It's about time North Fork Fishing Report

[Johnsfolly]

I have been busy and mostly procrastinating about reporting on our float trip of the North Fork of the White River back in October. I have been working on a goal to catch a trout in each of the MDC designated trout streams in Missouri since the fall of 2013. I was just down to the blue and red ribbon sections of the North Fork to complete the task. On the 1st of Oct. I took my wife and our youngest daughter down to Sunburst to pick up a canoe from Justin. Justin dropped us off at Kelley Ford and the trip began. Many of you might know that I also track the various species that I catch and how many of each fish on a yearly basis. My daughter is also working on her own species list this year. I wasn't expecting much in species diversity on this trip, but was really hoping to finish off my trout goal.

Day 1 - The weather was fantastic, mid-60's, mostly sunny and probably more clear than I wanted. I always prefer an overcast day to fish. The water was fast and clear. My wife is a far better canoe operator than I am and neither of us have canoed a challenging river run in more years than we like to recall. So with that in mind and Justin’s warning about the “Falls”, we set off downstream back to Sunburst Ranch. I have to point out that I wade fish about 98% of the time, so I was not real adept at canoe trout fishing. We seemed to pass a bunch of great trout water and I saw many trout as we quickly passed over them.

My wife and daughter were having a good time taking in the scenery and fishing some along the way. They did eat all of their lunch prior to 10:30 am. My daughter did catch fish with her hand net or bare hands, including several banded sculpin and an orange-throat darter. Since her goal was 12 different species of fish brought to the hand or net, the darter qualified as a new species for the year. The banded sculpin was a confirmed species.

We have looked over several sculpin that she and I caught this year and determined that we have both caught ozark and banded sculpin based upon the descriptions in Plieger’s Fishes of Missouri guidebook. I was fixated on catching trout, but did catch a large banded sculpin as well on a 1/125 oz chartreuse microjig.

I caught the only trout on the float. The first trout was caught on a 1/8 oz brown marabou jig just below the low water bridge. So I was finally able to mark off the blue ribbon section of the North Fork from my list. I caught my largest trout on a #2 Mepps Anglia spinner in a pool just below the River of Life farm.

The fish was approximately 16” and was one of the thickest trout I have caught in some time.

One other trout was caught on a 1/16 oz black marabou jig further downstream.

We were able to negotiate all of the rapids including the “Falls’ successfully. On a couple of the more white knuckled runs, my daughter would want to run them again. Both my wife and I declined to portage back upstream just to run those rapids again. As we were paddling up to the take out point at Sunburst we were able to witness a bald eagle harassing an osprey. Day one ended with us tired and hungry. We enjoyed the float and are planning on a return trip.

 

Day 2 - I still had to catch a trout in the red ribbon section below Patrick Bridge. I started fishing just below the bridge right after sunrise. I caught a small 7" rainbow on a Rapala UL Minnow jerkbait in a perch pattern. I had just completed my trout goal. As my wife can attest to I am pretty adept at resetting goals once one has been completed. As part of this overall goal, I have identified all of the streams and waters that have brown trout in them. Since I have only caught browns in the Meramec, Current, Roubidoux, and Capp's creek, that is only 50% of the number of creeks and waters (including Taneycomo) that routinely have browns released in Missouri. So to catch a brown in each of the remaining waters, i.e., North Fork, Roaring River, Niangua, and Taneycomo has become the next goal.

So knowing that browns are stocked in the North Fork, I continued fishing the minnow bait. I fished down towards the confluence of the Alethia Spring branch (here's a picture of the spring).

There was good rocky structure downstream of the bridge and it didn't take too many casts to catch a 14" brown trout.

The fish stuck around a little while next to those posts in the water (i.e., my legs) where it was released to recuperate before it swam back out towards the rocky structure on the far bank.

I didn't make too many more casts before leaving to meet my girls for breakfast. After two days, I finished one goal and started working on the next. I look forward to fishing this river again.

[Mac's Orphan]

Great report - even better rainbow!!

Thanks for sharing your "adventure" and pictures - I count the NFoW as a special river.

[Ham]

21 plus inches of NFOW Rainbow

[Johnsfolly]

Ham - great fish. Did you come up from the lake and how far upstream did you catch that fish?

[Ham]

I had Justin take me up to Hammond Camp and I floated back to his place. That fish came about 1 mike or so above Sunburst. I caught one bigger than that the trip there before that, but I could not access my phone and I had no net. I took a quick measurement while drifting towards trouble. I wanted to get the fish back in the water. I think that one was around 23 inches. 

I catch a lot less fish than on the White, but the average size is WAY better. 

 

[netboy]

Looks like a great trip and some pretty scenery.

We are going to try a trip on the NFOW on our next trip up there in December.  

[Johnsfolly]

Ham - we drifted over three or four trout that were larger than 18 inches and one that was probably 24+". I agree about the average size being much better. These fish had some shoulders on them.

[Ham]

Hey John,

I see big Brown Demon trout and can not get them to play. The Bows will definitely light you up though.

Ham

 

 

[Mac's Orphan]

8 hours ago, Johnsfolly said:

Ham - we drifted over three or four trout that were larger than 18 inches and one that was probably 24+". I agree about the average size being much better. These fish had some shoulders on them.

We saw several in the slow - deep water that were that size - makes your heart jump right outa your chest!!

[Johnsfolly]

I definitely will have to revisit this river.