Wonderful Memorial Day Weekend!

Hope everyone who was here for the weekend had a good time. The weather was as good as possible for the weekend with highs in the mid 80's and only a little shower around McKee Bridge on Sunday. The campground was very mellow for the holiday weekend and we kept away trouble makers by charging $14 to camp if you were not renting canoes. People ask why we do this and it is primarily to keep the campground from filling up with people that come here when they see that the free campgrounds are full. This makes for a better experience for those of you who pay us good money to camp and canoe for the entire weekend. This is also the reason that if you bring your own canoes and don't pay us to shuttle you pay the higher camping rate. If you are willing to pay that rate we are more than happy to accomodate you, but generally we come close to filling the campground with people who are renting canoes, and with only about 14 busy weekends we have to make hay while the sun shines. The river was rather laid back as well with water patrol saying they had no major problems all weekend. For those looking for a good weekend to camp I think Memorial Day (at least on the North Fork) is one of the best. One of the next best is 4th of July. Our biggest weekends are the weekend before and after the holiday weekend, with the 4th usually being our slowest of the summer. I think everyone avoids the holiday thinking it will be packed, and it ends up being pretty slow. The three day weekends usually have a few groups that stay all weekend, with many people from nearby staying Friday and Saturday, and those from farther away coming Saturday and staying until Monday. This spreads out the same number of boats we would normally do on a Saturday over 3 days which makes the river seem relatively empty. Looks like we have a nice weather weekend coming up again with a few tent and RV spots left. Weekend after that is full, and it should stay just about as busy through July. Hope to see everyone soon. Oh yeah, fishing was good all weekend even with the boat traffic!

Where the EFF is Greg?

Things here are picking up trying to get ready for the upcoming holiday weekend. I have included a link to a blog from a camper writing about his adventure last weekend here on the North Fork. I was going to write a blog on it myself, but he did such a good job, and had more details to share, so I will let him tell you the story. Please take the time to go and read this, just another story from the river, and this time it is not because of drugs or alcohol that things went awry. Hope you enjoy the story, I sure did! Why a picture of one of our lambs, cause it's so cute, that's why (He'll sure be tasty this fall)

http://web.me.com/backcountry/altitude/Camp_Blog/Entries/2010/5/21_North_Fork.html

Great Fishing!

Here is the latest report from our friend Chris. This came from last weekend.

It seems like every time I go down to the North Fork of the White the fishing gets better and better. The fish god's have shined on me on recent trips. Yesterday I had the pleasure of taking my friends Melvin and Deborah from Jefferson City. Each year I donate a trip in my drift boat for the Capital City Fly fishers Banquet. This is the Mid Missouri FFF chapter. It's my opportunity to play guide for a day with some good friends and raise money for a good cause. Thanks to the generosity and hospitality of Sunburst Ranch, this trip went off without a hitch. I was debating on floating the upper or lower and decided on the lower to get away from crowds. Turned out to be a good choice. We put in at Patrick 9:00 AM and floated until about 6:00 to James Bridge. Overcast skies and flows were around 750 CFS. The day started off great on Pat's Rubberlegs and didn't stop all day. Pat's were the MVP and quite a few on Shop Vac and RU Experienced Caddis Pupa patterns. We nymphed all day and caught more fish than I have ever boated before on the NFOW! The fishing was unreal, it seemed like every likely spot was holding at least one fish that wanted to eat. Melvin and Deborah had multiple doubles throughout the day. One of the lessons from the day was that on lower flows which I would classify 750 as beginning to be "lower" fishing can still be great but overcast skies are the key factor. At the end of the day when the fishing was over, I told Melvin and Deborah that the good news was that we had an Epic Day but the bad news was that it may not happen again for quite some time. Tight Lines,Chris Gates

The only way to have days like this is to get out and try. When you come down please listen to my advice, not that I am a pro, but if you are not experienced on this river you will struggle (like I did when I first started) if you don't do things a certain way! I will share anything I can with you so please ask.

2.06 Inches of Fish per Minute

Remember that you heard it here first. The new Sunburst System for reporting fishing success. I have come up with this system which takes fish size as well as the number of fish caught and puts them in an easy to understand format for determining fishing success, expressed as inches of fish per minute. This system won't get me rich or famous but should soon be taught in schools along with the Dewey Decimal system, and New York's public transportation system. You may ask how this system came into existence, keep reading and you'll find out.

It all started yesterday at about 15:45. My mowing was done, Amy and Molly were in town and I found myself with 45 free minutes before the school bus was due to arrive with Eli. I could either relax and catch the last half of Dr. Phil or sneak down for a little fishing in front of the house. Fishing it was! I quickly donned my waders, grabbed my rod and camera and headed to slippery riffle for a few minutes of chucking and ducking. I entered the water at around 15:55 and on my third drift hooked and landed a 12" brown. At this point it was 15:58 and I was off to a blistering pace of 4" fpm. After a quick release I continued nymphing down this quick run and several minutes later was brought to attention by an explosive take. Now I have caught hundreds of trout a few over 20", but this fish hit like no other I can remember. It took the fly with such force that I immediately looked down to make sure I didn't have my fly line wrapped around anything and as I did so I heard a thunderous splash. With fly line cleared I looked up to see a tsunami headed my way. Granted, this was not a large tsunami, but anytime a fish throws a wave like this when it jumps you must have something good. Wishing I would have seen the creature jump, my mind was racing wondering what was on the other end of my line. Lime green fly line tore off my Galvan reel as my quarry once again showed itself. Shooting out of the water like Shamu at Sea world was the biggest brown trout I had ever seen hooked to my fly. As the fish entered the water it once again took off peeling line as it went. In typical brown trout style this fish settled in the deepest swiftest current and bulldogged it's way around slowly taking back line that I had worked so hard to gain. After a few minutes I fought the fish onto the shallow shelf where I was standing. She quickly showed that this was not where she wanted to be, once again taking off like a bonefish on the flats, again shooting out of the water in an attempt to free herself. This tug of war would go on for what seemed like an hour, and with no net several attempts at grabbing the fish were met with disappointment. Eventually this athlete tired, as did the fish and I was able to bring her to hand. I luckily had a tape measure and camera in my waders and quickly snapped a picture and took a measurement. My worthy opponent, a beautiful female brown trout, measured right at 23" and while I didn't get a girth measurement she was fat, looking like a rugby ball each time she lept from the river. My fishing officially ended at 14:12 only 17 minutes after the trip had started, half of this time spent fighting the biggest trout of my life. Catching 2 fish while waiting for the bus didn't seem that impressive to me, but catching 35 inches of fish in 17 minutes did. While I don't plan on getting a patent for the Sunburst System I hope this blog will make it's way to the history books in the near future as the story that popularized a new way of measuring fishing success.

Big Stones = Lots of Fish!

Took a float in Steve's drift boat with Amy and the kids on Good Friday, and absolutely wore the fish out. I think I even commented to Amy that the fishing was "off the hook" whatever that means. Doesn't seem to be a good phrase to be used when fishing. We put in at Patrick Bridge at about 1200 cfs and Amy had two fish by the time we reached the big island above Riverside. Stopping there for lunch I grabbed a rod and immediately brought in a 13" brown. Two drifts later a beautiful par marked "wild brown" was landed, and within another 10 minutes I had caught a total of 4 more browns up to 15", with several others spitting the hook. The fishing slowed and I decided to eat a sandwich. As I played in the river with the kids we started flipping rocks to see what bugs might be around and under the first rock was a large stone fly larvae. I showed it to Amy and the kids, and we commented on how this must be why the fish were so turned on to the large stonefly imitation we were using. I put the fly back in the water and soon was wishing I would have taken a picture. Not long after, Eli asked me to come over because he had found a "crawdad or something". It was another big stonefly and this time we took the opportunity to get it on film. After an hour or so of playing on the island we set off amidst a flotilla of canoes. Wondering if the canoers would spook the fish we soon had our answer as Amy caught several nice browns drifting in front of Riverside. Battling 20+ mph gusts I worked to row and Amy worked to cast, but every 10 minutes or so our efforts were rewarded with fish after fish falling victim to the fly. By the time we reached James Bridge Amy had boated at least a dozen browns and two rainbows, with many others coming unbuttoned before we could net them. The kids had fun netting a few fish and Amy had fun catching fish after fish. Overall a wonderful day on the river with the family, who knows how many fish we could have caught if fishing had been the number one priority.

Bryant Creek White Bass

A couple weeks ago my father-in-law found a barely used "white river" boat on the side of the road for sale. Because my brother and sister-in-law had recently purchased a house in Norfork he correctly decided this boat would be perfect for fishing the tailwaters of the Norfork and the White rivers which converge in the small village. Yesterday Danny's motor arrived and after having it installed we decided a shake down run up on the lake was in order. It just so happens that the white bass have started to run, which worked out quite well. We put in under the 160 Bridge at Tecumseh and headed down into the lake. The boat performed wonderfully behind the power of a 15 HP Nissan fourstroke. This quiet motor pushed the 20' longboat along wonderfully and we quickly arrived at what appeared to be the honey hole. Ten boats were gathered in a 100 yard stretch of lake so we figured this must be where the fish were. After an hour of fishing we had each caught one nice white bass, and not seeing others catching fish decided to try a different spot. Being a river rat, I convinced Danny that we needed to run up to the confluence of the North Fork and Bryant and see if the fish had moved up there. After a few nervous moments navigating a rocky shoal we arrived at the confluence to find a dozen bank fishermen pounding the water with live bait. We decided to head up Bryant Creek to the first riffle and start there. As we drifted through the last hole on Bryant Creek I quickly hooked a decent male white bass that joined two others in the live well. We drifted down to the confluence with no more hits and decided to try it once more. The fishing was slow but Danny picked up a nice male just as we were about to call it quits. Great afternoon on the water, and while the fishing wasn't great it was good enough to keep us interested, and we even took home enough fish for a good meal!

Fishing the First Day of Spring

Spring has sprung, with rain and snow for some folks. We have had several groups of fishermen here for over a week with mixed results. Those new to this river have struggled some, but most have caught fish. Then we bring in the old veterans who have been fishing this river for several years. Each time they fish they undoubtedly learn more, and continue to prove that while North Fork trout can be tough to catch, there are plenty of fish around if you can figure out a way to fool them. Chris Gates has been sending me his reports following numerous trips this winter, and he confessed that after struggling on this river years ago he, like most who consistently catch fish on this river, took advice from other successful North Fork fishermen and put this knowledge to use to become a fisherman who can consistently catch fish on this challenging river. If you are new to this river and float here I will give you any and all information I can on how I catch fish on the NFoW. I also will hook you up with a few flies that are proven to work consistently on both browns and rainbows from 5" to 25". The fishing here is much different from most other rivers and streams in this state, and if you put to use the methods that other successful anglers use, you will eventually get a feel for it and start to catch fish. This weekend we had a young lady who is a senior at Mizzou fish the river for the first time. After getting some advise from Chris and myself she went out and caught several fish including a brown that was reported to be over 16". (Pictures are supposed to be on the way) One thing you must do on the NFoW is forget everything you know about fly fishing, listen to those who fish here often, take that advice and use it. Before purchasing Sunburst Ranch I was a pond fly fisherman, and a saltwater fly fisherman while living in Florida. The only trout I had caught on fly were in trout parks and I fished the NFoW for a month before catching a fish on fly. I then started watching and listening to what successful fly fishermen were doing on this river, and slowly over the years have learned the ins and outs of catching fish on this river. Here is a report from Chris after fishing this weekend, the pictures included show you why we fish and love the North Fork.

Had a great time down at Sunburst Friday and Saturday. Friday we put in at Kelly and floated all the way down to James Bridge, caught fish all the way down but was bit slower in the middle of the day. We listed to the Tiger's basketball game on the radio in the drift boat, pretty cool. Pat's Rubberlegs and caddis pupa droppers were working well. In the evening it was all Pat's and Red Fox Squirrel Nymphs. The fishing was ok on Friday but sunny skies with lower water around 570 cfs slowed it down. Saturday was a different story, we put in at Sunburst at around 10:00 and floated until about 4:00. Overcast skies. We banged them up all day on Pat's and Red Fox Squirrel Nymphs. Saturday was one of the best days I have had on this river! We caught a ton of fish, just wished we would have gotten on the river earlier and fished later. See you in a few weeks!