The White River below Bull Shoals Dam is one of the premier tailwaters in the county for trout. Because this river is a tailwater, coming from a hydro-electric dam, the flows on the river can vary greatly from hour to hour. It is not uncommon to start the day at 700 cfs (cubic feet per second) and finish the day around 20,000 cfs. As the need for power generation goes up our water flows go up as well. This is one of the main reasons why it is beneficial to book a guide to fish on the White. We have years of experience reading the flows and knowing how the flows affect the fish behavior. In order to see live, current flows the United States Army Core of Engineers has created a website that is updated every hour of current flows. The South-west Power Administration has a website that releases the predicted flows for the next day that is released at 4:00 pm the day before, while this page is not always 100% accurate it does give a good idea about what to expect on the water flows. Both pages are linked below.
WHITE RIVER GO-TO FLIES
The flies we use will vary from a day to day basis but here is a general breakdown:
January-February: Egg patterns, shad patterns, streamers, scuds, sowbugs, and midges
March: Shad, midges, streamers, blobs (daphnia)
April: Caddis! (sunday specials, various caddis jigged flies, and caddis dries), midges
May: Caddis, midges, sulphur mayflies (pheasant's tail, frenchies)
June: Sulphurs, small terrestrials, midges, girdle bugs
July-September: Larger terrestrials, midges, girdle bugs
October: Hoppers, some caddis and mayflies, eggs
November - December: Midges, eggs, streamers (if flows allow)
WHITE RIVER
Bull Shoals Tailwater
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The Norfork River comes out of the Norfork Dam which impounds water that is the North Fork of the White River. The Norfork River runs 4.8 miles from the dam to its confluence with the White River in Norfork. This river is very well known for producing high numbers of fish per day as well as slightly bigger average fish due to its large catch and release zone. Norfork only has two generators but the water changes much like the White River does. It's not uncommon to find us on the Norfork when conditions are right whether it's from a raft or 20 foot river boat.