White River Monsters
On my life-time bucket list there is an entry “10 Pound Moving Water Brown Trout”. There are a few spots on the west coast that you can pull that off and some of you reading this may already have a fish like that. You can easily get one over 10 out of a tributary to the great lakes but in my notes there is an asterisk that says “*must be adfluvial, non great lakes region”. A guy could pound the Truckee, East Walker, Owens and all the others in between for a lifetime and not get a 30 inch fish.
So where do you go to look for a fish like that? You head to Arkansas. Yep, you head to the home of the former world record brown trout. The 40-pound behemoth was pulled out of the Little Red River on a 1/32 jig and 4-pound test line. Just a few miles down the road from the Little Red lies its big brother, the White River.
I managed to swing a trip to the White a decade or so ago and was impressed by the size and potential of the river. Although my trip didn’t produce any giants, I did see several huge fish swimming in the river that will haunt me until I get back there. This river gets stocked with small rainbows and the big browns are used to feeding on those stocked trout. This sets up well for a guy who knows how to fish big swimbaits and trout imitating hard baits.
We did bring some big AC Plugs on our trip and spent one evening throwing 8”-10” plugs across a big pool with some promising results. If we could have spent a few more days dialing it in I am sure we would have pulled some giants out on those lures.
If you are going to head to un-familiar waters the best thing you can do is find the guide who catches the biggest fish. Most trophy bodies of water have a guide or two that seem to catch more big ones than everyone else. On the White the guy to talk to is Donald Cranor. He has been guiding the river for over 20 years and has it dialed. The day we fished with him we caught a lot of nice fish and if the water levels had been better I am sure we would have had some bigger fish to the boat.
Donald specializes in throwing minnow cranks and drifting live minnows. He puts his clients into fish over 30 inches every year and in 2014 put one of his clients into a beast over 20 pounds.
This river is unique in that the water levels fluctuate daily and the river is run in small sleds. You better be familiar with the river at low flows because on the day we fished there were a few riffles that we ran in inches of water.
If any of you are like me and want a legit 10 pound moving water brown trout for your bucket list then you better book a flight to Arkansas. The White River lends itself to both fly or spin fishing and both methods can produce a monster. I hope you make it out there!
Mark Knoch
