Another great day at Bull Shoals Dam

I recently guided two of my regular clients, John and Cliff, for the day at the Catch and Release section at Bull Shoals Dam. I had fished there a few days before and had done well. I picked them up at the lodge they were staying at and headed for the river.

When we got there it was overcast and there was moderate generation from the dam (probably 10,000 CFS or three full units). This is a really productive level to fish this area. The water is deep enough to clear most obstacles but shallow enough to easily get the fly down to the bottom.

I took care and carefully rigged their rods before we launched my river boat. I started one with an orange egg under an indicator and the other I rigged with a hot fluorescent pink San Juan worm. If I am fishing two anglers, I always start them with different flies. Then, if one starts producing, I switch the other to the same fly. I keep in mind that one fish on a given fly is an isolated incident and two fish on a fly is a trend. We picked up a nice sixteen inch trout on the egg pattern. That was the last fish on that fly. After taking three nice trout on the pink worm, I switched the egg pattern, so that both my anglers were fishing the worm.

We motored up to the upper legal limits of the tailwater taking care not to enter the restricted area and then floated back down stream. My anglers cast their lines about twenty to twenty five feet from the boat. As we drifted down stream, the guys would carefully mend their lines to maintain a drag free drift and cast as necessary to keep their line in front of them. When the strike indicator went down, they set the hook. Fish on!

We caught some excellent fish, several fish in the sixteen to eighteen inch range and a couple of nineteen inchers. All of them were ridiculously fat and fought incredibly well. My clients were pretty happy. It was time for lunch. We motored over to the ramp and anchored the river boat.

We walked up the hill to my car and got the food out of my station wagon. For some inexplicable reason there are no picnic tables at this access or the one across the river in Marion County. I sometimes motor down to the State Park and use one of the picnic tables there but I decided to use the folding chairs and roll up table I keep in the back of my Volvo for occasions like this. We ate and relaxed for a few minutes. The lunch talk as always centered on the fishing. Did you see that big one that got away? I stowed away the gear and disposed of the trash. I saved the empty soda cans for the next time I passed one of the TU recycle bins.

We made our way back to my river boat. A fellow guide, Jeremy Hunt, was also anchored at the access. They had pulled the spider chairs out of the boat and had eaten their lunch on the bank. As is my habit, I asked how the fishing was going and what fly he was using. Though we were having success, I was interested in what he was doing so that I could include the information in my weekly fishing report.

Not all guides are willing to share. I am an open book. I feel that by improving fishing conditions for all we can improve the success for this fishery. Jeremy is a guide that shares his information and I appreciate that.

He said that he had been fishing shad patterns and had done well. Though the shad kill had been several months earlier, the trout will not soon forget the great surge of food that came through.

The shad kill is a natural phenomenon that normally occurs in the dead of winter. It generally requires cold weather and high levels of generation. When these conditions collide thousands of shad are killed and sucked through the generators. This results in a feeding frenzy in the tail waters below the dam.

When we returned to the water, I switched my client’s flies to shad patterns. We started having immediate success. We nailed a fat nineteen inch rainbow on the first drift. Jeremy had suggested drifting the shad pattern down through the center of the river. We had been catching most of our fish on the right bank and I continued drifting down that bank. We caught trout after trout and nothing less than seventeen inches long.

John hit a really good fish. I could tell by the way it was hugging the bottom it was a big brown trout. He had a really good quality rod and reel. This is where a good reel earns its keep. He kept steady pressure on the trout. Every time it took a good run you could hear the high pitched whine of the reel. Cliff cranked his rig in so that it would not get tangled in the fight.

John slowly eased the brown closer to the boat. He was doing a masterful job. Just then the brown surged under the boat. I was concerned. I had a good fish wrap the chain the week before and we had miraculously landed that one. This one was too big for that. It came out from under the boat and John eased it close. I slipped the net under it and quickly raised it out of the water. The fight was over and we won. We took a few photos. We never removed the brown from the net and released it carefully.

We caught a few more but nothing like that. The day ended an hour later. The hot action had taken a toll on my anglers and they were anxious to return to the lodge and tell their tales.