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Additional White River Area Information
Davy Wotton's Web Site | White River Home Page | White River Lodging Directory
Davy Wotton's
White River & North Fork River Fly Fishing Report
Updated about once per month, or as conditions change.
Current Report: April, 2007
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Hello Fly Fishers!
This past week saw the temps drop real low, and that had the effect of more or less
killing of the great caddis hatches we had been having previous to that.
We should see as the conditions warm back up more caddis emergence, bit l doubt in the
same intensity as we have experienced.
The majority of the species we will see now will be the smaller genera.
Caddis are more or less the first major species we see hatch her on the White river
system, there after we will see the emergence of mayfly, PMD and Dorothea, these are the
may flies that have the distinct yellow color definitions.
Any top water feeding activity should present you with a number of options to fish. In the
case of the caddis in any number it can promote trout to feed in a frenzy. The fish are
looking for movement as the transition of caddis pupa does create disturbance, the fish
also are aware if the fact that caddis pupa are partially out of the pupal case at the
time they reach the surface.
You may not find at this time that a dry is the best option, as by a large margin it is
the pupa the fish are looking for, but it is always well worth fishing dries. Most surface
feeding to the adults is when the female return to oviposit.
My choices will be when the caddis are emerging is to fish flies that have a good over all
representation of a caddis, such patterns as the green tail in soft hackles or pupa, hares
ear nymph and soft hackles, and other flies of a similar nature, typically ,wet flies
Techniques of fishing can be related to the general activity of the fish. As a rule the
pupa will be active at the stream bed, and it makes sense to fish your flies at that time
deeper, when there is evidence of the hatch and you start to see the fish showing then
work your flies closer to the surface, soft hackles and emerging pupa are overall the best
way to hook up at this time.
This past Tuesday l caught a superb conditioned 6. 1/2 lb 25ins Brown at Rim shoals
fishing the emerging pupa.fish like this do not come that often when it comes to fishing
real small flies.
The cold spell has driven the fish deep and you may well find AM fishing is slow until mid
afternoon when the water temps rise a few degrees to get the fish in feeding mode, so do
not be in too much of a hurry to leave the water. In fact l would rather make a later
start in the day.
Best options if you are out there early is to fish the deeper water sections dead drift
with various nymphs and if fishing the more shallow water zones, 2ft or less work with
slower fished soft hackles and small streamers, as the fish will as a rule not be inclined
to chase a fly till the water warms up some.
Chironomid pupa in sizes 14/16 can often also be a good bet here along with a GRHE nymph.
Bull Shoals Dam zone has had some longer periods of zero generation, most days so far the
weather conditions have not been so favorable, cold and with nasty winds, not conducive
for good midge fishing there, but that will change.
I have not fished there myself for a good few weeks as for some reason the fishing has not
been overall that good. It will be interesting to see when we have more ideal low water
conditions what the fishing is like at that zone.
And if there are any of the trophy Bows still around there. Most of the Browns that
spawned there are now way down river for the usual summer haunts.
Generations have been reasonably moderate on the White, but try to avoid new water rise as
the odds are it will be trashy. Good tail water and the short period of time as the water
rises will be good until you start to see the water color up and the trash appear.
Norfork has some days zero others generation. In both cases you need to check on current
generation schedules for the day. Reports of the fishing at Norfork have been from very
slow to fair at this time, particularly for the larger fish, but you never know unless you
fish.
Top flies this month will include:
Hares ear with and with out gold bead heads, hares ear soft hackles various, greentail
caddis pupa, Elk hair caddis and other caddis dries, sowbugs and scuds, Pheasant tails,
Copper Johns and flies of that nature in sizes 14 to 18. San Juan worms, red and tan.
Streamers such as leeches and woolly buggers.
Always worth at this time of the year late on fishing some larger flies as many of the
Browns are looking for the early season bonus of crawdads and sculpins now that the water
temps have warmed up.
For BSD and Norfork, various midge patterns to include pupa and emergers, micro soft
hackles, sows and scuds in sizes 16 to 20. You may see some caddis activity so have at
least some of those in the box. High water then increase the size of your flies, add here
San Juan worms and eggs, which can still be the fly of the day at times.
I will add further to this months report if there are any big changes out there.
Tight lines to all.
Davy.
American International Schools of Fly FishingAbout 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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