Day 1

We arrived at the parking lot on the White River around 3 am and found that there were no generators running. We decided to sleep until daylight and then head out to fish the shoal below the dam. We headed out about an hour before daylight and as soon as we got down there, the horn sounded. We scampered out of the water and waited to see how much water would be released. The water never came up, so we resumed fishing. I began stripping a bugger through the deeper part of the shoal, while an occasional fish would swirl in the shallow water. Again the horn sounded and again the water never came up. I switched over to trout crack as soon as it started getting light out. I spotted a couple of smaller rainbows holding in shallow water and began drifting over them. We each caught a couple of nice 14-16 inch bows, but nothing real big. An occasional larger rainbow in the 20-22 inch range would swim through, but wouldn't hold long enough to cast to them. I spotted a nice rainbow holding in shallower water on the opposite bank. I tried throwing trout crack to it, but it didn't seem interested. I switched over to a zebra midge and within a couple of casts I was hooked up. I don't think the fish realized it was hooked right away, but soon it took off into the faster water. I battled the fish for a while and finally was able to get it turned into some slower moving water where we netted it. It was my first large White River rainbow, a nice male in the 21-22 inch range. It was a pretty fish with bright pink sides. We let him go and continued working the deeper parts of the shoal. We caught a couple of more small rainbows, but didn't get into any browns. I did briefly spot one nice brown that was maybe 28 inches, but it took off as soon as I spotted it.

Day 2

We decided to head down river to try some of the other shoals. We decided to try Rim Shoals as we had heard stories of large fish being caught there and have seen some big fish in pictures from the area. We headed down to the first riffle and within a couple of casts I landed a small rainbow on a brown worm. I continued working the water when a massive fish exploded on my fly and took off down river. I took off after it and it started tumbling down the riffle. I could see its body as it rolled and its tail was huge. I managed to briefly turn the fish into calmer water, but it took off again into the riffle and again started rolling downstream. I tried to turn it again out of the faster water and just as I got it's head turned the hook popped out. I never got a real good look at it but I would guess it was a brown in the 26-28 inch range. I headed back up to the same spot and on the next cast I hooked up with a larger rainbow. The fish jumped out of the water and snapped my tippet. I tied on another brown worm and caught a couple more smaller bows. I had another big rainbow come up and eat my indicator, but didn't hook into any more browns. Rob also landed a couple of more small rainbows before moving to a deeper pool downriver where he hooked into a larger fish. He fought it for a good 5-10 minutes, but when he got it in, it came up fouled. It was a nice brown in the 21-22 inch range. We made our way up river, hoping to fish Wildcat Shoals and Tucker Shoals, but couldn't find good access places. We returned to the area below the dam were we each hooked and landed 16 inch rainbows in the faster riffles.

Day 3

Night Fishing! We finally got out around 2 am to try some of the night fishing we had heard so much about. The temperature was in the single digits as we headed back to the area below the dam. We began casting and stripping buggers in the deeper areas. We battled frozen eyes and reels for the next hour without even a strike. Finally I had a hook up. I had cast my line out and tried to strip the line, but my eyes we frozen solid. After I got all of the ice off my rod, I took one strip and the water exploded... And my line broke. The fish had taken the fly on the swing and my first strip had broken it off. We fished for another hour without another strike.

The best producing flies for us were trout crack, sow bugs, zebra midges, and brown or red San Juan worms. The river received 6 inches of snow while we were down, which seemed to completely turn the fish off. The air temps were in the mid-twenties during the day and single digits during the night. They briefly ran 1 generator during the night both days, but we fished the river on zero generation the entire time we were there. There were rumors of a small amount of shad coming through, but the fish didn't seem to key in on any shad patterns.