June started off with a bang with a weekend of some pretty incredible dry fly fishing with browns looking up for cicadas. For those who found themselves in the right place at the right time, the bite was silly at times. It seems that the cicada bite has peaked and is now on its way out, however.
The already spotty cicada noise along the river bank has now waned into the last lonesome few bugs looking for a mate. The weekend gave nice hopper fishing flows, but by the turn of the new week mornings of minimum flow became standard for a few days.
To make things even more interesting, that long morning minimum flow would give way to peaks up to 20K cfs. Big jumps like that can make for tough conditions, but with a little know-how and some determination, fish can still be caught.
Fishing hopper-droppers in the minimum flow was a fun way to go about it in the AM. Any number of foam bugs – Psycho Ants, Fat Alberts, Card’s Cicada, Chubby Chernobyls, and the like – offered buoyant “indicators” while still getting bit.
Dropping midges and/or other buggy flies below the foam was productive, too, and allowed for many more hookups.
Dally’s Tailwater Jigs in silver bullet or zebra, Rainbow Warrior Jigs, Lightning Bug Jigs, Purple Perdigons, Sunday Specials, Guide’s Choice Hare’s Ears, and Bethke’s Pink Squirrels have worked well. A few sulphurs are out there too and Egan’s Frenchies and Rusty Nails have found a few fish.
In the big water up river, fishing Girdle Bugs tight to the bank and structure will find browns. Black, brown, or coffee/black colorways are productive right now.
Starting Monday and continuing through the week, the Norfork remained at minimum flow until around lunchtime. Generation hit 80 megawatts and be a touch dirty for a bit before cleaning up and leveling off.
The bite in the afternoons was at best spotty this week with a few solid windows in between some slow periods. Most fishermen stuck with the cicada bite on the ‘Fork in the bigger water hoping for a few remnant browns or cutties looking skyward. The bite is still there for cicadas, but prepare to grind it out if you want to go dry-fly only.
For the nymph fishermen, come loaded with tippet and split shot. Big, nasty attractor flies like Blobs, Cheetos, and Girdle Bugs are mainstays. Trailing with Dally’s Tailwater Jigs (size 14), Sunday Specials, Guide’s Choice Hare’s Ears, Lightning Bug Jigs, Sexton’s Carotene Jigs, Rusty Nails, BH Pheasant Tails, Rubber Leg Copper Johns in copper, Ron’s Crusty, and Devil Jigs are great dropper flies tumbling behind your attractors.
The long mornings of minimum flow have been fun for the wade fishermen. Standard operating procedure is to nymph with combinations of Sunday Specials, Y2Ks, Hare’s Ears, Pheasant Tails, Knowles’ Ruby Midges, Root Beer Midges, Dally’s Tailwater Jigs (size 18), and Zebra Midges.
Smallmouth bass have entered into their summertime patterns, though perhaps a little early. The water is low after several days of no rain and the fish are wary. Since Memorial Day, Crooked Creek has seen countless kayaks and fishing rods on the daily.
Adding to the onslaught is the fact that there are only a couple of floatable sections right now due to tornado damage. Nonetheless, with some good timing and skill, nice bass are being caught. Small Game Changers, Hada’s Craft Fur Minnow, Hada’s Creek Crawler, hellgrammite patterns (think black Girdle Bug), and Boogle Bugs will help fool a few good fish.
Focus on boulder pockets and swift, bubbly, shallow water for consistent hookups.
Aside from a few spotty storms in the forecast, the coming week looks like a sunny and hot one. We smack 90 degrees a couple of times in the forecast.
Dress for the occasion with solid solar gear, sunscreen, and high-quality polarized sunglasses. Sulphurs are trying to get going and before long our dry fly bite will continue its annual pattern from caddis to sulphurs to hoppers.
The summer solstice is just around the corner and we at Dally’s are excited for a summer full of fishy fun. See you out there.
Tadd Fore
The Ozark Fly Fisher Journal 
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