Yakfly

My favorite stretch - Rim Shoals to Buffalo City. 9 miles. Includes Rim Shoals, confluence of Crooked Creek & White River, Shoestring Shoals, Ranchette, and then Buffalo Shoals. If they are running 4 units or more, I'd even go up further and put in at Cotter, would add 5 miles to the trip, and you add Roundhouse section and the Redbud Shoals section.

Thanks Terry. I'll ask at my next local club meeting.

I'm trying to find an article on a technique coined "sinktipzing". Best I can recall, it was using a light (4 or 5 weight) sinktip fly line, with the sink section cut down short, fished on the swing? But I can not locate any specifics on the web. thanks

Any recommendations for a shuttle service, to help me solo float sections of the river? Probably in the next couple of weeks. Thanks in advance.

This is very effective for me - standard floating line setup - this time of year when caddis are coming off Tie on an a green elk-hair caddis, and put a bb split shot about a foot up. Cast into riffle water, fish on the swing. I also have been doing a similar thing on the White, now that multi-fly rigs are legal, trailing a dry behind a weighted woolly.

Pat - I'm not much at bait fishing, so I'll let others help you there. I would think some type of Carolina rig (1/4 oz weight if high water, 1/8 oz if less) would work. On the White, 1 generator full on is about 3300 cfs. Good luck!

Pat - I'm not much at bait fishing, so I'll let others help you there. I would think some type of Carolina rig (1/4 oz weight if high water, 1/8 oz if less) would work. On the White, 1 generator full on is about 3300 cfs. Good luck!

Fly and spin fishing both. Sounds a lot like me! Fly rodding, I'd load up with woolies - olive, black, brown, size 6-12, get it on the bottom with weighted flies, split shot on leader, or sink tip lines, or combo whatever it takes. March should start some soft hackle action, fish knee deep riffles orange, green, yellow SH. Always bring some nymps, San juans, scuds/sowbugs, etc... Spin rodding, spinners, spoons, small crankbaits. Mepps/roster tails/panther martins etc... silver forbright days, gold for overcast... 1/4 oz down to 1/16 oz depending on water flows and levels. Littlecleo spoons, Thomas bouyant spoons, etc - same color and sizes as for spinners. Rapala countdown crankbaits, minnow imitations - silver/black, gold/black. Also big jerkbaits if you fish high water. Great idea about getting a guide, hopefully he's someone who can give you info on spin and fly. Main thing is learn how to handle a boat on that water, only anchor up when its safe to do so and LEARN when it is SAFE and when its not.

yeah, i heard there's this new fangled fly called a "Woolly Bugger" that just wears 'em out on the Spring

Spent a few days last week fishing the Spring River. Fly fished Lassiter's access, and floated the DAM3 to Bayou section several days. The water was dropping out from the past couple of weeks flood. For the time I was there the level was about 1-2 feet above what is normally the low water level for the Spring River. For those who fish it alot you'll know what that means. The water had a little color to it, but did clear up signifigantly over my 4 days there. I didn't fish really at DAM 3 itself, but I put in there for floating down to Bayou. I saw several folks fishing there at the DAM, many were doing well high-sticking woolly buggers. The deep hole just below the first island down from the DAM fished really well. I caught 2 rainbows of 18 inches out of that hole, and too many 10-12 inchers to count. Hot fly was the woolly bugger (black, olive), fished DEEP DEEP and worked crawled slowly on the bottom. Fished on the drift down to the Bayou and did well in the deeper sections with big big woollies and rubber legged stoneflies, dead drifted under a BIG indicator. This is a killer technique for this river - one I've started doing more and more with good success. Bayou Access fished slow for me all week. Could never really get a pattern established. I kept changing flies and presentations, and locations, just to catch a few trout per hour. Lassiter's access was on fire though. The upper section from the access, directly across from the Motel fished very well. The extra 1-2 feet of water created some super pocket water with all the boulders and runs up there. Just drop a fly in behind a rock and WHAM fish on! It was crazy good, in one afternoon session I caught probably 50 in 3 hours - no trpohies, just the standard bows, but the action was non stop. Woolly buggers, small clouser minnows, larger soft hackles, everything was working. Even caught 1 nice brown trout up there, a pretty 14"er - browns are rare for me on that river. All in all a good trip. I've fished Spring River many times over the years, and my experience would always rank best spots as Bayou, then DAM 3, then Lassiters. But this trip it was exactly opposite.

May want to look at the North Fork of the White in Missouri. They have a separate forum on this board. Also, may consider Buffalo City, at the confluence of the White and Buffalo rivers. There's a BIG island there called Smith Island that you could camp on, and there is good fishing all around the island. Only access to the island is by boat, but you easily get a shuttle over from local outfitters. Also, (kinda letting out a little secret here) - if you want to go Dec - Feb, you can camp on the lower Buffalo river, say a mile or two up from the White river confluence. In the winter time when the Buffalo water cools, trout migrate big time up into the Buffalo, I've caught them as much as 4 miles up from the white. There are some great riverside campsites on the Buffalo about 2-3 miles up. Again, access will be by boat only, but local outfitters will be more than willing to run you up and drop off for a nominal fee.

What's the penalty if you're caught with a gun (out of hunting season)?

You'll get a million opinions But I use Trilene XL, 6lb, with a 6 foot leader at the end of my line of 4lb Vanish flourocarbon (6lb will work as well). I feel that flourocarbon at the end is more abrasion resistant and less visible to the fish. I like the castability and price of the nylon Trilene XL over flouro, thus don't spool up the whole reel with flouro.

Amazing how these big fish will be taken on Huge lures like 7" streamers AND fairly small #14's as well.

Your 6lb line will be fine, but for more bites, try adding just a 6 foot leader section at the end of your line of 4lb flourocarbon. Don't need to respool the whole reel. Single barbless of course, try 1/8 and 1/16 oz marabou jigs - always work. Stop in the Rim Shoals fly shop, they will point to to the right direction on what lures to use as well.

Late August. The only addition to the standard fare would be terrestrials - hoppers, crickets, etc. Since there is no restricted water, a "hopper + dropper combo" would be good idea. I'd start with something like 2" foam hopper (tan/yellow/green) and below it a lightly weighted or unweighted rubber legged woolly bugger - brown/black/olive. Or maybe drop a big SanJuan worm. For a one fly rig, I'd go BIG crawfish looking pattern. Marabou jigs also. River is loaded with 'dads and in August they'll be pretty big. My thinking has come to be that the Spring is a BIG fly river - I have the best luck on flies size 10 and bigger, no matter the style. Most things will work if presented right, just start big and work down in size if you need to. Stop in the fly shop in Mammoth and get the latest report when you get there. They also have a good map showing access and fishing spots. THREE places to wade-in - Wade in access at Bayou, Lassiters, and Dam 3 - "the hatchery". Really not a deep river anywhere, there's about a mile of wading at all 3 of those walk-ins.

So sad to hear this. We as sportsmen have got to learn from this and other incidents - and start wearing PFDs! I'm nowhere near 79 and have had 2 close call just this past month, and I'm an "experienced" wader and wade very cautiously. Fell down in knee deep current and darn near drowned. I'm buying an inflatable PFD for my next wading trip. Please lets all consider doing the same.

What I've gone to (at the suggestion of more than a few on this board) is a well-pocketed fishing shirt, hat with fly patch, and a lanyard. Small fly box in pocket (sometimes). Since I've radically downsized on-stream gear this year, My fishing has been MUCH more enjoyable than my VEST/FANNYPACK days.

Fished the lower Buffalo for smallmouth bass last week. I fished the last section, the last 3.5 miles down to the confluence with the White River, on 2 afternoons. Got a shuttle from some friends from Buffalo City up river and floated back in my kayak, stopping to wade shoals as I went, also fishing on the drift some. Hot fly was the Clouser minnow, fished on sink-tip line in the faster shoals, letting it drift into a dropoff. Best color was tan/creme/grey (they would not touch chartruse, usually my go-to color). Best presentation was just a slow, steady strip, keeping slack out of the line. Biggest fish was about 2 pounds, most were 1 pounders. Tried woolley buggers, and bass bullies/wollhead sculpins, but didn't catch but a few on those - usually my most productive smallmouth flies! Although I wasn't targeting them, caught two 14+ inch rainbow trout on Clousers as well - and they were caught 3 miles upriver from the confluence! The spot where I caught the trout was loaded with minnows and I guess they had been gorging on them for a while. The tan closer is a dead on imitation of the naturals that I saw there. Tried topwater flies, poppers and such, had no luck at all. Didn't see/hear any surface feeding either. Think water still needs to warm up maybe 10 more degrees before action will be on top. Also fished Carolina and Texas rigged soft plastics drifting from the yak. Standard stuff, Zoom lizards (green) and Yum Craw bugs worked well. Caught several in the deep hole just at the confluence, again nothing over 2 pounds. No largemouth caught, which is surprising because I usually catch at least 1 in that section, and I know they are loaded in there. Water had some color to it, which I prefer over gin-clear, but was free of debris. Water level was perfect, very wadeable shoals, easy to float thru the "Rock Garden". Day 1 was a 20+ fish day, day 2 slower, probably only caught a dozen. Weather was perfect - 80 degrees, very little wind, and had the place to myself pretty much, up until Memorial Weekend crowd showed up Friday afternoon. But then it was time to go. Hope to come back in a couple of weeks and get on that topwater action!

Rush to Buffalo City is a good 3 day 2 night trip. Look around here on the Forum, there's a bunch of advise and trip reports over the years for that trip. PLUSSES low crowds due to remoteness, good fishing, plenty camping gravel bars MINUSSES total wilderness area (long way for help if needed), take out on White river can be a challenge OOS annual is 40, 3 day is 12 I believe

Rim to Buffalo city is better. You get Rim, Shoestring, Ranchette, and best of all Buffalo Shoals to fish. Plus if its not flooded, you can fish the bottom of Crooked creek and nail some nice bass. The confluence of CC & WR at Shoestring shoals is a fishing paradise. UNLESS - Crooked creek is flooded and dumping alot of warm, muddy water into the White. Tends to make it tough (for me anyway). Then I'd do Wildcat to Rim.

I think it would be best to go now or soon. With the White right at flood stage down in the Delta, there holding BSD and Norfork dam releases back. Looks about a constant 1-2 units over the past week, trying to allow the flooding to receed, and letting the lakes fill up into flood pool. 0-2 units on the White is perfect wade water, just pick your spots of course. I would bet if you wait until June, BSD and NFD will be running all that water out, wading opportunities will be limited.

I don't use the loops. What I do is tie an overhand knot on the end of flyline. Then overhand knot above flyline knot a 4 foot section of 6lb vanish. Then either tie fly to end of this 6 lb section, or surgeon knot a bit more vanish (4lb works well as smallie tippit) Can't get any simpler. Very doubtful that the 6lb vanish will ever cut into your flyline to any extent.

No scud/sowbug/crustacian pattern? No San Juan worm/annelied pattern? No midge larva pattern? No caddis larva pattern? I have no problem with the 25 on the list, all fine flies I suppose. I do question all the dries, to me the EHC and Dave's hopper would suffice on top.

Get a google map search for Buffalo City and you see the layout of the confluence area. The Buffalo dead ends at the White at the top of a large island (Smith Island). When you get there you be in the backed up part of the Buffalo, with the White running left to right in front of you. To takeout at Riley's: Turn LEFT going UPSTREAM into the White around the top of Smith Island, for about 100 yards. Then you'll be at the "tip" of the island with the White going downstream. Ride the White downstream and veer left, Rileys take out is couple hundred yards downstream on the left. You'll se his boat dock and canoe take out. This all gets harder the more units running on the White. In fact if 0 units, you'll have to drag canoe on White for a ways. 8 units very dangerous operation, but I've personally seen it done more than a few times. If you want to float down to Shipps, just keep RIGHT when you hit the island - this keeps you flowing immeadeatly going downstream on the White. You'll float down the backside of Smith Island. Both channels of the White converge at the bottom of the island, and its a smooth float down to Shipps.