The Arkansas River flows have been dropping for the past few days and are currently sitting around 450 cfs at the Wellsville gauge.  As flows drop fish will be forced to move from familiar holding areas and it will generally take a couple days for fish to reset and get back into a regular routine.  Look for fish to move into fast riffles and pocket water in the main river channel where water will be cooler and more oxygenated.

There has been good hatches of midges, caddis and mayflies.  Hopper dropper rigs have still been the go to but fish are definitely looking up and eating small mayfly dries and emergers at certain times of the day.  When running a hopper dropper rig try using smaller, lighter weight droppers to keep you flies higher in the water column.  With the abundance of bugs hatching fish have been keyed in on flies closer to the surface and if you are fishing too heavy you may be drifting flies below the feeding zone.

We have a couple more days of hot weather but next week we are seeing a big cool down and moisture which should be great for keeping water temps cool and fish happy which should set us up for some great fishing conditions this fall!

Give us a call or swing by the shop if you are planning on getting out and need bugs or just some friendly advice.  We are open and booking trips 7 days a week.

Suggested Flies:

Duracell’s #14-16, Roza’s Dark Neon Jig #16-18, Roza’s Violet Tailed Jig #14-18, Prince Nymph #10-12, Fast Water Prince #12-14,  Soft Hackle PT’s #12-18, Various Colors of Perdigons #14-18, Pats Rubber Legs #8-12, Miller’s Plus One #16-18, Guide Saver #12-14, Royal Wulff #14-16, Chubby Chernobyl #8-14, Croston’s Mass Attack #12, Olive Mini Dungeon #6, Olive Skulpzilla #8