(updated 2-17-2022) Cotter Trout Dock (870-435-6525)
said there's nothing average about the weather we've
been experiencing this February, and there are no
average days on the White River: all are spectacular!
Whether you're busy counting rainbows, watching for a
colorful cutthroat or taking time to hook into a
sensational brown trout, there are no ordinary days on
the river. Water levels have been a little erratic,
starting out low, rising in early afternoon, then
dropping a couple of hours later. Releases from Bull
Shoals Dam have been variable, going from around one
unit (3,000 cfs) to around three units (9,000 cfs)
pretty regularly over the last week. The lake is 2
feet below its normal power pool of 659 feet mls.
Expect cold (to very cold) early mornings and a decent
rise in the temperature – we're getting into the 50s
pretty regularly already.
The brown bite has alternated between sculpins and
minnows with minnows closing in as a close second for
the best bait this week. Nightcrawlers proved their
worth for bank fishermen, and dragging a scented pink
or pink and white worm worked well angling from the
johnboats in medium or higher water levels. Be
especially cautious if you are casting from the bank
or if, during the periods of low water, you are able
to wade into the main channel. The water level
can change very quickly – don't be caught unawares.
Regardless of water level, remember: Big fish like big
bait. March will be blowing in before we know it, so
don't be surprised by some gusty days, just carry more
weight on your line and keep on anglin'.
(updated 2-17-2022) Dave McCulley, owner of Jenkins
Fishing Service in Calico Rock, said the warmer
weather this last week has made for nice days on the
river. The river has stayed between 4.5 feet and 6.5
feet depth. The water has been clear. The go-to bait
continues to be Power Eggs with shrimp. “I recommend
taking a few different colors of Power Eggs and if one
color isn’t working, try another. Talking to the
fisherman on the river, using lures said spoons
continue to work well when the river is at the lower
levels, and when the water is higher bouncing
dark-color jigs off the bottom as well as throwing
Rapala Countdowns and Shad Raps.
“I expect with the rain Wednesday night and into
Thursday, the river color will get pretty dingy for a
couple of days and clear up by the weekend. Watch the
weather and river conditions next week as we expect
more rain next Monday through Thursday.”
(updated 2-17-2022) John Berry of Berry Brothers Guide
Service said that during the past week they have had
no precipitation; frigid, then warmer temperatures;
and heavy winds. The lake level at Bull Shoals rose
0.1 foot to rest at 1.2 feet below power pool of 659
feet msl. This is 37.2 feet below the top of flood
pool. Upstream, Table Rock Lake rose 0.5 foot to rest
at 1 foot below power pool and 17 feet below the top
of flood pool. Beaver Lake rose 0.4 foot to rest at 1
foot below power pool or 10.6 feet below the top of
flood pool. The White has had no wadable water.
Norfork Lake rose 0.6 foot to rest at 1.1 feet below
power pool of 553.75 feet msl and 27.6 feet below the
top of flood pool. The Norfork tailwater has had
wadable water every day.
“Streamer season fishing is upon us,” he said. “Now
that the brown trout spawn is over, they are moving
back to their regular locations. Now is a good time to
target them. Fishing is best with heavy generation.
Bang the bank with big streamers on sink tip lines.
White is my current favorite color.”
On the White, the hot spot has been the
catch-and-release section below Bull Shoals Dam. After
opening day, there have been some big browns caught.
The hot flies were Y2Ks, prince nymphs, zebra midges
(black with silver wire and silver bead or red with
silver wire and silver bead), pheasant tails, copper
Johns, pink and cerise San Juan worms, gold ribbed
hare’s ears and sowbugs. Double-fly nymph rigs have
been very effective. Try an orange egg with a size 18
purple zebra midge.
Remember that the White and the North Fork rivers and
Dry Run Creek are infected with didymo, an invasive
alga. Thoroughly clean and dry your waders (especially
the felt soles on wading boots) before using them in
any other water. Many manufacturers are now making
rubber soled wading boots that are easier to clean and
are not as likely to harbor didymo.
With the fly-fishing season about to get cranking,
John mentions his fly-fishing class resuming at
Mountain Home, “Things are beginning to get back to
normal. My wife, Lori Sloas, and I are going to resume
teaching fly-fishing at Arkansas State University
Mountain Home after a two-year break due to the
coronavirus. Lori and I have been teaching this class
twice a year since 2011 and have taught hundreds of
people to fly-fish. We have really missed teaching the
class for the last two years and look forward to doing
it again.
“The class will be held on the Arkansas State
University campus on Thursday nights beginning April
14 and running for four weeks (on Thursday nights).
Classes begin at 6 p.m. and end at 8 p.m... The first
hour is fly-casting instruction and it is held outside
(during inclement weather, it will be inside). The
second hour is classroom and is held inside on the
first floor of Dyer Hall in room D106. There is plenty
of parking nearby.
“The casting instruction will be led by Lori. She has
been teaching fly-casting for over 20 years and many
consider her the best fly-casting instructor in the
area. I will assist her. I have been teaching
fly-casting for over 30 years. She is a better casting
instructor than I am. The goal is to teach every
student to cast a fly rod comfortably.
“I will lead the fly-fishing classroom instruction. I
have been doing this for over 30 years. Lori will
assist. The classes will be casual and questions will
be welcome. I consider myself to be the better
classroom instructor of the two of us.
“The classroom covers a variety of topics. First up is
water safety. We cover how to wade and boat safely in
the trout streams in our area. Next is equipment. We
discuss all of the equipment you will need to fly-fish
and what you do not need. We recommend that you not
buy any gear until you attend the first class. We will
furnish a rod and reel for the casting class if
needed. If you have your own rod and reel, you are
welcome to bring and use it.
“We move on to knots. To keep things simple we only
teach two of them, which are all you need to fish
effectively. We then teach you to use those knots to
rig and fish with four different techniques. We also
cover entomology (the study of insects) and fly
selection to imitate food forms available on our local
streams. We also teach reading water and stream
strategies.
“If this sounds like something you would be interested
in, go online to https://asumh.coursestorm.com and
sign up. There is a modest fee. Lori and I hope to see
you there.”
Bull Shoals Lake
As of Thursday, the Army Corps of Engineers reported
the lake’s elevation at 658.12 feet msl (normal
conservation pool: 659.00 feet msl; top flood
elevation is 695.0 feet msl). The reported lake
elevation at Table Rock Lake was 914.60 feet msl
(normal conservation pool: 915.00 feet msl; top flood
elevation is 931.0 feet msl).
(updated 2-17-2022) Del Colvin at Bull Shoals Lake
Boat Dock said the lake level is 657 feet msl and the
temperature is 47, give or take. Bass fishing has been
fair with cooler temps pushing big balls of shad over
120 feet into the guts of the creeks. Graph to look
for shad and look for loons. Active diving loons will
trigger feeding. The shad have moved even deeper as of
lately, 50-80 feet deep. Some of the predator fish
have left the shad, so power fishermen can grind it
out. Key in on wind ledges, transitions, channel swing
banks, points with chunk rock. Jerkbait has started
catching a few under a little wind, and the Rock
Crawler or Wiggle Wart works on windy transitions in
cover water. You can always catch them on a jig.
See Del’s YouTube site (Bull Shoals Lake Boat Dock)
for more information and tips on fishing Bull Shoals
Lake.
Norfork Lake
As of Thursday, the Army Corps of Engineers reported
the lake’s elevation at 553.01 feet msl (normal
conservation pool: Sept.-April, 553.75 feet msl;
April-Sept. 555.75 feet msl; top flood elevation 580.0
feet msl).
(updated 2-17-2022) Steven “Scuba Steve” Street at
Blackburn’s Resort says the lake level is 552.70 feet
msl and is rising slowly but steadily with very little
generation. The Army Corps of Engineers is holding the
White River at Newport to about 9 feet. The surface
water temperature is about 46 degrees and fluctuates a
couple of degrees from the afternoon to morning with
the recent warm sunshine. “It is cloudy (Wednesday)
and it has been very windy, making fishing difficult
and a cold front is moving through tomorrow. We have
been getting at least one cold front a week and it
really slows fishing. Fishing overall has just been
fair this last week but the lake is in excellent
condition for fishing and is at a good level and
color. The bite gets good just before the next front
and then the cycle starts over again. The full moon
has not helped anything either, except for the striper
bite, which has been pretty good for fish in the 5- to
8-pound range in open water on shad.
“I have been bass and crappie fishing and have caught
some fish every day, but not a lot. The new brushpiles
that we have been putting in are holding fish already.
We are past the middle of February and it looks like
no shad kill this year, but it did get very cold at
this time last year resulting in a big kill. The best
bite is in the evening from just before sunset until
dark. The best lures are jigs for crappie and bass in
brush with the bass being right on the bottom and
crappie being suspended right in it. At sunset they
move towards the bank out of the brush near the shore
and can be caught on a grub on a jighead right at the
first drop-off.”
Steve says Tom Wilson from Norfork caught some good
ones this week on the Bink's Spoon fishing Blackburn’s
new brushpiles in 25 feet of water.
For a daily fishing report and lake condition go to
www.blackburnsresort.com and click on Scuba Steve's
Blog.
(updated 2-17-2022) Lou Gabric at Hummingbird Hideaway
Resort said there are currently three good bites on
the lake, making fishing Norfork Lake fun for
everyone. Striped bass, black bass (largemouth and
spotted bass) and crappie are the three best bites on
the lake at this time.
You can find largemouth bass in several different
types of areas. Bluff walls have been very productive.
The fish can be up tight to the rocks or suspended out
from the bluff. Most of these fish are 10-20 feet down
either on the bottom, or suspended over deep water.
Alabama rigs are working great with white swimbaits.
You can judge how heavy of a jighead you need
depending on the depth you want to get the bait to.
Typical quarter-ounce works great. If you are using an
A-rig that already has added weight to the center
piece, you may only want a hook with no weight.
Crankbaits, jigs and spinners are also producing some
nice fish. There are still some nice fish hugging the
bottom off of long rocky points from 30-40 feet down.
“My best way to catch these deep fish is to
vertical-jig a spoon slowly right on the bottom.”
Striped bass are still in their winter pattern.
Basically, this is saying that the bait has moved out
to the deep-water river channels or very close to the
channel. You will find streams of bait 10-30 feet
thick and the stripers will be very close by. “I find
the striped bass on top of the bait, at the bottom of
the bait or some are even buried inside the bait. If
there is a deep flat next to the channel you may find
large schools of stripers cruising through the flat,
but they always stay close to the large streams of
bait. The bait is typically suspended 30 to 60 feet
down. This depth will vary and the thickness of the
bait will vary. The fish will be found suspended at
the same depths as the bait. There are various methods
to fish for this species. Live bait is a
tried-and-true method, vertical jigging a one-ounce
spoon, vertical jigging a 3-inch swim bait with a
3/8-ounce jig head or trolling swimbaits, umbrella
rigs, or hard crank baits. The key is to get your bait
at the same depth as the fish. This pattern will stick
around until the water temperature starts to warm,
which should be in the next couple of weeks. With the
warmer water the bait tends to start to move back in
the creeks or farther up river. When the bait moves
the stripers will be chasing.
Crappie are on brush. Find brush in 20-40 feet of
water. The fish will be at all depths depending on the
time of day. Early and late in the day they are
typically suspended on top of the brush and on
occasion only 5-10 feet down. Midday they tend to drop
a little deeper. Of course, the weather plays a big
role on how the bait acts in the brush, and just like
all fish species they tend to follow their food
source. “(Wednesday) morning I hit a couple of
brushpiles. It was a very cloudy, windy day and the
fish seemed to be deeper and buried inside of the
brush. Live bait, small twister tail grubs with a
one-sixteenth-ounce jighead and a small one-eighth- to
quarter-ounce spoon are all working great.”
Norfork Lake surface water temperature is holding in
the 45-46 degree range, but may start to rise slowly
with the spring type weather we are having. The lake
level has been rising slowly with minimal power
generation and currently sits at 552.75 feet msl. The
lake is trying to clear but still remains slightly
stained.
“I post almost daily on Facebook. If you want more
frequent information please visit and Like Hummingbird
Hideaway Resort’s Facebook page. Happy Fishing and
enjoy Norfork Lake.”
Norfork Tailwater
(updated 2-17-2022) John Berry of Berry Brothers Guide
Service in Cotter (870-435-2169) said Norfork Lake
rose 0.6 foot to rest at 1.1 feet below power pool of
553.75 feet msl and 27.6 feet below the top of flood
pool. The Norfork tailwater has had wadable water
every day.
There has been some wadable water on the Norfork and
it fished well some days and poorly on others. The
most productive flies have been small midge patterns
like zebra midges (black or red with silver wire and
silver bead). Grasshoppers have produced fish,
particularly when used in conjunction with a small
nymph dropper (try a size 20 black zebra midge).
Double-fly nymph rigs have been very effective. Try a
small bead-headed nymph (zebra midge, copper John or
pheasant tail) suspended 18 inches below a brightly
colored San Juan worm (hot fluorescent pink or
cerise). The fishing is much better in the morning and
late afternoon and tapers off midday.
Dry Run Creek has fished particularly well. School is
back in session and now is a great time to fish it,
particularly during the week. Weekends can get a bit
crowded. The hot flies have been sowbugs and various
colored San Juan worms (worm brown, red, hot
fluorescent pink and cerise). Small orange or peach
eggs have been very effective. Be sure and carry a
large net, as most fish are lost at the net.
Remember that the White and the North Fork rivers and
Dry Run Creek are infected with didymo, an invasive
alga. Thoroughly clean and dry your waders (especially
the felt soles on wading boots) before using them in
any other water. Many manufacturers are now making
rubber soled wading boots that are easier to clean and
are not as likely to harbor didymo.
Buffalo National River/Crooked Creek
(updated 2-17-2022) John Berry of Berry Brothers Guide
Service in Cotter (870-435-2169) said Crooked Creek
and the Buffalo River are still navigable. With colder
temperatures, the smallmouths are not active. The most
effective fly has been a tan and brown Clouser minnow.
Carefully check the water level before entering
Crooked Creek or the Buffalo River. There are no dams
on these streams. They both have large drainages and
are prone to flooding during and following any rain
event. The water can rise very quickly.
