SALIDA — On an April morning filled with considerable promise, the Arkansas River was calling.
Warm daytime weather was the forecast, though a pesky wind could kick up later. Best of all, a low cloud cover was already evident. Springtime had arrived, and the river, by all reports, had been fishing quite well the past week or two.
Typically, dead-drifting a nymph along the bottom had been the most consistent technique, but hatches of blue- wing olive mayflies also had appeared. The BWOs provide the first truly good surface activity of the season on the river, and a warm, overcast afternoon was the likeliest time for a hatch to come off.
“You’ll encounter two different rivers today, depending on where you are,” said Greg Felt of the ArkAnglers shop in Salida. “From Badger Creek down it’s in bad shape. There’s quite a bit of low-lying snow in the area and that’s discolored the lower river. It’s not our main runoff, just an unusual combination of factors that’s creating some temporary problems.
“Above Badger Creek, flows are good, and the river’s clear. There’s a pretty good chance you’ll find some mayflies.”
Maybe. The BWOs tend to be less predictable than the spectacular caddis hatches for which the river is best known.
“You might not see any on one stretch of the river, but around the next bend they might be coming off like crazy,” said Don Puterbaugh, renowned fly-tyer, author, artist and sometime guide for the ArkAnglers shop. “You have to be observant and be ready to change your approach.”
Even when surface activity is not evident, BWOs are still part of the picture. Two- or three-fly rigs are commonly used on the Arkansas. An effective springtime combination consists of a weighted golden stonefly nymph, trailed by a bead-head Pheasant Tail or similar pattern that might suggest a Baetis nymph to the trout. Later in the day, when mayfly activity is likely, an unweighted emerger might replace the bead-head nymph as the trailer.
The weighted rigs generally are most effective in the moderately fast currents away from the main channel. In the slower, shallower pockets and eddies closer to the banks, Puterbaugh, who developed a series of highly buoyant foam-bodied dry flies for the choppy waters of the Arkansas, often uses a large, black- or yellow-foam caddis, trailed by a nymph or emerger of the appropriate size. The easily visible dry fly helps to monitor the drift, serves as a strike indicator and might itself produce a strike.
When BWOs are in the air and rising fish appear, a switch to a dry fly or emerger is in order. Observing the rise forms determines which to use. Backs or tails of fish slicing through the surface mean they are taking emergers just below the surface; noses coming up through the surface indicate trout are taking adult mayflies floating on the surface, and dry flies are the way to go.
Mayflies will continue to hatch off and on until the main spring runoff arrives.
Caddis hatches remain the signature event of the Arkansas. A handful of caddis have already appeared, and the main event, sometimes called the Mother’s Day hatch, should come off on schedule, even if the water is a bit discolored.
In the meantime, fishing with a variety of nymphs will produce its share of trout. And on a given overcast day — or maybe around the next bend — the BWOs just might be coming off like crazy.
