If you have looked out the window very much in the last few weeks, you will have noticed that we have received quite a bit of rain. All of this rain has caused a significant rise in the water levels at Bull Shoals and Norfork Lakes. In fact, all of the lakes in the White River System are now over power pool and are currently in flood pool. As a result, the United States Army Corps of Engineers is running significant amounts of water through the dams, in order to bring the lake levels down to power pool. This is done to prevent flooding.
When I checked this morning, they were running about 12,000 cubic feet per second (the rough equivalent of four full generators) at Bull Shoals, with a prediction of more to come. At Norfork, they were running 3,000 cubic feet per second from its one operating generator. To make up for the lost flow from its other generator, which is down for maintenance, they are running another 3,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) through the flood gates. The total is 6,000 cfs or the rough equivalent of two full generators, which is the maximum flow from Norfork.
Needless to say, all of this water will affect fishing. Wading is virtually out of the question. There may be a spot or two, where you can hug the bank and catch a fish or two, but the results will be marginal at best. To effectively fish under these conditions, you will need to be in a boat. I know that there are a lot of anglers out there that do not want to hear this, but this is reality. To make matters worse, I expect these conditions to continue in the near future.
Therefore we need to think about how to fish from a boat and what to use. When they are generating a lot of water the fish are generally pushed toward the bank. At low water we generally fish the main channel but in high water we generally fish the banks.
The most productive method will be to fish nymphs under an indicator. With deeper water, you will need longer leaders and more lead. Make sure that you are ticking the bottom with your files. The traditional high water rig is spaghetti and meatballs, that is an egg pattern (peach or orange) suspended below a San Juan worm (I like hot fluorescent pink, cerise and red). Other nymphs like prince nymphs, ruby midges, root beer midges and caddis larva will also be effective. Cast out about twenty feet from the boat and have your indicator drift, with the current. Mend your line as necessary, to achieve a perfect drag free drift. Set the hook quickly, whenever you detect a take.
Another effective method is to bang the bank with a grass hopper. I like a shorter heavier leader, in order to turn over these larger flies. I add a small nymph dropper on an eighteen inch tippet in order to increase the hook ups with this rig. Cast as close to the bank as possible and retrieve with some erratic strips. You will get more hits on the dropper.
If you want to target bigger fish, then you will need to fish large streamers. This does not produce large numbers of fish but it does target larger trout. You rig large streamers on short heavy leaders on sink tip lines. Here again you bang the bank and strip the line in. Vary the strip until you figure out the retrieve they want. This is best done with heavier rods (eight weight or better) and is heavy work. It is not for the novice caster.
We are going to have some big water for a while. Don’t let it keep you away. Get out there and catch some trout. They are still there.
John Berry is a fly fishing guide in Cotter, Arkansas and has fished our local streams for over thirty years.
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