Fly Fish KC: Mountain Home Report by Dan Z.

GUEST TRIP REPORT BY Dan Zimmerman of 8/26/2010 Mountain Home Arkansas.

Bevan, Terry and I fished the tailwaters last week Thursday through Saturday. The weather was great and the fishing even better. We kept our eye on the generation projection report and was pretty much able to fish as much as we wanted. On Thursday afternoon we fished Wildcat Shoals on the White and nearly had the place to ourselves. Fishing was outstanding. Most fish were caught with scud patterns and globalls and I believe Terry also caught some with his trusty bedspread pattern.

On Friday we had a full day to work with. We found an outfitter that will put canoes on the Norfork tailwater. With a lot of persuasion we were able to get a reluctant Bevan to go along with a float trip, Terry and Bevan took a canoe and I took a kayak. There was a mix of riffles and slow water. We got out to fish the riffles and fished a lot of the slow water from the boats. Fishing was excellent again. Most fish were caught on scuds with some caught on glo-balls. It was great to fish at McClellens for the first time since they closed the access. Terry and I landed some real nice cutthroats in addition to the rainbows. At the end of the float Bevan and Terry caught quite a few browns on the last section of the river. We all agreed it was a great adventure and any of us would jump at the chance to do it again. If any of you think about doing a float on Norfork I think any of us could give some helpful information on how to go about it.

On the last day we got up early to go to Taneycomo so we ended up fishing three tailwaters in three days. Fishing was a little slower (especially for me) but still very good. We used scuds, globalls, bedspreads, woolies and and midges. I was near Terry when he hooked a big fish and we spent quite a long time trying to land it with Terry trying to wear it out while I tried several time to net it. The net was too small which made things more difficult. We finally got it subdued. It was about a 21 inch rainbow caught on a 22 midge with 6x tippet. Quite a feat! We did get pictures. Hopefully they will turn out. It took a very long time to revive the fish , but Terry finally did.

Now is a really excellent time on the tailwaters. Get out there if you can.

Dan