SUNDAY AFTERNOON ON THE NORFORK BY JOHN BERRY

My wife, Lori, and I finally got a chance to fish together. Her mother and father had been ill and she went to Memphis for a while to care for them. When she came back to Cotter, she brought a cold with her and we were both sick for a few days. We recovered just before the Trout Unlimited Banquet last Saturday. It was a fun event but we were ready for a day on the river.

We got our chance on Sunday afternoon. This is generally our favorite time to fish around here. This is when the out of town anglers are headed back home and we have the choice spots to ourselves. This day was no different. After a nice lunch at home, we headed over to the Ackerman Access, on the Norfork River. It was sunny and in the mid-fifties, when we arrived. The River was on the bottom and there was a bit of wind. There were plenty of cars parked at the access but there were several anglers getting ready to leave.

We suited up and walked upstream into the Catch and Release section. We had decided to fish near each other. I took my nine foot five weight Sage ZXL. I had a grass hopper with a root beer midge dropper from my previous fishing trip and decided to try that combination first. Lori began with an olive woolly bugger on her Winston Joan Wulff Favorite rod.

I began casting in a nearby run and landed a couple of nice rainbows immediately. I was yearning for something larger and decided to move further upstream to my favorite big fish hole. I rerigged my rod with a hare and copper, a ruby midge and a bit of lead under a strike indicator. I began casting into the run and caught several nice fish but no trophies. I began working downstream to where Lori was fishing and concentrated on fast deep water. I finally managed to land a fat nineteen-inch rainbow and my blood lust was finally sated.

I walked over to where Lori was fishing. She had tried the woolly bugger and various nymphs. She had caught some fish in the process but was not satisfied with the results. The day was sunny and bright and some midges were coming off. She had noticed some trout feeding near the top of the water column and had decided to try a midge emerger.

The fly she had chosen was Dan’s Turkey Tail Emerger. This was my Brother Dan’s signature pattern. He had developed it specifically for fishing emerging midges, on the Norfork. Although it works in a variety of situations, it is deadly on the Norfork (I will tie this fly at the Sowbug Roundup). She tied a long tippet to her leader. The leader tippet combination was twelve feet ending in 5X. She tied on the fly and pinched down the barb. She cast the fly at a forty-five-degree angle to downstream and stripped the line to sink the fly into the film. She slowly worked her way downstream.

She landed a nice rainbow on the third cast. I decided to sit on a large rock and watch her fish. It was a thing of beauty. She effortlessly cast the fly and let it gently settle on the water. When she felt a subtle take, she set the hook. She deftly fought all of the trout, on her Orvis CFO reel and quickly released them, in the river unharmed. I don’t know how many she caught because neither one of us counted. It didn’t matter because we were both contented. She was having a great day and I was observing an angler that knew what she was doing. Life is good!

We walked out hand in hand. It had been another day in paradise.