MANAGING EXPECTATIONS BY JOHN BERRY

One of the problems encountered by professional river guides is to manage the expectations of their clients. Many of them expect to catch large numbers of large trout every time they go out with a guide. Why is that?

I was guiding on the White River the other day and was struggling but still catching some nice trout. As is my habit, I asked a fellow guide and friend how he was doing. The idea is twofold. This is how I gather a lot of the information I use to write my fishing report and it frequently points me toward a more successful technique or fly than I am using. I will also tell other anglers and guides how I am doing and what technique or fly I am using. We are all in this together.

On this occasion, the other guide remarked that he was having little success fishing Hoppers. I indicated that I had tried them with no success but that I had changed over to San Juan worms and egg patterns (spaghetti and meatballs) and was picking up some much better fish. He related that the problem was that the lodge owner had given glowing reports to his clients about the great hopper fishing, on the White River, this time of the year. He was not able to meet their expectations.

Creating inflated expectations is often our own fault. If you look at any or all of our websites and all you see are photographs of big fish. If you read most fishing reports, you see glowing accounts of record catches of huge trout. Magazine articles are slanted the same way.

I try to be realistic when writing my fishing reports and if the fishing is slow, on a particular stream, I will say so. At the same time I am criticized by my fellow guides or lodge owners for writing it. They say that I am responsible for them losing business due to negative reports. I feel that, if I do not report actual conditions, then my reports are useless.

Reality is that we have constantly changing conditions on our streams. There are changes in wadability, water levels, water temperature, oxygen levels and spawning activity, to name a few. Due to these changes, the fishing is sometimes good and sometimes not so good. There is no one fishing technique that works all of the time (if there were, I would only fish that way all of the time). In addition, you are frequently limited by your client’s skill level or overall level of conditioning. Can they make the cast required by the technique selected? Can they handle wading in heavy water?

Part of success, on stream, is managing your client’s expectations. I always begin the day by asking my clients what their goal is for the trip. I carefully explain the fishing conditions and give them a realistic expectation of what to expect during the day’s fishing. I develop a strategy based on conditions, goals and my client’s abilities and modify it during the day as required.

Approach any fishing trip with realistic expectations and enjoy being on stream. You will be surprised at how well everything works out.

John Berry is a fly fishing guide with Blue Ribbon Guides in Cotter, Arkansas and has fished our local streams for over thirty years.

JOHN BERRY FISHING REPORT 8/28/2015

During the past week, we have had a minor rain event (a trace here in Cotter), cooler temperatures and moderate winds. The lake level at Bull Shoals fell two feet to rest at twenty four and five tenths feet above seasonal power pool of 661 feet. This is nine and five tenths feet below the top of flood pool. Upstream, Table Rock fell a foot to rest at three feet above seasonal power pool and eleven feet below the top of flood pool. Beaver Lake fell two tenths of a foot to rest at six and one tenth feet above seasonal power pool and two and five tenths feet below the top of flood pool. On the White, we had high levels of generation with no wadable water. Norfork Lake fell one foot to rest at thirteen and seven tenths feet above seasonal power pool of 555.75 feet and ten and five tenths feet below the top of flood pool. On the Norfork, we had wadable water every day.

The water level for the top of power pool has been reset for the lakes in the White River system. Due to recent rains, the lakes on this system are well above seasonal power pool and are nearing the top of flood pool. We can expect high levels of generation in the coming months.

On heavy generation, the best way to catch fish is to switch to longer leaders and heavier weight. On the White, the hot spot was the Catch and Release section at Rim Shoals. The hot flies were olive woolly buggers (#8, #10), Y2Ks (#14, #12), prince nymphs (#14), zebra midges (black with silver wire and silver bead or red with silver wire and silver bead #16, #18), pheasant tails (#14), ruby midges (#18), root beer midges (#18), pink and cerise San Juan worms (#10), and sowbugs (#16). Double fly nymph rigs have been very effective (my current favorite is a hot fluorescent pink or cerise San Juan worm with an orange egg suspended below it).

Conventional wisdom states that hopper fishing begins in late summer. I reject this idea and fish them all year. I favor shorter leaders (seven and a half foot 4X) and a stiff six weight rod to proper deliver these weighty flies. My favorite flies are Dave’s hoppers (#10) and the western pink lady (#8). To increase hook ups I always use a dropper. I am currently using a ruby or root beer midge in size eighteen on a three foot or longer tippet (depending on the depth of the water I am fishing). 

The Buffalo National River and Crooked Creek are navigable. With the warm weather, the smallmouths are active. Carefully check the water level before entering Crooked Creek or the Buffalo River. There are no dams on these streams. They both have large drainages and are prone to flooding during and following any rain event. The water can rise very quickly. 

On the Norfork, there is a substantial amount of water leaking around one of the flood gates that was being repaired, when the lake levels began to rise. As a result, the water temperature on the Norfork has risen to near dangerous levels. There has been no observed fish kill but the trout are stressed. Any fish caught should be carefully released. During periods of generation the temperatures are near normal.  The most productive flies have been small midge patterns (#18, #20, #22)  like ruby midges, root beer midges, zebra midges (black or red with silver wire and silver bead) and soft hackles (#14, #16) like the green butt. Egg patterns have also been productive. Double fly nymph rigs have been very effective. Try a small bead headed nymph (zebra midge, copper John or pheasant tail) suspended eighteen inches below a brightly colored San Juan worm (hot fluorescent pink or cerise #10). There have been reliable hatches of small midges (try a size 24 Adams parachute) and caddis (try a size 18 elk hair caddis). There have been daily hatches of sulphurs aroundnoon. The fishing is better in the morning and late afternoon and tapers off midday. My favorite combination has been a grass hopper with a root beer or ruby midge dropper.

There is a major construction project at the Norfork National Fish Hatchery. You can still access Dry Run Creek. It has seen more pressure with school out. It still fished well. The hot flies have been sowbugs (#14), Y2Ks (#12) and various colored San Juan worms (worm brown, red, hot fluorescent pink and cerise #10). Despite the construction you can still visit the Norfork National Fish Hatchery. It is fascinating. Be sure and remove your waders before entering to prevent the spread of aquatic diseases.

The water on the Spring River is navigable. This is a great place to wade fish, when they are running water on the White and Norfork Rivers. Canoe season is in full swing and can be a nuisance to fishing. Be sure to wear cleated boots and carry a wading staff. There is a lot of bedrock that can get very slick. The hot flies have been olive woolly buggers with a bit of flash (#10), cerise and hot pink San Juan worms (#10) and Y2Ks (#10).

Remember that the White and Norfork Rivers and Dry Run Creek are infected with didymo, an invasive alga. Be sure and thoroughly clean and dry your waders (especially the felt soles on wading boots) before using them in any other water. Many manufacturers are now making rubber soled wading boots that are easier to clean and are not as likely to harbor didymo.

John Berry is a fly fishing guide for Blue Ribbon Guides in Cotter, Arkansas and has fished our local streams for over thirty years. 

DAD TOOK US FISHING BY JOHN BERRY

I wasn’t able to write my column last week because my father, Woody Berry, passed away last week and I had to go to Memphis, Tennessee to help my sister, Ernestine with the arrangements. He had a stroke and fell, severely injuring his head on Easter Sunday. After a long stay in the VA hospital in Memphis, he ended his days in the West Tennessee Veterans Home in Humbolt, Tennessee. He was a World War Two veteran who served as an aircraft mechanic in the Eighth Air Force and was stationed in England for three years. Dad was ninety four. One of the fondest memories I have of him were the fishing trips he took us on, when we were children. Dad didn’t fish. Neither did his parents or six brothers and sisters. My sisters, Carol and Ernestine, my brother, Dan, and I wanted to go fishing. Though dad often worked two jobs to keep the family afloat, he still made time to take us fishing. We would go to Fisherville now known as Herb Parson’s Lake near Memphis. He would load all of us and a cooler full of soft drinks and sandwiches into a green 1958 Ford station wagon. We would rent a boat and since we couldn’t afford a motor dad would paddle us around the lake looking for a good spot to fish. We would fish for bream and crappie with cane poles. I am not writing about split bamboo fly rods but cut cane poles. We used live crickets and bobbers and we never caught a lot of fish but always had a good time. All of us kids had fair complexions (everyone but me was a red head) and we ended up getting sunburned. This was before sunscreen. One of the items we always took with us was a cricket cage that dad had made. He used wood salvaged from an apple crate, some screen wire and a coffee can to make it. A handle from an old paint bucket completed it. He was a patient and precise craftsman and the cage was a work of art. He also made me a toy chest out of the same salvaged apple crate wood. I don’t know what happened to them but I wish I had both now. When I was twelve I wanted a twenty two for Christmas. My mother was dead set against it but dad prevailed and got me a nice second hand rifle that I still have. He got his brother, Ted, to teach me how to shoot it. Ted had been a Marine in the South Pacific during World War Two and was an expert marksman. Being familiar with a weapon and his instruction helped me shoot at the expert level, when I was in the army eight years later. Fifteen years ago, when I was fifty three years old, I quit a successful career as a Certified Public Accountant to become a fly fishing guide. Dad had a lot of trouble understanding it. He had worked at an oil refinery for over forty years. After he retired, he returned to the refinery to run the credit union. The idea of me quitting professional career to become a fishing guide was incomprehensible to him. Finally, he figured that if I got into financial trouble, I could do taxes. He was then OK with that. Throughout my life my father supported and accepted my love of fishing and an outdoor lifestyle despite having no interest in it himself. I loved and respect him for that and many other things. His ashes will join those of my mother, sister and brother in a small rose garden overlooking the White River.  John Berry is a fly fishing guide in Cotter Arkansas and has fished our local streams for over thirty years.