JOHN BERRY FISHING REPORT 6/17 /2016

During the past week, we have had a rain event (about a half an inch here in Cotter), hot temperatures (to include heat advisories) and moderate winds. The lake level at Bull Shoals fell one tenth of a foot to rest at one and five tenths feet above seasonal power pool of 661.9 feet. This is thirty one and six tenths feet below the top of flood pool. Upstream, Table Rock fell three tenths of a foot to rest at five tenths of a foot below seasonal power pool and fourteen and five tenths feet below the top of flood pool. Beaver Lake fell three tenths of a foot to rest at five tenths of a foot below seasonal power pool and nine and one tenth feet below the top of flood pool. On the White, we had moderate generation this week with wadable water most days. Norfork Lake rose two and six tenths feet to rest at five tenths of a foot tenth above seasonal power pool of 556.65 feet and twenty two and nine tenths feet below the top of flood pool. On the Norfork, we had wadable water most days.

Seasonal power pool has been reset for the lakes in the White River system. All of the lakes on this system are currently at or below seasonable power pool and we should encounter lower levels of generation, on our tailwaters, with limited wadable water.

On the White, the bite has been erratic. Some days it fished well others not so good. We have had a lot of low wadable water that has fished well. 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 pink San Juan worm with a ruby midge (#18) suspended below it).

Our sulphur hatch provides some of our best dry fly fishing of the year. I have observed a few sulphurs on the White and have had reports of hatches on the Norfork. This is a big mayfly, about a fourteen. Before the hatch I fish pheasant tail nymphs. When I see top water activity but no insects, I fish with a partridge and orange. When I see trout taking adults from the top, I switch over to a sulphur parachute.

The best bet for large trout has been to bang the bank with large articulated streamers delivered with heavy twenty four to thirty foot sink tips (350 grains or heavier). You will need an eight or nine weight rod. This is heavy work but the rewards can be great.

The Buffalo National River and Crooked Creek are navigable. With the warm weather, the smallmouths are active. My favorite fly is a Clouser minnow. 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.

The Norfork has fished better lately. 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). The fishing is better in the morning and late afternoon and tapers off midday. My favorite fly has been the green butt.

Dry Run Creek will be very busy, with summer vacation, in full swing. It is cleared and fished well. There is another phase of the project to repair the Norfork National Fish Hatchery now going on. Access to the creek is not impaired. The hot flies have been sowbugs (#14), Y2Ks (#12) and various colored San Juan worms (worm brown, red, hot fluorescent pink and cerise #10). While you are at the creek you should 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 Spring River is fishing well. This is a great place to wade fish, when they are running water on the White and Norfork Rivers. Canoe season is over and fishing is better. 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 in Cotter, Arkansas and has fished our local streams for over thirty years.

BEGINNERS FLY TYING CLASS BY JOHN BERRY

Here at Blue Ribbon Fly Shop we have been getting a lot of requests from our customers to have a beginner’s fly tying class. My assistant manager, Henry Seay, and I are avid fly tyers, although I think Henry is more involved in fly tying than I am. Whenever he is working in the shop, he is at the fly tying desk, unless he is waiting on a customer. We are also both supporters of Trout Unlimited White River Chapter #698. Therefore, we decided to hold a beginner’s fly tying class and donate the proceeds from the class to Trout Unlimited. 

We decided that Henry would teach the class. He has been fly fishing for over sixty five years and has been tying flies for over twenty. After retiring from the Sony Corporation, he owned and operated the OK Angler fly shop in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, for several years. He then moved to Phoenix, Arizona where he honed his midging skills at Lee’s Ferry and the San Juan River. Since moving here eleven years ago, Henry has been a fly fishing guide, a commercial fly tyer and has worked in several local fly shops. He has more experience in running a fly shop than I have but now wants to spend more time on stream fishing. He has also served as the Youth Educational Director for the White River chapter of Trout Unlimited #698. Bob Krause, a local commercial fly tyer, will assist.

The class will be held on Thursday July 7, 14, 21 and 28, 2016 at Blue Ribbon Fly Shop (1343 East 9^th Street Mountain Home, Arkansas) from 6:00 PM until 7:30 PM. The cost is a $35.00 donation to Trout Unlimited, a 501 C3 not for profit organization (therefore tax deductible). The class is designed with the neophyte tyer with no experience whatsoever in mind. You need to bring a fly tying vise, a bobbin, a spool of fly tying thread and a pair of fly tying scissors. We have some loaner equipment available and the shop will be open during the class in case you need to buy something.

The class will cover the fundamentals of fly tying like putting the hook in the vise, starting the thread, tying in materials, the soft loop and making a whip finish. We also teach you how to select materials. Many of the flies that you will learn to tie are original patterns that Henry developed to fish our local streams. They will be presented in a sequence that allows you to learn new techniques with each new fly that you tie.

To register, just call (870) 425-0447 during normal business hours (8:00 AM till 5:00 PM Monday through Saturday) or stop by the shop and talk to me or Henry.

If you have always wanted to take up fly tying, this is the perfect opportunity to do so.

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

UNINVITED GUEST BY JOHN BERRY

There is more to fishing than just catching fish. For me, a big part of the experience is to observe nature up close and personal. I love to watch for changes in the weather and the seasons. Wild flowers and blooming trees are always special to me. I especially enjoy observing wildlife. I have seen a herd of no less than seventeen deer swim the river in front of my boat. I have watched a family of otters play before me and I have observed woodchucks, mink, beaver and muskrat on numerous occasions.

There is an abundance of birdlife on the river with wild turkey, kingfishers, pileated woodpeckers, cliff swallows and other birds on a continual basis. There are two species of birds that are of particular interest, to me, that I observe, on almost a daily basis, the great blue herons and the bald eagles. These are two magnificent birds of prey and as such both are protected species.

The great blue heron is about four feet high with a wing span of up to six and one half feet. They are very common around here as they are wading birds that feed on fish. I have personally observed one of them taking a fourteen inch rainbow trout and swallowing it whole. They build their nests in tall trees near the water.

The bald eagle, our national emblem, since 1782, is in my mind, the most majestic creature in nature. I am moved every time I see one. Once endangered, it has made a miraculous comeback. I now see them just about every day that I spend on the water. It feeds on fish predominately but will eat other animals and carrion. It is at the top of the food chain. They stand about three feet tall and can have a wing span of seven and a half feet. They build their nests in tall trees near the water. Their vision is amazing. I have seen an eagle, in a tree, swoop down over five hundred yards to scoop a trout from the surface of the river.

These large birds have much in common and sometimes come into conflict with each other.

This spring I noticed that a pair of herons had built a nest in a tall sycamore tree upstream from Rim Shoals. There are babies in it and the parents are taking turns catching fish and feeding them in the nest. I can see the immature herons at feeding time and the make quite a racket. The herons, like most birds, feed them by regurgitating their food into the baby’s mouth.

Two weeks ago I noticed a bald eagle in the same tree ten feet above the herons nest. The eagle is obviously waiting for a chance to kill and eat the immature herons but will not strike, while one of the adult herons is in the nest guarding it. What an excruciatingly gruesome situation. It would be like you feeding your child in a high chair in the dining room, with an axe murderer in the kitchen.

I am amazed that the eagle is as patient as it is. Every time that I pass the tree it is there just above the nest waiting for its chance. It reminds me of my cat, Winston. He will sit for hours in the monkey grass below a bird feeder waiting for a chance to catch a bird. Despite being declawed, he occasionally gets one.

I don’t know who will win the heron-eagle standoff. It sure makes for some interesting observation. I am pulling for the heron!

JOHN BERRY FISHING REPORT 06/10/2016

During the past week, we have had a couple rain events (combined for a total of three quarters of an inch here in Cotter), warm temperatures and moderate winds. The lake level at Bull Shoals rose one and six tenths feet to rest at one and five tenths feet above seasonal power pool of 662 feet. This is thirty one and five tenths feet below the top of flood pool. Upstream, Table Rock fell three tenths of a foot to rest at two tenths of a foot below seasonal power pool and fourteen and two tenths feet below the top of flood pool. Beaver Lake remained steady at two tenths of a foot below seasonal power pool and eight and eight tenths feet below the top of flood pool. On the White, we had moderate generation this week with wadable water most days. Norfork Lake rose one and a half feet to rest at three tenths of a foot tenth below seasonal power pool of 556.75 feet and twenty five and five tenths feet below the top of flood pool. On the Norfork, we had wadable water most days.

Seasonal power pool has been reset for the lakes in the White River system. All of the lakes on this system are currently at or below seasonable power pool and we should encounter lower levels of generation, on our tailwaters, with limited wadable water.

On the White, the bite has been erratic. Some days it fished well others not so good. We have had a lot of low wadable water that has fished well. 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 pink San Juan worm with a ruby midge (#18) suspended below it).

Our sulphur hatch provides some of our best dry fly fishing of the year. I have observed a few sulphurs on the White and have had reports of hatches on the Norfork. This is a big mayfly, about a fourteen. Before the hatch I fish pheasant tail nymphs. When I see top water activity but no insects, I fish with a partridge and orange. When I see trout taking adults from the top, I switch over to a sulphur parachute.

The best bet for large trout has been to bang the bank with large articulated streamers delivered with heavy twenty four to thirty foot sink tips (350 grains or heavier). You will need an eight or nine weight rod. This is heavy work but the rewards can be great.

The Buffalo National River and Crooked Creek are navigable. With the warm weather, the smallmouths are active. My favorite fly is a Clouser minnow. 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.

The Norfork has cleared somewhat and has fished better lately. 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). The fishing is better in the morning and late afternoon and tapers off midday. My favorite fly has been the green butt.

Dry Run Creek will be very busy, with summer vacation, in full swing. It is cleared some and fished well. There is another phase of the project to repair the Norfork National Fish Hatchery now going on. Access to the creek is not impaired. The hot flies have been sowbugs (#14), Y2Ks (#12) and various colored San Juan worms (worm brown, red, hot fluorescent pink and cerise #10). While you are at the creek you should 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 Spring River is fishing well. This is a great place to wade fish, when they are running water on the White and Norfork Rivers. Canoe season is over and fishing is better. 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 with Blue Ribbon Guides in Cotter, Arkansas and has fished our local streams for over thirty years.