King’s River, May 22-23

Steve and Ed Adair

I took out Ed and Steve Adair on an overnight trip. The weather cooperated and was fabulous. The river was in great shape for floating and fishing. Ed is an accomplished fly fisher but Steve, his son, was a beginner.  The first day we floated from Riverside Resort at the Hwy. 62 Bridge to just below the Grandview Bridge. My usual camping gravel bar was already taken. Well what do you expect on a Memorial Day weekend. The fishing was hot and heavy from the beginning with a bunch of smallmouth taken on spinning rods. We ended up with about 75 fish boated the first day.

Ozark "Rock" Bass

The only downside was my Sage spinning rod was broken while setting the hook. After that one of the guys had to fish with a fly rod. The FFing was slow until we figured out what the fish wanted. They ended up wanting a hellgramite pattern, size #4. Many varied fish were caught on it. Now I have to tie up a bunch more. Steve caught 5 species of fish the first day and his Dad, Ed caught 3 species. A total of 6 species were caught the first day. At the end of the day we pitched camp and relaxed a little aand had some casting lessons. I cooked  dinner for the guys. We had salmon fillets, teriaki rice, baked beans and garlic toast and finished off with homemade brownies. The night was just right and we slept pretty well. Breakfast the next morning was breakfast burritos with salsa. We got on the river about 8am and the fishing was not as fast and furious as the day before, we only caught 40-50 fish. Most of the fish, well over 50%, we caught were smallmouth bass today. A larger spotted bass was caught at about 2.5 pounds and our largest smallmouth at about the same.

Ed and his Spot

 No new species were caught today. The best flies used were a #4 black woolly and a #4 olive woolly with olive rubber legs. By far the best lures were 4″ green Zoom lizards and green tubes. Call me and set up a trip and I’ll give you the specific color of green. Steve caught his first smallmouth on a fly rod and it was a pretty good one.

Steve and his first fly rod smallie

Over all I think the guys were satisfied. we ended up with about 125 or so fish boated. Several species caught and I think a new fly fisher will be hitting the water more often. One other good/bad thing was the rain held off until we were done with the float but dumped on us as we were loading the boat up at the end of the trip. Oh well, ce la vie!

High Spring Water

All of our smallmouth streams are high again due to rains in the area. We have had to cncel several trips due to the water recently. Sure is a bummer. Beaver Tailwaters is semi-good with Table Rock Lake backed up to the dam. The only thing now is they have started to release water at a higher rate and earlier in the day making fly fishing almost impossible. The only bright spot is Bull Shoals and Norfork are releasing much less water because of flooding downstream. This weekend should be good for trout fishing over there. I would suggest fishing in the upper parts of Bull above where Crooked Creek comes in. It will probably be pumping in some muddy water and higher levels. The Dam area, the Narrows, Wildcat and Rim Shoals should be the places to go. The White below Buffalo City will probably not fish well due to the Buffalo River should crest mid-river sometime today or tomorrow. High muddy water will be the norm. Beaver lake will not be a fun place to fish this weekend because the FLW Tour is in town. You might enjoy going out and watching the pros but with all the boats running around fishing might be tough. Come by Prairie Creek Marina today for the weigh-ins or John Q. Hammons Center in Rogers for the final two days weigh-ins. As always be safe and have fun out there.

Reel Recovery Rod

The fine design of the TFO Reel Recovery rod.

We are raffleing off a brand new Reel Recovery rod from Temple Fork Outfitters. It is a 4 pc. 9 ft. 5 wt. The rod is a beautiful dark green blank with the Reel Recovery logo in gold with gold wraps. It has a medium fast action and casts like a dream.

Tickets are only $10.00 each or 3 for $25.00. We will be drawing the winning number at the Beaver Dam Store on June 13th at 2:00pm. You do not have to be present to win. Where can you get a quality, beautiful rod for that inexpensive little ticket. Plus all of the money goes to Reel Recovery.

You can send cash or checks made out to “Reel Recovery” to:

Reel Recovery
c/o Just Fishin’ Guides
2309 SE 16th
Bentonville, AR 72712

I will send you a PM with your ticket number or if you want the tickets in hand to you. Just make sure you give me a mailing address. I will take care of the stamp.

Thank you for all of your support so far in making this dream of Charlie’s and mine come true.