GRAND SLAM ON DRY RUN CREEK BY JOHN BERRY

A grand slam is where you catch all four species, brown, brook, cutthroat and rainbow trout on one day. In my thirty plus years of fly fishing on the White and Norfork Rivers, I have done it five times (two of which occurred on the same day). It seems like catching three of them is fairly common but the ever elusive brook trout is not very abundant. I have never had a client catch one on Dry Run Creek in my twenty five years of guiding there. All of that changed last Thursday.

My client Scott brought his twelve year old daughter, Grace, and his nine year old son, Scotty, up from Memphis to fish Dry Run Creek. It was a cool start but a beautiful day. We were the first ones there and I brought some of my loaner waders and lots of socks to equip the kids in waders. If your children wear waders, you can fish spots that are difficult to get to and do not get as much pressure as others.

Early on Grace had the hot hand. Her first fish was a stout twenty three inch brown that was quickly followed by a twenty five inch brown that was fat and colored up and some rainbows. When I guide on Dry Run Creek, my goal is for all of my clients to land at least one trophy trout. Now Grace had landed two but Scotty was fishless. He had a monster on but lost it. I coached him on his mistake and had him trade spots with Grace. He was soon on a fat twenty two incher and this time managed to get it to the net. The next trout was a spectacular twenty five inch male brown with a spectacular kype. A few rainbows followed.

It was time for a change in scenery and we walked far upstream. Grace continued catching browns and rainbows. Scotty was still in the game. Dad was working with Grace and I was working with Scotty. About this time he landed a twenty one inch cutthroat. It was a great fish and it made me consider the possibility of a grand slam. The very next trout was a brook. It was only ten inches long but it got me more excited than any of the other much more spectacular fish that we had landed, because it gave me my first client grand slam on Dry Run Creek. There were photos and high fives galore.

My only question is now that you have landed a twenty five inch male brown trout and achieved a grand slam, on your first day of fly fishing, at age nine, where do you go from here?