For me 2015 has
been a mixed bag. Part of it was good and part of it was not so good.
The year began
well enough. He fishing in the late winter and early spring was pretty good. I
was busy guiding and my clients did well. Somehow I managed to totally miss the
caddis hatch. To begin with, I don’t think that it was as prolific or as heavy
as it has been in previous years. In addition, I was always in the wrong place
at the wrong time. My clients and I did well on the nymphal stage particularly
with prince nymphs and the emergence with my green butt soft hackles. We just
never caught any really good dry fly action on that insect.
In March we had
the best Sowbug Roundup ever. His year we made a fundamental change to the fly
tiers dinner. We made it much more casual and added music. Rather than have a
sit down dinner we served heavy appetizers with wine beer and soft drinks and
enlarged the auction. The changes were well received and we had record
attendance.
The next month
tragedy struck. My ninety four year old father had a stroke from which he never
recovered. Dad was a world war II veteran and a force of nature. At ninety four
he walked three miles a day, did yoga and his hobby was ball room dancing. He
drove at night and had an active social life. He was always immaculately
groomed, was well spoken and had courtly manners. He was the guy that first
took me fishing.
A week later it
got worse. My brother, Dan, passed away. He was the one who got me involved in
fly fishing. He was my fishing buddy, my business partner and my best friend. We traveled all over the United
States to fish. We hiked a portion of the Appalachian Trail to fish for small
brookies, flew to Utah for big browns and Yellowstone for cutthroats. He was
the best fly tyer and fly caster I ever met. I miss them both.
Midsummer was
much better for me. We had low water for most of it on the Norfork and I
finally got into some great dry fly action. This year’s sulphur hatch was quite
late. I didn’t see them until late June. It was not prolific but it was
reliable and the trout really keyed in on them. I caught it on several
occasions and it provided me with some of the best dry fly fishing that I have
had for several years. I managed to take a fat nineteen inch rainbow on the top
and I was able to introduce several novice clients to dry fly fishing.
The rest of the
year has been plagued with high water. We had a brief respite for a few weeks
that provided for some spectacular fishing then we got a seven inch rain, which
sent the lake levels up. We have just about gotten them back down and as I
write this we have several days of rain in the forecast. Hopefully it will be
light.
Finally it has
been a great year for Tilley, our fishing dog. She is an English Labrador
Retriever. My wife, Lori has been training and showing her all year. He has six
obedience titles and is two thirds of the way to her seventh. We expect her to
earn that at a dog show two weeks from now. She is also about half way to her
championship in conformation. We hope she completes that next year.
Like I say it’s
been a mixed bag. Maybe next year will feature lower water and great hatches!
John Berry is a fly fishing guide for Blue Ribbon Guides in Cotter, Arkansas and has fished our local streams for over thirty years.
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