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Additional White River Area Information
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Davy Wotton's
White River & North Fork River Fly Fishing Report
Updated about once per month, or as conditions change.
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Current Report
November, 2004
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Hello Fly Fishers!
For the past few days of this month the colder days have started
to move in on us, but days time conditions warm up and overall the fishing is good.
Some heavy rain falls have been responsible for colored water conditions below both
Crooked Creek and the Buffalo river but as of now that had cleared up.
Flow rates on the White have been on average 2 to 3 a day and for the Norfork some periods
of zero and up to max 2.
So far as hatches are concerned , this past week or so l have seen some of the largest
hatches of BWO l have ever seen and on one particular day at Rim the river was literally
carpeted with millions of them. Needless to say the fish rose to the occasion and many
were caught.
Still some evidence of micro caddis and midge on the White, likewise also on the Norfork.
At this time of the year you may well find the fishing real slow early on, night time
temps have been down in the 40s at times and you need a few degrees of temperature rise to
get the fish going , best feeding activity in the afternoon till dark, in fact the last
hour can be very productive indeed.
The Norfork river is still at times experiencing some low oxygen water flows and here you
may find the fishing tuff, but not all days are like that. Two of my clients, in fact
friends from Wales caught some 50 fish on the Norfork this past Tuesday. Many of those
fish class Bows and Browns. Main tactic here was to fish with sowscuds and midges, pupa,
emergers and some small dries, Adams and my gray palmer.
On that day l witnessed in the shallows thousands of scuds and sows, and many of the fish
were caught in shallow water feeding on those food sources.
For the White, generic nymph patterns, fished dead drift will catch you fish most of the
time. If however a rise takes place to BWO then you will need if you wish to catch those
fish both emerger and dry BWO patterns fished on at least 5x if not 6. BWO are a very
small mayfly and presentation is the key here to catch them. Some of those fish rising are
good fish, over the 2lb mark, both Bows, Browns and Cutts.
Dead drift soft hackles for me are one of the deadly ways to catch at this time
particularly if there is some surface disturbance from wind.
You will need to grease your tippet to maintain your fly within the surface film or just
below.
Many of the Big Browns have now dug redd's spawned and left the area, in some cases given
no peace to spawn and have taken off. I cannot understand why some fly fishers derive
pleasure from standing over fish that are in the process of spawning and loose much of
their natural caution at this time. Many of those fish will be fowl hooked, and if you
consider that fair game. Then l and many others have no answer for that.
There is no justifiable credit for a fish caught that way. And a number of persons who
should know better continue to fish for trout that way.
Overall as l have said the fishing is good at this time and we will start to see the
decline of some food sources as they become dormant for the winter period. It is
interesting to see at times the stomachs of some fish literally rattle with the amount of
snail that they have consumed, and there is certainly a abundance of those in the system,
and they will remain through the winter period.
You may find in some zones large numbers of both fingerling Browns and Cutthroats which
are typically stocked at this time of the year, and you may well find a trophy Brown in
the same area. As we have seen this past week. Of course those small fish are on the menu.
Stick around in that zone and fish streamers and you may catch him. But they are very wary
fish to say the least.
I have seen clients this past two weeks catch a number of class fish Bows, Browns and
Cutts in both rivers.
As l have said fishing may be slow early in the day but expect some good feeding activity
as the day goes on and into the dark period. Once the temperature drops then they will
normally shut down.
Ok, that's about it for this month and see you on the river.Tight lines for now, Davy Wotton.
Good fishing for the month and see you on the river,
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.
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