Happy New Year

Fly fish Arkansas White and Norfork rivers with Fly Fish Arkansas top guide Jimmy T. for a safe fun filled fish catching  adventure.   My Mission: To provide a safe, educational, fun, fish catching adventure in any water and conditions.  As a veteran with 15 years full time guiding experience on these waters it’s this accumulated knowledge of the rivers that will make your day a memorable one.

Brown Trout
Brown Trout

Happy New Year:  Much like last year it was a wet one which made for another high water year.  Yep and once again we saw some flood gates open.  But any more fishing 9 or more units of water (30,000 +/- CFS ) isn’t a big deal.  As guides we simply learned how to deal with lots of water last year and got pretty dang good at it as well.  Earlier this year in Jan “09” we dealt with an ice storm and what a way to start out.

Ice Storm 09
Ice Storm "09"

The year moved on though, the river kept flowing and we all kept catching.  Many thanks to those guys and gals who fished with Fly Fish Arkansas and Jimmy T. this year.  Looking forward to seeing all of you back again this year so pick up the phone and book your “10” trip.

Bull Shoals Dam:  Generation was shut off last night from midnight till 5:00 am this morning.  Mostly 4 units all day long today with spikes to 15,000 CFS and dropping back down to 6,000 to 8,000 cfs.  Yesterday the water was shut off for a couple of hours in the afternoon.  The lake temp rose slightly to 49.5 f.

Yesterday when the water was off I did a little scouting up at the dam.  Redds all over the place and tons of huge fish doing their thing.  Saw two fish approaching the 20 lb range, three fish in the 15 lb range and bunches in the 8 to 10 lb range and countless fish in the 22′ to 24 inch range.  It’s been 10 years or better since I’ve seen this many fish in that shoal.  Looks like the higher flows aren’t having any ill effects on this years spawn.  I’ve been checking pretty much every day to see if any shad are coming through.  It’s still a little early and the lake needs to cool down some more.  This coming week with nightly temps in the teens and twenties should drop the surface temp down some.

Sign up for the SHAD KILL ALERT by sending an e-mail to shadkillalert@flyfisharkansas.com   By signing up for this e-mail alert you will be the first to know of this event.  If you have signed up in the past and did not get the alerts last year please re-send as my digital skills leave much to be desired and I know I’ve managed to loose a few or delete some.

Some info about the SHAD KILL:

Most years the White and Norfork rivers will get a shad kill. The key that seems to cause these kills appears to be the surface temps of the lakes.  A 42 degree surface temp seems to be the magic number.  This morning I dropped a thermometer at a boat ramp just down the road and came up with a temp of 52 which is a few degrees warmer than two weeks ago.  I also watched for gull activity below the dam as well.  A good sign that shad are coming through is when the gulls dive to the water and take shad from the surface.

When shad get pulled through turbines of the dams and into the rivers it causes some very exciting feeding activity.  The trout on these rivers go absolutely berserk and feed voraciously.  This can be seen if the shad come through with their swim bladders intact and full of air.  Explosive takes on the surface of the water will excite any fisher when this happens.  It is THE most fun of all the fishing on the White River.  It will get the adrenaline pumping for sure and dang near cause a heart attack when a fisherman has such a take on his/her floating fly from a big brown trout.

Special:  Book your trip by Jan 15 for the month of February. One full day fishing and two nights at River Cliff Cabin for two  $448.00 plus tax on lodging $8.82


Two full days fishing and three nights lodging for two:  $847.00 plus tax on lodging of $13.23  Lunch, water, sodas flies, leader, tippet, rods & reels included.  Bring your license and trout stamp.

Happy New Year

Jim & Debbie Traylor

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