WINTRY DAY ON THE WHITE RIVER

BY JOHN BERRY

I arrived at the lodge to pick up Brad and Mark at 8:00 AM. They arrived a couple of minutes later. Their favorite breakfast spot had been closed and they had been required to venture further to find a suitable restaurant. We loaded their gear in the back of my station wagon and headed toward Rim Shoals with my river boat in tow.

When we arrived at Rim Shoals, I put on my waders and prepared the boat for launching while they donned their waders and strung their rods. I then carefully rigged their rods. I started one with a Y2K and the other with a cerise worm. I had experienced success with both on the day before while guiding in the same area.

The water was pretty low (probably around one partial generator) and clear. The weather was a bit cold and the wind was absolutely howling. There were lake wind advisories out. It was overcast and the sun was no where to be seen.

We began drifting. The going was tough. The wind was blowing straight up stream at fifteen to twenty miles an hour. Unless we were in fast moving water the wind would not allow us to drift down stream. There were times when we were actually being blown up stream. If that were not enough, the wind would change direction from time to time blowing us from one side of the river to the other. It was, at best, very difficult for me to control the boat. We caught a few fish but the going was slow.

I decided to motor over to the island and try wading. We anchored the boat at the top of the island and tried my most productive spots. We fished the front of the island and the back of the island. We tried nymphs, soft hackles and woolly buggers. We did not hook a single fish.

Around noon, I noticed that the water was coming up. It was time for lunch so I loaded up the guys and motored back to the access and set up the picnic table. As we ate lunch, the water came up about a foot. To make things a bit more comfortable the wind laid down. When we finished lunch, I loaded the cooler and my guide box back in my car and we returned to the boat.

With the water slowly rising and the wind greatly diminished, we were able to get some very nice drifts for a change. The sun even came out, if only for a few minutes. We began picking up fish. In fact, we began picking up quite a few fish. The guys were landing two or three trout on every drift.

I have always been amazed how this happens in streaks. Brad would land two or three in a row and then Mark would land a few. We would go a few minutes without a bump and then land several rather quickly.

Most of the fish were in the twelve to fourteen inch range. We landed a few that were smaller but appeared to be wild trout. Their color was vivid and they had full fins and white tips on their fins. They were smaller than the standard stocker and fought like demons. We caught a few larger fish also.

On one drift, Mark hit a good brown. As I grabbed my boat net and was moving forward to try and land it, Brad hit a good rainbow. It was our first double of the day and one of the fish was a trophy. This is a guide’s dilemma. Which fish do you net first? I quickly surveyed the situation and thought that the rainbow would be ready first. I quickly netted and released it and turned my full attention to the brown. It was unfortunate because the rainbow was really nice. It was fully colored, fat and sassy.

The brown was trying to swim under the boat but mark did a great job of controlling him. I was finally able to slip the net under the big trout and gently lift it from the water. It is always a comforting feeling to finally net one. I had Mark hold the net in the water as I quickly motored over to some quiet water near the bank. We were out of the current there and could take our photos without drifting down stream. I took several photographs and then gently released the twenty one inch brown. It was still for a while and slowly swam off.

I climbed back in the boat and we returned to the job at hand, fishing. We continued our success but the brown was the only trophy we landed. We fished until sunset and reluctantly loaded the boat and drove back to the lodge. I dropped them off at the door and we agreed to meet at 8:00 AM the next day, to do it all over again.

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM LORI, JOHN AND ELLIE!