A GOOD MORNING ON THE NORFORK BY JOHN BERRY

Now that I am managing Blue Ribbon Fly Shop while still maintaining my guiding schedule, I have precious little time to fish on my own. April was particularly busy for me because of my participation in the Sowbug Roundup and my fly fishing class at Arkansas State University Mountain Home. Finally this past week I got Sunday off. My wife, Lori, was in Fayetteville competing in a dog show with our English Labrador Retriever, Tilley. I checked the generation prediction and noted that the Norfork was to be off until around 3:00 PM. I decided to get a little fishing in on my own.

I got up early, showered, stopped by McDonalds for a quick breakfast and was on the river by 7:30 AM. It was sunny and cool with a promise of much warmer temperatures in the afternoon. I wore a light down sweater to fight the cold. It was sunny and the river was on the bottom. I took my Sage ZXL five weight because I expected a little wind later in the day. I found the water to be much clearer than I had on previous trips to the river this year.

As is my usual habit, I began the day fishing with the flies on my rod from my previous trip. In this case it was a ruby midge dropper under a hot fluorescent pink worm. I fished it for a few minutes but didn’t get a sniff. It was time to try something else.

I saw a few caddis. It was not a hatch but a few but a few insects returning to the river to lay eggs. Then I saw a rise. I immediately thought of my green butt. A week or so before I had been tying and giving away my green butts to anyone who stopped by my booth at the Sowbug Roundup. In previous years, I had been caught short, when I gave away all that I tied, leaving none for my use during the spring caddis hatch that year. This time I had tied a couple of dozen for my own use before Sowbug.

I removed the San Juan worm, ruby midge, lead and strike indicator. I tied on a 6X tippet so that I had a leader tippet combination of twelve feet. I cast downstream at a forty five angle. I gave my line a quick strip to sink the fly into the film. I let the fly swing in the current. I began to work my way downstream. On the third cast, I caught a fat fourteen inch rainbow. I kept working my way down and eventually landed ten or twelve nice fish. Nothing was huge but all were respectable.

I have come to the point in my fishing, where that is a good day. I do not have to catch every trout in the river. When I am fishing with Lori, this is where I usually quit ant sit on a rock to watch her fish. The wind picked up and it was about 11:00 AM and I reluctantly left the river to go home and cut my grass.

It was a great morning and I really enjoyed being back on the river fishing!

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