Humbled And Wet At The North Fork, But Crane Saved The Day

[trout junkie]

Just got back from a trip to the N. Fork as well as a number of other rivers, lakes, and creeks. Put in at Kelly and paddled up the N. Fork spring with a steady rain coming down. The river had quite a bit of water in it and the fishing was a little tough. My buddy John caught 5 nice rainbows in the middle of the first run below Rainbow Spring on a psycho prince. I fished a rubber legs and crackleback dropper and managed to hook a super nice fish, but he went airborne mid-stream and through the fly in my face.

Next day I got up early and hiked down to Cave riffle. It started raining at about 7 or so and didn't slow down until after noon. I had a few weak takes, but no hook ups. I did manage to see 2 otters in the backwater just above the riffle which was nice although I'm sure many of you would beg to differ.

After noon we took our families on a canoe trip from ROLF to Dawt. There weren't a lot of opportunities to wet the line, but I did manage to catch a few just below the tail out at cave riffle. (Thanks to Jeremy at ROLF for the tip on that spot.) I wish I could have spent a lot more time there.

Next we were off to fish the Little Niangua for smallies. We showed up at the river at around 3:00 on Wednesday only to be greeted by a roiling current of chocolate milk. Bummer! Niangua -- same thing. I was even ready to break down and fish Bennett, but it was dirty too. So, we checked with the river flows on the computer at the nature center at Bennett and found that pretty much everything in the area was blown. We both REALLY wanted to fish, so we drove down to Taney, but they were running water. Next we decided to drive over to Crane and fish the creek. I'd always wanted to fish there, but other rivers always seemed to call me a little harder, but that won't be the case next time. What a beautiful place! I felt like I was hunting for native brook trout in the Smokies with all the obstacles. We found lots of fish and simply had a fantastic time. I managed to hook up 2 sizable trout on a stimulator, but one came unbuttoned and another headed straight for the root wad from which he'd come and broke me off. We did catch plenty of smaller fish up to 10 or 11 inches though.

I guess it all goes to show you that you'll never know where you're going to end up when you head out on a fishing trip. The smallies will have to wait until next week because the Boundary Waters are beckoning!

[superfly]

What part of Crane Creek were you fishing?

[trout junkie]

We were fishing the lower conservation area. The wading through the brambles was tough and sweaty, but the fishing more than made up for it. We did go up and check out the upper end in the afternoon, but the water was fairly skinny. We did catch a few there, but we liked the water in the lower end much more. Sure would be nice to get some permission to fish some of the private water down from there.

[Brian Wise]

Being rained on gets old doesn't it?

5 out of Lamb Shoal (first below the spring) is pretty good....but what is this Psycho Prince you speak of?

Brian

[trout junkie]

Uh...Oh, did I say Psycho Prince? Silly me! I meant to say Halfbacks. Or maybe they were 20 inchers. Actually come to think of it, those 2 flies might be pretty effective on the N. Fork.

[jjtroutbum]

Great report trout junkie!!