If it is not from above then it is from below, water and tons of it. As of now both the White and Norfork are running heavy flows with very little low flow at all on the White and a few hours or so on the Norfork if you can catch it. Wade fishing is mostly out on the White at this time.

Well there are of course two ways to look at this situation. The fish will grow real well in high water flows and many more will survive because of that, but of course it will limit your fishing unless you go afloat. Other factors that can make life difficult are how the fish adapt to water flows that rise and fall and also the amount of debris that is in the water at that time, and right now there is still a large amount of it when the first push of new water starts, the further downstream you are then the worse it is, bank side trash is picked up as the water rises, along with large amounts of moss and some sort of algae l have never seen before, l would term it as a slug moss as that is what it looks like. I would suspect that this has some relation to the chemical balance of water that exists in the lakes and has promoted the growth of this on the river bed, in some zones l know there is a ton of it and it is not easy stuff to walk on either.

The best way to deal with this situation is to establish water flows current at the time and try to fish the fall of the previous flow rate before the new high flow gets to you. To figure this out then you need to keep in touch with what is going on during the day. You may only have a 4 to 6 hour slot to work with. Other than that go way above the new flow, at least allow 2 hours of that new flow, something like 6 river miles. This way you should be able to get above the worst of the trashy water. Bull shoals dam end will of course always be clean as here the water has not had time or distance to flush bank side trash or pick up moss etc from the river bed. Bottom line is to look for clean water.

The Norfork is having a hard time with the current flow schedules and all l can say is try it and see, some days are ok others are real tough. You may well find that the fish will not turn on until the new water has run for a good period of time. I fished it last week and we did no good at all until later in the afternoon, then we did ok.

High water needs a different approach than low flows but the fishing can still be very good if you do a number of things. If you are fishing with nymph rigs in simple terms you have to get the deal down to the fish. A 9ft leader in 12 feet of water is of no use at all. I will use leader and tippet configurations of at least 12 and up to 15 ft at times. You also need weight to get the fly down to the fish. The use of pinched on lead will be mandatory here for sure. Small flies will of course work well so too dead drift streamers and wooly buggers and many other flies at this time. Some anglers prefer to use jigs and that will also work well at this time. You may also seek out slow back eddy water and zones you know that contain a great deal of structure on the river bed, you will almost always find fish here. Do not forget the surface of the water is moving a great deal faster than the bed of the river. In colored water use high vis fly patterns, in clear water scuds and sowbugs will work well, along with beadheads and flies of that nature. I use a number of black fly patterns at this time also, the key is correct depth and that the fly is seen by the fish to start with.

Fishing into shore lines with combinations of dry, sink tip and sinking lines is also a good option with large streamers, bait fish patterns, crawdads and wooly buggers. Even real big flies up to 4 ins are worth fishing, you never know when that big Brown will strike. The key to success here is boat control, fish a good drift line about 50ft min from the shore or you will spook many fish and control the drift speed, if it is too fast it is difficult to control the both the retrieve and angle of the fly back to you. The fly should move slightly downstream of you and not be overtaken by the boat.

Well, that is about all l can give you as of now. I suspect we will be looking at the same scenario for a few weeks more to come.

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.