Don’t miss out on some world-class fishing in Arkansas during the later months of winter. It’s a wonderful way to connect into nature’s cycle, catch some fish, and breath in your share of re-invigoratingly fresh air.
Great article by Devin O'Dea of Fayettechill on our recent White River adventure.
“In Ernest Hemingway’s ‘The Old Man and the Sea’ protagonist Santiago does battle with a huge 18’ marlin in the middle of Florida’s Gulf Stream; in Herman Melville’s 'Moby Dick’, Capt. Ahab fights a great white whale to his own death. Today in Arkansas, real-life character, Jamie Rouse, has been stalking trophy trout, walleye and hybrid bass for more than twenty years.”
‘Moisture is the essence of wetness, and wetness is the essence of beauty’ - @bryangregsonphotography for @patagonia @hatchoutdoors @adiposeboatworks @trouthunterlodge // #flyfishing #patagonia #trouthunter #browntrout #release #summer #fishing #river #KEEPEMWET
Enjoyed a morning photo shoot and fishing extravaganza with the Fayettechill boys today. Thanks to Mo Elliott for these cool shots.
Here’s what’s happening on the White short and sweet:
Fishing is great. The name of the game is finding water. If you find the water, white is working.
Winter maintenance! Getting ready for shad kill 2015
Great videos this week! Enjoy!
http://www.orvis.com/news/fly-fishing/friday-fly-fishing-film-festival-01-30-15/
NEW SWAG IS HERE!
Our new tees have just arrived and are now available in our new and improved gear shop. We have been working on this little project for a few months now, and it has been a lot of fun! Stay tuned for more swag coming soon. The signature Capt. Rouse Trucker Hat is up next!
Have a great weekend and as always, fish happy!
Kati
Robert Farnsworth is one of our regulars. Farns probably wins the contest of bringing the most boats through our guide service. Here are some beauties from a recent trip. He is getting ready to join us on the White for the shad kill action, so there will be more pics to come.
The stars aligned the other day, and I got to get out on the water with the Captain. In preparation for the redfish trip, we did a little streamer fishing. This was my second time with streamers. The first I was wearing Allie in a front pack! Jamie led me to the most beautiful brown. Reminiscing on the earlier days, I have come quite a long way. On one of our first trips I nailed him in the forehead with my fly. I turned around to see a trickle of blood running down his face. Needless to say my casting is much improved—further and in the right plane of motion! My goal is to be able to guide him so that he gets just as much fishing time, so I took a turn at the oars with two units running. Not bad! There was a moment at the beginning where he told me to dig in. I delivered—landing on the floor of the boat but never letting go of the oars! He was testing out his new eBay purchase, a 1969 Fenwick glass rod. So much fun! Here’s to fun times and trying stuff in 2015! Fish happy, Kati
Super pumped about the new Orvis Recon! We’ve been anxiously awaiting its arrival here.
Winter issue of Southern Culture on the Fly is out. Good stuff!
Just because it’s cold, doesn’t mean you have to stay inside! We will be offering our Cabin Fever Special rate trip the month of January. We target the warm part of the day, so a little later start time. Get outside and fish!
Here is a great article on taking those underwater fish pics. Enjoy!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from our family to yours! May your 2015 be full of fishing.
Photo by outdoorkidsplay
Digging through the archives, I found this podcast Jamie did with Tom Rosenbauer of Orvis. As January is fast approaching, I thought it would be appropriate to post this interview chock full of winter fishing tips. This is hands down, Capt. Rouse’s favorite time to fish. Enjoy!
Fish happy,
Kati
Happy trout on a day with Jordan and Tony. During this time of low water, it is even more important to keep these beautiful fish in the water for photo ops.
Watching DamNation on Netflix. A definite must see! If you don’t have Netflix, you can go to the DamNation film website.
Beautiful Bow on the Little Red.
Keep ‘em Wet!
The Little Red River is incredibly low. We are getting very small squirts of generation every couple of days. These are always very tough fall conditions for our fish. Over the last week I’ve seen some awful images of incredible fish. These fish were being insanely mishandled and unfortunately some of these were guided fish. Please be conscious of how fish are handled and for how long. Their body weight this time of year is not designed to be held out of the water. So, we’re going to kick off a Keep ‘em Wet campaign!
We got this idea from our friends at emrldwtranglers. We’ve all known for a long time that our fish don’t need to be out of the water for the classic “Grip and Grin” photos. We have all done it and we’ve all had our share of accidents while handling fish. Even guides like myself that have handled thousands if not hundreds of thousands of fish will make a mistake. We are going to make a conscious effort to keep our fish wet even through a photo op.
Here are some suggestions:
Try taking pics of fish still partially submerged never actually removing them from the water or the net. Knee deep water provides an easier place to take a pic. It keeps you from having to hunch way down if you want to get your mug in there with your beautiful fish. Remove the fly while still in the water and then let him go.
When we handle fish this way, it helps reduce the risk of accidental drop, fingers inadvertently ending up in the gills, or the bear hug when the fish is trying to get away.
Use the hash tag #keepemwet for your fish pics in the water to help promote awareness and ultimately protect our fish.