netboy

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.

I went to the Dam C&R access this morning and the water was pretty low when I got there. They bumped it up to around 20mw which made the fishing better. Ended the morning with a couple dozen nice rainbows and then when I was walking out, I saw this Golden Rainbow swimming towards me in about a foot of water. Poor things look like a neon light in the water. I had an apricot egg on and he took it on the first cast.

We have heard rumors of such...

My wife went to get the mail around 3pm and she came back saying she smelled lots of smoke. We drove up the road and there were 4 fire trucks and the police. They had water tankers dumping water into a pool structure and a pumper truck pumping the water up the hill to the house. Looks like a total loss. Fortunately the owner was there when it started and got out. We heard a couple of explosions and the fire guys said it was probably propane tanks. Many thanks to those volunteer fire guys. I guess the take away is.... have plenty of smoke detectors and be darn sure they work. A couple of pics...

I think the first time they stocked them in the White river was in 2017 after the flood did major damage to the Jim Hinkle hatchery in Mammoth Spring.

I got out on the river early this morning and fishing was pretty good. I am starting to see quite a few active redds so I tied on an apricot colored egg pattern. As usual, the fish on the redds were not interested in feeding as they are busy with their mating ritual. But there are usually some hungry trout just downstream of the redds waiting on a free meal of fresh trout eggs. That was the case this morning. I saw the biggest Golden rainbow I have ever seen holding on a redd. I was able to get a picture of it with a zoom lens. It looked to be a female and was easily 25" or more. Then a while later a second Golden which looked to be a male and was around 20" approached her from downstream. I got a picture of him also. When he joined her on the redd I backed off to let them do their thing. First pic is the male approaching. Second pic is the big female. Third is a decent rainbow that was holding downstream.

That video is pretty crazy. I guess the guy that had the fish on didn't want to move and lose his spot, but finally had to. Glad we have plenty of water to spread out on down here on the White river and no "outlets". On second thought... we do have a couple outlets at Dry Run Creek, but AGFC reserves it for the kids and handicapped. Maybe MDC should follow that lead....

Happy birthday....

I went to the Ackerman access on the Norfork this morning and had a good trip. Water was at minimum flow and scheduled to be low until 2pm. I started out with a P&P midge close to the access and caught quite a few smallish rainbows. I moved upstream quite a ways and switched to a pheasant tail and started catching better fish. Ended the morning with around 30 rainbows and this decent brown and fat rainbow.

Gotta love catching shallow water trout on the fly...😁

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