This week, we’re back at Diamond State Fly Co. with Ben Levin.

It's shaping up to be a low-water summer on the White. Hot, clear, and slow water. And if you're planning to be out there, your spring rig probably isn't going to cut it.

So we asked Ben how people can get on fish in conditions like these.

In today’s edition:

Let’s get to it.

— Kyle

We're heading into what looks like a low-water summer on the White.

That means hot, clear, slow water. So when we sat down with Ben Levin at Diamond State Fly Co, that's exactly what I wanted to dig into. Ben guides the White River almost every day. Basically, my question was, “How the heck do people get on fish in a summer like this?”

He came back with three things. All of them are small adjustments that can make a big difference.

The rig that worked in April won’t work in the heat of summer.

In low, clear water, trout have all day to study your presentation. Go to size 16-20 flies, drop to 5X tippet, and size your indicator to the rig: just large enough to hold your flies off the bottom. A fish sipping a midge in slow current barely moves to take it. Too much resistance attached to that fly and they feel it and spit before you ever see the strike.

Downsize every piece of the rig together.

By midday, the trench is fished out. The fish have moved to the edges.

Boats pound the same deep runs all day, and trout push out. Shallow water holds more insect life than most people expect, and fish slide there to feed, especially early before boat traffic starts. Ben calls it finding the little river within the big river: one narrow seam along the bank where the current does something different and the fish are sitting undisturbed.

Drop a single fly through it and give it time.

A slow morning on low water is a normal morning on low water.

At minimum flow, the White moves at the speed of paint drying. Your flies drift past fewer fish per hour, and fish in clear, still water have time to study your fly and say no. What does show up, reliably, is a bite window: 30-45 minutes when something shifts, fish turn on hard, and you might catch your whole day's fish in one stretch.

Stay in the water until the window comes.

—

We covered a lot of ground in this episode, and there's more in there worth your time, including Ben's hard stance on never using 6X tippet and his guide philosophy of immediately crushing client expectations the moment they step in the boat.

Here are the time stamps if you want to jump to specific parts of the episode.

0:00 — Why This Summer Could Be a Tough One on the White River
7:00 — Key #1: Downsize Everything
23:00 — Key #2: Fish Shallower
36:00 — Key #3: Adjust Your Expectations
44:00 — This Might Be Your Best Summer to Get Off the Boat

🎧 If you like platforms other than YouTube, find The Ozark Podcast on Apple, Spotify, and the rest.

A few headlines from the around the Ozarks that caught our eye this week. If you need talking points for the front porch this weekend, here’s some ammo.

We’ll be back next week with more stories from the Ozarks.

Til then,
Kyle Veit.