crkoester

How was the water clarity in the RB area?

I landed one 5 pound striper. Exciting enough for you?

There's quite a bit of crap between PC and Rocky right now... was just out this AM. Running wide open at night would be a big mistake. The worst is the big wide open intersection of the river channel and PC near Rivercliff.

Buy brooder minnows at Hook Line and Sinker in Rogers. Although it's not really "close" to where you are, it might be closest. Your timing will be good for surface activity. Have a big topwater ready that you can throw a country mile in the mornings. Catching one that way is more fun than 10 trolling bait.

That place must be pretty runoff-proof. How's it fishing? Chris

Anyone got a current update on Crane? Went to Norfork last week instead. Chris

Yes, top of Long Hole always seems to hold cutts for some reason. Yes, Norfork is easily worth the drive. It's about 3 hrs for me and I'll still make a long day trip out of it if I have to. Brock Dixon at North Arkansas Troutfitters just put his client on the biggest cutt I've seen in years on the Norfork yesterday. Check him out on Facebook for photos. Chris

Yes, small streamers like buggers and Clousers and small jigs seem to work best. Slowly stripped. Sometimes if you can sight fish them they'll react to a quick strip or two right near their head. Chris

Any newer update on Crane level? Still thinking about sneaking up there Thursday. The way the creeks are rolling down here I don't feel too hopeful though. Chris

What do the caddis look like up there? Tan size 18 or so, like the small ones down at Roaring River? Chris

Ditto to Pete. No wading above minimum flow. "40" is one generator, "80" is two. And it comes up in a hurry, you don't want to be caught in the river on the rise. It's quite dangerous. Check out generation on the White, and learn how long the rises take to get downstream. It's easier to work around pulses in generation there. Can find wadeable water at several shoals at minimum flow or not much above. Even if generation ruins your Norfork plans or cuts your day in half, you can truck over to Wildcat, Roundhouse, up to the dam, etc and salvage your day if flows are low there. Also, save your pennies and/or find a buddy and hire a guide to fish from a boat for at least a day. That's really the ultimate White/Norfork experience anyway. There are many excellent fly guides on the rivers these days. Chris

Any significant hatches popping this time of year? Other than terrestrials and scuds, what are the best local patterns? Never been up there... can't wait to work out my new little St Croix 7.5 foot 3 weight. I'm almost 2 hours away, I'd hate to make the drive and find the creek has turned into a river. Chris

Thinking about making my first ever trip up there to Crane Wed or Thurs. Not sure how much of this rain they got up there. Anyone know what the creek looks like right now? Will it likely be blown out by Wednesday or Thursday? Chris

It's didymo. It's a nightmare. It's worst up there towards the dam, but there is much less of it downriver. Lots of it breaks loose when they generate and easily fouls lines and baits. It has gotten much worse since they started minimum flow.

http://www.gregbohannan.com/fishing/beaverlakebassguide.html There could not possibly be any better Beaver bass guide than Greg, nor a nicer guy.

Yeah, try the new Airflo Streamer Max Long, really nice. Biggest problem is it is quite thin, so can be a bit tricky to handle with cold fingers. But the positive tradeoff is it sinks fast, stays down and doesn't belly in the current as badly as a thicker line. If you think an 8 weight is too much for a 300 grain line, you must have one hell of a stiff 6 weight. I throw a 300 grain SA Galloup Streamer Express Long (50' head) on my TFO BVK 8 weight and I need every bit of it. (they don't make this line anymore). I've actually thought about trying it on my 9 weight NRX instead. I throw the Airflo line (in 250 grain) on a 7 weight St Croix Bank Robber. I'm talking about really big articulated streamers... Double Deceiver, Drunk & Disorderly, any of Galloup's big patterns. 7 weight is the bottom of the barrel for this kind of big meat, in my hands. Like ARHeadhunters said, with a 6 weight you're really down to throwing small/medium stuff. Anything less than those 2 setups and you are going to start limiting the size of streamer you are able to throw. Chris

If the surface water stays cool you could still have a chance to catch a few on topwater right at dawn. That bite usually starts sometime in late April and continues until the water gets too hot. They school up in the same spots every day - most are pretty obvious, long flat points and humps. You could easily pick out some good spots on the map. You need reasonably clear water. Start at Prairie Creek and work your way downstream down to pick a few. Big Spooks or pencil poppers, or waking Redfins or Bombers if it's slick enough. You'll also catch spots, largemouth, smallmouth and occasionally hybrids or whites as well. Chris

Amery: Since you are a midge guy, what's your solution for those fish that are boiling like crazy on midge emergers? It's aggravating to look up and down the river and see 500 simultaneous rises but hardly get a bite. I'm certain there is a solution to it, I just haven't spent enough time figuring it out. I've not found a midge emerger pattern that is all that effective, other than a very small soft hackle, which is still hit and miss. Most of them are so tiny you really can't see them, especially in the dim evening light, which makes them much harder to fish and detect a take anyway. Do you have any favorite go-to midge emerger patterns that they'll eat at Beaver? Chris

The fishing can be challenging below Beaver for sure, esp for the fly fisherman. Having said that, I had at least 3 days last spring of 40+ trout, just simply wading in and going fishing. You just need to adjust your techniques and approach, and realize sometimes conditions are tough enough you'd believe all the fish have disappeared. Jim, I've had similar experiences down there many times where the water is just boiling with midging fish but you can hardly buy a bite on a dry fly.... or almost anything. Esp right at dusk. I've tried some emerger patterns with scant success, and you can hardly get a bite nymphing as the fish are all keyed in to the emergers at the surface. Sometimes I've been able to salvage a few bites swinging or slow stripping a really small soft hackle. Do you have other bright ideas on making those aggressively midging fish eat on slack water? Chris

You are absolutely on the right track with that lure assortment right now. I'd add a 3 or 4" single tail swimming grub on 1/8 or 3/16 jighead on 6-8# test, any kind of natural shad color.

Jerkbaits and grubs is correct. Although the winning bag was quite impressive, it dropped off severely after that. 6 pounds still got a check and over half the field zeroed. The fishing was very tough.

I live on Beaver and have been a serious bass fisherman here for years, and I also fly fish. On Beaver lake itself I don't know of a single guide who does any fly fishing. It really would not be a productive technique to try to just go out and fly fish the lake. Even bass guys fishing with conventional tackle struggle often. The striper guides are really set up to troll live bait or umbrella rigs, crankbaits, etc. Your only real hope to catch a striper on the fly would be to find an area where they are chasing bait at the surface and throw into the fray... and it's very tough to find that situation predictably with stripers here. Your best bet to catch fish on the fly here will be way up in the rivers in a few weeks when the white bass are making their spawning run. When you catch that just right you can easily have very fast action.

I would guess you are quite a bit too early to intersect with whites in the White River arm below Beaver. They tend to run later than the upper Beaver fish (presumably due to lower temps in the tailwater) and even the upper reaches of Beaver are still too cold to be firing just yet.

Beaver just doesn't have much of the consistent fast, shallow shoal-type water that caddis seem to favor. Jim makes a good point about the caddis hatch at RR. Was just there yesterday and saw plenty of small caddis in the air, as well as BWO's and of course midges. What I didn't see were many rising trout. Zone 3 was the Dead Zone. Jim, are you getting those Beaver midging fish to eat any dries?

Beaver just doesn't have much of the consistent fast, shallow shoal-type water that caddis seem to favor. Jim makes a good point about the caddis hatch at RR. Was just there yesterday and saw plenty of small caddis in the air, as well as BWO's and of course midges. What I didn't see were many rising trout. Zone 3 was the Dead Zone. Jim, are you getting those Beaver midging fish to eat any dries?