Norfork Trip July 19-21, Good Times!

[OKFlyFisher44]

Made my 1st trip ever to Norfork this past July 19, 20, and 21 and it was well worth the 4-hour drive. We stayed at Gene's Trout Resort and for the money spent, couldn't of asked for a better place to stay especially being right on the river. The room we had was really nice and the whole log cabin theme was really neat.

We arrived on saturday evening and drove up to the dam to just check out the water. To our surprise, they weren't generating any water!!! I was the only one that a valid fishing license at that point so we didn't get to fish but we checked out the river and then walked over to Dry Run Creek to check it out for my 12 year old nephew.

As far as fishing on sunday, we fished at Quarry Park sunday morning with some success. My first fish of the day was an awesome 10-inch Brookie, I'd never caught one before so I was simply amazed. We had luck with copper johns and a sowbug pattern that I tied up myself. I ended up catching a few browns and a cutthroat so I left with high expectations of getting the Grand Slam. There wasn't as many anglers there as I thought there'd be for a sunday morning as we got to fish where we wanted throughout the morning.

We grabbed lunch and then headed for the catch n' release area down river. We put in and waded up to the big island upstream from the access point. We fished both sides pretty hard for a couple of hours. I caught most of my fish on copper johns and midges in the bigger riffle/run on the right side of the island. My cousin fished the slower water below the right side of the island with sculpins and buggers....got into a few fish. I did catch my rainbow right off, so I got my Norfork Grand Slam!

My 12 year old nephew caught some nice fish outta Dry Run Creek but we never could get any BIG fish to hook up. We threw every sow-bug pattern I had in my box that I tied up and what we bought at the fly shop. We also tossed Y2K bugs and san juan worms at them....to no success! I think I was more frustrated than my nephew was....the kid was making good drifts to big fish that we could sight-fish and hitting all the "fishy" spots that we couldn't see fish. I think he was just excited to get to cast to such nice fish. I will definitely be bringing him back to fish that place....it's an amazing lil' stream.

All in all, it was a good trip. The fishing was a lil' tougher than what I thought it would be. Combination of new water and the heat....as it was HOT! I will definitely be back to fish the Norfork again....I wanna catch more brookies!

[SamC489]

Did you wade the entire time? I am going to Gene's in a few weeks and it looks like I am going to have to rent a boat at least one of the days I am down there. The slam is awesome, congrats.

[OKFlyFisher44]

Yes, we waded the entire time. We thought about renting a boat but just decided to take our chances wading. On sunday, we didn't catch the generation till almost 2:00 I believe since we were fishing on the lower end of the river. So we got PLENTY of fishing in....

Now on monday morning...we got down to the dam, fished MAYBE 20 minutes and they started generating water. We were really bummed out....couldn't believe they started generation that early! Oh well...we loaded up all our gear and hauled butt over to Roaring River....fished there for a few hours before heading back home so we got to fish anyways....

[shawncat]

Congrat's on your slam.