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Dry Run Trout - 7/25/2005 -
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At the base of Norfork Dam in the Arkansas Ozarks cold water is pumped from Norfork Reservoir through a large government trout hatchery. The cold nutrient-rich water that leaves the hatchery has created a picturesque canopy-shaded fast water trout stream. The water tumbles less than a half mile over boulders and a small waterfall before it dumps into the Norfork River, a major tributary of the famous White River.
Dry Run Creek is a special place that teems with giant rainbow, cutthroat, brook and brown trout. Some of the fish spend their whole lives in the stream. Others swim many miles up the White and Norfork Rivers to spawn here. They are driven by a God-given instinct that these are their birth waters.
The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has wisely limited fishing in Dry Run Creek to persons under the age of sixteen using a single barbless hook with artificial bait only. The tiny creek is truly a world class catch and release fishery. All three of my children have basked in its fish glory before they reached the ripe young age of sixteen.
I can fondly recall my last two trips to Dry Run Creek. Sometime before my youngest child was born, my wife and I drove about three hours with our two children, Ben and Jordan, arriving streamside in the early afternoon. My ten year old son took off immediately. Later he would claim to have caught and released a huge rainbow of 7-8 pounds. That remains unverified. You really need waders to fish the stream efficiently, but I didn’t have any for my eight year old daughter. She demanded to fish a lot of the afternoon on my back (I had on waders). She would get me to bend over while she cast the ultralight spinning rod rigged with 2 lb. line and a 1/32 oz. marabou jig. In a few hours I felt like a worn out pack mule, but Jordan managed to catch and release several rainbow and brown trout up to 16 inches all from my back.
When my youngest child, Julie, made her voyage to trout heaven at the age of thirteen, I had enough sense to take my wife’s waders for her. She demanded that I walk beside her the entire time, acting as her personal assistant, attending to her every need (I loved it). She landed numerous trout in the 16-20 inch range and also learned how to stretch a fish story a bit. To this day she tells me that she caught a 5 lb. trout. I guess I have succeeded in passing on all of the fishing tradition to my kids. I can’t wait for grandkids.
Jim Hall
July 2005
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