CFowler

It is worth going! I would take a boat down to Buf city and go just up the Buf and camp. At the current levels you will have great fishing/wading. And the camping is awesome, find yourself a nice little sand bar up there. If you dont have a boat there are a couple of outfitters right there at the confluence. The river gets pretty darn wide and spreads that water out, plenty of wading. Buf shoals will have all kinds of area to wade and is about 3/4 of a mile up river from the confluence. Shouldnt see many or any people either. Good luck, enjoy that last weekend!

Good thought Ham, if they would have sold it as an extra two to three feet it wouldnt have gone very far. There is no theory here, if you cant figure out that SWPA is avoiding running min flow due to the generator functionality then you dont want to. This is the case though, I know some guys that work there. It wasnt to screw the little guy, rather that was an unintended consequence. It's not that times are hard and it could be tough to afford a boat but they shouldnt have to if they just executed it correctly. Oh and if its going to be this way watch the Norfork go down hill fast as 100 miles of wade fishing is going to get concentrated to 4 miles. Thats not good for the aquatic inverts for sure. How did that factor into the plan?

Still think I was over reacting? A few inches my xxx! Its pretty clear that was a lie. Fact is the generator cant handle the min flow of 590 (which they learned after implimentation) so how about 1200 instead. At the minimum (590) when we did see it, it was an additional 1.4 feet not a few inches by the way (according to coe graphs) but as it turns out that was irrelevant because you dont see that anyway, so its more like 3 feet. They are running it through a genrator at the White but not the Norfork (they use a siphon pipe there) and the Norfork sure is crowded these days. I'd say well executed at the Norfork, not the White at this point. Let's see.... Fed Govt/SWPA happy, boaters happy, resorts happy, guides happy, waders not too happy... Pretty clear what's goin on here folks. The other interesting social dynamic is that folks whom were duped dont want to talk about it or acknowledge it yet. We'll see how long it takes for folks to figure it out or come to grips. I am so shocked the Govt told us one thing and then totally did something else, that never happens!

That's very true, we don't know what 590 looks like. But there was no mention of the pressure causing it to be 200 CFCs higher. That in and of itself is the only observation we can make so far. That and the lack of warning. Neither are positive in my opinion. It's not really going to matter now until about Nov or farther if this rain keeps up!

Good info bfishn, thanks for taking the time to share. I was referring to the 34 mil buy out to Empire District Electric. We'll see how it turns out with time but I dont trust some of the characters involved. Also not to be a nerd but now there will never be a day those guys dont make money. Has to be nice for the cash flow! They went from 0 to 168 mgw per day on dead low. Nice. Its my opinion a bit less or half as much could be better. Would have liked some consideration there and at the least held to the 590. Good discussion guys, we'll see how it works out.

Sure thing Lily. I became suspicious of the project when it became prosperous for SWPA and maybe others. What I mean is, the conservation pool was changed and they were compensated for it. I may not have gone back and researched it very well but I never found any mention of the actual min flow release being used for power. Please jump in anyone that has the details. As far as I'm concerned making power/money is not a concern, getting the right water level is. I've heard through this process, with the lower levels of water, its been very difficult to get the generator dialed in. They werent made to run with those low levels. So I submit the access has been sacraficed to be able to run that generator and make some money, which theoretically they should have already been compensated. I mean even 100 CFS can make a difference. I do not question the need for min flow, I am questioning the execution. I dont know what CFS level they tested in those fly over observations w regard to access but I am suspicious. That is a rediculous qualitative methodology by the way, which again points to the lack of consideration given to access. If we could get it around 300, I would probably be singing its praises. I saw it was suposed to be 590, its been closer to 700. As it is being done now, it has been a problem for safety with no warning and no time to get out particularly at the dam. Sure you can catch fish, but the only real observation that can be made at this time relate to access. It's certainly a bit tounge and cheak but I can't wait to see that study that says brown trout populations and size has been improved by MF.

I never fished at any point in the last 15 years and thought, this fishery is broken we need to fix. Well maybe when I watch the bait guides anchor in front of my place and gut hook dozens of fish that will likely die. You can always make an argument for better habitat. There were fish kills due to temp during summers in the past, not in marginal areas. So for those times it'll be good as well as the spawn. That said, the Feds are mandated a certain amount to stock every year, so mathematically none of it will affect population. There will be more food for sure, so it can't hurt the fish. From a spawn standpoint it's not water level but rather fluctuation to worry about. Would have prob prioritized DO over min flow, I am not alone there. I have a place just down from Gastons and know the river as well as anyone I assure you. The fish are always fat and happy,catching numbers and quality has never been difficult. The new reg on the browns made a difference. If there is any study coming out in 5 years referring to min flow as the reason for the better browns instead of the new size reg would you believe it? I spent enough time in state gov resource management to know how it works. I was a wildlife biologist and got out of for the politics and pay. I think it's funny that everyone touts all the pluses and doesn't mention any possible negative consequences. Thought folks might value a different perspective. My point merely pertains to access. Having fished all over the country for trout I was pretty happy with it as it was. Maybe it will be better, time will tell but it isn't all roses for everyone guys. Folks arent all jumpin for joy in the fly shops around here. You might want to give some consideration to others perspectives, it got pretty defensive out there pretty fast. As it relates to this matter, I defer to the intent of the management plan and the agreement in the mitigation document. I have honestly not read either.

Well guys, it would be nice if it were only a few inches. Try at least 12 inches and that would be about 13-14 times the amount of water on previous dead low. Think about that, seems like an aweful lot of water. Do they raelly need that much? Although weve seen more flows over 700 due to the higher lake levels, which is more like 16 inches (the higher waterncreates more pressurempushing water through the pipe). I can get a boat where ever I want now on dead low. The closer you are to the dam, the more it is noticeable. Below the Buff it would be the least noticeable deepening on what Crooked and the Buff are doing. Im sure Buff shoals fishes well on this water. Sure you can catch plenty of fish anywhere but you certainly can't access the river like you could. The biggest beneficiaries will be the boat renters and guides that want to stay in their boats. And of course the folks down stream in the marginal water like Calico will now have better water and trout survival. Someone down that way must have some sway, it was based on temp readings down that way to back into the flow needed. It has to be true that this will help the fish but certainly not the wade fisherman. It will pretty much restrict them to 5 to 10 percent what they used to fish well. I guess they should have organized or spent more money or something, clearly no one cares about them. I hope it returns us to the glory days but they didn't have min flow then and those were the glory days. I feel bad for the average low budget guy. I have a drift boat and a Jon boat, I will be using them more but that guy isn't going to like it. They had to take it all too, both the Norfork and the White. Couldn't leave the Norfork for the waders, it's only 4 miles long, temp is not the issue there. Nope, they took it all from them. They told people inches to get their support and it turns out to be feet. I have friends that are shop owners and guides and there are a lot of shocked people with the way it actually is compared to the sales story they were given. From what I hear its not easy to get a really small level of water through the dam due to the turbine limitations so it's not likely to decrease and that could be why there has been more than the planned 590, just speculating. They had no idea how to do it when they were putting the plan together. Lets not overlook the safety issue either, at that level when it starts coming up by the time you notice you're in trouble. It's gets to an unsafe level very quickly, that's the most concerning factor so far. You know, I'm thinking about a place on Taney at this point. When it's all said and done, you guys up in MO might have the only wadeable water left. Enjoy it. As it stands I'm planning a trip over to the Norfork this weekend to fish some of the last wadeable water we'll see in AR.

Jeff Hearn, How are you man? Hope you're doing well. Shoot me a pm sometime if you want to go fishing.

Depending on when you go, you might see some low water. If so, Sowbugs are hard to beat there most of the time. Haven't found a better pattern than the Davy Wotton sowbug. Any color is good as long as it's grey or dark grey. If you're tying them use the whitlocks dubbing in dark grey sowbug. Sizes go from 10 to 20 but I'd recommend sizes16 or 14. If you tie it right that pattern is quite durable but as the dubbing gets frazzled just trim it back to proportional size. By the way, you'll probably need to use 6x flouro to be safe. I use 2lb flouro, that's not exactly 7x but close enough. No low water and I'd try a bigger sowbug, worms or eggs. And the streamers can be good to. Again any color as long as it's white. Those fish see and eat Shad all the time. We're coming into low do season, so be aware of that too. If the do starts dropping, go fish the white. Good luck

That time of year it's not uncommon to get rain events that blow out the river below crooked creek. By that I mean it's too muddy to fish for a day or two. So, the best areas to fish in that event are closer to BSD or the Norfork. That combined with the consistent fishing are reasons I'd recommend fishing the upper section between BSD and Cotter. Before I decided whether to bring the boat, I'd wait and see where water levels are. If it looks like really low water is likely for much of the time, I'd leave the boat home. Grind on someone elses prop! Here's one piece of advice...I have property on the white and spend a good deal of time on the water, the number one thing that causes issues for people are those drag chains. If the water is high, don't use them. Also, don't run up and down the back channels. I rescue a handful of folks every year that get in trouble with that. There are plenty of fish out on the main river, trust me. All due respect to Mr. Muddy but that is ridiculous. Browns are cannibals and that would only add food source to the Norfork. There are plenty of nice browns in there and certainly will be if you choose to go there. If you are after browns that time of year you will do well to fish what ever lures you want as long as they're white. The fish on both rivers are pretty well dialed in on Shad at that time of the year. Good luck!

I dont really blame you for posting those photos and I believe it is your right. That said, folks in the area would appreciate less hype. As of yesterday, neither gastons or stetsons lost their dock. Stetsons dock did sustain a lot of damage to be sure. Those folks plan on salvaging much of it. Its probably half damaged. It didnt float down the river, that's for sure. And i'm actually amazed that gastons hasnt sustained more damage to theirs. A dock supposedly floated into it but I don't know about that, didn't see it. Also, I'm sure there is talk about all kinds of things but with all due respect that is ridiculous. The total cfs including the units, has been 60k cfs for days now. That's the highest it got, thank the lord. I know the bulletin may have confused some folks with the article the other day. Yes, there was damage, it could have been much worse, folks will be back to normal before you know it as soon as the water goes down. I expect the river will be better than ever if 08 is any indication.