Jim Dugan hiding behind a fat Bull Shoal Rainbow
THE White River has yielded some big browns to streamers over the last week and some good rainbows in the Upper River. But the Norfork is the best option if your wading. Check out the belly on the fish above, caught last week.
WHITE RIVER: So far it seemed we ducked the worst of the weather forecast this week, with much of the rain falling to the south. This could be the reason for the relativelylow flows this week. If the rainfall continues to dump on to the Arkansas river valley then we might even get some bonus low water this weekend.
The River was fishing very well through the week and weekend. There were even been some windows to pick off some wading along the flatter edges, including at the top of the river, around Cotter and Roundhouse and of course the Islands at Rim. There are other places too, but largely these rely on having public access through friends or resorts.
The hot ticket on the higher flows remain orange eggs and pink or red Dynamite or San Juan Worms. On the lower flows Wotton’s Whitetail and Super Midges, Clint’s Sunday Special and Tungsten Midge are doing very well. Sowbugs are also a good bet in the upper river on the lower flows.
On streamers Clint Wilkinson’s fisherman on Sunday picked off a 26″ brown on a size 2 white zonker Sunday, and a bunch of other nice fish around Rim Shoals. On Monday the Journal took our great mate Sage rep Cary Marcus on the river and we fished bigger articulated and baitfish style patterns on the Rio Outbound sinking lines (these are seriously trick) for two fish in the mid-20s and some nice under 20″ browns.
Smaller sculpin patterns like Dave Whitlock’s Near Nuff in tan, Rainy’s Carp Sculpin, and
Stop in to see the Galloup Fatheads and Dungeon’s, plus new colors in Zoo Cougars, Tan and Black .
NORFORK: There has been consistent wadeable water on Norfork for most of the week, which will probably continue through the weekend. We have also heard of some better fish starting to show back up in the tailwater, which will put some smiles on faces.
As usual don’t forget to pack your nicest midge selection WD40s, Zebra Midges, Harvester Midges and of source Davy’s Super Midges and Whitetails. McLellan’s Hunchback Scud in UV Tan and UV Olive have also been very good.
