Others may not agree with me but l do believe that we are seeing the effects of global warming issues.

Ok, let me get you up to date with the Bull Shoals dam habitat project.

This is a project that has been in the works for a number of years, so it's not new by any means. Funds for this project were allocated by the COE and bids were offered for the contract. It was anticipated that work would begin early August if a number of issues could be dealt with, one of which was for the generations to be shut down from 6am to 12pm, which at the time of writing is not likely. The last COE report stated that August 17th may see work in progress, we will have to wait and see.

AGFC are the project leaders and will determine what will be done by way of in-stream habitat and shoreline structure placement.

AGFC have also stated that work cannot be undertaken during the period the dam zone is closed for the spawn.

Many reports did suggest that work would begin this week, and in consequence many Fly fishers have been waiting to travel and fish this anticipated low water.

As soon as l know otherwise l will update the report.

As a rule we normally would see high generation during this month due to increased power demand, go figure. The 3 main lake systems above BSD are more or less at pool, so flood control is not so much a issue unless we do see again heavy rain falls that raise water levels downstream, which can determine water release from BSD.

This coming Wednesday the 12th at 10am at the Norfork National Fish Hatchery there will be a ceremony to officially announce the beginning of the Dry Run Creek enhancement project, which is a cooperative agreement between the USFW, the Friends of the NNFH and the AGFC.

Dave Whitlock was contracted to undertake the design and in-stream habitat structures which the AGFC will undertake to install. Further there will be additional work undertaken to build a boardwalk at stream level some 130 ft upstream from the existing deck for those who are mobility impaired.

The existing structure serves little worth for this purpose.

Given confusion by many visitors let me explain what the current regulations are for mobility impaired anglers who wish to fish Dry Run Creek.

They are: You must have a permit from the AGFC that determines you are disabled. You are only permitted to fish from the existing deck. Regulations for all are single barbless hooks, no bait period, natural or artificial. It is strictly catch and release.

Ok lets go fishing - White river

As of now we see lower generations from 12 am to given times later in the morning when generations are increased, at times to max 8 gates open. This give many options from the dam downstream if you figure out where to be related to fall and rise of water. Each day will differ so you do need to check out what is going on.

I do know that for many this is very confusing. It is not so much how many gates are open it is the CFS flow rate that matters. We can see for example 6 gates open at say 8,000 cfs, or 6 gates open full at 15 or more cfs.

I will tell you that rising water will very likely be very trashy and not much use for FF fishing.

North Fork river has been seeing good periods of low wadable water but also max high generations. This can be a very dangerous river when water rises so do take great care if you are wade fishing way down from the dam and cannot hear the horn sound to tell you generation is going to start. If you see hear the horn or are at any place and water rises you need to get going in a hurry, do not twice think about that last cast. We lost a angler here recently because of rising water.

Fishing
During lower water levels and when fishing clear clean water many fly patterns will work at this time of the year. If fishing indicator techniques, then such patterns as sowbugs, scuds, prism, whitetail and DW hot head midges, Dynamite and San Juan worms, GRHE will do the business to 5 or 6x tippets.

Shallow water zones fishing riffles then go with soft hackles and many generic dry fly patterns such as caddis, hoppers, ants and flies of that nature. We have seen late evening some real good surface activity and here again dry, soft hackles and wet fly's will catch em.

If you are not fishing in a trophy zone then try a dry dropper method, this can be killer at times.

Hoppers will before too long become of great interest to the fish, and often trophy Browns will oblige.

High water situations, well the deal is to get the fly close to the river bed, here again Dynamite and SJWorms, sowbugs and Prizm midges in sizes 12 and 14 will as a rule catch well.

The other deal when fishing high water is to know were to locate the fish, so look for the slower back water zones, in and around islands and visible structure.

Long leaders are mandatory as much as 12 to 15ft at times from indicator to fly with added weight, longer rods of 10ft will make life way easier than shorter rods when dealing with long leader systems.

Looking at the rivers in general.

White river at BSDam continues to produce trophy Bows, all be it they are not so easy to catch as they once were, they are well wised up. Recently we have been catching many trophy Browns in this zone and below for the reasons that it is the time of the year with the reducing daylight hours that these fish are starting to move upstream to the spawning grounds, they instinctively know that they also need to pack on weight for the spawning rigors and the long winter period which offer the fish way less food base.

Typically also at this time of the year stocking intensity for Bows is high so right through the system there are plenty of fish out there, and as l have already stated here the Browns are more likely to take during the day time periods and particularly early evening and into dark, more so when we see days of diminished light conditions.

Recently a Bow of 12lb 3oz was caught and Brown near on 20lb, all be it both were not caught on the fly rod, but they are out there, you never know.

North Fork river. Low water will see good midge hatches here, both small soft hackles, midge and midge emergers on sizes 16 to 22 will do the business most of the time along with sowbugs and scuds in small sizes.

Color may be a issue at times.

OK, that about it for now. I am off to Montana later this month for my usual two week break before the busy guide season this fall and early winter. As much as l love to fish our river and see my customers catch fish, there is for me a need to go and visit some of my favorite haunts out west, all be it for some of that time l have to work to produce a new DVD.

Tight Lines all.