Cotter Trout Festival

[Danoinark]

Trout festival lures people to Cotter

ARMANDO RIOS

Baxter Bulletin Staff Writer

Some words go together naturally — sun and shine, ham and eggs, Cotter and trout. So it is fitting that this weekend Cotter is celebrating its seventh annual "Great Cotter Trout Festival" at Big Spring Park on the banks of the White River.

Activities Friday and Saturday include arts and crafts and commercial booths, an art show and sale, barbecue dinner Friday, music, the ever-popular kids' fishing hole, fly-casting demonstrations and instructions, fly-tying demonstrations as well as seminars and a fish fry Saturday.

A number of fishing and conservation groups are set to be part of this year's event.

They include Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, Mid South Fly Fishers, North Arkansas Fly Fishers, Damsel Fly Fishers, Mountain Home Rod and Reel Fishing Club, Arkansas Outfitters and Guide Association, White and Norfork River Outfitters, Trout Unlimited, Friends of the Norfork National Fish Hatchery, and the Federation of Fly Fishers.

Activities kick off at noon Friday with the opening ceremony near the gazebo.

Special exhibits will include the Area Art Club's show and sale at the Spring House which will run throughout the festival. Student art again will be featured.

The North Arkansas Woodcarvers are scheduled to appear near the rail cars.

The Baxter County Library Foundation will exhibit plans for the new Donald W. Reynolds Foundation-funded county library.

Arts and crafts booths will be open from noon until 5 p.m. Friday and from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Saturday.

Friday evening will feature "Barbecue and Blues." Barbecue will be served starting at 4 p.m. at the pavilion. The price is $6 per plate. At 5 p.m., the award-winning blues band "Big Red and the Soul Benders" will appear on stage near the pavilion.

The band's appearance at the festival is part of a special "Arts on Tour" program supported by the Arkansas Arts Council, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Saturday also will be full of events, including "Arkansas Game and Fish Commission Appreciation Day" honoring the commission's support of trout fishing in the Cotter area.

Festival grounds will open at 9 a.m.

Fly-casting demonstrations and instruction will be conducted near the gazebo by certified experts. Fly-tying will be demonstrated in the Spring House. A riverboat show and sale will be near the Cotter access ramp. If the water levels permit, there will be boat rides on the White River by experienced river guides.

The "Kid's Fishing Hole" for children 15 and younger will be at the Cotter Trout Dock cove from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. Saturday. It might be moved to Big Spring itself due to high water, said Sonny Sharp of the Cotter Chamber of Commerce.

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission plans to stock 500 keeper-size trout for the event into a netted area in the cove. The event will be supervised by the Mountain Home Rod and Reel Fishing Club.

"It is one of the most popular projects for kids," Sharp said.

"We have a number of additions to kids activities this year," Sharp said. "There is a special project with Lowe's providing kits for kids to build ships and fire trucks at the pavilion Saturday morning. We are very pleased to do that, really pleased to see an increase in attractions for the kids."

There also will be inflatable amusements.

Other musical groups scheduled Saturday include Southbound from 1-3 p.m., Rio from 3:30-5 p.m., and Crooked Creek from 5:30-8:30 p.m. There will be a fish-fry dinner at 4 p.m. Saturday. The price is $6 per plate.

There will be more vendors than last year, Sharp said. And they come from a wider area. For example, there will be a vendor with fishing gear coming from the Austin, Texas, area.

"After all the misery the high water has caused, it is time for a party on the river and we are going to throw a good one," Sharp said.

"One thing really important this year is the large number of volunteers from the community," he added. "It is wonderful to see people get so excited. And the city of Cotter always plays a big role behind the scenes making sure things work."

The following is the schedule for seminars which will be held Saturday near the rail cars:

9 a.m. — Bull Shoals State Park

10 a.m. — White River Chapter, Trout Unlimited

11 a.m. — Friends of the Norfork National Fish Hatchery

Noon — Jeff Williams, Arkansas State Trout Biologist

1 p.m. — Federation of Fly Fishers

2 p.m. — Enforcement Division, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission

armandor@baxterbulletin.com