His Place Newsletter - April / May, 2004

          Hello! 

Spring is beautiful on the White River!  The wildflowers along the trail and around the resort are starting to bloom, and all the planted flowers are out now, too.  It's still a bit chilly in the mornings, but most days are somewhere in the 60's at least, sometimes higher.

Our Bald Eagles, Isaac and Rebekah hatched at least one chick on March 15th, after laying their eggs on Valentine's Day, February 14th, 2004.  We're still waiting to see the chicks poke their heads out of the nest!  It should be soon. 

April / May

What the fish are biting on… 

Fly Fishing - Streamers - various sculpin, minnow patterns, and good ol' 56'ers, olive wooly buggers.

Bait - Powerbait in white & yellow, wax worms, and river minnows if you can trap 'em!

Artificials - Countdowns & Rogues - silver/black and black/gold, Colorados in silver/gold, and Rooster Tails in Rainbow color and White are still working well.

Bring the kids fishing...

It's about time to think about taking the kids fishing!  I know spring break was just last month, but before you know it, they'll be out of school for the summer - and there's no better place to take them than to the White River to fish!

Here we have a picture of Story Moller.  Story's 8 years old, and he'll tell you he's been fly fishing for quite some time, now...  :-)

He's pictured here with Tom over at Dry Run Creek, where Story landed this really nice rainbow, probably about a 5 pounder, from this picture.  

What's AGFC been up to?...

As usual, AGFC is very busy.  If you haven't been able to read the Trout Management Plan, you really ought to do so.  One of the new objectives is to have a specific plan for each and every trout water.  Cotter's Big Spring Park is going to be the first to undergo management changes under this new model.  

AGFC will be posting the details of this proposal soon, but the jist of it is to make the Big Spring a delayed harvest, catch & release fishery for youth, and if additional funding becomes available to supplement water flow in the summer months, they will make it a catch & release youth fishery all year round.  We think this is a great idea for the kids!

In addition to the Trout Management Plan, the 2004 Arkansas Fishing Guidebook, and the Trout Fishing guidebook are available for PDF download online.  Just visit http://www.agfc.state.ar.us/fishing_ol.html to download any of these documents.

Did you know that about 1.5 million fish are stocked annually in the White River Tailwater alone?  AGFC also keeps updated stocking information, in addition to a general overview of the program on the web at http://www.agfc.state.ar.us/fishing/trout_stocking_north.html .  It's an interesting read that I thought you might like.

Fish Story of the Month! 

I'm OUTTA HERE!!

Well, sometimes the fish gets the better of the fisherman.  Even it it's not a fisherman...  I can't tell you how many times I've watched the eagles fish in the river or across the field.  I recently saw Rebekah take a Brown just across from the dock.  It was about 24" or better, and she picked it up and landed on the bank like it was nothing.  So I really have to wonder...  Just how big is "too big" for an eagle?

Let me tell you a little story about what I saw the other day...

I stand on the deck and watch the eagles at least a couple times a day.  Not too long ago, I saw Rebekah on the far side of the creek, just in the water by the bank.  It looked like she had just caught something pretty sizeable.

As I started looking closer, I saw the strangest thing...  Rebekah started to move across the water's surface out into the pool.  But, oddly enough, she wasn't really flapping her wings, just kind of holding them out to her sides - just enough to keep her balance.  

As I was trying to figure out just what it was that I saw, she went farther out into the river, still skimming across the surface, and then all of a sudden - STRAIGHT DOWN UNDER THE WATER!

I just stood there, watching in disbelief.  I started to count to myself, 1...2...3...4...5..., and I still didn't see her come back up.  I nearly started to panic, as I was certain the final showdown between the Loch Ness Monster and my Rebekah had just begun. 

A second or two later, up out of the water she comes - beating her wings for everything she was worth.  She flew up river, a little closer to where I was standing and landed on a low tree branch, where she shook herself off, and sat there for awhile...  After all, she had to regain her composure, I suppose.

My understanding is that when a bird's legs are bent, their talons lock into position.  This is why they don't fall out of trees when they're dozing.  So, my guess is that whatever she had hold of decided to make one last mad dash for freedom.  Since she was sitting on it at the time, her talons would have been locked, making it impossible for her to let go.  Hence, the ride out into the pool, and then straight down.  I guess once the fish started pulling her down, her legs straightened out, she was able to let go and come back up to the surface.  I've never seen an eagle more eager to get out of the river than she was at that minute!  Apparently, she was no worse for the wear, however I'm sure her ego was bruised at the very least.

Think about this for a minute, though.  If this bird can take a 24" Brown out of the river without any effort at all, how big would a fish be that could take an eagle out into the river and pull her under???  That might have just been J. Holinsworth's fish, Big Bertha!  (see last newsletter)  Anyway, it does make you wonder...

The only other times I've seen Rebekah so eager to leave a particular spot is when she's been with the kids all day, and is screaming for Isaac to come watch the nest so she can get out for awhile!  :-)

If you didn't know, our pair laid their eggs 2/14/04, Valentine's Day!  They hatched 3/15/04.  Since their nest is about 4 feet deep, I haven't seen the chicks stick their heads out yet, but should see that any day.  I believe there are at least 2 chicks, because I've seen what looked like both parents simultaneously feeding the babies, and they were over a foot apart from each other.

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