Tailwaters
On a tailwater, the dam calls the shots. Tailwaters reads them for you — live releases, hourly forecasts, fly picks, and rising‑water alerts, starting with the White River below Bull Shoals Dam and the North Fork below Norfork Dam.
Built on USACE, USGS, NWS, SWPA & other data sources — timestamped, source‑labeled, and cached for the river.
Pool level, spinning units, release in cfs — and the water at your spot: stage, temperature, dissolved oxygen.
Drag the timeline through history or the days ahead, and the whole scene — water, sky, moon, numbers — follows.
Ranked fly picks, where‑to‑stand advice, wade/float/boat calls, and today's regulations on one screen.
Turbine, spillway, units, and total flow — with water temp, DO₂, and weather for every hour. Scroll endlessly through history or jump to a date. Forecasts are marked, and every value names its source.
Flow: USACE & SWPA · Water: USGS · Weather: NWS
GPS pins you to the river — miles below the dam, landmarks upriver and down. When generation ramps, Tailwaters estimates when the surge reaches your position, and push alerts can warn you while it's still wadeable.
Wade, float & boat guidance grounded in the USACE hydraulic model.
The whole river, mile by mile — boat ramps, wade access, named holes, bridges, and gauges on a live map, with you on it.
Works in navigation-list or map view.
FISH NOW ranks patterns for season, light, weather, and flow — backed by local hatch reporting.
Current AGFC trout regulations — including emergency changes — right where you plan.
Wind, pressure trend, and moon phase, color‑coded by fishing influence. NWS alerts built in.
Temperature and dissolved oxygen from USGS gages — in the table and at your spot.
Rising‑water and weather notifications targeted to the tailwater you're actually on.
Cached‑first and refreshed in the background, so it opens fresh on one bar of signal.
Two tailwaters, in depth: the White River below Bull Shoals Dam — 44 modeled river miles — and the North Fork below Norfork Dam. Fish somewhere else? Request your tailwater in the app.
RequestA tailwater is the river below a dam. Dam releases can change its flow and water level. This page features the White River below Bull Shoals Dam and the North Fork River below Norfork Dam in Arkansas. Open the app's dam list for current coverage, or request another tailwater in the app.
Yes. Download Tailwaters from the App Store for iPhone or Google Play for Android.
No registration form is required. Tailwaters creates a private guest account automatically, so preferences and saved river spots can stay with your guest session. Connect to the internet for the first setup. See the Privacy Policy for details about guest accounts and optional permissions.
Previously loaded data can remain available from the cache. Check each reading's timestamp: cached data does not become current until it refreshes. New readings and map content need a connection, and push alerts need connectivity to arrive.
cfs means cubic feet per second: the volume of water passing a point each second. Dam discharge is not the water depth at your fishing spot. Dissolved oxygen, shown as DO or DO₂ in the app, is oxygen in the water, reported in milligrams per liter (mg/L). Check the location, source, and time of each reading. An unavailable value is not zero.
No. A schedule describes planned power generation; an observed release reports measured water flow. Plans can change, and water can also be released for reasons other than power generation. Tailwaters marks forecasts and source information so you can distinguish estimates from observations.
Tailwaters uses sources that include the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) for dam data, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for water observations, the National Weather Service (NWS) for weather, and the Southwestern Power Administration (SWPA) for generation schedules. Each value's detail view identifies its source and time basis.
They provide planning information, not a guarantee of safe conditions. Arrival times are estimates. Releases can change, readings can be delayed, and notifications depend on permissions and connectivity. Watch the river, keep a clear exit route, and leave when conditions change. Do not wait for an alert to get out.
Questions, comments, issues — hello@damtailwaters.com
Tailwaters is a planning tool, not a warning system. Water can rise faster than any forecast — when in doubt, get out.