Yakfly

Looking at the recent BS dam reports, al the levels seem WAY off? What's going on here, is this reliable at all these days? Here's a couple of readings from yesterday: http://www.swl-wc.usace.army.mil/WCDS/Repo...ata/Bulsdam.htm Turbine Time Elevation Tailwater Release Generation Date CS/CDT (ft-msl) (ft-msl) (cfs) (mwh) __________________________________________________________________________ 25JAN2008 2400 1151.89 751.71 50 1 26JAN2008 0100 1151.92 749.91 50 1 26JAN2008 0200 1151.97 749.91 50 1 26JAN2008 0300 1152.00 749.91 50 1 26JAN2008 0400 1151.98 749.91 50 1 I thought tailwater at dead low was always 449 feet. Anybody know why the shift in reports?

I use a sink tip to fish streamers deep. Like big woolly buggers and sculpin patterns. I don't rig with a tapered leader with a sink line setup. I usually just tie on a short (6 feet) section of straight flourocarbon "leader" - like 6lb test Vanish which is about 2X in diameter. Then a #6 olive/black woolly. You can really dredge some deep water with that setup, no need to ad lead to get your fly down.

I thought I'd join in and give another report about the good trout fishing recently experienced on the White. Right after Christmas, I fished the Buffalo City area with a buddy and the fishing could not have been better. We had dead low water levels for 4 days. We kept the flies small and the tippets a little thinner that usual. Didn't catch any trophies, and only a few brown trout, but the rainbow bite was ON! Two days, we fished the top of Smith Island - Buffalo and White River confluence area on dead low water. Easy wading, and we pretty much had the place to ourselves. The most productive flies were black woolly worms with a red yarn tail in size 14, and dark olive/black woolly buggers with beadhead in size 12 - I guess that's really a "mini bugger". My buddy and I are novice fly fishers at best , but steadily caught rainbows with a few browns mixed in, rate of 20 or so each in a 3 hour session. On the back side of Smith Island, fishing those deep holes (even at 0 generation, they are fast and deep here) was difficult with floating line rig, even with bigger weighted streamers and added split shot. Switched over to spin tackle and caught several nice bows - next time I'm going to bring a sink fly line for this area. Two other days we fished Buffalo Shoals - again dead low water, so we could wade the entire mile of shoals pretty much. In two days I think we saw only 4 other anglers. At dead low flows, its a paradise of pocket water and runs, nice riffles everywhere. Again, the go to flies were black woolly buggers and worms. The flat water up at Crane Island was the most productive. Caught a few rainbows that were 16 inchers, with deep pink/red coloration. You could tell these had been in the river a while with nice full fins and they really put up a battle when hooked. I tried soft hackles which usually work well for me in the riffle water, but didn't get a take on any SH flies. All in all a great trip. Weather was cold but enjoyable if you layer up properly. I also rediscovered the woolly worm - a simple fly that I'll be fishing more often. I hope everyone has a great 08 and I'll see you on the rivers. Thanks for all the posts and reports here, I've learned a lot- it's really helped my fishing and helped me have a lot of fun on the water!

Thanks for the report. I hope the water levels and fishing patterns hold for a couple more weeks, I'm headed up right after Christmas. I have become a real fan of soft hackle fishing. JB and anyone else - How important is color in the scheme of things? That is, with reading water, presentation, type of fly selected, color, rigging leader & tippet, where does color rank in importance? Do you find that all other things held constant, there is often/seldom/sometimes a big difference in results just based on fly color? Thanks

John, thanks so much for these great reports. I've learned a lot and its really improved my fishing. It's also fun for us occasional fishers to live vicariously thru your reports. Regarding the Rim Shoals area, with it being what, a mile or so of water, is there a section of it you prefer to fish, or is routinely more productive? I would guess most people just fish that section right at the walk-in, and nothing more. I seem to have the best luck on the right side (looking downriver) of the second island, working softhackles, small buggers. Thanks again.

Hard to beat those Rapalas! Countdowns seem to catch any kind of fish, any kind of where. Too bad they are $5 a pop Have you ever used the Rapala Husky Jerk? Caught some monster browns in high winter water on those.

I have been very happy with Mitchell 300 series reels. Similar to the Avocet line, maybe a little better. Had 2 of them for about 4 years, still working fine. But then again I'm pretty diligent about keeping them cleaned and lubed. I know friends who guide professionally who only use by Okuma reels - I've really liked them when I've tried them. By the way, if you are having shoulder/cuff problems with fly casting, try using you BODY to make the cast - see this video by Lefty - he addresses that very subject.

Awesome photo! Thanks for sharing. Fishy looking spot too. Not being that familiar with the LRR, what flies would work best on that water in the picture? Also, I'm guessing that is no generation depicted?

What I ended up using was a Clorox jug filled with pea gravel - advantages were smooth plastic surface that wouldn't cause any damage when bumping against the kayal when in tow, and adjustable amount of weight. Worked pretty good, although kinda of noisy ride with the bumping on the bow, and affected the tracking a little. Thanks for all the warnings, but I never intended to anchor up in swift water. I was thinking of "anchoring" in slack / shallow water while i cast into faster water. The jug'o'rocks worked well for that. On the idea of drag chains, I belive they are illegal on the Norfolk, but OK on White below BSD. I saw an interesting kayak drag chain rig on the White thats worth a thought. Had a 3 foot length of big chain tied to 20 feet or so of rope, and that was tied to a Clorox jug half filled with water, The jug was inside the kayak BUT NOT TIED DOWN. The idea was that the chain slowed the drift - and kept the kayak floating straight(er) - but if there was any chain snag on the bottom of the river AT ALL the jug would be pulled into the water clear of the yak. Could go and retrieve beacause the 1/2 filled jug would be floating. For me, as someone said above, I think the anchor was more of a hassle than anything. Next trip will be without any anchor, I'll just pull up on gravel bar or bank and wade fish the desired water. That's what I ended up doing most of the time anyway. Thanks all

I notice most reports of the White, on this forum and otherwise, tend to focus on the fishing immedeatley below the dam and water down to Rim or so. Only occasionally do we here reports relating to the Buffalo Shoals area or further down to Buffalo City, Cartney access, Ships Ferry Access, etc. Is there a reason for this? Do guides generally not cover this water, is it not as good water to fish? Or is it just an acceability issue? Is the water quality appreciably different below Rim? That is, that far down from the dam, does the temp and dissolved oxygen get worse, worse enough to alter the fish activity? And how does Crooked Creek and Buffalo River factor in, below where they feeds into the White. Too much warm water? I myself like these down river spots primarily due to less people fishing there. I never catch many or large fish there, but that's probably due to me being still in the beginner stages of fly fishing. Any thoughts appreciated.

Thanks to all, some good information here! I think I'll go with less weight than I was originally thinking and 5 to 10 pounds instead. And the tips about running the achor off the front is well taken - I was thinking to anchor off the back. I have a float n' fly trip on the White in a few weeks, will give a report.

Hi, New to the forum but have found a lot of great info so far! Question about anchor style/size for use with my sit-on-top kayak. What size would be best for use on the White (below BSD)? I'm thinking of floating in water conditions like 0 to 4 generators running. Of course I would never anchor up in stronger current lanes anyway. All the river johnboats I've rented up there had railroad rail sections as anchors, so I'm guessing the "claw" style anchors would not be a good idea? I'm thinking of fashioning an anchor out of some plastic dumbells - maybe 15 pounds. Thing that would be enough weight? Any ideas/comments welcome.