The Transfer From Colorado to Arkansas

Tycho enjoying the famous Cotter bridge

Man… where do I begin…

First of all, making the move from an inevitable, deep-pow winter to a mild climate is great! Sure, I miss my friends, snowboarding, snowmobiling, and mountain life… but i get to guide and fish comfortably all winter long!

I left Colorado in October. There was plenty of snow already on the ground at my “summer home” in Minturn. I trekked, what should be a 15 hour drive, over 1,000 miles in 18 hours. Eastern Colorado and Kansas roads were super icy, so icy infact, that after I fish-tailed for 50 yards, a double semitruck did the same thing for nearly a 1/4 mile! I could read the company name on the side of both trailers.

Enough of the drive, it was icy, long, straight, and through Kansas… you get the idea.

The White River is why I came to Arkansas. I went to college at the University of Arkansas and would routinely make the two and a half hour drive to go fishing. Big brown trout and massive rainbows inhabit the White; this is another fair reason I came back to Arkansas ;)

Th White River is arguably the best tailwater fishery in the world. The quality and size of the brown trout here is absolutely insane. Big fish, big flies. As usual, nymphing is a very productive way to fish, but the main selling point is the streamer fishing at high water over the winter. Throwing 8” bait fish and small trout-looking flies hoping to turn a fish that could push 30+ inches is…… amazing.

I am writing this in hindsight as I’ve been here for a few months. What I have found is that you must put your time in on this river. Its not every day you catch a nice brown trout, but it can happen at any time. In the mean time, there are plenty of rainbows to keep you busy all day…for as long as you decide to stay.

As my first blog post, that’s it. I will try to create more uniform postings with good information and somewhat up-to-date info on what’s going on around these Ozarks Mountains.

-Captain Stevie