By Len Stagoski
Are you an avid trout fisherman who has enjoyed pulling on waist-high waders and fly fishing or spin casting for trout in Missouri’s well-managed state parks featuring stocked trout?
Would you like to try a different kind of trout fishing… float fishing from a comfortable johnboat with a nice-sized outboard for float fishing downstream, then motoring upstream to again fish the miles you just leisurely floated?
There are several places in our catalogue of Missouri clear-flowing streams where just such fishing adventures are found.
However, let me introduce you to another place, in Arkansas.
The stream & its trout
The subject of this article is the North Fork River in north central Arkansas, specifically, that section which flows from the tailwaters of Arkansas’ Norfork Dam, to its confluence with the White River system, some 4.5 miles downstream.
The stream is well-stocked from the Norfork National Fish Hatchery located near the tailwaters of the dam.
The hatchery frequently stocks rainbow trout and German brown trout. On special occasions, brook and cutthroat trout are stocked as well.
Norfork National Fish Hatchery is a coldwater hatchery primarily for the production of trout to restock the tailwaters below Norfork, Bull Shoals and other dams.
