Ozark Smallmouth: Spring 2006 Review

After the long, ugly drought, we finally got some good flows on the local rivers.

We even found water big enough for the drift boat. It doesn’t get much better than bassin’ from the Clacka!

Spring ’06 also saw the debut of the new Keen Wading Shoe from Simms.

Be prepared…

If this cute little guy doesn’t end up in a frying pan over the next several years, he just might look like this.

We did quite a few guide trips for smallmouth this spring, including:

The Good

The Bad

The Ugly

Just kidding, guys!

From the Shameless Commerce Division…

Our favorite new topwater fly, the Taco Pescado, is an improvement over the ol’ Crease Fly, and has caught plenty of smallies the past several weeks.

A blatant plug, yes, but we have to say the Patagonia Great Divider is the sweetest boat bag ever! The Sage XP and Lamson Litespeed ain’t bad, either…

Not sure what this fly is called yet, but it’s something like, um… Big Ugly, Hairy… ah, Crawdad-Looking Bug.

Adverse conditions… RAIN

WILDLIFE

This was a nice smallie caught on topwater in the middle of a bright, sunny day on one of the most heavily canoed rivers in the nation. You never know.