Johnsfolly

Very nice bumch of bass! Congrats on figuring them out!

That's a great looking crappie! Love the pattern.

I was/am really proud of her on this trip. She ended up catching 6 more brook trout than I have in my lifetime☺! She beat herself up a bit for missing fish and not catching a bigger brown trout. She did great in my opinion. Well worth getting down to Norfork.

We planted cukes late and are still getting some small ones. Peppers still producing a couple at a time. Most everything else is dying back or done producing.

laker67 glad you got out and were successful on trout prior to and during the eclipse. Great job! You should remember where You were when there was the last total eclipse in the US☺!

Still sounds like you had a great trip. Much better than having to work! Always good to catch some 3+lb fish. Thanks for posting.

The cicadas went nuts here as well. Our chickens did not know what to do. The hummingbirds even stopped chasing each other around and stopped chittering for at least the two minutes of Totality. I have seen partial eclipses before, but this one was spectacular seeing a total eclipse! I agree about the weird light.

With bass I prefer beer battered onion rings! Put some cajun spice in the flour or bread crumbs on the fish and you got a fine meal!

Sounds like you had a great time! Panfishing farm ponds is a close second on my favorite places to fish. Just behind small creeks with loads of smallmouth, largemouth, and rock bass or hungry trout! Also a great fish fry! Small ponds need selective harvest or else you get stunted fish. Though I do prefer to keep the 10 to 11.75" if there is a slot or up to 14" if no slot for eating purposes.

Should it be Barefoot CantNessa! Well you know that he won't be prancing barefoot around on that deck☺!

Feel free to pass these along Daryk☺! Livie keeps firing more at me every day. I have to show some restraint, but I feel that the dam may break.... Soon.

Sounds like a great time of fishing! not overly complicated. Just react to what the fish want and how they want the bait. Then just reel them in!

First off that type of research would have to be done by paying biologists and we wouldn't want that☺! Hatchery fish particularly salmon in many states get the adipose fin clipped so that fisherman can tell the hatchery fish from wild caught fish. There may be anecdotal observations of these hatchery fish not being able to find their "home" waters. That may have more to do with them living in confinement part of their lives in poor or nondescript water sources and that they would not be able to imprint on that water source to allow them to travel back to that sources location. Besides the Sampson effect that BH experiences☺ I doubt that losing that little fatty fin affects the fish ar all.

Tonight was what to make with chicken breasts and zucchini. Decided to go asian. Thinly sliced chicken across the grain. Added chicken to a bowl then added cornstarch, black bean paste, granulated garlic, five spice, soy sauce, chinese vinegar, and ginger. Mixed and let sit. Thinly sliced the zucchini and green peppers. Cooked the chicken on med high heat until brown and put aside. Added little oil to pan and stir fried the vegetables. Then added back the chicken. Seasoned with S&P, little more soy sauce and sesame oil. Served with basmati rice. I added red pepper flakes to kick up the heat a little.

I would definitely be interested. Just never know for sure when I will be back out East for another extended stay for work.

No laughing here BH! Thanks for sharing these photos as well. It is a shame that sites like that cannot get adequate protection. Like many other guys I've enjoyed your trip report. I hope that you two continue to have many more of these trips together. Thanks for taking us along.

I would agree about the cutts. Hitting the clicks is a great past time whenever you get a chance!

You may be right. It seems that once these species begin declining it's hard to find out what are the reasons for that decline. In this case any number of non-point source pollutants, habitat loss, changing landscape usage around key streams, etc. can be the factors. So just reintroducing young animals may not be enough to keep the species intact. I just read a disturbing article about the closure of caribou sport hunting for Quebec caribou due to the precipitous decline in the two major herds. One of those two herds may never recover.

I can't say enough about this creek. We even had a huge brown trout porpoise right in front of us just to let us know it was there. I wish that I knew about this creek when my two other kids were below the age limit. BH - Maybe if you head the camper south and eastward, you will be able to go after the snakeriver and bonnevilles in Norfork! You'll have to fish the river though since it's unlikely that you will pass for <16 years old! Besides we didn't see any cutthroats in the creek.

I thought one of those from that small run was at least 15". I thought that this was the picture of her largest and it did not seem as long in the photo. Didn't want to overestimate. And Thanks for the big net. My net would have a tough time handling those 8+ lb trout that we saw swimming in some of those pools.

I've made a couple of those viewers back in elementary and middle schools. One we used as a pinhole camera.

Some parting shots. I want to thank Ham for his help and bringing along his fishing rods and baits to use on this trip!

Norfork Tailwater and the White River are great trout fisheries in Northern Arkansas. Both have great numbers of big rainbow and brown trout. Norfork also have brook and two species of cutthroat trout. The Dry Run Creek empties into the Norfork tailwater just below the national hatchery and receives a lot of its water from the hatchery outfalls. It is a tremendous trout fishing stream set up for children under the 16 years old. It is catch and release with only single barbless hooks. On Friday I was there with Ham and my daughter Livie. Livie has only caught rainbow trout while fishing the trout parks and urban trout lakes in Missouri and she has never fly fished before. She was looking forward to trying to catch a couple of new trout and possibly one of the giants that swim in this stream. We started fishing at a plunge pool at the lower end of the stream. Fishing a black and red Zig jig she was getting the attention of the multitude of brook trout in this hole. Livie mostly fishes with a float and was having trouble seeing / feeling the bites of the trout on her jig. The fish were all very cooperative and she landed her first brook trout and several more on the zig jig. In fact after we switched baits and fished them with a yellow float the trout kept busting the float itself. She also caught one each on a San Juan worm and orange/yellow egg with the fly rod. Never did get the brown trout hooked up from that hole. We headed to the upper part of the stream next. The next hole contained several giant rainbow and brown trout as well as loads of trout and many of them were actively feeding. She fished several baits and flies. We finally got a number of strikes on a John Deere microjig under a small white float. Livie landed a few rainbows. Never was able to get the hook set on a couple of the bigger fish that struck her baits. She finally caught a small brown trout on an elk hair caddis with the fly rod. This guy slipped out of the net before we could get a better picture. Every stretch of water held trout, often lots of trout, and most held a couple of giants. The fish were cooperative. Though she never got one of the giants, she caught two new species of trout and several rainbows including one that was 12 to 13" in length. Now she did have to put up with the peanut gallery telling her when she had a fish on the bait or that she just missed one of the big ones. I hope that she is able to get back down to fish this creek again. I have to get her practice on the fly rod to get the feel on how to read the fish's behavior, anticipate the take, and to set the hook. I would anticipate that there may be less "One's got it ... Oh boy that was a big one..." This post has been promoted to an article

I know that each of you got at least one chuckle out of those jokes as bad as they may have been!