Cotter Trout Dock Weekly Fishing Report

  April 1, 2026

More reports and other videos are on the Cotter Trout Dock Youtube Channel Page.
Below is the Arkansas Game and Fish Fishing Report April 1, 2026.

White River

Cotter Area
(updated 4-2-2026) Cotter Trout Dock (870-435-6525) said, “The trout bite has brought excitement to kids of every age this week — children, parents, grandparents, every angler on the White River. The water level has been lower during morning and early afternoon hours, with late afternoon releases bringing a rush of cold, clear water for a whole different fishing adventure. Daytime flows have remained fairly constant, which is good news; steady water levels cause less stress to the trout than frequent changes to the generation amounts. Bull Shoals Lake level was sitting Wednesday at 655.32 feet msl continuing to slowly drop.

Lots of success with spinners and spoons on the low water, best in the morning. The sparkle from gold or silver Cleos is attracting really nice-sized rainbows, and the nickel/gold Colorado or a 1/6-ounce Rooster Tail with a gold blade, yellow skirt is hard for the trout to resist.

Another hard hitter this week: jig fishing, mossy green with some peach or solid white, 1/8 ounce, will provide some strikes. You can experiment with shrimp, too, or with various colors of floating eggs and you’ll increase your catch count, but the action will be faster when you use them together.

Brown trout catches continue to delight the anglers around Cotter, mostly with live bait taken from the river (minnows, crawdads, sculpins), but more than one brown was hooked with shrimp and PowerBait.

Enjoy the best of spring with the best The Natural State has to offer: trout-catching on the White River in the Arkansas Ozarks. Come visit.

 

Calico Rock Area
(updated 4-2-2026) Dave McCulley, owner of Jenkins Fishing Service in Calico Rock, said, “Another great week of fishing around Calico Rock. In the mornings we have been seeing water below 4 feet and clear, which is great for artificial lures. On these mornings, we started at the Calico Rock bridge and then fished downriver to stay ahead of rising water. Throwing quarter-ounce Thomas Colorado Spoons in nickel/gold worked great for rainbows and the occasional brown trout. For larger browns and rainbows, Rapala Countdowns, CD5 or CD7, in brown trout or rainbow trout colors worked well. Additionally Dynamic HD lures in ghost brown or rainbow trout colors worked well. 

“In the afternoon, with the rising and dingy water, we were moving several miles upriver to find dropping and clearer water and changing to drift-fishing with Uncommon Bait UV eggs and shrimp. That resulted in some fat 16-inch-plus rainbows being caught. 

“North-central Arkansas is in a severe drought and we look forward to the rain coming on Friday and Saturday. As of now they are predicting over 1.5 inches of rain. The dry ground should soak up most of the rain, and we don’t expect there to be much effect on the river.”

 

Bull Shoals Lake
For the Army Corps of Engineers’ real-time outflow report from Bull Shoals Dam, visit the Corps’ Little Rock office website.

(updated 4-2-2026) Fishing guide Del Colvin at Bull Shoals Lake said Wednesday that the lake level is 655 feet msl; water temperature is around 58 degrees. “Looks like rain in the forecast; hopefully just not all at once. The lake is low. All right, April means easy bass fishing where everybody is catching on Bull Shoals. Moss is a little annoying. But the lake is fishing good.”
Look at early pre-spawn areas — areas where powerfishermen are still catching on the right day: wind/clouds/rain cranking parallel to the bank. A little color in the water helps. A Wiggle Wart and SPRO Craw green craws are working — don’t know for how much longer. Look at steeper, 45-degree, chunky, windblown, nasty rock and ledges and transition banks. If you’re in stained water, a Chatterbait and a spinnerbait will work. The shad are now everywhere and moving again. A small Tater swimbait is working, like a Tater Shad, traditional fluke or your favorite minnow to shake around the shad. 

If the conditions are clear water and post-front flat and sunny, get off the bank. The clear water has visibility up to 22 feet. Try a finesse Jewel; a Pee-Wee Jig in green pumpkin orange is working, and a green pumpkin shaky head and a Ned are also working. Look at points in 5-25 feet. 

The tube guys’ wobble headers and Carolina riggers are in play. They are starting to look down. Remember: “Fish the conditions!” 

(updated 4-2-2026) Southernwalleye Guide Service said the fishing this past week has been fair. Fishing patterns are still the same, as water temps have not changed much. We are still seeing a lot of male walleye swimming the spawning point shorelines at night. Look for fish on and around known spawning sites.

Fish shallow in the early mornings and on cloudy days in 2-6 feet of water and deeper in 8-15 feet of water if there is little or no cloud cover.

Hair jigs (1/8 to 3/8 ounce) and minnows or jigs and paddletails or ringworms work well after the sun comes up. Jerkbaits like the 110 and 110+1 or +2 style in black and silver or clown colors are also good at this time.

If trolling, try stick baits like Rattlin’ Rogues in purple chartreuse or black and gold. Troll in 8-15 feet of water at slow speeds — 1.0 to 1.5 mph seems to work best. Look for an open water trolling bite to start soon as the walleye start to migrate back to the summer holding spots. Deep-diving crankbait like Bandits, Rapala Tail Dancers (size 11) and Reef Runners trolled over the flooded forest along the old river channel will get some nice fish. 

If you’re into night fishing, now is the time to start going. Two hours before light and up to two or three hours after dark seem to be the best times. Fishing slow at night is the key. 

(updated 4-2-2026) Crappie 101 Guide Service says crappie are starting to show up a little shallow and finding them on brush near spawning-type areas. Water temps are varying because of the unstable weather but hopefully we are almost past it. A 1/16-ounce jig and, of course, minnows under floats are working.

Norfork Lake
For the Army Corps of Engineers’ real-time outflow report from Norfork Dam, visit the Corps’ Little Rock office website.

(updated 4-2-2026) Tom Reynolds offered this pointers for spring fishing on Norfork:

“Starting in late February we typically will see the winds switch to the south and a gradual warm up of air and water temperatures. The stripers will begin to move from the deep water following the shad. There will be multiple opportunities to catch stripers at that time. Both live bait and artificial baits will be very effective. The night bite will begin once the winds blow from the south. You will want to fish the northern and northeastern banks of the bays and main lake and main arm points. Some excellent spots are the points near Norfork Dam, Koso Bay and Point, the Hudson area, Frog Pond, Diamond Bay, Cranfield Island and the points north of the Cranfield area heading toward Red Bank Access.  
“The best time to night fish is a half-hour before dark until about 10 p.m. The best bait historically is a 5-inch or 6-inch Rogues. The color of the Rogue varies, with black/gold, clown and blue/black combinations seeming to work the best, but experiment with the colors until you find the one that works best that night. Bone color has been hot the last few years. Make long casts parallel to the bank and reel very, very slowly. A lot of the bites will be right next to the boat, so always have a big net ready. Stripers, hybrids and walleye are all active during this time. Watch the water temperature. As it moves up toward 60 degrees, the bite will get stronger. 
“During this time of year, live bait, shad and shiners are also very effective. The stripers will be roaming the shoreline looking for food. I use shad, but everything I do can be done using shiners. Most days I will run a large spread of lines. I begin with two inside planer boards, one near the shore and other out 20 to 30 yards. These board lines will have large gizzard shad in the 4- to 8-inch range. Out of the back of the boat I will have two lines with floats, shad on the hooks, with no weight at various depths from 10 to 30 feet from the floats. These lines will be set back from the boat between 30 to 60 yards. I then set out two free lines with a split shot weight on one line and nothing on the other. Both will have large shad on them and will be set 40-60 feet from the back of the boat. The last outside line will have one planer board with a large shad out 40 yards from the back of the boat. I will put out a wake bait: It is a large shad about 1 foot under the water right behind the engine. The wake bait is very effective for stripers roaming shallow water.
“As the water warms, the stripers will continue to move into the larger creeks to spawn. The magic water temperature number is 60 degrees. Your tactic to catch stripers should be to keep moving with the fish and continue to experiment with your techniques.”