My
favorite fishing companion is my wife, Lori. We began our relationship a little
over fourteen years ago, when we met at a fly fishing class that I was teaching
on the Spring River. She was one of my students. Every since then we have been
soul mates and spend as much time as we can on stream fly fishing. We have made
it a tradition to try and fish together at least once a week. With the cold
weather we have had lately, it has been difficult to catch a good day on
stream.
A
week or so ago we caught that perfect day. It was on a Sunday with highs in the fifties
with little or no wind and plenty of sunshine. We opted for the Norfork because
of no generation and the promise of easy wading. We left Cotter after lunch and
arrived at the Ackerman Access around 12:30 PM. There were a few cars in
the parking lot but we could see anglers coming in. This is our favorite time
to fish because all of the out of town anglers were loading up to go home and
we thought that we could have the place to ourselves. We were right. By the
time we had waded up into the Catch and Release section, we were the only
anglers there.
I
had my old Sage Light Line nine foot four weight, an old favorite rod. I rigged
up a double fly rig with a ruby midge under an egg pattern. I waded into a
favorite run and landed two nice rainbows on the first two casts. For me this
is usually the kiss of death. I always question early success. I was right. The
bite slowed as quickly as it began. I stayed in the run for a while and managed
to land a fat eighteen inch rainbow but that was about it.
Meanwhile,
Lori was fishing her Winston Joan Wulff favorite, her favorite fly rod. She
fished a nearby riffle with an olive woolly bugger and managed to land three or
four nice trout. I decided to try another spot far up stream. I fished the run
for about an hour and landed four more trout including a fifteen inch
cutthroat. It was gorgeous and was my fish of the day. I walked back downstream
to see how Lori was doing.
She
had tried nymphing with no success and was ready to try something different. I
sat on the bank and talked to her as she deftly rerigged her rod. Lori had seen
some trout rising and figured that they were keying in on emergers. She tied on
a size 18 Dan’s turkey tail emerger began working a nice run and quickly picked
up a couple of trout.
About
that time Ken Sickles and Vern Berry floated through on their kayaks. They had
fished upstream and had a pretty good day. Vern mentioned that he had caught
several trout on a partridge and orange. I decided to give it a try and quickly
rerigged my rod. I worked a nearby run and landed several. Lori did well until
her fly became a bit ragged. She changed over to the same fly in a size 22. It
also worked but not as well as the larger fly.
I
looked up and realized that we were quickly running out of day light. Where had
the afternoon gone? Time passes quickly when you are having a good time. I
waded over to Lori and told her it was about time to go. She reluctantly agreed
and cranked in her line. We walked out hand in hand as the sun set. It had been
a great day on the river. There were not a lot of trout caught but I had
enjoyed the day fishing with Lori!
John
Berry is a fly fishing guide in Cotter, Arkansas and has fished our local
streams for over thirty years. John is a partner in Blue Ribbon Guides with his
wife, Lori Sloas and Dennis Schule.
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