Gaston's White River Resort Fishing Report 3.12.10

For daily water conditions and lake levels,call the Bull Shoals Powerhouse at (870)431-5311.

Trophy Browns and Chunky Rainbows

Pleased to report that we are still having lower water conditions. Makes for a little less room for the trout to hide out. Although we are still waiting on a shad kill on the White River, but not to worry. Frozen shad, rapalas, smithwick rogues, berkley gulp, and excaliburs are all catch very nice trophy trout. Another great lure is white zig jigs or marabou jigs with a chrome head.

Now getting into the spring time, we have seen much lower water levels so the lures will change depending on the level of water. Lower water conditions will call for floating rapalas instead of countdown rapalas. The suspending stick-baits and lures will still do very well. Spoons such as the buoyant red/gold or flash black and the little cleos are expected to do very well on 1 - 4 generators as well as the shysters and rooster tails.

The primary colors working for each type of water level is chrome, white, or gold. Something with a little red mixed in should do very, very well.

Fly Fishermen

High water fly fishing with, streamers, shad patterns, red san juan worms, pink san juan worms, pink jigs, peach egg patterns and anything that might resemble a dead minnow or dying shad..

Straight from Hank:

Oct 30, 2009 - The Dead Bees Hatch. Fall brings colder temperatures causing terrestrial bugs to become lethargic or die by the millions Untold numbers end up in rivers and lakes providing food for fish. Bees, yellow jackets and wasps are among the first and most noticeable of the bugs afflicted by the frosty weather. The contrasting bands of color make these bus standout against the foliage or water marking an obvious target for a hungry trout. I've witnessed hundreds of violent trout-on-bee attacks. Trout will often swim just under a low flying bee or wasp then leap to snatch it from the air. Floating bee/wasp imitations are my go to flies for amazing mid-day and afternoon fishing. As you know from 11:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. can be a slow time for the dry fly angler. A big floating bug can turn those hours into a magic time. I've hooked more 20 plus inch trout just this way than with any other method tried in over 50 years of fly fishing. This isn't delicate "finesse" fly fishing. Tippets should be no finer than 4X and 3X is better. A #5 or #6 line will carry your fly out in a wind. My favorite leader is a furreled 5 ft. long butt section with 3-4 ft of 3X tippet looped on. You should not be surprised to hook the biggest trout you've ever seen. So you'll be glad you have the stout tippet when it happens. Don't worry about spooking fish. I've fished this combination of tackle in some of the hardest fished catch & release waters in the country and caught big trout even when the locals swore the smart fish wouldn't even look at a fly size larger than a #24 on 7X tippet.

Oct 2, 2009 - Fly fishing high water below hydropower dams can seem impossible to most fly fishers. The river is 100 ft or more wide, five to twenty feet deep and flowing at 8 mph! Sounds difficult, right? In reality it's quite easy because most of the difficult stuff you do to catch trout while wading low water simply doesn't apply to high water fly fishing. No pin point casting to spooky fish, no worries about tight loops or straightening out long fine leaders or eye strain from watching a strike indicator. High water trout fishing has one rule. "Get the fly on the bottom." Not pretty deep, or near the bottom. Get it on the Bottom! Use enough lead or lead substitute to feel it bouncing off the rocks and gravel. Since the depth will vary hugely in one hundred yards of drifting, a strike indicator useless in this fishing. Example: Your indicator is set to hold your fly at 6 ft deep, then you drift over a drop off 14 ft deep. Your fly passes over that huge brown trout missing its feeding zone by 8 ft. How many fish do you miss because of that strike indicator? Well, you'll never know will you? Better to keep it tapping bottom all the time. Yes you'll snap off a few flies, but you'll also hook a lot more trout and probably some really big ones.

Please note that a trophy trout released can be replicated if you have the dimensions and pictures of the fish so that one day someone else can experience a great trophy trout as well.

It is rewarding to see the bait fisherman, fly fisherman, guides, operators and the public working together in the best interest of the White River and it's Trophy Trout fishing program. Just proves what a bit of teamwork will do.

Good luck with your fishing and take a buddy along to enjoy fishing also
and to make memories of a lifetime.

Ron & Logan

BULL SHOALS LAKE LEVEL

Lake Level: 653.80 msl
Last Report: 654.12 (Power Pool is 654 msl)

MSL is mean sea level. When we say that the lake level is 654
MSL, that means that the top of the lake is 654 feet above sea level.