Lower Buffalo Report

[Yakfly]

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!

[Danoinark]

Thanks for the report. Productive trip for sure.

Dano