A Trophy Rainbow on the White River
Some nights on the White River end with nothing but a story about the one that got away. Late this July, a Twin Lakes-area guide’s night ended with the net.
The White River runs right through our corner of North Arkansas, minutes from Mountain Home and the Lodge, and it keeps producing trout most anglers only dream about. This one is worth talking about.
Just after midnight on July 30, guide Jesse Brison was working a topwater “Mouse” lure on the White River upstream of its confluence with the Norfork, near Shipp’s Ferry, when he hooked into a rainbow trout that stretched 32 inches and weighed 17 pounds, 7 ounces. It ranks among the largest rainbows landed on the White River in recent memory, and it is well within sight of the Arkansas state record: 19 lb 1 oz, caught by Jim Miller of Memphis on March 14, 1981. True to the catch-and-release ethic most guides on this river practice, Brison returned the fish to the water to fight another angler another night.
It is exactly this kind of water — the White River, Norfork Lake and tailwater, and Bull Shoals Lake, all within easy reach of the Lodge — that brings anglers back to the Twin Lakes area year after year. Whether you are chasing a trophy rainbow of your own or just hoping for a quiet morning on the water, this is the fishery outside your door.