The great Arkansas tailwater trout fisheries lost a wonderful friend Monday with the passing of Fayetteville’s Bill Ackerman.
One of the first on the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission to take a huge interest in our state’s cold water fisheries, Ackerman’s name is on a magnificent walk-in access with a handicap fishing pier just below the catch and release area of the Norfork River.
It marks the start of one of the world’s great stretches of trout fishing. It is a bucket list destination.
In my fly fishing travels, if I tell someone I’m from Arkansas, soon they ask, “Do you fish above Ackerman’s?”
Interestingly, I almost became Bill’s neighbor in Norfork three years ago. I purchased a house that has a back property line that is shared by the house once jointly owned by Ackerman and Richard Cross.
Ackerman and I had a chance meeting on the Norfork about 15 ago. I was fishing in the catch and release section and Bill walked in nearby.
It was a good day for the ruby midge. I was putting on a clinic – that was Bill’s description — at the top of the Mill Pond area when I realized another fly fisher was watching from the shade on an island.
When my line fouled, I headed to a nearby log to re-rig. Soon I was talking to Ackerman, who handed me a bottle of water and asked about my fly. I explained its roots and some of my modifications.
It had been fished by a few on Beaver tailwater, as tied by David Knowles and sold in Bill Tennison’s shop in Fayetteville. But Ackerman had not known it to work on the Norfork tailwater.
I gifted him two flies and we began to swap stories about mutual friends. It was mostly about Steve Wright, whom I shared an office with during the early days of Hawgs Illustrated.
Steve authored the best book on our rivers, Ozark Trout Tales. Never have I dropped a better name to start up a great conversation.
Little did I know that one of those ruby midges would be gifted to Larry Shackleford, Ackerman’s house guest that weekend. Shackleford is now one of my best friends. The CEO of Washington Regional Hospital was a long-time Ackerman fishing buddy.
“It’s funny, but Bill was just like you,” Shackleford said today. “Just like I’ve seen you do, Bill was intensely interested in helping those struggling on our tailwaters. It was with great pleasure that he brought back that ruby midge to me that night.
“There were many times we’d be in a boat on the river and he’d pull over to help someone. He’d give him a fly, suggest smaller tippet size and a smaller indicator. Then, we’d come back later to see if it was working.
“Bill got the biggest kick in helping someone new to the river who was struggling. I’ll never forget him coming back with one of your midges.”
Ackerman and Shackleford traveled to many great fishing spots in the Bahamas, Canada or Colorado.
“We did, but Bill’s favorite spot was the Norfork River,” Shackleford said. “It wasn’t close. That place was his life. He cared deeply about that river.”
Asked for an Ackerman story, Wright started laughing.
“Just one?” he said. “I could tell you a bunch.
“I guess what I recall the most was seeing Bill and (wife) Bootsie at Lake Fayetteville. We were always out there together.”
Wright fished there, but he also gathered reports for the Northwest Arkansas Times while editing the outdoor page.
“Bill would invite me in his boat to worm fish for bluegill,” Wright said. “I read his obit today and now I understand more about him. We would be worm fishing and any little droppings (of dirt or worm guts) would immediately be wiped clean from the bottom of the boat. It was pristine.
“Now after reading his background as an Eagle Scout and his schooling at New Mexico Military, I get it. He was as detailed as they come.”
Yes, no doubt Ackerman was detailed in the way he tried to help others keep the Norfork River as one of the world’s great tailwaters. It was my great fortune to meet him in the exact spot he loved so much.
Some tell stories about my friendship with the ruby midge. Yes, it catches trout, but better yet, it makes friends.
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