Mostly this past month seems like october due to the late changing of the leaves and the lack of spawning fish in many areas. Just this past week the leaves finally turned and began to fall off the trees. Definatly a little late this year as normally the leaves turn in october and the fish begin to spawn during this month and since everything is running a little late it just seems like October all over again. Our season on the White and Norfork rivers is winding down and really comes to a grinding halt after the Thanks Giving holiday. The crowds will be gone and weekends around here will look like weekdays. The fishing however will get better in that the pressure will be off the river. This is the time of year when the guides get to fish and go play on the river, do a little R&D, Scout, learn new areas either up or down stream, tie flys for the next season, do motor and boat repair, vehicle repair, website updates, do some marketing and promotion for the upcoming season, do much needed honey do’s around the house, rake and burn leaves, cut old trees down, split fire wood, attend various shows, catch up on reading, take vacations, go hunting, (did I mention tie flies?), tie flies and tie flies and tie more flies. Guiding IS a year round vocation and I for one love it and as you can see a guides life in the slow time is spent getting ready for the next year.
Speaking of going to shows: The GLC (Great Lakes Council) is having a tying show on Dec 1st of this year and myself and another Guide and buddy ( Marc Oaks) will be heading to Michigan at the end of this month. We will be promoting our services and of course I’ll be taking a few tungsten beads and tying tools to sell. If you are reading this and will be in Mason Mi for the GLC show stop by and say hello and introduce yourself. We are looking forward to meeting some folks and making some new friends.
Other news: For the folks who fish with me regularly I’v aquired a new Supreme Boat. It’s 48 inches wide like the other one and heavier and more stable and should provide much more comfort while fishing from the boat. The wind does not affect it like the other much lighter boat and it doesn’t leak like the other one 😉
Now for the fishing:
For some reason this past month we havn’t seen a whole lot of no generation days on the White. The lake level is low 648.00 or 6 feet below normal pool of 654 feet above mean sea level. Generation is sporadic with some weak less than a unit of generation up to a full two units of generation with lots of Yo-yo’ing of the water. Thus I’ve been spending a lot of time down river below Cotter where this effect is less obvious and does not affect the fishing quite as bad as it does closer to the dam. On the days when I can fish low water nearer the dam I do take advantage of this situation as the sight fishing for brown trout is much better. If generation does begin I can stay in front of the the water and continue to wade fish. My best low water flies are the Roo Scud tied by Leonard (http://taneycomonights.com), various colors of San Juan Worms and egg patterns, as well as midges. Mostly nymphing upstream with long leaders and shot. When fishing for rainbows on low water I rig up my fisherman with various colors of thread midges with tungsten beads and indicator. Higher water patterns also include the same flies with a long leader a little more weight. Some dry action is still to be had but there really hasn’t been the BWO action there should be. Probably because it seems like October all over again. I’m ready for november to show up. Perhaps it will get here in December or mabey we’ll cram it all into next week 🙂
Good fishing.
Jimmy T.