Arkansas Below Pueblo
9:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Air Temp forecasted to be 60 degrees
Sunny day/Overcast with a little wind
Dave fished on Saturday and mentioned that he really had to work for every fish that he caught...not a good sign for Sunday.
We got to Valco at 9:00 and there were already 5 cars in the lot. While we were gearing up, 2 more cars showed up. It was going to be a busy day on the river. 3 guys were already fishing in our number 1 spot, so we moved up river to number two. Our usual set up for this stretch of river is a two bit hooker followed by a variety of midge patterns, with one of them black. I started with a size 20 thread midge with a glass bead head and copper wire wrap. This was a fly that had taken many a fish on this stretch...unfortunately, Dave's prediction for a slow day was spot on. We really had to work the water hard to get bites, and most strikes were subtle. With heavy fishing pressure, it was no surprise, but it wasn't what we were expecting.
We picked up 2 fish within a couple casts, but missed quite a few hits and we had numerous long distance releases. These fish were getting smart!
We decided to move over the favorite spot #1 to see if anybody was there, and we saw the 3 guys leaving. As they were walking out, they mentioned that fishing was tough....we agreed and made some suggestions on flies.
Even though it was fished all morning, we were able to pick up a few fish in the usual spot...just not anything of size.
So...after a slow morning, we decided to head over to the spillway to see if we could increase our numbers. We switched up our rigs to a barr's emerger up top and a midge below. We picked up quite a few stockers, but again, it wasn't as good as it's been in the past couple of trips.
A few more colorful were had as well...maybe the impending spring and spawn is helping to get these guys colored up!
The surprise of the day, and the biggest fish came in a more unusual spot. I was fishing the riffles down below between the bridge and the spillway and managed this nice guy. Just shy of 16 inches.
He took a blue poison tung. Just goes to show you that big fish can be anywhere! Even in shallow riffles. So don't be afraid to try new spots. Fish on the Ark are eating year round and they aren't always sitting in deep holes waiting out the winter.
Overall, this was a slow day. By no means was it a bad day, but slow considering the fishing pressure. I didn't check flows, but it also looked like the flows might have been bumped a little accounting for the fishing being off.
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