My Florida friends give me a hard time about flying all the way to Arkansas to catch bait, but there’s just something about trout fishing on the beautiful Norfork and White rivers that brings me back every year.  It’s partly the camaraderie with my childhood friends who usually meet me there, partly the beauty of the scenery and partly the world-class rainbow and brown trout fishing. 
I usually make this pilgrimage in April, but this year I decided to make a week of it in May so that I could also catch my 30th college class reunion at the University of Arkansas.  This year we were pleased to stay in the beautiful cabins at the Norfork River Resort.  Steve and Pam McCumber, the friendly owners, greeted us upon our arrival on May 18th and we were shown to a fantastic 2-story cabin with a large deck overlooking the river.  Fishing is good here any time of year since the cool water comes off the bottom of Bull Shoals and Norfork lakes, maintaining a really great fishery (several world record fish have come from these waters). 
The fishing here varies more depending upon water flow than season.  Since both dams are used for power generation and flood control, the water flow varies depending upon power demand and rainfall.  Fishing is still good in all but extreme flood conditions, but your technique will have to adjust depending upon water flow and depth.  Because the Norfolk and White river dams are operated independently fishing conditions can often vary significantly depending upon which river you choose to fish.  From the Norfork River Resort’s docks you are only a couple minutes away from the White, so you can easily fish either river.
Wednesday the 19th we found very little water in the Norfork while the White had a good flow so we chose to fish where the water was moving.  Trout prefer to be near the faster moving water and seem to be more inclined to bite when water is flowing.  There had been a lot of rain in the previous weeks so that there was still some flow into the river from other natural streams plus the flow from Bull Shoals Dam.  This meant murkier water with some moss and other trash, which made it difficult for me to fish with artificials (my preferred technique).  I typically use Blue Fox Vibrax in water to 2 or 3 feet of water depth and Rapala Countdowns in 3 feet or more.  You want your bait to be near the bottom for the greatest effectiveness. 
Most of my friends prefer a more relaxed fishing technique that allows them to concentrate more on their beer drinking (not that there’s anything wrong with that).  Float fishing consists of simply dragging a bait (usually a Berkely Power Egg) rigged with a drop sinker to keep it near the bottom, while the boat floats downstream with the current.  This technique allows plenty of time to relax, sip your beverage and participate in our usual battles with soggy weeds pulled out of the river.
We spent the whole day catching and releasing beautiful trout ranging up to about two pounds (bait size for us offshore guys).  These trout are excellent table fare, so we took a few back to the cabin to cook up for dinner.  After dinner, the rains came and lasted until mid morning Thursday. 
It had rained really hard the night before, so the White river was really murky while the much shorter Norfork was quite a bit cleaner.  They were running some generators on the Norfork dam so we were able to run all of the way upriver and fish areas you usually can’t reach by boat.  The rainfall had really stirred up the water so fishing was slower than it had been the day before, but we still would have been able to all keep a nice limit (5 fish per person) had we not been releasing our catch.
After another great night on the river, it was time for me to go, but I’ll be back to catch more bait.

Sidebar on resort

The Norfork River Resort
The Norfork River Resort has some of the nicest 4 bedroom cabins that you will ever find as well as a large lodge to accommodate groups.  The resort has a great pool, boat and motor rental docks, a fishing dock, and picnic area with grills.  Cabins have full kitchens, large color TV’s with cable, great decks or patios and range from 2 bedrooms to 4 bedrooms with 2 beds per room so that groups of 8 guys or up to 16 total people if they are couples can be accommodated.  The resort’s location right on the Norfork River and Highway 5 South makes it easy to get to.
You can reach the resort at (870)499-5757 or check out their web site at www.norforkriverresort.com