[Bahama Momma]

When is the best time of year and best river to fly fish in Arkansas for lots of fish and small crowds?

:shock:

[DAVY WOTTON]

I would need a great deal of space to answer that one.
First it would depend on the species that you were looking to catch, cold or warmwater, rivers, lakes or creeks, which you can access and fish.
For Trout
The jewel here is of course the White river, but you also have the Norfork, Little Red, Spring river,
So far as they are concerned, yes there will be times that there is some heavy fishing pressure in certain wade accessable zones. The use of a boat will allow of course access to places that this is not the case. I have some 100 miles of river here to work with on the White, which of course allows me to get away from the crowds. Typically weekdays see less traffic on the river. Holiday periods will often see a great deal more.
So far as the best times are concerned, l can answer that two ways. The first is that at any water level you can go and catch fish on the rivers, if lower water levels exist then the fishing will normally be a great deal better for reasons that many other techniques of fly fishing may be used and it also of course congregates fish into a smaller volume of water.
Typically the periods of April to June and Sept to end Nov are the prime times. On good days 100 fish or more may be caught if you fish the right way.

All the lakes here in the state provide for good fly fishing and for many species. They are of course more fishable during the warmer periods, with the exception of stripers which can be fished for early and late season. Norfork lake is a good one for that at time.
A boat is the way to go here, unless the water is well down then you can wade fish along the shorlines, which l can tell you can be very good at times.

For warm water species you have a great many of those. The Buffalo river is a river system of great scenic beauty. Hire a canoe and float and fish. It does get a very high degree of traffic sometime after the June period, particularly at weekends, and l stay away from it because of that.
Early season there is great. l have had great fishing from April onward provided we have acceptable water levels in the river. Good smallmouth and sun fish species along with a bunch more, even trout if the water temps are below the 70s.

In other areas also there ae some great warm water creeks if you do not mind to hike it. If you want some further info on those let me know ok.


www.davywotton.com.
e-mail. davyfly@ozarkmountains.com