If you were brave enough to venture out on the rivers in between bitter cold windy days, and both high and low water flows then you may well have had some great fishing. The shad kill at Bull Shoals produced some great fishing for the short period of time they were present and the fish were turned on to taking them, many good fish were caught on the White way down past Rim Shoals, due to the numbers of shad that were present and had been pushed downstream due to the higher water flows.

When low water flows were present then dead drift techniques with chironomids, SJWs, Dynamite worms, sow bugs and scuds became the order of the day catching some class Bows. I personally saw caught by my customers many Bows in the 18 to 24 ins size range, fish that were fat as pigs, having had the benefit of high water last year and the abundant food base.

Brown trout fishing this past year has been as good as l have ever seen. The new 24ins size limit is no doubt a great asset for our fishery.

OK, Spring is on the way, and the river is looking good. Lakes are at pool, provided we do not see a repeat of last years flood stages, or extended periods of low water we should have a great year out there.

Spring is on of my favorite times here for our rivers. The dormant food sources are now moving around, and the fish are looking for those food sources after the long cold winter days. Just a few days l watched a number of crawdads emerging from the mud holes, the majority of which were egg bearing females.

Scuds and sow bugs likewise will shortly follow into the breeding season.

This past week the caddis have been active, and so have the fish taking them, be it the larva, pupa or emerged adults.

Caddis offer the fly fisherman many options of choice so far as how you choose to fish.

As a rule the fishing will be at its best during lower water flows, high water may well kill, what could have been a great hatch day.

Early on l will go with fishing caddis larva patterns such as the Ryac,( Green rock worm) other flies that will work as well would include GRHE and soft hackles, fished dead drift at depth with added weight to get them down, soft hackles that are more in the vein of caddis pupa are the ticket such as those in the Partridge and hares ear category, Partridge and green or orange, grouse and green, woodcock and hares ear, which is one of my all time favorites. Do not assume here that soft hackles are only for top water use, not so, they can be as deadly fished at depth in the same way you would fish any other nymph at depth.

When the hatch gets going or you see fish taking the returning ovipositing females than it is time to switch over to top water tactics.

Soft hackles, caddis pupa emergers and wet flies will be the order of the day here, along with dry fly patterns such as the Elk hair caddis, typically this fly is tied with a hares fur tan body, if you tie your own then add to the collection Elk hare caddis with both green and orange bodies, sizes 12/14/16

Choices for soft hackles will be same as for those used at depth, add to this wet flies such as the Invicta, Silver Invicta, Winged wet hares ear, Whickhams fancy and you will not go far wrong.

If you are more inclined to fish caddis pupa imitations then check out my SLF trans caddis pupa, a fly l innovated some 20 years ago, which is a killer, (See Picture )

Caddis fly's like those warmer weather days out there, and often as not if temps stay warm into the evening surface fishing can be real good with the opportunity to nail a trophy Brown, which are more likely to be active at this time and into dark.

Aside from the caddis activity then again if water levels are low choices are going to be dead drift with sowbugs, scuds, and many other generic type nymphs, shallow runs and riffles will likely produce fish with soft hackles and small wooly bugger type streamers.

Dry fly fishing can also be very productive as fish will be on the look out for adult caddis.

If you are out there when there is good cloud cover and overcast conditions then it is always worth fishing some larger streamers into and along the shorelines, you never know when a trophy Brown may take you, all be it l would put the odds more so for that to happen evening and into dark, provided temperatures remain stable, a sudden drop may well put the fish down.

Low water fishing situations at Bull Shoals Dam and the Norfork river will provide plenty of opportunity for some great midge sow and scud, fishing and soft hackles at times. You may well at times need to get down to hook sizes in the 20 to 24 size range, and micro midge patterns. I am not so sure that the fly patterns matters most of the time, it is more a question of presentation values, and that includes no surface disturbance from your fly line, blob bobbers, leader or careless wading. Longer leaders are at times of great benefit. Attach to a regular 9ft to 5x leader as much as 5ft or more of 6x and at time 7x, it can make a great deal of difference, believe me. Indicators need to be micro small, they are no needed to provide buoyancy for the fly, they serve only the purpose to indicate to you the fish has taken your fly.

Weight 90% of the time is not needed, either to the fly or added to the tippet, when fishing these low shallow flow rates.

Let us not forget the value of the lakes. Last season was very little fishing pressure due to the high water levels. Those Crappie have grown big time, and there are many more of them out there. Fly rod fishing for those guys is fun, pretty much locate some underwater structure, set up a indicator rig with a small jig and off you go.

Depth of fly from indicator can be a issue, try something in the region of 5 ft, and increase from that point on. Crappies are strange fish at times, l have seen situations when two of us fishing within a few feet of each other has resulted in only one of us catching , even when the rigs were identical. White, pink, and yellow and chartreuse are colors of choice, silver and gold jig heads sizes.

White bass and Walleye are moving into the shallows also at this time, some of my friends have been having great days out there this past week.

Low water situations at Bull Shoals Dam and the Norfork river will provide plenty of opportunity for great midge and soft hackle fishing.