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A new mural honoring the life and legacy of fly-fishing legend Dave Whitlock was unveiled last week in downtown Bull Shoals, drawing anglers, artists and members of Whitlock’s family to a ceremony celebrating the man whose work helped transform Arkansas’s cold tailwaters into one of the finest trout fisheries on earth.
The mural, painted by Mountain Home artist Duane Hada with assistance from Zak Rorie and Cindy Prefermont, depicts Whitlock releasing a brown trout just downstream of Bull Shoals Dam. It is located at Wishes & Fishes Fly Shop at 627 Central Blvd.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony took place March 26, timed to coincide with the annual Sowbug Roundup, the fly-fishing festival in Mountain Home that Whitlock helped establish decades ago. Food trucks, visiting dignitaries and members of the Whitlock family were on hand for the event.
‘His genius’
Hada, who organized the project and raised funds through private donations from more than a dozen regional and national fly-fishing organizations, spoke at the unveiling about his personal friendship with Whitlock.
“There’s never been a more incredible, gifted” man, Hada told the crowd. He called Whitlock a genius in “arts and sciences, business, arts and sciences, fly fishing,” and said the description could not be more true.
“My life is definitely been impacted deeply by just knowing him,” Hada said. “We’re all here to honor that.”
Hada described the mural as deeply personal, urging attendees to get close and take in the details. It features Whitlock’s Vibert boxes, casting brown trout, and a federal strain brown trout that Hada said he painted from a Fly Fisherman magazine cover photo.
“When I first met him, he was on the cover of Fly Fisherman magazine,” Hada said.
The mural also includes a reproduction of Whitlock’s signature, which Hada said he carefully studied and copied from examples of Whitlock’s own calligraphy.
Emily Whitlock
Whitlock’s wife Emily, attended the ceremony and delivered brief remarks, though high winds made her words difficult to capture. She has spoken publicly in the past about her late husband’s deep connection to the region’s waterways.
“I can’t think of a better way to honor him than this,” Emily Whitlock said at a 2024 bench dedication ceremony honoring her husband at Dry Run Creek near the Norfork National Fish Hatchery. “This was one of the biggest things that held his heart. He would be so happy, knowing that this was here.”
Emily Whitlock is a distinguished figure in the fly-fishing world in her own right. Born in Arkansas and raised in Colorado, she holds degrees in botany and biology from Arkansas State University. She and Dave combined their talents in 1991 and spent the next three decades teaching fly fishing together, co-authoring books, producing articles and seminars, and traveling the fly-fishing world as a team. The two co-authored “Artful Profiles of Trout, Char and Salmon and the Classic Flies that Catch Them,” and Emily edited all of Dave’s written work.
An accomplished fly-fishing instructor, Emily was honored as Woman of the Year by the Federation of Fly Fishers Southern Council and has received conservation awards from the Sierra Club and Wildlife Federation. She and Dave fought together to stop gravel mining operations on Crooked Creek, one of the best smallmouth bass streams in the nation. She continues to teach fly fishing at events around the country.
A legacy carved in water
Whitlock, who passed away in November 2022 after suffering a massive stroke, spent more than 40 years living and working along the White River near Mountain Home. Born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, in 1934, he grew up during the Depression, when fishing meant putting food on the table.
His move to the Twin Lakes area changed the trajectory of Arkansas trout fishing. Whitlock spent seven years researching and developing the Whitlock-Vibert Box System, a small in-stream egg incubator that allowed wild brown trout eggs to hatch directly in the river. He petitioned the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission to allow local fly-fishing clubs to plant wild brown trout eggs in the tailwaters below Bull Shoals and Norfork dams.
State officials initially told him it would be a waste of time. They were wrong. The eggs hatched at roughly an 85 percent rate. Those plantings, carried out over more than a decade by volunteers from Trout Unlimited chapters across the region, produced what many experts consider the best wild brown trout fishery in the world.
The Whitlock-Vibert Box program is credited as the source of the world-record brown trout caught in the White River system. The program is now used worldwide for stocking wild trout, char and salmon.
Hada referenced Whitlock’s contributions to the fishery directly during the unveiling, saying that without Whitlock’s work, the region would likely not have the wild brown trout fishery or the self-sustaining brown trout spawning it enjoys today.
“Even our Game and Fish guys would recognize the fact that without him, we probably wouldn’t have the wild brown trout fishery,” Hada said.
Fly Fisherman magazine named Whitlock to its “Mount Rushmore of Fly Fishing” alongside Joe Brooks, Lee Wulff and Lefty Kreh in 2021. He was inducted into the IGFA Fishing Hall of Fame the same year, the National Fresh Water Hall of Fame, the Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum Hall of Fame, and the Arkansas Game and Fish Hall of Fame, among others. He authored six books on fly fishing, designed more than 250 fly patterns and illustrated more than 20 books.
The mural
The mural was funded through private donations. Contributors include Arkansas Fly Fishers, Arkansas White River Trout Unlimited Chapter No. 698, Ben Levin, Chad Johnson, Dave and Jackie Hudak, Dave Whitlock Chapter No. 420 of Trout Unlimited and Tulsa Fly Fishers, Deep South Outfitters, Jim Canaday, Mad River Outfitters, Michael George of Deer Hair Sculptures, Mid-South Fly Fishers, Ron Schwartz, Southwest Missouri Fly Fishers, Stephen and Meredith Tucker, The Fly Fishing Show’s Ben Furimsky, Trout Unlimited Magazine, and Wishes and Fishes Fly Shop.
Hada was inducted into the Arkansas Outdoor Hall of Fame in 2022 and has painted murals celebrating the region’s natural heritage in Yellville, Flippin and at Baxter Health facilities. He is also a certified fly-fishing instructor and guide, a background that made the Whitlock commission especially personal.
The mural is mounted on removable panels so it can be relocated in the future if needed. Hada said organizations, including the American Museum of Fly Fishing, have already expressed interest in the project.
Whitlock’s last visit to the Twin Lakes area came in March 2022, when he attended the Sowbug Roundup. He spent his final morning at the event teaching a small class of fishermen, doing what he always did best.
Whitlock is survived by Emily, his son Allen, his stepdaughter Jessica Capps, his stepson Nicholas Langevin, and a granddaughter.
The Mountain Home Observer thanks Tommy Hagan for providing photographs of the unveiling ceremony.
