Easter Bounty- A Basket Of 'Bows From The Arkansas PT 04Apr15

With the kid at college I didn't hunt for eggs or bunnies, but for Easter rainbows instead. I arrived at Nature Center parking at 9am as the only fisherman, and was soon on the river in a midge hatch. Awesome and Black Vinyl KF took their share as I worked my way hole to hole, each with a couple nice fish - many without the detector attached for fear of spooking. Flows were down to perfect 325cfs and super wadable; water was perfectly clear. Fab' morning went from good to better as BWOs started showing in smallish numbers and I had my Reimagined Black Ice weight and Medora FB RS2 to match the bug action - everything was working. Fish were still mostly in the holes and had not moved out into the diamonds in the stream (I thought - see PM). Shocking but I was patient and netted all that I hooked! I didn't even fish the "best" spot as someone occupied it as I reached my typical upstream turnaround... back to the car for lunch at noon. I drove to Valco parking and it was teaming with activity - I dined and contemplated how to approach the afternoon - duh, more of the same. I did skip the spot next to the car given experience that the fish had not yet spread out to the diamonds and went right for the pigs behind the first full river weir. There were fishermen bait-whacking and lure fishing on the way but amazingly the best hole was open - I crept out on the weir and saw huge fish taking something in the middle of the water column. I tried for 20 minutes without indicator or luck really at 1:30pm... I netted some "small" stuff but didn't repeat last weekend's 23" grab. I moved ahead to the stream proper and more mayflies appeared. My head spun as I landed and lost fish after fish in mid-stream on the RS2 and a black midge from 2-3pm. While it finally slowed a bit and I really lost count I knew I'd had a great day fishing with nothing over 20" but also nothing really under 16" and a passel of fish seen. Here's a few from the Easter Bounty on the PT.