In “2008” our area got a bunch of rain over a longer period of time than we received this time around (10 to 14 inches in three days). White River fly fishing guides got a taste of some extra water coming from the dam twice in the form of flood gates being open and after that a full 8 units of generation for months on end. Sounds bad for fishing right? Actually there was a silver lining in all that generation we had. It was good for the fish and it taught us as guides how to fish lots of water and we all became successful at it by figuring out new techniques and the flies to use on all of this water. What we began to notice in 2010 and in 2011 is that we had some much better fish than we did in early “08”. It’s not like these events have not happened before and in speaking with some of the old guides who have been out here for 30+ years they were eagerly awaiting higher lake levels and bigger flows for the river. Well for the past 3 years we’ve pretty much had some bigger flows and fishing it as a guide isn’t the boogie man it once was (at least with a fly rod). And when all of the water from the dam is evacuated and flows come down again we will be left with some even bigger fish in our rivers. There will be plenty of food for them to forage on and grow and yes we can catch them from our unique White River Jon Boats. At the moment our flows are low as the Corps of Engineers is holding back water to prevent further flooding down stream. The dam is doing it’s job and as guides our job is to put you on the fish and we have learned as a group how to do it under all flow conditions including extra flows and the last time around we did it safely and had a blast and caught lots of fish. Big Water = Big Fish. Book your trip and learn some new techniques and ways to fish some bigger water. Streamer fisherman are going to love the water we are going to see through the next few months.
We are looking forward to the 13 year cicada emergence and fishing this terrestrial this summer. See the fly-shop page for more information.
Our thoughts and prayers to those who are suffering from the latest round of bad weather.
Stay Fishy My Friends
Jimmy T.