William Blake believed one could see “a world in a grain of sand.” Such introspection is available to us all if we but try. The smile of a child upon discovering something new; the crimson leaf yet to fall from a sassafras in the depth of winter. These might serve as the portals to that…
We need to consider the probably most puzzling and paradoxical reality that we shouldn’t be going fishing just to catch fish, which is a statement I am sure must seem to most of us like something bordering uncomfortably close to heresy and without any doubt a burning at the stake should be in order, or…
Locals at this hoedown appear to be wearing store-bought duds. Once the train arrived, Stone Countians had access to clothing just like the tourists in the Camp Clark postcard. Some of the Arcadian resorts built dance floors and natives joined in with visitors. Distinctions between locals and visitors were not always clear. The enlarged prostate…
“Perhaps I should not have been a fisherman, he thought. But that was the thing that I was born for.” —Earnest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea With the New Year here, I find myself reflecting on the river’s bounty from the year just ended. Not just last year, but all the years and…
Fly fishing offers the ultimate in trout fishing adventure at Missouri’s trout parks. It is one thing to catch a limit of four rainbow trout on baits, or even artificial lures such as spinners, jigs and minnow imitators, but it is an entirely different ball game to fool trout into taking a tiny fly which…
One of the advantages of writing and tower talking is that the information becomes a two way street. Articles are written and stories told and often answers and tales come back. You may remember I wrote a series of fire tower articles for the River Hills Traveler last year. One of them was on “tower…
The North Arkansas Fly Fishers (NAFF) will hold their 21st annual “Sowbug Roundup… a Celebration of Fly Fishing” on March 22-24. This is an international show held in Mountain Home, Ark., near the world famous White and Norfolk rivers. One of the goals of the Sowbug Roundup is to encourage more people, especially youngsters, to…
The wife and I were blessed with two sons. As with most parents, we enjoyed doing things with our kids. I don’t remember just how old they were at this time, but they were still in grade school. We thought we would go on a fishing-camping trip. So we loaded our camping and fishing gear…
