Little Red River Rainbows

In 1992, Rip Collins caught the then world record brown trout of 40.4lbs on the Little Red River in North Central Arkansas. Each year in the late fall and early winter the sons and daughters of Rip's fish move up the river. Legions of flyfishermen try their luck with the wild browns on the Little Red. I decided to renew my quest last week to catch Ol Rip's fish's big brother. As has been my history with the Little Red and Sunday mornings, I got a late start again. By the time I arrived it was mid-morning, storm-threating, and windy as hell! All my past fishing experince pointed to a great recipe for a fishing trip. It didn't work that way. My first offering was a beaded number 18 tan sowbug fished below a number 13 red-ass. One really small rainbow succumbed to temptation after about thiry minutes. I decided to change game plans and move up the shoals and work a streamer back down hoping to entice a strike from a brown that might be moving up river to spawn. My first offering yielded a nice rainbow. I was sure it was game on! After about forty-five minutes of working the riffles really hard, I made it to the end with only the satifaction of seeing some beautiful wildflowers and what I think was a ground-hog (we don't have these in the Delta). I changed gears again and went with a grey sowbug and red-ass and a smaller weight. Once again one "fool" was all I could fool. A massive leader tangle sent me packing just a while later. It was a challenging day, but a great day on the river. Susan and I will attack again in a week or so and see if my luck has changed. (More pictures are at the bottom of the blog - learning the ropes on the pics)