Fishing the Norfolk River in Arkansas
My mom has always taken pride in my successes fishing and makes sure the world knows about them through Facebook. I never thought much of this until about a year and a half ago.
“I got some big news Ty.” My mother says one evening. I asked what it was and she began to explain that she had been in contact with my second Cousin John. I would assume he is in his 50’s. She tells me how he had become very interested in my fishing and how he is an avid fly fisherman. I hardly knew anything about fly fishing at the time, but I was eager to hear more. “He wants to take you to arkansas.” Exclaims my mom with that surprised, almost sarcastic look on her face. The next couple of days they continued to talk, and ended up arranging dinner at John's house one night.
We drove nearly two hours to his house and arrived by about 5:00. My parents must have reminded me a hundred times, “Don't drive John crazy about fishing”, but what they didn't know was that John loved fishing just as much as me and enjoyed conversations about it. His wife Beverly had made lasagna and it was probably some of the best I had ever had .
After dinner, John took me to his basement and it was not till the moment that he turned on the lights that I realized how crazy he was about fly fishing. He literally had like a whole fly shop down there! There had to be over a million flies! Just drawers and drawers, packed to the brim with different flies he had tied. He showed me all of his gear and after that he grabbed a fly rod and showed me how to cast in his driveway. It was embarrassing because I don't think I got the line 10 yards out. Before we left John gave me two rods and a bunch of flies for trout and bass.
That's when it started. I would practice casting every day in my yard and began to develop a love for fly fishing. “It's an art form.” John would tell me. I look up to him, he is always smiling and one of the most selfless people I have ever met.
A couple weeks after John had mentioned Arkansas my parents told me that they had decided that our whole family was going to go to Arkansas that summer with John. I was so excited I do not know how I survived the time period before we left. We booked a cabin in Genes Trout Resort overlooking the Norfolk river.
After a 16 hour drive, we entered the state of Arkansas. Not long after that we arrived at Genes. First thing I did when I got out of the car was run down to see the river. Man, I have never seen anything like it. It was crystal clear and It didn't matter that it was 100 degrees because when near the river it would feel like air conditioning. Our cabin was on the second floor overlooking the river. You could sit on the deck and see tons of trout. The Norfolk has Rainbow, Brown, Cut Throat, and Brook Trout in it.
The next morning my dad and I woke up at 4:30 and got ready to fish. I slip into my waders, grab my rods, and meet John. He had an upset look on his face and explained to my dad and I that due to all of the rain the dam was releasing water. This made the river about 4 feet higher and the current was a lot stronger. We ended up having to fish from a jon boat rather than wading in the river. We still ended up catching a bunch of fish despite the conditions. The first couple of days we must have caught 40!
It was about the third day of fishing, and we got lucky. The Trout resort told us that the next day they would not be running water. This meant that we would be able to fly fish normally.
That night we rigged up our rods with 2 size 20 red zebra midges and small foam indicators. The next day we waded up and down the river and were just catching fish after fish. The fight was absolutely incredible on light gear.
John and I still go fishing for Steelhead. I hope to go to Arkansas with him again this winter and hopefully my other Cousin Sal can come along.