Documentary Films
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Arkansas Wild: The Story of Trout Tourism on the Little Red River (Runtime 56:46)
I grew up in Searcy, Arkansas, and the Little Red River is where I learned to fish for trout.
As a kid, I didn’t appreciate how lucky I was to have an internationally renowned trout stream within a 30-minute drive from my house. The Little Red is home to a self-sustaining, wild brown trout population and once produced a world-record catch. I also took this for granted growing up. When Rip Collins caught a 40-pound, 4-ounce brown trout on the Little Red in 1992, the secret was out and the destination was put on the map. With popularity also came difficulties. In this documentary, I explore the tourism impact and conservation challenges on this amazing river.
Located in the Ozark Mountains, the Little Red River is the tailwater of the Greers Ferry Dam, which was completed in 1962. Trout in the 1960s, and the first brown trout eggs were planted at Cow Shoals in the 1970s by Dave Whitlock and the Arkansas Fly Fishers. Since then, the Little Red has become a popular spot for anglers across the world looking to catch world-class brown trout. However, local guides and anglers report that in the last 20 years they are seeing fewer large fish than they did in the 1980s-1990s.
This documentary is a homecoming of sorts for me. I lived out of state for 11 years for graduate school and my first job. When I was away, my appreciation of the Little Red grew as I realized what a great river it is. In the film, I go on journey to rediscover the river in a deeper way. This journey led me to interview Dr. Steve Lochmann, a fisheries biologist at UAPB, Ben Batten of the AGFC, fly-fishing guides Jamie & Katie Rouse, the folks at Lindsey Family Resort, and many anglers on the river. All of these interviews help showcase how meaningful this river is to people in our community.
This film is being distributed nationally by the National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA), and they make this available to every PBS station in the U.S. You can reach to your local PBS station to see if they've scheduled an airtime - it's free for them to broadcast it on TV. The film’s TV premiere will air on Arkansas PBS on April 2024. This is my 4th documentary film to air through PBS.
I grew up in Searcy, Arkansas, and the Little Red River is where I learned to fish for trout.
As a kid, I didn’t appreciate how lucky I was to have an internationally renowned trout stream within a 30-minute drive from my house. The Little Red is home to a self-sustaining, wild brown trout population and once produced a world-record catch. I also took this for granted growing up. When Rip Collins caught a 40-pound, 4-ounce brown trout on the Little Red in 1992, the secret was out and the destination was put on the map. With popularity also came difficulties. In this documentary, I explore the tourism impact and conservation challenges on this amazing river.
Located in the Ozark Mountains, the Little Red River is the tailwater of the Greers Ferry Dam, which was completed in 1962. Trout in the 1960s, and the first brown trout eggs were planted at Cow Shoals in the 1970s by Dave Whitlock and the Arkansas Fly Fishers. Since then, the Little Red has become a popular spot for anglers across the world looking to catch world-class brown trout. However, local guides and anglers report that in the last 20 years they are seeing fewer large fish than they did in the 1980s-1990s.
This documentary is a homecoming of sorts for me. I lived out of state for 11 years for graduate school and my first job. When I was away, my appreciation of the Little Red grew as I realized what a great river it is. In the film, I go on journey to rediscover the river in a deeper way. This journey led me to interview Dr. Steve Lochmann, a fisheries biologist at UAPB, Ben Batten of the AGFC, fly-fishing guides Jamie & Katie Rouse, the folks at Lindsey Family Resort, and many anglers on the river. All of these interviews help showcase how meaningful this river is to people in our community.
This film is being distributed nationally by the National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA), and they make this available to every PBS station in the U.S. You can reach to your local PBS station to see if they've scheduled an airtime - it's free for them to broadcast it on TV. The film’s TV premiere will air on Arkansas PBS on April 2024. This is my 4th documentary film to air through PBS.
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