Fly and Gear ordering and delivery: We can get flies to you within two to three business days from the time you place your order via Priority Mail. If you provide a budget for flies, we will select them to match the budget and get them to you on time for your trip. Please see the bottom of this column for ordering options.
We also have custom Perfect Fly selections in 3 different price ranges for this stream that come with or without fly boxes. They make excellent gifts. Click Here To Order or Call us at 800 594 4726 or email us at sales@perfectflystore.com.
Type of Stream
Tailwater
Species
Brown Trout (wild)
Rainbow Trout (stocked with
holdovers)
Brook Trout (stocked and wild)
Cutthroat Trout
(Stocked with holdovers)
Size
Large width but many miles of trout
waters
Location
Middle Arkansas
Nearest Towns
Heber Springs
Little Rock
Season
Year-round
Special Regulations:
Access:
Fair
Discharge Schedule:
Non-Resident License
State of Arkansas
TVA Release Schedule
Click for information
Recommended Tackle & Gear
Fly Line:
5 or 6 weight
Leaders:
Dry fly: 9 & 12 ft., 5 or 6X, Nymphing:
71/2 ft., 3 or 4X, Streamers 0-2X
Tippets:
Dry fly: 5 or 6X, Nymphing: 3 or 4X,
Streamer 0-2X
Best Fly Rods:
Perfect Fly Superb Five or Ultimate Six
Fly Reels:
For 5/6 fly line
Fly Floatants and Misc Items:
Floatants, KISS Strike Indicators
Tools & Accessories:
Nippers, forceps, retractors, etc.
Fly and Gear ordering and delivery:
Email us at (sales@perfectflystore.com) with the dates you will be fishing and we will send you a list of our fly recommendations. We can get flies and gear to you within two to three business days from the time you place your order via Priority Mail. If you provide a budget for flies, we will select them to match the budget and get them to you on time for your trip. Your can also call us at 800-594-4726 and we will help you decide what flies and gear to use. All orders are shipped free in the U.S. If under a $100 order requiring Priority mail is a charge of only $8.10. Orders over a $100 are shipped free via Priority Mail.
Copyright 2013 James Marsh
White River, Arkansas – Fly Fishing Report – 11/17/24
The stream is flowing near a normal level and clear. We received two good reports from customers fishing this past week. Good hatches are taking place. Our articulated streamers are catching some big browns.
Rate: 6710 cfs, Depth: 8.25 ft.
Water Temperature: 60 (varies on location)
Clarity: clear
USGS Real-Time Stream Flow Data
Schedule of Discharges
7 Day Weather Forecast: (click the link below for more detailed weather information)
Recommended Trout Flies:
Brown Sculpin and White Belly Sculpin and Articulated streamers, size 6/4
Black Matuka and Olive Matuka Sculpin, size 4/6
Aquatic Worms, size 12, pink, red, and others
Midges: Cream and Red (Blood) midges sizes 20/22, larva, pupa and adult. Our larva and pupa midge flies, pre-rigged in tandem, are very popular here. You can fish them under a strike indicator keeping the larva fly near the bottom. https://perfectflystore.com/product/pre-rigged-tandem-midge-larva-pupa-tippet
Blue-winged Olives: size 16, nymphs, emergers, duns, spinners
Green Sedge Caddis, size 16/14, larva, pupa and adultsSlate Drakes: 10/12, nymphs and adults
Mahogany Duns, size 18, nymphs, emergers, duns and spinners
Scuds, size 14/16
Sowbugs, size 14/16
Little Black Caddis, size 18, pupa and adults
Perfect Flies are designed and tied to to imitate and behave like the natural foods the trout rely on to survive as much as possible. The more your fly looks like and moves through and on the surface of the water like the real things, the higher your odds of success.
Fly Fishing On The White River In Arkansas: Fly Fishing the White River in Arkansas below Bull Shoals Dam ranks at the top of the list with the nation’s best streams. It’s one of the best trout streams in the nation. When one mentions fly fishing the White River, one place always first comes to the knowledgeable fly angler’s mind – the White River below Bull Shoals Dam. The White River is a big river. Its headwaters are in the Boston Mountains south of Fayetteville, Arkansas. From there It travels north, where it forms Beaver Lake, then north into Missouri, where it eventually forms Bull Shoals lake. This covers the river from Bull Shoals Dam downstream.It flows a total of 720 miles. The dam converted a warm water bass fishery into one of the top cold water trout streams in the country. The White River below Bull Shoals Dam is much larger than the many miles of the river above the lake. More importantly, it’s much colder. The dam discharges water from the depths of Bull Shoals Lake creating the perfect habitat for trout. It’s a very popular stream with numerous resorts, campgrounds and several fly fishing guides and outfitters that cater to the visiting anglers.The White River’s wild brown trout are supplemented by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. They stock large numbers of trout. Although most of the newly stocked trout are probably caught fairly quickly, some of them live to grow to very large sizes. Trout exist downstream for the Bulls Shoals Dam for over forty miles. The lower section of the river also contains a good population of smallmouth bass. The water of the North Fork River, another fine tailwater trout fishery itself, enters the White River at the town of Norfork, adding even more cold water to the flow. The White River is a very wide river, over a hundred yards wide in places. It has some very large and deep pools as well as plenty of fast water riffles. The locals call the riffles “shoals”. They are created by shoals that cross the river. Most of the bottom consist of limestone, but there’s a mixture of gravel and soft bottom and an occasional weed bed. It’s a perfect habitat for the food the brown trout prefer. Crustaceans, minnows, baitfish, sculpin, crayfish, midges galore and many other types of food is plentiful. Access to the White River is very plentiful. If we listed all the boat launches on the White River, it would consist of a huge list. There are numerous access points including those at the Arkansas State Park. Many launches were built by the resorts along the White River. Many think the White can only be fished from a drift boat. Certainly it offers some of the best float trips of any trout stream in the country but it can also be fished from the bank and by wading. The river is very subject to sudden fluctuations in water levels. The stream can become very high and swift when all the turbines are running, however, most of the time, the discharges are well suited for fly fishing.One of the best features of the river is that it can be during the Winter when most other trout streams are closed to fishing or too cold to fish.Five to ten pound brown trout are commonly caught from the White River. Many are caught that weight over ten pounds and a few even go up to twenty. Holdover rainbow trout can also grow very large. Rainbows over twenty inches are not rare.There’s also a population of cutthroats and brook trout in the White River. They are not near as plentiful as the browns and rainbows but they are occasionally caught.
Fly Fishing Guide to the White River: Fly fishing the White River can be challenging at times with most everything depending on the discharges from the dam. The river undergoes big changes in water levels. This affects the fishing drastically. You must fish according to the releases. There are eight generators at Bull Shoals Dam which can release a lot of water. Caution must be used when you are wading. You can normally wade the river with two or less generators running.The White River tailwater below Bull Shoals Dam provides a wide variety of different types of water. There are stretches of pocket water, long deep runs, shallow riffles, long pools, flat water, rough water and just about everything in between. Trout measuring between sixteen and twenty inches are very common. Brown trout are usually discussed in terms of pounds rather than inches. There are four catch and release areas on the river. They probably have the majority of the larger trout although they are found throughout the length of the river.The water levels control everything. The strategy you use depends almost entirely on the amount of water being released through the dam. Normally, the first six months of the year, the water runs high. This is when most anglers go to streamers. Sink tip and sinking lines are sometimes used to help get the streamers down. In early May and June the water is sometimes at a moderate level. This is a good time to fish the river using nymphs. During late June, July and August, the direct overhead sun makes catching the nocturnal brown trout more difficult. You best opportunities come just past daybreak and late in the afternoon and on into the evenings. During the summer and on into the fall you will usually find the water levels are lower than normal. Low water makes for the best dry fly fishing opportunities. Although there are few hatches of aquatic insects, you can catch plenty of trout on terrestrial imitations such as hoppers, ants and beetles. You will usually find the lowest water from September through December.From late October on into January, the browns are spawning. They are much easier to catch then but the trout should not be bothered when they are on their redds. This is very unsportsmanlike and can hurt the success of the spawn. There are plenty of other trout that can be caught during the spawn period without having to revert to trying to catch them when they are on their redds.
White River Hatches and Trout Flies: Our information on aquatic insects is based on our stream samples of larvae and nymphs, not guess work. We base fly suggestions on imitating the most plentiful and most available insects and other foods at the particular time you are fishing.Unlike the generic fly shop trout flies, we have specific imitations of all the insects in the White River and in all stages of life that is applicable to fishing. If you want to fish better, more realistic trout flies, have a much higher degree of success, give us a call. We not only will help you with selections, you will learn why, after trying Perfect Flies, 92% of the thousands of our customers will use nothing else. 1-800-594-4726. There are a few aquatic insect hatches on the White River. Midges hatch year-round and in terms of numbers, are far more plentiful than any other insect. You should make certain you have imitations of their larvae, pupae and the adults. Midge fishing isn’t all that locally popular at the time but it is certainly one of the most effective ways of catching trout on the White River, including the large brown trout. The light line methods haven’t caught on as fast on the White as some other places in the country. Scuds and sowbugs are two of the most important food sources found on the White River. They are fairly plentiful and quite effective when imitated properly. By the way, we think our “Perfect Fly” imitations of the scud and sowbugs are the best you can purchase. They have proven to be effective on this river. The other crustacean that is plentiful is the crawfish, or crayfish, whichever name you prefer. The smaller ones are eaten by all of the trout and even the larger ones are eaten by the big browns. Threadfin Shad are also eaten by the larger trout and are important during the spring months of February and March. During the hot summer, there is a shad kill on the Bull Shoals Lake that allows some to get through the turbines and into the river. Sculpin are also present everywhere and imitations of them are usually very effective. Little Brown Stoneflies hatch in February and March. Imitations of their nymphs can be effective during this time. Giant Black Stoneflies hatch in certain areas of the river in March. Hatches of March Brown and Sulphur mayflies take place in April and May. These are isolated to certain areas of the river. The March Browns in the riffles and the Sulphurs are found on the sections with moderate flows. There are a few Light Cahill hatches that take place on the riffles the last part of May and during the month of June. Blue-winged Olive hatches occur in January and February and again in November and December. There is even a White Fly (Ephoron) hatch that occurs in the slower sections of the river in August and September. The largest caddisfly hatches that take place in March through May. These are mostly species of the Spotted Sedges. There are also some Cinnamon Sedges that hatch during the same time frame. There are other species of caddisflies in the river but none that hatch in large numbers.The cranefly is another insect that is plentiful on the White River. Imitations of their larvae and the adult caneflies will take their share of trout. They are around all the time except during the cold weather. Imitations of terrestrial insects, ants, hoppers and beetles, can be effective during the summer from June through September. We recommend our “Perfect Flies” because they have been proven effective here and they are the most realistic and effective trout flies you can purchase. Some of them cost a little more but they are worth every cent of it. Please give them a try.