I fished the Mataura River on New Zealand's south island a couple of weeks ago, with Chris Dore of Trout Safaris based out of Queenstown. The scenery was stunning and so were the fish. I cast to lots of ten-plus pound browns and several of them came up to check out my dry fly, but no takers! However, I did land this three-and-a-half pound brown on a Glister Nymph. It was an amazing trip! I can't wait to get back down there and fish. Maybe next time I'll take Michael with me.

Theresa

Thought I would forward a couple of Palomino Trout photos. I talked with Tom Bly with the AGFC and these were purchased from a private hatchery and over the past few weeks have been stocked from Cotter down to Ships Ferry. They are so visual that they will make fairly easy prey but it is worth a trip to see them.



Snapped during a recent trip to Bull Shoals, Randy sent us these pics of a unique subset of rainbow trout, the Palomino Trout. Thanks for the pics, Randy, and congrats on a rare catch!

Nine-year old Megan tore it up on Norfork (and yes, Dry Run Creek) a couple of days this week. A self-proclaimed 'girly-girl tom-boy' (note the pink shorts and sequined top with hip-boots and camo gear), Megan was executing a beautiful double-spey cast in no time, and giving the trout what for. Sorry-- her parents have all the Dry Run Creek photos...

Norfork is fishing very well right now, with tons of healthy, spunky fish eating small olive scuds, sowbugs, midge pupae, and pheasant tails. Oh, and the occasional big foam hopper! Of the four days I fished with clients the past week, we had 5-6 hours of wadeable water each day. Go now before they start draining the lake!

--Todd

David and Brock, of the U of A Fly Fishing Club, braved the soggy weather and hit the Norfork for some good fishing and a tag team grand slam.


Long night, Brock?


Dave with a dark brookie.


The one and only cutt of the trip.


Big brookies munching streamers!

A very intriguing report from Tara W of Fayetteville:

"Meat fishing" at Wildlife Farms in Casscoe Arkansas. Tilapia are
added to the lake to feed the huge bass. However, the tilapia cannot
survive the winter water temps, so they "bait" the fish near the deck
every night so people can catch them. They fillet them for you and
send you home with tons of fish. Everyone was reel fishing with
crickets or wax worm and pulling fish up right and left. I was the
only one fly fishing and the only one not catching anything. I
finally cheated and put some bait on my fly just to feel one of these
monsters on my fly rod. Boom! Fish. It was awesome, don't get me
wrong, but to keep from feeling like a cheater, I went back to "fair"
fishing. The next day I fished during the afternoon trying to catch
some huge bass (no luck). Then I decided to try for some tilapia again.


This was the first tilapia I caught fairly on a fly! (red, white and
tan hopper) It was AWESOME!

The next morning I had about 5 more "fair" catches once I realized
they were liking dark green woolly buggers. This is the second "fair"
catch! They come in these two color morphs.

The last cast, I finally caught my bass... now I could go home.

Fantastic report, Tara! We're so proud that you stuck it out and finally figured them out on the fly. We'll be contacting you soon for a guided tilapia trip!

Camera phone capture of Scott Sanders' 24-inch Brown trout, caught with an egg pattern on a 3 weight. It's getting to be that time, folks!

We had a great trip to the Kanektok River in the Togiak National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. There was a good run of silver salmon that really bent our rods, and the leopard rainbows were really beautiful fish.



Silvers this size on a mouse pattern on the surface are a lot of fun -- what a take! The grayling on big dry flies and light rods were exciting as well.



We also caught plenty of sea-run dollies which were in full spawning colors and simply beautiful. What a great place to be in August!

Randy

Thanks for the pics and the report, Randy! What an awesome trip! I've never tried to hook a silver salmon on a mouse pattern before. We head up to Alaska for our McFlyshop hosted trip in a little over a week, so I'll have to give that one a try!

Hey Guys,
Y’all helped us get set up with some gear for our float this summer on the American Creek in Alaska. I just wanted to say thanks again and give a short fishing report.



Flying into Hammersly Lake, our pilot and manager of Rainbow River Lodge, Chad Hewitt, said that he believed that American Creek was, if not the best, it was one of best trout rivers in the world. Now I had my doubts, but after spending over a week on that water, I'd have to agree.



It is a truly amazing fishery; the size, numbers, and aggression of the fish are so great that just thinking about it causes me great pain as I endure the 110 degree days down here in Texas. Hope all is well up in Arkansas, and maybe before too long we'll be able to put a float together up there.

-William Leach



P.S. the mice chucking was phenomenal!

Thanks for the report and the pics, William, and congrats on an awesome trip! We’re glad all the gear worked out well, especially the mouse patterns!

Our buddy Matt Bruton just got back from Puerto Rico, and he sent us this pic and report.



On the south west end of the island there are some huge, expansive flats that back up into some mangrove bays. I hired a guide one day and told him I would like to try to catch a tarpon on a fly rod. He asked, "Just one?" He took me to a back bay and proceeded to show me tarpon after tarpon after tarpon. I caught three and jumped eight. I only had a ten weight expecting only babies. I broke some off that weighed over a hundred pounds. Oh well! This one in the pic is about seventy pounds. I saw more tarpon in one day than I have all the other days put together.

Congrats, Matt, on an awesome fish! My only question is: When are WE going back?! Michael

Dad and I fished the Pan on Tuesday and Wednesday and had some great topwater action! (Actually, we drove out to Denver to visit my sister but of course had to make the "short" 3-hour jaunt to metro-Basalt:) When we arrived we got three different reports on the green drakes - one guy at Taylor Creek said they'd made it to mile 5, another at Frying Pan Anglers said they were 8 miles up, and yet another said they were hatching at the dam!



We spent most of our time in and around what the locals call "Old Faithful" (around mile 12) and at the gauging station (about a mile below the dam), and we only saw a handful of drakes. PMD hatches, on the other hand - while never extremely heavy - occurred sporadically both afternoons between noon and 5:00. The fish seemed much less eager to eat before noon, presumably because a full moon was allowing them to feed at night.



A.K.'s PMD Quill was the go-to fly, prompting a number of vicious strikes. Naturally we let two or three "big ones" get away but did manage to land a couple of 18-inchers and a handful of 16-inchers. One of the more interesting catches happened when a natural PMD tried to mate with my dad's drifiting artificial, at which point a brown, unable to resist these two flies attempting the impossible, struck violently. It was quite a sight!

David Schieffler