whiterivertroutdiva.net

March 31, 2009

MyDaddy

Filed under: Ozarks stories, White River — Tags: , , — admin @ 4:28 pm

Trout Fishing, Cotter, Arkansas

Here’s a picture of a fly fisherman in the Cotter Big Spring Park around 1955.  OK, so this picture is not as colorful as the ones on the website, but trust me — the man in the picture is about as colorful as it gets!  That’s my Dad, Bob Watts.

I guess this place is just in my blood, because I never knew my Dad had ever fished the White River when Steve and I got the place… He started fishing here sometime after the dam was finished and the first generator was turned on in 1952.  Trout had been introduced, but there were still a lot of small mouth bass in the river — they didn’t disappear overnight, I’m told…

The dam was built between July 9, 1947 and July, 1951, with its dedication on July 2, 1952 by President Harry S. Truman.  On Labor Day in 1952, Senator John McClellan “threw the switch” and cranked up the first generator.

Anyway, Dad would come down here and camp alongside the river when it was much more primitive than it was today, and even managed to get kicked out of some of the finer local establishments of the time…  (He’s not giving details, however.)

Also, you’ll have to excuse Dad for harvesting the fish in this picture — people weren’t as “conservation-minded” back in those days…

Looking at this photo reminds me of why I love my Dad so much!  From the time I was small, Daddy taught me to love fishing and have a real appreciation of nature.  Having this man as a father is what turned me into the White River Trout Diva, I’m sure!

Little did he know that almost 50 years after this picture was taken, he and Mom would be able to live with us here for 4 years.  Mom & Dad live with my sister now, but his real home will always be here on the banks of the White River.

Life comes full circle…

Eagle Chicks at His Place Resort!

Filed under: Nature — Tags: , , — admin @ 4:24 pm

Yes, Isaac & Rebekah, our resident bald eagles, have done it again!  This is the 6th year in a row that they’ve produced eagle chicks!

You can see them across from the Observation Deck.  They hatched kind of early this year, around the 20th of February.  We believe there are two this year, as they are starting to stick their heads out of the nest…

When we first moved here, the eagles hadn’t produced chicks for several years.  As this pair is an older, more established pair, they don’t migrate like the younger eagles generally will, but stay in this area year ’round.  Several folks, including some from AGFC, said their time for chicks was behind them…

So, I waited…  No chicks in 2002.  No chicks in 2003.  I wasn’t really expecting anything in 2004, as I was pretty convinced by that time that everyone who’d told me they wouldn’t have chicks anymore was right.    But, I was still praying that they would…  I’ve always really been drawn to eagles.

Yes, yes, there are definitely more important things to bother God about — but I thought if maybe I bugged him enough about it, and if He had some spare time…  maybe I’d get some eagle chicks!

And then, 2004.  Our first batch of eagle chicks!  By this time, our pair had not produced chicks for the previous 5 years, according to the locals.  It was really cool, and made sure to thank God for what I know was a little intervention on His part!

I’ve been blessed now to see them raise chicks pretty much right in front of me for 5 years, and now going into my 6th.  Watching them hunt tirelessly to feed the chicks, teaching them how to hunt, watching them get into trouble (subject of another blog, for sure!) has been…  well…  “really cool” doesn’t even begin to describe it, folks.

Hope you can come check it out…

Legend of Huey

Filed under: Trout Fishing — Tags: , — admin @ 4:22 pm

Huey…  Well, that’s what I call him.  He’s our resort “mascot”.  The first time we got a good look at Huey was one day early in the spring, while XXXXXXXXXXXXXX (sorry, I’m not allowed to tell where he was…)

As we watched several Rainbows in the water, all of a sudden a big dark shadow came into the group at an incredible rate of speed…

Bam!  Huey hit one of the rainbows from the side, ramming it so hard it stunned the fish (probably broke it’s back) and then just as quickly gulped it down whole.  My husband said, “Did you see  that?  About that time Huey had already taken his next victim, and the other fish were dispersing as quickly as they could go.

Being done with his afternoon lunch, Huey casually swam back out of sight.  We estimate Huey to be about 20-25 lbs.  Yes, I know, there are bigger browns in the river, but nonetheless – Huey is a downright respectable fish!

Since then, we’ve seen Huey from time to time.  My husband hooked him once, not too far from XXXXXXXXXXXXXX.  This lasted all of about 10 seconds before Huey broke him off and said, “Bye-Bye, Steve – better luck next time.”

About a month later, we had some guests in Unit #7 who had him on for all of maybe 30 seconds.  Hooked into him about the same place my husband had.  According to them, Huey swam right for the boat and jumped out of the water as he spit the hook out of his mouth.

One of them said, “As he jumped, he looked straight at me – like – “Not today, buddy”, waved his fin, and spit that hook right at my face”.  (OK, OK, so, we all know that’s probably a little bit of an exaggeration – but after all, this IS a fishing story!)

My husband hooked into Huey again not too long ago…  Huey took off straight across the river, sideways to the current at 8 generators, and according to my husband made it clear across the river in less than 5 seconds, at which time Huey broke him off without delay.  Steve said smoke was coming out of his reel…  Sometimes at night, I hear my husband talking in his sleep, “I’m gonna get you, Huey”.

Huey made another victim out of one of our guests…  Claims he had Huey on for 15 minutes!!!  Some of our other guests in #4 had a rental boat out too, and saw him fighting with this fish.  He had been trying to run the boat and get this fish in for about 15 minutes when our other guests tried to come to his assistance.  About that time, Huey swam straight up the river at 8 generators, pulled the last of the line out of the guest’s reel and broke him off – eluding capture once again.

That same evening, our guest was still rather traumatized by the whole experience.  It had been several hours since the event when he told me the story.  His voice was still shaky, he trembled occasionally, and his eyes were open way too wide for as late in the evening as it was…  Huey does seem to have that effect on people…

Huey’s still out there…  Maybe you’ll be the one…

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