Flies score A-plus grade

River float-fishing trip puts handiwork to test

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

— Editor’s Note: This is the second of two stories about fly tying and fly fishing with guides Ken Richards of Bentonville and Zack Hoyt of Pea Ridge. This week the anglers test their hand-tied flies on trout at the White River below Beaver Dam.

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The fishing flies that Zack Hoyt and Ken Richards tied on a wintry Saturday morning in Hoyt’s kitchen are worthy of framed display on a prominent wall.

The anglers’ ultimate hope is to see their handiwork hanging from the creamylip of a rainbow trout netted from the White River below Beaver Dam.

That’s where their functional fishing art ended up when the two put their flies to the test during a float-fishing trip down the river on Dec. 4.

Two generators were cranking out the kilowatts at the massive dam when we arrived at the river. Catching trout promised to be tough in the swift current. But fishing guides Hoyt and Richards were up for the challenge after years of working high water and low in their fishing business, Just Fishin’ Guides.

This Saturday morningwasn’t as frosty as the Saturday Hoyt and Richards tied flies at the kitchen table a few weeks back. Yet, hand warmers, hot coffee and stocking caps were in order.

With nimble fingers, the anglers knotted home-made flies to thin monofilament line. It was time to see how their creations performed under the surface of the surging White River.

Up, Then Down

Our plan was to float 3.2 miles of river from Beaver Dam downstream to the Bertrand boat ramp. Before we traveled down, the anglers rowed upstream in two drift boats. That way we couldfish the one-quarter mile of river between the dam and the ramp before moving farther downstream.

These drift boats are wide, high-sided rowing vessels with an upsweeping bow and stern. They’re common on big rivers out West and are seen more and more on Ozark tailwater trout streams. Drift boats are roomy, stable and ideal for fly fishing.

Hoyt was at the oars of his wooden craft and Richards rowed a fiberglass drift boat.

Both hugged the shoreline where the current was slow while rowing in the clear river toward the mighty dam.

Just before the no-boat zone, the pair swung their boats about-face in the fast, swirling current.

Trout would never bite if we couldn’t get our flies down to them. So the anglers crimped two pinhead-sized split shot to the line 12 inches above the fly. The weight helps sink the fly to the lair of waiting trout.

“That way it gets the fly down, it can still move and it’s not that hard to cast,” Hoyt coached.

Scuds were their first handtied flies to get tested.

“You can use scuds yearround here,” Hoyt said.

“That’s one of the perks of this tailwater fishing.”

Scuds imitate tiny freshwater shrimp that are abundant in tailwater trout streams.

Tiny in size, scuds are bigtime nutrition to trout.

Eddies near shore away from the main current are good places to fish during power generation, Richards said.

“The fish want to expend as little energy as possible and still get their food,” he explained. Trout lurk in eddies and pounce food brought to them by the current.

Different Spin

To mix things up, Hoyt carried fl y rods and spincast rods in his boat. The first two trout fell, not for hook and thread, but a metal spoon.

The fish went back into the river, as did all the trout we caught.

We switched from scuds to midges for our fly fishing.

Midges drew attention from the White River’s rainbows.

Your faithful outdoors reporter tussled with a 12-inch rainbow that hit one of Richards’ original midge creations. He calls it his “G2G” fly, or “Go To Guide” fly.

By midmorning, hydropower generation had ceased at Beaver Dam and the river was falling fast. The lower water revealed boulders, logs and gravel bars hidden moments before. A great blue heron plucked a trout trapped in a puddle left by the receding river.

Current was almost nil after the water dropped. A few more trout bit our midges, but the catching got tougher in the calm, clear water and bright sunshine.

The trout hit light and we missed some hookups.

“Dang it” was heard morethan “Fish on!”

We drifted the midges under strike indicators attached to the monofilament line. Don’t expect a trout to pull the indicator under like a bluegill does a bobber. Just a nanosecond pause in the drift, a tick or any oddity of movement may mean a bite.

Richards said he and Hoyt go through hundreds of flies in a year because they provide flies for clients. When a midge broke off on the rocky bottom, he pulled another from his fly box that held dozens more in a mixture of colors.

Richards used a simpleimproved clinch knot to tie on the midge.

A few basic knots, perhaps only one, will get you by in fly fishing.

“Learn a knot you can tie when your hands are cold and it’s almost dark,” Richards advised.

We caught trout with tiny midges and scuds on our trip, size 16 or 18, but the guides turn to large flies on occasion.

When the target is big fish only, such as a bruiser White River brown trout, large streamer flies get the nod.

But Hoyt noted this kind of fishing is “hero or zero.”Expect fewer bites, but they may come from big fish.

A trout in the net is a thing of beauty that’s fitting for such a beautiful place to fish as this Beaver Dam tailwater. We saw a bald eagle soar inthe deepblue sky over tall shoreline trees barren of leaves here in December.

Our boats floated in transparent water over a bottom of bright gravel and bedrock. It was easy to see pods offinning trout that were the targets of our casts.

One of the fishing’s biggest thrills is catching fish on a fly you’ve tied yourself. Hoyt and Richards feel that joy whenever they hit the river.

Sports, Pages 10 on 01/26/2011