Arrived around 7:30am with first cast closer to 8:00. Caught a small brown on the first cast, which I typically find to be 'bad vibes' for the rest of the day. Fish were active from the start and a crane fly hatch had trout going airborne all around me. Spectacular! In the end the 'first cast jinx' turned out to be true. I caught a few browns. Lost even more. And was off the water by 10:30 as air temps reached into the 80's. Most of my takes came on a stonefly nymph in the early part of the day, as action slowed noticeably after 9:30. I did get some lookie lous on small hopper patterns, but no takes. My final few browns came on a balanced leech. Plenty of fish in this section...just didn't bring my A-game, today. Thanks to IO and the landowner for access to this wonderful property.

The stretches below the bridge are incredibly productive and holds a lot of trout. While the river is mostly straight and doesn’t have the sexy bends, channels, curves and pools that I typically seek, there are tons of fish in this stretch of river. I had considerable luck on zebra midges on a yarn indicator. I consistently found dozens of 12-17” browns in the 3’ deep stretches of the river. I was also fortunate to hook into two great rainbows (15” and 17”) in the faster runs around a couple of in stream boulders. The property provides easy access to the river.

Had a great day considering it was windy. Brought 8 to the net and lost at least the same. The bite really started around 9:30 and last for a good 3 hours. Golden stoneflies and small baetis patterns seemed to work best. Look forward to coming back

The three of us, one experienced angler and two relative newbies, had a great time at Arkansas River Great Escape. Despite the lack of fly fishing experience, we managed to hook up with 10-12 fish, landing three. Some stretches require a bit of bushwacking, but there are also many open areas along the river.