First off, I LOVE brown trout. I think they are the most
beautiful freshwater fish in the world (that is not hyperbole, and sorry brook
trout) and I would prefer to catch one small, pretty brown trout over ten
stocker rainbows any day of the week. Since catching my first brown on
Lake Taneycomo, I have been fascinated by their feeding habits, differences in
appearance, and somewhat elusive nature (at least here in Missouri).
While resarching brown trout, I stumbled upon the fact that the White
River is somewhat of a Mecca for brown trout fishermen. After seeing some
jaw dropping pictures of browns that looked a little like a Spinosaurus, I knew
that I had to fish this Jurassic river at some point.
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| See the resemblance? |
Admittedly, I don't have a lot of time on my hands with two young
sons. I love them to death and wouldn't trade them for the world but I
certainly don't have the free time that I used to. Also, being a teacher
with two young sons (my daycare bill could afford a lake house and I am not
kidding) doesn't exactly afford a surplus in the fishing budget. I'm not
complaining, don't get me wrong, but I can't exactly shell out a thousand bucks
to go down to the White River for a few days. You might be reading this
thinking "a thousand bucks, is he serious?" Yes, I am. If
you figure in food, gas, and lodging, you're looking at a pretty good chunk of
change. If you figure in a guide for a day, with the going rate of $400
for a full day, guided trip takes up a lot of the budget. Now I haven't
hired very many guides in my life but if I am going to go after trophy browns
on one of the best brown trout rivers in the world, I don't have time to try
and find the good spots, the right techniques, and water generation schedules.
If this place was in my backyard, that's a different story but Lakeview,
Arkansas, is about 5 and 1/2 hours from my front door. If you put the two
together, you have an expensive and rare opportunity that I want to take
seriously because it might be a once in a lifetime type of trip. Could I
have done this trip on my own? Heck no! However, I know a guy that
is as generous as the day is long and has made more sacrifices for me than I
can count. This guy has done everything in his power since the day I was
born to make me happy and to provide opportunities for me that are
life-changing. I'm talking about my dad.
While sitting around the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve of 2015,
I opened a and enveloped from my folks. Inside was a hand-written note
that served as a gift certificate of sorts. It stated that it was to
serve as a coupon for an all-expenses paid trip to the White River and was to
include the cost of gas, lodging, food, and a guide. Now I have to admit
here, this was a bittersweet present at the time and dad, if you are reading
this, stay with me here. At the time of this particular Christmas, my
wife and I had a son that was 5 and a son that was almost a year old.
Part of me thought that this was exactly what I needed with a busy life
and budget that gets stretched each month. Another part of me was a
little on the sad side. I thought that there was a VERY strong chance
that this present would never been redeemed because of time constraints and the
responsibilities that come with having a career and a young family. A
part of me was even a little sad or bitter because I felt like it was a
logistical impossibility.
Well, I don't know about you, but life sometimes has a way of
grooving you a pitch right down the middle of the plate when you need it most.
Fast forward to January of 2017 (that's right, over a year since the
present was given) and my dad and I had a chance to talk about the
aforementioned trip. We first kicked around the idea, strongly considered
the idea, and then finally put the wheels in motion for this trip to happen
during my spring break between March 13-17. Child care was planned for,
the wife was on board, and all systems were go...with one exception. We
had to find a place to say and a guide to hire. The lodging seemed like a
no brainer. Gaston's Resort has an outstanding reputation and my dad was
partial towards it since he had read so much about it in The Kansas City Star
over the years. The real problem lied in the selection of a guide. In
case you have never tried to research guide services on the upper part of the
White River, let's just say there are a lot to pick from. I later found
out that there are around 100 guys that guide on the upper part of the river
and 100 more fellas on the lower part of the river. That's a lot of data,
references, and pictures to pour over. What made things ever more
confounding was whether we should hire a fly fishing guide or fish with
spinning tackle?
After talking to some fly fishing guides, I decided to NOT go the
fly fishing route. I did this for a few reasons. Number one, I
don't have a lot of upper body strength. The guides told me that we would
be throwing heavy rods, with heavy line, and heavy flies. I just didn’t
know if I could physically do that all day.
I also know that I typically take a few fish to get warmed up, shake off
rust, and get a feel for strikes. The guides also told me that I should
only expect 1-3 strikes in a day. If you look at this from a logical
point of view, then fly fishing (for me) could have ended up with striking out
and getting skunked on an expensive trip of a lifetime. I don't like
getting skunked. I sure as heck don't want to get skunked on a guided
trip. We decided to fish bait.
I had my reasons for this as well. While my dad said that he
was find "just being along for the ride" and didn't care if he fished
much, I didn't want him to be miserable. We have both fished Lake
Taneycomo with bait and know how to bounce bait along the bottom and how to
differentiate between the feel of gravel and strikes...most of the time.
Also, you just can't deny the effectiveness of live bait. It
catches more fish because it’s real and what the fish are used to eating.
Finally, I figured that this would be the best method to hook a BIG
brown.
Even after making that decision, I was still stuck with a LONG
list of guides. Days and weeks were passing by and I needed to make a
decision. After having a friend from work suggest Donald Cranor of
Cranor's Guide Service, I threw my hands up in the air and thought "What
the heck? This guy looks legit!" I went to his website to find
out how to contact him and was blown away by how detailed and professional it
looked. I figured that either this guy is some internet ninja with an apt
for Photoshop or this is the real deal. I hoped for the latter.
When I contacted him, he was as nice as you would expect a guy from the
south to be and made me feel like I had made the right decision. I was a
little disappointed to find out that he was booked for the day that my dad and
I wanted to fish, but he promised me that one of "his guys" would be
able to take us out and take care of us. I was a little disappointed
because I wanted THE Cranor of Cranor's guide service and not some apprentice
or part timer. However, guides were getting booked up and I didn't want
to start from square one again so I would "settle" on the "other
guy". Spoiler alert: the "other guy" ended up being an AMAZING guide!
Now when I say that I wanted to go after a "big brown" I
had to rein in my expectations. To expect a trophy from a fishery in one
day of fishing is setting yourself up for disappointment. Instead of
hoping for a wall-hanger, I settled on hoping for a brown that would be my
biggest so far, which isn't much of a stretch. My biggest brown came from
Lake Taneycomo and was about 18 inches long. It was skinny and probably
only pushed 1 and 1/2 pounds. After all of the pictures and stories I
have seen and heard, I didn't think this was an unreal expectation.
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| My biggest brown prior to the trip. |
On top of the guided trip, I was also fortunate to find out that
my former high school basketball coach had moved to southern Missouri and
become an avid fly fisherman. We were able to incorporate fishing with
him into the trip which was an added bonus. To make the situation even
better, he said that he had a drift boat and knew a few parts of the White
River where we would probably have some luck. Did rekindling an old
relationship with the promise of hopeful fly fishing just work it's way into
the trip? Again, I was cautiously optimistic because this was coupled
with the fact that his daughter was supposed to be moving to Texas that week
which could derail the entire plan.
So reservations were made, deposits were put down by my dad, and
the days slowly crept by. I felt like a little kid waiting for Santa
since the day after Thanksgiving and it felt like the departure date would
never arrive. It also seemed possible that some obstacle would step in
and squash the entire trip. A sickness, a death in the family, and
unseasonable snow storm; they all seemed to peek over the horizon and haunt my
thoughts/hopes.
Thankfully, the day came that my dad and I were to leave for
Arkansas and the proverbial Boogeyman stayed in the closet. My bags were
packed, dad showed up on time, and we were southbound and down with the wind
blowing in our faces. The entire feeling was surreal. Three days of
fishing, no responsibilities, and a new fishery loomed on the horizon. I
have said it before, and I will say it again; the best feeling you have on a
fishing trip might very well come on the way to going fishing.
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