Young Anglers' Delight

Sorry, Dads, you only get to watch when your children fish Arkansas' Dry Run Creek. That said, I can attest from first-hand experience that watching avid young anglers ply a pretty little stream that's absolutely loaded with trout is a mighty fun way to spend a morning.

Lawrence Taylor of Rebel Lures and I recently enjoyed a morning of watching his 6-year-old son Hunter and my 11-year-old son Nathaniel work the banks of Dry Run, which flows beside the Norfork Federal Fish Hatchery just below Norfork Dam. I'm not sure how many fish they ended up landing, but I do know their rods did a lot of bending, and that from the edges of most pools we could gaze at dozens of trout.

Nathaniel also hooked, fought and landed his biggest trout ever - a thick-bodied, bright-colored, hook-jawed male rainbow that probably weighed 7 or 8 pounds. He was on the other side of the creek from us when he hooked the fish, so he had to land it on his own with a net that was really too small for the task.

The top-producing lure for the boys was a Rebel Teeny Deep Wee Craw, with the trebles removed and replaced with a single Daiichi Octopus-style hook.
Next most productive was a Rebel Tracdown Minnow with the same modification.

Dry Run Creek is open to fishing only to anglers who are 16 and under or fully disabled. Only barbless, single-hook artificial lures may be used, and all fish must be immediately released.