Time: 10:00AM – 4:00PM
Location: Braids above Pinnacle Rock
Arkansas River 04/14/2009 Photo Album
I took advantage of forecast nice weather and shifted my non-working day from Friday to Tuesday and drove to the Arkansas River. Temperatures were forecast to be in the 60’s and sunny. This proved to be 50% correct.
I pulled into the pullout above Pinnacle Rock and below the braids. There was a pickup truck there already, but the fisherman was next to the pullout, and I wanted to fish up the river. I put on my new waders and wading boots. I discovered the neck strap that enables me to wear just my front pack without the backpack was missing from my bag, so I had to wear the frontpack and backpack. I also discovered that my new waders were so tight around my chest that I couldn’t stash my camera and case behind them as I did previously with my old waders. But I persisted.
[peg-image src=”https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-LnkhIINX4qg/VGGPNZGnRRI/AAAAAAABCR4/mBkwTIQonPQ4Vjpn-r3f9qH91poBYVv3ACHM/s144-o/P4140001.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/108128655430094950653/04152009ArkansasRiver?locked=true#6080298432166577426″ caption=”Starting Point on Arkansas” type=”image” alt=”P4140001.JPG” image_size=”2048×1536″ ]
I began fishing up the left channel right next to the highway and prospected with a yellow Letort hopper trailing a beadhead hares ear. Fairly quickly, a 10 inch brown rose and inhaled the hopper, and I photographed the first trout of 2009. I continued working up the left bank and caught three browns on the hares ear and another on the hopper. One came from the very narrow 8-10 foot wide channel section along the highway. When I got to the deep pool above the lower braids, I switched to nymphing as I spotted some BWO’s flying around. I kept the beadhead hares ear on top and tied a small silver bead RS2 on the point. I swung this through the deep riffles and run at the head of the pool and picked up a rainbow on the hares ear nymph. I had a few other hookups that got off fairly quickly.
[peg-image src=”https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-GZqDY0AVVCk/VGGPWRY8_4I/AAAAAAABCR4/1Aa0ylCr7FgU_R37aLlcf1J4EMEhQ0FYQCHM/s144-o/P4140003.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/108128655430094950653/04152009ArkansasRiver?locked=true#6080298584714837890″ caption=”First Fish of 2009″ type=”image” alt=”P4140003.JPG” image_size=”2048×1536″ ]
Around noon I hiked back to the car for lunch. The truck and other fishermen departed, and the sun emerged so I shed three layers. I removed my waders and adjusted the straps to loosen up the upper section. This worked nicely and gave me enough room to stash the camera. I was concerned about a fingerprint on my camera lens, so I cleaned that.
[peg-image src=”https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-i0CYTG3eqzo/VGGPYtaaROI/AAAAAAABCR4/Kw-MTx1UVqEO6qOJDTcY5LAguM4_qtFCwCHM/s144-o/P4140008.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/108128655430094950653/04152009ArkansasRiver?locked=true#6080298626596881634″ caption=”Here’s the CDC BWO” type=”image” alt=”P4140008.JPG” image_size=”2048×1536″ ]
After lunch I hiked back up the highway and crossed two braids, so I could fish the right-most stretch, which is my favorite. I had the river to myself. I went back to the hopper and beadhead hares ear, but fairly quickly some clouds moved in, and BWO’s started to emerge. I nipped off the hopper and hares ear and tied on a size 22 CDC BWO. The cloud cover remained most of the rest of the afternoon, and the BWO’s emerged off and on as well. I gradually worked up the north (right) channel spotting rises and catching fish. The rises were fairly sporadic and difficult to spot in the riffles. My greatest difficulty was following the small gray fly in the sun glare and riffle, and I had to position myself for the best light many times. At one point, I thought the hatch had ended and went back to the hopper/dropper and caught a brown, but then BWO’s re-emerged, and I switched back to the CDC BWO. During the afternoon I caught 8 browns on the CDC BWO.
Fish Landed: 15
[peg-image src=”https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ERyBfHb5xL0/VGGPYcJY21I/AAAAAAABCR4/tQWNYupoaHUvGyJufCsS2Klgr2TC3hFRQCHM/s144-o/P4140007.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/108128655430094950653/04152009ArkansasRiver?locked=true#6080298621962083154″ caption=”Nice Brown Inhaled CDC BWO” type=”image” alt=”P4140007.JPG” image_size=”2048×1536″ ]
[peg-image src=”https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-cqlMVOy301s/VGGPZCyn8wI/AAAAAAABCR4/z1KuPDeu_2kdJcIey0jZIRqO3S-pv3dDwCHM/s144-o/P4140009.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/108128655430094950653/04152009ArkansasRiver?locked=true#6080298632335586050″ caption=”Channel Covered in Afternoon” type=”image” alt=”P4140009.JPG” image_size=”2048×1536″ ]