Fished the Little Red

I fished the Little Red for a couple hours Thursday morning. Worked my way down the right bank of Winkley staying within twenty feet of the bank hitting all the small pools, cuts and riffles. Caught about a dozen, half rainbows and half browns. This is a photo of the lower end of the shoal. The water was very stained. I'm told that's the way it's coming out of the dam. The run off from the floods has left a soupy mix of silt and other stuff stirred up in the lake. They say it will take several months for the lake and river to clear up. Catching was good but the river is a mess.

I was using a #20 dark olive nickle bead head midge about ten inches under an indicator. Never really tried anything else. That was getting the job done. Here's the fly in both olive and red. It's about as simple as it gets. Mount the bead on a #20 200R or something similar. Start the thread at the bead and wrap a flat layer almost to the hook bend. Spin the bobbin to tighten up the thread into a firm cord and then wrap it forward forming an evenly spaced rib. Whip finish and apply a coat of super glue. That's it. I've fished the fire out of these midges the past couple years. They've worked on all the tailwaters here in Arkansas.