Bull Shoals Lake elevation at midweek was 659.74 feet msl, around 2 feet below normal power pool, and rising just a little. The White River water level has been variable with minimum flows (670 cfs) in the morning to mid-afternoon, climbing to almost three units (9,000 cfs) in the late afternoon/early evening.
“We’ve been catching the tar out of the rainbows, mostly lured in with sunrise or orange PowerBait tipped with shrimp (don’t use anything much bigger than a size 6 hook). Our favorite spinners and spoons were making a splash, too: The copper/gold quarter-ounce Colorado and the red/gold Thomas Buoyant hooked a fair share of trout. Wouldn’t hurt to tie on a Vibrax Blue Fox spinner, gold or silver with a red blade. Perfect water for jiggling a jig, too. Experiment with the new D2 colors offered by Trout Magnet or go with the tried-and-true brown and pink-and-white marabou jigs.
“As expected, the browns are pooled up in the deeper holes and might be a little finicky, but if you can anchor near a deep spot, or drift across one with a sculpin, you’ll have success. The mighty midge has been working for fly-anglers all week.
“Visit Cotter and find out why we’re called ‘Trout Capital USA.’ Hope to see you at the river.”
Calico Rock Area
(updated 5-28-2026) Dave McCulley, owner of Jenkins Fishing Service in Calico Rock, said at midweek, “The good news is we received a stocking of 2,000 rainbow trout -last Thursday. The not-so good news is the rains Thursday caused the Buffalo River and creeks feeding into the river to get muddy and rise. We went from 4 feet Thursday morning to almost 15 feet by Friday morning. With the muddy river, the few people who attempted to fish were frustrated.
“The good news is by this Wednesday morning the river at Calico Rock had cleared enough to be fishable. Fishing was good using silver inline spinners with two Uncommon Bait UV Neo Pink eggs and shrimp. It is in these dingy water conditions where the UV eggs are much easier for the fish to see than non-UV eggs. We do have more rain coming over the next week, and I hope it is spread out enough that the river isn’t significantly affected.”
