managed to land a beautiful brown trout. A mighty fine lead in for three days of fishing on the lake, which begin tomorrow morning.

I suspect we'll slip back down to try run at least one more time while we're in the area -- maybe Saturday morning. This trip is almost certainly Nathaniel's last chance to fish Dry Run because he turns 16 in a little more than a month.

Tomorrow morning we'll fish for bass with pro angler John Murray. Before the week is over, we may also fish for walleyes, crappie and stripers. I suppose I'd better rest a while. It doesn't really seem like it was even today when we left Clarkesville!

Norfork Lake Beckons

Trey Anderson shows off a chunky Norfork
Lake largemouth.

I can't imagine how much time I'd spend fishing in the Arkansas Ozarks were it not for the 650 miles between here and there. As is, the region's beautiful lakes, trout-filled tailwaters and tumbling smallmouth streams lure me a few times every year, and somehow that 12-hour drive doesn't seem that long when I'm Arkansas bound.

Early Tuesday morning, when Nathaniel and I hop in the truck to head for Norfork Lake, it'll already be our second Ozarks excursion of 2014. Last month we enjoyed a wonderful visit at Gaston's White River Resort, and we actually spent one day in the shadows of Norfork Dam so Nathaniel could spent a little time fishing Dry Run Creek.

I'm looking forward to spending a few days at Mockingbird Bay Resort, getting better acquainted with Norfork Lake. It appears opportunities striped bass, largemouths, spots, smallmouths, walleyes and crappie could all be on tap. A classic Ozarks lake -- clear, rocky and spectacularly scenic -- Norfork also serves up outstanding fishing, especially during the spring, when the fish tend to be shallow and active. I've only been out on Norfork a couple of times, so I'm eager to spend more time out there.

Of course, if time allows before or after our Norfork adventure, Nathaniel and I might have to slide just a few miles down the road so he can make a few casts into Dry Run Creek. He turns 16 in a month and a half, so next week likely marks his final opportunity to fish this fabulous youth-only trout stream.

After we leave Norfork we'll slip down to Mountain View for a day, and Nathaniel will trade his fishing rod for an instrument and will compete in the Southern Regional Mountain Dulcimer Championship at the Ozark Folk Center. Then we'll cap off our Ozark Adventure with a bit of floating and wading in the Spring River for smallmouths, trout and more before beginning our journey toward home.

Should be quite a week of fishing. Watch for reports and photos here, on my facebook fishing page, on Twitter and now on Instagram.

Arkansas Travelers

Nathaniel and I traversed 650 miles today, landing in Mountain Home, Arkansas. We'll spend the next few days in the Ozarks, with trout fishing as the main attraction. Tomorrow, Nathaniel will fish Dry Run Creek, a special youth-only stream that offers great fishing, with Hunter and Michael Taylor. Lawrence Taylor and I get to watch and take photos. It can be a little hard to not be allowed to make even a single cast, but it really is fun to watch the boys catch big fish and simply to watch all the fish in the creek. From a work standpoint, visiting Dry Run is always productive for me because of the big fish that Nathaniel invariably catches and holds for photos.

From Dry Run, we'll head straight to Gaston's White River Resort, where we'll spend three nights and fish two full days on the river, We may fish a bit tomorrow afternoon as well.

The character of the fishing on the White varies a lot according to water levels and other factors, but it is always good, and Gaston's is one of our favorite places to visit. I'm hoping for high water because that brings out the best opportunities to throw jerkbaits for big brown trout. I'll take whatever water we get, though!

Nathaniel and I actually will be back to the Arkansas Ozarks for more fishing in a little more than a month, but we'll talk about that when we get closer to that time!

Packing, Tracking, Writing & More

Today was one of those sorts of days where I stayed moving all day and I know I accomplished a lot, but it seemed like my wheels were spinning some of the time. Nathaniel and I leave early tomorrow morning to drive 12 hours or so to Arkansas. I needed to do a mix of packing, getting stuff in order at home, writing what I could, running errands and more. Packing, of course, included gathering trout gear for the White River.

Meanwhile, I've been keeping an eye on the FLW Tour event going on at Lake Hartwell. I'd have loved to have ridden out to the weigh-in to visit with folks and watch it live, since the site is only an hour from home, but I just couldn't make it work time-wise. I did notice that Casey Ashley expanded his lead to 9 pounds with only one day remaining. I'm happy for him. I've only met him briefly, but he seems very well-liked and respected by everyone who knows him, and it's always fun to see someone local bring it together well on home waters.

Tomorrow we'll drive to Mountain Home, Arkansas, and on Monday morning, Nathaniel will fish Dry Run creek, his favorite special regulations stream, which I've talked about quite a bit in blogs over the years. Then we'll gather in the afternoon for a couple of days trout fishing at Gaston's White River Resort. It's an annual trip with a group of writer friends and one of our favorite adventures of the year.

Suppose I ought to sleep soon!

Figuring Out Trout & Smallmouths

The trout in Dry Run Creek were tough customers today. With so many fish in such a s small stream, you'd think that catching them would be like shooting fish in a barrel. That's not the case, though. In fact, sometimes they get very finicky. That's especially true during the spring, when a lot of school groups visit this special "youth only" catch-and-release stream, and the fish get caught and released a lot!

Nathaniel had the stream to himself today, but the fish were wary, and he had to experiment with a variety of lures and presentations to figure out how to trigger strikes. Eventually, he figured out that a black Fuzz-E Grub was pretty tough for some fish to resist.

Tomorrow we'll be floating the Buffalo River with smallmouth bass as our primary targets, and we're already pondering what might work best. The river is notably higher than when I've fished it before, and it actually is on the rise and has a bit of color. The small baits and subtle colors that normally work well for me might go unnoticed by the bass.

 I sort of think that jerkbaits and crankbaits will produce better than soft-plastic offerings tomorrow, and that the best soft plastics will have opaque color pattens and lend themselves to fast presentations through ambush zones. I also think that picking the best locations will be critical as the smallmouths will be laying low but will be ready to ambush easy meals. The challenge, I think, will be making good presentations through key fish-holding areas.

Those are just guesses, though. I"ll have a much better idea once I'm on the section we will float, and hopefully the pattern will develop as the day progresses. Either way, I"ll pass along the report!

Three Days, Four Waterways, Seven Species

Our week-long three-state fishing trip is off to a fine start, with fish-catching success on the Chattahoochee River, Old Hickory Lake, a small private lake and Center Hill in the first three days. Nathaniel and I fished Center Hill today, and the smallmouths bit pretty well. We spent this morning taking photos and fishing for smallmouths and the rest of the day driving to Arkansas, where tomorrow we'll begin a few days of fishing in Ozark streams.

Thus far, the trip has produced seven different kinds of fish for me: rainbow trout, brown trout, bluegill, largemouth bass, black crappie, warmouth and smallmouth bass. The crappie and the smallmouth were new additions to my 2013 catch list.

Tomorrow we may do some trout fishing in the White River in the Bull Shoals tailwater, and I'll most likely take Nathaniel to Dry Run Creek, the "youth only" catch-and-release stream that he likes so much and that I've often discussed in blogs. Thursday and Friday we'll float the Buffalo National Scenic River! We always enjoy fishing in the Ozarks.

White River Trout Update

I've been slow with reports, but it sure hasn't been for a lack of good things to report. Days have been full, and I've hit the room ready to sleep.
We fished a day and a half in the White out of Gaston's White River Resort, catching a blend of rainbows and browns. Although the water was low yesterday and falling both days, Nathaniel and I still got to throw some jerkbaits and to catch a few.
Of course Nathaniel did his best jerkbait work this afternoon at Dry Run Creek, fooling a big cutthroat with an Xcalibur Twitch Bait (with a barbless single hook) .
Tomorrow morning we'll visit the Jim Gaston Visitor Center at Bull Shoals Dam State Park before we begin driving east.

Dry Run Delight

After a bit of a break for lunch, we're back to the stream, and Nathaniel is trying to coax a bite from a big one with an XCalibur Twitch Bait. Dry Run Creek has some seriously big trout in it, and a few have given chase already.
A special regs stream that's open only to youth and disabled anglers only for catch and release fishing with single-hook barbless hooks, Dry Run is an absolute gem for young anglers. It stays loaded with trout, including a bunch of big ones.
Nathaniel loves to fish here, and I value the opportunity to gather a lot of trout photos.
The fish wouldn't quite commit to the Twitch Bait, so he's back to throwing a Watsit Grub. Oh! Trout on. I'd better run!

Brown Trout Day

Well, the live blog notion isn't going as I had hoped because the signal by Dry Run Creek is so weak. First post still hasn't published so everything I write might show up at one time.

As a quick update, it's been a brown trout day so far and the best fish catcher has been a Lindy Watsit Grub. The brownie part is somewhat odd because the sun couldn't be shining any brighter. The most productive lure so far doesn't surprise me at all.

Time for us to go find lunch. Maybe the first couple posts will post when we ride to town.

Coffee, Flies & Close Encounters

We had to make one quick stop on the way to the creek. Blue Ribbon Fly Shop in Mountain Home has an attached coffee shop with a mountain trout trout theme. How cool is that?

Nathaniel has had several hits in the first few minutes at Dry Run and has already been hooked up with a brown that he estimated at 5 pounds. Most on a Rebel Tracdown Minnow with the hooks changed out. Single barbless hooks are challenging.

Oh he has one on now!

Creekside Blogging Today

Nathaniel are on our way out the door, headed toward Arkansas' Dry Run Creek. I can't fish there (youth only stream), so I'm going to take at advantage of my phone (when I can get enough signal) and blog live from the banks of the creek. We might also end up fishing a bit together in the Norfork or the White before the day is over, but we'll see. Nathaniel gave Dry Run a quick stab last night and caught about five trout. No big ones, which is a little odd last night, but he hooked a couple of 4-pound rainbows that got off. We only had an hour or before sunset, when the stream closes each day, to fish. Full day ahead today!

Arkansas Trout Schemes

Any time my travel path swings close to the Ozarks, it's a pretty safe bet that at least a little trout fishing will fall into my plans. Next week is no different, and some plans are already in place. Nathaniel will spend an afternoon plying the trout-loaded waters of Dry Run Creek, and we'll spend a day together on the White chasing brown trout with veteran guide Donald Cranor.

I don't get to wet a line at Dry Run, a youth-only trout stream and an absolute Arkansas treasure. I just walk behind Nathaniel with a camera in my hand and gawk at all the trout. I don't mind. It's fun watching him catch so many nice fish, and I always get a bunch of great photos. And if we need a change of scenery at any point, the upper Norfork tailwater (where I can fish) is only footsteps from the Dry Run access. I'm also really looking forward spending a day on the White with Donald. He is one of the best fishermen on the river, and I have not been in his boat for several years.

Now I just need to figure out  whether I can realistically squeeze any other trout adventures into the same stop. If the water will low, maybe a little night fishing below Norfork or Bull Shoals Dam? Both the White and the Norfork yield jumbo browns on summer nights. Major considerations -- beyond water levels -- are exactly when we leave home and the need to sleep some at the front end of an 8-day trip that involves a 2,000 or so miles of driving.

By this time next week, Nataniel and I will be settled in Kansas at a music festival, which is actually our primary destination and the reason for the trip, and whatever we accomplished with the trout will be all memories. We won't have to live long on just the memories, though, because we're stopping to do more Arkansas fishing on the way home!

Same Rainbow Trout?

A 10-second glance beneath the surface of Dry Run Creek is all you need to get a good feel for why this Arkansas stream is one of Nathaniel's absolute favorite places to visit. The fish in this clip actually looks a lot like a beautiful rainbow Nathaniel caught a couple of years ago, with it thick body, hooked jaw and intensely bright coloration. Same fish? In Dry Run, it's  hard to say. Its clear waters are loade with big and brightly colored trout.

Dry Run Bounties

The Dry Run Creek trout, although as abundant as ever, were tough customers this weekend. Apparently, a couple hundred school children have fished the creek during special outings in the last week or so, making the fish far fussier than normal. That didn't mean that Nathaniel, Hunter and Michael couldn't catch any trout. It just meant that they had to add more finesse to their presentations and had to work harder for their fish than normally would be the case. Their best lures were small Lindy Watsit Grubs and Fuzz-E Grubs, fished with dead drift presentations.