June 4 Fishing Report

If you don't mind me piggy backing or help your report I fished the lower lake this morning cause the fog was just to thick to get all the way up from below the landing.  From the bee to rockaway there are alot of rainbows and some are very nice, they obviously have been in the lake awhile. On a couple occasions I saw schools that had 50 to 100 fish in them. Lots of midging going on too.   The landing has the usual lots of fish but they aren't near the size that they are down stream.  Sculpin/amber sculip peach with orange heads tricked a ton this morning 

Relative to the question on what to expect on WR flows, I copied this note from USACE concerning the high water situation on the White river from the TU Facebook page. (It is a couple weeks old)...

USACE LR ADDRESSES OUR RIVER FLOWS, WHAT TO EXPECT AND BOATING SAFETY 05/24/2019

Laurie Driver, Public Affairs Specialist with the Corps of Engineers in Little Rock, was very kind to answer our questions and provide clarification, regarding the high-water situation the White River System is currently experiencing.

Laurie wanted to stress, first and foremost, safe boating practices, given the holiday weekend. The most critical safety precaution is to always wear a personal flotation device/life jacket. With a lot of boats on the river, you may be confident in your boating skills, but you can’t be confident in the boating skills of others.

We first asked Laurie if the Arkansas River flooding in Oklahoma would have any bearing on the decision-making with regards to the White River System, releases and generation. She explained that all the flood control, on the Arkansas River, is managed in Oklahoma. Their flood control lakes are full, so that water will run, uncontrolled, through Arkansas, to the Mississippi River. The situation will not affect the decision-making for our rivers. She explained the chain of flood control lakes in Oklahoma operate much like the chain of lakes in the White River System.

Laurie affirmed that the gauge for release management is at Newport. At 19 ft, as of this writing, the gauge needs to drop to 12 ft, before generation will ramp-up. Until then, we will experience periods of minimum flow, mixed with moderate flows, for an estimated 6 days. Before or after 6 days, all the lakes are expected to reach the top flood pool. Flood gates will be opened and with maximum generation, there will be significant flooding downstream.

When the lakes reach their top flood pool, there are no other variables. There’s no “gray area”. It’s essentially automatic…it is time to dump the water! The situation with record flooding on the lower Mississippi river will probably become more untenable.

In the interim, get out there, have fun and be safe. There should be ideal water for wading and boating at different times of the day. Unfortunately, however, according to Laurie, once releases begin, we will have high water, downstream from Bull Shoals dam, until approximately mid-August.

  

Went back again tonight and catching wasn't as great but it was good for sure! What a beautiful area of the lake to and so peaceful 

I'll have to try fishing down there, Travis.  May be picking your brain soon.

50 minutes ago, Phil Lilley said:

I'll have to try fishing down there, Travis.  May be picking your brain soon.

Pick away any time. Always glad to help. It's so peaceful with not much boat traffic and the scenery is beautiful 

Fished the lower lake again this morning. Caught around 15 or so but they were biting funny, not taking a jig great, just nipping at it.  Probably hooked up and lost twice as many as I caught. Good morning but could of been great if they would of stayed hooked up.  Mainly chased schools of midgers around. Was weird everytime it would sprinkle they would stop midging then when the rain stopped here came the fish again.  I also think they bit better after the fog burned off which seemed weird again to. Size was decent but bit quite as many bigger ones as the last few days. Still a really good morning on the best place on earth!  Yesterday I ran up and fished from the cable down to short creek with the water running. Threw a jerkbait the entire float and caught 5 brownies and 6 bows. Biggest brownie was about 16 inches and had a couple bows in the 17 inch range.  Just flat got to dang hot for me yesterday afternoon so back to the pool with the family I went. 

read the regs and answered my own question.

Way to get after them!  Hope you can stick a big one!