Is Rim the best place to fish on the White right now??

[Phil Lilley]

Jimmy- do you get down to Rim much? I've heard it's fishing awefully well right now. Browns gathering at the tail of the riffles... rainbows in the riffles... I'd love to get down there!

Jeremy is living down at Rim with his dad right now- Brian Shaffer is down there too. But they don't have a computer (what I've heard) hooked up to the internet. But I bet they're fishing everyday- all day.

[Guest Jim Traylor]

Phill I get down that way when the water is coming at me. Not much this year. The spawn should work it's way upstream. There is really no BEST place to fish the white river as the trout fishing goes for 97 miles.

There are times of the year to fish though. And righ now is a good time.

Jimmy T.

[Gabe Cross]

Phill I get down that way when the water is coming at me. Not much this year. The spawn should work it's way upstream. There is really no BEST place to fish the shite river as the trout fishing goes for 97 miles.

There are times of the year to fish though. And righ now is a good time.

Jimmy T.

I've never heard of the "Shite" River...is that in Arkansas? Just kidding, but this shows how one letter misspelled can change a lot of meaning. Back on topic: Rim Shoals is in a catch and release area with good walk-in access, but the overall quality of the fish there is only slightly better than the unrestricted areas due to it being "open-ended" and "sandwhiched" within miles of harvest waters. Still, it is a beautiful place to fish, water quality is usually decent (on low water...rising water trashes up for hours if enough is kicked on), and the habitat is such that lots of really big fish have become residents of that area. But like Jimmy T. says, there is good fishing everywhere. Water conditions, hatches/food availability, and weather are what influence where most regulars and guides fish.

Gabe

[Guest Jim Traylor]

I changed it...

Thanks Gabe....:0

[Brian K. Shaffer]

Dry flies on Rim ? YES! Big - strange - dry flies! Count me in!

Returning from all the stupendous dry fly fishing in NM, I got to fish more dries at Rim Shoals for hours and hours. The San Juan fish were much more careful on nibbling, but the fish on the upper and lower sections of Rim hammered the big ugly dries like nobodys business. I got 30+ in one day... mostly small fish while wading the upper area, Jenkins Creek.

Jeremy taught the fly of choice in question this past Tuesday at L/L's fly tying class.. I missed it cause I was getting my truck worked on in SPGFLD.

The entire Rim Shoals area is fishing very well. Give it shot anytime. You know I will ;-)

I left all the spawning fish alone.. more time to tie flies!

best fishes - Brian

[Brian K. Shaffer]

Well, I just returned from the White once again.. and again the dries were working well above and below at Rim Shoals. We (Jeremy Hunt and his dad Billy) caught fish above at Jenkins Creek again, but this time it was a Griffiths Gnat that took all my fish on top. Sometimes the fly would get just to wet and I was shaking and skittering it just under the surface and even got strikes that way too :-)

I fished the lower Rim area behind the island the 2nd and 3rd day I was there and did well on dries as a big hatch of an upright wing small mayfly (?1?!) was coming off.. something olive in about a 22 or 20.

I didnt have anything that matched perfect, but anything that was floating high and dry took fish. I caught another 10 or 12 on dries both days.. without ever putting on anything that was a 'wet' fly.

The next coupla' days I mainly fished Wooly Buggers and Coneheads in the fast water right where you walk out. Standing in about the middle of the rapid water, at the top, I landed many fish that were fat chunky VERY stout trout. These fish surprised me quite a bit. Lots of really tough rugged fish. One was 16inches or so, and it fought like a frieght train.. capping off a great day of swinging big streamers.

The last day was awful.. way too windy and just way too cold to try. So we goofed off and watched TV.

Rim is one great spot on the White River that will spoil you.

best fishes all - Brian

[Jeremy Hunt]

Along w/ what Brian is saying. We are catching alot of the fish on dry flies up in the fast riffles at Jenkins Creek. They seem to hit best right when it lands or just a little bit after. If you don't get a hit on the floating presentation try to skate it on the swing and let it sink a little bit. We aren't catching any thing big but it is fun to throw dries in the winter time.