netboy

I've hit a few big rocks while trying to figure out the best path thru the shoals up here and my jet shoe can prove it😢. Just thinking that a 3" tunnel would get the bottom of the shoe at the same level as the hull and not hinder performance. At minimum flow running in 3" vs 6" can make a big difference.

Do they have an option for a tunnel hull?

Phil... Check out Dally's Ozark Fly Fisher App. It is what I use while out on the river.

Sounds like a great rig. Is it gonna be a Blazer? If so I think they now offer an option for a tunnel hull. That would certainly help on the shoals at minimum flow.

Launched the boat at Cotter this morning and ran upstream to the shoal the below the 62/412 bridge. There were lots of midges coming up but very few caddis. Good thing was that the few caddis coming up were getting smacked by trout. I tied on a size 18 elk hair foam bodied caddis fly and had a pretty good morning with a number of rainbows, 2 cuts and this 1 brown. Hatch stopped around 10 am so back home for an early lunch. BTW there were lots of boats out today. The Cotter parking lot was completely full when I got back. This post has been promoted to an article

That's great. I have been fishing the rivers in North Arkansas and have NEVER seen a GW anywhere (other than at McDonalds parking lot).

Better yet... an elk hair caddis dry. Nothing more fun than watching them come up for a caddis especially if looks like it is getting away from them. Try skating it a bit and then hang on.

The algae is really bad this spring. The bottom of the river is still covered with it so I guess it will be another month or so before it is gone. I talked to one of the fly fishing guides and he said it comes up late winter/early spring and then starts to die off in May. I found the best way to avoid it is using dry flies or soft hackles just under the surface..

We have met Gary and Paula Flippin at the Trout Unlimited meetings. They always step up with the TU projects. There will be another Bonneville Cutthroat egg planting at Rim Shoals this Saturday and another at Norfork the week after.

Just when I thought the caddis hatch was about over SWPA finally turned the water down to true minimum flow (7mw) this morning. I went up to the dam and about 8am the caddis started coming up. There were fish coming up everywhere I looked. Didn't take the time to take any pictures as I was out quite a ways from the bank and the fishing was too good to stop for pictures. Caught a bunch of rainbows and a couple browns all on dry flies. Here's the fish story... I was casting to a pod of trout that were rising to caddis just downstream from me. They were within 10 to 20 feet of me. All of a sudden I see a huge brown charging up to the surface and he made a big swirl and grabbed a nice rainbow in his mouth and turned around and swam off. I could see the front half of the rainbow flashing in the sunlight as he was trying to get away. Then the rainbow disappeared down the brown's mouth.The rainbow was probably 14" and I would estimate the brown was 35" and looked to be in the 20lb range. It all happened in a couple of seconds but it was almost like it was in slow motion.

It looks like the caddis hatch is finally winding down. I fished Roundhouse Shoals this morning and only saw a handful of caddis. The trout were rising to midges and what I think were very small mayflies. I caught a couple on an elk hair caddis and then put on a parachute Adams and started getting more takes. Ended the morning with 17 to the net including this really fat rainbow and a decent brown. Sure gonna miss the caddis action. BTW there is a ton of moss coming down the river right now. It is almost impossible to fish a subsurface fly or lure right now.

Good post Ham...I have had numerous skin cancers removed including 1 melanoma, 2 squamous cell cancers and too many basal cell cancers to count. I had a basal cell removed from my nose last fall that took 4 hours of cutting and then plastic surgery to rebuild the area. My dermatologist back in south Texas recommended using a sunblock instead of a sunscreen product. The sunblock products use either titanium or zinc oxide to block the UV rays.

That looks like the same coloration of the golden rainbow trout. They should have kept it alive and tried to spawn more. It makes for a great novelty catch just like the golden rainbows.

The boat is a 17' Blazer with a Merc 25hp jet drive.

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.