RiverRunner

I stopped by Quarry this afternoon on my way back to Jonesboro. The place really stunk of sulphur. The parking lot was full and it was wall to wall fisherman, mostly fly-fishing. I saw one nice brown (19"-20") struggling for its life just above the new ramp. I don't know if it was handled badly, effects of low oxygen, or both. I also saw some bad examples of fish handling. One gentleman caught a nice 17" -18" rainbow and decided to let it flop around the rocks for 3 minutes or so before finally retrieving his fly and sending the fish to its untimely death. I couldn't in good consience fish this area right now. I always tended to avoid it anyway in low water because of the crowds. Hopefully, the cold weather and rain will help turn the lake over soon, and the low DO problems should improve. But something has to be done to correct this problem in the long term, or else we are going to lose the fishery. There is a lot of good info on this situation over on Wilson's board. I wish we could get more discussion going on this on this board on this subject.

I am heading out Friday to fish a tournament at Logan Martin Lake, I'm hoping to tangle with some of those big Coosa River Spots. I wish the Kentuckies we had up here were as big and as viscious as those fish are. My best 5 weighed around 19 lbs one time (Lake Jordan)

I used to live in Birmingham, AL. Fished the Alabama River some along with Pickwick. Mainly fished out of Prattville. Do you fish there or down towards Selma and below? I miss those Alabama Spotted Bass.

It is important to remember that more people are fishing our waters now than ever before, thus C&R is necessary to the continued health of our fisheries. Over here in NE Arkansas, I have seen some of the best largemouth & Kentucky bass fishing almost decimated by meat fishing. At one time, it was common to easily catch 10-20 3 lbs Kentuckies a day out of the St. Francis River, but the angling public has discovered these waters and now it seems that all you can catch are a few 10" - 11" bass. Having been around the bass tournament scene some, C&R has always seemed like 2nd nature to me. I like to keep a few bass to eat every now and then, but that's all. Most fisherman around here keep every bass they catch, regardless of size. I can't tell you how many people I have made mad by throwing fish back in front of them. I can name at least 10 fisheries over here that have been ruined by meat fishing. I never keep trout any more, but I do have one nice brown that I caught years ago on my wall. And I can probably say that will be the only one. I just don't care anything about killing a trout anymore, besides, I don't think that they are fit to eat. There are very few things that I enjoy more than a meal of fried sauger or catfish, but it really breaks my heart to see our fisheries over here going downhill because of meat fishing. If you need the fish to eat, then I can accept & understand that. But if you have to buy an extra deep freeze to hold all of the fish that you are keeping, then you are not depending on those fish for you or your families survival I would assume. Bill Dance once said that "if you are fishing so that you can have a big stringer to show off, you need to think about why you are fishing in the first place" And one last opinion on my rant. I think that the AGFC does an admirable job when it comes to promoting C&R on trout and smallmouth streams. But they do almost nothing to protect some of our bass fisheries. I get the feeling that Missouri does a better job promoting warm water C&R than AR does. I would be curious to hear a more informed opinion on this.

Terry, You are 100% right. Almost everyone that is raising chickens is a small-time family deal that is totally dependent on that big-time chicken processor. These people really live under the thumb of that unnamed corporation since they supply both the chickens and the feed. When I lived in Alabama, I had chicken houses on both sides of my home (great smell!) And I can tell you, those chicken farmers were anything but rich. Whether they made any money or not totally depended on the processor. This company has a long history of influencing poltitcs in Arkansas. When I was at ASU, I took a class in Arkansas politics. One of the things I learned was that big companies such as Tyson, Wal-Mart, AP&L, Farm Bureau, and etc not only have paid lobbyist, they also have actual members of the legislature on their offical payroll. All of this is perfectally legal in AR. So instead of Rep. John Doe from Anytown, AR, you have Rep. Jane Doe from Wal-Mart. At least that is how it seems to work. They are bought and paid for. I like your idea "The Wildlife and Wilderness Council". Just my two cents, but I think that we should also get the Bass fisherman involved in these issues as well. I am a member of the BASS national federation, which at one time sued a # of major polluters and won. They have good conservation resources available and they are not afraid to pick a fight. They have had extensive coverage of the Illinois River (OK) lawsuit in their monthly publication, Bass Times over the years. Unfortunatley, they have had a major split this year with a # of members leaving and going to a rival organization. Mr. Statler does have a good two-part article on this, I just can't remember where the link is. I know that he took aim at a North Arkansas politican pretty hard on another board.

Not to inject politics any more into this discussion, but the campaign finance system we have now is nothing more than legalized bribery. And I'm talking all politics, local, state, & national. Anyone looking to run for office has to rely on donations from business, farming, and etc. So guess what, the big cattle or chicken farmer gets their voice heard much more than you or me that did not donate anything to his/her campaign. So unless everyone puts their life savings together and buys a politician just like the big business and farming interests do, our chances of getting any help from the politicans are slim. That is why publicly financed campaigns are a possible solution. Just my two cents though. . . Also, I have nothing against farmers, without farmers, we don't have any food. But I am tired of the farming interests in this state using their power to get whatever they want. In Arkansas, it seems that the most environmental destruction I have seen is the result of farming. At one time, their were a lot of creeks and sloughs that flowed year round near Jonesboro that supported viable sport fish populations. But now, due to channelization and relift pumps, many have silted in to the point that they run dry most of the year. Also, there used to be a good quail population around here, but now, farmers plant all the way from fencerow to fencerow, leaving no brush that is the primary habitiat for quail. Also, due to ag chemicals, what water is left is so polluted that their is no life at all. Frog gigging used to be a popular pastime around here. Nowadays, the only place people gig frogs is in commercial catfish ponds. The ditches and sloughs are too polluted. I used to think that my favorite Ozark streams were immune from this type of pollution, but with tons of chicken litter being dumped on pastures, it looks like big-time farming will take their toll on those streams as well. Like I said, I have nothing against farmers, they are just trying to make a living. But a lot of the problems are associated with the demise of the family farm. Almost a lot of farms nowadays are huge, "factory farms" It used to be that farmers were among the best conservationists around, because they depended on the land to produce and feed the family for generations. When farming quit being a way of life and became a business, that all stopped. These people have all of the politicans around here on their side. Just look at the White River irrigation project (halted by a fed. judge) down on the lower White that will likely destroy the largest hardwood bottomland left in the lower Mississippi valley. It is being done at the behest of 5 major rice growers with political connections who have pumped the aquifers dry and now are in need of new water sources. You can bet your bottom dollar if they wanted the water releases from the White River Reservoirs to be determined by their water needs, they would get it. I did not mean to rant, but I had to I guess. Apologies in advance if I offended anyone.

http://www.agfc.com/critters/wildlife_misc_p2.html#Armadillo Interesting article These things are the loudest thing in the woods, On a quiet morning, it seems that you can hear them coming from a mile away.

Managed to get in a few hours on the river on Saturday after the deluge. Put in at Cotter City Park after getting blown out by the mud at Norfork. Mainly fished between there and the new 62 bridge. Did pretty well despite the fact that I had not been on this stretch in quite a while and never in low water. I would estimate that we caught about 40 between us with 5 browns in the 17" -19" range. I lost one I would say was 23" -24" just above railroad bridge. All the rainbows were beautiful, and a couple of the browns were putting on spawning colors. Caught almost all on 1/16" jigs, my partner caught one nice brown on a Rogue. Considering the tornadoes the night before and the rain all morning, not a bad day at all.

I have been posting on this forum for a while but I guess I neglected to introduce myself when I signed up. My bad My name is Cameron Gillespie. I am 27 and have lived in the flatlands and mosquito country of Jonesboro, AR all but three years of my life. I live for trout & smallmouth fishing. When I was a kid, me and my brother were fortunate enough to be among the first to fish Dry Run Creek when they opened it up to youth. After I turned 16, I had to learn how to catch them in the big waters of the White & Norfork. I saved change and any money I could make to get a very used 20" Fiberglass Jon Boat when I was 18. I spent months rebuilding it and I still use the same boat today. I burn up the highway between Jonesboro and the White & Norfork rivers almost every weekend. I would love to move to the area, but employment opportunities are limited. I am a sales rep, with North Arkansas and South Missouri as my territory. I am trying to get "restarted" in fly fishing and I have recieved some great advice on this forum. But right now, I mainly trout fish with jigs and a little bit of hardware at times. I fish mainly the White & North Fork between Norfork Dam and Calico Rock, although I have been known to venture above Cotter from time to time. I lived in Alabama for 3 years after I graduated from ASU and got involved in the bass tournament scene there, but since I have come back home, the only bass fishing that intrests me is smallmouth in the Eleven Point. So if you see a Ford Explorer pulling a long, green jon boat broken down somewhere between Jonesboro & Mountain Home, pull over and lend a hand

Are they fit to eat?

I was in the middle of it all last night in Calico Rock, AR (Izard County). I don't think that I have ever seen so much lightning. The White River was nasty muddy this morning from the runoff. On the way back to Jonesboro, I had to drive through Sharp County, AR near Hardy and Ash Flat. It is a real disaster there with the worst flood ever on the Spring River. They had nearly 15 inches of rain between 3 pm yesterday and midnight. The river apparently rose so fast that people who were camping near the river were swept away by the floodwaters. A number of RV's were swept away in the flood. Their were numerous people launching boats to look for missing people downstream of Hardy. I know that I have never seen the Spring River that high in my short lifetime. I was on the White at Cotter all day and had no idea that this was going on. We really need to keep the people in that area in our thoughts.

What makes me angry is the fact that we have some of the finest fisheries in the world here in Arkansas and they are at most risk from people in this state that have no regard for the treasure that they really are. Just look at this and the gravel mining on Crooked Creek. Arkansas is my home, I was born here and I would prefer to spend the rest of my life here, but it sickens me the way a lot of people in this state treat our waters and other outdoor areas. Many people think that streams and rivers are only good as a dump or somewhere to put in a relift irrigation pump. And if there are any fish to be caught, make sure that you take all of them home with you. So it is no surprise to me that this situation at Norfork has gone on as long as it has. Like Dano says, it maybe too late to save Norfork, but we can sure do our best to help change attitudes and keep this type of thing from ever happening in our state again.

Fisherman like us just need to get organized and scream as loud as possible to be heard and to get things changed. I lived in Alabama for 3 years and was very involved in the bass tournament scene there. We watched as one of the crown jewels of bass fishing in the nation, Guntersville Lake, was poisoned by one of the biggest governement agencies around; the TVA. They completely wiped out all of the aqautic vegetation in the lake which destroyed the bass population and ran off the big-time tournaments that were the economic life-blood of the area. Area fishermen, guides, and tournament organizers managed to get over 500 fisherman to haul their boats in a "funeral procession" from Guntersville, AL to TVA HQ in Chattanooga. The procession was led by a hearse carrying a coffin bearing "the fishery of Guntersville Lake". Needless to say, this generated a lot of media coverage To make a long story short, it worked. The TVA was forced to work with fishermen and a aquatic vegetation management plan was developed that cut back on herbicide spraying. The grass is back and the bass fishery is stronger than ever before and the big tournaments are back. I learned when I was there that the bass fisherman are a powerful voice in Alabama and they could get stuff done when they got together on an issue. You would think that if the TVA could be brought to its knees by fisherman, so could this two-bit developer. Anyone who visits or fishes the White/Norfork system needs to stand up and make their opinions on this issue known. I would gladly volunteer for a similar style protest as I mentioned above. Its great that we have TU and the ADEQ making moves on this issue, but nothing beats grass roots action by people directly affected by this action. The rivers that we fisherman cherish and that so many people make a living off of are in a precarious state, if we do not act now it will soon be too late. I am on the White River below Norfork almost every weekend, and I have never seen more trash and debris in the water as I have this year. If we allow this to continue, we might as well start promoting sucker fishing in the White and North Fork. So lets get organized and get our voices heard!!!

The only problem with the Merc 4-strokes is weight. A 15 HP 4-stroke weighs in at 115 lbs. My older 15 HP Merc 2-Stroke weighs 75. If they could get the weight down, the 4-stroke would be a lot better for jonboats.

Great to hear, could you see any effects from the Overlooked run-off down there?

Isn't there a 25 HP limit in both MO & AR on the Eleven Point? I fish the river a lot between Myrtle, MO and Dalton ,AR and it seems that everyone has a big motor with 25 HP stickers. I even saw a big boat with a 125 Mercury jet that had the 1 removed from the 125 on the cowling. It is obvious that hardly anyone is running a real 25, at least in the stretch that I fish. The last time I checked, nobody made a 25 HP V-6 outboard. You would think that the game wardens would start enforcing the law. I fish the river out of my 20' White River jonboat with a prop-driven 15 Merc, and it does just fine, but you have to take 2 vehicles to avoid fighting your way upriver over the shoals. I have also fished out of conventional 14 ft aluminum jon boats and done fine as well. Just pull up the motor when going over a shoal.

http://www.baxterbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dl.../608310301/1002 Looks like the state and this guy will fight it out as the river dies a slow death. I just can't believe that there is nothing that can be done to stop this problem right now. This is a disgrace to the entire state of Arkansas. I was fishing last weekend in the Moccassin Creek C&R area on the White and watched as the nasty Norfork water made its way down and muddied the river up and shut down the fish. This guy is not only destroying the Norfork but also putting the White below the confluence in serious danger as well.

Thanks for the help, I knew that I could get some good pointers from you guys

My question is this: What can be done now to stop the runoff from the site and how can the sediment be cleared from the river? The only thing that I can think of that would help solve the problem would be to lay sod all over the hillside or pour concrete over it. Also, can they run the water hard enough without opening the floodgates to clear out the sediment? The thing that worries me is that now that it is in court, Mr. Doyal can fight it out with the ADEQ and drag this thing out for months while the damage continues. The state should be able to shut him down, make the necessary repairs, and bill him for the work. It's a shame that this has happened, after the last rain, the mud was still thick at Calico. Maybe this is the wake-up call for what runaway development brings. I just hope that money and the good ole boy system does not prevail in this matter.

I think that the proposed minimum flow for Norfork is about 300 cfs (correct me if I am wrong). With that flow, it will still be extremely difficult to boat all the way to the Dam in a prop-driven boat. I am extremely reluctant to run my 20' jon boat above the handicapped access when they are running less than 2 units. The Norfork is a dangerous river to run-high or low. There are several places(esp. Mill Dam Eddy) that can sink a boat is seconds. With the increasing popularity of jet drives, more and more people are attempting to run the Norfork at all levels. I don't think that it will destroy wade & fly fishing on the river. It seems that an increasing number of people are opposed to minimum flow because it represents something that they are opposed to: Change. For my 10 cents, I am all for it, I fish from Norfork Dam to Calico Rock almost exclusively. Minimum flow will do wonders for that stretch in regards to high water temps. In 2000, a lot of our fish were wiped out because of high water temps during that drought. I still haven't seen the big browns in numbers that we had before since then. If we could have a constant, cold flow even in drier years, it would help our fishing a lot, since we already have a high forage base in that area. I just wish that we could get more vocal supporters. I hope that we don't lose this on the verge of getting it done. Also, what is it going to take to get this travesty of a development that is destroying the river stopped?

I was up in Mountain Home on business on Wednesday and decided to stop by the ramp at Cotter and look at the river for a minute. I noticed that Cotter Spring seemed to have very little water comning out of it. I know that it is tied into Crooked Creek, but every time that I have seen it, it had a lot more water flowing out of it. Does the dry weather really affect it that much? Also, I remember that the AGFC turned it into a Dry Run Creek type of stream for kids, has it ever produced anything like Dry Run Creek has?

Fished the Eleven Point on Saturday from the launch at Mrytle, MO and floated down to Woody's campground near Dalton, AR. We had a pretty good day, we only caught about 12 smallmouth, but the average size was very good, around 13". We had one that went about 3 1/2 lbs and another near 2 1/2. These are the best fish that we have caught since we started fishing the river. Caught all fish on 1/4 oz. jig & pig. Water was a little stained and had a little bit of trash floating in the water from the recent rain. A fair number of canoes were out and there were several jet boats, but I never saw anyone else fishing. It was hard to pattern the fish, we caught some in deep eddies and some in swift shoal water. We probably caught 25-30 a few weeks back when the water was down a little bit, but they were not nearly as big as the fish we caught on this trip. A good day to be on the river.

I have fished this stretch some. Boswell Shoals can be a good area along with the C&R area near Mt. Olive. A lot of times the water will be high around the clock due to releases from Norfork & Bull Shoals combined, but the water can be low for extended periods in the fall & winter. The area from Boswell down to the bridge at Sylamore gets hammered pretty good, but few people really fly-fish it. At times, if the generators are turned off for more than a day in hot weather, water temps can rise to the mid 70's, which seems to make the fish go to the deep holes to look for cooler water. Also, the creek mouths, esp. Piney and Sylamore are good places to catch Smallmouth & Kentuckies at times. I used to fish this area more, but now I concentrate my efforts between Norfork and Calico Rock. It seems to get a little less pressure.

I have an older Kenzie Kraft 20'6" fiberglass jonboat that I bet is 30 years old. I have had it for 8 years and I restored it to "like new" condition. I run a 15HP Mercury and it performs great and will go just about anywhere on the White that I want to go. Shawnee is the gold standard among river boats, but Supreme and AFF are good as well. I would stay away from any old River Rat Boats, they had a bad reputation for leaking around the livewell area. There seems to be a lot of used river boats on the market now, I guess people are wanting to upgrade to the newer and prettier supreme's and the like. When I was looking for a river boat in 1998, it was almost impossible to find a used one. I like my old boat because I am not afraid to scar it up. It was built to last, and when it gets too scratched up, I just take it off the trailer and give it a fresh coat of green gel coat. Also, you could glass in a lean bar on the front of the boat if you wanted one without a lot of trouble.

I am like the other poster, I registered just to address this topic. The Spring River is overrun with drunks almost all Summer. I have lived in Northeast Arkansas almost my entire life, and most people around here think of the Spring as the "redneck riveria" with little regard to anything else except getting drunk and making trouble. The drunks dominate this river and make it unsafe for anyone with a family. A few years back, my brother witnessed a fight at Bayou Access that involved one person beating up another with a boat paddle. I quit floating and fishing here several years ago beacuse of the people and the river bed that was almost all beer cans. It was almost impossible to run many of the chutes because of drunks standing in the middle of them. If I ever go back, I will probably carry a gun. The problem is that the local economy, esp. the Hardy area, is centered around the summertime boozing canoeing crowd. If they don't make their money in the summer, they don't make any since the crowds are largely gone after Labor Day. Also, since Fulton & Sharp counties are "dry" the liquor stores and gas stations in Thayer do very well in the summer. I think that is the main reason that the overwhlemed law enforcement looks the other way at a lot of the incidents and problems. The only thing that has been effective are AGFC officers in canoes on peak weekends. Also, Highway 63 between Jonesboro and Hardy is nearly impassable on Friday & Sunday afternoons and has been the scene of several fatal alcohol-related car accidents. I really don't know what can be done about this situation. Almost all of the riverbank is in private ownership below Dam #3 and the canoe outfitters and campgrounds are responsible for a lot of tax revenue in the area. My opinion would be that local politicans would be unwilling to do anything that might curtail the summertime crowds and tax revenues. If they would ban alcohol on the river and regulate it in the campgrounds, the drunks would gradually go away. Unfortunatley, right now the best thing to do would be to stay away during the summer or stay above Dam # 3 or below Hardy. Or you can do what I do, drive past the Spring on my way to the White River or Eleven Point. Still, something must be done to take this beautiful river back from the obnoxious drunks and low-lifes that dominate it now.