jonbo

Thanks a lot you guys. That's extremely helpful! I'll probably try it at Wildcat as I've been there before, and fish the grass beds with small streamers, ie, wooly buggers, and such. But thanks!

Hi everybody. I live about 6 hours from the Bull Shoals area. I've gotten up there to fish just a couple of times since I began fly fishing in 2011. I plan to make my 3rd trip next week. I notice that they've been generating just about continuously for at least the past couple of weeks on both the White and Norfork rivers. Of course, I know it's impossible to predict how long this will continue. There might be times next week where one or both of the rivers is wadeable, or there may not be. I'm wondering a couple of things, though. I do have a guided float booked, but that's just one day. Meanwhile, might there be times I can wade during the rest of the week, or not. So, I have a couple of questions. 1) At what generation level is either river wadeable? The BSD has been running 150-220 (MW?). From what I've gathered, that's about 3 or 4 generators. I'm sure that's way too much water for safe wading anywhere. But what is the MW(?) level at which the White is wadeable. From the last time I fished the White, there was "minimum flow" and MW's never went to 0, but minimum flow was something like 50 MW's, or something like that. Does that still apply? The NFD, meanwhile, has been sitting at 40 MW's. I'm assuming again that on the Norfork, that 1 generator(?) running makes it unwadeable. Am I right? Does the Norfork become wadeable only at 0 Mw, or no generator running? 2) What does anyone think are the chances that there may be any wadeable water at either river next week. Looking at the tables and graphs put out by USACE Little Rock, Bull Shoals Lake is sitting at just over 659 feet for the past couple of weeks. This, if I'm right, puts the lake just into Flood Pool(?). That means the Corps is in charge(?). Now, does that mean that they'll release continually until the lake reaches Power Pool(?) If that's the case I imagine that doesn't look good for next week. They've been releasing continually for at least a couple of weeks and the lake has only dropped a fraction of a foot. I'm guessing that's partly because there's a lot of releasing going on at the upstream dams, as well. Anyhow, any answers to these questions will be appreciated. Thanks, everyone, and tight lines! (?) = I'm not sure I'm using the right terms or know what I'm talking about. That's partly why I ask!😉

I visited the Lil' Red with my better half for the Labor Day Weekend. On the way, going through Little Rock, we stopped at Bass Pro. I was trying to pick up some Maxima Chameleon monofilament. There's recipes out there for tie-your-own leaders that call for it. I wanted to try it out. Nope. I can't seem to find Maxima anywhere. So I stuck with buying a couple of 7 1/2 ft 2x machine-tapered leaders to which I put tippet rings on, then tippet. The cabin we rented was downstream a little ways. It was beautifully kept up. Great hostess. It had river access, and kayaks we could use. We didn't kayak. They were sport kayaks, not good for fishing as no room for gear. The dock was a little funky and the wife declined to try and get into a kayak from it, so we ignored the kayaks altogether. Bummer in that with a fishing kayak I could have kayaked downstream to Mossy Shoals(? -I think). Doing that maybe I would have avoided the Labor Day crowds to which I attribute the tough fishing all weekend, that and my lack of experience on the LRR and in general. So, Saturday, because we ate breakfast, I got out kind of late. In the water at Libby Shoal about 8. There were already several fishermen. There were no rises. Well, I tried every nymph combo I could think of por nada. Eggs with midge trailers didn't work, scuds no, pheasant tails and other mayfly larvae types, no, caddis type things, no. Meanwhile it's getting more and more crowded with bank fishermen and canoes, kayaks, river boats. A few bank fishermen seemed to catch a couple of trout on Powerbait I guess, but that was it. So Saturday was a bad day for trout. I did get to try the Sage TXL-F 4 wt I bought used on EBay. It's beautiful at casting a soft-hackle, and probably a dry fly, very accurate and smooth. It's not so good with a big, heavy nymph rig, but it's not designed for that. I never fished in the evenings, any day. Hung out with the Mrs and played Scrabble, Yahtzee and cards. Sunday, I drove to Swinging Bridge. Again, lots of people in the water. I had switched back to my BVK 10 ft which is quite suited to this somewhat larger, open water. I had no action on nymphs, but kept moving downstream. Finally, down around the corner, I saw a few rises. I put on a "Pueblo Emerger" I had tied up, a 20, I think, in BWO, and started getting bit. I had a several short strikes but managed to catch a couple of smallish browns. On the way back up I saw a guy nymphing who looked like he knew what he was doing catch a couple of rainbows. Barnett Access to me is a really great access point with a great deal of fishable water, probably best fished on a weekend that's not Labor Day or else during the week. So, having resigned myself to a nice cabin stay with my wife, on Monday I went out early for one last try at Libby. I had gone to the local fly shop the day before and bought some stuff (he didn't have Maxima Chameleon either.) But he did sell me some sowbugs which were a little different from the scuds I had tied myself, more of just a drab gray. I had never really seen a tied sowbug, I don't think, figured they were about the same as scuds, but this matched a lot better what I had seen in a couple of puddles along the bank. That's kind of why I went looking for some. After trying some other combo I finally tied on one of those drab sowbugs. The water just before the sun came a over the trees had little glare and with my polarized glasses fish were quite visible as they moved around near the bottom. More often than not my vision seems a little too poor to sight fish well, even with polarized glasses, but I started trying to target movement and shapes in the water. Still, nothing was interested at first. Then I saw a flash in front of me, then another in about the same spot. I thought, "That's a fish feeding!" I laid the sowbug out 5 ft in front of him. A few seconds later, he took it. Then he ran. "Whoa, man! It's a nice fish!" He took line about 5 or 6 times. Finally I was able to walk him up an inlet into some grass. He was about a 19 to 20 inch brown. I held him in the current till he swam off. So tough as the fishing was, understandable at Labor Day Weekend, it paid off in the end. The moral of the story? "Support the local fly shop!"

Thank you!

Can anyone tell me how long it is from the time generation begins till the higher flow reaches Libby Shoal, typically? Thanks!

Thanks, guys! I fished Swinging Bridge and Libby Shoals 3 years ago and enjoyed them both very much. I do recall SB having much more fishing room. I will definitely be bring sow bug/ scuds. In my research I discovered that LRR has been known to have a BWO hatch in late summer. Anyone know anything about that?

Hi folks. At the end of the month the wife and I are going to visit the Lil' Red. We will be staying in a cabin on Little Dunham Rd. I'm a fly fisherman. All my fishing will be wade fishing. I will not be boating or kayaking. 1) Can anyone tell me will I be able to wade fish Dunham Shoals? I'm fairly sure the cabin in not right on the river AT Dunham Shoal, but a little before it and off of the river. I understand I may well have to visit one of the public access points like Libby Shoal (I fished there a few years ago) if I can't get to Dunham Shoal without crossing private property. 2) What's liable to be working fly-wise around the 1st of September. Hoppers? I'll bring scuds, pheasant tails, hare's ear nymphs, and zebra-type midges, some red-a$$es. Anything else? Any advice will be much appreciated. jonbo

My pleasure, but I think it's Amery who has it going on!

For me, the big rainbows were on the left side of island. Nice, but smaller, browns were on the right side. But, I heard another fisherman caught a big rainbow on the right side. They were there, all right.

Pic attachment didn't upload. Donno why. Well, it was a very nice sized trout, but not a world beater. Hadn't really developed a hooked jaw yet.

My wife and I spent the week of Thanksgiving at Spider Creek Resort in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. It's actually just outside Eureka Springs on the Beaver Dam tail-race of the White River. If I'm not mistaken this is the most up-stream tail-race of several on the White that hold trout and are stocked with trout. This is my report of the fishing and our experience there. I'm posting it on several fly-fishing forums I visit. I hope it's not too generic. Spider Creek Resort is ideally located for a fly fisherman who intends to wade. (There's also guys floating it.) Its frontage is mostly on a pool, but more-or-less also on a shoally/riffley section divided by "The Island" that's several hundred yards, or so, long. The Island is very slightly downstream. Even the pool, though, one can wade at the low water we were having when they weren't generating. You could also pretty much wade upstream toward the dam as far as you cared to trudge, eventually coming to a more shoally area that, if I have it right, is at "Parker Bottoms" of the below-dam park. Anyhow, there was more than plenty of good trout fishing area. I fished for about 5 days, I think, for about 3 hours at a time. I had great luck for the first two days, poor luck the second two, then a really good day again. The good fishing while I was there was right at Spider Creek. When I ventured upstream (that third day), I had little luck and struggled to catch one or two. This squared with the local reports which said that most of the fish were gathered around the resort, but I have a need to explore sometimes. The first two days I caught a number of rainbows in the 10-12 inch range. In the pool in front of the resort you could catch these stocker-type rainbows at will, almost, on wooly buggers or midges under an indicator. Oddly, for me, they seemed to prefer kind of larger, size 16 - 18 midges. Down around the Island, though, they were hitting a size 18 brown midge larva and, especially, a funny little prince nymph take-off that the local guide, Jim, tipped me to. (Thanks, Jim!) Down there I caught a couple of fat browns about 14 inches. Then I hooked a rainbow that fought like the dickens! It was as tough a fighter as any trout I've had on. I could work it close to me, but as soon as it saw the net, off it went again. Fortunately, I kept my patience and finally landed it. Imagine my surprise. It was maybe 16 inches. But, oh, the colors on it. The gill plates were beet red. That trou thad been in there awhile, I think. The last day found me down around The Island again. I was just below a narrow pinch in the river that Jim had tipped me off to. I foolishly trudged right past the pinch having decided in my mind that the fish were laying up in the hole just below. Imagine my surprise when 4 or 5 giant shapes went shooting past me in the river. There's some big fish here!, but I had gone and spooked them by my lack of care. So, a little while later, I had found that there were stocker-types near the head of the pool amenable to an egg pattern with a red midge dropper. I was catching them one after another when, whoops! This one's taking off! I was on one of those big fish. This guy fought for quite a long while. Just like the one a couple of days before I could get it close, but find it not ready to give in and have to let it run again. I could see, though that this was a pretty large rainbow. It was really too big for the net. I finally ran it up the bank, flipped it over once, snapped a picture, flipped it back in the stream, walked it out into moving water and cradled it till it was ready to swim off. It was a beautiful fish but did NOT out-fight the 16 inch rainbow from a couple of days before. Spider Creek Resort's a really nice fishing resort. The grounds are spacious, the setting lovely, the cabins picturesque and very-well kept (my wife will let me know in know uncertain terms if anything is amiss, accommodation-wise!) There's a general store that's well-stocked with fly gear. They're very friendly in there. The local guide, Jim, was entirely helpful to and friendly with a fisherman who wasn't even using his services. I would definitely try him if I could ever afford a guide, but I never can seem to. Another good feature is the proximity to Eureka Springs. It's about 12 minutes away. So the wives, guys, don't get bored and cranky. If you haven't been, it's a really nice, picturesque, walk around and shop town. The wimmen-folk type really seem to favor it. You might get dragged into town a few times though. I did, but that was alright. We had some really good gumbo at Grandma's on the main highway through town, some excellent taco's at Aquarius(?) on South Spring St. (I couldn't try the dadgum margiescause I was driving, but wifey assured me they were excellent.)

Thanks, Gents! I'll let you know how I do. I'm bringing my tying gear. I may go to the local fly-shop, buy enough materials to tie up a reddish-brown "meat whistle", and crawl it on the bottom through a pool in the wee hours. I've been fascinated with fishing a crawfish imitation ever since I hooked something pretty big on a large reddish wooly bugger last summer on a stream nearby where I live. I lost that fish, but I want to try it again. (Or, I may just stick to the midges of which I probably already have 'aplenty. We'll see.) Cheers, jonbo

Thanks! (Don't tell anyone, but I'm bringing a few micro-jig olive woolies. They use 'em a lot at the Lower Mountain Fork in South East Oklahoma).

I plan to spend several days next week fishing the BD Tailwater. We'll be staying at Spider Creek Resort. I'll be wading, flyfishing. I was wondering if anyone could give me any tips. I'm bringing plenty of midges and a few pheasant tails, some egg patterns, and a number of small/medium streamers that I'll probably fish with my 6 wt. I've been told to plan to use very light tippets with the midges. I was told a week ago that the area around Spider Creek was fishing very well. Is it still? Will it be worth my while to go over to Parker Bend/Bottoms (whatever it's called)? Is there anything besides midges and pheasant tails that I should plan to try? I like to swing a soft hackle when I can. Maybe they aren't typically effective at BB. Anyway, thanks for any tips. jonbo

Sorry, Nick. I did mean that for Derek. Sfiser, thanks for your reply. I hope to find some minimum flow. That would be wonderful, but from what I've been able to glean they seem to run at least one unit just about all the time. I'm hoping to find some wading anyhow. Been told to try up around the RV park. Probably take a jaunt over to the Norfork at some point, as well. According to some web-site posters (another site) it's all a conspiracy! jonbo

@Nick Williams: I'm really glad to have your report. I've booked His Place for the week of Thanksgiving. I booked it back in June or so based on the fact that you can wade right there. Since then the MF started up, an event I hadn't heard of in my research. It sounded to me as I followed reports like the flow was kept too high to wade. Especially the one guide who's report is posted everywhere, John Berry, he always says there's been no wadeable water. I didn't know how to take that. None anywhere, or no publicly accessible wadeable water, or nothing he can safely recommend. Anyhow, your report gives me relief, as I really don't want to fool with a boat. Can I pick your brain a little more? I assume you fly-fished and waded. Is that true? If you weren't wading, did it look as if a person can/could wade. If you were fly-fishing, what patterns worked for you? Did you go upstream any? Thanks! jonbo

Thanks, gents! I'd been a little scared because Mr Berry keeps saying there's been no wadable water on the White. He probably is being careful and CAN'T recommend that someone wade at 25 MW of generation. I'll find a way to get my fishing in. I just like to be prepared. Does anyone here have any knowledge of whether there are plans to go with the originally announced minimum flow? I understand that the power company keeps their plans pretty mum. The one fellow was told, I guess, that as of now the power company can't generate 7 MW due to equipment issues.

Hi everyone. Am I understanding this right? Currently, for some weeks at least, there has not been any "minimum flow" on the White as it was defined, that is, somewhere around 800 cfs or something. When I look at the charts that various websites kindly provide, it looks like the real minimum at this time is about 2000 cfs, and usually not for long at all. It seems as though it's kind of medium flow all the time. I understand that's great for the fishing as long as your doing it from a boat. What I'm wondering is, does that mean no wade fishing to speak of on the White at this time? Another man who posted in another forum was told that the power company couldn't make there equipment operate correctly with only a single generator running. I'm planning to come to the White River at the end of November. 1) Should I think of making other fishing arrangements such as renting a boat? a) If I do that, can I boat to wadeable water, beach or anchor the boat, then get out and wade? b)If that's the case, what level of generation is the highest at which I can do something like that? 2) I understand that I can get myself ferried to the island at Rim Shoals. What is the highest level of gen that that is a practical option. I'm planning at this point to fish the Norfork quite a bit. Still wondering about the White and wade fishing. Has anyone ANY idea if they plan to have any Minimum Flow in November? Thank you all in advance. jonbo

Thanks for your kind responses, gents, but we just detoured. Wifey wants to visit Eureka Springs so I'll be fishing the Beaver Tailwater 'stead of the world famous Norfork, I guess. Should still be real good, I 'spect. stlskyline, I'll make a report on my His Place, Cotter, experience. Thanks again. jonbo.

Thanks for your kind reply, Sir! I've looked at the Charlie's Cottage web-page. It looks really good. Might be a little rich for my blood, though, as they're asking $250 a night. We're actually staying at His Place in Cotter, Wed thru Sunday of Thanksgiving week. My wife and I looked at the calendar the other day, though, and said, "You know, we could just take the whole week off." That got the gears grinding in my head about spending a couple of nights on the Norfork. But we can only afford a little 2 person cabin or room, I'm afraid. I'm still looking for one. If I don't find one in a little bit I'll just see about renting for the whole week the one we're already going to stay at. Unfortunately the web-pages for the resorts and cabins mostly don't really indicate whether they're directly next to wade access or not. You can't tell just where on the river they are. That's why I'm picking brains on this forum. Can anyone tell me about Gene's Resort. I see that it's next to some wade access. Is that spot what most would consider a particularly good one? Thanks.

Can anyone tell me of a cabin to rent or resort to stay at on the Norfork that has wade access without having to drive. I want to give my wife the car while I fish without either of us having to worry about the other. Thanks in advance. jonbo

Thanks, Brian!

Out of the blue my wife booked a cabin in Hardy for the weekend of the 4th. Desperate need to get away from home/family pressure. She invited me along, luckily. Well, I understand I have to drive upriver a few miles to find the good trout wade fishing. I was wondering if anyone could give me any quick advice as to where to go and patterns to use. From my gleanings on the 'Net it looks right now I'ma gonna' try the Bayou Access. It looks like olive woolies, hot pink San Juan worms, and some standard nymphs like Prince, pheasant tail and copper-johns are the way to go. Can anyone add anything? Much obliged. jonbo