April 28, 2009 | FISHING REPORT - LITTLE RED RIVER
Little Red Fishing Report: April 28, '09 The third annual Little Red Fly Shop's charity benefit for Arkansas Children's Hospital, called Rainbows for Kids, was a resounding success. Lots of people spending lots of money made for a heart warming and festive atmosphere. Special thanks to all the retailers who gave high quality donations for door prizes, to Jennifer Forrest with Arkansas Children's Hospital for her attendance, to Joylynn Childress for her tireless face painting for hospital donations at Spring Park (almost 200 kids got painted!), to Cary Marcus with Sage for bringing all those wonderful Sage fly rods for us to use and for providing the Sage TCX rod ($795.00!) and the Sage Z-Axis ($695.00!) for the casting competition and on-line auction. Thanks to Mike Davis, Ruth Hyslip, and Carol Born for assistance around the shop during the event. The chicken sandwiches and hot dogs were expertly prepared by doctor and chef Alex Finkbeiner. Thanks to Randy Goins for providing the delicious chicken! Thousands of dollars were raised for the hospital. A huge thank you to all those who wrote the checks and dug deep in their pockets for this worthy cause.
The casting contest was won by David Alford who, despite the blustery winds, reeled off an 88 foot cast to win the long distance casting portion of the heavily attended event. David got to go home with that gorgeous Sage TCX fly rod.
Several artistic people entered the fly tying contest. The best dry fly was tied by loyal customer Jay Black who also won the "Best In Show" with a killer streamer made from exotic feathers. The best nymph was tied by Tracy Windley, a newcomer to fly tying, and the best streamer was tied by Tom Berry. Each category win yielded a $100.00 gift certificate to the Little Red Fly Shop. Thanks to all these talented people for participating and raising money for Arkansas Children's Hospital!
Aquatic insect hatches continue to be large and frequent. This is good news for both the trout and the anglers. Midges, caddis flies, march browns, sulphurs and bwos are the primary players. The best dry flies to try include the midge (#22 or smaller in cream), elk hair caddis (#14-#20 tan), American march brown (#14), blue winged olive mayfly (#18-#20), parachute adams (#18), para sulphur (#14-#18) and crackleback (#12). Productive sub-surface flies include sowbug (#14-#16 tan, uv tan, uv lt. gray, peacock and smokey olive), zebra midge (#16-#22 red, copper or black), copper john (#14-#16 red or green), San Juan worm (#14-#12 red or fl. cerise), pheasant tail (#16), red or green @ss soft hackle (#14-#18), hare's ear (#14-#16), egg pattern (#12-#14 roe or salmon), chronic (#14) or woolly bugger (#8-#12 olive, brown or black).
Greers Ferry Lake finally dipped below top power pool for the first time in weeks and, barring heavy rain events, we should soon be experiencing fewer and smaller water releases. If it doesn't rain heavily in the first part of this week, Greers Ferry will be shut down for sluice gate repair from Monday morning until 8:00 o'clock am on Wednesday.
Daily water releases have been the norm all year due to frequent rains. Coupled with last year's record rain fall and months upon months of water releases, the last year or so has been rough many businesses and there is a lot of angst out there. It will be an economic booster shot for the entire economy of White and Cleburne counties to see lower water in the Little Red. What we need is a small drought!
Long time friend and information source, John Kielczewski, with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Little Rock District, is retiring on April 30th. John has been my primary contact at the Corps for a long time and will be sorely missed by me and the Corps. He earned his Bachelor's degree in Forest Engineering from the State University of New York's College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse. He is a registered Professional Engineer in Arkansas. His areas of expertise include hydrology, hydraulics, hydropower operations, lake limnology, trout fishery considerations, water resources planning, development of water control plans and working with stakeholders. He joined the Corps in 1985 as a hydraulic engineer and has earned a Commander's Technical Excellence Award, two Commander's Civilian Service Awards and numerous performance awards. Best of luck in your retirement, John!
If you have questions about anything in this report, direct them to me at the Little Red Fly Shop of Heber Springs, Arkansas. My numbers are #888-442-4022 toll free or #501-887-9988. You can send an e-mail to me at shop@littleredflyshop.com. I'm Little Red Jed Hollan, mgr. <*))))><
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