JOHN BERRY FISHING REPORT 9/11/2008

Gustav blew into town and left a lot of rain. The White River rose significantly. The lake level at Bull Shoals Dam rose two and seven tenths feet to rest at twenty seven and three tenths feet above power pool of 654.00 feet. This is thirteen and seven tenths feet below the top of flood pool. Up stream, Table Rock Lake rose two and two tenths of a foot to rest at three and nine tenths feet above power pool or twelve and one tenth feet below the top of flood pool. Beaver Lake rose nine tenths of a foot to rest at seven feet above power pool or two and six tenths feet below the top of flood pool. The pattern early in the week was for no or little generation. Later in the week, there were fairly low levels of generation. Norfork Lake has risen four tenths of a foot to rest at fourteen and seven tenths feet above power pool of 552.00 feet or thirteen and three tenths of a foot below the top of flood pool. The pattern has been to run one generator during the day and to turn it off at night. There have been some excellent wading conditions on the White and Norfork during the last week.

We caught the edge of hurricane Gustav and received a substantial amount of rain. There was greater rainfall to the south of us which resulted in flooding down stream. In an attempt to mitigate the damage, the Corps of Engineers curtailed generation for a significant period of time. As I write this there is yet another hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico (Ike), which could have the same effect on our weather. We will have to wait and see. The lower water resulted in some of the most spectacular fishing I have seen in some time. This can only cause higher lake levels for a longer period of time.

The upper river from Bull Shoals Dam, through the State Park down to Cane Island Shoals was a real hot spot. On the lower water, smaller nymphs like zebra midges, sowbugs, and scuds have been the go to flies. Soft hackles like partridge and orange and green butts would also be effective. Remember to down size to 6X tippet for the lower flows. With the lighter tippets use a fly rod with a sensitive tip and don’t forget to adjust the drag on your reel for the lighter tippets.

The section from Wildcat Shoals to the Narrows was another hot spot. Not only were there reports of hundred fish days but there were also several trophy fish landed in the area. The low levels resulted in some spectacular fishing on nymphs like the black zebra midge size eighteen and olive scud size sixteen. Soft hackles like the partridge and orange, green butt and the hare’s ear soft hackle have been killer in the broken water below the shoals. In deeper water, olive woolly buggers have been very effective.

The top spot during the past week was possibly Rim Shoals. There were also reports of hundred fish days and trophy catches in this section. The hot flies here were black zebra midges size fourteen, olive scuds size sixteen and Y2Ks. In the deeper runs olive woolly buggers with a bit of flash have accounted for a lot of fish.

The heavy rains muddied up and raised the water levels on Crooked Creek and the Buffalo River making fishing difficult. The White River below the confluence of these two streams was high and muddy also.

The Norfork is fishing extremely well on the low water. The hot spot has been Quarry Park just below the dam. Hot flies have been sowbugs, San Juan worms and zebra midges (black with silver wire and silver bead and brown with copper wire and copper beads) all in smaller size eighteen or twenty. The Ackerman access was also fishing well on the same flies.

Dry Run Creek fished well this week. There have been few people there. With the end of summer, there are few campers at Quarry Park. The hot fly remains the sowbug in size fourteen with the worm brown San Juan worm a close second. I like to use fluorocarbon tippet here for its greater strength and abrasion resistance. Don’t forget the camera.

Practice water safety and always check conditions before you leave home.

John Berry is a fly fishing guide in Cotter, Arkansas and has fished our local streams for over twenty five years.

UNEXPECTED LOW WATER

BY JOHN BERRY

Hurricane Gustav came through the area and delivered a lot of rain. Crooked Creek and the Buffalo River were running high and muddy. Other tributaries were joining in creating flood conditions down stream. The Corps of Engineers was faced with rising water on the Lakes and on the lower White River. On Tuesday, they turned off the generators at Bull Shoals Dam. I gathered up my wife, Lori, and called the dam to make sure that it was still off. We drove from Cotter to the dam to take advantage of the low water.

As we drove over the dam, I strained my eyes to see the river. I could see no gravel bars. The dam had been off for several hours. Surely, it should have dropped out by now. We parked and walked over to the ramp and could see some pretty strong current coming through. Lori and I were disappointed. The window of low water was so short that there would be no good place to wade down stream. We loaded back into the car and drove home.

The next day I checked the generation and noted that it had been off since midnight. It had been raining non stop for a couple of days and the river was a bit muddy. I figured that it would be a bit clearer up by the dam. I checked with Lori and though she wanted to go fishing then she had a meeting with one of her consulting clients and would not be able to go until early afternoon. This gave me some time to write my fishing report and get all of our gear ready. When she got home, we loaded up and headed for Bull Shoals Dam once again.

I called the Dam and made sure that the water was still off. When we crossed the dam, I once again checked out the river and once again I did not see any gravel bars. The water had come up again. We ran into a fellow guide that was leaving the water with two clients. He said the water had just come up. We were disappointed again but this time we had a much bigger window of low water to work with. We considered several options like Rim Shoals, Roundhouse Shoals and the Narrows. We knew the water would be clearer close to the dam and therefore decided to fish Wildcat Shoals. We figured we would get several hours of fishing in before the water got there.

We drove over and donned our waders. It was raining to beat the band and we huddled under to hatch back to get ready and try to stay dry. We rigged our rods and headed for the water. It was heavily stained and we could not see the bottom in the deeper water. We tentatively waded out into good water. I still had a San Juan worm on from my previous fishing trip. Worms are always good choices after a rain because worms are always washed into the river during heavy rain and the trout key on them. I cast in a likely spot and was immediately into a nice rainbow. I stayed with the worm for a while and landed several fish.

A trout hit my strike indicator and I saw another trout rise. I couldn’t believe that there were fish hitting the top in this heavy rain and stained water. I talked to Lori about it and we decided to try soft hackles. I rerigged my line to accommodate the green butt I chose to try. It was no easy task as the rain had picked up and was coming down in sheets. I finally got it on and fished a likely looking run for thirty minutes without detecting a single bump. Lori landed one fish on a partridge and orange but we decided that other techniques would be more effective.

I went back to the San Juan worm and quickly landed a nice fish. I took the time to pump its stomach. As I deposited its contents in my hand I discovered that it was full of olive scuds. I gently released it and quickly changed over to an olive scud size sixteen. I was quickly rewarded with a great trout for my efforts. I stayed where I was and landed one trout after another. Lori on the other hand had switched over to an olive woolly bugger and proceeded to catch a trout on almost every cast. As I was relishing the great fishing, in spite of the rain, I detected a slight increase in the velocity of the water. I took a close look at the rock I had picked out when I had originally moved to that location and realized that the water was coming up. I yelled over to Lori that the water was rising. We reluctantly cranked in our line and waded back to the bank and walked over to our car.

As we removed our waders, I thought how an unlikely day with heavy rain and stained water had turned out to be an unexpected surprise. Life is good!

John Berry
(870) 435-2169
berrybrothers@infodash.com
www.berrybrothersguides.com