Category Archives: Featured

Welcome

welcome

At home on the river with a new presence online!  Welcome to the new Primrose Creek website.  We invite you to explore our special corner of the world on these pages and even better, come see it in person.  Primrose Creek is a gated community on the banks of the Little Red River, one of the premier trout streams in North America.  Browse and enjoy, give us a call and arrange a private showing.  If you like being close to nature, if you like the idea of a community in harmony with it’s surroundings, you’re gonna’ like it here!

Year ‘Round Fly Fishing on the Little Red

family-ties

It’s a rare day of the year when you can’t hook up on the Little Red. Winter and early spring typically bring high water so a boat is the way to go. If you are not familiar with boat operation in swift moving water we recommend that you consider using one of the superb local guides who will be suitably equipped.

For high water we like streamer technique—a mid-to-heavy rod, something like a 6 or 7 weight, fast action with a full sink or mini-sink tip. Short, stout leaders, 20” of 20# test fluorocarbon for the butt and 20” of 12# for the tip. There are many, many great streamer patterns that work on the Little Red. Kelly Galloup’s Circus Peanut, Peanut Envy, Butt Monkey and Barely Legal are all effective in olive, root beer and black. A weighted woolly bugger in olive or black with a tungsten cone head and a little flash is always a good choice. Hammer the banks, give it a few strips, pick up and cast again—big browns love/hate these things!

As the water settles down, watch for some big caddis hatches including the famous Mother’s Day green caddis hatch. Green bodied elk hair caddis patterns in sizes 14-18 can produce classic days of dry fly fishing. Light rods, full floating lines, long (pref. Nylon for dry flies) leaders in 5-6X are the ticket.

So much is written about nymphing on the Little Red that we’ll keep this simple—always have a dedicated box of sowbugs, scuds, pheasant tails and hare’s ears in your bag of tricks. There are a lot of great nymph patterns but on any given day, one of the aforementioned is likely to be “the fly”.

Wildlife Watching in and around Primrose Creek

wildlife

A big chunk of Primrose Creek is specifically preserved as wildlife habitat. The river and our private warm-water lake attract waterfowl like the beautiful trumpeter swans pictured on our website. The Swans winter primarily at Magness Lake a few miles away but are likely to turn up on any decent-sized body of water as well as the river. Raptors like red shouldered and red tailed hawks, peregrine falcons, ospreys and bald eagles are common sightings as they patrol the meadows and waters. In the evening the “who-cooks-for-you” call of the barred owl sets the mood.

Deer are abundant as are wild turkey—Primrose has an especially healthy flock and they can occasionally stop traffic, not that there’s a lot of traffic—you just have to stop to watch. Red fox, coyote and all manner of small mammals can be seen at any time, going about their business. We like to think they like living in Primrose Creek too.