BASICS
FOR BUCK CALLING
THINK FOOD FIND BUCKS
September 2014
CONTENT Side Hookers
COLUMNS
Think Food Find Bucks Basics for Buck calling
bass fishing
Autumn Season Lake Erie Wallye
big game destination nation field t est fly fishing
publisher Brock RAY
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editor-in-chief Don KIRK
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Side
e-Hookers; Once The Rage Among Anglers
by Don Kirk
Interstate sportsman
Old-time lure makers were as peer driven as are their modern counterparts. If you look at the lines of lures made from one large company to another in the 1920s, you find many similarities. Everyone made at least one lure that mimicked a mouse. Everyone made a frog imitator. Additionally, everyone made at least one of the so-called side-hook baits. While some of those were made for surface fishing, most were not and were called “underwater” minnows. Today most collectors call these lures www.interstatesportman.com www.isoutdoors.com
“sidehookers,” in reference to their unique design, which included a trailing hook located on the rear of the bait, and one to two treble hooks located on the flanks, or sides of the lure. Those with one treble hook on each flank are called three-hookers, and those with twin attachments on their flanks are called five-hookers. While rare, there were even a few of these hooked baits made with twin treble-hook arrangements on their belly, for a total of seven treble hooks, or a porcupine-like total of 21 barbed points. The Origin Of The Species While it is clouded in controversy, James Heddon, founder of the famed Heddon
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lure-making empire, is credited with making the first wooden fishing lure. Starting in the early 1880s, he is believed to have whittled a series of prototype frogs. By the early 1900s he had founded a company that made a bait called the Underwater Expert, which had three treble hooks—one on the tail, and one on each side. Over the next 50 years, the Dowagiac, Michigan-based company made no fewer than four dozen variations of lures that had side-hook style arrangements.
In those days lure making from wood lacked the sophisticated diving bill technology that enables modern lure makers to easily design baits that can be cranked 10 to 15 feet beneath the surface. Making surface or “top water” plugs from wood was easy, as the primary construction material naturally floated. In order to get the so-called side-hook underwater minnows to depths where bass, walleye, and pike lurked, early lure makers like Heddon drilled small holes www.interstatesportman.com www.isoutdoors.com
the size of a pencil eraserin the belly of these baits, then filled those holes with lead. Two was the usual number drilled, but three and four belly weights were not uncommon. Some baits, such as the Heddon Artistic Minnow, had an external weight that could be removed to make it a surface bait. It did not take long for the success of James Heddon’s side- hooker lures to attract a bevy of imitators, if for no other reason than probably 80% of the old-time lure makers were located within 100 miles of each other along the Great Lakes. In 1908, Adolph Arntz introduced the Michigan Life Like, a side-hook lure with a flexible, sectional tail. In 1904 J.C. Holzworth introduced his own Expert Minnow. Pflueger, which dated back to the late 1800s as a maker of metal and hard rubber lures, wasted little time in joining the side-hook rage. In fact, there is considerable evidence that the company’s five-hook Wizard Wooden Minnow, which dates back to 1902, was actually the first of the side-hookers. Pflueger made no fewer than two dozen different side-hookers.
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Shakespeare, another pioneer of early fishing tackle, located in Kalamazoo, Michigan, actually did use the sidehook arrangement on its all-aluminum Revolution Minnow as early as 1897. The company was making wooden sidehookers on its vaunted Rhodes Minnow in 1902. By the time this style of lures fell from grace in the eyes of anglers, Shakespeare had marketed almost five dozen different side-hook lures.
of a wide variety of tackle, from rods and reels to lures and nets, made almost a dozen different side-hook lures. Introduced in 1918, the famous Moonlight Dreadnought side-hooker today is one of the most prized of all old baits. Moonlight, which later became PawPaw Bait Company, made almost a dozen side-hook underwater minnows. PawPaw later only made one. Of course not all side-hook baits hailed from Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio. The Charmer Bait Company of Springfield, Missouri, began marketing its barberpole-looking side-hookers in 1912. Winchester, a company best known for its firearms manufacturing, but which has also made everything from rollerskates to sausage grinders, also made fishing tackle. The Connecticutbased company made several side-hook baits, which are highly collectible today.
South Bend, one of the very few companies from that era that is still in business today, began marketing side-hook baits in 1910 under the Worden name. Between then and the mid-1950s, this Indiana-based maker www.interstatesportman.com www.isoutdoors.com
Creek Chub, which formed in 1906, was a latecomer to the world of side-hook lures, making only two, the models 1800 and 1900, and then only for a few years. Their Pikie Minnow had a decent medal diving lip that is used even today. Of
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the hundreds of millions of baits made by Creek Chub—more than 80 million pikies were made—only a few thousand of these side-hook Pikie Minnows were ever made and sold. The Difference In Design Because of the nature of the underwater minnow, which was basically designed for trolling in deep water such as the Great Lakes, the vast majority of these baits were sold in the North. In 15 years of lure chasing in the South, I have found perhaps 75to100 of these baits in “the field,” i.e. in old tackle boxes. Most of these were brought to the South by snowbirds migrating here to retire. However, there was one application for side-hooker lures that old-timers, especially in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, are found of recounting.
It was called jigger-pole fishing. Archie Philips, host of a popular TV show, told me about it, and I have talked to other older men familiar with it. Using a 10-to12-foot-long cane pole, the fisherman would attachfour to five feet of line to it, then tie on a five-hooker. The lure was dropped beside a stump, and danced like an old wind-up jigger to entice strikes. These old-timers liked the side-hooker lures because if a bass launched to strike, it nearly always impaled itself somewhere. Side-hook lures are almost always old, usually 70 to 80 years old, and rarely less than 50 years old. They are all interesting, as they were made when lure makers took great pride in the materials and workmanship of their wares. Their value? When I first began collecting and going to lure meets, you could find decent, well-worn side hookers for $5to$10. However, today even beatenup side-hookers are worth $30to$50, and nice ones that are fairly common fetch $100to$300. Truly rare ones bring $1,000to$3,000, and the rarest ten times that amount.
Think Food;
Find Bucks
by Don Kirk
Knowing where bucks will grab a meal is a big deal. by Brock Ray
Interstate sportsman
This is the time of year when the blood temperatureof many Southern whitetail hunters rises. We’ve spent halfof the summer practice shooting our bows and scanning fieldsat dusk for glimpses of what will be our quarries when thehunting season opens. How consistent our opportunities are to spotthese animals after hunting season opens depends on howmuch we know about their food sources.
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Whitetail movement is affected by several factors,including their needs to procreate and to feed. During the early part of the whitetail hunting season,rutting activity has only a limited impact on both maleand female whitetail. In some areas of the South, ruttingactivity begins as soon as midNovember, while in otherregions of the South it occurs up to two or three months later.
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Rutting activity significantly alters the behavior ofbucks and, to a lesser degree, does. Prior to the crescendo ofbreeding activity, bucks make scrapes and rubs and joust fordominance among themselves. When this is not at theforefront, these animals concentrate on feeding. For does,finding and tending sources of food is foremost. Southern whitetail live in two general types of habitat, which differ by the sources of food utilized. The first is woodland-style habitat of heavily forested pine and hardwood, such asthe many national forests along the Southern AppalachianMountains or www.interstatesportman.com www.isoutdoors.com
coastal and Deep South timberlands. The secondis farmland, where grain crops such as corn and soybean aregrown. These can be mixed, but usually one source is moredominant than the other. In predominantly forested areas ofthe South, naturally occurring foods such as acorns,honeysuckle vines, and pecans are staples of the whitetail diet. In areas with hardwood mast (nuts), whitetail hunters ply their trade where these ediblesare found. The South is coveredwith hardwood mast trees, such as white, red, scarlet, post, live, water, andother oak trees, as well as
Interstate sportsman
pecans, buckeyes, and beechnuts.Rich in protein and fats, hardwood mast is the cornerstone ofthe whitetail food platform. “Failures,” to which poor to nonexistent crops of hardwood mast are referred, greatlyinfluence whitetail behavior during the hunting season.
Hard vs. Soft Mast In The Woods Hardwood mast is not the only food source of whitetail.During the early part of the season, soft mast is animportant part of the whitetail diet. Soft mast includesberries, persimmons, mushrooms and the sugary leaves ofdogwood or sugar maple.
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Whitetail rely upon soft mast food sources beforehardwood mast is produced and during hardwood mast failures.High in energy-delivering carbohydrates, soft mast does notprovide the nutrients found in hard mast, and whitetail need those nutrients to survive long winters. Knowing where there soft mastfood sources are found is a help in locating bucks. Some of the favorite soft mast items in the Southinclude persimmons, especially after the first frosts, wildgrapes, hedgeapples, and apples, which are often available tothese animals around abandoned, old homesteads. Whitetailhave a bit of a “sweet tooth,” as well as a desire forsomething different in their daily diet. Keep an eye out forsoft mast feeding stations. They are an overlooked ace-in-the-hole when nothing else seems to work during the earlydays of the hunting season. Whitetail hunting in areas with natural foods requires acertain degree of woodsmanship. When scouting, you must beable to determine where and upon what whitetail are feeding.In most instances, the state Department
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of Natural Resourcesor a U.S. Forest Service wildlife biologist can give you accurateinformation as to what foods are found in the area you want to hunt. White oaks, the leader in the hardwood mast “race” inthe South, are notorious for boom and bust productivity. Drought, too much rain, and late spring
frosts greatlyinfluence the relative abundance of white oak acorn crops. InDixie, bumper crops of white oak acorns sometimes occur forup to three consecutive seasons, as do mast failures. Whenthere are plenty of white oak www.interstatesportman.com www.isoutdoors.com
acorns in the woods, thewhitetail are not motivated to roam about looking for food.However, when these fingertipsized edibles are notplentiful, whitetail move considerably more in order to satisfy theirhunger. This presents a problem for sportsmen. Heavy white oakacorn production provides whitetail an ample supply of food,so they don’t have to wander far for food; thus, opportunitiesfor taking these big bucks outside areas of great white oakacorn production are rare. Poor white oak acorn productionforces whitetail to move about and compete for the availablemast; however, these deer are usually in poor health. Thekey, then, is locating areas of high acorn production, forbucks are most likely to feed in those areas. Hunting in heavily forested areas where whitetail dependlargely, if not solely, on natural sources of food is a stepto good hunting.The downside of such hunting is that theseareas have fluctuating herd populations and fewer deer persquare mile than in areas with mixed habitat or muchagriculture.
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Interstate sportsman
Field Crops For Bigger Bucks Those areas of the South where widespread, large-scaleagriculture occurs offer a completely different style ofwhitetail hunting. Here these animals not only have a steadysupply of food that keeps their numbers per square mile high,but they also achieve greater body weight and antler growth.Additionally, scouting out their movement patterns is usuallyeasier here than it is in areas dominated by heavily forestedterrain. www.interstatesportman.com www.isoutdoors.com
Even the most highly developed Southern agriculturallands, such as the rice plantations of Arkansas, boast aremarkable percentage of woodland habitat around them. Many woodlandsare found at the bottom of less productive farmlands or hillyterrain. Even where these are not especially common, woodedcovers are found along creeks, irrigation ditches, fencerows, and other places that provide whitetail with escapecover, daytime bedding sites, and
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concealed travel routes. Glassing fields at dusk is one of my favorite ways toscout out where whitetail feed and how they travel in this kindof countryside. This provides the opportunity to see thecaliber of whitetail there, as well as where they enter thefield. Set up a treestand at their entry spot. Whitetail arecreatures of habit that travel the same routes every morningand evening.
how they are hunted in heavily forested andagricultural areas. Food plots became popular almost 20 yearsago, when landowners began to lease their land to hunters.Whitetail hunters preferred to establish food plots, because they could hunt in acontrolled environment. Common food plots in Georgiainclude soybeans and corn. In Texas, especially in the dry,western portion of the state, food plots composed of nativeand nonnative plants resistant to droughtare common. Food plot usage today is considerably morerefined. Now supplements, additives, and nutrients toenhance reproductive success and antler growth are widelyavailable and used. According to a Farmer’s Co-op owner insouthern Alabama, the increasing number of food plots hascaused his establishment to boom.
Food Plots; The Best Of Both Worlds Food plots designed to attract, hold and sustainwhitetail between fall and spring have significantly affectedwhitetail and www.interstatesportman.com www.isoutdoors.com
Food plots offer an advantage to Southern whitetailhunters. There are usually many trees with good shootingangles around food plots, which are essential for bowhunters, and wind patternsin food plot areas can be learned in order to enhance arrow accuracy.
Landowners can manipulate food plots to their greatesthunting advantage. How and where food plots are located isnot nearly as important to whitetail as they are to hunters.For deer, food plots are merely where desirable, much-needed food isavailable. For hunters, food plots lure in, hold and, ifdone correctly, position these animals for killing.
although this is often the case.Some of the most effective plots I have hunted in the Southwere designed with long “fingers� 50 to 100 feet wide andflanked by tall trees. By strategically planning food plots,hunters can lay them out so they provide the flexibilityneeded to accommodate the wind, but are still large enough totill and sustain season-long feeding.
There is some debate as to what size food plotsshould be to be effective. Most food plot seed providers andwildlife biologists recommend sowing sites that are 2 to 4acres in size. Smaller plots do not sustain whitetailas well as larger plots, because the whitetail can overbrowse thearea to the point that it is no longer useful or effective.
Small food plots are attractive to Southern whitetailhunters who do not have or want the option of putting inlarger food plots. In fact, it is possible for sportsmen tocarry in the 5 to 10 pounds of seed needed to establish an 80-by-40-footplot on public hunting land. Such food plots can be sownaboveground or with hand tools, under soil that has beenworked. These have little long-lasting value to the localwhitetail herd, but such man-made feeding sites often providean edge in terms of attracting animals within a preestablished shooting strategy.
Larger food plots also allow traditional tilling andseeding of the soil, which enhances growth by more than 50-percent. Above-ground sowing of food plots works well in manyinstances, but it is never as effective as plowing and planting. Food plots do not have to be created in a neatrectangular or square form,
Early season whitetail hunting success will improvegreatly if hunters take the snacking habits of these animalsinto consideration when planning food plots and locatingbrowse areas.
The
e Basics of
Buck Calling Thousands of bowhunters have experienced success using one of the manygrunt calls that became available a few years ago. Grunt calls are custommadefor the close-in style of whitetail bowhunting. Until recently, all gruntcalls featured one reed, over which air is blown to produce a guttural, grunting sound.
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There is no question that properly used grunt calls are effective. However,last fall, this relatively new facet of hunting leaped to new heights. In recent seasons,Knight and Hale’s EZ-Grunt-er has captured a lion’s share of the deer call market.This may change with the development of their new EZ-Grunter Plus deer call.The name EZ-Grunt-er
nimrods. “First of all, there are several differentkinds of grunts. One of the most important is the simple social grunt. It is usedyear-round. Soft and subtle, it enables does to maintain contact with their fawns,as well as other adults. It starts with a short grunt, then usually unfolds intoa series of six or seven grunts,” says Harold Knight. On a calm day, the social grunt can easily be heard 40 to 50 yards away. Thosepossessing keen ears and knowing what to listen for can detect it more than 100 yards away. However, the social grunt has little to do with the soundproduced by a ready-to-breed buck during the hyperventilating stage.
Plus is almost a misnomer.This call goes beyond mere grunting—it effectively mimics a ready-to-breed, excited buck’s grunts, gasps, and wheezes.
Hyperventilating Bucks “Hyperventilation by a buck attending a doe in heat is something few huntershave actually heard. For a long time, this so-called excited grunt has been overlooked,but primarily because hunters had no means of copying it,” explains David Hale.
When explaining their new call, “hyperventilation” is the term frequently used bythese two Bluegrass State
“I compare a whitetail buck’s hyperventilating stage to that of a bull elk. A bullelk grunts immediately after
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bugling in his cows. The elk bull’s grunt is a close-in call, announcing to his cows that he is nearby. When grunting, his stomach goesup and down. He sounds like he is running out of steam, much the same asI would were I on the edge of hyperventilating.” Whitetail bucks attending a doe in rut make similar sounds. The excited bucksgrunt rapidly, and those grunts are linked by easily heard inward gasps. At the same timeair is going out and making noise, it also is coming in and producing sound.Bucks only act this way when in the company of a doe during her 24- to 35-hour estrus period. Does coming into heat announce this bydropping estrus when urinating on scrapes. By doing this, thefemale activelyseeks the male for breeding, just as much as, after finding freshly visited scrapes, bucks look for does. Whitetail Foreplay During the doe`s short estrus cycle, she only allows herself to be bred by a buckduring a four-hour segment of this time. A doe’s egg is only fertilizable during thisrelatively short ovulation www.interstatesportman.com www.isoutdoors.com
period. To breed successfully, she must find a buck priorto ovulation. Equally important, once a buck is attracted, his attention must bemaintained until ovulation. Prior to ovulation during estrus, thefemale whitetail keeps a buck close by teasing him with a cat-andmouse game. To keep the buck handy, does wiggle their tails, almost letting the buck breed them.They sometimes run and try to get away from the buck, so he will cut her off. When abuck checks a doe, he drops his head to the ground and stomps his hooves in an excited,prancing dance. Bucks frequently draw their shoulders up and look like theyare attempting to sneak up on the doe. “During this entire process, the attending buck is grunting, almost without stopping. These baritone sounds can be translated
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as the buck’s pleas for the doe to stand forhim. A buck may only get a chance to breed once a year,” adds Harold Knight. “Hedoes not want to miss any opportunity. Ever eager to breed, he constantly teststhe doe. How close he is allowed to approach and smell is a sure-fire indicator ofhow near a doe is to ovulation. Understandably, five to fifteen hours of teasingby an estrus doe creates noticeable frustration in the attending buck.” During this tiny portion of a buck’s life, its grunt turns from clear and guttural toraspy, excited and somewhat high in pitch. Imagine a frustrated buck gruntinguntil it is almost hyperventilating and you begin to have a picture of what Knightand Hale Game www.interstatesportman.com www.isoutdoors.com
Call’s new EZ-Grunt-er Plus is all about. Blowing a call that mimics a frustrated buck in the attendance of an estrus doeimitates a breeding situation. This is nothing new. Years ago, hunters did thesame thing with mock scrapes, then later by antler rattling. The so-called attending gruntfurther enabled hunters to create a mock breeding scene. The addition of the newhyperventilation call adds an even more decisive twist to the art of trophy buck hunting. High On The Whitetail Social Calendar The rut is one of the most exciting times of the year in the life of all whitetails. Whereas wary, dominant bucks typically have one-square-mile ranges, at this
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time it is not uncommon for their range to be more than three times larger. Such roamingbucks patrol along fences and forested areas, checking scrapes. They are always alertfor signs of dropped estrus or the sound of distant mating activity. “All deer are attracted to the social activity of mating. Big bucks investigate to seeif they are capable of dethroning bucks already there. Smaller bucks sneak closerfor the same reason or out of inexperienced curiosity. Even does that are not inheat are attracted to where mating occurs,” says Knight. Copying the hyperventilation stage of grunting creates an irresistible attractor for all deer.According to Harold Knight, such calls are particularly effective ontrophy bucks that are confident of themselves from past contests for breeding rights. Hearing pre-breeding noises quickly draws these eager-to-breed bucks to the sources of these sounds. Until development of the EZ-G runt-er Plus, it was impossible to produce theback-andforth sound of a buck’s hyperventilation grunting. The unique EZ-GrunterPlus is more complex than any other deer call. Its www.interstatesportman.com www.isoutdoors.com
construction features two reedspositioned opposite each other. The first reed differs little in design from those oftraditional grunt calls. When blowing into the mouth hole of the call, it produces a low,guttural grunt. The second reed produces a raspy, gasping sound when air is sucked through the mouth hole.The hyperventilation-like sound is produced by blowing the grunt call, then quicklysucking air one to three times over the second reed. “Our new call can be slowed down for simple grunting, like the EZ-Grunt-er, or it can beused to its fullest capacity. Dual pitch is possible by turning the call around and repeatingthe process through the opposite end of the EZGrunt-er Plus,” Knight explains. Hunting on the ground, while stalking the edges of fields and woods, is the hunting methodpreferred by many expert callers. Granted, there is a possibility the deer will seethe hunter first, but when the bowman sees the deer first, there is an excellentopportunity to calling up a trophy. When hunting from a stand, constant ornear constant calling is recommended.
Interstate sportsman
DESTINATION NATION
Little Red River, Arkansas By Don Kirk Growing up splashing around in the streams of the Great Smoky Mountains, www.isoutdoors.com
I have long been accustomed to catching lots of trout from moving water. However, I was not prepared for what I encountered on my first fly-fishing trip
to the Little Red River downstream from Greers Ferry Lake in northern Arkansas. After a half-dozen trips to this pleasant little tailwater flow, I am convinced it is North America’s finest fly-fishing for trout—bar none.
trout fisheries, fostered by a year-round growing season, high water quality and more macroinvertebrates per cubic yard of water on which trout can feed than has ever been measured in any other cold water fishery.
This is especially true this time of year, when the leaves are changing, the weather is mild, and flow levels on the Little Red are highly conducive to wading its many shallow areas. The river boasts incredible rainbow and brown
Not Natural, But Good The Little Red River is not a natural trout fishery, but one that owes its existence to man. When the dam was built, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers constructed a trout hatchery there, in order to annually
Interstate sportsman
DESTINATION NATION
stock large numbers of trout.It is among the world’s most heavily stocked waters. Year-round stockings of 9- to 12-inch trout accomplish two critical things— first, they maintain an abundance of keeper-size trout in easily accessed reaches of the river, so fishermen can catch a “limit.” This takes pressure off the
more remote stretches of these rivers. Secondly, stocking large numbers of keeper-size trout provides a source of food for the larger trout, to which the Little Red owes its international fame. Stocking may have been the genesis of this trout fishery, but it is not its sole benefactor.To everyone’s surprise, a couple of decades ago, brown trout www.interstatesportman.com www.isoutdoors.com
started spawning in the Little Red. By the 1980s, fly casting at this and the White River, between mid-October and late January when big, mature brown trout locate on shallow gravel bars to spawn, became the time to catch trophy fish between 5 and 15 pounds. However, while spawning still occurs at this time, for the last couple of years prime areas of the White River are closed to fishing between November 1 and the end January. Similar protection is not afforded such spots on the Little Red, much to the chagrin of local guides, such as Tom Hawthorne of the Ozark Angler in Heber Springs. “Protecting the Little Red’s spawning population of brown trout is so important that we no longer guide anglers to key spawning grounds,” says Hawthorne. “A number of anglers have lobbied for closing a handful of areas on the Little Red between mid-October through mid-November to protect the bulk of big mature trout here, but so far we have not been successful. Fishermen can literally clean out a run of big brown trout when these fish are so vulnerable during the spawn.”
According to Hawthorne, outstanding fishing, including catches of big trout, can be found all up and down river at this time of year, without zeroing in on the big spawners that are so easily caught. Autumn is a magical time on any trout stream, and the Little Red is no exception, although it is not as subject to seasonal changes as natural trout streams. The Effects Of The Dam Downstream from the dam on the Little Red, the temperature ranges from 50 to
60 degrees Fahrenheit. These rivers are rich in the aquatic insect life needed to sustain a trout fishery, and have proven to be prime trout-holding habitat.The man-influenced tailwater rivers of the Little Red and nearby larger White River are not only the largest trout-holding waters in Arkansas, they offer the best trout fishing in that state, and perhaps even the world. This is especially true if you seek trophy-size trout. The tall dam that impounds the Little Red creates Greers Ferry Lake which, like
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DESTINATION NATION
all deep-water reservoirs during the hot weather months, stratifies the water in thermal layers. While surface temperatures in upstream lakes vary from season to season, those layers of water near the turbine intakes rarely vary more than a few degrees. When hydroelectric production occurs, water is drawn from the back of the dam through intakes located 40 to 80 feet deep. This tremendous influx of water turns the dam’s turbines, then is released downstream to create a tailwater trout habitat.
universally regarded as offering the best fishing. When water is released at the dam, it races downstream. The closer you are to the dam, the quicker that happens and the sooner the crescendo of good fishing that it sparks ends. The farther downstream you are from the dam, the slower the rise of water occurs, and the longer the good fishing it brings lasts. You can get the generating schedule by calling the dam. At high tide, these tailwater rivers range from 2 to 10 feet deeper than they are at low tide.
Tailwater trout rivers like the Little Red are not like any natural streams found in the mountainous regions of the Appalachian or Rocky Mountains. Tailwater rivers have four distinctive personalities, or flow phases referred to as low tide, rising tide, high tide, and falling tide. Low tide is when the tailwater river is at its lowest flow level— when little if any water is released by the upstream dam. This varies from river to river. Sometimes this is when there is little to no flow, with trout concentrated in deep pools. This is most pronounced in smallish rivers, such as the Little Red. Rising tide is the next flow phase, and is
Falling tide, when all or most of the turbines shut down and low tide is achieved, occurs more slowly than rising tide. It is common for the waters to drop 1 inch per 15 minutes, but the rate of drop can be faster or slower. Generally speaking, the best fly-fishing is midway through the falling tide. The shutdown of the water flow upstream at the dam works like a wake-up call to the trout and the aquatic insects upon which they prey.
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During falling tide, the trout come out to feed on the emerging caddis flies and mayflies, scuds, and midges, which come in large numbers. At this Arkansas
tailwater river, dropping water levels typically provide two to four hours of great trout fishing before the action, and the water, bottoms out. The problem is, unless you know the Little Red River tailwater fairly well, it is difficult to recognize trout-holding cover while high-tide float fishing. During high tide, the river can become intimidating expanses of swirling, surging water. There is hardly a hint of what lies beneath the surface. This is why it is a real bargain to hire one of the many trout fishing guides available on these tailwater rivers.
Autumn fly selections do not differ much from those used from the late spring through summer months. Hawthorne says that, during the autumn, the Little Red River has a fairly predictable hatch of midges in the morning (sizes number 22, 24, and 26), and later during the day you usually will encounter emergences such as bluewing dun mayflies (sizes number 18, 20, and 22). Additionally, he says that standards such as Sowbugs, Hare’s Ears, and caddis pupas (sizes number 14, 1, and 18, are productive this time of year. The faster the water, the larger the fly you can get away with using.
Gear Selection Fly rods that are 8.5- to 9.5-feet long, and which are engineered to cast 3- to 6-weight fly lines, work well on this stream, where most casts range less than 50feet. Leaders need to be at least 9feet long, and tippets of 4X to 6X are recommended, because so much of the fly fishing here is subsurface nymphing. If you are new to this style of fly fishing, bring along a few strike indicators to help you get the hang of fooling these deft feeders.
Tom Hawthorne guides and provides fly casting/fishing lessons. For more information, contact Tom Hawthorne; Ozark Angler; 659 Wilburn Road; Heber Springs, AR 72543; telephone 501-2256504 or contact their second location at 12305 Cheal Parkway; Little Rock, AR 72211; telephone 501-362-3597. Their website address is www.ozarkangler.com
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Autumn Season
Lake Eri
ie Walleye
by Buck Wilder
Interstate sportsman
Few freshwater fisheries on the continent edge of the trenches in Erie. The eastern can be relied upon for year round action basin extends from Erie to the eastern comparable to the flourishing walleye edge of the lake in Buffalo, New York. fisheries in the Great Lakes. A remarkable The western basin is generally shallow. comeback story on par with the return The central basin is deeper, with depths of the wild turkey and whitetail deer, averaging about 60 feet, and the bottom walleye fishing on the Great Lakes has is generally flat. The eastern basin is never been better much deeper than the in than it is today. During autumn a central basin. Opening Day may be Autumn fishing lot of Lake Erie’s the most anticipated patterns change date circled in red on walleye do not significantly once the everyone’s calendar, water temperatures but in terms of fishing approach rivers and get below 55 degree F. fun, autumn can stream mouths, but While admittedly the be just as fun and rather often remain two major peaks of productive. catching season are now Lake Erie is the 11th history, walleye are still offshore through largest lake in the in feeding mode. Trip October. world by surface area. planning is a bit tough, It is the fourth largest as autumn weather and the shallowest of the five Great conditions vary widely from wonderful Lakes. It is 241 miles long, 57 miles wide to nasty, winter-like conditions. Autumn at its widest point, has a surface area of walleye fishing patterns are quite 9,910 square miles, and has 871 miles of similar to those of early spring. The shoreline. It is divided into three “basins” prime locations are at the mouth of - eastern, central and western. The large streams and rivers entering the western basin extends from the west end deep shoreline cover. Both places offer of the lake to about around Cedar Point, predictable walleye movement during Ohio. The central basin extends to the this time of the year. www.interstatesportman.com www.isoutdoors.com
Interstate sportsman
Early through mid-Autumn is a prime time to motor your boat up from the mouth of feeder rivers to catch walleyes that have moved into these waters. In such flowing waters these fish like to locate at the heads of the pools, around bridge pilings, docking areas, and riprap. Once in river environments, walleyes bite predictably at this time of year. During the most of the best walleye fishing is found considerably offshore, in the trenches to the west, and at the mountain to the east. During autumn a lot of Lake Erie’s walleye do not approach rivers and stream mouths, but rather often remain offshore through October. At times they are more difficult to locate than at other times, which often make this a frustrating time to weekend anglers. Some of the most spectacular autumn walleye fishing at this large body of water occurs is triggered by approaching cold fronts. Such ideal conditions for catching autumn season walleyes may come only twice or three times during this season. To make the most of www.interstatesportman.com www.isoutdoors.com
these conditions, watch forecasts and be prepared to go on the lake a step ahead of the approaching cold front. If you are lucky enough to encounter an approaching cold front during the three days surrounding the full moon and the three days surrounding the new moon, you can plan on a fish fry for the end of the day. This time of year, more than any other, walleye like big bait. Large live minnows are a solid choice for catching these fish anywhere you can locate them. Use a small hook instead of a large one so the walleye swallow the bait without feeling anything unusual. Crankbaits are also effective for walleyes right now in rivers and lakes. If you too are hooked on Lake Erie walleye fishing, don’t store your tackle yet. Autumn is a great, under-rated time to fish the world’s best walleye hole.
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