sfiser

It's clear, I would say 10-12+ feet of visibility, maybe slightly less in some of the little feeder arms. Out In the main lake area it was probably 15+ feet of visibility.

I was out on yesterday and 4-5 of the fish I caught looked like they hadn't spawned. I had a small mouth starting to let eggs go in my boat while I was removing the lure. Guess there is still a wave of fish that has to come in. Maybe the rising water held some fish off for an extra week or 2. The cicada's are really thick back in the Clifty arm's of the lake. Saw a few in the water but nothing eating them when I was in one little pocket.

What is your setup for that 2 fly rig if you dont mind sharing? Are you using any split shot to help get it down or just the weight of the midge dropper to get the flies down?

minimum flow on the white is 7mw on the chart, 50 mw is the equivalent to 1 unit of water (which you can wade on). The above recommendations by Ham are good and you are just limited on where you can fish at those levels. I see a lot of people park at the wildcat shoals ramp and walk downstream and fish the grass beds oh high water and some do well. Just stay by the water line and you can fish that area without having to worry about trespassing in folks backyards (its public if you are next/in the water and those homeowners are used to people fishing there). There are ways to catch fish at those levels, it's just different than fishing the low flows. As for next week, its a crap shoot. With a lot of rain moving in today/tomorrow if the Buffalo and Crooked creek flood, bull shoals will have to cut generation down a lot to allow those rivers to crest and recede so downstream farm land isn't flooded. If we don't get as much rain as predicted I would expect generation to continue like it has the last week or so. Remember, when wading higher water DO NOT get any deeper than knee deep

I run a 207XP with the 60/40 merc jet and it is great. I had a 40/30 yamaha on it before that and it worked just fine too, a little slower but still pushed it good. My friends had a L48 with the merc 25hp jet, I never really felt like it could get up and run correctly with that motor on it. It was really slow, felt sluggish to get on the pad and if you got caught by big water and needed to go upstream it was really slow. Will it work, yes it will... is it ideal for running skinny water or upstream in big current, no. its probably not going to be as fast as your 18hp prop but if speed isnt an issue and you dont try to run super skinny water, then that smaller jet should work fine for what you need.

Anyone been in the dam area since the rains? Was curious what the water clarity was on the lower end. I assumed with 40k cfs running through the gates it would have pulled that mud line down near Rocky branch or cliff y.

I live near war eagle marina, I have seen clearer water in a my coffee cup :). It needs a solid 10 days of no rain to begin to clear... but with the weekend forecast I dont see that happening.

what was the water temp? Are we close to 50 degrees yet?

I second what Travis said. That is one of the worst fishing shows ever created. All they do is push sponsor product from 2 guys who aren't even what I would consider good fishermen.

I went right before they closed it and it was $5 and super was crowded. She told me they were closing and selling because the property tax was killing them and they couldn't afford it anymore. I own a piece of land on the White on buffalo shoals so I can now understand her pain, although they had alot more land than I do so I can't imagine what their property tax was. That was a great place and if I want to wade there I now make a long walk from Ackerman access up that direction. Seems that walk gets longer every year I get older.

you are 100% correct. If they go right back in the water, they will be just fine.

I'm also interested in how you were fishing it. Casting and working it vs. fishing it vertically. Also, do you mind telling us what jighead that is?

Very true. I have gotten pretty good at it but there is no good way to load in water that big and certain ramps are really tough. I dont like the cotter ramp in anything over 15k as it really rips through there. Wildcat is better and the angle of white hole makes it really easy on big water. Most of the time I launch at Wildcat and its not too bad. Tough thing on that jet is if you aren't in gear and under power you have no steering, that's the thing lots of folks struggle with. Watched a guy a few weeks ago really struggle to get it on the trailer. I went right behind him and got mine on quickly. He asked what was the trick to it so I put mine back in the water and put him in the boat with me to watch me load it again so he could watch and see what speed I was using and what angle i was approaching.

It didnt happen on Norfork, it happened on the white below the confluence of the norfork around Reds Landing. Norfork is very sketchy when the water is on so I agree with you there. 2 units on norfork is scary in my 20' supreme and I know what I am doing, just doesnt make me comfortable at all. 8 units on the white doesnt bother me but for some reason Norfork on high water really puckers me up.

2 years ago I pulled 2 kayakers out of the water in 1 week. It was in August when they were evacuating flood waters from Bull Shoals and the water was over 17,000 CFS both times. One lady was drunk and hanging onto a tree yelling for help. Pulled up and my friends rolled her into the floor of my Supreme and we took her over to the wildcat shoals ramp. She wanted us to go after her kayak and my buddy said "lady that thing is all the way past rim shoals by now as fast as the river is moving". The other time it was a young girl, maybe 10-12 who turned over right in front of Stetsons and was free floating down the river. We grabbed her and took her over to the bank at Stetsons and we were able to get her kayak. Folks don't realize how dangerous that river gets once it gets over 10-12,000 CFS. It moves quick and one little mistake becomes a really big ordeal that can become life threatening.