White River Fly Fishing Reports – March 1 & 2, 2022 – Is The Shad Kill Over?

Reports From The Field - Lisa Bellue

March 6, 2022

Chris from Colorado was passing through on his way to do some instructional classes in Indiana and was able to get a few days of fishing in on the White this week.  Many folks often ask where we got the fly bins, and we are happy to give them the story of how they all came about, and they would not have been possible if it wasn’t for the expert craftsmanship of this fine gentleman and his late father. 

Chris and his crew visit the White River from areas all over; Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado just to name a few, but most often come in around the April and May time frame.  They have a mix of spin fishing light tackle guys and luckily for us some die-hard Fly fisherman in the group.  So, it was nice showing Chris around the river during another bite that stands out on the river.

Jeremy was able to get us out for a few hours of some Shad kill activity in the late morning hours on Tuesday. 

We fished the dry dropper method that Jeremy spoke about in the previous report with some success, but the Arkansas Bead head still prevailed on numbers of quality rainbows and browns in the morning.

Seagulls continued to be a familiar sight at the dam all day, but as the afternoon approached the bite on White started to slowdown.

We put back on for the closing hours of the day just to find a few healthy rainbows and decided to give it another go in the morning.

The next day was not what we had been used to, but the white shad patterns still produced fish but not at the success rate that we had become accustomed to.

arkansas beadhead2
arkansas beadhead

White still worked throughout the upper river, but changing to egg and midge droppers, chartreuse Mega worms, and tailwater jigs seemed produce in an equal manner.

Reports in the shop late in the week have been similar to what we experienced on Wednesday.

Is the shad kill over? 

The bite is still out there down deep and white is still producing. 

The number of gulls near the dam has decreased over the last few days and could very well be the best indicator.

 

Do you want to give up fishing white?  NO 

The possibility of shad continuing to spit through the generators is defiantly out there and something I would not give up on.

The cloud cover and rain forecasted to come in over the weekend should make the bite increase up near the dam and the steady flows should continue to make a difference.

shad zoo couger

Chris from Colorado was passing through on his way to do some instructional classes in Indiana and was able to get a few days of fishing in on the White this week.  Many folks often ask where we got the fly bins, and we are happy to give them the story of how they all came about, and they would not have been possible if it wasn’t for the expert craftsmanship of this fine gentleman and his late father.

Chris and his crew visit the White River from areas all over; Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado just to name a few, but most often come in around the April and May time frame.  They have a mix of spin fishing light tackle guys and luckily for us some die-hard Fly fisherman in the group.  So, it was nice showing Chris around the river during another bite that stands out on the river.

arkansas beadhead2

Jeremy was able to get us out for a few hours of some Shad kill activity in the late morning hours on Tuesday. 

We fished the dry dropper method that Jeremy spoke about in the previous report with some success, but the Arkansas Bead head still prevailed on numbers of quality rainbows and browns in the morning.

Seagulls continued to be a familiar sight at the dam all day, but as the afternoon approached the bite on White started to slowdown.

We put back on for the closing hours of the day just to find a few healthy rainbows and decided to give it another go in the morning.

The next day was not what we had been used to, but the white shad patterns still produced fish but not at the success rate that we had become accustomed to.

arkansas beadhead

White still worked throughout the upper river, but changing to egg and midge droppers, chartreuse Mega worms, and tailwater jigs seemed produce in an equal manner.

Reports in the shop late in the week have been similar to what we experienced on Wednesday.

Is the shad kill over?  The bite is still out there down deep and white is still producing.  The number of gulls near the dam has decreased over the last few days and could very well be the best indicator.

Do you want to give up fishing white?  NO

shad zoo couger

The possibility of shad continuing to spit through the generators is defiantly out there and something I would not give up on.   The cloud cover and rain forecasted to come in over the weekend should make the bite increase up near the dam and the steady flows should continue to make a difference.

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