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Last week, Chris drove 10 hours over snowy roads to let his son, Collin, and his buddy, Jake, fish Dry Run Creek.
Collin had fished the creek before. He had caught some trout but no trophies. Jake had fished before but had never fished the creek. Chris thought they would do better if he hired a local guide, and he chose me.
When we were planning the trip, I was concerned about the weather. It was cold. Chris was concerned about the roads. They are from Minnesota, and cold weather is no problem for them.
We met at the Norfork National Fish Hatchery. It was 21 degree,s and the boys didn’t mind. They had waders, good clothing and suitable gloves. We had the place to ourselves. They were ready to fish. My wife, Lori, joined us for the morning.
The idea was for Lori to work with one of the boys in the morning, while I worked with the other. That way we could give them a good start by providing more individual attention. I had arrived before the others and had two fly rods rigged and ready to go.
We began fishing immediately. Lori was working with Collin. He caught a good fish right off and then another. I took Jake and we walked far upstream to a spot I knew had some bigger trout.
We began fishing and caught a nice one on the first cast. We fished for an hour or so and caught about 10 trout, including a trophy rainbow. We began working our way downstream toward the spot where Collin and Lori were fishing. We caught several trout along the way.
When we caught up with them, Chris had noted a large number of big trout keying in on a discharge pipe. Jake was eager to try his luck. There were plenty of trout and enough room for both of them to fish near to each other. They both caught a few trophy trout.
About that time the creek got very murky. The hatchery personnel were cleaning the raceways, and this caused the hatchery discharge to muddy up and contained a lot of food (to include some dead fingerling trout). I have encountered this before and knew it would trigger a feeding frenzy. Luckily, both boys had white mop patterns on which emulated the dead trout fingerlings.
Suddenly we were in the middle of a feeding frenzy, and we had the most effective fly for the situation. We began catching one big trout after another. Lori and I were both in the stream netting trout. Chris was busy taking pictures of the bigger trout.
At one time we had a trophy brown in one net and a trophy rainbow in another. Over an hour and a half we landed more than 30 trophy trout. I have been a guide on Dry Run Creek for 31 years and Lori guided there for 18 years. We have never seen as productive as a day as this. The water cleared and the feeding frenzy stopped.
We were worn out. We stopped for lunch. Lori had a hair appointment and headed out. Chris wanted to stop by Twin Rivers Fly Shop in Norfork to get some flies and supplies for the next day, when he would be fishing the boys alone.
Feeding Frenzy Jam Baxter Tn
We figured the rest of the day would be slow. As I saw his car leave the parking lot, I noticed that the water was off color again and the feeding frenzy was back on. I was by myself.
For the next 45 minutes we landed more than 20 trophy trout. I was so busy netting fish we only took photos of the two biggest trout. I tried to light a cigar for 30 minutes, but every time I pulled out my cigar lighter one of the boys hooked another trophy.
Finally, Chris arrived and immediately waded into the fray. We had another 45 minutes of the frenzy before we could relax. We stayed on stream until 4 p.m. Chris and I were done but the boys still wanted to fish. He promised to bring them back the next day and they reluctantly agreed to quit.
Feeding Frenzy Jam Baxter Lyrics
Don’t let off-color water on Dry Run Creek scare you. It is a great time to fish.
John Berry is a fly-fishing guide in Cotter and has fished our local streams for more than 35 years. He can be reached at 435-2169 or www.berrybrothersguides.com.