Sick Trip to the White/Norfork Rivers

This was our first Christmas together away from home.  Plane tickets were too expensive and my break was too short.  Instead, we decided to take a trip to the White River.  Due to winter pricing, we could afford a place to stay for a couple nights, and if we wanted we could even extend our trip a day or two. 

Our rig.  It actually works really well.  We can stow all our gear and
we still get 30 mpg.

Tuesday morning we loaded our things and got on the road.  Soon after we started Cheryl informed me that she had a sore throat, but it wasn't too bad.  Oh well.  One wrong turn in Ash Flat, Arkansas delayed us half an hour, but by 2:00 we were at the walk-in access on the Norfork River.  I got the rods ready and we got our waders on and got the C-ster bundled up.  We planned to take his carseat and a blanket and let him sleep on the side of the river while Cheryl and I alternated fishing.  Except for one problem: the C-ster wouldn't sleep.  Instead he screamed.  Not his "I'm sad" cry.  Not his "I'm hungry" pout.  Not even his "I don't want to sleep" scream.  This was his "I'm in serious pain here and if I could figure out how to coordinate the movement of my arms I would beat you to a pulp" scream.  This lasted for about an hour, and Cheryl finally decided to take him back to the car.  I stayed and fished for another hour or so, and by then it was cold and getting dark, so I called it a day as well.  I caught a couple planter rainbows and lost a couple, but I was prertty disappointed with the success.

The view from our room in Cotter, Arkansas on the White River.

That night back at the hotel the problem with the C-ster baceme clear:  He had a cold.  It is the first time he has ever been sick, even a little bit.  His nose was runny and he was seriously stuffed up.  That evening, however, he was fine.  He played and giggled with us, and he even ate and went to bed at his normal time.  Cheryl, whose throat had been getting worse all day, slept and I tied up some scuds to fish with in the morning.  We realized the predicament we were in when he woke up for his 10:00pm meal.  He ate next to nothing and screamed again.  He was inconsolable, and that was how he stayed for the rest of the night.  Nobody in the room got much sleep that night.  He finally went down for a few hours at 6:00am, so we all got some sleep.  Talk about a long night! 

The C-ster and I before he tuned evil!  You can't help but feel sorry for the
little guy, but he sure was hard to live with!

We got a late start the next morning, but that was fine, as they were still generating quite a bit of water early in the morning.  We decided that I would float the Norfork and Cheryl and the C-ster would take it easy in the room.  I was on the water in the new kayak at 10:30.  It is very liberating being on a river by yourself in a boat, especially a self-powered boat.  You feel so free!  I paddled through the holes and waded through the shoals until I made it to the middle portion of the river.  I wanted to get away from where wade fishermen could get to.  I finally got to some shoals in the middle of the river corridor, but the good spots were already taken.  Finally I decided that I needed to fish at some point, so I worked my way onto a shoal and got to casting.

The view upstream from where I was fishing.

After an hour or so all I had to show for my efforts was one planter rainbow and a couple missed takes.  It was frustrating.  There was a fisherman in a Jon boat below me who had caught a couple fish.  He was ready to leave, and I asked him if he had any tips.  He said the smallest midge pattern you have, and try a sow bug.  I had caught a fish on a sow bug the night before, and up to that point my midges had done nothing, but I said thanks for the advice.  As he moved on and drove his boat through the shoal, I switched my dropper to a #22 dark olive thread midge.  I then gradually moved down to where he was fishing.  Then, I started catching fish!

A planter rainbow, just in case you forgot what they look like!

In the next half hour I caught five fish, all on the thread midge.  At one point I caught 3 fish in five casts.  After another hour I had a total of 9 fish.  The largest taping out at 14 1/2 inches. 

A brown with the thread midge in his upper jaw.  Reminder, this is the camera
on macro.  The midge is #22 and that is 7X tippet!

The cool thing was that I had caught three different species: rainbows, browns, and a brookie.  The Norfork is one of the few places you can catch all four species of trout on the same day.  I never caught a cutt.  Interestingly, the browns fought WAY better than the 'bows.  It was immediately obvious which kind you had on.  This is the opposite of my experience on the Provo River back home, where it seems that the rainbows fight harder.  Weird.  The brookie left something to be desired.  First of all, when it came in it was foul hooked, my only one of the day.  The water was so slow there was no way he wasn't going for my flies though.  Secondly, he was the smallest fish of the trip.  Finally, he was the uggliest brookie I have ever caught.  No colors, no fins, no girth, no fight.  But he was my only brookie for 2011, so, I've said it before, BACK OFF!

The ugly little brookie.

I continued paddling and caught a couple more fish in the shoals further down.  I did catch a healthy 15 1/2 incher on a scud that I had tied the night before, which was fun.  Eventually, though, the day drew to a close, and I floated down to the walk-in access where Cheryl was waiting with the car and we made our way back to the room.  Although the size and number of the fish left something to be desired, I had done well enough, and I had throroughly enjoyed a beautiful day in the middle of winter in the Ozark mountains.

Re-enter the sick part of the trip.  When I got back to the car Cheryl informed me that she had lost her voice.  We had dinner that Cheryl had pre-made at home and I took a shower.  When we tried to put the C-ster down for bed that night he freaked out again - big time.  At 7:30 Cheryl looked at me and said, "I don't know if I can handle another night like last night and I'll bet he'll sleep in the car, do you just want to go home?"  So it was decided.  By 8:15pm we were on the road on the route home.  The C-ster slept for the entire 4 hours and Cheryl slept for most of it.  I didn't of course!  We made it home and all enjoyed our own beds last night.

So our three day adventure in the Ozarks turned into a day and a half.  I had an awesome day fishing and floating and the other two spent it sick in bed.  Both are next to me right now and are getting better.  I still have a few days off and duck season is still open, so tomorrow operation "Kill Quackers" resumes.  This time if the water is high, I will be ready with my kayak!