Silt on the Norfork River

The Baxter Bulletin reports that fly fishing guides who make their living on the Norfork river are feeling the pinch from silt that is being washed into the river from a development being built near the Norfork Dam.

"the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality filed a lawsuit against Homeport Land Company owned by Benny Doyal of Yellville. The agency is suing the company for not obtaining a construction stormwater permit before developing for Overlook Estates, a subdivision being built above the North Fork River near the Norfork Dam, and ordered Doyal to stop polluting the waters"

Fly fishers are starting to see the effects of the added silt.

Although fly fishers regularly catch large, healthy fish, they have noticed smaller hatches of insects and a decrease of scuds, a crustacean that fish eat, said John Gulley, a Norfork fly fishing guide. This is a major, major deal, said Gulley, who has been a fly fishing guide for 35 years. The cumulative effects will take its toll over the years.

On a trip last year, local anglers indicated that the Scud population was finally starting to rebound on this river. Paisley and Zugbug have just returned from a week of fishing the White, Little Red and Norfork Rivers so maybe we can get a first hand report from them in the near future. Rumor has it that Paisley was not deterred by the lack of scuds because he found a new hatch to match - The Y2K Bug.