More times than not, I fish solo. I like to get away from work, although sometimes I do bring work into play with a fishing column.
Yes, that's what today has become just before a dash down the hill to the Norfork River. Oh, how I wish I were going to Beaver tailwater, where I could pay tribute to two great men, Ray Smith and David Knowles. They are my heroes.
Soon I'll make that trip, hopefully with one or both at my side as we don waders in front of the sign bearing their name to point to a couple of newly developed access points to the White River between Bertrand and Parker Bottoms.
Trout Unlimited -- in partnership with the Corps of Engineers and Arkansas Game & Fish Commission -- put up the new access signs this month. It's unusual because most naming rights go to AGFC commissioners as they complete their terms.
Smith and Knowles are my friends. I'm a Trout Unlimited supporter and understand the way they have volunteered their time and their resources over the last 35 years.
Smith, Fayetteville attorney, just turned 90. He's served TU both at the local and national level and mentored almost all of the current state leadership. He's passionate about the habitat work and bank stabilization projects that have protected the trout fishery below Beaver Dam.
"That was 1995-96 when TU really began to make a difference with some big changes to minimize bank erosion," Smith said. "We were worried that the river was silting in and getting so shallow that it was affecting the temperature of the river to the point it wouldn't sustain trout. The trout were lethargic."
Knowles isn't a TU officer, but the retired University of Arkansas engineering professor is a backbone of the local chapter in other ways. He's a commercial fly tier, often donating boxes full of hundreds of flies to be auctioned at fundraising dinners. He's donated rods as auction items, too.
His flies are the staples at most local fly shops. Chances are if you ask Fayetteville fly shop owner Michael McLellan what's working in the Beaver Tailwater, he will point to various bins loaded with Knowles ties. His midges are our go-to tailwater flies.
This time of year, you should also have an Y2K bug in your box. That is the fly that made Knowles nationally famous. There is a spot near the Beaver dam dubbed the "Y2K hole", and that fly still takes plenty of trout there.
To no one's surprise, Knowles caught trout on almost every cast last month when he joined TU state chair John Sturgis on the trip to Beaver for the dedication of the access sign with his name on it.
"Actually, we couldn't wade at the access point with the new sign because Table Rock Lake was backed up and the water was too deep," Knowles said. "So we went near the dam to the launch ramp. That was a good morning."
There can be no argument. First, you get an access point named after you, and then you take about 50 trout with your hand-tied midges. Can it get any better?
"It's quite an honor," Knowles said. "I would think there would be many more people more deserving than myself."
Not hardly. If you've fished Beaver and struggled and Knowles was nearby, your luck was about to change. He'd give you some of his flies and help you on depth and tippet size.
I can't tell you how many times I've waded into the river to see someone catching trout and then learn later that Knowles was ahead of me and helped those fly fishers.
"This really nice man was just here," they would tell me. "He gave me these, and boy do they work. He was catching trout on every cast, and now I am, too."
Knowles is also generous with his time. He's a frequent speaker at the TU monthly meetings. He's patient with novice tiers. I was one he mentored.
Smith hasn't seen the new sign in his honor but plans a trip early in the New Year. He saw it at TU's national meeting in Rogers in early October. He wasn't available the morning Sturgis and Knowles went to Beaver.
"I am just amazed that Michael Wingo pulled this off," Smith said. "It's a fabulous honor. I just know that so many other individuals have worked hard to make our Beaver tailwater so much fun. Others deserved it just as much as either David or I. People like us don't usually have a sign on the river with our names on it."
Maybe not, but they should. Ray Smith and David Knowles are my heroes and more than worthy.
Sports on 12/28/2019