FLOOD OF MEMORIES BY JOHN BERRY

Earlier this week I woke up in an empty house. My wife, Lori, had taken our dog, Tilley, to yet another dog show at Purina Farms in Gray Summit, Missouri. Tilley has been on a roll lately and is beginning to blossom, in the show ring. I decided to spend the day on stream.

It was overcast and a bit cool when I arrived at the Ackerman access on the Norfork. It was early and there were few cars in the parking lot and I pretty much had the place to myself. I have fished here for about thirty five years long before it became an access. As I walked in, I was hit with a flood of memories. This is possibly my favorite place on earth and I have a lot of history here.

As I made my way upstream into the Catch and Release section, I passed the ring of rocks that was my brother, Dan’s, favorite spot to fish. It is a large pool with faint current, glass smooth water and there is always something rising. He would stand there for hours and cast tiny size thirty two dry flies with a perfect effortless seventy foot cast. I would ask “how can you see a take with such a small hook and long cast”. He said “I can’t”. “I set the hook when I see a rise where I think the fly is”. He caught some surprisingly large trout out of that spot. On our last fishing trip, when I noted that he was unable to wade to that spot, I knew that he was seriously ill.

I walked up to the kiddy pool, a favorite spot for me to fish. This was my beloved Yellow Labrador Retriever, Ellie’s, favorite spot also. The water is shallow and she could sit on my left side. There are loads of small trout there and she loved the constant action. Everything would go well until a trout took a jump. That would flip her switch and she would launch into the run to retrieve the trout. I would yell "No Ellie" but it made no difference. She would hook herself occasionally during her retrievals and would stand still patiently, as I carefully removed the barbless hook.

On this day, I could see the Cliff Swallows working above me. There was a midge hatch coming off. The insects were small and I instinctively tied on a Dan’s turkey tail emerger, my brother's go-to fly, which has become a go-to fly for me also. He had taught me to tie them and after I tied a few he would carefully study them and give me constructive criticism, on how to improve them. It took me a while but I finally mastered them. On this day, I fished one of his ties in size twenty two and didn’t get a bump. I switched over to one of my ties in size eighteen and landed a stout eighteen inch rainbow. Somehow I knew Dan would approve.

A few years ago I had been fishing here with Lori, her sister, Teri, and her husband, Larry. They were running about a half a generator and we were fishing olive woolly buggers and catching trout on just about every cast. It was not unusual for us to have three trout on at the same time.

Lori had lost a fly and was tying on a new one when she slipped and hooked herself with the woolly bugger. The only problem was that she had not pinched down the barb. She was quite willing to continue fishing with the fly stuck in the palm of her left hand because she did not want to leave the near constant action. I insisted on removing the fly with a technique that I had never attempted.  You wrap tippet around the bend of the hook and give it a jerk as you push down the eye of the hook to disengage the barb. To my surprise it worked and Lori said that it didn’t hurt. We returned to fishing and had a stellar day.

I worked my way upstream to a fast run that Lori and I have fished for fifteen years together. A photo of us taken there is now the screen saver on my computer. Over the years, we have caught some of our best trout at this place and we always spend an hour or so fishing this spot every time we are on the Norfork.

On one occasion, we were fishing here on a brutally hot summer day, when the temperature climbed to 104 degrees. Lori caught a twenty three inch trophy cutthroat that I carefully photographed. Later that day she took a break from fishing and asked to look at the photo. To my surprise the excessive heat had cooked the camera and destroyed the photo in the process. Lori was not amused.

I finished the day and only caught a few really nice trout. It was still a memorable day and a great trip.

John Berry is a fishing guide for Blue Ribbon Guides in Cotter, Arkansas and has fished our local streams for over thirty years.