White River (below Bull Shoals

Big Bug bite Brown

6/22/10

The last few outings have been very amusing. I'm observing guides with bobbers strapped to beadhead rigs tucking tale and running to the dam...all the while the bugs are massing in the trees waiting for the magical hour to burst onto the scene in the spots down river that the said guides just left. There must be something at the dam I don't know about right now, but with the dry fly fishing as good as it is....ignorance is bliss.

Randy and a brown on a Sulphur....life's tough

Fished the State Park to Wildcat. Flows started at about 12,000 cfs and bumped to 16,000 in the afternoon. Same deal different day. Hatch progression started in the afternoon, so we started out with some nymphing and then moved to the dry game after lunch.

Brown on a Caddis.....they'll be here all summer folks.

I have never seen hatches this thick anywhere I've ever been. That's saying something as i just left the dry fly mecca of Missoula, and spent three winters in Chile. Sulphurs are coming off in the mid afternoons with the caddis coming off really late. The big bug bite is still going and will continue to get better on through the summer.

Several nice browns were landed all on dries. Saw pods of easily 500 fish all up on rhythm. Henry's Fork, eat your heart out. There is no other river in the US right now that has better dry fly fishing than the White....hands down.

Forrest Smith

Trout and Timber Outfitters