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White River from Brad Richmond on Vimeo.

Norfork River Report: Thanks, John

I'm lucky to have a fly fishing brother. John is his name. Though younger than I, he has been fly fishing longer than I have, and has been my teacher and mentor. He is also "in the business," so I have benefited from his connections and discounts more than once. So has he; he knows people. The following report is made possible by "my guy at Wapsi."

John lives in Maine, but a couple of weeks ago after some family business in Kansas (aging parents) he stopped off at the Norfork River in Arkansas. The Norfork is the North Fork of the White River, famed for its big tailwater trout. He sent me these photos and an emailed report. I certainly didn't get his permission to post them, but then that was implicit in my request. At least that's what my attorney says regarding a possible intellectual property lawsuit. And, as any judge would uphold, we're all one big happy family here, so these are for you, too.

Thanks, John. I'm jealous.

arkansas was great.  did fish tuesday afternoon and most of the day wednesday.  tues was beautiful and pleasant; wed was 40, windy, and rainy, and i was pretty much bone-chilled the whole time.  but there are lots of fish in that river.  pretty much used strike indicator and scud/swobugs the whole time, although did entice a few (missed) takes with little emergers in the film.  best fish was female pushing 19-20" and ripe full of eggs, many of which she squirted into my net.  so, plunked her quickly and unceremoniously back into the water without attempts at photo.  most fish were 14-16" range, with couple in 17-18" range.  caught browns, mostly rainbows, and one cutthroat.  I did try to take some pictures.  they suck, but i'll try to send along what i can at some point.

 
the key to that whole endeavor is that my guy at Wapsi gave me access to prime section of river via his private land, and on wednesday told me where to fish right up at the Norfork Dam since the rest of the river was pretty muddy from all the rain during the night.   i'd have struck out completely otherwise, i think.