Fishing report Aug 4 & 5

[Greg]

My wife and I made our annual Arkansas trip this past weekend. We are from MO.

We were disappointed that the White was running water pretty much non stop from our arrival to our departure. So we didn't get to fish there at all. But luckily the Norfork was not running water in the mornings until 3 or 4 in the afternoon both days. The fishing was just OK. We caught plenty of fish but a lot of them were pretty small. I'm talking a LOT of 8 to 10" fish. We both caught mainly rainbows and browns with a few very small cuts mixed in. No brookies.

We did have a good time but were a little disappointed in the size of the fish. The last time we were down (Spring 2006) that wasn't the case at all. We both caught a lot of fish and they were good sized. Maybe it was just the time of year?

We fished both the dam access and at the handicapped access. Today (Sunday) I did manage one pretty nice brown in the afternoon (about 16"). I also lost one rainbow about the same size an hour later. We caught most of our fish on small bead head nymphs. I did try some larger flies to try to "stir up" the larger fish - but didn't get a hit on the bigger flies.

One thing we found out is how fast the water comes up when they start generating. WOW!! We were down at the handicapped access on Sat and they turned on 2 generators and in what seemed like just a few seconds the river was impassable. Luckily I was on my way out or I might have been trapped on the wrong side. One guy wasn't so lucky. We saw him "running" back and then start to try to cross then come to his senses.

Thanks to John Berry for all his advice/reports on the White and Norfork. I'm a faithful reader. Maybe next time we'll get to fish the White too.

All in all a good trip just not as good as 2006.

[John Berry]

Greg,

I am glad you got some low water. The Norfork has been fishing a little slow here lately. I am hoping that since we are essentially at pool that we may see some low water. Thank you for reading my stuff and your kind words.