Fishing Tactics

Arkansas brown trout unforgiving, wary

Photo: Denise Ronald

The biggest fish are often in the toughest spots to fish. There’s a reason for that!

One of the most important things to know about brown trout fishing on the Arkansas River is that they are truly wild fish. Originally imported from Europe, the fish reproduce entirely on their own in the Arkansas without supplemental stocking. These fish are not highly educated, but they do have great survival instincts. This leads to several key points:

• Arkansas River browns are unforgiving and wary of people. Many anglers who come to fish the Arkansas have learned their skills on tailwaters and try to apply those techniques here. While fish in many tailwaters have become so accustomed to anglers that you can literally walk up to them and poke them with your rod tip, on the Arkansas if a fish sees you it will generally quit feeding and/or move out of sight. For this reason, you need to maintain a low profile, wear unobtrusive colors, approach a nice lie from downstream, and be prepared to cast 30-40 feet. Don’t fish in water that you know has just been fished by someone else — the fish can take a while to regain their sense of security. Short-line nymphing is effective only in deep troughs and even then trout will either hit the fly or they won’t. Throwing a fly at one spot over and over will rarely trigger a response after the first several casts. Fish a spot thoroughly and then move on.

• Take a systematic approach to your fishing. When you approach a section of river, stop 10 feet from the water and formulate a plan. Start by defining the left and right extremes of water you can effectively fish. Looking upstream, divide the river into parallel flow lines, drifts, or mini rivers, and then rate them in terms of how sensitive the fish are likely to be and how good you think the fishing will be in each lane. Fish with an upstream, in-line drift, hitting the most sensitive drifts first and making the most casts to the lanes you have determined will hold the most fish. If a spot looks “too good” but doesn’t produce, forget about it. Move up several paces and begin the process again. Though you will cover some of the same water, your nymph will be at a different depth and may trigger a strike.

• Natural drift is the key to fly presentation. A perfect imitation of a PMD during a hatch will go untouched if it is dragged across or beneath the surface. On the other hand, an unrelated pattern may well raise a fish if the angler provides it with a good, long, natural drift. Casting accuracy and the ability to effectively mend a drift go a lot further on the Arkansas than a vest full of every western pattern in every color and size.

• Fish two flies. Doing so allows you to present more than one stage of a life cycle during a hatch, more than one species of insect when you are not sure what is hatching, cover more than one level of the water column and tempt fish with a broader spectrum of offerings. Two typical tandem rigs used on the Arkansas are, first, a 7-foot leader with a large high visibility dry. Tie 2-3 feet of 4-5X tippet material to the bend of the hook with a clinch knot and then tie a beadhead nymph or smaller dry to the end of the tippet. Fish the dry with a natural drift as an indicator as well as a fly. Second, use a 7-foot leader and attach a 14-16 beadhead nymph. Add 2-3 feet of 4-5X tippet and add a smaller beadhead or unweighted emerger. If the water is deep or swift, add a split shot. Use an adjustable strike indicator and move it up and down the leader as the river depth changes. A good rule of thumb is to distance the indicator from the lead fly at 1.5 times the depth of the river.

• Tippet diameter is rarely a major factor in fooling an Arkansas brown. Obviously, you can’t use 3X tippet on a size 22 Griffith’s Gnat, but swift current and abundant structure generally give the fish little time to examine your offering. Most anglers fish 3X-5X on the Arkansas and nothing finer than that.

• The swift current at flows above 700 cfs greatly decreases available, usable habitat for fish. At higher flows, they are often pushed to the bottom of deeper holes or out along the edges of the current. But even at lower flows, sizeable brown trout will hold along the edges of the river and often in quite shallow water.

Many fish are spooked out of these lies by the angler who charges through the shallows to cast into the deeper, swifter water where trout have a hard time feeding.

Whether wade fishing or casting from a boat, the edges should be approached carefully and fished thoroughly before proceeding to deeper water. Browns do not move as far for a fly as some other trout species.

When fishing the bank from a boat, put the fly within an inch of the bank or right on the seam line. When working a nymph in fast water, make sure that fly is weighted correctly to get right to the bottom.

Caddis hatch tactics — a few points to remember

Photo: Gary E. Nichols

• Stay out of the mess. Fishing in the middle of the blizzard is not as effective as fishing just upstream of the leading edge of the hatch. In the middle of the hatch, the fish have too many bugs to choose from, it is hard to see your fly and the fish will become sated more quickly. Above the hatch, the fish are ready and watching for bugs. They will fight over your fly in this situation.

• Follow the life cycle. Be on the water by 10 a.m. Fish with a buoyant caddis dry fly you can see and hang a beadhead caddis pupa off of that. When you start to see fish porpoise, switch to an unweighted pupa. Once you see adult caddis on the water, switch to a second dry or clip off the dropper and fish the front fly only. By mid-afternoon, the fish are typically stuffed and the fishing becomes harder. As the bite slows, it is a good idea to offer them something different. It may trigger a response, and if a lot of bugs are on the water, it helps you keep track of your fly. At some point the bite will stop completely. Fish are stuffed and caddis have moved off into the bushes to couple and mate.

If you have that opportunity, you should do the same. Failing that, go eat lunch, take a nap, recharge, but don’t go home. Too many anglers make that mistake. Once the sun is off the water, ovipositing females come out to lay their eggs. You will see them bouncing up and down off the surface. Rig with a darker, larger pattern like a Peacock Caddis or Green Butt Caddis and plan to work the surface till dark. It is fine to “skitter” your fly across the surface in imitation of the dancing females. For those die-hards who stick it out, 30-fish evenings are not uncommon at this time of year.

• Use your thermometer. 54 degrees is the magic number. If the weather or flows change, your thermometer will give you a good indication of what will happen each day.

• Don’t let a little mud ruin your day. The weather during the caddis hatch, mid-April to mid-May, is some of the most dynamic and unpredictable of the year. A hot day, particularly following some low-altitude snow, can release some run-off and sediment into the river. It’s not the end of the world! These spring run-off events are generally short-lived and a shot of mud will often be just a few miles long. You can wait it out or move upstream. When the river has sediment in it, fish can’t see as well. They will tend to concentrate along the edges where they have structure near the surface — they can feel safe and hold their position and are close enough to the surface to be able to see bugs. Work edges hard at these times. It takes 8 to 12 inches of visibility for fish to feed effectively along edges. Opaque water absorbs solar radiation quickly rather than transmitting it to the bottom. The river will generally warm up quickly in the sun under these conditions. The key to judging the situation is flow level. If the river took on some color but didn’t change in volume by more than 15-20 percent, the fishing should remain good. If the river changed color and rose dramatically, that’s a different story. You may be dealing with the onset of runoff. Fish will be disturbed for a few days as they adapt to the changing conditions and the water temperature will generally drop dramatically, putting an end to the hatch.

• If the fish quit feeding, prey on their emotions. Sylvester Niems wrote extensively about the use of traditional style soft-hackle wet flies for trout fishing. Swinging wet flies like the Soft Hackle Caddis Pupa or Mini-Muddler across pocket water that is 6 inches to 2 feet deep can elicit some incredibly aggressive behavior from Arkansas browns. The hits aren’t necessarily about feeding — it’s more of an instinctual response to fleeing prey. If you run from an aggressive dog it will chase you.

• Get off the beaten path. This is true year-round but even more so during the busy caddis hatch period. The fact is that most fishermen go where all the other fishermen go. Those who make the effort to beat the brush, wade across current, or brave overhanging branches are often richly rewarded. Make the extra effort. Risk losing the fly. The biggest fish are often in the toughest spots to fish. There’s a reason for that!