A group of 7 FATC members made a fall trip to the Spring river in northern Arkansas and were rewarded with good fishing, excellent Fellowship and beautiful autumn weather. We fished Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and headed home Thursday.
Attendees: Harold Bates, Glenn Haake, AL Harper, Matt (Hazmat) McClure, Steve Stiponavich, Steve Baker and the author, Dan Stag
A week prior a sudden cold front swept in and brought cold, damp temperatures that threatened to upset the planned trip. However, the group dodged a bullet and was rewarded with gorgeous low 80s sunny weather (warm enough to allow wet wading). Of course it was fall and there was a bit of a breeze and the leaves were an annoyance at times. Yet the beautiful setting of the cabin right on private water guaranteed a fun fishing experience no matter what came our way.
The guys arrived mid morning Monday, and set about exploring the nearly half mile stretch of water we had all to ourselves. Everyone managed to catch fish, with a few nice ones (16-18”) mixed in.
Each evening we enjoyed a fellowship happy hour on the deck, just a stone’s throw from the stream. Monday we were treated to yummy pasta and salad dinner, followed by apple or cherry pie with cinnamon ice cream provided by “Hazmat” McClure.
The second day after Steve Baker laid out a nice breakfast, five of us took a canoe and kayaks for a 3 plus mile “float and fish” trip to the Bayou access downstream. We all fished very hard along the way, but only got a few each. But the float was scenic and the experience was fun, as always.
Steve Baker & Matt McClure stayed behind and fished the upper area by the spillway and caught some very nice fish there. That particular area had many slippery rocks and boulders that were difficult to navigate. A wading staff was a MUST HAVE. The numerous hangups and break offs were a small price to pay for some very nice trout caught there.
Tuesday night after our happy hour, Harold Bates provided beef stroganoff for dinner and ribbon cake for dessert. By that time we were all quite worn out from a full day of fishing and hit the sack early.
The next morning (Wednesday) Matt, Glenn, Steve B and AL Harper met at Spring River Flies & Guides Fly shop to fish with Mark Crawford and his fellow guide Sean, to floated the Spring River under their watchful experienced eyes.
Everyone reported catching fish, but they didn’t get the numbers they were hoping. Even the guides admitted fishing was tough. They assured us that the impending cold weather would perk up the fishing quite a bit in the coming weeks. (The “you shoulda been here last week” in reverse). The guys had the experience of catching a great number of “Canadian trout” which means hanging up on the plentiful leaves in the stream.
DanStag and Harold Bates fished the area by the spillway and had some decent luck there, same as Steve Baker & Matt McClure had the day before. This spot is a definite go to place from now on. (Thanks AL Harper for exploring and discovering it.)
At one point on our last afternoon, Matt McClure took his spinning rod, a treble hook, and some dough or power bait and caught two fish in an area where no one had had luck before. After that we started referring to him as “Hazmat” for his contaminated style of fishing.
The last night, instead of a Fellowship at the local restaurant, we had leftovers, which were still tasty and filling, plus we managed to finish all the desserts, thereby wrecking Glenn’s diet.
Some fun/interesting happenings:
1) There seemed to be an unusual number of beer bottle caps showing up in people’s wading boots. Possibly it was because the bottle opener was just above where Glenn kept his gear. But inexplicably, they showed up in many other guys boots too. Must have been from Curt’s dog Ralphie who was hanging around from time to time.
2) We watched Steve Stipanovich, struggling with his undersized foot waders. On the first day I think they cramped his toes so much that he decided to wet wade the next day. Steve Stipo finally resigned himself that he needs new waders, and would check out his favorite site “bigshoes.com” for some size 18 boots he could use for wading. Steve had us all chuckling with his comment, “You guys don’t know how hard it is to be me !” Someone snidely made a remark about maybe starting a Go Fund Me page to buy waders for Steve.
3) Since he knew us, the owner of the cabin let us use his golf cart to run up to the access area by the spillway, letting us save the time and our energy for navigating the rocky, slimy boulders.
4) In just possibly the best fish picture of all time was taken of AL Harper on his guide trip. One second he holding the fish as you’d seen a hundred times. The next moment the fish is balled up in the air with AL having surprised, shocked look on his face. Be sure to check it out. Perfect timing !
5) Besides both rainbow and brown trout, several smallmouth bass were caught and a chain pickerel caught by AL Harper
6) Flies that seemed to work: Black crackle back, white & olive, or tan streamers, the Y2K or orange or chartreuse egg fly, and the Green Perdigon (thanks Glenn) and the Red Perdigon (Steve B), the Cherise worm (as always) or cherise San Juan worm, and Steve Baker’s BHFBPT <eye chart> nymph (aka bead head flash back pheasant tail nymph).
All had a really good time, enjoyed beautiful weather plus great scenery, plenty to eat, caught some nice fish and wouldn’t mind coming back in the future. Everyone ended up catching at least one 18” trout and some guys caught several.
As always, FATC Fellowship came to the forefront and in providing pleasant memories and cementing lifelong friendships.
-DanStag 11/11/2023
