We decided to head back to the Norfork and fish the C&R section again. We arrived at the parking lot to find it only about half-full which was a great sight to see. We geared up and decided to hike farther upstream this morning to fish some of the other shoals. We hiked up past the sections we fished the day before, which were covered with anglers this morning. We kept hiking till we thought we'd gotten away from the people....and we kept going. It was a good decision as we came up on an awesome looking plunge pool with a shoal below it that had a nice run that created a sweet tailout pool. Excellent water....
Joey began working the head of the run while I re-rigged and on the first drift, fish on! If that was any kind of a sign as to things to come, we were in for special treat. I quickly re-rigged, waded in half-way down the run, and on my 3rd drift set the hook on a nice rainbow. It was going to be a good morning! We worked our way down the run, fishing it from each side...pulling trout out left and right. I was fishing a tandem nymph rig once again with a brown san juan worm while swapping out different colors of scuds and midges for my dropper. Joey just stuck with the brown san juan worm. The fish were really loving the san juan today...
At this point in the trip, I was just a cutthroat away from having my Grand Slam and Joey needed a brookie so hopes were high for a double slam! Hopes were high we'd both get it. We fished out the lower run all the way down to the tailout, picking up fish the whole way but I couldn't get a cuttie nor could Joey get a brookie. After that we walked around to fish the plunge pool area of the shoal. This area was pretty sweet, each little waterfall creating a small run/riffle that was LOADED with fish! There were a few fish rising so Joey switched to dries and was able to get into a few fish while I was high-sticking the pocket water.
I walked over to a spot on the "ledge" of the plunge pool where several small waterfalls converged together to make a nice run with a deep hole below it. Before casting, I took a look into the hole as several fish were moving in and out. Luckily, I could identify a few cutthroat in the hole by spotting their orange fins...this was my chance at the Slam! I re-tied my flies back on so I'd have fresh knots and began high-sticking the hole. I caught a couple of good rainbows quickly on the midge dropper that put up a great fight and showed some acrobatics. My next drift I dropped my rig over on the far side of the run and watched the indicator dance its way through the run. Just before picking up to re-cast, my indicator twitched ever so slightly and I set the hook! I peered into the water to see flashes of orange...yes, it was a cutthroat!! Finally! It wasn't a very big cuttie but it completely my 2nd grand slam...I was pretty stoked!
Shortly after that, we began making our back downstream towards the parking lot. We found some fish rising along the way and made some half-hearted presentations to them but they were sipping midges in the film so we decided to move on. We fish the bottom of one of the runs we fished the day before and caught a few more fish before calling it quits. We were hot, tired, and hungry plus they were scheduled to start generating in an hour so we headed for the parking lot and packed up our gear.
It was a great weekend trip even though we didn't get to fish the White and Joey missed his Grand Slam by 1 fish. The Norfork is an awesome tailwater to say the least. Plans are being made to return to Arkansas again in August in hopes of fishing the White during hopper season, so we'll cross our fingers once again.
In the meantime, I'm thinking a smallmouth wade trip is in order for tomorrow...
Keep chasing the dream...
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