Your one-stop website for fly fishing the White River, the Norfork Tailwater, and Lake Taneycomo
“This page is designed to offer an in-depth look at the productive fly fishing available on the White River and Norfork Tailwater in Arkansas in order to help those who enjoy White River fly fishing gain a complete understanding of how these rivers operate and what their layout is like. Depending on current water release scenarios, wading may be an option for fly fishermen or they may have to fly fish from a drift boat or riverboat. Despite the complexities regarding flow, the White River and Norfork Tailwater are trout fisheries where it is possible to catch more fish than on any other river system in the country, and there is always a great chance of hooking into a huge trophy brown trout or a fat and healthy rainbow trout on any given cast.”
Bull Shoal's Dam - White River
White River
The White River and Norfork Tailwater trout fisheries are a result of huge dams that changed these once warmwater streams to cold, clear rivers. Unlike many tailwaters throughout the country, the White and Norfork continue to operate on a "peak" demand system. This means: as long as the water is available in the reservoirs, the dams will generate electricity if there is a demand on their power grid. Obviously, this makes for unpredictable flows where the water could rise and/or fall throughout the day. Fly fishers, for the most part, are smitten with low water conditions because wading is easy, quality access is ample, and a variety of flies and techniques will catch trout. To give a little perspective on what the flows mean, let's look at the White below Bull Shoals Dam. When there are zero generating units operating, the dam releases @40cubic feet per second (cfs).
Norfork Tailwater
Norfork Tailwater
Gravel bars are exposed, and the fish become concentrated. The "set up" is wide open with very few places where you can get hung on your backcast. When the generators start letting water into the river, the levels rise. When all eight units are running at Bull Shoals, flows can exceed 25,000 cfs. The trout will move to different places depending on water volume...a good spot on three units may be too deep on six units. So in some respects, the White is nine different rivers in one. The Norfork has two units and flows range from 40cfs on zero units to 5800cfs with both generators letting out the max amount of water. Although this whole generation thing can be overwhelming, it's really as basic as high water and low water for most fishermen. For specific breakdowns on The White and Norfork, including descriptions of the different sections, please see the other sub topics or click the links below.
