Hopper action is still on fire!!

Scott Ford hooked up with this brown fishing below Cotter access.

I haven’t been writing a White River fly fishing report a great deal, but when I do the pattern has been one unit until the afternoon and  the hopper bite hasn’t let us down at all. You have to make a longer cast  to get the job done in this skinny water, but if you can cast reasonably well, you  should be successful. On average, we are hooking three browns over 20 inches and  the biggest being in the 23 inch  range. My guys the last few days haven’t been able to bring them to the boat,  but they know and I know they have been on line. One problem I am noticing is poor technique when it comes to setting   the hook. If you have too much  slack in the line, you can go ahead and kiss that one goodbye. The rod tip has  to be down at all times, and if you make a cast that results in slack in your line,  you need to make sure to clean it up by  lifting the rod tip or stripping in the slack line. Either way, the goal is  to set the hook in such a way as to make contact with the  fish quickly. Fishing in low water is challenging, but if you are not a  proficient caster, your problems will be modified significantly. My goal is to put you on the fish and it’s not every day you  can target a nice brown easier than  throwing streamers.
The best spot that I’ve seen is definitely  from the dam down to Gaston’s. I’ll  run this spot several times until the surge hits which has been around 1pm.  I’ve seen some  big fish in this stretch right now and it isn’t the same downstream. I would  rather my clients have several opportunities at these hogs than to get  complacent and just fish the river and in the hopes they might get another  chance at a trophy. I know it will  happen if you make the right cast.

White River Fly Fishing Report – What is the key to success ?

I’ve heard people say you need the sun to get it done,  but I’ve gotten it done in all types of conditions– whether it’s cloudy or  sunny. I think the morning and evening is when it really gets going. Noon has been a bit hot, but there have been some  dead times between 9 and 11am and from 2 to 4pm in this lower water. If they would run three units or more then you wouldn’t have to put in all these  factors. Since you never know how many units will be running, you might as well  just swing for the fences. Making a lot of great casts and offering flies where you  think a fish would be holding will get you a few more big strikes, also. I have  found that shade along the bank can definitely reward a good cast, but being in the middle of the river in riffles or where the  depth is deeper than being right along the bank in skinny water and seams can be  the trick for ambushing trout that are feeding in lies where all the food is  washing. All these things can add up for a good trip for sure.

What is the hot “hopper” fly?

This was the biggest brown trout of the day pushing in the 22 inch range fishing the White River.

We all know from reading my White River fly fishing report that the hot hopper color is pink. Tan would be second and yellow would be third. Foam is what most people  are using for the hopper bodies these days, and the producing patterns are Fat Alberts, Western Ladies,  Pookie Hoppers, Charlie Boys and Chernobyl- type hoppers. All these patterns  need to have the barred legs.

Don’t forget  about streamers when the bite slows down. When everybody is doing the same thing, sometimes switching up the other way to target browns can be  effective, too. Nymph fishing right now is the last thing you want to do  when you have opportunities at trophy browns this time of year. We only get  this three months out of the year. January ushers in the use of  big  articulated streamers , and this lasts until the end of February;  then it’s back to fishing the caddis  hatch in the spring, but big fish don’t necessarily key in as aggressively  to this bite as they do the hopper and streamer bite.

The White River Fly Fishing Report is full of information you can use the next time you decide to go fly fishing at night. You can send me a email directly to [email protected] if you are interested in booking a guide trip. Feel free to visit us on Facebook, If you really liked this article, +1 above – check us out at +flysandguides (Google+) or send us a tweet with a question or just to say hi. Check out the Fly of the Month!