The White River is a tailwater fishery. It is part of a hydro-power generation-on-command system. Bull Shoals Reservoir is the source of our tailwater. Water released from the lake is determined by power demands and/or flood control issues.  Tourism has no influence over the "how much or when" of water releases. The purpose of this page is to interpret the water flow to allow you better fishing opportunities.

What does "a unit" mean? Bull Shoals has 8 generators or units; four (4) 40 megawatt generators each capable of releasing 2,650 cubic feet per second and four (4) 45 megawatt generators each capable of releasing 2,950 cubic feet per second. Any combination of units can be open at any given time.  But, the generators do not always run at full capacity. A report of 6 units running, may be equal in water levels to only 3 units. Unfortunately, you've missed a day of good fishing because you didn’t know the output of each unit.

At Rim Shoals, we use the online dam generation report maintained by the Corp of Engineers to anticipate water levels for the day. We can see generation activity during the night and predict what daily fishing conditions will be. Note, their internet site is updated every 4-6 hours. If you plan to fish the bottom of the Bull Shoals dam or the Norfork River, you can call the Corp of Engineers for a more immediate generation report at 870-431-5311.

Looking at the sample report below, you will see a column highlighted in red. This is our main concern, the tailwater column. Tailwater at 449.00 indicates no water generating. 450.00 means a 1 foot rise in the river can be expected at Rim Shoals in 6-8 hours from time of release.  450.50 equals a foot and a half, 451.00 is a 2 foot rise and so on.  In general, a report of 449-451 indicates good wade fishing at Rim Shoals and the islands and shoals are accessible. 452-454 is manageable water. You can wade around the edges, use our taxi service to the islands, or rent a boat. 456+ means heavy flows, boaters should be experienced, bank fishing is difficult.

THIS IS A SAMPLE REPORT.