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.