Fishing Rim Shoals On Lower Water

By John Berry

The big advantage of living in the twin lakes area is the ability to quickly act to take advantage of prime fishing conditions. When you live outside the area and fish here regularly, it can be a bit of hit or miss, when attempting to zero in on near perfect conditions. I wake up every morning and turn on my computer and make a pot of coffee. I then sit down and study water and weather conditions. Usually it is to prepare for the day on the water with my clients. If I am not guiding, I like to go fishing on my own. I try to pick the best days for fishing on my own. I relegate the worst days for cutting the grass, raking leaves or running errands.

 

This past year has been a tough one. High water has been the norm. I have spent an inordinate amount of time in my boat fighting high water. It is just about impossible to fish by your self in high water (over four full generators). You cannot safely drag a chain and you must remain on the motor and be vigilant to detect any obstructions in the water.

 

Last Friday, as I perused the various graphs and tabular data, I quickly realized that Bull Shoals Lake had finally dropped to power pool and the generation on the White River had been significantly reduced which resulted in some prime fishing conditions. I called Mike Wilhelm, one of my fishing buddies from Memphis, who owns a weekend place across the street from me in Cotter. It was pretty cold (the mid twenties) so we waited until the sun came up and warmed things up a bit. We loaded our gear into my ancient Volvo and hooked up the boat. We drove over to Rim Shoals and found near perfect conditions. The water was lower than I had seen in a long while. They were running the equivalent of two full generators. There was no wind to speak of and the sun was shining.

 

I grabbed one of my loaner rods from my station wagon and put it in the boat. It was still rigged from my last guide trip. There was a cerise high water worm, a big split shot and a huge strike indicator on it. I merely adjusted the rig for the depth of the water and I was ready to go. Mike rigged his rod with a smaller strike indicator and a Y2K. We launched the boat and headed up stream. We attached my drag chain to the front of the boat. This controls the drift, keeps the boat straight in the current, and allows me to fish.

 

I found a great spot near Jenkin’s Creek and turned off the engine. We began to drift down stream and I cast about twenty feet from the boat. I watched the Strike indicator intently and saw it twitch. I instinctively set the hook and I was immediately into a great trout. I quickly netted him removed the barbless hook and lovingly released him. Then I hooked another and yet another rainbow. Mike quickly realized that I was on to something. One fish may be a fluke, but three in five minutes is a trend. He had a lot of confidence in the Y2K and was reluctant to change. About that time, he hit a good fish. Mike had not been able to go fishing for quite a while because of an eye surgery that kept him on the sidelines for a while. This fish was just the prescription that he needed to prompt the healing process.

 

Mike stuck with the Y2K for quite a while and caught several nice trout in the process. He managed to land the best fish of the day, a fat sixteen inch rainbow on it. At the same time, I was easily catching twice as many fish as he was. In a final act of desperation, he decided that it was time for a change. He didn’t have the exact fly that I was fishing, so I gave him a few. He has done the same for me in the past. He rigged up the fly and began picking up fish. This went on for some time and we managed to land close to forty trout. It was nearly noon and the fishing seemed to slow down. I glanced over to the bank and noted that the water was coming up. The rising water had put the fish down. It was time to pull the plug. I headed the boat for the ramp and we motored in.  It had been a glorious morning and we had relished the great fishing on the lower water.

 

I just checked the current flows on the computer and noticed that the water was turned off. Finally we have some wadable water. I am out of here!