The Ozark artist is producing a long-term homage to the male who assisted make Arkansas’s White River a first-rate fishery. Image thanks to Duane Hada’s Rivertown Gallery
Prominent Ozark artist Duane Hada is painting a memorial homage to Dave Whitlock, the Oklahoma-born fly-fishing legend who invested more than 4 years on the White River and whose developments– from the common Dave’s Hopper to the Whitlock-Vibert Box egg incubator system– assisted develop north-central Arkansas as a location that anglers worldwide as first-rate.
A public ribbon-cutting event is arranged for March 26, 2026, at 5:30 p.m. at Wishes & Fishes Fly Shop (Jimmy T’s), 627 Central Blvd., Bull Shoals– fittingly, simply 2 days into that year’s Sowbug Roundup, the country’s leading fly-tying exposition that Whitlock participated in consistently till his last years.
The Artist: Duane Hada
Couple of artists might be much better matched to this commission than Hada, an Ozark native whose work sits at the crossway of wildlife art, Ozark landscapes, and fly-fishing culture.
Born in Boone County, Arkansas, Hada has actually invested much of his life in rural Arkansas, cultivating a deep love of nature as he became a grownup. His creative journey started in church seats, viewing his dad, a nation preacher, and attempting to draw the little Christian fish sign from his daddy’s bible– then including eyeballs and fins till he was drawing fish.
That youth fascination ended up being a profession. Today, Hada runs Rivertown Gallery in Mountain Home, where art purchasers go into to acquire his popular trout and landscape paintings for their services and individual collections. His work appears on Arkansas’s main trout stamps, license plates, and– especially– inside the Norfork National Fish Hatchery, where an earlier Hada mural welcomes visitors to the center that provides the White River’s rainbow trout.
In 2022, the Arkansas Video Game and Fish Commission inducted Hada into the Arkansas Outdoor Hall of Popularity– the exact same honor formerly bestowed upon Whitlock himself.
The gallery likewise brings work by Dave Whitlock and famous fly tier Davy Wotton, making Hada not simply an artist of this neighborhood however a steward of its innovative tradition.
The Legend: Dave Whitlock (1934– 2022)
To comprehend why Bull Shoals is constructing a 50-foot mural for one male, you need to comprehend what Dave Whitlock implied to fly fishing– and particularly to Arkansas.
Whitlock passed away at age 88 on November 23, 2022, in Tulsa. He was born upon November 11, 1934, in Muskogee, Oklahoma. By age 8, he was smitten for life with fly fishing through a fascination with the L.L. Bean brochure. When he asked his grandpa about the fishing pole imagined within, he was informed fly fishing was “an abundant male’s sport.” Whitlock invested the rest of his life showing otherwise.
The Patterns That Altered Fly Fishing
Oklahoma fly tyer Dave Whitlock developed Dave’s Hopper in the 1950s when he was disappointed with the efficiency of the Joe’s Hopper pattern. The fly he developed– integrating aspects of Joe’s Hopper and the Muddler Minnow– is, worldwide, among the most popular hopper flies on the marketplace today.
However the Hopper was simply the start. Whitlock’s styles consist of the Red Fox Squirrel Nymph, NearNuff Crayfish, Sheep Minnow, Dave’s Cricket, and lots more. Paul Schullery, in American Flyfishing: A History, explained him as “simply potentially the most prominent American fly tier given that The second world war.”
Fly Angler publication called him amongst the most prominent fly fishers in history, together with Joe Brooks, Lee Wulff, and Lefty Kreh in 2021.
Package That Brought Wild Browns to Arkansas
Possibly no development much better catches Whitlock’s clinical mind than the Whitlock-Vibert Box System– a distinct and effective in-stream salmonoid egg incubator and nursery gadget that he invested 7 years investigating and establishing.
The Whitlock-Vibert Box was utilized to equip what ended up being the world record brown trout in the White and Norfork River systems. Under the sponsorship of the Federation of Fly Fishers, the program is now utilized around the world to present or improve wild trout, char, and salmon populations.
From 1980 to 1990, the White River Fly Fishers, North Arkansas Fly Fishers, Green Nation Fly Fishers, and Arkansas Fly Fishers bought and planted 100,000 brown trout eggs each year utilizing Whitlock’s system– eggs sourced from Bitterroot River fish near Missoula, Montana. The outcome: a self-sufficient brown trout population that produced 2 world records.
Preservation as a Way Of Living
Whitlock’s tradition extends beyond patterns and take on. Throughout his life, Whitlock assisted Baxter County establish Dry Run Creek into among America’s leading fishing streams– a distinct fishery developed to accommodate youth under 16 and mobility-impaired anglers surrounding to the Norfork Hatchery.
He and his spouse Emily likewise participated in avoiding the damage of Crooked Creek, which is thought about among the very best smallmouth bass fishing streams in the country. When mining operations in the early 2000s eliminated trees and plants, raising water temperature levels till the creek was stated impaired, the Whitlocks and the Pals of the North Fork and White Rivers Inc. took political action and had the ability to stop the mining. Crooked Creek stays a leading smallmouth location today.
The White River: His Favorite and His Objective
” I have a love-hate relationship with the White, my preferred river for 45 years,” Whitlock composed. “It originates from a mix of the White’s appeal, fertility, and exceptional fishing for great deals of huge trout– and the unforeseeable water levels, great deals of anglers who eliminate their everyday limitation 2 or 3 times a day, and the periodic mismanagement of among the world’s most efficient trout fisheries.”
That clear-eyed dedication– commemorating the river while defending its security– specified Whitlock’s technique to preservation. “The White most likely does not require more fishing pressure,” he composed, “however it does require a lot more fly-fishing buddies who will assist to restore this fishery.”
Why This Mural Matters Now
The timing of the Whitlock mural brings unique weight. Arkansas’s trout fisheries are recuperating from a historical crisis: disastrous die-offs at the Norfork National Fish Hatchery and flood damage at the Jim Hinkle Spring River State Fish Hatchery eliminated most of the state’s trout production in 2025. New limiting harvest guidelines worked February 1, 2026, as wildlife supervisors work to restore fish populations.
Versus that background, a memorial to Whitlock isn’t simply fond memories– it’s a declaration about what Bull Shoals worths: stewardship, clinical development, and the belief that first-rate fisheries do not take place by mishap.
” The important things that truly move individuals, I think, is when you see kids that have actually come out of treatment for cancer and their moms and dads or grandparents bring them up here to fish,” stated Steve Blumreich of the Pals of the Norfork and White River, speaking at a 2024 bench commitment for Whitlock at Dry Run Creek.
A mural on Central Boulevard extends that vision beyond the creek banks. By positioning Whitlock’s image and tradition in the daily streetscape– not tucked inside a clubhouse or museum– Bull Shoals is stating that this history comes from everybody who strolls these pathways, not just those who understand the distinction in between a Sowbug and a Scud.
The Neighborhood Behind the Canvas
The mural job is being promoted through fly-fishing neighborhood channels, consisting of Mid-South Fly Fishers, which has actually run a devoted fundraising push. The ribbon cutting will acknowledge people and services who assisted make the job possible.
Donors who contribute $100 or more get a celebratory Tee shirts including a picture of Hada’s Whitlock painting– a little token for those who wish to bring a piece of this homage home.
Sowbug Roundup 2026: The Perfect Setting
The mural’s unveiling falls throughout the 2026 Sowbug Roundup (March 26– 28), the yearly fly-tying and fly-fishing exposition that draws participants from all 50 states and a number of nations to Mountain Home and the surrounding location.
The program boasts 150 professional fly tyers, over 20 suppliers, everyday auctions and raffles, complimentary workshops, complimentary fly-tying classes, and complimentary casting lessons. Entry is simply $10 for all 3 days– and grownups accompanied by kids get in complimentary.
Whitlock was a component at Sowbug for years. The fishing legend passed after going to Mountain Home to attend his last Sowbug Roundup in 2022. It was, in numerous methods, a homecoming.
What We Do Not Know Yet
Public sources do not yet supply a completed making or in-depth description of the mural’s complete structure– whether it includes Whitlock’s picture, particular river scenes, renowned fly patterns, or symbolic aspects. Development images from the artist or commissioning group have actually not been openly published since this writing.
What we do understand: when Duane Hada paints water, he utilizes water from the stream itself. “I do that out of benefit,” he has actually stated, “however likewise I believe, secondarily, that something about that lifeline of that stream gets recorded because painting.”
For a mural honoring Dave Whitlock, in a town whose identity streams from the river listed below Bull Shoals Dam, that appears precisely ideal.
Occasion Information
Dave Whitlock Memorial Mural Ribbon Cutting
Date: Thursday, March 26, 2026
Time: 5:30 p.m.
Place: Wants & Fishes Fly Store (Jimmy T’s), 627 Central Blvd., Bull Shoals, AR
Sowbug Roundup 2026
Dates: March 26– 28, 2026
Place: Baxter County Fairgrounds, Mountain Home, AR
Admission: $10 for all 3 days; grownups with kids under 12 confessed complimentary
Information: North Arkansas Fly Fishers
