What a great Spring and early Summer on the Little Red this year.  I suppose we were due after the previous two Springs when we had heavy flooding and high water for several months.  The Caddis hatch this year has been fantastic, and so has the fishing. 

A video of the fish taking Caddis:

Some photo highlights:

The end of a great fight on video:

and the release:

Good times all around.  Let's hope the party continues.

  A good White Bass run with fairly good streamer fishing on higher flows was the way April started.  The flows on the Little Red are down now and the caddis are hatching.  April should only get better as it goes along.  Here are some highlights from the end of March into the first 10 days of April.

 Late Winter and Early Spring has started with a bang.  Good water conditions and favorable weather the past few weeks have provided good fishing and good times.  Hopefully this trend can continue, but as this article that was in the Memphis Commercial Appeal explains, that hasn't been the case for the last two Spring seasons.  www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/mar/0...

Some of the best pics from the last several weeks:

Let's hope the trend continues.  The lake is right at pool and rains are coming tonight.  Hopefully we avoid the big rains for a little while... if we do, the fishing should only get better.

It was a pretty good Fall in Arkansas all things considered.  The Little Red River was running pretty high for the most part this Fall although there were still some good days on it.  It was still fishable by many standards running one unit, but I found the fishing to be better on the White River most of the Fall.  I found a few areas that did not have any spawning fish around, hence hardly any people, and stuck to those areas.  During high point of the spawn people were running up and down the spawning shoals on the Red over and over again in boats, I'm glad I found something else to do.

A few pics from the Fall:

Also built quite a few rods this Fall for people:

And wrapped it all up with a trip to Mexico, mainly for some R&R on the beach, but of course I got in a day of fishing.

Looking ahead to 2010, what's on the horizon?  We just had 7 inches of rain on the Little Red River a few days ago which means it is likely going to be Feb. before good water conditions are the norm.  The White and Norfork Rivers may get become fishable first.  The Caney Fork in Tennessee is also running water right now so there is pretty much high or crappy water conditions all around for a little while.  Time to twist up flies, build rods and get ready for a Redfishin trip down to Louisiana near the end of January.  Hopefully by the time that is over we will have some good trout fishing again.  Hang in there folks and do your best to avoid the shack nasties this winter.

  The Trout Unlimted River Clean-up was a huge success this Fall.  We had a great turn out and removed a lot of trash from the river.  The following pics are just what 6 of us in two boats did.

As a group the 30 other volunteers that showed up did a great job as well.  I hope that next year we can get even more out and have more participation.  The Ozark Angler provided lunch for all and prizes we given away to many of the participants.  Thanks to all of you for the best birthday present anyone gave me this year... a cleaner river.

Oh yeah... the fishing is still good too.

Phil