5/23/20 White River Report/ Fishing Report

[Ham]

 Normally, on Holidays, I let the tourist have it. I can fish later when it is less stupid crowded. However, we have guests in from Louisiana and they wanted to fish. so I loaded up Waldo.
they boys fished and the girls kayaked.

our friends stayed at Stetson’s. The crew at Stetson’s gas the place looking Great. I actually launched Waldo at Stetson’s. 

I dropped the Ultrex as soon as I pulled away from shore and we immediately started catching them. They were running about 2700 CFS and we all tied on 1/16 oz Zig Jigs and all had fish onboard within 5 minutes, but the chaos got to be too much for me. I could see 20 boats around us. TWENTY. Many we’re guide boats, but there were also lots of rental boats being operated by idiots. 
I ran up past Gaston’s hoping to get away from that chaos and found worse conditions with less fish. So many boats and no one was fishing solo. Lots of Power Bait gut hookers doing their thing. 
We were picking up one here and there, but stumbled across an area that had a few more fish. We worked it for all it was worth. 
They kicked up the water to 5000 CFS or so And I ran us all the way up to below the dam hoping that it would be less crowded anyway. Fishing was slower, but we all caught fish and had some BIG follows. 

They turned down the water and it started to get shallow up by the dam. I am not comfortable up there below 3000 cfs, but even at 5000 cfs you better watch your business. 

we ran back down and re-treaded our best stuff. Caught more fish. The boys decided they were tired. Girls were waiting at the cabin with KT’s BBQ.

as was to be expected. Water was cleanest immediately below the dam. Water was trashy and heavily stained below Stetson’s. Boat traffic as much as anything I think. 
one of my guests had a 21 inch Brown. The other had a beautiful Cuttie. Both caught a bunch of fish. I would guess we caught btw 75-90 fish. Less than 5 trout under 12 inches. 

[Quillback]

"Rental boats operated by idiots" - that cracks me up!  But glad to hear you got your friends into some good fishing.

[Johnsfolly]

Even with the googans sounds like a great time. Congrats on a fine guided trip buddy!

[Ham]

Well, my guys survived so...

[marcusearlt]

I launched at Wildcat that day and had similar results, lots of fish and tons of traffic. Dang near needed stop lights and a traffic boat cop directing people, kinda unreal but the fishing was good so go figure. 

[Terrierman]

Glad you were all able to catch fish and have a good time.

 

[Ham]

Might be the last low flows I’ll see for a while

[Terrierman]

3 minutes ago, Ham said:

Might be the last low flows I’ll see for a while

No joke.

[jdmidwest]

Its that social distancing thing.  They are all outdoors.