November 3, 2009 | FISHING REPORT - LITTLE RED RIVER
Little Red Fishing Report: November 3, '09 Everyone is talking about high water and for good reason. We just experienced the wettest October on record. Little Rock received 16.56 inches of rain in October making it the third wettest month recorded since 1878! As of this date, 2009 is the 5th wettest year in recorded history for our state. If we receive 8 more inches of rain this year, it will be the all time wettest and we
usually get 5 inches each in November and December! We are now going into our third year in a row of high water levels in Greers Ferry Lake.
The Greers Ferry Power House is releasing water every day in an effort to lower the lake level from the present 476.00 feet above sea level down to the preferred maximum of 461.44 feet asl. Around-the-clock releases using both the generators is not possible yet due to high water in the White River. When the gauges in that river read 12 feet at Newport and 13 feet at Georgetown, increased releases will occur at Bull Shoals, Norfork and Greers Ferry. Right now, the White River is several feet too high at those gauge locations for any additional water.
When the lakes are full from heavy rain events and the White River is in flood stage, you have, what the Corps of Engineers calls, a "generation drought". This is our situation now. This is good news for the wade fishermen. Water releases will have to be restricted until the White River recedes leaving daily wading opportunities. Yesterday, as an example, water releases occurred from midnight until noon utilizing only a fraction of one generator. Wade fishing at JFK was possible most all afternoon. Twelve hour releases per day appear to be the protocol the Corps has chosen. Even if they generate from noon to midnight, wading will be possible on most shoals the following morning. In the near future, after the White River levels fall to more desirable levels, large, protracted releases will begin. Now is the time to fish!
Operating both generators at near maximum capacity for 24 hours can lower our lake level by about 3-4 tenths of a foot. You can do the math and readily discern that we are in for a couple of months of high river water - longer if the heavy rains return. The average temperature of the water coming through the dam is 55 degrees fahrenheit with an average dissolved oxygen content of 5.2 mg/l.
Fishing high water from a drifting boat can be exciting as well as a cause for concern. Eventually we are going to have high water and, when we do, never, repeat, never try to fish and manage the boat at the same time - it can get you seriously killed. Your safest route is to hire an experienced guide. The best set-up for fly fishing high water from a boat includes a long enough leader and tippet that will reach the streambed, a brightly colored San Juan worm, enough weight to sink it and a big enough strike indicator to float it. A twelve foot leader with about 3-4 feet of tippet is usually enough to reach the river bottom in two units of power generation. Sufficient split shot or the equivalence in sink putty will be needed plus an indicator in the grape to ping pong ball in size to suspend the fly near the bottom. It's not pretty but it works.
Aquatic insect hatches continue with midges and blue wings leading the way. A few good dry flies to try include the adams (18), bwo (18-20), pmd (16-18), midge (22-32 cream or black) and elk hair caddis (16-20 tan). Effective sub-surface flies include sowbug (14-16 tan, uv tan, smokey olive or peacock), zebra midge (16-22 red or black), red @ss soft hackle (14-18), San Juan worm (14 red, fl. cerise or hot pink), egg pattern (14 roe, salmon, watermelon or bubble gum) or woolly bugger (8-12 olive, brown or black).
I am getting my first reports of spawn activity. Small brown trout doing aerial leaps, numerous male browns at Cow Shoal and a few redds (fish nests) are sure signs of the beginning of our annual brown trout spawn. The spawn is on! If you have questions about anything in this report, direct them to me at the Little Red Fly Shop of Heber Springs, Arkansas. My numbers are #888-442-4022 toll free or #501-887-9988. You can send an e-mail to me from our web site which is www.littleredflyshop.com. I'm Little Red Jed Hollan, mgr. <*((((><
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