netboy

Thanks. She put up a good fight. I don't catch many that size in the catch and keep areas.

Good news is we got 1 1/2 inches of much needed rain this morning. After the rain stopped I walked in at the Cotter access. There were quite a few fish rising so I tied on a crackleback. Had a take on the first cast and steady action until it started misting and the wind started blowing. That shut the surface bite off so I switched to an egg/midge combo and caught quite a few on that. Then the mist stopped and the wind calmed down so I went back to the crackleback, Ended up with around 30 including this really fat 21" rainbow on the crackleback. She probably weighed close to 4 pounds and I thought that was a good fish to end the day with.

They finally shut off the big faucet at both Bull Shoals and Norfork dams on Tuesday. Norfork has been at minimum flow until noon and Bull Shoals is down to one unit until noon also. I fished Ackerman access on Norfork Tuesday and Wednesday and had good fishing both days. The hot fly there was a ruby midge under an indicator. Caught about 3 dozen each morning with a couple in the 20" range. Then this morning I went to Bull Shoals C&R area and there were some fish rising so I tied on a crackleback and had fun watching them come up and hit it. Caught a couple dozen and missed about that many more. I hooked a brown that looked to be 24"ish when he jumped, but he broke the 5x tippet after a long run. A couple of pics of Bull Shoals rainbows...

I woke up Saturday morning and saw the White river was at minimum flow and scheduled to be the same thru Monday. I mistakenly thought the river had dropped since the lake was near power pool level. I got the wading gear together and headed to Roundhouse shoals. Fishing was great with lots of rainbows, a few browns and one cuttie. Same thing Sunday morning and I took my wife out and we caught a bunch on surface flies. Then this morning... they still had the low water forecasted, but that didn't happen. Found out the Corps had dropped the White and Norfork due to an accident at Batesville where a vehicle had run into the river and the authorities were trying to recover the body and the truck. They did recover the truck and the body Sunday... RIP to the family. So to update... I went to Norfork Ackerman access this morning, which was scheduled to be down until noon and then about 9ish here comes the water... Fishing was good until the water came up with the a sulphur crackleback. Oh well no problem.. I saw the water coming up and yelled at a couple of guys on my way out to warn them. I guess tomorrow will be anybody's guess....

Best (and easiest) thing MDC could do is require barbless hooks in the special regulation area like they do here in Arkansas in the C&R areas. I have been checked by the Game Wardens in C&R areas multiple times and that is the first thing they want to look at. I see lots of nice trout with big scars from folks ripping out a jerkbait with 2 or 3 treble barbed hooks.

Good looking fly. But I have better luck with lightly weighted soft hackles. I try to tie them with just a bit of lead that puts them in the surface film.

Here are a couple of pics from the White river that support Phil's comments on the use of Bogas. BTW those are 2 different trout. First one was around 20" and probably only weighed a pound and a half.

Fished the C&R area this morning and had a good morning. Caught some nice rainbows and a couple of cutthroats. Best fly was the sulphur crackleback. Had a run in with a couple of idiots that went all the way up to the dam in the Restricted area and anchored and looked to be bait fishing. Then their anchor broke loose and they didn't realize it. I had to yell at them when they were 10 feet from hitting my boat and weren't looking downstream. Oh well, lots of idiots out there, guess they come out after the weekend. Here is one of the better rainbows at 21"...

I had a group of about a dozen Blue Wings buzz me this morning while wading on the White near Cotter. Other than that, just the usual pet Canadian geese crapping in everyone's yard.

Sorry to hear about the drowning. Prayers for the family. I woke up and looked out the window to see low water at Roundhouse and then checked the flow at the dam and it showed zero.. Threw the wading gear in the truck and had a fantastic morning. Caught probably 60 rainbows and one nice cutthroat. All fish caught on dry flies and cracklebacks. I noticed the water kept getting lower and the lower it got, the better the fishing, but I had to move to the deeper runs. Never seen it this low in the 4 years we have been here. No big ones, but lots of fun. I didn't see any stranded trout, but did see some dead or dying sculpins on the bank. I guess the herons and eagles had a good breakfast this morning.

Or maybe.. "Here, hold my beer" hooksets???

Bull Shoals White River State Park has the best wading access on low water and is the nicest campground on the river. Also Denton Ferry RV park has good wading access on low water.

You will be fine with that boat with the current flows, but no so fine if we start getting lower water. I heard they are predicting lower flows starting around the end of September. But then again minimum flow is great for wading at all the accesses.

When I was pulling my boat out at the BS Dam ramp on the White river around 11 am this morning a guy drove down and dumped a very nice limit of Walleye carcasses. He said he caught them trolling on the lower lake. They all looked to be around 20". Must be some good fishing up there. The crawfish found them pretty fast... And a very nice dinner for him.

Fishing has been pretty good on the White river this week. Fished the Dam C&R area and Wildcat access and had good luck with cracklebacks and soft hackles. Some days the early mornings are better and the next day it is dead until around 9ish. Still missing more than I am hooking, but fun watching them come up and take the fly. It is hard not to strike when you see them come up, but you usually just pull it straight out of their mouth unless you wait for them to turn on it. I always try to remember what my old British Navy buddy told me... when you see the fish come up and take, stop and say "God save the queen" before setting the hook. It is really hard to do that. Here's a few pics... First one is a 21" rainbow this morning that fought like a 25". Second one is 22" rainbow yesterday that fought like a 17" and third is a nice cuttie my friend from Texas got yesterday.

Me too.

Here's one for all you new Dads...

Sounds great. We were up that way last year for a funeral but didn't get a chance to fish with all the Covid stuff going on. Looks like some nice water to fish. Good luck and put a report up.

And another one.... Opps, check out the correction.😮

Been there, done that.

For all you bird hunters...

Launched the boat and ran up to the same area that has been good for surface fishing. Fishing was good with a sulphur crackleback drifted on top and then stripped back in the surface film. Ended up with with a dozen nice rainbows, biggest was 21" and 2 cutties. Probably missed another dozen by setting the hook too early. With all the recent talk about mishandling fish I want to mention that I always wet the bottom of the boat with a towel before taking a picture so these fish are not roasting on the boat floor while taking the pics.

Great report. Looks like some fun small stream fishing.

I like to fish too much so I would never consider being a guide.😁

I hope you guys are using barbless trebles on those jerk baits. Just sayin...