What a glorious climate we have at this time, but not so good at times for the fishing. Low water and clear cloudless skies make fish very wary and not so eager to take the offerings of the fly fisher unless you get a number of things right. There have been some days that l will remember for a very long time, particularly for brown trout catches. One in particular was outstanding.

Two of my clients from the UK, Mr. Andrew Roynon and Mr.Saul Roberts, shared a boat catch of 43 browns and a bunch of rainbows. Mr Roberts took for his personal best a fish of 24 inches in prime condition. Overall l have seen a number of good cutthroats in the 15 to 18 inch range and some 'bows in the 17 to 22 inch range. The fish are there if you can find them and fish for them the right way.

Generation on both the White and Norfork have been moderate at the time of writing, with many days of no generation, that giving plenty of wade fishing access. Bull Shoals dam trophy area does have a number of big fish in the area at this time. If you fish on generation flow you may have a good time or you may not. Some days moderate flows of up to 3 units are perfect for drifting nymph tactics provided there is a good period of the same flow level. If the water is up and down this may very well shut the fish feeding activity down as they need to acclimatize to the new level of water, and the quality of that water.

The continual movement of boat traffic up and down in this small zone will also have a negative factor so far as catching is concerned, those fish have
learned a few lessons ! For the wade fisherman, my advice is to not join the crowd. If you are not able to find a good section of water to yourself then you may well have a hard time. These fish are smart, and the bigger they are, the smarter they are!

Low water makes fish spooky. Long leaders and tippets of up to 15 ft with size 14 to 20 nymph and midge emergers may be needed to get any action at times, So long as you use good suggestive patterns that represent sowbugs, scuds, black and grey midge you should not go far wrong. Very small soft hackles may well work at times. If you see any fish surface feeding my first recommendation is to use a black and silver spider, in sizes 18 and 20. Dead drifting this fly can be deadly any place on the river at this time of year.

Taking the White River system in general, there are certainly areas that the fish count is very low indeed for one reason or the other, mainly due of course to the harvesting of fish and the mortality, not to mention the illegal removal of fish. I recently had reason to question three individuals who l know had taken a limit in the morning form the area l was fishing. When l approached them later on that day, fishing again with fish attached to stringers, they gave me the excuse that they were only here for a few days. Needless to say they were told to put the fish back and leave or l would call the Game and Fish officer.

Browns are well stacked up in a number of areas at this time but tend
to move on a regular basis. If you locate them you may have a great day! If weather condition and water is good they may well take good all through the day. If not, late afternoon to dusk will be prime times, same too for rainbows and cutthroats. Many of these fish can be caught on surface fished flies at this time over low water lies, on small elk hair caddis size 14 to 18 will work well, so too will soft hackles fished dead drift. There is always a good chance to hook into a class brown by fishing a large dry such as a hopper or a stimulator to the known position of a fish.

Browns can do some weird things as they move to the spawning period, they most certainly have a very aggressive nature at this time to ward lessor forms of life. I saw a fish of around 6lb launch itself at a butterfly two days ago. Another option is to fish a large bug such as a bitch creek, fished the right way the odds are the fish will nail the fly. For those of you who are boat fishing in these low water conditions you will see fish spook and move away from the boat as it drifts downstream, unless you are fishing over some good structure or able to cast a good way you will not catch too many fish.

The best option is to anchor the boat and fish the zone you are in from the boat, often as not the fish will move back into the area that you spooked them out of. Better still is to wade fish the area if you are able to. Higher water flows at this time bring down a bunch of debris such as leaves and other organic matter, try to avoid this as the fishing is not likely to be very good, watch for generation times and aim to fish either well below, before the rising water gets to you or allow a couple of hours above the point of water increase .

My tips for you overall are this: In low water and bright overhead light conditions fish long leader and tippet configurations and small flies. If you see any evidence of surface activity fish in the surface as it is a good indication that fish will rise to a visible fly in this zone. For the better class browns try some of the techniques that l have previously mentioned, you may have a pleasant surprise. For those of you who would like to tie the black spider pattern it is as follows:

Body is first half silver wire, second half black thread with the wire wound over as a rib. Hackle is either black hen or starling for the very small sizes 18 to 22.

Please respect fish that are on spawning beds at this time! There is not any credibility to a trophy fish caught when they are in the process of spawning, more to the point they do not need to be stressed out at this time as they may well die from the effects of being handled for the camera.

Tight lines for now,
Davy Wotton

About Davy Wotton
Davy has been making his living as a full time fly fisher in one capacity or another for over 30 years. He has written many articles for all of the fly fishing magazines, created several unique flies and fly tying materials which he developed into a full scale manufacturing operation in his native country of Wales, and is a much-sought speaker around America at fly fishing functions and shows. Over the years Davy has fished in over 40 countries around the world but his choice for base of operation is right here on the White River. Davy operates his American International Schools of Fly Fishing in Flippin, Arkansas.