Friday saw some weak generation of about two units. Caddis continue their life cycle and the Trans Caddis seen in my post below in conjunction with a soft hackle rigged above it continues to be a killer combo for this guide as well as two other fellow guides. Joe and his friend Mark fished Friday and Saturday with Fly Fish Arkansas and the “hatch” began early. We did try a dry with a dropper but had no luck on the surface. The previous three days with no generation water did see lots of surface dry fly activity with reports coming into the shop of some “catching” in the C & R area but more “catching” further down stream from Partee Hole down past Rim Shoals. Dry fly caddis sales in the shop were brisk 🙂
Fridays traffic on the river was sparse and takes were at times very subtle and we did particularly well from the State Park hole down through Blue Hole. The C & R area in the afternoon was OK with some really good bows in the net. Saturdays traffic was a different story. There were boats everywhere. Rent boats, guide boats, private boats and dirft boats. We started in Three Chutes with no fish on our first drift but did manage a couple on the next drift. It was foggy and a bit tough for us at first but with a weight and length change we began catching. Mark was the first out of the box on Saturday with Joe lagging behind which was reversed the day before. Gotta love a friendly competition! We worked our way upstream as the wind kicked up to try and get out of it and ended up at the C&R area with only one other private boat up there. I was amazed. I figured it would be crowded. We got into fish right away. The trans caddis did not work well in this zone but a couple of flies which shall remain unknown did work well with some 18 inch bows in the net. I knew the water was schedule to come up around noon or one and at noon we got to about 4 units of water. Some surface action necessitated another fly change which was productive on the surface until it got really crowded. Lots of folks fishing with stuff they should not have been fishing with as well as a bank angler who was standing on the concrete way past the restricted signs. I got a call to pick up an official which I did to take care of the matter. He was one lucky fisherman and got away with a verbal warning. The official should have stuck around as it got much worse a bit later. With all the traffic at the dam and the wind howling and gusting at 2o mph we headed out and hit the park hole where we really got into them again with the trans caddis and got our best brown of the day.
COMING SOON: Cicadas? This unique situation will be a lot of fun. If you fished the hopper action this past summer this surface action lasted into November. The Cicada emergence this year is a 13 year cycle and should be very good. The last emergence of this kind was in 1998. Truly “Seasoned” White River guides have experienced this before 😉 Cicada emergences are not so rare but this upcoming one is as it is a periodic emergence Magicicada (13 year) as opposed to Tibicen or annual cicada emergence. These two bugs are different in both size and color. Warm or Cold water. It will be good and it will be prolific. In Northern Arkansas there will be two slightly different species. We should see two for sure and in 1998 samples in Marion County showed three with two being predominate. These two different species overlap in northern Arkansas all the way over into Kentucky and TN. 
- Cicada dispersion 2011
ETHANOL FREE GAS STATIONS:
If you are planning a trip or vacation to our area and are looking for fuel without ethanol in it these are the current locals you can find it. I get mine at Fisk in Yellville. He also has 2 cycle twc oil for $15.00 at least he did as of this past Wednesday.
Good Fishing:
