"The Norfork is Slowly Healing" by John Berry

[Kevin]

BY JOHN BERRY

I have been fishing on the Norfork River for the past few weeks. It has always been a favorite of mine but it has definitely fallen on hard times for the last few years. First it was the Norfork Overlook Estates debacle where an irresponsible developer stripped the side of a mountain of all the soil holding vegetation without any planning for run off or the proper permits. This allowed tons of silt to be washed into the river. Then there was a major flood where the river was severely changed and many of my favorite holes were either scoured out or graveled in. It still gets way too much fishing pressure and is subject to a horrendous level of poaching. If that is not enough, the absolute best access, McClellan’s Trout Dock, was closed several years ago severely limiting access to the center section of the river.

 

A couple of weeks ago I was fishing with an old friend, Bill Pickens. He has property near the river and has access to a section of river at the lower end of McClellan’s. It was a safe walk in (we made most of our way through some wooded areas on a four wheeler). We had the place to ourselves. I was working with Bill’s friend, Howard. As we walked in, I was surveying the water and I was immediately drawn to one of my favorite stretches of water.

 

It is a run below a waterfall. I have fished this spot for over twenty five years and I have landed thousands of trout in it. Years ago when I first began fishing there it was a meandering “S” shaped run that that seemed to have the perfect flow and held lots of trout. During the flood it was severely scoured and was deeper and ran faster. It still held trout but was more difficult to fish. On this visit I noted that the run had slowed and resumed its classic “S” shape. I had to fish it.

 

I took a moment to rig Howard’s rod. I started with a seven and a half foot 4X leader and tied on eighteen inches of 5X tippet to which I attached a hot pink San Juan worm. I put on a bit of strip lead just above the tippet knot and slipped on a strike indicator. I then tied an eighteen inch 6X tippet and tied on a size twenty black zebra midge. We waded over to the run and cast our rig upstream and let it drift drag free downstream. After a few drifts, the indicator went down like the Titanic and Howard set the hook. The fight was on. It was a nice fat sixteen inch rainbow that thought it was bigger that it was. We stayed there for several hours and did well. It was apparent that the run had healed and was fishing like it did years ago.

 

Then just last week I kayaked into the same area with my wife, Lori and our friend and neighbor, Donna. I feel that this is the best and safest way to access this water. It is pretty easy to kayak it on very low water and it is easy to escape in case they start generating. This time I got to fish. I rigged my rod as I had done for Howard. I waded out and caught a few small browns. I moved down a bit and landed a really nice eighteen inch cutthroat. The nymphing slowed and I saw some top water action. I clipped off the flies, unwrapped the lead and removed the strike indicator. I tied on three feet of 5X tippet and a Dan’s turkey tail emerger. I cast across the current and stripped the line about a foot as soon as the fly landed. I let the fly swing in the current and slowly worked my way down stream. I caught several nice rainbows in the process.

 

Lori and Donna had done well. Lori was ready to move on. I was interested in trying a run along the side of the lower island at McClellan’s. Years ago, this had been a very productive stretch of water. There was a spot that had an overhanging tree with a deep hole beneath it that has produced many large trout over the years. During the flood, this run had been graveled in and the tree hole disappeared. This stretch was clogged with downed trees and the bottom was a shallow gravel stretch. Now it looked much deeper and a lot of the downed trees had drifted down stream.

 

I decided to fish the tree hole while Lori and Donna decided to fish turkey tail emergers nearby in the run. I quickly rigged my rod for nymphing. I tied on one of Henry Seay’s CDC zebra midges. I was into a trout almost immediately. As I was landing it, I looked around. Trout were rising about me. Lori was fishing downstream and catching one good trout after another. I took a minute to switch over to a Dan’s turkey tail and followed Lori downstream picking up several nice trout in the process. We stayed a while longer and then began our float out.

 

I was pleased to see that the river was beginning to heal itself. This section was really fishing well. I think it has also benefitted by the significant increase of the Catch and Release section at the upper end of McClellan’s that went into effect a year and a half ago. In light of the looming shutdown or severe cutback in production at the National Fish Hatchery, maybe we should revisit the idea of increasing its size again. Catch and Release water does not require the level of stocking we need for put and take water.