Busy Times at Sunburst Ranch

It has been quite a while since I have had a chance to sit down and tell about what has been happening down here in the Ozarks. We have enjoyed full campgrounds the last few weekends as well as good water and good campers. Despite the campgrounds being full we have been continually praised for how quiet the campground has been, and how well behaved our campers have been. While our campground security guard (AMY) has a little to do with this, the real credit has to go to you campers, who while having a good time are usually respectful of those around you. It helps that we have so much repeat business and personally get to know most of our campers over time. For those who cause any major problems, we just simply don't allow them back (no camping for you!). Since I last wrote, I have enjoyed visits from my sister and her family (we actually rafted down the river one day and had a great time), two visits from my mother (thanks for the cookies), we had a wedding in our pavilion (complete with lights and beautiful decorations), and also a visit from my mother-in-law Valerie's family who all floated from here to Dawt Mill (there Valerie I got your name in the blog twice just like you wanted). The upcoming 4th of July weekend will be a little slower than most summer weekends so if you are looking for something to do give us a call, looks like a chance for early rain on Saturday but a nice somewhat cooler weekend after that. Most people can't believe the 4th isn't busy, but everyone calls for the weekend before and after the 4th trying to miss the busy weekend, making those two weekends our busiest of the summer. Just a reminder for any of you who like to rent cabins here, at this point on the weekends we have no availability for cabins until the end of August, we occasionally get cancellations, but keep that in mind when you are thinking about booking for next year, we get calls every day from people looking for cabins, unfortunately you must think months in advance to secure lodging for a summer weekend. I guess we'll try to build a few more sleepers before next year. Sorry about this rather boring informative post, but I think I dropped my creative writing bone in the river down at Dawt and it washed over the dam into the lake.

Bode Miller has nothing on me!

I will choose to take the high road and not risk upsetting the fish gods by talking trash, but yesterday evening they had nothing that could stop me. The water is finally flowing at a normal level and is nice and clear, so I decided to take a walk down to slippery riffle for an evening of fly fishing. I started at my normal spot at the head of the riffle and worked my way down, skipping over the slickest part so as not to fall on my face again. I fished down my usual 75 yard stretch of water and picked up one nice 15" brown on a hot flash. I was a little disappointed as I had fished for 45 minutes with little to show for it. I had tried several droppers fished below the hot flash with no success, until I put on a jay yellow. That is basically a tiny white jig head with yellow thread tied around the hook shank. As I worked my way back upstream I picked up another nice brown on the hot flash, and then a 15" rainbow on the jay yellow. This particular fish I caught between about 5 canoes that were floating by (I couldn't hear very well but I think one young lady commented about how I looked like Brad Pitt out there fishing). I added one more 13" brown on the hot flash, and on my final cast of the day I landed a 12" rainbow on the jay yellow. The fish gods would test me on this fish. I had once again skipped over the slickest part of slippery riffle and gone above this point for a few final casts. After a several casts I finally placed the fly just across the main channel to the edge of an eddy where I have caught many fish before. As I put a large upstream mend in my line the strike indicator abruptly dove, and using my catlike reflexes I immediately set the hook. This rainbow quickly swam for the swift current and headed downstream, not realizing it was only a 12 incher I decided I should follow. As I turned to face the fish, the current dislodged my left croc, which was now being held between my two biggest toes, this led me to stumble down the river onto the slippery bedrock below where I had been fishing. This is not the first time this has happened so I knew to face downstream and bend my knees sliding down the rock much like Bode Miller skiing a black diamond in Aspen. For once this tactic worked and I was rewarded with another beautiful stream bred rainbow, and a fully intact tailbone. When all was said and done I had caught 5 fish in about an hour and a half, managed to keep my footing and somehow was able to get my shoe back on while fighting a fish in heavy current. I'd like to see Bode Miller try to get his ski boot back on in the middle of a downhill race, I don't think so Bode!

Calm after the storm, and goooood fishing!

The weekend following Memorial Day is typically laid back and slow at the Sunburst Ranch. We had enough action to keep us busy, but much calmer than last weekend. For anyone enjoying a half full campground and less crowded river this is a good weekend to come. From here on out we will start to get busier and busier until school gets ready to start around the second weekend in August. We had quite a few fishermen in this week and weekend. The Episcopalian men's group from the KC area covered much of the river from Wednesday to Sunday and reported good catches of smallmouth and goggle-eye from Hebron on down (thanks for the fried goggle-eye by the way). We had another group of that fished from here to Dawt on Sunday that said they had good action the entire trip. And then we had several of our fly-fishing friends from STL fishing from their drift boat. They reported good catches of both browns and rainbows, many of which were taking caddis imitations. The river is flowing wonderfully right now, and is in perfect shape if you don't want to paddle much. Looking forward to taking a couple guys way up river for a 3 day float this week, so we'll see what conditions are like up north.

Wet, wild, wonderful weekend!

Despite rain off and on over the entire Memorial Day weekend the Sunburst Ranch faithful had no problems breaking out of the winter doldrums and curing that cabin fever. Memorial Day weekend brings out a little more party crowd that our normal two day weekends and this weekend was no exception. Even with a full campground throughout the holiday, noise complaints were contained to only a few spots in the campground. Our night security guard (Amy) was only called down once, and took care of a little noise problem on Sunday night, and although there were several other small incidents no one was hurt, and only one leg had to be amputated. It was great to see our old friends, some of which had not been down for several years. Campers joined us from as far away as Tuscon, Colorado Springs, Denver and Tampa to reunite with old friends around a blazing campfire. I would like to thank the majority of our campers who are respectful and courteous to those around them, as you make our job a pleasure. For those on the other side of the coin which were very few, you have already been added to the NO CAMPING FOR YOU list. I apologize to anyone unfortunate enough to have been camping next to someone not living by the golden rule. I hope everyone found our staff courteous and helpful, I think we have the best, hardest working crew around, and am thankful every weekend that I don't have to worry about them showing up and doing their jobs. The only complaint I had about our staff was that I was not a very nice person, and that is being dealt with from within. In my defense I think most people would agree that I am a very nice person (comments are welcome, however I probably won't publish the bad ones). In conclusion, thanks once again to all of you, you are the reason we can continually purchase new canoes, and upgrade our facilities. I encourage all of you to drop us an e-mail with any advice on how we can improve what we do, and look forward to seeing you all again later this summer.

Fishing the Upper North Fork

With severe weather looming in the forecast, I decided Wednesday night I would take advantage of the last nice day of the week and head upstream for a little smallmouth and goggle-eye fishing on the upper reaches of the North Fork. After dropping Eli off at school, Amy took me to Hale's crossing which is 26 miles or so upstream of Sunburst. I would float from there to Hammond covering a distance of 14 miles. Putting in at Hale's I was happy to see the river flowing bank full, and although somewhat murky I couldn't have asked for better water conditions. The section of river before you reach Hammond can get much too low to be of much fun by the time summer arrives. Today this was not the case. I told my fishing buddy Finn (my loyal Boykin Spaniel) to load up, and he took his place in the front seat of the canoe. We quickly were forced to negotiate some rather treacherous rapids, which on this section of river are very narrow with sharp turns and often times guarded by fallen trees. This being said we came through the float unscathed, although there were several times Finn questioned my canoe handling skills. The fishing was just fair, I hooked and lost what felt like a nice smallmouth early in the float, and later brought a nice 12 incher to hand. I also broke off a 15" smallmouth by setting the hook a little to hard with 4 pound test. The goggle-eye (rock bass) did keep the action steady although most were only fat little 6-7 inch fish, big enough to make a meal if I was camping out, but too much trouble to take home. I also added several green sunfish, and longear sunfish (aka punkinseeds) to my creel. While my favorite smallmouth bait is a 4" worm, fishing by myself without an anchor made this type of fishing almost impossible with the river running fast. I caught most fish on a good old beatle spin. If you ever get a chance to come to the river when the water is really flowing, I would highly recommend a float on the upper part of the North Fork, you will see beautiful bluffs, lots of wildlife, and with any luck at all you should enjoy catching a mixed bag of colorful Ozarks fish.

BIRDWATCHERS: NOW IS YOUR TIME !!!

Yesterday as Amy was leaving to go pick up Eli from school, she ran up and told me to come quick she needed my help. Being a wonderful husband I quickly ran down to lend assistance for what I thought my be changing a flat tire, or jump starting her car. The problem I faced when I arrived on scene was a frantic robin hopping around between the grill and radiator of Amy's car. She informed me she had hit a bird while coming home from the grocery store, and miraculously it had squeezed through the impossibly small opening in the grill and had become trapped between the radiator and grill, where it traveled 20 miles before arriving at it's new home. There was virtually no opening for the bird to escape, and after pulling on the plastic underside of the bumper, I was able to push the bird out with the handle of a rake thinking this would free the bird and it would fly off to live a happy life. Unfortunately the bird was exhausted and had a broken leg, and after flitting a short distance collapsed in a heap on the ground. I quickly scooped it up and placed it in a pet taxi gave it some water and a few worms. The worms have disappeared so I guess it is eating, and now I suppose I need to devise a splint to see if it's leg can heal. What a waste of time to save a robin you might say, and normally I would agree, but don't pass judgement until one day the miracle robin of spring comes knocking on your grill.

I am a self-proclaimed bird nerd, and here at Sunburst I have catalogued around 80 species of birds on our property alone. Spring is a great time to see migrating warblers (or at least hear them), and marks the return of many birds that raise their young in the Ozarks. Last summer we had a pair of Summer Tanagers, Orchard Orioles, and Bluejays all nesting at the same time in a single white oak tree in our front yard. Some of the common birds of summer we see here at Sunburst that might be of interest include indigo buntings, blue grosbeaks, and eastern kingbirds (these are usually seen at the top of the hill sitting on the fence as you drive in). We occasionally see yellow billed cuckoo's, road runners, and all kinds of woodpeckers including the pileated woodpecker which everyone enjoys seeing. These are but a few of the many birds we see along the river, the next time you are down floating or camping be sure to bring your binoculars, you will be amazed at what you see. For all you other bird nerds out there, if you are interested in a list of all bird species catalogued here at Sunburst drop me a line and I would be glad to send you one.

This fly is so good a monkey could catch fish on it!!

As a fly fisherman I am always striving to find the perfect fly. The fly that is easy to tie, easy to use and catches every fish that sees it. I think I may have found it. I'm not going to say that it catches every fish that sees it, but I am convinced that it catches more fish than any other fly I have used. What is this fly, and where can I get it you might ask. Be patient my friends. Fortunately for me the only place you can find this fly is in the fly box of yours truly and in the mouth of an 18 inch rainbow trout, that broke off as I was unhooking it last evening. This tie is a modification of a simple rubber legged stonefly imitation that was taught to me by a young gentleman working at Hargrove's fly shop in St. Louis. After tying a dozen of these I decided to pimp them up a little. Then it was off to my laboratory to see if they were in fact an improvement. I have now tested this fly two different times, against several different flies including the original version of the rubber legs. Last night's test session proved to be a raging success as I landed 6 fish in just under two hours all in slippery riffle (the riffle in front of my house). Not only did I land 6 fish, but 4 of these fish were larger than 15 inches. (15 inch bow, 16-17 inch bow, 16-17 inch brown, and a big fat rainbow nearing 18 inches that still has possession of the magic fly). I caught several on the fly I have named the HOT FLASH, then took it off to see how other flies would stack up. After catching no fish on anything else I was stripping in line to switch back to the hot flash, when I caught a small brown, other than that fluke, all other fish were caught on the HOT FLASH. In addition to having a great test session, I managed to keep my footing and returned home as dry as when I had started. Fish Gods-4 Justin - 3 For those of you who camp and fish at Sunburst Ranch be sure to ask me about this fly next time you are down. I would be happy to give you one, and then sell you many more for outrageous prices. Better get here quick though because my time for fly tying is running out, and you better be sure that I'm keeping a few for myself just in case I have a few minutes to fish this summer.