First Trip Up To The Dam, Wow !

[CartneyAccess]

Im pretty new to fishing the rivers, I have fished the white river around Cartney probably a dozen times. But I have been boating my whole life in Florida so I'm comfortable in a boat but learning these rivers has been a new experience. Well today the wife and I decided to take a ride up the norfork.

They had 2 generating, WOW that thing was Ripping. We rode up to the dam and back down.

Uneventful but was not comfortable enough to try to fish. Pretty Lame huh. But I kept thinking they would turn the water off and I wouldn't be able to get my boat out. I really need to hire a guide to teach me the do's and don'ts of the Norfork. It was almost a little adrenenlin rush my first trip up.

Any ways we fished the white and caught some very nice Rainbows and it was an excellent day.

[Ham]

CA, I moved up about 6 years ago. I bought a river Jon about 4 years ago. It is very difficult to solo fish Norfork on two full ~ 6000 CFS.

It is much more manageable for me at 3000 CFS. What I really wish for is about 1000 CFS, but they almost never do that. There might be a practical reason why they tend to run 6000 rather than a better number for fishing, but I don't know it.

Take your time and learn the river and what you are comfortable with.

You do really need to be paying FULL attention on the Norfork when it is running full.

I always worry a little about the water falling out, but you'll see it dropping and you can almost always get your boat downstream, but working it upstream on no water can be very difficult.

Going out with a guide is not a bad idea. Just talk to them before hand and explain what you are interested in doing and learning. Ie hire a bait guide if that is your thing or a fly fishing guide if that is what you want to learn.

Here's a couple of basics 1) Use a drag chain NOT an anchor. Never anchor off the stern and never anchor in current. I only use an anchor to hold my boat on shore. 2) Check the water level and the projected generation before you get on the water. If you are downstream that = no surprises.

You going to have a great time learning the river and you're going to learn how to catch more and bigger trout.

[sfiser]

Just don't use your drag chain on Norfork... they are illegal.

[Ham]

He's right about the drag chain deal on Nofork. Not allowed. I only use mine on the White River.

[bfishn]

...It is much more manageable for me at 3000 CFS. What I really wish for is about 1000 CFS, but they almost never do that. There might be a practical reason why they tend to run 6000 rather than a better number for fishing, but I don't know it...

It's simply the economics of a machine on the grid. Every generator has a narrow efficiency band, and the efficiency falls off rapidly for flows less than design capacity. They have to get the best bang for the buck, which means only bringing on units as they can do so efficiently. Water in the reservoir is money in the bank, so you only dump it when you can profit.

In the big picture, our beloved tailwaters are really just the exhaust pipes of the system, what's left from the process. We take what they give, and manage to like it sometimes. :-)

[Greasy B]

.

In the big picture, our beloved tailwaters are really just the exhaust pipes of the system, what's left from the process. We take what they give, and manage to like it sometimes. :-)

Thankfully sometimes is most times.

[taxidermist]

The only place on Norfork thats really bad is Otter Creek. Go to google maps and use birds eye view, below McClellans is a drop off that gets some newbies, stay to the left going up or down stream. There is another on the south side of that island below McC. just watch those two places. Yeaif you see the water dropping head back tot he ramp!!!!

[gotmuddy]

be very careful on the norfork. it is not for the faint of heart. Instead of a chain or anchor I use a bow mounted trolling motor to control my drift. It works great.