BUFFALO CITY -- Winter fishing in the Ozarks is a study in light, starting with trout.
With its palette of mottled pastels, the rainbow trout is a living, swimming Pantone chart. The bigger the fish, the more vivid and vibrant its colors. The brown trout has a different kind of beauty. Its base canvas is closer to bronze. The name comes from its brown spots which sometimes have red halos. When the sun hits a brown trout, it glows like new patent leather. The harsh, bright light of winter seems to intensify the effect.
I have been anxious to see the light since the day I reserved a cabin at White Buffalo Resort for my annual fishing trip with Bill Eldridge, Rusty Kubler and Dick Phelan of Benton and Rusty Pruitt of Bryant.
We arrived early on Jan. 18 after outrunning heavy rain in Central Arkansas. We claimed our rooms, stowed our gear and planned our fishing strategies.
[Video not loading above? Click here to watch » arkansasonline.com/126trout]
We usually bring our own boats, but this time we rented jon boats from the resort. It was the right call. We saved fuel by not towing our boats, and a jon boat is a safer, friendlier fishing platform in the kind of water we've come to expect on the White River. It has been very high for the past three mid-winter trips. Last weekend, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ran six of the eight hydropower generators at Bull Shoals Dam around the clock. Consequently, the river was high, full and fast. A 20-mph northwest wind further made the water even rougher, but it also intensified the cold.
My War Eagle 1542 and its 25-horsepower Yamaha handles big water easily, but space is at a premium, especially if your partner wants to fly fish. Pruitt, always my partner, usually does.
Eldridge has a big water boat, but he always brings a little aluminum flat bottom boat with a 9.9-horsepower motor. Either boat was out of the question with a third angler, so a jon boat was the best option. It draws little water and it sips gas. The White Buffalo's jon boats are equipped with 8-horsepower Mercury outboards. We enjoyed 11/2 days of fishing, from the mouth of the Buffalo River to just below Shoestring Shoal, with fuel to spare.
With such high, fast water, fishing options are limited. I love to troll stickbaits in moderate current, but a six-generator current is too strong. It makes a stickbait rise and "porpoise." It's also too fast to bounce jigs through deep holes. The most productive technique is to find slack water and fish seams with stickbaits and prepared baits.
[Gallery not loading above? Click here for more photos » arkansasonline.com/126fishing]
Eldridge is a master of that kind of fishing. With Kubler and Phelan aboard, Eldridge tied the bow of his boat to a tree on a small spit of an island at Buffalo Shoal. Using Berkley Power Eggs and brown trout colored Trout Magnet stickbaits, they caught and released about 50 trout in about four hours.
Pruitt and I tied our boat to a boulder in the middle of the river across from our friends. The rock creates a giant eddy. Seams swirl along the shallow rock ledges that extend downstream from the sides.
Pruitt caught a good number of rainbows with a rainbow trout colored Rapala sinking minnow. I used Gulp! Trout Nuggets on a dropper rig consisting of a 3/8-ounce Dipsey sinker and a tiny trout hook. I flicked it into the eddy and let it soak. Trout hit quickly. Most were rainbows, but I caught a couple of small brown ones, too.
With that rig, trout usually swallow the bait and get hooked deep. The remedy was simple. A No. 4 circle hook almost always catches the corner of the jaw. Pinching down the barb further reduces injury to the fish. After failing to find those hooks in Flippin and Mountain Home, we found several packs in the office at White Buffalo Resort. We bought their entire supply.
On the way back to the dock, we passed a giant eddy that churned over a cluster of submerged boulders. I cast a rainbow trout color Long A Bomber into the swirl. A big fish struck immediately. Unfortunately, my drag was set too tight. Before I could loosen it, the speed of the boat and the strength of the fish overpowered my line and snapped it. Pruitt and I watched a trout of about 24 inches leap twice trying to shake the lure.
"I don't know if it was a brown or a rainbow," Pruitt said. "I just saw that big ol' hooked jaw. He won't make that mistake again."
Eldridge, Kubler, Pruitt and I use Berkley Cherrywood rods when stream fishing. They are exceptionally good rods for the price. Those with medium, medium-light and light actions are great for smallmouth bass and trout fishing. Phelan, who is new to the group, had different brands.
"Doc, we are the Cherrywood Brotherhood," I said piously. "We'll let it slide this time, but you're going to have to get some Cherrywoods. They're only about $300, but they're money well spent."
Phelan's eyes got really wide, and he started to protest.
"That's regular price," Eldridge said, laughing. "You can catch them on sale just about anywhere for $24.99."
Fishing deteriorated considerably on Sunday in the wake of a high pressure system. Pruitt, Phelan and I caught enough to make it interesting. Eldridge and Kubler tied to another tree near the mouth of the Buffalo River and caught another big mess of trout. I've never seen Kubler so happy.
"Bill and I have been fishing together ever since our kiddos started in Boy Scouts," Kubler said. "In all these years, this is the first time I've ever outfished him."
Pruitt and I fished almost to Shoestring Shoal, where I usually catch some big fish among a big line of boulders. When that didn't pan out, I lost interest and got consumed by the light. I was enchanted by the way it illuminated fishing line in the air, and the way it bathed the bluffs in hues of ivory and mauve. The highlight came when we passed a home on a bluff across the river downstream from the late Jerry McKinnis' place at Rea Valley. A big picture window glowed like a skylight in the evening sun, but there was one spot where it burst like a flash from an old Kodak Instamatic camera. It also reflected off the water like a creature emerging from the foam. It took about eight passes before I finally nailed it.
It wasn't quite as good as a 24-inch trout, but for a photographer, a shot like that is a mighty fine trophy.
Sports on 01/26/2020