Fishing Report: End of July Start of August

Terrestrials are in full swing on the White River with various types  hoppers, ants, frosted bottom cicadas and even reports of beetles working. Fishing two ants on weak generation at the dam have been productive until the generation picks up and covers the gravel bar between the boat ramps at the C&R area.  A larger hopper of various colors and types but mostly in foam are working better when generation picks up.  The filamentous alga is pretty much gone which sure makes the boat ramps a whole lot less slick and slippery but the didymo is still with us and gets stirred up a bit when generation  increases but is still fishable.  We are seeing a couple of no generation days good for wading on the weekends.  During the week mornings bring weak generation of a unit of water or less until mid morning when generation amps up a bit to mostly 7,000 to 9,000 CFS.

Fishing all along the river from the dam down to past Rim Shoals is productive with the best catching from Hurst Hole to the Dam with hoppers.  Midges drifted under terrestrials are the common way to increase the catch rate.  Various colors of tungsten beaded thread midges from black, pink, red & green are good colors to drop from a terrestrial with black being the most common.  My best luck has been on a black midge with a black bead with no wire but many folks have been using the black zebra midge with silver wire and a nickel or silver bead with great catch rates.

This past week has also brought much needed rain to our area with another rain storm this morning covering a wide area.  It has not been enough rain to raise lake levels which have been hovering just above the 650 foot mark are about 4 foot below the normal pool elevation of 654.  The bottom of the power pool is 628 feet MSL (mean sea level).  With this cold front that is passing through this Sunday morning the forecast highs are below the 100 degree mark with projected highs next weekend at 92 and 93 with overnight lows  below 70.  The fish are going to like this weather change almost as much as the fisherman is which will make for a bit more comfortable afternoon fishing.  With lower temps I’ll hazard a guess that we will see less generation and by the middle of September wadeable water will be the norm unless we get a ton of rain which is always possible with tropical storms moving through the Gulf of Mexico and coming our way.

Back to school is a great time to be on the White River fishing as the last two weeks of August and the first two weeks of September are pretty slow as far as crowds of people are concerned.  Pick up the phone and give us a call at 870-404-8906 to book your fly fishing adventure.

 

Jim Traylor

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