netboy

Had a friend from Texas come up the last few days for some caddis fishing. We fished Cotter, the dam and Rim Shoals and the caddis were pretty much on schedule each day. They would start coming up around 9-10 am and then it was good until we quit mid afternoon. Best fly was my elk hair foam body dry fly but we also caught some swinging soft hackles. Eggs, midges and parachute Adams worked early in the morning before the caddis hatch started. Lots of rainbows, 6 browns and a few cutthroats. Here's a few pictures...

The caddis hatch has been fantastic on the White river this spring. I took the boat to Cotter access this morning to an area where the caddis have been coming up. I got there about 8 am and put the waders on. There were midges coming up so I tied on a size 18 parachute Adams and caught 5 or 6. Then about 10 am the caddis started.... It was really good after that. Everywhere I looked there were trout coming up after caddis. I didn't keep count but probably caught 40 including a couple of decent browns, 4 cutthroats and the rest rainbows. It's amazing how well camouflaged the trout are . You see them come up and grab a caddis and then they disappear back into the moss beds. Best fly was a size 18 foam bodied elk hair dry fly I tie. I call it the "green weenie". Here is one of the browns...

They are intermingled with the regular rainbows. They are basically a freak color variation of a rainbow trout. They aren't the true Golden Trout they have out west in the California mountains. They are called Golden Rainbow trout or some call them Golden Palomino Rainbow trout. Here's where they came from... History of Palomino Rainbow Trout “Golden Trout” The golden rainbow trout originated from a single rainbow trout that was spawned in the fall of 1954 in West Virginia. This trout’s body color was a chimera of golden and normally pigmented tissue.

I heard they stocked them at Bull Shoals State Park, White Hole, Wildcat, Cotter and Buffalo Shoals. They won't last long since the eagles and herons love them because the poor things have absolutely no natural camouflage and are easy pickins for the birds. That said they are interesting looking fish. I have caught some on the Guadalupe river in Texas and actually caught one that was about 5lbs.

I took my boat down to Roundhouse Shoals his morning and got out and waded. Caught 6 or 7 on eggs/midges early and then about 10:00 the caddis started coming up. Tied on a size 18 foam bodied elk hair caddis and the fish really liked it. Probably caught 30 on the dry fly and missed a bunch more. After missing 5 in a row I checked my fly and it had a trout scale embedded on the hook point so that's why I was missing them. Mostly average size rainbows along with 2 cutthroats and this really fat rainbow that gave me a good fight on a 3wt.

I volunteered to help with a Trout Unlimited function to introduce kids to fly fishing for trout this morning. We had a bus load of kids come up for the hatchery tour, river substructure critter collections and some fly fishing. Some fish were caught but many more were "quick released". Overall I think the kids had a great time and the hatchery staff did a great job putting it all together. After they left we went to lunch in Norfork and then a couple of us hit Ackerman access and found the caddis coming up. I lucked out and caught this pretty cuttie on an elk hair caddis. He came up to the fly and rejected it and then the next cast he inhaled it. Caught some nice rainbows and another decent cuttie and then we heard thunder and headed out.

McClellands closed down a few years ago so no public access there. It is a great stretch of water and the only access now is by boat or kayak.

Interesting story about that....It is designated as the Bill Ackerman Access on the entry sign and in the AGFC trout booklet. Bill Ackerman was the ex-commissioner of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. He had a house just down River Ridge road from the access and he was instrumental in developing the access. What is interesting is that when we were looking at houses to buy up here in 2017 we looked at a house that was on the market at the time just down the road. When the real estate agent took us to the house we referred to it as the house close to Ackerman access. He said no... this is Bill Ackerman's house! Long story short... it was on our short list but we ended up buying a house just across from Cotter.

Thanks, I understand the cutties spawn around this time of year so they tend to put on the pretty colors.

Made a trip to Ackerman access this morning and the water was down to minimum flow. There were some caddis hatching along with lots of midges. Elk hair caddis worked good until the clouds came in around 10:00 and then the caddis hatch dissipated. I switched over to a ruby midge and caught this pretty cutthroat along with some more decent rainbows. This post has been promoted to an article

Looks like they have not updated the flows for the White and Norfork since 10:00 last night. Seems strange they have so many problems keeping these pages working.

Retirement is great. I highly recommend it.😄

I made a trip to Ackerman access this morning after seeing the SWPA schedule for minimum flow for most of the day Friday. When I got there I was greeted by high muddy water that had backed up from the White river after the rains yesterday. So on to plan B... I drove up to the dam and water was low and clear. There were a few caddis hatching along with the usual midges but dry fly fishing was tough with the 20-30 mph north winds. I switched to an egg/midge combo under an indicator and ended the morning with a dozen stocker size rainbows, 1 brown around 17" and a couple of small cutties. Nothing picture worthy today.

Can't get to the actual release pages either but the Projected Schedules page is working. https://swpa.gov/generationschedules.aspx

Yes Rim Shoals or Buffalo City would be the closest options.

We moved to the Cotter/Flippin area in July 2017 and love the area. If you like to fly fish...I can't think of a better place.

SWPA finally gave us some minimum flow water on the White river below Bull Shoals Dam. I got there about 11 this morning and there were some caddis coming off along with lots of midges. I had a pretty good day with around a dozen good size rainbows and 1 nice brown on the Elk Hair Caddis and then the wind came up and made dry fly fishing pretty hard. Wind was blowing directly opposite to the current. I switched to an egg/indicator rig and caught another dozen before I left at 3. I missed at least another dozen on the Elk Hair due to late hook sets. I guess I need to get my timing back. No pics as I was out in the middle of the river.

Well you guys did a great job scheduling the Jigfest. Since you left SWPA has opened up the spillways at Norfork on top of maximun generation of the 2 units there and increased Bull Shoals to 330MW (7 of 8 possible units) all day today. Guess my only option for some wade fishing is the Spring river tomorrow.

Wow, you guys put a whackin on the bass. I've been fishing here on the White for the last year and a half and don't remember ever catching a bass. Amazing to see a largemouth pic in the mix. That guy musta been lost.

Those are some nice browns guys. WTG

Very nice smallmouth... I think the biggest I have caught up here in the last year and a half that we have been here was 18" from Crooked Creek. Ham's fish was much bigger.

Oh well.. maybe next year. Ya'll be careful on the roads.

Those are some nice browns...anybody gonna be down there this evening?