Projects
Here's just a small sampling of the local rivers & streams we've helped preserve over the years:
LITTLE RED RIVER, HEBER SPRINGS, AR
Up until 1975, the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission (AGFC) has never stocked the Greers Ferry Tailwater with brown trout. AFF worked amicably to change this, and that is how AFF established the first and only wild brown trout fishery in Arkansas. This new adaption of the Little Red River was the most notable achievement in the history of the Arkansas Fly Fishers.
Similiary, during the late 1970s, within a few short months after its founding, the Arkansas Fly Fishers planted brown trout eggs in the Spring River located in Northeast Arkansas. This attempt failed, and so did a second attempt the following year.
Undaunted, the AFF decided to try again to establish a brown trout fishery, but this time in another river. Frank Brown went to then AGFC Director Andrew Hulsey and asked for permission to plant brown trout eggs in the Little Red River. Hulsey gave his permission reluctantly. “It won't do any good or any harm,” stated Hulsey.
However, Hulsey's dubious response did not deter Brown, Whitlock, or the other AFF members from their mission of bringing brown trout to Arkansas. On December 7th, 1975, AFF members planted 20,000 fertilized “Bitterroot strain” brown trout eggs along a one-mile stretch of the Cow Shoals area of the Little Red River. A little less than one month later, thirty-five of the original forty Vibert boxes that had contained the eggs were recovered--it was believed that the empty boxes were a sign that the hatch would be successful. However, only time would tell.
To an Arkansas fly fisher, the scene that was played out on a winter's day one year after the initial egg planting at Cow Shoals would be reminiscent of, and as significant as, that famous day at Sutter's Mill, California back in 1848. Frank Brown and fellow AFF member Lou Piper were fishing the Cow Shoals area that day. Piper was in a casting station upstream from Brown, near the long pool. As Frank Brown recalls, "Lou let out a scream you could hear a mile away and I came a-runnin'. In his landing net was a small brown trout. Lou was grinning from ear to ear."
Lou Piper had not discovered gold, but he couldn't have been more excited because he held proof in his hand that the egg planting at the shoals the year before had been successful, and that a brown trout fishery had been established in Arkansas. Being one of the AFF members who had planted the egg, it was only fitting that Lou Piper had caught the trout, which most likely was the first one ever caught in the river.
As proof of their discovery, Brown and Piper brought the trout back to Little Rock and Piper put it in his freezer. The following day AFF member Glen Cox took the frozen evidence to the AGFC and presented it to Director Hulsey. Hulsey was both pleased and surprised.
Early on, creel reports indicated that the new fishery had taken hold, but the AFF wanted to further insure the fishery's success. As an afterthought, in 1978, the AFF and the Mid-South Fly Fishers cooperated in a project to enhance the Little Red's new brown trout fishery by stocking 5,000 fingerlings in the Cow Shoals spawning poo.
By the early 1980s, wild brown trout reproduction on the Little Red River had become prolific. Frank Brown states that the spawn was so thick at Cow Shoals that “you could literally walk across their backs to the other side of the river." Several trophy brown trout were caught during the '80s, but the real trophy wasn't caught until early in the next decade.
The trout fishing world was turned upside down on May 9th, 1992 when Howard “Rip” Collins of Herber Springs caught the current world record brown trout while fishing a 1/32 oz. olive jig on 4 lb. test line upstream from the Swinging Bridge Trout Dock on the Little Red River. The monstrous hen fish measured 40 1/4 inches in length and weighed 40 lbs. 4 ounces. Remarkably, Dave Whitlock has remarked that the size and apparent age of the fish gives him “a feeling that fish was from the original eggs or the first generation after."
Rip Collins' record catch put the Little Red River on the world-class brown trout fisheries list. It also was the ultimate reward and testament to the AFF members who had the vision to establish a brown trout fishery in the Little Red years ago. “It affected the history of the state, the nation, and the world," said Dave Whitlock
COW SHOALS ACCESS: Frank Brown and the AFF made another contribution to the Little Red River in 1988. At that time Gregg Patterson was the organization's president; Patterson was also the AGFC's magazine editor. When he heard news that the land on the west bank of the river near the end of Cow Shoals was on the market, he perceived the need to protect it from future development and presented the idea to both the AGFC and his club. The AGFC agreed to purchase the land using a 2-1 matching funds plan. Frank Brown got on the phone and was able to raise $10,000 to match the initial $20,000 to be provided by the AGFC. Frank gathered contributions from the Mid-South Fly Fishers and the Ozark Fly Fishers, as well as funds provided by the AFF, and even made a contribution himself.
When asked why his name is at the top of the list on the sign at the AGFCs Cow Shoals Access, Frank looked down at his feet, shrugged, and said, “I gave a big chunk." At the time of its dedication, the AGFC considered naming the access “Frank Brown Access," but Frank rejected the idea.