netboy

I waded at the state park this morning. SWPA was running about 2 full units and I went to a big weed bed that usually has some caddis hatching under these conditions. I saw a few caddis hatching and only caught a couple on the elk hair dry fly. I switched to a tandem rig with two green butt soft hackles and started getting some hits. That was they wanted and ended the morning with a couple dozen rainbows including these nice ones...

SWPA schedule showed Norfork going to minimum flow at 6 am this morning so I planned a trip over there. Got up and checked Gene's webcam at 7 am and they were still running water. No problem, I did a few small projects in the yard and kept checking Gene's webcam... still running water at 10 am. Decided to go to Bull Shoals C&R as they brought the water down to 1 unit at 10 am. Got there at 11 and the water was down to 1 unit. I only saw a few caddis coming up so I started with a green butt soft hackle and had good results with that for the first hour. Then around noon I started to see more caddis coming up so I switched to an elk hair dry and started getting some takes on top. The hatch is still not nearly as strong as it will be in the next couple of weeks, but still fun to catch them on top. I fished till 3:30 and ended up with around 30ish including an old-time White River slam of rainbows, browns, a cutthroat and a brookie. A few pics...

SWPA finally cut the generation down to 1 unit Saturday at noon so I headed to a favorite shoal for that level of water. I started with an egg/midge combo and caught 6 rainbows in the first hour. I started seeing a few caddis floating by trying to dry their wings and then there were more. I tied on a foam body elk hair caddis and caught a nice rainbow on the second cast. The hatch only lasted about an hour, but it was fun fishing while it lasted. Caught 8 rainbows on the elk hair and missed quite a few more due to being a little too quick on the trigger for the hook set. After the hatch died out I went back to the egg/midge combo and caught a few more. Glad to see some low water and the caddis hatch starting. Here's a couple of the better rainbows...

I was using a 9 foot leader with another 3 feet of 5x tippet. All the flies are weighted with lead wraps and tungsten beads, so no split shot. I drift the streamers with no indicator and then add an indicator when using eggs.

Those are some pretty fish.

The colors in the picture of the fly didn't turn out very well as that fly had been used a few times. Here is a better pic of the material. There are a couple different companies selling yarn under the name of Eggstacy, one is Cascade and the other is a UK company that sells it as Eggstacy NX Gen Fibre. They both have that "slushy" look when wet.

Here it is. The eggstacy material looks great in the water, has sort of a slushy look when wet. I have been using it on my egg flies as well.

Good report and some really nice Walleyes. I have been using a tandem shad streamer rig here on the White and doing pretty good. Fishing it the same way, dead drifting and then real slow strips on the swing. I have seen a number of trout following the trailing fly on the retrieve and when that happens, I stop stripping and let it sink. Many times they will take it as it sinks. The flies are size 6 with white/gray marabou tail and white eggstacy body with lots of lead wrapped on the hook. This method has been good since they opened the C&R area below the dam on Feb 1, but has definitely slowed since then.

Launched the boat at White Hole ramp around 9 this morning. Ran upstream to Gaston's and made several drifts in that general area. Fishing started off a bit slow but picked up later in the morning. Ended the morning with 10 rainbows. Caught a couple dead drifting a tandem rig of white shad streamers and the rest on an orange slush egg under an indicator. Lots of boats out with the spring break crowds and some decent weather for a change. Here's a pic of the biggest rainbow...

That was a great show. I also remember some of the other old fishing shows like Jerry McKinnis and Virgil Ward. I think Jim Thomas Outdoors Show was the first fishing show on TV. It was in black and white and on in the mid 50's.

I agree that the fish do go on a feeding frenzy as the water starts to rise. Guess the rising water dislodges lots of scuds and sowbugs from the gravel. As it turns out, they only ran the flood gates about 6 hours, then turned on the generators.

He made it out after stumbling a couple times. It is strange that they opened the gates instead of turning on the 2 generators. Seems like they would run the generators and make some $$$$. I gave up trying to figure out the logic with SWPA and COE a long time ago.

The SWPA forecast called for minimum flow until 5pm today so I headed to Ackerman access early this morning. Fishing was good with lots of nice size rainbows, 1 cuttie and a mid-size brown. I had the best luck using a single egg under an indicator. Then around 11:15 I hooked a really nice rainbow and as I was fighting him, I noticed the current was increasing. Worked him over to the bank, took a picture and then started a hasty exit back to the access. I was just below the first island which is probably 1/3 mile from the access. There was another wader on the far side of the river and I guess he didn't realize the water was rising. I yelled at him that the water was coming up but he kept fishing. Oh well, maybe he thought it was a good day for a swim??? A couple minutes later he realized what was happening and made it back to shore. I drove up to the dam and saw that they had opened 5 flood gates. A couple of pics...

I launched the boat at Wildcat and ran upstream and then got out and waded. SWPA was running 2-3 units which allows decent wading in a number of spots. Fishing started out a bit slow at my first location, so I moved farther upstream and things picked up. Ended the morning with a couple dozen rainbows and 2 browns. Best flies for the rainbows were an egg/ruby midge combo and later in the morning a tiger tail bugger worked on the browns. I did see a few caddis coming up so hopefully bigger hatches are on the way. Here's a pic of the biggest brown...

Those are some nice ones.... looks like you got it figured out.

We had just under 3" in our gage here at Cotter. The White River looks the Brown River right now.

Wow, think I'll pass on that.

I took the boat up to the C&R area this morning as they were running around 4 units. Fishing has been pretty good up there the last couple weeks due to a consistent shad kill most days. However today I did not see any shad coming thru the generators, but the fish were still keying on anything white. Ended the morning with a dozen nice rainbows and 1 decent brookie. Best fly was a white streamer shad imitation drifted with the current and the stripped back real slow. Lost a big rainbow that looked to be around 24" when he jumped. He took a bunch of line and finally broke the 5x. The wind really got to cranking around mid-morning which made it difficult to cast. I think the shad kill may be about over with the warmer weather. Here's a few pics...

Sounds like a good plan. Ask the guide for suggestions on where to wade on the existing water levels during your stay. Be sure to check the predicted flows, but don't trust them 100% and always have an exit plan.

Call Dally's fly shop. They have some great guides and will do the White or Norfork.

Looks like a fantastic trip. And those sheepshead are great eating... if you can get someone else to fillet them. We used to call them bay snapper, but really tough to fillet.

😡 The SWPA schedule showed the flows to be 4 units until 10 am this morning and then dropping to 1 unit for the remainder of the day. With that said I made a trip to the state park and got there at a little after 10. Water was down to 1 unit and the fishing was pretty good with 4 nice rainbows and 1 decent brown in the first hour of fishing. I thought it was going to be a good day, but SWPA had other thoughts. About 11 the water came up fast (with no horn) so I had to work my way back to shore and call it a day. Today was the warmest day in the last few weeks, so it just goes to show that you never take the SWPA schedules too seriously. Best fly today was a size 16 white egg pattern under an indicator. Here's a couple of pics...

Heard this one was from Canada...

Here is a pretty good summary of the whole event...