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!

The Wonderful White

The dam that harnesses the White River to form Bull Shoals Lake in Northern Arkansas also fuels one of the nation's most prolific trout fisheries. Beginning just below the dam, trout waters extend more than 80 miles and get stocked annually with more than 1.6 million trout. For most visiting anglers, the White is a place to find fast action and bring home a limit of rainbows. For others it's a place to target quality browns and possibly catch a fish of a lifetime.
I just wrapped up a couple of days at the White, fishing out of Gaston's White River Resort. We caught a mix of rainbows and browns, mostly throwing jerkbaits. We did the bulk of our fishing out of johnboats with guides, but one of my favorite things about the White is that there is also an enormous amount if opportunity to wade, float in a small boat or fish from the bank.
In fact, before we left town, Nathaniel and I visited the state park access immediately downstream of the dam, and I'm already scheming the wade-fishing I want to do next tome I am in that part of Arkansas!

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.

Low Water, High Expectations

My high hopes of finding the White River ripping died when I got to Gaston's today and found the river low and slow. However, they are running a couple of generators early each morning, so I'm hopeful that we'll have a couple of hours to throw Rogues in search of a big brown trout before switching to Watsit Grubs and Fuzz-E Grubs for a mix of rainbows and browns.
We'll talk to our guide in the morning, though, to see what will work best bases on current conditions. In truth, if I'm in a Gaston's johnboat on the White River I'm happy, no matter what the river and trout are doing.
Nathaniel and I aldo fished the pond and waded the river just a tiny bit upon arrival today and managed to catch a few bass and a rainbow. That was mostly for the sake of getting a little fishing out of our systems. Real fishing starts tomorrow. Reports will follow.

White River Trout, Here we Come

Truck is mostly loaded and filled with fuel, and the rooster is set for three bells. Nathaniel and I plan to leave dark and early in part to stay way ahead of Atlanta Monday morning traffic and to get a headstart on a very long (12 hours or so) drive to Arkansas. More so, though, we hope to have at least a little bit of time to explore at the other end, possibly bank-fishing or wading the White River (depending on afternoon water levels) and most likely visting the pond at Gaston's. The bass in the pond would offer a nice warm-up for a couple of days of fishing in guides' boats on the White.

Gaston's White River Resort is without question one of my favorite places to visit. The river is beautiful, the trout always seem to bite and the resort, with its famous row of pink cabins, truly is first class. And the shore lunches defy description!

I'm hoping for high water flows. Lots of water translates to aggressive trout and great opportunities to throw jerkbaits for browns, which is my favorite way to fish on the White. We're equipped for and excited about whatever the river offers, though, and the great guides at Gaston's always know the best approaches.

Better try sleeping a bit soon, I suppose!

Thursday Tipless

With apologies to anyone who had hopes of finding anything worthwhile on my blog today (or yesterday as a Thursday Tip), it's not going to happen. Running around has gotten the best of me for the past two days, and tonight I'm in a hotel room with such a bad wifi signal that I'm thumb-typing on my phone instead of fighting the computer.

My intent is to make up for this week's shortfalls with really good stuff fresh from Gaston's White Rivet Lodge next week!

Slow Start to Fishing Year

By the time March rolled around last year, my list of species I had caught in 2012 had already hit a baker's dozen. Five days into March 2013, that total languishes at three species: brown trout, rainbow trout and largemouth bass. Part of the big difference comes from the simple fact that I haven't gone on any late-ice trips this year. Catches from last January and February included eight species that I pulled through the ice during trips to North Dakota and South Dakota. However the bigger truth is that I just haven't had opportunity to spend many days out this year, and when I have, conditions haven't been conducive to catching fish.

Nathaniel and I leave for one of our favorite fishing destinations -- Gaston's White River Resort -- on Monday morning, and I'm confident we'll catch plenty of fish, rain or shine. Somewhat ironically, in terms of my fish list, is that the two most likely fish to catch there are rainbow trout and brown trout, which are two of the three species that are already on my list. Of course, if we walk to the Gaston's pond, there's a good chance we'll catch a largemouth bass or two. Oh yeah. That's the other fish that's already on the list!

New Year Fishes

It's horribly cliche' to use my blog to look back and/or to peek ahead on Dec. 31, but I'm going to do it anyway. I find it fun to think a little about the cool places I've gotten to explore and about where I might get to venture next.

Best I can figure from a quick sweep of the map, I got to fish about 14 states, plus one foreign country last year. South end of the spectrum easily was Costa Rica. Northern end was a close call between Devils Lake North Dakota and a couple of trips in Northern Minnesota. If the the species list I kept is complete, I caught 30 different species of fish.

My children often ask my favorite part of a movie, meal or family outing, so I've been trying to pick out a favorite fishing trip or day from last year. I don't think I can do it, though. I sure enjoyed discovering the Black Hills for the first time and pulling a host of fish species through the ice on rugged and beautiful mountain lakes, but how do I compare that with exploring the spectacular Vermilion River by canoe with Billy Rosner and catching big, mean smallmouth bass on topwater lures? And then there were the monkeys and toucans in Costa Rica, the day of pounding big bream and bass catching with Nathaniel on Jimmy Houston's lake, days of doubling and tripling on redfish in South Louisiana and then feasting on Cajun cooking...

Looking ahead, the planned trip I'm most looking forward to at this moment is to Gaston's Resort on the White River in Arkansas. It's an annual writers' gathering that Nathaniel and I  have participated in a few times but have had to miss for the past couple of years. Great fishing and food, time with friends and the destinations itself all combine to make it a great trip. Of course, I'm also really looking for a multi-species trip to Pennsylvania's Pymatuning Lake for many of the same reasons.

But then again, when I look at some of last year's favorite trips, I didn't know most would even happen a year ago. I really don't know what states I'll be fishing in, who I'll be with, what species I'll be targeting or what types of techniques I'll be using in the year ahead. That's a big part of the fun, though. I enjoy fishing for bluegills one trip and for something big from the ocean the next trip, and I love the variety of landscapes, cultures and fishing techniques I get to discover and people I get to meet in different places.

A Good Truck

My red F150 has served me well, but it looks like it's about time to bid it farewell. In July, when Holly joins our family, we'll officially outgrow out minivan for full-family travel. I plan to trade my truck for an Expedition that is about the same age, but has a whole lot less miles. It will work well for my travels and for the whole family, and the rest of the crew will still fit in the van when I'm not home.

I'll miss having an open bed to throw fishing rods, wet waders or a load of mulch into, and I admittedly just like driving a pick-up. That said, the Expedition, which gets about the same gas mileage as my truck, will serve me a lot better for most travel. Even when it's just Nathaniel and me, if we're fishing and going to a music festival on the same trip, we carry a fair amount of junk, and the extended cab space gets tight. If we tote fishing rods in the back, we have to stow 'em every time we stop long enough at any place where they don't quite seem secure in the back of the truck. And we can't tote anything that can't get wet in the back if there's any threat of rain along the way. All that space will be useful to me in the Expedition.

Another good thing about the Expedition is that both back seats fold all the way flat. That means I'll have just as much open open cargo space as I do now when I need it. It also means that as long as it won't be too terribly hot, I'll have a built-in camper space.
My truck virtually knows the way to favored places like Black's Camp on the Santee Cooper Lakes, Gaston's Resort on the White River and the Walnut Valley Festival. I've tallied about 100,000 miles since 2006, and during that time my truck never seen the inside of a shop, except maintenance necessities like tires, brake pads or fresh oil.

My children also like my truck. Somehow it's always more fun to go places in the truck than the van. Maybe that we'll translate to the Expedition. We'll just have to call it Dad's new truck.

We'll Miss You, Gaston's Friends

This week, several friends will gather at Gaston's White River Resort for an annual writer event that Nathaniel and I have participated in several times. With world-class trout fishing and what may be the best shore lunches on the planet, Gaston's is one of our favorite places to visit at any time. It becomes even better during this particular week, though, because of the fine friends who come together to collect story material on the river and share fish stories around the table. The group includes several wonderful musicians, and Nathaniel always enjoy joining the pickin' and grinnin' evening session.
We won't get to join you this year, friends, but you can bet we'll both be thinking about you and watching facebook pages for pictures of fat brown trout, bacon-wrapped pork tenderloins and pickers gathered with their instruments.

Larry, is it too early to sign up for next year?