This past Labor Day weekend saw some great weather with highs in the upper 80’s and lows in the high 60’s.  The lake levels on both lakes continue to drop with Bull Shoals down to 678.60 and the Norfork down to 566.40 with one unit on the past few days.  Bull Shoals is generating with 8 units however not always with a full 8 on.  

I fished the upper White River for the past two days on Saturday and Sunday and the catching was superb both days.  Long leaders with sow bugs & scud along with san juan worms continued to produce large numbers of fish.  On sunday I fished a couple from Kansas. Brad is an avid flyfisher and his wife Shannon tried it for the first time and both Brad and I think she may have become addicted to the long rod and of course like normal for the White River the ladies usually out fish the gentleman and on this day that was the case as well.  The count was a little close but the ladies usually out fish the husbands.  (I love it of course).  There are some new pics posted in the trip gallery.  We did manage to get three good bows in the 16 to 18 inch range as well as landed one small brown trout.  We lost two good brown trout on this day but thats OK as it was an adrenaline rush none the less.  A great time for me fishing with this family for the two days and am looking forward to fishing with them in the near future.

Thus far August has been a relatively cool month with a few days with highs in the 70’s.  Last week our highs were in the 80’s and this weekend Labor Day weekend highs expected in the 90’s with a chance of rain showers for today the 29th and for Saturday the 30th.  Later mid week the temps are forecast to be back in the mid to upper 80’s.  For those of us in the tourism and fishing guide business the current storm Gustave in much on our minds as the last event we need is for this storm to head up our direction and dump a bunch of rain on us to bring up our lakes and flood our streams.  Our current lake levels on Bull Shoals lake as of 6:00 am this morning is 680.44 and dropping roughly a third of a foot per day.  The lake level on Norfork lake is 566.85 and is dropping 2/10 ths of a foot per day.  The Norfork dam is generating during the day with mostly one of it’s two units and Bull Shoals is generating with all 8 of it’s units; however these units are not at full capacity most of the time and fluctuate anywhere from 5 1/2 alnd 7 1/2 units of water with the occasional full 105 % of 8 units later in the afternoon.  At this rate of drop the C.O.E (Corps of Engineers) is predicting October 20th as the date to hit normal pool elevation.  For fly fishers wishing to wade fish this is an important date to watch.  

Fishing Report:  Fishing with various types of flies such as Sow Bugs, Leonards Roo Scud, San Juan worms as well as caddis larvae on a log 13 to 16 foot leader with a bb and 3/0 shot along with a thing-a-ma-bobber indicator are working well for my fisherman as we are hooking near 60 fish a day with this rig and landing the occasional brown trout.  Mostly I am working the upper end of the river from the dam down to wildcat shoals a total of about 10 miles.  I watch for the subtle rises in the water and ride them down stream as these fish tend to turned on by these small rises.  The heavy moss we were getting earlier in the year has gone and the river is clean, cold and clear.  Perfect high water fishing conditions.  Our fish are looking good as they are fat and sassy and are pulling well.  The O2 levels are good as well.

Here are some of the links I use to facilitate my decisions on the what, where and whens of fishing.

This is the link for water quality or Oxygen Levels.http://www.swl-wc.usace.army.mil/water_quality_data.htm

This is the Norfork graphs link for precipitation, flows in CFS and the lake levels.

http://www.swl-wc.usace.army.mil/WCDS/plots/WEB/nor.htm

Here is the graph links for Bull Shoals

http://www.swl-wc.usace.army.mil/WCDS/plots/WEB/bul.htm

This is the link for predicted generation scheduling for all of the S.W.P.A lakes in the 24 dam system

http://www.swpa.gov/generationschedules.aspx

Here is the link for State Wide flows and levels for rivers and streams in Arkansas.

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ar/nwis/rt

These links should help with planning a fishing trip to our state.

Here is a 19 1/2 inch brown trout we caught this past tuesday.

This past friday a guide buddy Brian Wise (who guides on the North Fork of the White River in Missouri) and I took off to St. Louis to hang out with a mutual buddy of ours Matt Tucker who has the http://ozarkchronicles.com website.  Matt and his family were kind enough put Brian and I up for the night. We arrived friday evening and took off for Schlafleys brewery to meet up with some other friends.  Brian G. (king sh*t approved), Ted Calcaterra as well as Evan and Mike from Feather-Craft Fly Fishing.  The beer at Schlafleys was superb ( I liked the #15 and the Pale Ale).  We shot the bull for the evening and generally did what fisherman do!  Talk fishing and our latest plans.  Brian and Matt are planning to hit all the trout streams in Missouri this year (sounds complicated) and too much beer made it even more complicated.  Looking to seeing Ted and Brian this year at the Conclave and Mike and Evan later on in the year.  The next morning we woke early and hit the Lone Oak Nature Preserve to take some photos of some deer and see the elk and bison.  Fun trip.  We then headed over to Feather-Craft to meet the rest of the crew.  We met Ted the manager as well as his lovely wife Anna (the glue who keeps the place from falling apart) and Bob the owner.  Mike and Evan were there as well and I got the grand tour from Evan.  If you can’t find it at Feather Craft your in trouble.  The back area where the catalogue orders are filled was mind boggling with all the product that they stock.  If you don’t get the FC catalogue pick up the phone and order one now (link to the right).  We did a little tying and then went outside and Brian and I gave some casting lessons to some of FC’s customers as well as try out a few rods.  The Sage 7 foot 11 inch Bass rod cast like a dream.  Looking forward to my next trip to St. Louis and another visit to FC.

Send an e-mail to shadkillalert at flyfisharkansas dot com with Shad Kill Alert in the subject line.  You will be alerted when a shad kill happens on the White River.  Your sign up will be confirmed with an automated confirmation.  

I’ve been spending some time at the upper end of the river this last week and in the area by the dam my fishers are catching good numbers of fish since it cooled down last week.  Saturday morning was a good 4 hours with 30+ fish caught and monday was another good morning with 30 + fish in the net.  We are also landing some good bows up to 19 inches and a good 20 incher or two a day.  Long leaders at 14 feet below the indicator with the proper split shot and reading the water fluctuations properly along with fishing the correct fly are leading to these numbers.  I won’t give away any secrets here but there are a couple of flies that are working like a charm at this time.  If you are planning a trip up to our area give me a call at 870-404-8906 and check out our on the river lodging at http://rivercliff.com  The cabin has a private dock and boat ramp and is right on the river 35 ft.  Fly Fish Arkansas can also accommodate and arrange a group trip for your family or corporate outing.

  Late August and early September are traditionally a slow time in the Twin Lakes area due to the back to school time which means fewer folks fishing the rivers and lakes…NO CROWDS even on the weekends. About the middle of september it begins to pick up around the area with fisherman returning for the cooler days and even cooler evenings.  October is one of the busiest if not the busiest month on the white and Norfork rivers as our trout begin the yearly spawn down river and work their way up as the winter approaches finally ending the spawn up at the Dam in February and into early March.  December and January are the slowest months of the year and in my opinion provide the best fly fishing opportunities of the year for big fish.  Sight fishing to big fish at this time will almost always produce some really good brown trout as well as provide the opportunities to increase ones skill levels of casting, mending and playing a big fish.  In the fall I begin taking my fishers downstream and as the winter approaches I begin moving upstream and end in feb and march fishing at the dam.  During this time I am looking for low water opportunities to sight fish for big fish.  It’s always nice if there is no generation however if generation does end during the evenings or at some point for a period of time during the day there will be a window of opportunity to wade and sight fish during the next day.

  The Shad Kill: This much awaited and anticipated time of the year has many a fly fishers throughout the country searching for info as to weather or not there will be a shad kill.  This is a time when full generation is expected because it pulls the shad from the lake and into the river.  The trout are coming off the spawn at this time and the brown trout as well as the rainbow trout are hungry and go on a big feed.  Many big fish were hooked and landed this past february and march.  The biggest one one of my fishers hooked and landed was a 10 1/2 lb brown trout at 29 inches on a shad pattern.  (see the photo gallery).  Since I live a mile from the dam in the town of Bull Shoals (I can hear the horn when it goes off) I frequently drive down to the dam (sometimes twice a day) to check for shad.  I usually begin doing this about mid January if there is generation.  I also have a few guide buddies who do this as well and we will often go together with our binoculars to get an even better look which means we are usually the first to find out if shad are coming through the dam.   Because of this flyfisharkansas.com is setting up a new service to it’s readers and those interested in knowing when and if there are shad coming through the dam.  If you are interested send an e-mail to  shadkillalert@flyfisharkansas.com with Shad Kill in the sublect line.  When shad start coming through I will make this information available to all who sign up.

  Generation levels continue to be in the 6 to 8 unit vicinity with levels lower in the evenings and early mornings and rising with peak power demand in the afternoons.  This of course is normal as we get further into our summer hot period.  The lake level at Bull Shoals as of this writing is 691.60 feet above mean sea level and rose about a half foot due to yesterdays rain showers.  The Norfork lake level is 575.80 feet above mean sea level with some shut downs of generation during the evenings with generation starting up again in the early mornings around 8 am.  The norfork has been inconsistent in it’s fishing for most of the month of june while the White has been a little more consistant and predictable.  Heavier flows are however bringing a constant supply of food to the fish which are growing at a rapid rate.  The fish on both rivers look like they have swallowed small footballs.  San Juan worms, the dynamite worm, eggs, and some midges are producing some good fish along with some brown trout (see trip gallery).  Pretty much every day I’ve guided we’ve landed some of these brown trout in the 18 to 23 inch range but it was a little tougher during the full moon phase.  Long leaders are the key to hooking the fish and getting down to them along with some good size shot, proper indicators, the right fly,  keeping an eye on the fluctuations of the flows and being in the right stretch of river where the fish are all lead to a successful day of fishing.  As one of the few guides on the river with extensive experience in all the aspects of fishing the White River and with the knowledge of the bottom structure and how the fish move with different flow rates; success is achieved.  We are landing some good brown trout as well as some fat bows with numbers of fish in the 30’s and mid 40’s range per day.  On days when the browns bite well those numbers fall but then hooking and landing some good brown trout isn’t a bad trade off.   The C.O.E. (corps of engineers) is predicting the lake level will reach normal pool elevation of 654 feet by september and my own guess is by mid late september.   As August and September approach we enter our hopper period which is a lot of fun on high water.  We also sometimes get a summer shad kill after labor day weekend with 7 & 8 unit flows which is probable this year with the amount of water in the lake and the rain we keep getting.  The rains will taper off as june ends and we enter july so we should see the lakes begin to drop rapidly.  So pick up the phone now and call 870-404-8906 and book your fishing trip early.  Good fishing. 

This past week from last weekend through this weekend has been good for catching numbers of trout.  Last weekend I had a couple from Texas who are staying at Copper Johns in an RV for a month.  A very fun retired couple who love to fly fish as they have just taken it up this past october after taking lessons from Ron McQuay.   Our first day was spent at the dam where we got into some pretty good rainbows fishing the bottom on 6 units with SJ Worms and eggs.  The next day saw some lower water overnight which meant I would fish further down stream and catch the 2 units at ranchetts.  We ran upstream and found the falling water at rim shoals which I rode downstream.  A super day for numbers of fish and I clicked off 63 fish for that day.  I then did a three day trip with another two guides and spent most of this time fishing the upper end from the State Park down to the top of wildcat shoals.  We did well in the cane island and did manage to hook and land one 19 inch brown trout during that time and bundles of bows over the three day period.  On thursday I fished with a gentleman from texas whom I have been fishing with for over a decade.  On this day we caught some no generation water on the Norfork and we launched at the confluence and went upstream, spotted some fish and wade fished for the first time since april.  It was heaven and we had this section of the river to ourselves. After s short rain with raindrops so big we thought it was hail we began nailing some fish on a black bugger for about 45 minutes which then it’s like some one threw the off switch on the catchin’.  Rick my fisherman said he saw a fish take a caddis off the surface and I found a fly that was close to what he described.  I greased the fly up so it would float high and the catchin’ began again.  If the fish didn’t take it off the surface they would take it stripping it in.  After a short lunch we enjoyed the low water and the pleasure of wade fishing for another hour but we both knew we would soon be dirfting out of the boat again as generation had started and we had about an hour before the water would come in.  We had to make a run up to the dam to find clean water and on the first drift hooked and landed one and got another strike.  The water cleaned up quickly and we hit the C&R area down stream and caught a couple of more fish.  A good day and the choice of the fork worked out well.   The next two days brought a group of six who knew each other and mostly went to high school together.  They all met in Tulsa and drove over to the White River.  We got a late start with 7 1/2 units of water and three people in each boat.  The catching began right away and lasted for a couple of hours before it slowed down.  We fished till 6:30 and called it a day as these guys headed to the resort they were staying in to check in.  The next day I put in at cotter and found the rising water for that morning and rode the rise down past the buffalo river on tow units of water with 2 more we were riding.  The catchin’ was much better I clicked off 42 fish  for the day with my two anglers.  A good week of catchin’ it was so if you are inclined give ma a call at 870-404-8906 and lets go catchin. 

Unusual would be a good word to describe fishing on the White River in Arkansas.  Unusual in that twice this month flood gates were opened at Bull Shoals Dam.  The first time on April 10 with a full 8 units on along with an extra 5,670 cfs which brought the water up to the equivalent of 10 units and then again last thursday the 24th with an extra 13,270 cfs which was the equivalent of a little over 14 total units.  What this did however was to cover some grassy banks and other areas that normally do not see any water which flushed out the cane worm.  The fish we caught were full of them and had them puking up worms.  These fish were so fat they looked as though they had swallowed footballs.  These fish will grow rabidly.  As of yesterday the 29th april at 2:30 pm the flood gates were shut off.  Fishing this extra water was not hard to figure out (SJ Worms) and was quite fun as we were fishing areas that were normally never under the water.  It will be nice though to get back to some normal water (8 units) would be fine with me but I’m sure we’ll be seeing some lower water at times to help with the flooding 100 plus miles down stream.  May will bring some warmer temps (no rain we hope) and perhaps later in the month a sulpher hatch with some surface and dry action.  The norfork is also fishing well with the usual flies Scuds, sowbugs and san juan worms on it’s normal 1 to two units.  All is well with our rivers at this time so book your trip for the months of may and june now.  Weekends fill up fast (mine are all gone for may) and during the weeks is a little slower with fewer boats on the rivers. 

Tired of paying retail for tungsten beads.  How does below wholesale sound to you?.14 cents per bead in packages of 25 for $3.50 in nickel, black, silver, copper and gold.  Sizes 1/16th to 1/8th  Min order of 4 packages with shipping of $1.00 and 25 cents for each 4 packages after that.  Orders meeting $60.00 will be shipped free.  Contact Jim Traylor via e-mail to check availability wishfish@wholedamarea.com or call870-404-8906  or shop at 870-445-3848 10 am to 4:pm tuesday through Sat.Jim TraylorPO Box 751Bull Shoals, Ar 72619-0751