netboy

Tina and I volunteered to help with another TU outing for kids on Dry Run Creek today. We had a great turnout of helpers and the kids from Mountain Home school caught some trout. Obviously, we lost lots more than what went into the net but I think all the kids caught at least a fish or two. Kind of funny to see a nice trout come up and take the fly and then say SET THE HOOK. but some did some didn't. I had a big 24" rainbow come up and take a fly on the kids rod only to greyhound across the creek and break the 4x tippet. .. Oh well they lost many more than they landed, but they all had a great time. Kudos to the Norfork Hatchery staff and Mountain Home TU chapter for organizing the outing and a wonderful lunch from Heidi's Ugly Cakes in Norfork.

Camel meat is pretty good also. When I was working in Kuwait, the butcher shops would put the head of the freshly killed camel in a bucket in front of their shop to show that the meat was fresh. They did the same thing with goats.

Met the usual suspects at the parking lot around 8ish. Fishing started out slow until the fog lifted at 9. Then the caddis started coming up and it got better. We all had some good rainbows, some brookies and a few browns on elk hair dries. Lots of kidding and some really nice trout landed by the crew. Here's a few of the better ones I caught...

Another day of minimum flow and caddis hatching on the White. It's great to take advantage of this low water as it will not last long. Met the "usual suspects" at the parking lot around 8ish. Lots of fog early and a few bugs coming up and then when the fog burned off it got better. Early on it was soft hackles and then we switched to elk hair dry flies. It got better and better until the horn went off at 11:30. We all had a good morning

Caddis time on the White and Norfork is great. Thanks.

Yes, this is my favorite time of the year down here. Love the dry fly bite,

I fished a couple different areas on the White the last couple of days and the caddis hatch is still going strong. Both days started slow and then around 9 the bugs started coming up. An olive soft hackle worked great during the early part of the hatch. Then once the trout started blowing up on the floaters, I switched to an elk hair caddis dry fly and had fun watching the takes. I lost a big cutthroat yesterday but other than that it was all nice size rainbows. Here's a few of the better ones...

Agree, I think they are dumping Beaver and Table rock and storing the water in Bull Shoals for now to keep the levels lower for the rice farmers downstream. Need to take advantage of that situation right now as the levels will go way up in a couple of weeks here on the White. Gotta love the caddis hatches right now when the sun comes out, can't beat caddis dry fly fishing...

After all the rain I made a quick trip to Bull Shoals Dam access around noon today. Fishing was pretty good with 4 nice rainbows on a tiger tail and then when the sun poked thru some caddis started coming up. Put on an elk hair dry and caught 3 more. All nice niced sized rainbows. Pics of a couple of the better rainbows...

This is pretty cool... (apologies if it has previously been posted)

The river looked like the Mississippi river this morning at the house. We had 3.5" of rain in the guage this morning. The only option for clear water was the Dam so I headed up there. Best flies were a tiger tail and a red San Juan worm. I caught a couple on top on an elk hair caddis later in the morning. Ended the morning with a dozen nice rainbows and a bunch of brookies. I had these 4 rainbows in the 18 - 20" range...

Sorry to hear this. RIP Brother Rick

Our local TU chapter helped out at the Norfork Federal Hatchery outing for the first graders from Flippin school this morning. We had about 60 kids and the hatchery staff did a great job setting them up in groups with an inflatable (safe) archery shooting gallery, then a tour of the hatchery and then some fly fishing on Dry Run creek. I think all the kids caught a trout or two and a couple nice ones were landed and many more quick releases. Still fun to see the excitement when they catch one... and only a couple of us got a hook set in his hand by an over excited kid. Thank you barbless hooks LOL.

I met a friend at the BS Dam C&R access around 11 am when the flows went down to about 1 1/2 units. Fishing was good with a moderate hatch of caddis coming up when we got there. I had 8 takes on an elk hair dry fly and 2 nice rainbows in the net on the first wade. Then we moved upstream and found a pod of smallish brookies and had fun with them on small tiger tail flies. Probably caught a fish or had a strike on every cast. Caught around 30 of the little guys. Fun fishing and really pretty fish. Then we saw some nice rises a bit downstream and moved down and started connecting with some nice rainbows and a couple of midsize browns on the elk hair caddis dries. Here's a couple pics of the better rainbows...I caught 9 more nice size bows on the dry flies and my friend caught some also. Beautiful day to be fishing.

It was a good morning on the Norfork today. Fish were rising to midges and small caddis early and then it slowed down around 11 as the wind came up. Cracklebacks and elk hair caddis dries worked early and then I switched to a Tiger tail late morning when the bugs slowed down. Ended the day with a couple dozen rainbows and this decent brown...

We had a plumber come this morning to fix a broken pipe from the February freeze in the shop so I got a late start. Left the house at 10 and got the last parking spot at Ackerman. Ran into the usual suspects on the river. Caddis were coming up pretty strong when I got there and we all had a good time. Some of the guys were using soft hackles, but I stuck with the elk hair dries. I ended up with around 30 and missed quite a few more. All rainbows and I think the other guys had all rainbows as well. Here's a pic of one of the better ones. Great to see some low water.

I took Tina over to Norfork this afternoon and we had a good day. Water came down at the dam at 11am so we got to Ackerman access at 12:30 and it was just getting low. Caddis were coming up, but not as many as yesterday. The foam Elk Hair dry fly worked well. I set Tina up in a good spot and she had a take on the second cast and caught a nice one. We ended up with around 40 between us and had some really fat rainbows. The water came up at 4 pm, an hour earlier than expected. I switched to an olive crackleback about 30 minutes before we left and did really well with it.

I remember the ones we caught were spawned out and really skinny so they didn't fight much. I have heard the ones fresh from the sea are great fighters.

Brings back memories from trips to my grandparent's house on the Delaware river around Callicoon NY way back in the 50's. The shad would migrate up there and it was about the end of their spawning run. We were primarily fishing for smallmouths and would catch a few, but many of them would die after spawning and would be floating down the river. I do remember that the locals stripped the roe from the females and dumped the rest.

Most of the rainbows we caught were really fat as well. I guess they have been eating good with all the high water we have had.

I met a friend at Ackerman access this morning and we hiked upstream a bit to get away from the crowd. Ruby midges under an indicator worked well until it warmed up a bit and then the caddis started coming up. My friend was using tandem soft hackles and I was switching between a green crackleback and a foam elk hair caddis dry. We each caught around 30 and missed a bunch more. We had lots of 16-18" rainbows along with this fat 20" cutthroat I caught. Glad to see some low water and caddis hatching.

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Just a guess, but they may be trying to lower the lake levels before April 15. That is when the agreement with the farmers downstream kicks in. The Newport gauge is currently at 22 feet. Bull Shoals is running all 8 generators today (21k cfs).

I launched the boat this morning and headed to an area that has been good for wade fishing. The water was up too much for wading so I anchored above the spot and drifted flies back to the slot where the fish have been holding. I use a Trac anchor system so it is pretty easy to deploy and retrieve the anchor and basically cover the water like wading. Ended the morning with a couple dozen nice rainbows and a few smaller browns. Best fly combo was a peach colored egg with a P&P midge dropper. Just before I left I saw a few caddis coming up over a big weed bed so I tied on a foam caddis dry fly and caught 2 nice rainbows on top. We should start seeing more caddis activity in the next week with some warmer weather. Here's a few pics...

They put up a good fight also. Interesting side note... I just got back from the Sowbug Roundup and showed the picture to Dave Whitlock. Dave and his wife Emily are being honored at the event this year. He was the one that started the Bonneville egg planting project. He said that pic really made his day.