In the wake of the weekend's rain, the Little Red River on Sunday was dead low, calm, and perfect for fishing.

It was perfect for wade fishing, actually. For boat fishing, not so much, but the conditions were very good for a convalescent outboard motor that was on the water for the first time in 15 months.

Rusty Pruitt and I launched my War Eagle and its ailing 25-horsepower outboard at Lobo Landing at about 3 p.m. To preserve the battery in case I needed the electric trolling motor, I cranked the outboard by hand. It started after about 10 pulls and ran effortlessly. With hardly any current, we headed downstream toward Mossy Shoals Special Regulations Area for a few hours of fly fishing. We had gone about half a mile when I opened the throttle. The motor labored. It tried to get on plane but couldn't.

"We don't want to be way down to Mossy if this thing decides to quit on us," I said. "If they open the generators, we won't make it back just idling. We need to be upstream of the ramp."

As we idled back upstream, another angler fell in behind us and asked if we were in distress.

"Not at the moment," I replied.

He said he would follow us back to Lobo and be available to tow us if necessary.

With extortion out of the question, the motor decided to act right. I throttled up, and the boat went on plane. Going fast was imprudent in low water, however. Big mats of coontail grass were inches below the surface, concealing stickups and logs. The grass also fouled the prop. Idling was safer, so we crawled about a half a mile above Lobo.

By then, the sun had gone low and a thin fog rose over the river's surface. Rainbow trout began rising everywhere. After a brief attempt at fly fishing, Pruitt decided to join me for spin fishing. He threw a small stickbait. Trout responded vigorously and struck at all presentations. They hit the lure as it sat motionless on the surface. They hit it during pauses in the retrieves, and they hit it while in motion.

I threw a gold Blue Fox inline spinnerbait. It's a heavy lure that looks like a golden helmet with a gold blade in front and a treble hook on the back. You can cast it a mile, but it is not nearly as versatile as a stickbait. It has to move pretty fast to spin the blade. I stopped the retrieves and let the lure fall past the edges of the grass mats. I got a lot of strikes when I resumed the retrieve from trout that dashed out of the grass.

Quite a few trout followed the lure and struck almost at the boat, but most of them were too small to take the hook. Pruitt had better luck catching those fish with the stickbait's smaller hooks. They were tiny rainbows.

Big brown trout live in that water, too, and they hunt in the dim light of early evening. Even though we expected every bite to come from a small rainbow, we also anticipated the unyielding fury of a massive brown smashing our lures.

There is nothing like it. Your lure stops and your rod arcs against a weight that feels inert. When the fish on the other end realizes that is tethered, it tears off like a pickup truck in four-wheel drive. There is no stopping it. If the drag on your reel is not set properly, the fish will break your line shortly.

If you loosen it quickly, the drag will buzz with a high, reedy tone as the fish reverses the spool. Once you're comfortable that the drag is set for the most abrupt, most violent surges, you can settle in and enjoy the fight. If you do everything right, you will dip the net under the river's apex predator, a veritable coil of raging energy.

Regrettably, no browns came out to play, but we managed to catch and release about a dozen and a half of small rainbows.

As night fell, the motor became increasingly obstinate. It only ran if I pushed the choke in and out repeatedly. Finally it died and would not restart. I paddled it onto the trailer, something possible only in low, still water.

I know what happened. When I reconditioned the carburetors last week, I neglected to clean out the fuel filter. That's an easy fix.

Print Headline: Small rainbows color Red outing

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