On Monday, December 9th, Jim Craig, Charlie Trankler and Glenn Haake headed to the Spring River in Arkansas the week following Matt McClure’s group. We stayed at Curt Hartgrove’s cabin, which is a beautiful place. We are extremely fortunate to have access to his cabin on the Spring.
Charlie drove up from Austin and Jim and Glenn drove separately due to other commitments. We all arrived at the cabin within 30 minutes of each other. Since Charlie was the first to arrive, he headed straight to the river and caught the first fish of the trip. We fished in front of the cabin until lunch, then headed to Lassiter Access based on the prior week’s experience. Lassiter didn’t disappoint, many quality fish were caught. This may become the new hot spot of the Spring River.
On Tuesday, the kayaks were broken out and we spent 6 ½ hours floating from Curt’s cabin down to Bayou access. We would have stayed out longer, but we ran out of daylight. The fishing was mixed, but the Spring is a beautiful river to float.
Wednesday, we started up by the damn where many fish were caught until lunch, then headed back to Lassiter Access, once again putting many quality fish in the net.
On Thursday, Charlie headed back to Austin early, and Jim/Glenn headed to Jim’s office (the fast-moving water just upstream from the cabin). Jim pulled many out of a deep hole not moving the entire morning. Unfortunately, the 20+ inch fish he had on, didn’t make it to net. Glenn moved up and down Jim’s office, putting many, including an 18 incher, into the net. 3 – 4x tippet was required to get these healthy fish in the net.
The flies that got the most action where the blowtorch (#1 fly), eggs (including the Y2K), Charlie Brown (Charlie’s creation), the Dan Stag streamer and a few other streamers. The blowtorch was the fly of the week. Curt’s cabin on the Spring River is an amazing place. If you haven’t been, pack your bags and get on a trip.
