John Berry Fishing Report 09/11/2008

[John Berry]

JOHN BERRY FISHING REPORT 9/11/2008

Gustav blew into town and left a lot of rain. The White River rose significantly. The lake level at Bull Shoals Dam rose two and seven tenths feet to rest at twenty seven and three tenths feet above power pool of 654.00 feet. This is thirteen and seven tenths feet below the top of flood pool. Up stream, Table Rock Lake rose two and two tenths of a foot to rest at three and nine tenths feet above power pool or twelve and one tenth feet below the top of flood pool. Beaver Lake rose nine tenths of a foot to rest at seven feet above power pool or two and six tenths feet below the top of flood pool. The pattern early in the week was for no or little generation. Later in the week, there were fairly low levels of generation. Norfork Lake has risen four tenths of a foot to rest at fourteen and seven tenths feet above power pool of 552.00 feet or thirteen and three tenths of a foot below the top of flood pool. The pattern has been to run one generator during the day and to turn it off at night. There have been some excellent wading conditions on the White and Norfork during the last week.

We caught the edge of hurricane Gustav and received a substantial amount of rain. There was greater rainfall to the south of us which resulted in flooding down stream. In an attempt to mitigate the damage, the Corps of Engineers curtailed generation for a significant period of time. As I write this there is yet another hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico (Ike), which could have the same effect on our weather. We will have to wait and see. The lower water resulted in some of the most spectacular fishing I have seen in some time. This can only cause higher lake levels for a longer period of time.

The upper river from Bull Shoals Dam, through the State Park down to Cane Island Shoals was a real hot spot. On the lower water, smaller nymphs like zebra midges, sowbugs, and scuds have been the go to flies. Soft hackles like partridge and orange and green butts would also be effective. Remember to down size to 6X tippet for the lower flows. With the lighter tippets use a fly rod with a sensitive tip and don’t forget to adjust the drag on your reel for the lighter tippets.

The section from Wildcat Shoals to the Narrows was another hot spot. Not only were there reports of hundred fish days but there were also several trophy fish landed in the area. The low levels resulted in some spectacular fishing on nymphs like the black zebra midge size eighteen and olive scud size sixteen. Soft hackles like the partridge and orange, green butt and the hare’s ear soft hackle have been killer in the broken water below the shoals. In deeper water, olive woolly buggers have been very effective.

The top spot during the past week was possibly Rim Shoals. There were also reports of hundred fish days and trophy catches in this section. The hot flies here were black zebra midges size fourteen, olive scuds size sixteen and Y2Ks. In the deeper runs olive woolly buggers with a bit of flash have accounted for a lot of fish.

The heavy rains muddied up and raised the water levels on Crooked Creek and the Buffalo River making fishing difficult. The White River below the confluence of these two streams was high and muddy also.

The Norfork is fishing extremely well on the low water. The hot spot has been Quarry Park just below the dam. Hot flies have been sowbugs, San Juan worms and zebra midges (black with silver wire and silver bead and brown with copper wire and copper beads) all in smaller size eighteen or twenty. The Ackerman access was also fishing well on the same flies.

Dry Run Creek fished well this week. There have been few people there. With the end of summer, there are few campers at Quarry Park. The hot fly remains the sowbug in size fourteen with the worm brown San Juan worm a close second. I like to use fluorocarbon tippet here for its greater strength and abrasion resistance. Don’t forget the camera.

Practice water safety and always check conditions before you leave home.

John Berry is a fly fishing guide in Cotter, Arkansas and has fished our local streams for over twenty five years.