Fishing Near Cotter, AR

[flyfishermann1955]

I will be heading over to Cotter, AR next Monday  (20 Mar) to attend the Sowbug Roundup Fly Tying Seminar all day on Thursday and again Friday morning before driving back to OK.  Plan on spending Tuesday and Wednesday fishing.  Have never been to this area.  Any one have any recent info on good spots to fish and flies?

Thanks- Ken 

[hankinsfly]

Ken- now would be a great time to be there as there will be some caddis hatch. The caddis activity began early this year. This river and its fishing is completely determined by the flows coming out of Bull Shoals Dam. Because of the mild winter and low precipitation, optimal wading opportunities have been the norm. The mild winter also led to early caddis. There are lots of places to go, but I generally stick to fishing at Bull Shoals Dam Access or at Rim Shoals Access. I know you like to nymph fish and if caddis are what you're hoping to fish, go down to Rim Shoals. There will be less caddis activity at the Dam but here you do well on midges and still as well on soft hackles. The wading is easy at low flows at the Dam and its obvious when they release water. You can hear the siren and know clearly to be moving to the bank. Further downstream, such as at Rim, you cannot hear the sirens and you need to keep your eyes on an object at water level. It takes water from the dam about 5 hours to reach Rim Shoals, so you can keep an eye on the generation schedules. When water gets high at Rim, just take the short drive back up to the dam and keep fishing! Wading at Rim is a little more technical. I've caught a lot of nice fish here- rainbows, browns, and cutthroat. You will see caddis here. There are other access points, such as the park in the town of Cotter, and Wildcat Shoals. I haven't spent much time here. Sorry I missed you at the TU Banquet. Would like to catch up some other time. Here are some useful links. These first two include GPS coordinates: just plug into the smart phone and go: www.flyflinger.com/bs_access_rimshoals.php
www.flyflinger.com/bs_access_wood.php

This one is a complete list of accesses if you go elsewhere, with GPS coordinates:
www.flyflinger.com/bs_access.php

This one will help you plan your trip around the water releases:
www.swpa.gov/generationschedules.aspx


And you ask of flies. Any of those midge patterns that you post here will do well on the White. Midge hatches occur here daily. You can catch them on dries- most of us just use pupa and larva patterns. I've done well at Rim with a brown or "root beer" zebra midge. Have a selection of colors. The next big one- sow bugs and scuds. Any number of patterns work. If you already have a favorite scud/sowbug pattern, fish it. Remember to fish these close to the bottom. Caddis- elk hairs do well, my favorite green ass soft hackle does great (I can get some to you before you go or post pics here for you to tie). Have some heavy larva patterns as well. Ye olde Prince nymph still takes a lot of fish here, so you might want some of those.