FISHING HIGH WATER AT BULL SHOALS DAM by John Berry

[Kevin]

 FISHING HIGH WATER AT BULL SHOALS DAM

BY JOHN BERRY

Last week I guided part of a large multiple guide corporate group out of River Ridge Inn. This is one of my absolute favorite clients. I usually guide them several times a year. It is a large electrical supplier that brings in their customers to entertain them fishing for trout. Most have no fly fishing experience. I worked with Phil and Wade. After a hearty breakfast we headed to the river.

 

I chose to fish at the Catch and Release section below Bull Shoals Dam. We had received rain the night before and quite a bit earlier in the week. I knew that most of the White would be muddy and that the only clear water would be there. They were running the equivalent of five full generators and there were no flood gates open. Before we started I gave them a brief fly casting lesson. I emphasized casting with an open loop, to keep the extra weight that we would have to use from becoming tangled.

 

I rigged a couple of fly rods for deep water and launched my river boat. We motored up to the dam and began drifting back. It took the guys a few runs to get the hang of casting the heavy rigs. They were soon able to effectively mend their lines and get good drag free drifts. Despite this we were not picking up any fish. I floated by a fellow guide, Jimmy T. He owns a fly shop in Bull Shoals, is one of the top guides in the area and is intimately familiar with this section of the river. We compared notes. His clients were catching fish with one of his patterns, the gold nugget, a large bright egg pattern. He gave me a few of them and told me how he was fishing them. I thanked him and pulled my boat over to the ramp.

 

I had been fishing a similar pattern but I was not fishing as deep. I took a few minutes to lengthen my leader/tippet combination another foot to a total of twelve feet. I had been fishing with one AAA split shot. I added another AAA split shot for a total of two. I also tied a gold nugget to each leader and adjusted the large Thingamabobber strike indicator for maximum depth.

 

We returned to the river and began picking up fish, large fish. They were averaging about eighteen inches and all were fat and sassy. We fished until noon when we stopped for lunch. The skies had been darkening all morning and it started to rain, when we stepped out of the boat. By the time we got to my car it was pretty heavy. I opened up the hatch back on my ancient Volvo and pulled out lunch and my raingear. We ate in the car and waited for the rain to abate. It slowed down and we scurried to the boat and motored across the river to the other ramp. We walked up to the shelter on the golf course to wait out the storm. Two other guides working with the group, Davy Wotton and Ron Yarbrough, were already there. We were not concerned with the rain because we all had raingear. The problem was that there was lightning cracking all around us.

 

We sat around and swapped fishing tales for an hour or so before the storm abated. It was still raining but the lightning had moved on. I bailed the rain water from the boat and we returned to the river. We motored up to the dam and began drifting back. The fishing action really picked up. We were catching fish after fish. They were all large. The smallest was maybe sixteen. The largest was a thick nineteen. I have had great days of fishing in the rain but this was exceptional. The guys were stoked. Every drift was producing two to three trout. They got so excited that they cast at the same time and tangled their lines. I had to pull over to the ramp and untangle them . It took a few minutes but we were soon back in the action. We fished on until it was time to go. My clients were very reluctant to leave. They had never experienced fishing as good as this.

 

As we reached the ramp, we heard the horn sound at the dam. Phil asked what it meant. Based on the current lake conditions (Bull Shoals was above the top of flood pool and the heavy rain we were receiving would cause it to rise more), I figured that the Corps of Engineers would have to open the flood gates to prevent the dam from failing. I told my guys to watch the dam. It was an awe inspiring sight as they opened the flood gates. They started with the two outside gates and then began working their way to the center opening them two at a time until all seventeen were operating. I had never witnessed the opening of the flood gates and I was impressed. The roar of the water dropping from the top of the dam to the river was deafening. The river was rising quickly. In a matter of minutes, it increased from the equivalent of five full units to eight full units, which is normal maximum flow. We took some pictures and headed back to the lodge for happy hour and a great dinner.

 

We had gotten a slow start but finished the day with a lot of great fish landed. In addition, we got to see something that doesn’t happen every day, the opening of all seventeen flood gates. All in all, it was a very interesting day.