High summer is here with hot humid days, but the fishing on the White River system is as good as you will get if you adapt to the prevailing conditions that take place during the day. The general tendency for water flow at this time will be from as low as it can get up to 8 max. generators on the White, and two on the North Fork.

It is essential that we have water flow as during the hot days the water temperature can rise very fast and fish will suffer the consequences if a cold water influence does not take place. The generation schedules at this time are something like shut down from around 7 to 10 pm, and start up again during the morning. This means of course that you will have falling water through the system with rising water at later point in time. In order to find the best location to fish then you will have to keep in touch with what is going on at the time.

There are plenty of options for wade fishing through the entire system. You may well have a slot between low and rising water of anything up to 12 hours on the White. The Norfork at this time has been allowing good low water through most of the day with water on sometime mid to late afternoon, but again you will need to check on what is going on at the time.

So far as hatches are concerned at this time you will find midge hatches on both the Norfork and the Bull shoals dam area of the White river, particularly early morning when the fog is still over the river and the temperature is low, as the day warms up then both fish activity and hatches will slow down and will not occur again till dusk to dark time. I have fished a number of times the past few weeks into dusk and dark and the clouds of midges have been enormous. You should be able to find fish midging at this time.

There are still a few of the micro caddis about and trout will take advantage of the hatch, they are not huge hatches and they will vary from day to day. The main staple diet now includes scud and sowbugs, caddis larva, snails, terrestrials, crawdads and sculpins and bait fish. I watched a good brown last week go back and forth into a zone that a bunch of minnows had collected, l am sure he got his daily quota in the end.

This time of the year gives the fly fisher ample opportunity to sight fish as opposed to other techniques. There are plenty of good moss beds along the river shore lines, perfect habitat for fish to feel safe a forage food. Bright cloudless skies are not the best of conditions to fly fish, trout are much more wary and spook easy from clumsy presentations, flash from leader and tippet material and reflection from the bed of the river caused by fly lines and leaders are all factors to take into consideration when approaching fish at this time, particularly at low water levels.

Therefore you will have to adjust accordingly. Increase leader and tippet length reduce x factor, its not so much the BS of your material it is the diameter that matters. If you are wade fishing fish more upstream presentations from behind a known fish holding zone, if you can sight fish do not use indicators, if you do avoid large ones or those that will splash down on the surface, they will spook fish. If you are boat fishing avoid standing up, aim to minimize your presence.

Flat glass-like shallow water gives trout a very wide field of vision. The low clear water conditions allow for great visibility and l have seen no end of big fish both browns and rainbows. You can of course use this to your advantage as the odds are those fish will be somewhere in that area during the hours of darkness and early morning, a perfect time to focus on that trophy fish of a lifetime.

As water starts to rise on the river after a period of low water, then fish hard at this time, big fish will start to move around to feed at this time, we have watched a number of big browns start patrolling moss beds and rock structure at this time, fish both crawdad and sculpin flies, and move on to some larger wooly bugger patterns as dusk to dark closes in and through the night.

During the hot low water periods of the day look for fish in shoals and riffles, these areas provide for well oxygenated water and good cover for fish. You might even try some dry fly fishing in these zones it can often work well, caddis fly, ants, hoppers and good old favorites like the Adams and royal coachman are good bets, often a good brown cannot resist this at times.

Bead head nymphs at this time of the year in low clear water may not work so well, the reflection from the bead head may in fact spook fish, therefore choose patterns without, such as a regular pheasant tail, hares ear, prince nymph and caddis larva like the rock worm. Soft hackles are always worth fishing any place on the river, my particular favorite is a hares ear and partridge and a black and peacock.

During the rise of water and when water is running well, San Juan worms fished close to shoreline may be productive, regular colors of red, brown, tans some fishers like to use bright colors of pinks,yellow and orange so too at this time standard type nymph patterns in sizes 14 to 10, the bottom line in heavy water flow is to get the fly down to the fishes feeding zone, they do not like to move far against heavy fast water. Full fast sinking lines and sinktips will be worth using at this time with various streamer and bait fish imitations but you will need to control boat drift speed in relation to how you are fishing or the fly line will pull away downstream too fast and not get a acceptable depth to fish the fly correctly.

Enjoy the summer!
Tight lines for now,
Davy Wotton

About Davy Wotton
Davy has been making his living as a full time fly fisher in one capacity or another for over 30 years. He has written many articles for all of the fly fishing magazines, created several unique flies and fly tying materials which he developed into a full scale manufacturing operation in his native country of Wales, and is a much-sought speaker around America at fly fishing functions and shows. Over the years Davy has fished in over 40 countries around the world but his choice for base of operation is right here on the White River. Davy operates his American International Schools of Fly Fishing in Flippin, Arkansas.