October is always a great time to fish the White and
Norfork Rivers in Arkansas. We usually
have great weather and the fish don't see the hoards of fishermen like they do
during the summer. October first and
second was no exception.
My business partner and fellow guide, John Berry,
and I had the privilege of guiding five good friends and exceptional fly
fishermen from the St Louis Missouri area for those two days. The group was staying at the River Ridge Inn
in Norfork and that is where we met the group on Wednesday morning at
7:30AM.
After brief introductions we loaded up their gear
and headed for the river. Due to the
projected water conditions for the day we decided to head down river a few
miles on the White.
I had Jay and Frank in my boat and John had Kris,
Scott and Steve in his boat. John will
fish three anglers in boat but I only fish two because I use oars while
drifting and there is no place for a third angler.
Once we arrived at the landing, I launched my boat
and Jay and Frank and I were off in
search of fish. John had one less
experienced fly fisherman with him so he stayed in a grassy area and gave a
brief casting lesson. I explained to Jay
and Frank how we were going to fish and since they were both experienced
anglers they had no problem adapting to the fishing.
It wasn't long and we were into fish -- nice
rainbows and a lot of them. I wasn't
happy with the size of the fish so, we decided to head down river to a
different location. Once there, Frank
landed a nice rainbow. We took a photo
and returned the fish to the water immediately.
We continued to fish this area and caught a lot of
fish, most of which were rainbows. Then
Jay hooked into what appeared to be a nice fish. I said it was probably a brown since it was
staying down and not jumping. Sure
enough, Jay got the fish close to the boat, I netted it and it was a nice fat
brown trout.
Shortly after catching the nice brown trout, Jay
once again landed a nice fat rainbow. The
fishing continued with both Jay and Frank landing numerous fish.
After lunch, Jay and Frank wanted to do something
other than nymph fish. I told them the
conditions appeared to be right for throwing hopper/dropper rigs and they were
eager to give it a try. I set up their
rods and maneuvered the boat closer to shore and began to drift using the
oars. After numerous strikes by some
rainbows, Jay hooked into a really nice fish.
The fish hit the hopper and immediately took the fly to the bottom and
was heading upstream. Jay did a
fantastic job fighting the fish and I was able to net a big brown trout for
him. We measured the fish and it was
right at 20", a beautiful brown. We
took a quick photo and put the fish back in the water. After a short resuscitation, the big brown
gave a big kick and headed for the bottom.
On day two we decided to wade fish the Norfork in
the morning and then head back to the White in the afternoon. Everyone caught fish on the Norfork, however
no big fish were taken. The highlight of
the morning on the Norfork was me losing my footing while crossing back across
the river. The next thing I knew I was
face down in the water with a surge of cold water filling my waders. John was already contemplating his next
article which I'm sure would include this incident but I beat him to the punch.
The afternoon on the White River was really
good. In just a few short hours we
landed nearly 20 fish despite the very windy conditions.
Overall, this was one of those very enjoyable guide
trips that every guide looks forward to -- great guys, very good fishermen and
lots of fish, with a few BIG fish thrown
in just to provide those extra memories.
Thanks to the guys from St Louis.
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