I often fish for trophy trout in the winter, but now is also a fantastic time to catch big brown trout on the White and Little Red rivers.
Planning a trout fishing trip in the springtime can be challenging because water conditions are unpredictable. Right now, for example, Bull Shoals Lake is almost at 682 feet, nearly 23 feet above full pool. To make room in the reservoir for incoming rainfall and runoff, the Corps of Engineers is evacuating a lot of water through Bull Shoals Dam.
That means the water is generally very fast and high in the tailwater. That about rules out wade fishing. You'll almost certainly have to fish from a boat, but that's not a bad thing. Big brown trout go hunting in high water, and you can catch them any time of day.
There are several ways to catch brown trout in high water. Fly fishermen can target big brown trout by casting streamers, grasshopper patterns or mouse patterns against the bank while drifting parallel to the bank. If the water is cloudy, you can improve your odds by concentrating on clear pockets against the bank.
My favorite tactic is to troll stickbaits upstream against the current. It consistently produces big fish, but there is an art and a method to it.
First, it is very hard to troll effectively in exceedingly hard flow. Trolling against six to eight generators on the Bull Shoals Tailwater exerts too much pressure on a jerkbait for it to work right. Even at the slowest crawl, excessive current will keep a stickbait from diving.
Also, heavy current almost always puts a lot of vegetation in the water. If there's junk in the water, you'll spend more time pulling greenery off your lure than you will actually fishing.
Trolling shines in moderate current. A stickbait can dive deep and wobble the way it should while bouncing off rocks and digging into gravel.
The Bull Shoals Tailwater is a big system that offers endless places to fish. My favorite stretch is between Buffalo Shoal and the mouth of Crooked Creek. I like it so much that I neglect other parts of the river. Ray Tucker prefers the section between Boswell Shoal and the mouth of Sylamore Creek. We catch a lot of big rainbow trout in that area, but there is a particular bank where we always catch a few big browns at sunset.
When trolling, I target boulders primarily. Barely making headway, I make sure my lure runs directly behind and into boulders. I also troll all deep water beside steep banks. That's where I usually catch my biggest trout.
There is a particular spot that I can always count on catching a big fish. It's at the edge of a deep hole above a wide gravel flat. Trout stack at the drop. The first two or three passes always catch rainbow trout, but eventually a brown will jump into the fray. Only then do I proceed up to the boulder field.
Below the gravel flat is a narrow run that flows beside a string of boat docks. I never gave that trough much thought until January when I hooked, landed and released a 28-inch brown trout.
Shoestring Shoal is usually a good spot to catch rainbows. There are several big eddies where you can tie up to trees. The water is relatively calm there, allowing you to dunk prepared baits on the bottom with Dipsey sinkers.
The mouth of Crooked Creek is a good place to catch trout in high water, as well. The mouth of the creek is very deep and placid. It's too deep for stickbaits, really, so I always keep a small, deep-diving shad rap to get down to where the big fish lurk.
From there, I troll up the creek for about a mile until the water gets too shallow. A lot of smallmouth bass inhabit this water, so Tucker and I always keep a Whopper Plopper handy for the magic spells when smallmouths school.
Leaving the creek, I like to float downstream with a drag chain out to slow the drift and keep the bow pointed upstream. I have two sections of chain connected by bungee cords. If the chain snags on a rock, the bungees act like a shock absorber and prevent the boat from stopping suddenly.
During the drift, I fan cast jerkbaits and retrieve them as I would for bass.
Combined, all of these strategies make for an exciting day. I am never disappointed.