Arkansas Fishing Reports - April 5, 2006

White River: McLellan’s Fly Shop said there has been very little generation below Bull Shoals Dam lately, providing plenty of wade fishing opportunities on the upper river from late morning on through the rest of the day.  Wade fishing the upper river has been very productive with tan and olive McLellan’s Hunchback Scuds and Woven Sow Bugs.  Fishing high water out of a boat has also been very productive using large scuds, eggs, and San Juan Worms. With all of the low water, the White River has had a spectacular caddis hatch so far this spring!  Early in the morning, when few adult caddis are present, nymph fishing the shoal areas with a Z-Wing Caddis, Graphic Caddis or Caddis Larva can be very productive.  As the hatch progresses and the caddis pupae swim toward the surface, swinging a soft hackle like the Submarine Soft Hackle, Swing Caddis or Swing Nymph through the riffles can be very productive.  Of course, when you see caddis in the air and trout rising to the surface, it’s time to switch to a caddis dry fly like the Elk Hair Caddis, E-Z Caddis, Candy Caddis or the new Web Wing Caddis and cast to the risers.

Wilderness Trail said fishing has been good depending on the generation.  With low or no generation yellow Berkley Power Eggs and Sunrise or Rainbow nuggets have worked well along with a floating Rapalas, frozen shad and red worms. During generation, Buoyant Spoons, Rooster Tails, Mepps and Countdown Rapalas are the baits of choice. The fly fishermen have done extremely well with little generation on olive woolly buggers, zebra midges, EZ caddis and sow bugs. Brown trout are being caught on Countdowns, Shad Raps, suspending Rogues and nightcrawlers. 

  North Fork River: McLellan’s Fly Shop said for the last few weeks, one generator has been coming online usually between 5 and 6 in the morning, but then only running for a couple of hours, then coming online again in the evening. However, there has still been plenty of low water during the middle of the day to provide some very productive wade fishing. On the upper river, the usual McLellan’s Hunchback Scuds and Woven Sow Bugs are still hooking plenty of trout, but on the lower river, it’s time to switch to caddis patterns like the Z-Wing Caddis and the Graphic Caddis. Also, as more adults start to hatch in the late afternoon/evening, be sure to have plenty of Elk Hair Caddis and Web-Wing Caddis for some fun dry fly action. During a caddis hatch is also a good time to swing soft hackles across the river. New soft hackle patterns like the Swing Caddis, Swing Nymph, Submarine Soft hackle, and Wired Red Ass have all been hooking plenty of trout this spring. Best flies have been: McLellan’s Hunchback Scud Tan, Olive and Gray (14-16), Flashback Scud Tan, Olive and Gray (12-16), McLellan’s Woven Sow Bug (14-16), Mercury Brassie (18-20), Rojo Midge (22), Mercury Blood Midge (20-22), Red Jujubee Midge (20-22), Johnny Flash (20-24), Mercury Black Beauty (20-22), Gray Mercury Midge (20-22), Graphic Caddis Tan and Olive (14-18), Z-Wing Caddis (14-16), Caddis Larva (14-16), Submarine Soft Hackle (16), Swing Caddis (16), Swing Nymph (16), Web Wing Caddis (14-20), Candy Caddis (16-18), Elk Hair Caddis (and variations) (14-18), E-Z Caddis (14-18).

Cranfield Junction Quick Stop said brown trout and rainbows are biting well on woolly buggers and Y2K bugs just downstream of the dam.

Bull Shoals Lake: As of Tuesday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reports the lake’s elevation at 647.18 feet MSL.

Wilderness Trail said the lake temperature jumped into the mid 50s, and some 60s can be found in the backs of several creeks. Also lake clarity is starting to decline and is now at about 14 feet with as little as 6 feet in creeks where tributaries are flowing. Crappie are back on the brush piles near shore and around docks with brush.  Although crappie minnows on slip bobbers are still the best bait, crappie tubes, grubs and Bobby Garland Swimming Minnows work well for artificial baits. White Bass are staging for their spawn run in most of the creeks.  The best time to catch them is at dusk and dawn.  Roadrunners, small spoons, Spot Minnows, inline spinners and small jerkbaits will all trigger some great action.  Largemouth bass are up on the banks and back in the creeks and pockets, but those largemouth are hard to catch because they are looking for spawning areas, not feeding areas. The largemouth that are catchable are staging on channel swings and secondary points. When the wind is up, Wiggle Warts and Bandits are the hot crankbaits. Spider jigs in brown, green pumpkin and PB&J are the best jigs on slightly windy days, and Flukes or Senkos will work well when the water is dead calm.  Smallmouth bass and Kentuckies are on the same pattern this week. They are on ledges and pea rock points and are within a week of bedding up. Work the points and ledges with spinnerbaits, tubes, jigs, Senkos and flukes.  Walleye will take a week or so to catch up to the fast warm up before they start their spawn. They are on the chunk rock banks at night in the creeks and on the main lake chunk rock points. In the evening they can be caught on Rogues, X-raps and Shad Raps. The day bite is slow and will be until after the spawn. The best way to fish at this time is to drag a nightcrawlers or shad on a split shot rig in 24 to 28 feet of water off transition rock areas close to points or around chunk rock banks. 

Sugar Loaf Harbor said the lake is up a little and the water clarity is poor. Crappie anglers are doing fairly well along the bank on minnows fished under a slip-bobber.

Lake Norfork: As of Tuesday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reports the lake’s elevation at 543.84 feet MSL.

Cranfield Junction Quik Stop said the water is slightly stained and the water has risen just a bit since last week. Crappie are biting well on tube jigs in the northern half of the lake. Bass are biting well on soft-plastic lizards, grubs and crankbaits. Walleye are spawning and the best action has come on suspending Rogues, Reef Runners and crawler harnesses. Stripers are biting well in the early morning and late evening on large shiners and hair jigs. The whites and hybrids are running and Rapalas, Roadrunners and curly-tailed grubs are working well.