Trouble in the Valley of the Hawgs: Emergency Trout Rules Shake Arkansas' Fly-Fishing Heartland

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC) has voted to take unprecedented action to try and solve a deadly puzzle brought on by a perfect storm of weather conditions this year.

That October 16 vote by the AGFC, gave approval to a 120-day emergency order, one of four options presented by AGFC Trout Management Program coordinator Christy Graham. The one chosen by commissioners calls for catch-and-release fishing of all trout in the 45 miles of White River tailwater flowing below Bull Shoals Dam to its confluence with the North Fork River–known to most fly anglers as the Norfork–along with catch-and-release trout fishing on the entire length of the Norfork.

Trout waters below the White River-North Fork River confluence, from the Norfork Access boat ramp to the Highway 58 bridge at Guion, will have a two-trout-only limit with normal length and daily limits (only one trout over 14 inches). All tackle restrictions previously in place still apply.

And since the Norfork National Fish Hatchery–the nation’s largest federally owned hatchery and where a massive rainbow-trout kill occurred in recent weeks–also supplies a portion of the total rainbow trout in the Greers Ferry Dam tailwater (Little Red River) and all of the rainbow stockers for the Beaver Lake Dam tailwater (the Upper White River), the emergency regs vote brings change to those systems too. Under the recent AGFC order, anglers in those two tailwaters may keep two trout up to 14 inches in length and must release all other caught trout according to the AGFC news release.

It’s big news in a region where White River and Norfork River trout fishing contributes millions to the local economy annually. And since the year-round trout fishing potential–including the region’s famed winter streamer season–is fodder on social media channels right now, angler angst has been boiling over in the days since the Norfork Lake turnover (where a striped bass kill also occurred) and the release of bad lake water into the hatchery began several weeks ago and led to the October 16 vote.

“I just stress to the public that this is a temporary thing,” Christy Graham, the AGFC Trout Management Program coordinator said. “We do not have any intention for this to be a long-term change to the regulations and the fishery. But it would be the protective thing to do right now.”

To gain a full understanding of why this story matters so much to so many, consider that in the 1970s, author Clive Gammon penned a story for Sports Illustrated (SI) detailing the glories of Arkansas’ big trout possibilities. Gammon's article was a tale that dealt with legendary-sized trout in the Ozarks region that had to be seen to be believed, including the wintery day when Gammon stood in the home of local angler Dave Lowry.

"Listen, man," wrote Gammon about Lowry’s angling instruction as told in the SI Vault tale, The Arkansas Travails. "You go down that river when it's dead low, get your eye attuned, stand up in the John boat and just look. Soon you'll start seeing 'em. Like in Wildcat Shoals, schools of browns weighing from 10 to 20 pounds. Nothing under 10 pounds. And in schools, just like a small fish. And, glory, there's big rainbows out there, some of them nearly as big as the browns!"

Over the years, the region has established itself as one of the premiere spots in the world to go and catch a legendary brown, thanks in part to the efforts of the late Dave Whitlock, who appeared in the SI Vault story mentioned, partly for his advocacy for the river and partly due to his introduction of Vibert Boxes that allowed brown trout to spawn in the systems. 

Consider that the two tailwater systems full of shad, scuds, sowbugs, terrestrials, and increasingly prolific hatches for caddisflies and Sulphur’s draw countless fly anglers annually hoping to repeat the late Rip Collins’ former International Game Fish Association world record brown, a Little Red River trout caught on Mother’s Day 1992 that weighed an unbelievable 40-pounds, 4-ounces. 

Some fly anglers like Emmy-winning sportswriter and sportscaster Clay Henry, who lives with his wife only a few yards from the Norfork River, have seen this storm before. With such experience, Henry–who founded Hogs Illustrated magazine and its subsequent Hawgs Sports Network–doesn’t believe the sky is falling just yet.

Henry has the river cred to give such an opinion, tying dozens of small ruby red midge flies every Monday as the 71-year old semi-retired writer volunteers at Two Rivers Fly Shop in Norfork and mentors fly anglers like Arkansas baseball star Cam Kozeal. In fact, he and Kozeal, along with one of Cam’s Razorback teammates sampled the Norfork River this past weekend and found, despite clouded water and the sulfur smell, that there were still fish that took flies, fought well, and swam off when released.

And while those were stockers that remain in the Norfork system, Henry–who sits on a stakeholder advisory board–believes that the fishery isn’t as imperiled as some are proclaiming on social media. Are things tougher right now and has the Norfork been negatively impacted for the time being? Yes. But then again, Henry doesn’t believe that Chicken Little is waiting in the wings either.

“Earlier in September when we started losing fish at the hatchery, the Norfork did have sulfur and manganese issues showing, but the better fish went and found better oxygenated water down in the White River,” he said. “From what I’ve observed and heard, there has been no die-off of the really big brown trout. They’re still there, they didn’t die.”

Henry–whose daughter is married to a local fly angling guide–also provides a bit of perspective on the stocker rainbows that the hatchery provides for the two fisheries.

“The stocked rainbows get taken out of the river in an average of 45-days,” said Henry. “They have to restock them in the upper White and the Norfork. That’s why they have the emergency regs in place right now for 120-days. If they (anglers) come in and take out rainbows like normal, there will be no rainbows if we keep that up.

“So, in my opinion, here’s what’s in peril right now,” he added. “For the people that want to catch a 12-inch stocker and put a limit in their freezer when they come to the river, that’s in peril. But the big fish that we’re known for aren’t in peril like that. They’re down in the White River.”

Henry admits that he isn’t really interested in catching “11-inch silver bullets” headed for the freezer and that the low oxygenated water and sulfur and manganese contamination issues will certainly impact those who want such opportunity. For a while, at least, because the cooling weather and water will help as there will be no significant numbers of existing trout leaving the rivers for at least the next 120 days.

And in a few more days and weeks, the big browns–which will be spawning soon in the White–will be active and eating streamers as before. Henry also notes that not all big browns are caught on streamers in the region, indicating that he personally knows one guide that has seen six brown trout over 30-inches come into his net on size #16 and smaller flies since February 1. 

“That’s world class and it’s why people who enjoy fly fishing like I do come here,” he said.

Up the hill from Henry is Rob Woodruff, a retired fly-fishing guide who was an Orvis Guide of the Year finalist on three separate occasions when he guided for lunker fly-rod bass on East Texas’ Lake Fork and year-round tailwater trout on Oklahoma’s Lower Mountain Fork River. Woodruff moved to the Mountain Home area in 2018 when he and his wife, Jenny Mayrell-Woodruff, herself a retired guide and the 2018 Orvis Guide of the Year, after years of guiding and managing fly fishing lodges at Montana’s Rock Creek and El Pescador in Belize.

As a card carrying bug guy–Woodruff graduated from Texas A&M University with a degree in entomology–he remains hopeful that not only will the rainbow numbers eventually bounce back and the big browns remain relatively unaffected down in the White River, but also that the bug life and hatches that fuel the region’s fisheries will continue, if not actually improve.

Back in the early 1990s, when he would conduct entomology classes for fly anglers at the Federation of Fly Fishers Southern Council Conclave gatherings, the fishery was known as a scud and sowbug wonder, sporting as many as 500 protein-rich sowbugs per square foot of streambed. 

Now? Woodruff says that the sowbugs and scuds remain, as do the threadfin shad that are sucked into the Norfork and White Rivers from dam releases in the winter months, but there’s also long-running terrestrial possibilities with ants, hoppers, and beetles from summer into mid-fall. Add in sculpins, native minnows, and even stocker rainbows that get eaten by large predatory browns, and there’s no shortage of sustenance in a food factory that supports building caddis and Sulphur hatches every spring.

And that actually has a chance to increase in Woodruff’s opinion, as the water issues settle out. 

“In terms of insect life and hatches, sure, this might hurt things for a while,” he said. “But there are some nutrients now in the river after the floods and long-time water releases earlier this year, things that have been locked up behind the Norfork Lake dam for years. I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t see more plant life growing in these rivers in the coming years, and if so, that will help increase insect populations and the hatches that result.”

Woodruff does admit that while he also leans in the direction of the sky isn’t entirely falling, that doesn’t mean that there can’t be some positive things done going forward that will help the fishery recover and avoid such issues down the road. At least where stocker rainbows are concerned, he notes, where issues have surfaced periodically thanks to a 70-year old hatchery. He recalls some similar issues in his guiding days on the Lower Mountain Fork River and government and monetary battles as he and others serving on the board of directors for the Lower Mountain Fork River Foundation tried to find solutions to help that Sooner State tailwater.

“There could definitely be some improvement ideas (tried),” he said. “At the LMF Foundation, we pushed things like a bubble curtain that helped with some similar oxygenated water concerns. There are other ideas too that might be viable here and could help the hatchery in the future.”

Like Henry, Woodruff, his wife Jenny, and friends and former clients that visit the region are more interested in the legendary browns that the rivers support than they are 12-inch stockers.

“It’s very much a two part fishery and I think it needs to be looked at that way,” he said. “There are fish that are stocked and taken out quickly, and that is certainly going to be affected by all of this. But there are also those that get stocked and stay in the river longer and grow wilder over time, not to mention the browns that spawn here naturally. For the crowd interested in harvesting fish, that fishery will hurt the most over the next three months and some of the resorts and businesses in town could be impacted. But I think the local fly shops will be fine, because their business shouldn’t be impacted all that much.”

One local fly guide hoping that Woodruff’s feelings prove to be true–along with his own thoughts about all of this–is the legendary Steve Dally, a longtime fixture in the area. As the tale goes, when he found the White River, it wasn’t long before his bags were packed and he was moving from his home in Tasmania.

As a former fly shop proprietor, fly tier and designer, and a full-time guide on the two rivers, Dally’s take on all of this is that the sky is closer to falling than Henry and Woodruff might believe. In fact, he is somewhat adamant about that.

“The emergency catch-and-release regulations are a stop gap to save the fisheries from decimation, while we try to figure out a way forward both for 2026 and 2027, but also the longer term,” noted Dally.

Dally’s concern, beyond even the current situation, is that this recent hatchery fish kill of small, developing sized rainbow trout, is an ongoing trend and not a one-off occurrence.

“The Federal Government pledged compensation (mitigation) for the loss of the smallmouth fishery when the dams were built, by building a hatchery and supplying trout,” he said. “A $300 million industry has been built by hardworking guides, fly shop owners, and lodge/resort owners on a minimal investment by the Federal Government. The White River dams have earned hundreds of millions of dollars over 70-years of operation.”

Because his livelihood depends on the White River system and its world class fly-fishing potential, to the point that he relocated to the region from halfway around the world many years ago, Dally doesn’t mince words when stating what he thinks needs to happen once the current crisis is addressed and recovery commences.

He feels this way because as he notes, there have been major fish kills at the Norfork hatchery “…every fall for the past 3 years, due to low dissolved oxygen.” He also points out the idea that these problems have been evident and debated for decades, with the only real investment in a solution being the addition of a siphon tube that mechanically lifts “the O2 level of the tailwater, without helping the hatchery.”

Dally proposes three action items, from emergency funding for additional trout (to be stocked if suitable options can be sourced) to evaluation of a new hatchery versus Norfork hatchery remediation and commitments for necessary funding. Finally, he wants authorities to consider relief funds for businesses that are negatively affected by this fall’s hatchery collapse.

“Now is the time to accept that the hatchery is broken, pay the cost of doing business and future proof the White River and Norfork tailwaters,” he said.

There’s no question that the White River and the Norfork Rivers have both seen some significant changes brought about by the AGFC’s emergency regulations response to the massive rainbow fingerling fish kill at the Norfork hatchery.

Over time, water issues should improve as the weather and water cools down, and eventually anglers who want to catch and keep trout should be happy again. Meanwhile, the rivers may seem a little less crowded this winter for visiting fly anglers, and there should still be plenty of opportunities to catch the big browns that the rivers are renowned for.

After that, especially when next fall rolls around, it remains to be seen what realistic changes and remedies can, or will, take place in these challenging budgetary times. 

What is absolutely certain is that if you’ve ever experienced fly fishing on these two legendary southern tailwaters, they’re worth being intensely enthusiastic about and concerned over both now and in the years ahead.

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Lynn Burkhead is a senior digital editor for Outdoor Sportsman Group.

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