netboy

Wow, sounds like it is really fantastic over there. May have to make trip...

Very nice....Enjoy your trip and hope you get that big brown.

We use Grand Circle Cruise Line. This was our forth trip with them. All have been great. Since we are retired and have a flexible schedule we always watch their Last Minute Deals. We usually save around 50% of the full price and sometimes more the closer to the departure date.

Yup, I see a few dead trout on the bottom every day with their mouths ripped to hell.

We got back from our European Danube river cruise (which was fantastic) earlier this week and after catching up on usual maintenance stuff finally got back to some fishing. The last few days have been great. SWPA reduced the flows because of the almost 5" of rains here in Cotter last Saturday which increased the lower White river area. That said there was minimum flow on Sunday and gradual increases since then. Fished the Dam, Wildcat and then Cotter and all have been good. The rainbows apparently like the higher flows as they are putting on some weight. Best flies have been a heavy weight olive woolly bugger and the Y2K/midge combo. Here's a couple pics of some fatties....

Cool.. looks like a great trip. I probably saw you up there this morning as I was the only wader up there. Couldn't believe they were running minimum flow. Saw the trailer parking lot was full when I left. Those rainbows up there are studs. Wade fishing was great until they blew the horn at 10 am and then I moved down to Cotter.

They have been running both units pretty much all day on the Norfork for the last few weeks so the area around the boat ramp would be your best bet. The White has been high also. Looks like it may be another month or so until the lakes get back to normal levels.

Good post Ham. Let's be sure to add the Missouri and North Arkansas railway to the "Kudos" list. It is my understanding that they own all that land along the river down to the sewer treatment plant and agreed to having the parking lot done. Also the city of Cotter for all the work they did. Also a BIG Kudos to Tom Emerick of White River Trout Unlimited for pushing this forward.

X3 on Simms. Oh and be sure they are the Goretex version made in Bozeman, MT, not their Chinese version which is made out of a material called Toray. Look on Ebay… I bought a pair of used Simms Goretex that were hardly used for 80 bucks.

Fished a couple of areas on the White the last couple of days. Water has been running around 2-3 units in the mornings and then 6-7 in the afternoons. Had the best luck using jigs on the spinning rods but did catch a few drifting an egg/midge combo on the fly rod. Best colors on the jigs were olive/orange and white/grey. Caught some nice browns each day, a small golden rainbow as well as a bunch of rainbows. Here's a few pics...

Great trip and definitely a "Bucket List" trip. Fantastic narrative also...

Took the boat down to Roundhouse this morning and then got out and waded. Started out with the egg/midge combo and caught some nice rainbows and 1 decent cutthroat. Then about 10 am I started seeing some sulphurs coming up so I switched to a dry fly. Saw this little golden rainbow waiting on the bugs and got him to take a parachute Sulphur. The poor thing looked like a neon light in the river so I imagine they are easy pickins for the eagles and herons. Caught around a dozen more rainbows on the dry fly and lost a nice brown that straightened out my size 16 hook. Think I got some bad hooks as that seems to be happening pretty often lately.

I think the new size limit regulations have really helped with increasing the average size of the rainbows. Now you can only keep 1 trout over 14" per day. They also raised the limit on cutthroats to 24" like the browns.

We had minimum flow the last few days so fishing has been good. Wednesday was fantastic at the dam with lots of sulphurs coming up. Yesterday I went to the dam and they scheduled min flow to noon just like the day before....low and behold the sulphurs started hatching around 9ish and it was great for an hour or so and then the dreaded horn went off. Caught some really nice rainbows as well as a couple of nice cutthroats. After that I drove down to Roundhouse Shoals and had some good Sulphur dry fly action there. Today I didn't trust the schedule so I went downstream to Rim Shoals and ended the morning with a good day on Sulphur dries. I didn't take any pics as I was out in the middle of the river.

That was a great story and a great walleye. Congrats...and kudos on the release. It will be bigger next year and hopefully you will catch again.

Well I am certainly not much of an expert on spinning rods, but I bought 2 of these and they work pretty good. And with the high water we have now I guess I'll have use them again. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Okuma-Celilo-UltraLite-2pc-6ft-6in-Spin-Rod-CE-S-662UL-1/192899340780?epid=79624402&hash=item2ce9b259ec:g:QSgAAOSw68ZcwskC

She actually made a couple of jumps. I was surprised she could do that as fat as she was.

We will be on a river cruise on the Danube river in Europe from Budapest to Prague in August but if you come later give me a yell. If the water is down by then should be some decent fishing.

Water was up a bit this morning and really scheduled to come up more the next few days. I took the boat out this morning at Cotter and did some "fly fishing" out of the boat. Not my favorite way to fly fish as I put on an egg/midge combo under an indicator and then just watch the indicator as it drifts with the boat. But it does work... caught lots of rainbows a nice brown and this pig of a rainbow. I could barely get my hand around it to get the hook out and release it. I don't think she has missed many meals.

As far as a fly fishing guide I would recommend any of Dally's guides. https://theozarkflyfisher.com/guide-trips/full-and-half-day-trips/

Just out of curiosity what is "spaghetti and meatballs"?

Should have come, but it looks like you had a good day up there. Schedule says they are running a bit more water tomorrow, 50mw vs 7mw the last couple of days so not much dry fly fishing. Back to the egg/midge combo... sure will miss the dry fly action, nothing more fun to see them come up and take a dry.

Water was down again this morning so I went back to Rim Shoals. There were not as many sulphurs coming up as yesterday but apparently the trout were still looking for them. Caught some on the egg/midge combo early and then switched to dries around 9:30. Lost a really nice brown to a size 16 dry fly hook that decided to straighten out after about a 5 minute fight. Caught lots of rainbows, this 1 nice brown and a small Bonneville cutthroat. The Bonneville looks like it was from last years egg plant. Glad to see that some made it.

Those are some nice ones. Always lots of fun on the fly rod.

Might try White River RV park. They are across the river from Cotter and have a boat dock also. https://www.whiterivercamping.com/