Going Shocking Today

[Justin Spencer]

Plus, any additional habitat that could be created for spawning trout could only help. Not sure if this is realistic or not but its definitely something for those that value this river and its fishing to consider.

When you look at the power of the floods we have down here I think any habitat work would be time wasted (you see reds everywhere anyway when they are spawning). I found habitat work disappointing trying to repair damage that floods have caused on my gravel bar, only to have it washed away plus some with the latest flood. I would also be against any tax money being used to try to improve spawning of a fish that really just lucked into a good situation and shouldn't really be doing it anyway. Much more pressing issues in this country above and beyond ensuring that an introduced species spawns.

I'm all for watershed protection and landowner education any way we can do it.

[Guest]

When you look at the power of the floods we have down here I think any habitat work would be time wasted (you see reds everywhere anyway when they are spawning). I found habitat work disappointing trying to repair damage that floods have caused on my gravel bar, only to have it washed away plus some with the latest flood. I would also be against any tax money being used to try to improve spawning of a fish that really just lucked into a good situation and shouldn't really be doing it anyway. Much more pressing issues in this country above and beyond ensuring that an introduced species spawns.

I'm all for watershed protection and landowner education any way we can do it.

I completely agree with you.

[drew03cmc]

We hear this exact "point" try to be proven every-so-often.......my reply......Name 1 wild river in the state that didn't fish better 30 years ago.....or 1 smallmouth river that didn't fish better 30 years ago....lake...pond...puddle that didn't fish better 30 years ago. I don't think people really understand what it takes to be a 100% wild rainbow trout fishery, especially in the mid-west. Wild fish are at the mercy of nature, period. It's not like the trout parks where they stock more fish than were taken yesterday....they haven't stocked this river with rainbows in almost 50 years...numbers will go up and down for the rest of existence.

MDC keeps VERY good track of the NFOW. I may dog them now and then but they do a good job of trying to keep a very close eye on their wild trout. Like others have said, the trend over the last several years have been numbers going UP......but, I ask you this, if you saw numbers going down------What would you do? This is a wild river, there is nothing you can do unless you try to change law and make it a catch and release stream when harvesting probably wouldn't be the problem, mother nature would more than likely be the culprit.

I don't know anyone that really fishes the river, and has for longer than I have been alive, that has anything bad to say about the NFOW right now. If you have fished it for 30 years you saw the drought of the 90's pretty much stop the fishing as there were basically no fish. Then in the mid-2000's we saw a JUMP in numbers. THEN in the late 2000's we saw a boom in numbers. It has fished better in the last 5 years than I have ever seen it fish.

I would kill to have been able to fish these rivers back in the 70's, I really would have. But comparing the rivers now to how they fished in the 70's is like comparing how YOU were back then compared to now. Shoot, I was a 5'8" guy that had a 44" vertical and could dunk when I was 18.......at 31 now, I would pull a hamstring if I tried to touch the net.

Brian, you are wrong there bubba. Taken directly from http://mdc.mo.gov/fishing/places-fish/trout-areas

"North Fork of the White, Eleven Point and Current rivers are stocked periodically."

They do stock the NFOW with bows periodically. Drop that line about they haven't been stocked in fifty years please, it is misleading. I am grateful to have these types of waters in the Ozarks to fish. I will not expound on my opinion on it either way, except to say that these waters add a touch of diversity to what should be top quality smallmouth fishing all over the region.

On the subject of dunking, I want to see that Brian. I am 5'7" tall, played soccer my whole life and rarely lost a ball in the air not because I could outjump the other guys (30" vertical didn't help much) but because I used my body to shield or apply pressure to my defender. Dunking was a pipedream that I couldn't ever make happen, but I enjoyed trying.

[Justin Spencer]

North Fork of the White, Eleven Point and Current rivers are stocked periodically."

That is what it says, but I have not heard of a rainbow stocking, only browns. I will put an e-mail in to our fisheries biologist and find out when the last stocking of rainbows was for sure. Unless you have other proof than that one line I would find out for sure before getting all bubbaish on Brian. You may be right and if so I'll be glad to know for sure (for the record however, I think you're wrong).

[Outside Bend]

Taken directly from http://mdc.mo.gov/landwater-care/stream-and-watershed-management/missouri-watersheds/north-fork-white-river/biotic-com

Due to the existence of a significant cold water fishery within the North Fork Watershed, fish stocking efforts have been primarily focused on trout. The first recorded introduction of rainbow trout within the watershed was in 1925 (Zurbrick 1997). Stocking of rainbow trout was discontinued by Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) in 1966 and the population became self-sustaining through natural reproduction. In 1967, MDC began stocking brown trout in the North Fork River. Since then 378,229 brown trout have been stocked in the North Fork (MDC 1974-1979,1986 and MDC 1985-1996). Rainbow trout are stocked by two private entities within the watershed. Spring Creek, a tributary of the North Fork River is stocked on a semi-weekly basis from Memorial Day to Labor Day (Pratt personal communication). The other private trout area is located on Spring Creek (tributary of Bryant Creek).

No, they do not stock the NFOW with 'bows periodically. Haven't for 45 years.

[Justin Spencer]

Drop that line about they haven't been stocked in fifty years please, it is misleading.

Looks likes Drew was right, it's been 45 years not 50 Brian time to stop misleading people "bubba".

[drew03cmc]

Hey Justin, chill, it was a joke about bubba. I was aware that they didn't stock often, but didn't know it hadn't been for 45 years.

[Chief Grey Bear]

Taken directly from http://mdc.mo.gov/landwater-care/stream-and-watershed-management/missouri-watersheds/north-fork-white-river/biotic-com

No, they do not stock the NFOW with 'bows periodically. Haven't for 45 years.

Maybe not directly or even by the MDC, but there are two private entities that are stocking the immediate watershed. It is a given that a certain percentage of these trout are finding there way to NFOW. I have caught trout in rivers that have never been stocked by the MDC or any private entity. But creeks that drain into those rivers do recieve stockings. And I have found them a signifigant distance from the original stocking area. So in a round about way, yes the NFOW is recieving a stocking of Rainbow trout. Though those numbers are most likely very small.

[Outside Bend]

Maybe not directly or even by the MDC, but there are two private entities that are stocking the immediate watershed. It is a given that a certain percentage of these trout are finding there way to NFOW. I have caught trout in rivers that have never been stocked by the MDC or any private entity. But creeks that drain into those rivers do recieve stockings. And I have found them a signifigant distance from the original stocking area. So in a round about way, yes the NFOW is recieving a stocking of Rainbow trout. Though those numbers are most likely very small.

True, their probably are some fish that escape the private, pay for play resorts.

That's different than saying MDC periodically stocks the river with rainbows, though.

[Chief Grey Bear]

True enough. But you also can't say the NFOW hasn't received any rainbow's due to stocking in the last 45 years.