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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: June 15, 2007
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Hello Fly Fishers!
My last report indicated what we would expect for that month and so it was, with both zero
and med flow rates on the White resulted in some great fishing through the entire system,
largely that was also true for the Norfork.
We saw the last of the caddis emergence and on the right day great hatches of Sulphurs
along with midge.
Trophy Bows are hard to find to day no doubt of that, but l did see two notable fish
caught by my customers at Rim, a fish of near on 4lb and another nearly 5.
Along with that through the White river system many Browns in the 16 to 22 ins range.
Cutts are a rare occurrence to day, l would say the Herons and other predators have been
the cause of the demise. Cutts do favor shallow water zones to feed, and they have a
definite preference to feed in the surface. Out west they do well, but there you do not
see the numbers of Herons predating on them.
The Norfork has recently produced some good size Cutts along with Brooks at the dam zone
end of that river.
In the next month or so you will find many small Cutts through the system as they are soon
to be stocked from the hatchery, take care of these little guys when you hook them.
The didymo, no doubt is a very big problem here at least within the first 20 miles of the
White river, and has no doubt reduced the available food base for the fish in this section
of the river. Low water at Bull Shoals Dam would see 100s of fish surface feeding on the
chironomids, and the fishing has been great, if you like midge fishing and do not become
frustrated if you cannot catch them.
Here again the trophy Bows are like chickens teeth, those that are there by and large are
in good condition, average 12 to 14ins and many in the 16 to 16 ins range, still nice fish
by any means.
I have always maintained that the fish at Bull Shoals Dam are the most difficult within
the system to catch on a low water situation, and l will still stand by that statement. On
the other hand so are the trophy Browns found in both rivers, by and large you do not see
large Browns taking the micro midges. But they will take the larger size pupa, no doubt of
that.
For those of you anticipating to wade fish here on the White, you may not have too much
opportunity to do that for a while. As of a few days ago they have turned up release of
water to as much as 20,000 cfs, with 7 gates open.
And to say the least the river is a mess. Much of the didymo mass is being scoured from
the river bed at this time, and fishing within that is no fun. along with that the higher
levels are running crap off the shorelines. This will after a while clean up as the
continual flow of water will eventually scour the didymo matts down to the substrate.
You may well be able to find fish very close to shore lines at this time, and l can tell
you from experience that trophy Browns will forage amongst the vegetation and now covered
over grass beds. San Juan worms and streamers are good options to deal with this scenario.
High water is dangerous water, and you should be very mindful of that. Many of the near
loss of life accidents we see here are related to the use of boat craft. Do not take
risks, it is not worth it. Wear life support vests.
Do not run the river fast and close to other boat users, the wash can be very dangerous
and sink water craft, you may run into large timber floating down stream and hit submerged
structure you did not know was there.
Even those of us who run the river on a daily basis use way extra caution at these times.
So how about the fishing.
High water fishing is not something all enjoy, but you can still have some great days out
there with lower numbers of fish.
The two most important things when fishing high water are these. Use flies the fish can
see, and weight with the correct amount of leader length from the indicator to get the fly
down. And use a indicator that is large enough to support the rig below.
Jigs can be the answer for catching at these time, along with larger egg patterns of
bright color.
Work closer to shore lines unless you know underwater structure intimately. My rule of
thumb is something like 8 to 10ft from the indicator to the fly with added weight 8 ins
above the fly. We are not looking for finesse here, we want the fly close to the river
bed.
As a rule l will be using 4 or 5x here, at least a 6ft section of that from the butt
section to the fly line. The finer diameter line will enable the fly to sink faster than a
regular tapered leader.
As a rule also 6 and at times 7 wt rods and lines, due to the weight you will have to
cast, BB and AAA shot rigs.
Unless you encounter some surface feeding fish in slack back water margins, then go for
emergers, as midge are very likely the food source.
Your drift control needs only for you to allow the fly to stay in the water at depth,
avoid picking up and re casting if you can. The trick is when boat fishing to have the
boat drift at the same speed as the river, if you can maintain that.
Sink tips, full sunk lines and streamers worked along shore lines over structure, grass
beds can produce well also at times. And so can surface fished flies at times,
particularly for the Browns.
Make sure also you carry enough gas, running high water uses way more than low water
flows.
At this time there has been good periods of low water on the Norfork river, most days
there will be some generation.
We fished there a number of times this week. There are stacks of smaller Browns in the
system, and due to the Kids Derby fishing day this past Saturday a good few 1000 Bows were
stocked, very few were caught on that day.
Typically here flies such as scuds, sows, midge will do the business both for risers and
fish feeding off the river bed. This past Tuesday while working with some students at the
handicap access, we did a bug check, there were stacks of scuds to be found under the
rocks in that zone. Fishing was good using olive/gray scud, along with midge emergers for
the risers.
And you always have the options of fishing the Spring river if high water is the problem
for the Fork and White.
No way of knowing when water levels will reduce for the White, as of now the lakes are
high, and we still have the water coming through the system from the floods in MO this
past few weeks.
Tight lines guys.
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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Additional
White River Area Information
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