Question:
What’s the best thing about Arkansas adventure?
Don’t wrack your brain too hard – it’s a trick question. Here’s one answer though.
You don’t always have to go find it. Sometimes it finds you!
For proof I refer you to the White River spillway in Batesville on a Saturday in late June. In this case I mean June 2019, but I could just as easily mean June 1980. That’s because for decades folks have been visiting this particular spillway to pursue a unique Arkansas adventure; snagging Paddlefish. How do I know? Patcho (my dad’s dad), that’s how. Years ago he took my siblings and me to the spillway to witness this ritual firsthand.
Snaggers with long, stiff spinning rods would wade into the river. Their rods were paired with large reels spooled with heavy monofilament, and instead of relying on lures or bait they dragged 12/0 treble hooks through the current, jerking rhythmically on the rod in hopes of snagging an unsuspecting spoonbill. When the snagger hooked up he’d pendulum the fish to shore down river as a partner ran down the gravel bar to intercept it.
Fish On! One of several I observed, this fish was small according to the snaggers.
Years (as in thirty or, gulp, forty) later I found myself in Batesville for a family reunion. It was June, it was hot, and I had some time to kill. So I made my way down to the spillway in the company truck to see what kind of adventure the locals might be pursuing. As my mind drifted back to those snaggers below the spillway I descended from the park onto the gravel bar to find………….snaggers below the spillway! I quickly determined that while they’ve since traded in their heavy mono for braided line (in most cases), not much else has changed there other than the size of the fish.
Small fish or not, these youngsters were proud!
I never had much interest in snagging, but I always found it fascinating to watch, especially as a pup. Seeing it again released a flood of memories, and that’s what Arkansas adventure is all about. Season after season Paddlefish make their way down river and gravel bars do too. Snaggers and all kinds of adventurers do the same, growing older along the way, but the memories? They never die. Go make some.
See you out there!
Deuce
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