Aaron Mills

Jeff is definitely more educated than I am. I catch two species of fish on the NFOW trout and not trout. I have bveen saving up my cabelas bucks for a rod similar to the one you described. I think it would be the perfect setup on the NFOW. Thanks for the report. Aaron

Awesome video montage! My oldest turns 3 next month and i am getting excited to start teaching him to fish this fall. I was just wondering how the guy at the end ate that perfectly good powerbait. Your video is taking some of the chill out of the winter for me. I can only tie so many flies before i go crazy. Aaron

I remember your boats with the water-coolers floating by (I am totally going to steal that idea from you and say i thought of it) and getting to chat with you guys for a few seconds. Can't remember if i was just floating with the fam or fishing at Patrick that day. The video's/pics were great. Thanks for putting it together and posting. The shot of the wasp nest was very cool. That thing makes me pretty nervous every time I go by it. The'bow you landed was awesome... you gotta love this river. aaron

I've been thinking that I'd put a lot more stock in fishing reports when I saw a bad one. Well, I went out Sunday and waded above patrick. I got a new rod and wanted to throw some streamers. The CFS was about 300 and the sky was blue and clear. I'm sure the fish were a little spooky and the big hairy ugly crap i was throwing wasn't exactly subtle. My dad tried princes rubber legs and a caddis emerger. We were both skunked. I was suprised I didn't even move a single fish. It was an absolutely beautiful day, though. There were a ton of white caddis egg layers flying around and a good hatch of midges. I didn't really see many fish moving around at all. It was interesting to actually see the river structure at low water.

should have stayed up 5 more minutes

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Brian, sorry we didn't make it back to the shop yesterday teh fishing was so good we stayed out a little later than planned. We fished above Greer from 8 to 12 or so. The regular stuff wasn't working as well as usual. Black stones and crawdad patterns, princes etc. The water from the upper river was a little stained. So, we started fishing flies with some movement and bright colors. The fish were eager to feed, but we had to get their attention a little bit. Olive and white buggers dropped behind a bright colored egg really worked well. Yes, I know, very technical fishing we did yesterday. The fish hit the eggs DEEP on dead drifts whether it was drifting the pools or wading/anchoring at the tailouts. If they didn't hit the egg on the drift swinging the bugggers into the eddies and twitchiing them a little bit did the trick. Pretty much, we picked up fish everywhere just outside the main current seam. All the fish were in 5+ feet of water most were a lot deeper than that. Most of the fish were 14-16 inches, but i did land one 19+ that weighed 4.25 pounds. It was a fatty. I was happy to see they were all in good condition given it was so hot. none of the fishe we released seemed to be very stressed at all. The riffle/tailout above the bridge (where there is a small island) really fished well. Aaron

great thing you are doing brian $250

wow, I haven't seen many cuts that size in the NF. nice one

Just my two cents... I would only fish quarry park if The Handicap access is too high from backup of the White. Since the floods, the gravel bar at Quarry park goes all the way accross making it very easy for folks who aren't wading to fish the most productive runs. Meaning, one or two spin casters will command entire riffles and there is very little opportunity to get into the better runs there. At the handicap access, it's much more relaxed, much more water and you have to have waders making it a lot less crowded. Rim Shoals on low water really is a fantastic place to fish with a good deep run, riffles some pocket water all together... and with high water, the taxi service can still produce some nice fishing. When you get into town, just check with the folks at the fly shop there, they will get you onto the fish. Great people. Aaron

Just my two cents... I would only fish quarry park if The Handicap access is too high from backup of the White. Since the floods, the gravel bar at Quarry park goes all the way accross making it very easy for folks who aren't wading to fish the most productive runs. Meaning, one or two spin casters will command entire riffles and there is very little opportunity to get into the better runs there. At the handicap access, it's much more relaxed, much more water and you have to have waders making it a lot less crowded. Rim Shoals on low water really is a fantastic place to fish with a good deep run, riffles some pocket water all together... and with high water, the taxi service can still produce some nice fishing. When you get into town, just check with the folks at the fly shop there, they will get you onto the fish. Great people. Aaron

I got out at Dam 3 Saturday. The weather was fantastic and so was the fishing. I had very steady takes on caddis patterns of various sorts all day. The fish were very active and feeding hard. I had 4 fish take a caddis dry. The presentation overall seemed to matter more than the fly. There were periods of about an hour when dead drifting was the key and then they would only take a stripped or swung fly. Overall, a pretty fun day. biggest fish was only 17 inches but about as fat as I have ever seen. Fly of the day... Barr's holographic caddis size 16 green.

I have to echo the above. But also, time of year is important, too. Before the spawn bigger fish get a little crazy and a lot more aggressive during the day. I caught a 6 lb rainbow at NF dam last year just because she was acting stupid before the spawn. She took a size 18 midge, but I think she would have hit just about anything. I never would have known there was a take if I didn't visually see her open her mouth. So, I would definitely advocate sight-fishing whenever possible. However, don't pass up a prime lie just because you can't see into it. Prime lies are ones where fish have both food and shelter. Night-time is definitely the right-time for bigger fish. Just be sure to scout out your area to fish in the daylight and know it well. I don't know enough about the 11 pt. to add any specifics to help you on that river. My biggest point is this, though. A big reason you haven't caught lunkers due to years of trying is that in those areas, everything of size goes home with someone. I was floating the 11 pt and saw a 10 lb rainbow on a stringer at Mary Decker. It was pristine not a defect in any fin, beautiful white tips, probably a river-born trout. That's a treasure and not many trout make it that long. So, practicing catch and release increases the odds for all of us to get into a big one like that. Tight Lines... great advice all.

I have to echo the above. But also, time of year is important, too. Before the spawn bigger fish get a little crazy and a lot more aggressive during the day. I caught a 6 lb rainbow at NF dam last year just because she was acting stupid before the spawn. She took a size 18 midge, but I think she would have hit just about anything. I never would have known there was a take if I didn't visually see her open her mouth. So, I would definitely advocate sight-fishing whenever possible. However, don't pass up a prime lie just because you can't see into it. Prime lies are ones where fish have both food and shelter. Night-time is definitely the right-time for bigger fish. Just be sure to scout out your area to fish in the daylight and know it well. I don't know enough about the 11 pt. to add any specifics to help you on that river. My biggest point is this, though. A big reason you haven't caught lunkers due to years of trying is that in those areas, everything of size goes home with someone. I was floating the 11 pt and saw a 10 lb rainbow on a stringer at Mary Decker. It was pristine not a defect in any fin, beautiful white tips, probably a river-born trout. That's a treasure and not many trout make it that long. So, practicing catch and release increases the odds for all of us to get into a big one like that. Tight Lines... great advice all.

Hey Rodney, I fished Sat. at Taney from about 9-2 in the afternoon. It wasn't so good for me. I was helping a friend a little more than I was fishing, but I only caught 6. There was a monster midge hatch once the sun got out and they were taking adults in the slower water. smaller fish sipping for hours down above the boat ramp. I hooked a 17 incher on a 22 green parachute, but I only had one fly even close to what they were taking. The naturals were about size 24 black and size 20-22 green with black rib. I didn't get much of a bite on subsurface midges, I was really surprised. A small Y2k was what I caught most if not all of them on. Nothing on scuds... but no-one would let us fish outlet 2. I guess 2 guys in there is considered full these days. I was hoping to get my friend who had fly-fished 3 times in there. Maybe next time. Later, Mills

Great pic! The fish sure are pretty this year.

My dad and I got out Saturday and had a great day. The foliage and the river really couldn't be prettier right now. The weather was amazing too. The fishing was good, not great. I caught 12 or so rainbows all 12-14 inches above Greer in 2-3 hours. The fish are colored amazingly as they have been all year. My dad caught several bows and a 15 inch Smallie to boot. He got a good bite on an olive Woolly Bugger all day. We each caught 1 or 2 on a few other patterns but nothing consistent. The fly of the day was a Black Stonefly in any form. I kept losing em, so I had to switch patterns a good bit. Seemed like the bigger the better even on up to a number 4. Rubber legs seemed to increase the bite. There were clouds of assorted bugs when we put in at noon. Lots of caddis in the air. some rising fish here and there. nothing really came to my caddis emergers, though. Get out there if you can.

LOL I am a master of the "bungle down the river tactic"

I was planning to fish wildcat to cotter this weekend if the rain doesn't wash things out. I have waded wildcat and the shoal looks like it's pretty tricky to get a boat through. Any tips for navigating through there? how much water needs to be running to make that reasonably easy to get through wild cat. any other stretches on that part of the river to watch out for? or better spots to focus fishing? I probably will put in at cotter and motor up to wildcat and drift down. thanks a lot. good fishing aaron

I was out floating on Saturday and saw the stripers in the same spot you did. I didn't see much else there except suckers and a couple of bigger browns. They are definitely a problem for the trout.

HeHe, that bow is bigger than he is!!! I can't wait till my little guy is big enough to head down to Dry Run. Looks like you had quite the day, Brian. I've got some friends coming in Thurs. - Tuesday. We'll be at Norfork Dam (if the water is low) and if not putting the boat in at Rim Shoals and island hopping. We probably will fish at least one night at the dam if they turn Norfork off. You're more than welcome if you can get away. Aaron

Yeah, but not until the water comes down A LOT!!!!

Thanks everyone, I will be anchoring behind islands, in eddys if at all.

Can someone suggest an anchor --wt. size, type, etc--, way to rig it for my boat. I have a 21 foot X 3 ft aluminum boat with a 9.5 horse motor. I fish the White River? Any help suggestions appreciated