Fall Fishing Outlook

A picture is worth a thousand words....

With a LOT of the canoe traffic slowing down, the nights cooling off, and already some leaves changing color it is time to look at the outlook for fall fishing. Besides, when you see temps in the high 40's in late August--you can't help but to look forward to fall fishing.
Usually when we think of fall fishing we think about water levels being low and crystal clear, not so much this year. We had a great summer with water levels staying as close to the 60 year average as we have seen in a while so the low and clear water we usually have this time of year really isn't there. With an above average prediction for rainfall in September we are looking (and hoping) for water levels to do very well.

With the water levels being higher than they typically are this time of year we are taking full advantage of it, we are still fishing bigger flies, and above that we are still getting away with heavier tippet. You see, the peak of the colors changing is pretty close to the peak of the brown trout movement as they get started in their spawn....which makes using 4x tippet to any given nymph and 3x + on streamers incredibly helpful and landing any "pig" you happen to hook--we like that ;)

Finding the fish is usually pretty easy in the Fall. The deeper tailouts and deeper riffles are the go-to without a doubt. I have said it a thousand times but it demands to be said again, if you see a drop-off fish it HARD, especially in a faster running tailout. While nymphing, nymph DEEP (another thing I can't stress enough) lose flies! If you are a fan of stripping streamers jump all over ANY chance you get this fall...basically any low-light situation be it early morning, late evening, cloudy, rainy--all of this equals good stuff for streamers. Be aggressive with it, if I am personally stripping streamers for fishing I am not going to mess around--give me big and nasty and I'll strip it back like my life depends on it, unless the fish tell me otherwise. :P

The most beautiful time of year equals awesome fishing....even if the fishing is tough.

Brian Wise

Head Guide

River of Life Farm

http://www.riveroflifefarm.com/

The Outdoor Channel Visits River of Life Farm

We recently had the opportunity to have a film crew from the Outdoor Channel visit ROLF to film some turkey hunting with Shelby Nold, fishing with Brian Wise, and some of the cabins. Although the turkey hunting was pretty tough the fishing went well and we only ended up needing one day of shooting to get the segment for the Outdoor Channel Outfitters television show. Brian, Shelby, and Tommy McKee (the youngest of the McKee children yet probably the biggest feet!!) joined together to do some fishing for the cameras.

Brian Wise in an interview


Shelby Nold making some casts

Brian Wise and Cameraman John Nabors

Tommy McKee and Cameraman John Nabors

Stay tuned for the airing hopefully sometime this Fall. Spoiler Alert!!! Tommy catches something REALLY COOL for the camera....and also rows Brian's drift boat over the falls!

April Fishing Report

April brought us many ups and downs as far as fishing goes on the North Fork of the White.....and most of those ups and downs were the water levels. :)

All in all fishing was real steady even with the fluctuating water levels. Of course fishing on the miles of access at River of Life has been real good too. The key to catching fish on slightly higher water levels are to fish REALLY DEEP(sometimes 9+ feet under an indicator) The fly of the month....the Rubber-Leg Stone that has been catching us a ton of fish this spring, along with San Juan worms, Mohair Leeches, and Psycho Princes--all of which can be found in the grab bag of flies in the store in the lodge at ROLF.

Brian Wise

Head Guide

River of Life Farm

http://www.riveroflifefarm.com/

Camping and Canoeing at River of Life Farm

Another report from a group that had a great adventure at ROLF!



"We were a group of seven from Bentonville,AR went out on an adventure to camp on a river side.We work here for walmart as software engineers and we are from the southern part of INDIA. No one from our group ever tried canoeing and its true there is always a first time for everything and if you had fun doing things you do the first time , you will cherish the moments for a long time.
Thats really true with everyone of us having tried canoeing for the first ever time in our lives and trust me we will not forget this for a long long time. Atleast Sam and Sudheer(Not me - my friend) will never forget the adventure for a while.

We started off late on saturday APR 04, and reached the River Farm by 5 in the evening and within an hour we were all set for canoeing. We had absolutely no idea what's ahead. We 7 guys started off in three canoes. 2 - 2 and 3 in each.
Naresh and I in one, Ramesh and Srikanth in one and the most adventorous bunch of Sam, Sudheer and Srini. The first accident was with the canoe I was in , we couldnt control the canoe initially even though we tried our best and we hit a rock and our canoe tumbled upside down.
Everyone had atleast one crash in the first few minutes. Then when we started learning the art fo canoeing and everything was smooth, came in the most rocky part of the stream. The canoe with Sam,sudheer and Srini have hit a rock and three of them jumped into the river. Then they lost their pedals in the stream and then with great difficulty they managed to pull the canoe to the left ofthe shore. Naresh and I tried to rescue them to the shore and in the process i slipped and fell upside down in the stream. We had laughed at the incident for a while but all our smiles turned to scary thoughts when we figured out that there was a copperhead(venomous snake) sitting in a bag in the canoe which we just pulled to the shore. There you go, Sam who hates snakes was freaking everyone out. We discovered that the snake was in the bag right from the start and snake hater Sam was sitting right on top of the bag from the start.
Everyone was terrified for a while but we managed to pull the canoe to the shore and the three guys who just are out of a shock tried to walk back to the starting point across an unkown territory. They started walking back but within just a few minutes lost their way and three of them had no clue of where they were heading. They walked through whatever came their way and it was getting dark by around 7:30 pm. This never happened with them had to walk with no communication or help or guide whatsoever and they were becoming restless with every minute passed by. Finally and luckily for our group, not to miss the fun part, three of them were able to find the way back.
Then started our second adventure, to set up a tent at around 8:30 pm in the night.
We planned to start a camp fire and then start building our tent in that light...but it seems our adventure wants to get bigger and bigger. The lighter ran out of gas just the moment we started to lit the camp fire. We got the matchsticks from Myron and managed to set up everything.

The next day morning was the most PLEASANT morning i had ever seen. With bright sun rays trying to pierce through the forest and the view i had is simply unforgettable. We were so thrilled, may be we didnt expect so much out there and it turned out to be an extremely happy trip.

And it gives me so much pleasure to thank Myron who have been so helpful and friendly all through our stay. "