May 7th was the 17th anniversary of the catching of the world record brown trout in the Little Red River. The story is made extra special by knowing that Howard "Rip" Collins and his buddy, Van, weren't on the river to catch fish that fateful day.
Rip's son, Michael, had called to say he was coming from Memphis for a visit and wanted to fish on the Little Red. Rip was simply checking out his boat when a neighbor yelled at him, "They're not biting today, Rip, you're wasting your time!".
Rip decided to find out if, indeed, the fish were biting or not and tied on a 1/32 ounce olive marabou jig to his 4 1/2 foot ultra-light spin casting rig he kept in his boat for just such an occassion. He cast over a log and a tail came out of the water that, as Rip put it, looked like Shamu the killer whale. Rip fought the fish for a while watching in amazement as the great fish pulled the boat upstream going to deeper water twice without breaking the fragile four pound test monofilament line.
After some time, and they didn't know how long because neither of the men were wearing watches, they got the big fish near the boat and discovered they had no landing net! Keep in mind, when they launched Rip's boat, they had no intentions of fishing. They heard an outboard motor and looked upstream to see another fisherman on his way.
They flagged him down and asked if he had a landing net. The angler produced a standard 8 inch trout net. "I hope you've got something bigger than that," Rip remarked. As luck would have it, there was a second, larger net. After the big fish was landed, it was placed in a pen in the river that Rip had tied to the side of his boat dock. Because it was Mother's Day weekend, the official weigh-in at the local post office couldn't occur until the following Tuesday. When the fish was placed on the government certified scales and the weight of 40 pound 4 ounces was annouced, you could have heard a pin drop.
No one in history had ever landed a brown trout that weighed forty pounds - until now! Everybody wanted a picture of the largest brown trout in the world and that's what caused the fish's demise. Rip, broken hearted, later admitted that the old girl succumbed from the stress and strain of all the photo ops. Rip had planned to put the fish in an aquarium somewhere or even let it go back into the Little Red but Mother Nature had other plans. A replica of this great brown trout now resides inside the Little Red Fly Shop on the banks of the Little Red River near where the fish was caught. A sad day has left wonderful memories.
I wrote last week about water management in the White River system. The Corps of Engineers steadfastly refuses to lower our lake levels in anticipation of spring rains and, for the past two years, this protocol has resulted in devastation to our tourism industry with months of high and, at times, unfishable water in our tailwaters and unsafe conditions on the lakes. Here's another point of view. According to John Kielczewski, White River systems engineer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, "people often mistakenly want to lower lakes below the conservation pool mark in anticipation of spring rains. However, in actuality, that would take away from the supply that is used for hydroelectric power and municipal water supplies.
If the spring flooding doesn't materialize and the lakes aren't replenished, by July or August, when it doesn't rain, the levels aren't sufficient for the extra power demands and you go home after work and want to turn on the air conditioner". This mind-set ignores the tourism industry completely.
Aquatic insects continue to flourish. I am seeing caddis flies, blue winged olive mayflies, American march brown mayflies, midges and sulphur mayflies coming off most every day. The midge and caddis hatches are particularly spectacular. Good dry flies include bwo (#18-#20), midges (#22 cream), elk hair caddis (#14-#20 tan), para sulphur (#18) or crackleback (#12). Sub-surface flies that are catching trout include sowbug (#14-#16 tan, smokey olive, uv tan, uv light gray or peacock), chronic (#14), zebra midge (#16-#22 red, olive or copper), green or red @ss soft hackle (#14-#18), copper john (#14-#16 green or red) or woolly bugger (#8-#12 olive, brown or black).
So far, the merry month of May in 2009 has been the wettest in 127 years. All the area lakes and streams are high with more rain in the forecast. I spoke with the Army Corps of Engineers this morning and was told that, until the White River gets to 12 feet on the gauge at Newport and 13 feet at Georgetown, water releases will continue at the rate of 3000 DSF (day-second-feet).
This is the equivalence of one generator being turned on for 24 consecutive hours. It can also take the form of 2 generators for 12 hours or anything in between. They have been running one generator for eight hours beginning at 6 a.m. then kicking in the second unit for 8 hours until 10 p.m. This permits wade fishing at Winkley Shoal every morning from 6 a.m. until the high water arrives at about 9 a.m. You can then relocate farther downstream to Libby Shoal and fish until about 10:30 a.m. When the White River target levels are achieved, increased releases will occur until the lake level is back down to the preferred maximum level of 461 feet above mean sea level. The lake level is presently 470 feet above msl.
If you have questions about anything in this report, direct them to me at the Little Red Fly Shop of Heber Springs, Arkansas. My numbers are #888-442-4022 toll free or #501-887-9988. You can send an e-mail to me at shop@littleredflyshop.com. I'm Little Red Jed Hollan, mgr.
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May 7th was the 17th anniversary of the catching of the world record brown trout in the Little Red River. The story is made extra special by knowing that Howard "Rip" Collins and his buddy, Van, weren't on the river to catch fish that fateful day.
Rip's son, Michael, had called to say he was coming from Memphis for a visit and wanted to fish on the Little Red. Rip was simply checking out his boat when a neighbor yelled at him, "They're not biting today, Rip, you're wasting your time!".
Rip decided to find out if, indeed, the fish were biting or not and tied on a 1/32 ounce olive marabou jig to his 4 1/2 foot ultra-light spin casting rig he kept in his boat for just such an occassion. He cast over a log and a tail came out of the water that, as Rip put it, looked like Shamu the killer whale. Rip fought the fish for a while watching in amazement as the great fish pulled the boat upstream going to deeper water twice without breaking the fragile four pound test monofilament line.
After some time, and they didn't know how long because neither of the men were wearing watches, they got the big fish near the boat and discovered they had no landing net! Keep in mind, when they launched Rip's boat, they had no intentions of fishing. They heard an outboard motor and looked upstream to see another fisherman on his way.
They flagged him down and asked if he had a landing net. The angler produced a standard 8 inch trout net. "I hope you've got something bigger than that," Rip remarked. As luck would have it, there was a second, larger net. After the big fish was landed, it was placed in a pen in the river that Rip had tied to the side of his boat dock. Because it was Mother's Day weekend, the official weigh-in at the local post office couldn't occur until the following Tuesday. When the fish was placed on the government certified scales and the weight of 40 pound 4 ounces was annouced, you could have heard a pin drop.
No one in history had ever landed a brown trout that weighed forty pounds - until now! Everybody wanted a picture of the largest brown trout in the world and that's what caused the fish's demise. Rip, broken hearted, later admitted that the old girl succumbed from the stress and strain of all the photo ops. Rip had planned to put the fish in an aquarium somewhere or even let it go back into the Little Red but Mother Nature had other plans. A replica of this great brown trout now resides inside the Little Red Fly Shop on the banks of the Little Red River near where the fish was caught. A sad day has left wonderful memories.
I wrote last week about water management in the White River system. The Corps of Engineers steadfastly refuses to lower our lake levels in anticipation of spring rains and, for the past two years, this protocol has resulted in devastation to our tourism industry with months of high and, at times, unfishable water in our tailwaters and unsafe conditions on the lakes. Here's another point of view. According to John Kielczewski, White River systems engineer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, "people often mistakenly want to lower lakes below the conservation pool mark in anticipation of spring rains. However, in actuality, that would take away from the supply that is used for hydroelectric power and municipal water supplies.
If the spring flooding doesn't materialize and the lakes aren't replenished, by July or August, when it doesn't rain, the levels aren't sufficient for the extra power demands and you go home after work and want to turn on the air conditioner". This mind-set ignores the tourism industry completely.
Aquatic insects continue to flourish. I am seeing caddis flies, blue winged olive mayflies, American march brown mayflies, midges and sulphur mayflies coming off most every day. The midge and caddis hatches are particularly spectacular. Good dry flies include bwo (#18-#20), midges (#22 cream), elk hair caddis (#14-#20 tan), para sulphur (#18) or crackleback (#12). Sub-surface flies that are catching trout include sowbug (#14-#16 tan, smokey olive, uv tan, uv light gray or peacock), chronic (#14), zebra midge (#16-#22 red, olive or copper), green or red @ss soft hackle (#14-#18), copper john (#14-#16 green or red) or woolly bugger (#8-#12 olive, brown or black).
So far, the merry month of May in 2009 has been the wettest in 127 years. All the area lakes and streams are high with more rain in the forecast. I spoke with the Army Corps of Engineers this morning and was told that, until the White River gets to 12 feet on the gauge at Newport and 13 feet at Georgetown, water releases will continue at the rate of 3000 DSF (day-second-feet).
This is the equivalence of one generator being turned on for 24 consecutive hours. It can also take the form of 2 generators for 12 hours or anything in between. They have been running one generator for eight hours beginning at 6 a.m. then kicking in the second unit for 8 hours until 10 p.m. This permits wade fishing at Winkley Shoal every morning from 6 a.m. until the high water arrives at about 9 a.m. You can then relocate farther downstream to Libby Shoal and fish until about 10:30 a.m. When the White River target levels are achieved, increased releases will occur until the lake level is back down to the preferred maximum level of 461 feet above mean sea level. The lake level is presently 470 feet above msl.
If you have questions about anything in this report, direct them to me at the Little Red Fly Shop of Heber Springs, Arkansas. My numbers are #888-442-4022 toll free or #501-887-9988. You can send an e-mail to me at shop@littleredflyshop.com. I'm Little Red Jed Hollan, mgr.
