As the long hot days of summer draw to a close we can expect to have ideal fishing conditions for much of the time. Look forward also to the opportunity to catch some class browns as they start to move up the river to the chosen spawning zones.

Generation schedules have some sort of pattern at this time. Both the White and Norfork will have some water flow during the day leaving plenty of low water slots between the high and low water levels for wade fishing access. As the seasons change, so too the feeding patterns of trout can be at times unpredictable. They may well feed well for a period of time and then cease to feed for a period. Here you have two options.

Either move to another area on the river or stick it out and hope that the fish will get going again. As a rule l will move to another location. It is a strange thing that not all fish in the same system will act the same. Sometimes a short move of a few 100 yards will make a difference, at other times may be a mile or so. There are many reasons why fish will act this way, many of those as yet to be explained by science.

There is no doubt that weather patterns, water temperature, dissolved oxygen levels etc. are some of the reasons that do affect fish feeding patterns. Yesterday was a typical example. Great water levels but unsettled weather. Fishing started around 8.30am. Plenty of fish could be seen but they were slow, not a question so much that the fly choice was wrong, l know well enough what to use to catch them.

Clients have their eyes fixed on the indicator, l am watching the fish and how they are reacting at that time, bows will normally always show some interest to something that looks like food, if they overall show very little interest to move to intercept a well presented nymph then you can generally assume they are not seriously interested to feed at that time.

Through most of the day we did catch fish consistantly, bad weather moved in and a heavy rain storm started, as if the light were turned on so to did the fish, pretty much every cast fish were hooked, landed or lost for that period of about a hour, for what reason l have no idea, some 70 plus fish were hooked overall during the days fishing and the clients were happy. Not a question of the fly making the difference as the same pattern was used all day. That"s fishing!

The Norfork has been producing some class fish, l know of a Brown taken in the 15lb class and many good bows in the 16 to 20 inch range. Here on the Norfork concentrate more so on fishing midge larva and pupa down deep. If you see visible signs of surface activity then move on to midge emergers or small drys. You will need patterns from size 18 to 22 most of the time. One good tip l will give you is this: When fishing midge emergers or small drys try to avoid the visible aspect of your tippet being seen by the fish, often that will be the reason for a refusal, even though you may be down to 6 or 7x at the time.

On the White, Rim Shoals continues to fish well and the Bull Shoals dam trophy zone does have at this time some real good fish in the area. More will start to move in this area over the next few weeks. On low water then
fish small scud and sowbugs, if any evidence of a midge hatch is taking place then go for that option . There is always a good chance when the generators are going that shad will come through, be prepared if boat fishing for this may happen as you will often only have a short period of time to take advantage of the feeding frenzy. Here you have the option to fish surface shad patterns to white streamers and jigs at depth.

Both floating and sinking lines can work at this time, but you need to present the fly the right way at the time and no two days are the same. Overall the White is fishing well. Standard nymph rigs using scuds, sows, hares ear, and many other nymphs in the size 12 to 16 range will work. There is a chance that we may see some late season caddis activity and keep a eye open for that, they will be small, around 18 hook size. Always worth fishing sunk line tactics and big streamers, wooly buggers for a trophy Brown, you never know how they will react at this time of the year.

Boat fishing will of course give you the best shot at that as you can cover water and fish the fly into shore lines and around structure. Browns do become more aggressive at this time of the year to lesser life forms. For those of you that like to fish for bass on the fly rod then there is some good fishing to be had on the lakes at this time, l have had some good reports for both the Bull Shoals and Norfork lakes. Both top water and sunk line methods have been working.

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.