I caught this twenty-two inch brown on Saturday! I floated a stretch of the White with guide Marc Poulos in his drift boat. I hooked it on a size 16 Copper John while sporting my lucky McLellan’s fishing hat!

Benny

Thanks for the report, Benny, and congrats on a nice brown!

Elizabeth with a NICE Bull Shoals brown trout!

With all of the recent low water below Bull Shoals Dam and Norfork Dam, the trout fishing has been absolutely spectacular! We’ve received many reports of one-hundred-plus fish days, including several quality browns, rainbows and cutthroats!

The usual scuds, sow bugs and midges are all working well, but also have a good selection of mayfly nymphs and dries, as there are still some sulfurs flying around. Hare’s Ears, Pheasant Tails, Mighty Mays, Skip Nymphs, and Parachute Sulfurs are all good flies to try. Also, try fishing soft hackles like a Partridge and Yellow or March Brown Spider on a slow swing through the riffles.

It’s time to start fishing terrestrials as well, so have a good selection of grasshoppers, ants and beetles in your fly box to fish along the grassy banks of the river. If you’re fishing a hopper, be prepared for some explosive takes!

Bottom line—head over to the White and the Norfork as soon and as often as you can, and take advantage of the wadeable water and fabulous fishing while it lasts!

I was passing through Colorado recently on family business and prevailed upon a long lost fishing buddy to show me around the famous Cheesman Canyon. She lives nearby and has fished and guided the canyon for 15 years.



The canyon is as rugged and beautiful as they say, and the water is unbelievable! We happened to catch it just as the flow was dropping to fishable levels. I guess the word had not gotten out, because we pretty much had it to ourselves-- a rare thing around those parts.



We were mostly sight-fishing to big honkin' rainbows. I can't imagine how good this gets when the water drops even more. Thanks, Kay, for showing me a good time!

Also floated the Poudre River with this guy. Apparently he publishes a really cool fly fishing magazine called The Drake.



His fourteen-year-old dog is a good boy. I think he writes a column for that magazine.



The Poudre was roaring pretty good, but clear enough to fish; so we donned life jackets (not kidding) and dropped the raft in. Thankfully Tom is an experienced paddler, so I could relax (not really) and concentrate on fishing. Anytime I didn't need both hands to keep myself in the raft, I had my streamer in the water. And the browns were hungry that day, my friends.

Sorry, no pictures from the Poudre. It was all I could do to keep myself from getting soaked by waves-- the camera stayed in the bag.

Thanks for the ride, Tom!

--Todd

The Sulfur Mayfly hatch is in full swing on the White River, with the bugs coming off the water in big, yellow clouds! They are still releasing lots of water from Bull Shoals Dam, so to fish the hatch, line up your boat tight to the bank and cast to rising fish in the eddies and slower current seams along the edges of the river. However, be sure to pay attention! Especially watching fish rise to dry flies, it’s easy to get tunnel-vision and forget to watch downstream for sweepers and other obstructions! Nice fish, Bob! Thanks for the pic!

We fished the Norfork this past weekend, and had some spectacular fishing!

We stayed on the White River, but woke up to low water on the Norfork, so since we were dying to fish some low water, we headed to the Fork. We dropped the drift boat in the water, and headed down to McClellans. It was the day of the cutthroat. We caught three very nice cuts, and their colors were truly beautiful. It was one of those days you always hear
about but never quite believe--we lost count after one hundred fish. We hooked most of our fish stripping white wooly buggers, and white Arkansas Bead Heads. We were just short of the slam, as it is always tough to find a brookie at the end of the day.

Justin F.

Thanks, Justin, for the pic and the report, and congrats on some spectacular fishing!

Two buddies and I headed out to the White after learning there would be a little low water. Early in the day we figured their eyes would be looking up with all of the caddis hatches that had been coming off, so we started by swinging soft hackles. Unreal fishing! Got some action nearly every cast! I caught a pretty nice brown early on a partridge and green soft hackle.



About mid morning there was a little more action on top, so we switched to an elk hair caddis. We didn't have any legitimate rises in the morning, but that didn't stop the fish from attacking the dries. The top water action lived up to the hype.



Unfortunately they were scheduled to generate that afternoon and we had to get back anyhow, so we didn't get to fish that afternoon.

All the fish we caught were in extremely good shape. Looked like footballs and fought like bulls. Can't wait to get back out there whenever I can get away. Thanks, once again, for all the advice and assistance.

Austin

Thanks for the pics and the report, Austin, and congrats on some great fishing!

Despite the oil worries in the Gulf of Mexico the red fishing in south Louisiana was really quite good on our trip May 5th through May 8th.



The flies of choice were #2 white and chartreuse Clouser Minnows and gold spoon flies.

By the way, the food was pretty good too!

Randy G.

Hey guys,

Just thought I'd pass this along to you. I'm involved in the Big Brother
Big Sister program and have been mentoring Tyler more than 4 years now. I
recently taught Tyler how to fly fish and he has embraced the sport with
enthusiasm. Here is a photo from yesterday's trip to Lincoln Lake where we
caught around 135 bream in 4 1/2 hours using wooly boogers from your shop!

Thanks

David Hopper

Wish you were here...

THE SMALLLMOUTH ARE IN FULL SPAWNING MODE ON THE ELK!

Scott S.