SHARING RIVER’S JOY

FLETCHER SHOWED HUNDREDS THE PLEASURE OF FISHING, FLOATING

FILE PHOTO FLIP PUTTHOFF 
JD Fletcher paddles his john boat during a Kings River float trip in 1998. Gary Johnson of Rogers is in the bow. Fletcher liked to call the Kings River his “office.”
FILE PHOTO FLIP PUTTHOFF JD Fletcher paddles his john boat during a Kings River float trip in 1998. Gary Johnson of Rogers is in the bow. Fletcher liked to call the Kings River his “office.”

Anglers on the Kings River knew right away it was JD Fletcher drifting into view around a bend in the stream.

There he’d be in the stern of his john boat, paddle in hand, with one or two customers on board. Crisp overalls, a neat, collared shirt and ball cap were his workaday uniform during more than 45 years of guiding fishermen on the Kings River and Table Rock Lake. Fletcher called the Kings River his “off ce.”

Quiet paddle strokes from Fletcher put the anglers into the best position to catch largemouth or smallmouth bass and have a whale of a good time doing it. Fletcher’s humor, his knowledge of wildlife and plant life along the river and his zest for life made for a fine day of floating, whether the fish bit or not.

Guide trips became fewer for Fletcher as he got older. Eventually his son, Jeff, took over the guiding tradition that JD started.

Yet Fletcher never lost his love for the river. JD Fletcher passed away on Jan. 22. He was 83.

The legacy Fletcher leaves is the priceless enjoyment of a day on the river, of fishing and appreciating nature, a joy that Fletcher brought to hundreds and hundreds of people.

Many who never met JD may feel like they know him. He was a fixture in the outdoors section of this newspaper for years.

Stories and photos of Fletcher in action have graced our outdoors coverage since the mid 1980s. He was kind enough to welcome us aboard his john boat for a float trip at least twice a year to show off his “office” and the beauty of the Kings River that is right here in our back yard.

Not only that, JD was our Table Rock Lake contact for the newspaper’s weekly fishing report. He kept a finger on the pulse of the fishing at Table Rock through his work as a fishing guide and resort owner.

Fletcher owned Devil’s Dive Resort on the lake near Eagle Rock, Mo., for many years. His fishing information and tips were valuable to anglers heading over to Table Rock.

Fletcher helped put Northwest Arkansas on the map when stories about Kings River float trip adventures appeared in Sports Afield, Outdoor Life or Field & Stream magazines.

Fletcher himself was rarely on the river without a camera. He kept every photograph and filled dozens of albums with pictures.

He fished with actors and pro athletes, but mostly regular folks who enjoyed fishing. His vast collection of photographs was the subject of the last story in this newspaper that featured Fletcher. He flipped through the pages of his photo albums one day in January 2013 and remembered his trips.

“I never took one person down that river that I wouldn’t take again,” Fletcher said last year, wearing his trademark overalls. There was the usual twinkle in his eye and constant smile.

Fletcher lived on a lake. His resort was on a lake and the lake was right in his front yard.

But his true love was the river.

His son, Jeff, said that’s partly because JD grew up on a creek near Washburn, Mo.

“He loved the peace and solitude of that river,” Jeff said. “He loved the Kings River, and the White River, too, before Beaver Lake came in.”

JD loved the flowing water, river life and delighted in sharing it with his customers.

JD was a “people person” and his pleasant personality brought people back time after time to fish and float.

“He never met a stranger,” Jeff said.

FLOAT-FISHING FAMILY

There may not be anyone who has floated with JD more than Steve and Jo Chastain of Rogers, their children and grandchildren.

“Three generations of our family have floated with JD,” Jo said Saturday.

She was 10 when she first met Fletcher. That was when he had his bait shop near Eagle Rock.

“We’d go over to Table Rock to go water skiing. This was before Beaver Lake came in. We started stopping at JD’s store when we’d go over there,” she said.

“Well, JD had this stuffed bobcat in there and he had a microphone hooked up to that bobcat,” Jo said. “He’d make it growl and it’d scare the kids to death,” Jo said.

Daisy Manufacturing in Rogers, where Steve worked, hired Fletcher to take parties of their customers on river trips. Jo heard about all the fun and decided she’d like to give float-fishing with Fletcher a try.

The Chastains floated with JD until he stopped guiding.

“It has always been our family tradition that we float with JD on Father’s Day,” Jo said. They still hop on the Kings River nowadays with Jeff as their guide.

“JD was just always fun. There wasn’t anything that didn’t make him happy. I never heard him say anything unkind about anyone. He was the most positive person I’ve ever known,” Jo said.

Floating with JD wasn’t all about fish, Jo recalled . Fletcher always pointed out the beauty in nature during a float trip. He could identify trees with the expertise of a forester and was eager to show boatmates the river’s bird life and wildflowers.

“He knew ‘em all. He knew everything on that river,” she said.

One thing that impressed her happened on nearly every trip. “He’d always take a nap,” Jo said.

After lunch, JD liked to grab a boat cushion for a pillow, find a shady spot under a tree and take a siesta for 15 or 20 minutes. Then it was back on the water to catch more fish.

GROWING REPUTATION

As years went by, word spread across the Ozarks and the nation of the fine float trips Fletcher offered, his ability to catch fish and teach his customers to catch them.

“Legend” was a word that popped up frequently when people talked about Fletcher. “The Legend of the Ozarks” some people called him.

Call him that on a fishing trip and JD would pooh-pooh it. He’d get a little embarrassed about being called a legend.

“But he was,” said Ron Duncan of Springdale, who first fished with Fletcher in the 1990s.

Duncan is chairman of the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission and an expert stream fisherman in his own rite. Duncan is to the War Eagle River what JD was to the Kings.

“Everything JD did on that river was legendary,” Duncan said. That includes his fishing talent and knowledge of the river and nature.

JD FLETCHER

JD Fletcher was born Nov. 9, 1930, in Washburn, Mo.

He served in the Air Force from December 1951 to January 1954.

He married JoAnn Anderson on Nov. 4, 1967.

He opened a bait shop and guide service in 1959, and later became owner of

Devil’s Dive Resort on Table Rock Lake.

He and Joann had two sons, Jeff and David.

SOURCE: STAFF REPORT

“He was even legendary when I was kid,” Duncan went on. “I can remember my dad and my uncle talking about how this guy JD Fletcher could catch fish on the Kings River and Table Rock Lake.”

Duncan and Fletcher both grew up in Barry County, Mo. Duncan was raised at Wheaton, near Cassville.

“JD was a great individual in ways that people don’t realize,” Duncan added. One incident showed Fletcher’s true character.

Duncan was in a bass tournament at Table Rock and the weigh-in was at Fletcher’s Devil’s Dive Resort.

“There was one guy there who was particularly filthy mouthed,” Duncan said. JD didn’t confront the foul-mouthed guy. Instead, he walked quietly over to the man in charge of the tournament. “JD made it clear that he didn’t want that group back at his resort again because of that one guy.”

“Something I learned about fishing from JD was that one of the best lures you can use on these clear Ozark streams is a buzz bait, or a Tiny Torpedo, something that goes fast across the surface,” Duncan said. “The fish don’t have time to look at the lure. It’s a reaction strike.”

Noisy, sputtering buzz baits look nothing like anything a bass eats. Fletcher proved the lures were deadly for catching big bass, particularly largemouths.

Buzz baits splash like they’d scare more fish than they’d catch. Ask Fletcher why a bass would hit one and he had his theory: “It’s like an old dog asleep on the front porch,” JD would say. “If you startle him, he’s liable to bite you.”

NO LIMIT TO HUMOR

There may be a limit on fish, but there’s no limit to the stories and jokes he shared with his boatmates. If Fletcher knew you well enough, and you cast your lure into a tree, he’d say: “If there were fish up there we could see ‘em.”

Paul Dubbel of Rogers remembers the day he got a good-natured teasing from Fletcher for casting into the branches.

“I decided to take a fly rod that day. He teased me so much about fishing for squirrels that I finally put it down,” Dubbel said.

He and Fletcher caught about 50 bass that day, but none on a fly rod.

All those fish were released. That wasn’t the case when Fletcher started guiding. Every fish, up to the daily limit, was kept and cleaned. Fletcher had a bit of an epiphany in the early 1970s.

“Back then we’d float and every man would have eight or 10 bass on a stringer,” Fletcher said last year.“Sometimes we’d have 10 boats on a trip. We got to thinking, ‘What’s going to happen if we keep keeping all these fish?’”

Fletcher and other leaders in the fishing industry beat the drum of catch and release through the 1970s and beyond. Nowadays, it almost goes against the conscience of some anglers to keep a bass, even when keeping a few is best for a waterway.

An example is right here at Beaver Lake, where the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission encourages anglers to keep spotted bass. Game & Fish removed the length limit on these overabundant spotted bass and wants anglers to keep what they catch, up to a daily limit of six.

TWO FOR ONE

Trips were double the fun when JD and Jeff were in the boat together. The smallmouth bass didn’t stand a chance with this double-barrelled fishing threat, and the father and son would razz each other without mercy.

During one trip, JD hooked a hefty smallmouth and brought it aboard. “Look at this one, Jeff . It’s 3 pounds easy,” JD said.

“Aw, Dad. You put the ‘Fletcher Stretcher’ on that fish. If it’s 2 pounds you’d be lucky.”

Then there was the bluff where fish got big in a mysterious way. “When Jeff was a kid,” JD said during a trip long ago, “he caught a 7-pounder right off that bluff.”

A year later, we floated past the same bluff. JD said: “When Jeff was a kid, he caught an 8-pounder right off that bluff .”

No telling how big that bass is today. JD would laugh when teased about the magical fish-growing powers of that bluff .

Jo Chastain said there will never be another fisherman, another man, like JD Fletcher. Long live crisp overalls, good fishing and great times on the river that Fletcher loved with all of his heart.

Outdoor, Pages 6 on 02/13/2014

Upcoming Events