netboy

I hope that pans out, but I have caught a dozen or so tigers here on the White and they were all long and skinny. They looked like this brown I caught this morning at Roundhouse Shoals. This was a 21" brown that couldn't have weighed much more than 2 and half pounds. Seems to me that the rainbows and cutthroats do better here on the White river. Most of them are fat and healthy.

SWPA ran some water on the Norfork this morning but shut it off around 10 am. I made a trip to Ackerman and arrived around noon when the water was back down to minimum flow. Fishing was good and I ended the day with a couple dozen, mostly rainbows along with a nice Golden rainbow and a decent Bonneville cutthroat. Best flies were an orange egg pattern with a P&P midge behind it. I saw the Golden rainbow in about a foot of water at the head of a riffle and he took the egg on the first cast. Those things look like a neon light in the water.

Funny one...

What more can we say...

I have never seen a hog up here around the White river. Soil may be too rocky for them to root for food??? I suspect most of the hogs are farther south and east in the farm lands.

Winter is my favorite time down here. Fewer people out and usually bigger fish.

Walked in at the Cotter access this morning and had a good morning. SWPA was running 1 full unit, which appears to be the new minimum flow for the White river. Best flies were a P&P midge behind a Y2K under an indicator. Ended the morning with a couple dozen rainbows and 2 browns. Here is a pic of a pretty male rainbow in his spawning colors... he took the Y2K.

That's a big ol' sucker....

...

Day before yesterday they blew the horn twice and no water ever came. I always pick out a rock or log on the shoreline and if it gets covered, time to head in.

Strange thing is that they brought Norfork down to minimum flow once the lake hit power pool. They do bump it up in the afternoons. Seems they could do the same at Bull Shoals which would open up lots more wading water..

Whatever happened to minimum flow on the White? Bull Shoals lake is now 4.5 feet below power pool and SWPA is still running 35mw (1 unit) every morning and then bumping it up later. True minimum flow is 7mw and opens the entire area to wading. I sure would like to see some true minimum flow before they shut the C&R area at the dam down on Sunday for the brown trout spawn. That said, the fishing has been pretty good up there. Lots of rainbows on redds and the ones below the redds are waiting on eggs. I hooked a real pig of a rainbow a few days ago and had him on for about 15 minutes. There were a couple other guys fishing that area and they stopped fishing and came to watch. I was using a 4wt rod and 6x tippet and chased him about 150 yards down the river. He was too big for my net so I tried to beach him and got him up close a couple times. We all agreed he was close to 7 lbs and was a pretty, colored up male with perfect fins. One of the guys had a bigger net and offered to try to net him, so I said OK. I worked him over to the shallows and he got about half of him in the net and he swam off again. We walked further downstream and we tried again. I got him up pretty close and he tried to net him, but he swam between his legs and broke the tippet. Oh well, it was a fun ride. Here's a picture from this morning of a pretty brown as a consolation... And a pair of eagles watching over.

Mystery solved....

That page is now gone.... Well that didn't last long. Can you fill us in?

I had great luck with a 140 Suzuki four stroke. Here is a link to a thread about four stroke life expectancy from a website in a saltwater environment. Life Expectancy of 4 stroke outboards - SaltwaterCentral.Com

Another one...

Probably so, but those clips look pretty straight. Their gill plates are messed up also.. as seen in the picture. I have never caught one or seen a pic of one in pristine condition. Maybe the other rainbows pick on them in the hatchery???

All the Goldens I have ever caught have had messed up tails. It is like they clip them at the hatchery for some reason. They first stocked them back in 2017 after the big flood damaged the Mammoth Spring (Jim Hinkle) hatchery. They get them mixed in with normal rainbows from Crystal Lakes hatchery in Missouri. The money came from the Federal Govt as mitigation for flood damages and subsequent reduced output at Jim Hinkle hatchery. Also glad to see that AGFC just started a $6 million renovation to the Jim Hinkle hatchery.

I am sure the eagles around here get their fair share as well as the herons.

It is normal to see rainbows on redds in October through January. I also see cutthroats on redds in early summer as that is when they spawn, at least that is what an AFGC biologist told me. I haven't seen any browns on redds yet, but I am sure they are working their way up towards the dam.