From the Miracles Never Cease Department

 Let's be honest here.  I'm not the fisherman in this family.  I can clean and remove scales like a champ, but catching them is not my forté.  That is until the White River in the Arkansas Ozarks.

This place is not only beautiful, but it has everything that we love.  I probably shouldn't wax on and on about this cause then it will get discovered, and then it will be prohibitively expensive to be here and over-run with tourists and all that jazz.  It's fall now, and the natives say that it's not as pretty as it usually is.  Really?  Not as pretty?  I think it's pretty gorgeous myself.

Late yesterday afternoon, I was trying to capture these trees (above) in a really great backlight in a watercolor.  I looked up and thought I saw a decent-sized, dark bird that mostly has been black vultures, but every once in a while it's a grey heron or even an eagle.  A river, especially a good fishing river, is a key play for eagles to hang out.  Well, it was an eagle.  I ran up to get Walt and his super-duper camera and he gets a decent shot.  We're going to make an effort later to spend some time trying to get a better shot as we found out where one of the main nests are on the river.  

He's picked up some to-go dinner from the river and headed home (on a branch across the river from our RV) to eat it.  The surprises never stop here.  

But that's not what this part of the country is known for.  It's known for its fishing, more specifically it's trout fishing.  So Walt and I trekked over here to check it out.  We hired a guide, and he's a good guy - really works hard to make sure that we are having fun.  

Here's the catch.  From the first time we went out, I caught the first fish.  I do not catch fishes - EVER!  So I'm in shock.  The first trip ended with me tieing Walt for the number of fish we catch.  

The second trip, I'm thinking this will be fun and all and maybe some fall color, but I won't catch fish all that much.  And plus our guide who we used from last time, wants me to try fly fishing.  Uh, yeah.  Fly fishing is the most artful way to not catch a fish!!!!

I mean look at this - doesn't this look idyllic?  But seriously - catching fish.  That's for the movies or someone who devotes their life to fishing and that's not me!

But guess what.  Our fearless guide is so good and Walt is so patient, that I caught a fish (a cutthroat trout no less) on my first lesson with Mike Decker, our guide.   

Now this includes all the mistakes like setting too quickly and letting it go;  setting the fish and letting the rod down;  missing the indicator going about 6 feet underwater.  I could go on, but for those of you who DO fly fishing, I'm sure you're rolling on the floor laughing your hearts out!

Needless to say, this will be framed, and then people will be bored eternally while I tell them my exploits of my first fish I caught fly fishing!  

And of course, it sounds so cavalier and urbane to say that it was a cutthroat trout!!!!

Sometimes You Just Never Know

 The day started out really dreary and cloudy and we figured that it was going to be a slow day.  I caught the most about 3 and they were fun, but nothing to write home about.  Walt was up to a grand total of ZERO!

So this is looking like a Once upon a midday dreary, while I fished, weak and weary....." cause we aren't catching nothing, no how, zero, nada, zilch!

So we head back up to the dam with our intrepid guide, the Professory of Fishology, who if anything is as perseverent as I am.  I drop my line in the water, with a new lure - we've tried about 4 or 5 as our Fishology professor knows all the secrets to what works on a weekend (with heavy traffic) and cloudy day (when the fish are in a "Meh," mood)!  I drop it into the water and immediately get it snagged so hand it off to Mike, the professor.  Mike tells me I have a fish and the pole is really hanging down.  If this is a fish, it's gotta be the Moby Dick of trout.  He's working the pole and I'm still not sure that I'm not hung up in the grass or moss or something.  Pretty soon the line frees and I figure that I'm out of the moss.  Mike brings the lure onto the boat, and the fish, yes it was a fish, has straightened the little hook.  

NOTE:  In the catch and release area, you are only allowed to use barbless hooks.

The barbed means that after you set the fish, at least you have a chance of keeping the fish on the line cause the fish can't back out of the hook.  Because this is a catch and release area, the fish, and game department doesn't want too much damage to the fish, but the down-side is that if the fish swims toward you the hook can easily fall out.  This means you must keep tension on the line the entire time you are reeling in the fish.  Sounds easy, but you can lose a fish very easily in the excitement if you don't work hard to remember to keep the pole up and keep the fish set in the hook. 

I sound like a pro, but just been schooled by the professor!!!

And the professor says the reason I lost the fish was that the fish was a monster fish and it bent the hook.  I didn't feel so bad, but to be honest, I thought the professor might have made that up to make me feel better.  He fixed my line then we headed right back to the same spot.  He knew exactly where I had gotten it and he was after that huge fish.  I'm not so sure.

We both drop our lines into the water, and almost immediately, Walt says he's stuck in the moss.  The prof comes over and touches his line and exclaims that not only does he have a fish, he has a monster fish.  I'm not kidding when I say they worked a good 4 to 5 minutes struggle to get that fish to the side of the boat, all the while Mike realizing that this may have very well been the fish that straightened my hook and he wants to get that fish on the boat before another hook is straightened.  He's not worried about the hook, he simply wants to get the fish on board before it gets away.  

I think Mike is more excited than we are, simply because he knows what he brings out of this river, and this is one of the big ones.  It was a very handsome male.  They got it on board, and Walt gets a great shot.

And after hardly any fish all day - one little 12-incher - and then to get this great 26" fish.  Walt is beside himself, and Mike is overjoyed.  

Obviously, this is enough to feed about 10 people, however, this is the catch and release area, and Mike, being the schooled professor in all things fishology, as well as the Arkansas Fish and Game rules, knows that this goes back in the river so that some other fisherman can have the joy of catching him.  He struggled mightily and Walt was a little concerned, but once in the water, we waited and made sure that he was recovering and on his way into another current awaiting another meal!

So what looked like it was going to be a dud day, turned out to be a monster fish day!  You just never know!

When You Start Like This....

 

Then progresses to this (into the record-type size)...

I swear 3 minutes in the water and I'm pulling out a 20-incher!

Then a little of this....two at once - now that's a good fish guide who can handle two fish at once!

With Walt's big catch.

And this is a typical day on the White River and why we love it so much!  Well, that and the color in the background.  When the fish aren't jumping into the boat, the color is gorgeous!

Back at Our Cool Find

 We liked this so well last time, that we decided to come back again.  This is our first "full" day here in the new-to-us RV (fifth-wheel) and we still feel as though we've got a bargain of a deal.  We love the 5th wheel if for no other reason that your intrepid authoress here can actually hook it up and unhook it, in case Walt gets 1.) eaten by a bear, 2.) fall into the river and end up in a body cast (which wouldn't be so bad, and I would have the last word on every word he could utter), and/or 3.) just to show off how cosmopolitan my cadre of skills are!  

The leaves are just turning, so we will be here for some color (yes, that's very sweet), and here's the proof.

This is right out our back window, with a little tiny light from the sun late this afternoon.  Usually the mornings are quite foggy and had a hard time burning off.  

But, and I don't normally upload something this bad, only to let me know what's in store for the next 2 weeks!!!

Yep, right over our heads, late this afternoon while waiting for the sun...my favorite bird of all time - Bald Eagle!  Can't wait to see more and possibly fishing the river!