I’ll be speaking at the White River Chapter of TU in Mountain Home, AR on February 6th, presenting a program on White River Hatches. This presentation covers some basic insect biology, how to locate and identify insects, solving imitative problems, and resources available to anglers. Of course, there will be photos!

On February 21st, I’ll be presenting A History of Fly-Fishing in Arkansas at the North Arkansas Fly Fishers, also in Mountain Home. I’ll talk about how folks traveled to their favorite streams in the 1920s-1930s, the rise of the fly-fishing tackle industry and connections with Arkansas, a native Arkansan who went on to become a nationally known custom bamboo rod builder, the development of public fisheries and lakes and ponds across the state, smallmouth fly-fishing on the White and, if time, the transition to fly-fishing the early days of the tailwaters and the development of the trout program in Arkansas. I’ll bring a few pieces of tackle from the past and some other display items. I encourage others to do the same so we can share stories.

Devil’s Den State Park between West Fork and Winslow, AR will be celebrating Aldo Leopold Day on May 19-20. I’ll be there both days doing some fly-tying and fly-casting demos as well as presenting my program on A History of Fly-Fishing in Arkansas.

Hope you can make one or more of these programs. I hope to see many of you there.

© 2012, Scott Branyan

The Branyan family has been greatly blessed this year, and we send our Holiday greetings in our traditional Multimedia Card which many have enjoyed over the years.

May you all have a great Christmas and New Year. See you on the river in 2012!

Happy Holidays Greeting 2011

© 2011, Scott Branyan

The late fall is typically a short period of transition to the winter fishing season on the White River tailwaters. We saw the last of the early fall weather and water levels with the close of an excellent hopper season the end of October. Several cold fronts and rain have come through northern Arkansas along with our first hard freeze and frosts. Leaves have turned and most have blown down during the storms that have come through. Peak generation times have shifted to early mornings and evenings. Conservation pools are down around the 93 percent range, and generation has been letting up at all the White River projects the past couple of weeks.

Spawning activity by the brown trout is well underway on the spawning shoals on the tailwaters. It’s a shame anglers have such a lust to harass these fish and that it has become such an accepted practice to do it. It’s not ethical. It’s not sporting, and it’s not technically “angling.” It’s redneck fishing at its worst; but, alas, it’s a given that it will happen during this transition season.

Drift boat fly-anglers can find some well isolated stretches of river to fish now. I enjoy the solitude most this time of year until the hard winter weather sets in after the holidays.

Midges are the main hatch, and fish focus in on them and the always available scuds and sow bugs this time of year. If we see any other hatches it will be Tiny BlueWinged Olives or midcrocaddis during calm afternoons. The rule of thumb is anything goes, as far as fly patterns. Try: exotic woolly buggers, attractor nymphs and sometimes the traditional attractor dries like renegades, coachman and wulffs. It’s a great time to get out and experiment.

So I’ll see you on the river!

© 2011, Scott Branyan

Grasshoppers continue to be available in numbers to fish and the dry weather is also continuing to make for a prolonged hopper season into the fall on the White River tailwaters. Expect it to continue until we get cooler, rainy  weather or frost.

Keith Yarger boated several nice browns fishing Norfork and Bull Shoals tailwaters September 14th and 15th. Some of them he caught on a Scott's Hopper.

My Scott’s Hopper pattern has proved reliable and durable this hopper season. Look on the dry fly patterns page and for a description. The tutorial is essentially the same as the Scott’s Cicada, also available linked on the fly tying menu.

Scott's Hopper

Wishing you all happy fishing and that you have gotten a chance to get out and get some hopper fishing action in somewhere this year.

© 2011, Scott Branyan

The signs and seasons tell the story. Grasshoppers are mature now and are numerous. As I walk across my yard, they jump and fly as the wind catches them and smacks them into the walls of my house. This is a sure sign a few are ending up in the water’s edge along overhangs and grassy banks.

Some grasshoppers are mature now and reach two inches in length. Hopper season is about to commence. Click to enlarge.

The hot weather we have been seeing is always good for hopper activity. Hopper season is about to fire up, and if the heat wave continues, hopper action will be prolonged well into September.

Hoppers grow for almost two months. This hopper is about 40 days old and has another 10 days to maturity. Don't forget annual cicadas and katydids as possible fly choices as well. Click to enlarge.

A host of imitations are available, but I usually find the imitative patterns work better than the realistic ones. Parachute hoppers and foam bodied patterns with a deer hair wing present the silhouette that pleases fish the most. Rubber legs on the patterns are a plus.

North America has about a thousand species of grasshoppers. Obviously, not all are available to trout in the White River, but fish see enough variety, they are seldom selective if the pattern is life-like enough.

Conventional wisdom holds that hoppers are most active from late morning onward into the afternoon. This is often true as the season progresses and morning temps cool off. In the early season, however, anytime is hopper time.

High water conditions do not negate the hatch as is often the case with smaller insects. By the late summer, generation has been regular, and water is clean and clear, especially in the morning tailout—unlike sometime muddier spring releases. Drift boat fly-fishing the banks at high water with hopper patterns is usually reliable and productive. Shade and subsurface bank structure often determines the best place to get takes.

Some hoppers are very short and only about an inch long.

Some slant-faced hoppers are very good fliers and can easily fly longer distances.

Spying out good hopper habitat, water conditions, and proper presentation is often aided by a knowledgeable drift boat guide. A drift boat guide can often put you on water where your chances of finding larger trout on dries are increased. I love drift boat fly-fishing hoppers. It gives one an hundred opportunities in a day to present a dry fly to fish. In high water years, it means fishing miles of prime habitat and the chance to improve the accuracy of your casting skills.

Ready oar not, hoppers are here!

I will be available after Labor Day this year for some prime September hopper fishing. See you then.

Cabelas has announced it is building a new store in Rogers at Pinnacle Hills Promenade. The store will be next to the present Target store and will be a 100,000 square foot traditional log store with glass front. It will have an aquarium, five elevated displays and gun library. Cabela stores are also noted for their well-stocked fly-fishing departments.

The company expects the construction to begin early in 2012 and to be completed by June. It chose the Arkansas location because of the high percentage of customers from the Rogers and Northwest Arkansas area.

Welcome, Cabelas.

© 2011, Scott Branyan

I wanted to leave a documentation of some of the spring flooding. Many weather records have been established the first half of this year. We had some record snow falls in February. Several large tornado outbreaks in the first half of 2011 across the south and midwest included particularly destructive storms in Cincinnati (12/31/10), Vilonia (4/25/11), and Denning, AR (5/25/11) as well as the nationally publicized Joplin, MO tornado (5/22/11). Spring flooding began on the White River from rains in April and May. July saw record heat and little rain across western and northern Arkansas.

The record flooding on the White River this spring comes after another record event in 2008. Heavy rain fell towards the end of May after the area flood control reservoirs had already began to fill from April rains.

Heavy rain fell towards the end of May across northern Arkansas after reservoirs had already began to fill to capacity. Click to enlarge.

Here’s a summary of the dam releases which we saw.

Beaver Dam – Spillway gates were open from April 25-29, 2011. Lake level crested on April 26 at 1131.62 msl. Spillway gates were reopened May 2nd and closed May 4th. During this time, the lake crested at 1129.71 msl on May 3rd. Spillway gates were opened for a third time from May 20-26. The crest was at 1131.8 msl, and the maximum combined release was 52,400 cfs with gates open about 5 feet.

Beaver Dam on the evening of May 2nd as skies clear. Click to enlarge.

Table Rock Dam – Spillway gates opened April 25, 2011. Table Rock set a new high lake level of 935.5 on April 27th. Flows reached 68,000 cfs. Gates were closed by May 11th. Gates were opened again May 23rd. Combined flows were increased May 24th to about 55,000 cfs. Flows were returned to 20,000 cfs on May 28th. Spillway gates were closed on June 3rd.

Table Rock Dam during spillway releases and downstream flooding on May 25th. Click to enlarge.

Bull Shoals Dam – Six spillway gates were opened 1/2 foot on May 16th. Spillway gates were closed Friday afternoon, May 20th. Gates were opened a second time on May 23rd. Combined releases reached 58,600 cfs, the highest on record. The lake level crested on May 27th at 696.51. The Corps began lowering spillway gates May 31st, and gates were finally closed June 7th.

Bull Shoals Dam on the evening of May 25th. Click to enlarge.

Norfork Dam – Spillway releases were begun April 22 in lieu of both generators being offline for unexpected maintenance. Spillway flood control releases were increased by April 30th because of excessive rains. Releases had topped out at 38,000 cfs by May 1st and were reduced back to 6,600 cfs on May 5th. Releases were increased to 9,000 cfs on May 6th and reduced again to about 6,600 on May 11th. Releases increased on May 23rd initially to 13,250 cfs and were reduced May 24th to 6,500 cfs.

Norfork Dam spillway releases on May 25th. Click to enlarge.

One unit was repaired and brought back online June 2, and spillway flows were reduced by half. All spillway gates were closed June 9th.

No spillway releases were necessary from Greers Ferry Dam this spring.

© 2011, Scott Branyan

ClustrMaps is showing blog visitors from 47 states of the US since June 2010. Thanks!!!

© 2011, Scott Branyan

I travelled a fair bit around the Ozarks in May and June. Cicadas were thickest around Table Rock, Tanneycomo, Beaver, Eureka Springs, below Ranchette on Bull Shoals tailwater, and on Norfork tailwater and Dry Run Creek. As of yet, none have emerged out here at Monte Ne or much west of Fayetteville in Benton and Washington counties.

The hatch was going strong in the Buford/Norfork area of southern Baxter County by May 19th, Taney County, MO by May 26th and the Beaver tailwater and Lake Leatherwood area by Memorial Day weekend. Michael Guidry and I had a fun evening fishing cicada patterns on Lake Leatherwood June 4th. Unfortunately, tailwater conditions were not very favorable for fishing the main part of the cicada activity.

Bull Shoals dam closed spillway gates June 7th after record releases and continued to reduce generation making a terrific window of opportunity for fishing the cicada hatch that weekend. I guided George Rankin June 10-11, and we had two phenomenal days of dry fly fishing (see the cicada fly tying tutorial on the Fly Patterns page for the pattern we used). As we were getting off the river Saturday afternoon, a severe thunderstorm strafed the river from Cotter downstream to Buffalo City and towards Norfork and blew many of the cicada out of the trees into the river. I suspect there was a feeding frenzy later that night and the next morning. That probably reduced the number of bugs substantially, and it will likely dry up the action over the next few days in that area of the tailwater.

As the large periodic 13-year hatch comes to a close, it will be noted in anglers’ notebooks and calendars. Each of these rare occurrences now are better documented than ever and knowledgeable anglers, fishing the White River tailwaters and other parts of the country where cicada are known to be a factor in angling, will be better prepared to take advantage of such opportunities for future outings.

But for now, the woods begin to grow faint of cicada songs, and trout and bass gobble up the last of a short-lived buffet item. Farewell, 13-year cicada.

© 2011, Scott Branyan

Well, it is here. The 13-year cicada emergence is going strong in areas. I heard and found cicadas in abundance in several areas across the White River reservoirs and tailwaters yesterday. As you are driving down the road, just listen for the coming and going whine that makes you think your wheel bearings are going out.

The 13-year cicada are cute bugs. They chirp when you pick them up, don't bite, are easy to catch and handle, fly well, and sing--boy, can they sing (the males do to attract a mate). Best of all, fish will gorge themselves on the bug when they fall in the water, making them an ideal large food item to imitate with a fly. Click for larger image.

A large emergence is going on around Table Rock and Taneycomo lakes. Particularly, the old Hwy 165 that goes along Taneycomo was heavy with cicada singing. Also, the trout in Dry Run Creek are attune to them now, and they don’t last long when they fall in the water. If you have kids under 16, get yourself to Dry Run Creek. The water conditions are perfect for fishing this hatch from the bank trail. Take some cicada, or large irresistible or bomber dry flies. Don’t hire a guide. This is too much fun exploring this hatch yourself. Let it be a memorable outing of discovery for both you and your son(s) and/or daughter(s). You can assist them, but not fish, and no chumming! Hunt for the critters, enjoy handling them (they don’t bite), and then let your child try their luck with flies. A large stimulator, black muddler, irresistible, bomber (especially black and yellow/orange) and a host of other things will substitute if you don’t tie or can’t find any cicada patterns.

As for other area opportunities, it’s difficult to recommend specific areas because conditions are in flux. Some areas are not fishable nor safe. Others are as long as you use common sense. But Dry Run Creek , Roaring River State Park, and some of the smaller springcreek-like environs will be worth checking. Explore a little and use common sense. I would only look for places to bank fish and not even set foot in the water at the moment. Lake arms that remain clear or are clearing are another possibility along with the smaller area lakes.

I’m still not hearing cicadas much in northwest Arkansas White River areas. So, I believe they will be later than the other emergences. This will not last long in a given area. Above all, be safe, then have fun!

© 2011, Scott Branyan