Fishing Report Nov 5ht thru 11th

[Mac's Orphan]

Fishing Report   Nov 5^th – 11^th

Stayed for 5 days at Sunburst Ranch. Our first trip to the NfoW / Sunburst Ranch. Got to meet Amy and Justin. They were just great and we appreciated them letting us stay at the campground.

The water was gin clear and sunny skies – not that good for fishing but we did ok and had a blast! I’m guessing the temps were in the high 50’s to 70’s but cooled down at night.

Launched our pontoon boats from Kelly’s Ford each morning and fished down to Sunburst. Caught a few  rainbows the first day and saw several deer. One very good buck chasing does. Caught all the fish on Elk Hair Caddis and some streamer patterns that we tie. The second day was a little better – saw another good buck bedded down within 20yds of the road driving in. My son caught a nice brown and we both caught around seven or eight bows each – 2 were in the 13 – 15 inch range. Pretty much the way it went all five days. Saw Matt Hardy  from Royal 7 Guide Co. – again – and exchanged info with each other! Met him last year on the Current River. Really nice guy! Had some good folks with him he was guiding on the NFoW.

Saw some Bald Eagles and a few turkeys – finally spotted a stonefly – pretty cool! Also saw what we believe to be an Osprey – diving and catching fish on the river. The deer were really moving as the rut is on, and had bucks running does all over. One good buck chased a doe right through the campground while Justin was out deer hunting!  LOL!

Had our best luck on Scuds (go figure!) Elk Hair Caddis, Soft Hackles, Zebra Midges (black was best) and some small nymph patters we used on the North Fork Tail water. We did manage to get into some midge hatches each afternoon and had a great time catching 8 to 10 inch bows on dry flies.

Looking forward to another trip to the beautiful state of Missouri! Will definitely stay at Sunburst.

Oh – and thanks to the guy who stopped on Patrick Bridge and asked if I was ok after I did a “self initiated baptism”!! LOL!

[BilletHead]

  Great report and photos. Thank you,

BilletHead

[Ham]

I've caught a lot of pretty big Bows on NFOW, but I have yet to catch a SINGLE Brown there. None nada zippo.

[Mac's Orphan]

Hey Ham,

We caught the browns about 1/4 mile upstream from Sunburst. Nothing huge - maybe 12"ers but they were fat and healthy.

From what I'm told by Matt Hardy, they're more prevalent from Patrick Bridge down to Dawt.

What gets me is I never saw a single scud in the river, but the trout evidently thought the patterns looked "tasty"... The ones I tied had the mono eyes. I've always been pretty much a streamer fisherman, but those soft hackle flies are intriguing to me!!

[Johnsfolly]

Sounds like a great time and great photos!

[Justin Spencer]

Glad you had a good time, next time I will just shadow you guys around carrying my bow!

[Ham]

Hey Justin,

Is there going to be any chance that NFOW will not get blown out by this rain event? I've got a buddy flying in that I need to show my fishing world to.

[Mac's Orphan]

2 hours ago, Justin Spencer said:

Glad you had a good time, next time I will just shadow you guys around carrying my bow!

LOL!!

Thanks for a great time Justin!

[Gavin]

Looks like a good time! Have not made it to the NFoW in a couple years, but its been really low...400cfs or so...I've always had better quality & numbers days when the water is up in the 700-1200cfs range. Lots of split shot required at those levels though. Bring some.SSG's (1.6 grams), AAA's (0.8 grams), AB's (0.6 grams) & BB's (0.4 grams)...You might need 2-3 SSG's or more some runs.