My family and I are from St. Louis and looking for a nice peaceful late summer vacation spot with cabin rentals to spend a week long stay for the second week of September. We enjoy the outdoors; fishing, canoeing, hiking,  etc. All are our favorite pasttimes and we’ve heard great things about Lake Quachita but haven’t found anything definite yet. Any suggestions would be great for  somewhere relaxing that’s away from traffic/noise, jet skis, ATV’s, and people that enjoy those activities? Thank you!

Beth

Hey all nice to see an ALL Arkansas blog! (Go Hogs) I also live in Arkansas, and not so much a trout anglers, but a bass fisherman. Alright I have a 15  acre pond this is 50% shallow, ranging from 2-3 ft deep, and the other end  is 12-15 ft. deep . Ive caught many of largemouth bass ranging from 6- 8lbs (catch and release) out of this pond every year. Oddly I don’t know whats been going on this summer because I will not get a bite for weeks, and then all of a sudden I will get four or five bites then a a 5 pound bass ? The bass will not bite and then all of a sudden hit like there is no tomorrow? Confusing and odd if you ask me. Suggestions or advice?

Mac

Hey everyone,

I’ve been enjoying the summers in Arkansas great outdoors and thought I’d post a question for my fellow razorbacks. I will be staying at a cabin on Beaverlake  for a couple of weeks in September and have not fished it before so I could use some advise. I’ll be using a 5w fly rod with floating line but need a bit of guidance for the best way to catch a lake trout. I have chest waders so I can wade, but what would be extremely helpful is to know what type of structures to keep an eye out for? Also, what flies I should be using in September to try and catch some of the trout. I will also be fishing below the dam if that helps with ancillary advice or flies.

Looking for tips and techniques (proven;-) for a good crappie and bluegill fly line. My idea is to use a floating and slow to sink fly line that could be used for crappie and bluegill. I have currently on order 5 wt. rod, with a X4 leader. I just need a 5 wt. floating and a 5 wt. slow sinking line that can be used for small crappie and bluegill. I purposely used crappie and bluegill a bunch of time for a reason in this post. Thanks, Colin

My grandfather had a huge old collection of antique Bamboo fly rods from the 30s/40s and possibly earlier and they’re just taking up space in a my spare bedroom. I am not talking about 10 or 20 rods I am talking 150 or more? He bast back in 2004 and I like to know more about the variety of these old Bamboo rods. And possibly be willing to sale some of them unless I find out if they have any historical value. I would  appreciate another fly fisherman to advise me on a direction on where to start doing research? I am an avid angler and like to fish, but I just never got the fly fishing bug.

Eureka Springs fly fisherman with a casting problem! I caught lessons last year, I have been fishing with a fly rod now for over a year and been on the water hundreds of hours. This weekend I was float fishing the White River and for some reason, I was creating horrible twists which eventually got bad enough to create knots in my leader and tippet. I am not talking about getting an occasional wind knot or a little knot from bad casting, it was twisting badly enough that it was consuming 6 inches to a foot of leader/tippet and it was happening after 12-15 casts.

My question is: Does anyone know what I was doing wrong to cause this severe of a twist? I literally went through 3 leaders in a half hour span at one point. I have not run into this problem before.

The problem typically happened when I was fishing a Light Cahill Spinner in a fairly large size, they were taking sizes 12 and 14 very eagerly. I was using a 6X leader/tippet combo on a 5wt rod. I tried switching to a 5x then a 4x leader and tippet with the same results. I also tried different brands, so it wasn’t like I had a bad batch of leaders or tippet. I do not normally have the opportunity to throw that large of a fly and I was also casting pretty consistently to the distance limits of my abilities. Anyone have any suggestions of what my problem might have been?

1) I started today with a big Elk Hair Caddis, I figured that the big wing would stabilize the fly somewhat when it was in the air, and began casting as far as I possibly could. Kept it up for about a half hour, no issues.

2) I switched to the same Light Cahill I was using over the weekend, within 5 minutes, I was knotted horribly again.

3) I then tied on the same pattern of Cahill in a smaller size, bought at the same shop and time as the big one. (presumably by the same tyer.) The small fly produced the knots, but not as badly.

4) I tied on the same pattern of Cahill, but one that had been bought at my home fly shop, I had no problems.

I did make things worse by speeding up my casts but I believe the bigger cause was the fly.

I am just getting tired of hauling my fishing gear making multiple trips to carry gear to some of my favorite fishing spots? I also feel I might be missing some great trout fishing areas due to having to lug gear and fishing equipment to prime hard to find/great spots. Would an all in one cart be a good idea to carry your gear?… and looking for suggestions. Finally, I am not as young as I use to be and worried about slipping/falling when hauling gear in remote locations to fish.

Ideas?

Gary