You Never Know…
Spring River trip Feb 27-Mar 3rd, 2025
A small group of FATC FlyFishers (Rick Doerr Jr. , Don McCain, Jeff DuClous, and the author, DanStag) made a trip down to the Spring River in Arkansas to celebrate the end of the “no keep “ season AND the beginning of “catch and keep” season in Missouri.
The Spring River is located just across the Arkansas state line and is fed by the cold waters of the huge Mammoth Spring.
There are several public access points available. But the guys stay in a friend’s beautiful cabin right on the river.
This area has several nice stretches that include productive riffles.
We had befriended the local guide, Marc Crawford who advised us that “anything olive” should work.
The author (DanStag) had a 2 days of only 2 fish on an egg pattern and then 1 on a black woolly bugger. Rick Doerr had two nice days on a variety of flies (including white). Tough fishing.
Jeff DuClous Don McCain found a spot near the outflow from the hatchery at Dam 3 and enjoyed extreme success on scuds and SanJuan worms. Jeff estimated he averaged over 30 fish per day in that spot. Don M also did well in that area. Great fishing !
Other places, like below the island and behind the cabin were much tougher to get fish to take.
On a trip to Lasater access, Rick caught fish on his first cast. Unfortunately that was the only bite either Rick or Dan had for over an hour.
The next day Rick and DanStag enjoyed a good day on the 3 mile float to the Bayou access, picking up some fish along the way.
The good part was that the weather was very dry and mild, although windy at times.
A couple odd happenings: Once while making a 2 handed cast into heavy wind, DanStag actually snapped a fishing rod. The only explanation was that there was a weak spot where the rod had been stuck with a bead headed streamer. I guess a new rod is in the future.
A nice dinner at the StateLine Restaurant in Thayer, MO made for great fellowship. Jeff had brought a huge chocolate cake to the cabin, which was way more than we could eat. The waitress at the StateLine Restaurant told us how much she liked chocolate cake. So we got a “to go” box and brought her back a nice big piece. The girl was surprised and blushed when we delivered the cake to her in front of her co-workers.
Although the fishing could have been better, the weather was mild and we all made new friends & fishing buddies, We greatly enjoyed each other’s company.
As usual, a good time was had by everyone !
