On the Little Red, low-water big-trout fishermen divide into two camps: fly guys, and baitcasting/ spinning anglers. Flyfishermen catch plus-sized browns through the summer months on such unlikely offerings as sowbugs in size 16 to 18. Since minnows and sculpins are scarce on the Little Red, the browns eat sowbugs instead. That still doesn't keep these large fish from attacking minnow-type artificials, though, and the same Countdown Rapalas, Rogues and Rebels that work so well on White River browns are also effective here. The numerous mossbeds on the Little Red provide enough cover and concealment to make fishing plugs nearly as effective during low water as during periods of generation.

Night-fishing is also a worthwhile summertime technique for taking big brown trout, no matter what river you're fishing. Caution and the application of common sense are both advised, however, since drifting with the current when you can't see what you're drifting into can be risky. If you night-fish, give some thought to fishing from the bank or from an anchored boat, concentrating your efforts in a likely feeding area such as a gravel shoal at the upper end of a deep hole, and making repeated casts to the same water as you wait for a foraging brown to find you.

Following: a run-down on the how and the where of catching big trout on these three rivers.

WHITE RIVER
The official trout-water section of the White stretches from Bull Shoals Dam to the Highway 58 bridge at Guion, a distance of 92 miles. Trout are common in the river all the way down to Dam 3, nine miles below Guion. If it's browns you want, however, think upstream -- especially in summer. Even during cooler seasons, more big brown trout are taken in the 18 miles or water from Bull Shoals Dam to Cotter than from the other 80 or so miles of trout water below Cotter. This state of affairs arises from the interplay of three factors.

First, water comes out of the dam at about 55 to 57 degrees. In the upper reaches of the river, things are cooler, because warm summer air hasn't had as much time to turn the water tepid. Second, brown trout move to the headwater areas to spawn during fall and winter, and even though there's some dispersal back downstream after the spawn, the annual upriver run tends to keep them concentrated in the upper reaches of the Bull Shoals tailwater. And third, most of the serious big-brown fishermen concentrate their efforts in this stretch of the river.

So even though there are decent numbers of good-sized browns downstream from Cotter, only a smallish percentage of the river's annual big-brown yield comes from there.

A couple of exceptions are worth a mention. One is the stretch of the White immediately downstream from where the Norfork River joins the White at the town of Norfork. The jolt of chill water added to the White from the short run of the Norfork tailwater makes for a nice complement of big browns there, and strong spawning runs up the Norfork and the White generally have the effect of holding fish in the area as well. Ideal big-fish possibilities exist from Norfork downstream to Calico Rock.

The other productive big-trout area is Rim Shoals, six miles below Cotter. Cool springs and habitat conditions of the sort favored by trophy-grade fish combine to retain a significant number of outsized browns here year 'round. At Rim Shoals, access is to be had only by the pedestrian angler, but when there's some generation going on, you can reach Rim Shoals by boat from Cotter (six miles upstream) or Ranchette (four miles downstream).