White River
(updated 6-1-2023) Cotter Trout Dock (870-435-6525)
said, “Summer break is officially here; time to
replace the digital devices in the hands of your kids
with rods and reels. We've had a great week on the
river catching trout with spoons, spinners, jigs,
stick baits and PowerBait, so it's been easy to keep
them occupied.”
The White River is flowing fairly fast as Bull Shoals
Dam is continuing to release three or more generators,
9,000 to 13,000 cfs. It's not uncommon with
round-the-clock releases to find the rainbow bite has
slowed, but it's also not uncommon to observe the
quality of the catch has improved. Carry some extra
split shot, egg weights or bass-casting sinkers to
ensure your baits get near the bottom, then prepare
for some action because the trout are healthy and
fighting.
Trout are constantly swimming against the current,
which means they need to refuel often, which explains
why the bite is usually so rapid on the White River.
They're smart, too, and look for places to get out of
the flow for some rest now and again. Look for rocks,
or other structure – that's easy in our river because
the water is so crystal clear – and place your bait
downstream near the hidey-hole. Some added flash might
cause a quicker response. “We've had some fun
replacing the hook on a gold Blue Fox Spinner with a
feathered treble hook, or adding that flashy feather
to the tail end of a Rapala Countdown.”
They add, “Don't forget the sunscreen with all this
springtime sunshine reflecting off the water, but
don't mix your sunscreen with your bait/tackle. Trout
do not like sunscreen. We sometimes take the beauty of
our Arkansas Ozarks for granted since we live it every
day, but it wasn't possible this past holiday weekend.
We reveled in the perfection of creation in our
Natural State of Arkansas. Come see for yourselves,
and welcome to our river.”
(updated 6-1-2023) Dave McCulley, owner of Jenkins
Fishing Service in Calico Rock, said the last few days
the river is averaging 7.5-8.5 feet with clear water.
Both Bull Shoals and Norfork lakes are slightly above
their desired power pool levels. “With the expected
power generation schedule for both lakes, I expect
they should slowly reach the desired levels without
generating extra water. Once they reach the power pool
levels, expect the river level to drop and the fishing
to improve.”
With the slightly higher water levels, fishing was
steady throughout the week and the holiday weekend.
Silver inline spinners with orange eggs and shrimp
worked best. The river levels were a little high for
lures to be very effective. The lures that worked best
were the Rapala Shad Raps in shad coloring, which dive
deeper.
There was one trout stocking this week at the Calico
Rock boat ramp with 1,100 rainbow trout from the
Norfork Hatchery and another 1,100 rainbows were
stocked just upriver at the Chessmond Ferry boat ramp.
“With the hotter weather, remember to take precautions
such as using sunscreen, drinking plenty of water and
wearing a hat. Many people also keep a cooling rag to
dip in the water and wrap around their neck,” Dave
said.
(updated 6-1-2023) John Berry of Berry Brothers Guide
Service at Cotter said that during the past week they
had no rain, warm temperatures and moderate winds. The
lake level at Bull Shoals fell 3.9 feet to rest at 0.1
foot above power pool of 662 feet msl. This is 32 feet
below the top of flood pool. Upstream, Table Rock Lake
fell 0.3 foot to rest at power pool and 14 feet below
the top of flood pool. Beaver Lake fell 1.7 feet to
rest at 2.8 feet above power pool or 5.8 feet below
the top of flood pool. The White has had no wadable
water and higher flows. Norfork Lake rose 0.2 foot to
rest at 0.4 foot above power pool of 556.75 feet msl
and 22.8 feet below the top of flood pool. The Norfork
Tailwater has had wadable water every day. “All of the
lakes are at or near power pool. We can expect lower
flows in the coming days,” he said.
John added, “The Caddis hatch is on the wane. This is
our best hatch of the year. We have seen some small
hatches in the late afternoon. Before the hatch, fish
a Caddis Pupa like the Sunday Special in size 16. When
you see takes on the top but see no insects, switch to
a Caddis Emerger like my Green Butt in size 15. When
you observe trout taking insects from the top of the
water, switch to Elk Hair Caddis size 16.
“On the White, the hot spot has been Rim Shoals. We
have had higher flows that have fished poorly. 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. My favorite has been a cerise San Juan Worm
with a girdle bug dropper (size 8) or an orange egg
dropper.”
Remember that the White and 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.
John said, “Last week I had a two-day guided fishing
trip, on Tuesday and Thursday. I had two clients, Nick
and John, retired guys that are about my age. We
fished the first day at Rim Shoals. In the morning we
had low flows around 6,000 cfs, or the rough
equivalent of two full generators. I already had a
couple of rods rigged with cerise San Juan Worms and
orange eggs. We had the place to ourselves and did
well, around 20 trout. The water came up at 1 p.m. and
the fishing slowed. We caught a few more trout, but
not that many. We did manage to catch an 18-inch
rainbow, our biggest trout.
“On Thursday, we considered wading the Norfork on low
water or boating below Bull Shoals Dam on high water.
We decided that an eight-hour day of wading might be a
little too challenging, so we opted to fish the
catch-and-release section below Bull Shoals Dam with
the goal of handing a trophy trout. I always catch
fewer but larger fish there.
“We noted that the water was much higher than it had
been on Tuesday. They were running over 18,000 cfs, or
the rough equivalent of 5½ full generators. We fished
the same rigs but with much longer leaders in order to
reach the bottom in the higher water. We noted that
there was a lot more river traffic than at Rim Shoals.
“When you are targeting bigger fish, you will have
fewer opportunities. There are just not as many big
fish. Mid-morning, Nick hooked a good trout. He
quickly put it on the reel and took his time bringing
it to the net. It was a stout 22-inch rainbow with a
huge girth. It was a great catch and we took photos
and quickly released the fish.
“We went fishless for several hours. Then
mid-afternoon, John hooked a good fish. I got a good
look at it and it was bigger than Nick’s. I noticed
that John had a lot of excess line on the deck of the
boat and was stripping the trout in.
“This is my pet peeve. The most effective way to land
trout on a fly rod is to fight them with the reel.
Stripping in a fish by pulling in the line and
securing it under a finger is an inexact procedure
that is subject to error. Your fingers do not have the
reliable constant pressure that the disc drag on my
reel has. I have had 12-year-old boys land 16-pound
trout on that reel on Dry Run Creek.
“As I feared, the big trout took a run and John
increased the pressure on the line to keep the trout
from getting away. It snapped and the biggest fish of
the day broke off. I pulled in the line to check the
rigging. The break was clean, which told me that it
was due to the pressure on the line from stripping it
in. The tippet was 4X fluorocarbon, which is 5.5-pound
test. It was plenty strong to land the fish. By not
using the reel, he had missed an opportunity to land a
trophy trout.
“The reel is there for a reason. Use it!”
(updated 5-11-2023) AGFC staff fished the White River
in the Sylamore Creek-White River junction area. On
Saturday, there was a little smallmouth bite in the
current of the big river just in front of the creek,
biting white maribou Trout Magnets. Rainbows like the
Trout Magnet some but early, as well as an inline
spinner, at midday started really favoring the orange
PowerBait, while some liked the No. 7 rainbow
trout-colored Rapala Countdown. On Sunday, fishing out
of Jack’s Resort (870-585-2211) after the river had
risen 1 foot overnight, we drift-fished the White
River below the confluence, catching what would have
been boatload of rainbows (all were returned to the
river), including a 16-incher, using inline spinners
and hooks baited with X Factor eggs and pieces of
shrimp.
Bull Shoals Lake
As of Thursday, the Army Corps of Engineers reported
the lake’s elevation at 662.91 feet msl (normal
conservation pool: 662.00 feet msl; top flood
elevation is 695.00 feet msl). By midday Thursday the
flow was 15,095 cfs with constant generation over
recent days; tailwater elevation was 456.88 feet. The
reported lake elevation at Table Rock Lake was 917.06
feet msl (normal conservation pool: 915.00 feet msl;
top flood elevation is 931.0 feet msl).
(updated 6-1-2023) Del Colvin at Bull Shoals Lake Boat
Dock said Wednesday that lake level Wednesday was at
663 feet msl, or about 4 feet high. He adds, though,
that Bull Shoals hasn’t been this low this time of
year in quite some time. Water temperature is about 75
degrees. Algae blooms seem to be diminishing. Looks
like a thermocline is starting to form in that 20-foot
range. The sunfish bluegills are spawning on flats.
Most fish seem to be schooled up and moving out over
deeper water and suspending in 10-25 feet.
“I’m spending lots of time graphing, checking summer
spots, points, drops and ledges. Most fish still seem
to be looking up, making dragging bottom baits slow.
Most of the dirty water is in the larger creeks, while
there is high visibility around the main lake,
especially the dam area.”
For several weeks now, Del has been recommending that
anglers fish Bull Shoals like two separate lakes,
depending on the conditions. If you find dirty creeks
cloudy days when it’s warm, windy and with rainwater,
you should be powerfishing a square-bill crankbait,
Chatterbait, spinnerbait or a Rat-L-Trap-style lure.
Try on the last couple of swing banks or in or around
the bluegill spawning flats, pockets, bushes – cover
water. Fish runoff if available. There’s a big
Texas-rigged redworm bite in some of the brush piles.
For sunny, flat, stain conditions try points
slow-dragging a tube or Jewel half-ounce Special Ops
football jig in green pumpkin orange, or use perch
colors in the 10-20 feet range. For sunny, clear water
use natural colors in small profile baits. Look at
ledges; keep your boat as far away as castable.
Start early with a topwater, and as that slows try a
2.8 or 3.3 McMinnow. Once the sun gets up drop-shot a
Robo Worm. The shad are broken up high in the water
column mostly over deep water. It’s that time of year:
topwater, topwater, topwater. Get up early and fish a
wake shad, Spook, Lucky Craft Gunfish, a Pop-R or
Spook Jr. topwater. Also try a Flutter Spoon early in
the morning, or all day if it’s cloudy, especially
with the warmer temperature now. Each day is
different, so fish the conditions.
Del regularly posts new YouTube videos. Visit his
YouTube site (Bull Shoals Lake Boat Dock) for more
information and tips on fishing Bull Shoals Lake.
Norfork Lake
As of midday Thursday, the Army Corps of Engineers
reported the lake’s elevation at 557.18 feet msl
(normal conservation pool: Sept.-April, 553.75 feet
msl; April-Sept. 556.75 feet msl; top flood elevation
580.0 feet msl). Flow below the dam Thursday midday
was 3,064 cfs.
(updated 6-1-2023) Steven “Scuba Steve” Street at
Blackburn’s Resort said the lake level was 557.18 feet
msl and had dropped 1 inch in the previous 24 hours as
of 7 p.m. Wednesday. The Corps of Engineers has
started generating a little more, and the White River
at Newport is 12.24 feet. They are regulating to 12
feet at Newport and letting a lot of water out of Bull
Shoals and both lakes are approaching the top of their
power pools.
“It is getting very dry here and we need some rain
badly and may get some later this week,” he said. The
surface water temperature was 80 degrees and the water
is clearing after the churning of the holiday weekend.
The summer thermocline has formed at 17 feet and it is
very pronounced. Several fish are at or around this
depth. The water is very cold at 20 feet. Walleye,
crappie, bass and bluegill are at or around this
depth, and if you find brush there at that depth,
there will be a lot of fish near. Spoons and plastic
worms are working well. Stripers are going deeper and
deeper with the rising water temperature, and the
topwater bite has diminished to mostly bass early and
late. It is spooning time and stripers are about 50-60
feet down in 90 feet of water. Trollers are catching a
few fish but are traveling a lot of miles and burning
a lot of gas to catch them.
Visit blackburnsresort.com and click on Scuba Steve's
blog for a daily report.
(updated 6-1-2023) Lou Gabric at Hummingbird Hideaway
Resort posts almost daily on his Facebook page with
photos and where the fish are biting and what’s
biting. Check it out.
Norfork Tailwater
(updated 6-1-2023) John Berry of Berry Brothers Guide
Service in Cotter (870-435-2169) said Norfork Lake
rose 0.2 foot to rest at 0.4 foot above power pool of
556.75 feet msl and 22.8 feet below the top of flood
pool. The Norfork Tailwater has had wadable water
every day. “All of the lakes are at or near power
pool. We can expect lower flows in the coming days,”
he said.
The most productive flies have been small midge
patterns like zebra midges (black or red with silver
wire and silver bead). Double fly nymph rigs have been
very effective. Try a small bead-head nymph (zebra
midge, copper John or pheasant tail) suspended
eighteen inches below a brightly colored San Juan Worm
(hot fluorescent pink or cerise). My favorite rig has
been a cerise San Juan Worms and a ruby midge. The
fishing is better in the morning and late afternoon
and tapers off midday.
Dry Run Creek has fished a bit better. Weekends can
get quite crowded. The hot flies have been sowbugs,
various colored San Juan Worms (worm brown, red, hot
fluorescent pink and cerise) and white mop flies.
Small orange or peach eggs have been very effective.
Carry a large net, as most fish are lost at the net.
Buffalo National River/Crooked Creek
(updated 6-1-2023) John Berry of Berry Brothers Guide
Service in Cotter (870-435-2169) said Crooked Creek
and the Buffalo River are fishing better. With warmer
temperatures, the smallmouths are more 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.
