Darn that wife of mine.
She has announced that we are having an unconventional Thanksgiving.
She has informed me that we are going to go trout fishing in Arkansas.
We are headed to the North fork area, Mountain home , to the Little red river and other parts unknown. Any way, I have a week of fishing down there and am not real sure on what flies would be in order .
I have rods for most occaisions.
Cold weather? Dont care!
To hot ? Dont care .
I get a week of fishing.
What can you tell me about these areas for tactics and flies.
Any information would be helpfull.
Thankyou,
Perch
check your pm
Will be there this weekend myself.
A link to a very pertinent forum.
http://ozarkanglers.com/forums/
with a ton of good info and kind sharing people.
You, my friend are going to have lots of fun…
I love to fish in the Mountain Home area. My favorite place to fish is just below Bull Shoals Dam. Check with Blue Ribbon Fly Shop when you get there for generation times. They also have a huge selection of flies and can make recommendations. On my last trip, about a month ago, I used olive Wooly Boogers, BWOs, Griffith?s Gnats, and Sow Bugs. We fished for 3 days and lost count of how many trout we caught? mostly rainbows with a few cutthroats and browns. Most of the trout were in the 10-12? range, but we caught some up to 16?.
Check out this forum. There is lots of info on that area here and guys like John Wilson, John Gully and Davy Wotten hang out there.
http://p222.ezboard.com/bflyfishingarkansasandmissouri
You lucky lucky dog you!! Small flies and listen to that horn if you playing on the tail waters. They don’t wait for you to play that fish out or for one more cast. Its, get out or you die.
Welcome to Arkansas
Bring wooly buggers olive ,brown and black size 8 to 12 tied on scud hooks with lead wraps also black midge larva silver bead and silver wire wrap on body
size 12 to 16 north fork is my home waters there is a campground on the river
below the dam E mail me might meet you there
GOOD LUCK
standstall :lol:
Usually pull my little popup camper over that way and like staying at the Bull Shoals State Park just below the dam. Also take the canoe and launch it right there at the park and if by chance your not taking a boat you can rent one right there. Three miles down the road (maybe six by river), there’s Gastons Resort riverside, too, and they also rent boats (and motors).
As already posted, you can’t go very wrong with the olive wooly bugger … I even had some luck on purple wooly buggers, too. As to what to use and when I’ve found it depends on what’s going on at the dam. When they have some turbines on and the water is flowing fast I’ve had the better luck with the streamers. As the water slows down I’ll switch to the scuds and dries.
I’ve enjoyed my visits there and have always caught trout.
Dale
You’ll have fun no doubt. Great time of the year to be coming down.
Less people on the rivers, fish are hungry big fish aggressive.
Water releases aren’t too bad, been decent openings of low water for plenty of wading, but as always with these tailwaters you are at the mercy of the water releases and they don’t take fly fishers into consideration.
Your headline on this "enthusiam and no clues"always prompts the same advice, get a guide early in the trip, the White system is a little different than out west say. Pump them for information to set you up for the rest of the week. But sometimes guides aren’t always possible so Ill leave that one up to you.
Get a local regulation book when you get your licence, and look at the regs, the very upper end of the river underneath Bull shoals dam is closed and the catch and release area moves downstream at this time of year.
Secondly remember if you are fishing catch and release Arkansas is One Barbless fly only _ squeeze your Barbs down, no droppers.
Blue Ribbon has been mentioned and its good, if your a few miles east on the Highway in Cotter drop into Mountain River Fly Shop www.mtnriverflyshop.com introduce yourself and ask for the Aussie. I can getyou set with what is working as well.
Hope you have a great time
Cheers
Steve dally
From the wing dam at the state park to Bull Shoals Dam is closed until 1/31/08.
The little red is fishing quite well right now as well, Yong specials in olive have been a good fly for the red. Bull Shoals Dam has been running a lot of H20 so be prepaired for higher water on the White.
The Norfork has been hammered with all the water on the white, covered 10 miles of the White on Monday with a friend who guides saw lots of fish and caught several but couldnt site fish to any monsters like we wanted to,too much water.
And it is supposed to get cold here next week so be prepared with cold weather stuff. Highs here Thanksgiving day is 45 lows in the mid 20’s to lower 30’s. Should be good for the fish and the fishing. Watch your step this time of year, lots of redds on the rivers here.
Steve above knows what’s going on the White River. Do you miss the Dam store Steve…
To avoid trouble, stay alert for rising water and banjo music. Be prepared to escape from either.
Ed
When the water is low you tend to look across the White to the other shore and think with less fisherman that you would do better over there. Trouble is the water comes up fast and you could have miles of walking unless some boat fisher will pick you up. Pick a object on the shore to ckeck often. If you dont see it any more the water is on the way up. Olive wooly buggers first rapid down along the campground at Bull Shoal BILL
Hey catman
Which sounds funny as I don’t have a clue who is behind that sign-in LOL
I keep getting asked if I miss Beaver _ I enjoyed my time on that tailwater and the friends I made there, like yourself _ but hell, wouldn’t you rather live in Cotter right in the heart of some of the best tailwater action in the country!! :shock: :shock:
I love it over here. Settling in has been very easy, great shop to work in, lots of old customers coming to visit, meeting new ones is a pleasure.
As you probably know my first 3 years in the US I worked as a fly fishing travel writer/photographer and travel marketing consultant so I got to see some of the best of US fly fishing. And really I think the White offers the best place to catch a bunch of fish or truly big fish outside of Alaska. Since I was moving onto a new stretch, alhough Ihad guided certain sections over here when I was on Beaver, I did’t do much guiding to start, mainly former clients who wanted to come play.
But with 6 months of fishing a bunch Im appreciating even more how special this place is. The White is throught of, and really is superb nymphing water, but the dry fly opportunities are evolving with the maturation of the River.
The spring Caddis was phenomenal this year, I had some great sulphur activity into July, and the Hoppers/Chernobyls were outstanding from July through into even early October. Over the last month we have had some nice BWO and small yellow Craneflies coming off on Norfork and the White.
Very very cool.
Then when other fisheries are shutdown for iceout, or closed seasons we can fish right through the winter. The water temps remain in the 50s and the fish bite.
So yep, this is my new home.
Drop by the store sometime and say Gday _ and let me know who is catman LOL
Cheers
Steve
Caught this fella this past weekend
