JOHN BERRY FISHING REPORT 7/10/2015

During the past week, we have had several rain events (almost three inches here in Cotter), cooler temperatures and moderate winds. The lake level at Bull Shoals rose five and one tenth feet to rest at twenty six and five tenths feet above seasonal power pool of 661.2 feet. This is seven and four tenths feet below the top of flood pool. Upstream, Table Rock rose two and three tenths feet to rest at three and nine tenths feet above seasonal power pool and ten and one tenth feet below the top of flood pool. Beaver Lake rose five tenths of a foot to rest at eight feet above seasonal power pool and a half foot below the top of flood pool. On the White, we had moderate to high generation with no wadable water. Norfork Lake rose one and seven tenths feet to rest at ten and two tenths feet above seasonal power pool of 556 feet and thirteen and eight 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 above seasonal power pool and are nearing the top of flood pool.

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 (San Juan worm with a prince nymph or copper John 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 3X) 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).

There have been several reliable sightings of the sulphur hatch. I was lucky enough to catch it on the Norfork one day before the water came up. This is our major mayfly hatch of the year. They are size fourteen and easy to see. Before the hatch, you should concentrate on fishing pheasant tail nymphs. When the trout key on the top but no insects are present, switch over to a partridge and yellow. When you observe trout taking adult insects from the top of the water column, you should switch over to sulphur parachutes.

The Buffalo National River and Crooked Creek are high and off color. 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. 

The Norfork River has fished better lately. The siphon is down and they are supplying the water necessary for minimum flow by running the generators on a load no load basis. 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).  

The water on the Spring River is high and off color. 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. 

CATCHING THE HATCH BY JOHN BERRY

Several years ago, when I was the president of the Mid South Fly Fishers, the fly fishing club in Memphis, we had a speaker nick named No Hatch. His claim to fame was that he had made many pilgrimages to Michigan to catch the famous Hexagenia hatch (a huge mayfly) but had never actually seen the insects. Hence, his nick name was No Hatch. This year I was beginning to feel a bit like him. Though I am on the water a lot and saw several hatches come off, I was never in a fishing situation, where the fish were keying in on the hatching adult insects.

All of this changed last week. Our niece, Brooke, graduated from Pharmacy School and was in town to celebrate and kick back for a few days. I gave her a guided wade fishing trip on the Norfork on Monday. The idea was to work on her technique so that she could hold her own when she fished with my wife, Lori, and her mom, Terri, (Lori’s sister). Later that morning Lori and Terri joined us. Brooke did well. Around noon we experienced a sulphur hatch. The trout keyed in on the size fourteen yellow orange insects and the hatch was on. Both Brooke and Terri caught their first trout on a dry fly. Lori, a guide and accomplished angler was on fire. She caught several on the top including a fat nineteen inch rainbow.

While I was excited to finally see a good hatch, I was supremely disappointed to not get in on the action, I made a vow to return to the Norfork and catch the hatch. I patiently waited for several days. It seemed like my work schedule and the generation conspired against me. Finally, on Saturday the Fourth of July, I had the day off and there was a prediction for wadable water on the Norfork until 2:00 PM.

I got up early and headed toward the Norfork. I was on the water a few minutes after seven. There was a dense fog on the river and it was a bit cool. As I was walking up from the Ackerman Access into the Catch and Release water, I ran into Mac Caradine, an old friend and fishing buddy. He said that the water was coming up. I looked at my feet and did not detect rising water. Mac said that another angler had called the dam for the generation report, which had indicated that they had begun generating at 7:00 AM. I pulled out my IPhone and called the dam. The recording did indicate generation on the Norfork but the date given was for the day before. They had not updated the phone message, from the previous day. I was not going to let erroneous information interfere with my fishing. I continued wading upstream. Mac followed.

I walked to the spot where Lori had done so well earlier in the week and began fishing. I started with a grasshopper with a copper John dropper. I figured that the trout would key in on the copper John because it is a good imitation of a sulphur nymph. I caught one and then noticed some fish rising. I did not see any insects so I concluded that the trout were going after the sulphur emergers and that a partridge and orange soft hackle would do the trick.

I was into a good fish in a few casts. The eighteen inch rainbow reluctantly gave up the fight as did the sixteen inch cutthroat. The action continued for a couple of hours and I landed about a dozen good fish. I took a break after a couple of hours and chatted with Mac as he headed down stream to fish another spot. He said that he had done well with a green butt. I never give up a chance to fish my signature fly. I quickly changed over to a green butt and caught a spectacular nineteen inch rainbow on the first cast.

About that time, I began seeing adult sulphurs and better yet the trout were keying in on them. I had my hatch. I took a minute to tie on a sulphur parachute. I had found a dozen of my brother, Dan’s, ties as I was going through his fishing gear recently. I had dropped them into my dry fly box and hoped for the best. I got a couple of refusals before I hooked up a fat twenty inch rainbow. I regretted not bringing my net on this trip. This fish was too much to land without a net so I carefully beached him on a sloping bank nearby. I took a quick photo and lovingly released him. He swam off as if nothing ever happened. I stayed there for a couple of hours and landed several trout. The smallest was sixteen inches. I had never caught that many quality fish, in such a short period of time.

By then, I was getting tired and hungry. I wanted to leave before the water came up. I walked out and removed my waders. The only way to top the day was to drive over to Heidi’s Ugly Cakes for a Rueben sandwich. It was the perfect end to a great day.

I had patiently waited for the right conditions and had not let bad information deny me the opportunity. In the end, I prevailed. Life is good!

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

FLY TIE OF THE WEEK -- PARTRIDGE & WIRE SOFT HACKLE

Thanks, Guide Dennis!

SURVIVING ON A HOT DAY BY JOHN BERRY

I was scheduled for a guide trip last week. The forecast for that day was for a high temperature of ninety five degrees, a high level of humidity, sunny skies and little wind. All of this resulted in a projected heat index of one hundred and four degrees. That is hot!

My first thought was to make it a wade trip. You are much cooler on a wade trip because a portion of your body is immersed in cool fifty seven degree water. If you get warm, you just wade a little deeper. If you decide to forego waders and wet wade, it is even cooler. The prediction was for there to be no wadable water on the White and limited wading on the Norfork. We decided to float the White. In a boat, on a hot day, there is nowhere to hide.

The key to survival is to dress properly. I started with my choice of underwear. I chose silk weight capilene boxers. They are loose fitting and allow for air circulation. The silk weights are non chafing and they wick moisture away from my body. I did not wear a t shirt to keep my torso as cool as possible.

I selected a pair of loose fitting tropical fishing pants. They are highly breathable and dry quickly. They have a sun protection factor (SPF) of 50, which means that they offer a lot of protection from the sun. I have these pants in a few colors. I chose the lightest colored pair, so that they would not absorb as much heat from the solar gain as the darker colors would. I buy pants with a lot of pockets. I always carry a wallet, money, car keys and a pocket knife and I need a secure pocket for them. I also want a cargo pocket for my IPhone. I carry it in a waterproof case. I need it to check the weather, water conditions and to let my wife, Lori, know when I will be home for supper.

I also chose a loose fitting tropical fishing shirt with an SPF of 50. Here again, I selected the lightest colored one that I had. I only buy fishing shirts with button flap pockets. I want to make sure that anything I have in my pocket doesn’t fall out when I bend over to net a trout. I find the pocket flap to be a handy place to clip my forceps with attached nippers, when I am fishing. I use them often and they must be easily available at all times.

My hat is always a key choice. I generally carry half a dozen hats in the back of my suburban and I select the most suitable head gear, when I am at the access. On this day, I went for my soft straw cowboy hat, a Stetson. It is the most breathable hat I own and it has a chin strap to prevent its loss in windy conditions.

I wore my breathable fabric boat shoes. They are quick drying and provide secure footing on the wet deck of a river boat. I wore some light weight white capilene socks but would have been fine without them.

We started early and found that there was a dense fog on the river. It was difficult to see, so we would move about very slowly to avoid boats and other obstacles. The fog was cool and, when it burned off about 11:00 AM, we began to get warm. We stopped at noon for lunch and took advantage of a picnic table under a big shade tree to escape the unrelenting sun.

After lunch, it was really hot. We took a lot of extra water with us and drank constantly. It got so hot that I dunked a pack towel in the river, wrung it out and placed it around my neck to cool off. It worked for a while but required periodic dunking to keep working. The trout were unaffected by the heat and we managed to land around seventy five fish.

By carefully planning to wear the proper clothing, carrying plenty of water and taking advantage of shade when we could, we survived a brutal day and had a great day of fishing.

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

JOHN BERRY FISHING REPORT 7/03/2015

During the past week, we have had a rain event (about half an inch here in Cotter), hot temperatures and moderate winds. The lake level at Bull Shoals rose one tenth of a foot to rest at twenty two and five tenths feet above seasonal power pool of 661.5 feet. This is twelve and four tenths feet below the top of flood pool. Upstream, Table Rock fell three feet to rest at one and six tenths feet above seasonal power pool and twelve and four tenths feet below the top of flood pool. Beaver Lake fell two tenths of a foot to rest at seven and six tenths feet above seasonal power pool and a foot below the top of flood pool. On the White, we had moderate to high generation with no wadable water. Norfork Lake remained steady at eight and three tenths feet above seasonal power pool of 556.22 feet and fifteen 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 above seasonal power pool.

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 (San Juan worm with a prince nymph or copper John 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 3X) 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).

There have been several reliable sightings of the sulphur hatch. I was lucky enough to catch it on the Norfork one day before the water came up. This is our major mayfly hatch of the year. They are size fourteen and easy to see. Before the hatch, you should concentrate on fishing pheasant tail nymphs. When the trout key on the top but no insects are present, switch over to a partridge and yellow. When you observe trout taking adult insects from the top of the water column, you should switch over to sulphur parachutes.

The Buffalo National River and Crooked Creek are high and off color. 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. 

The Norfork River has fished poorly lately. The siphon is down and they are supplying the water necessary for minimum flow by running the generators on a load no load basis. 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 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).  

The water on the Spring River is high and off color. 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.