Barren fork advice?

[Danielbauman]

Hi everyone,

This is my first post but I've learned a lot from this forum in the past as I've learned to fly fish. I'm a college student who has had a great time exploring waters all around the Ozarks the past few years and some of my absolute favorite spots are the little wild trout creeks. I've learned to be stealthy and have done really well on crane, mill, bsc, etc. Anyways, the only place I have truly been skunked, once last summer and yesterday, is Barren Fork. Something about this stream seems to go beyond any of the others in difficulty--the water is clearer, and the stream is so open that there's nowhere to hide. It's an absolutely gorgeous spot, but I've left flummoxed twice. I took a little side trip after fishing the current all day, and the water was up and flowing which I thought would be good for fishing, but didn't see any signs of fish beyond the minnows I caught. It's deceptively deep in spots--what would be a deep blue color in other streams looks much shallower until you reach it.

Anyways, I was just wondering if anyone has any advice for this creek. I parked at the highway A access but it's at the head of the creek and I'm not really sure if there's some sort of path down to the bottom of the access so I can head back upstream. Is there better habitat in another part of the stream? 

Here's a picture I took of Twin Springs flowing in.

Tight lines

[Devan S.]

I don't have any advice but I am sure someone will. I am working on the mo trout slam right now and Barren Fork will probably be on my next trip so you have me concerned. 

 

My hardest by far has been Blue Springs and it took me several miles and 6-7 hours of fishing to catch one fish. 
https://www.missouritrouthunter.com/barren-fork-creek.html I use this website to get locations and it looks like there isn't more than a mile or 2 that is really productive below where you are starting. 

[Danielbauman]

Went back and finally figured it out a little bit. Caught my first fish sight fishing with a nymph which was quite exciting. This creek is very hard and seems to have low fish populations, but there seem to be some good sized fish there, including one I spooked that had to be at least 16+”. Also saw a big rat snake and the largest crayfish I have ever seen (5-6” or so). Only got 2 1/2 hours or so in before I got slammed with a thunderstorm and soaked to the bone. But felt good to get this creek for my MO trout slam-only NFOW and Eleven Point to go!

[Johnsfolly]

@Danielbauman congrats on a nice Barren fork rainbow! I could have given you some info if I had seen this thread earlier. Not sure if you were fishing your previous spot, PM me if you want some more info. Good luck finishing out your slam!

@Devan S. good luck on your slam. If you haven't  go a find my 2014 posts about Barren fork. May be something in that trip that could help you on your slam attempt.

[Devan S.]

Well I visited over to BF last Sunday and its pretty barren from what I can see. 

I came in off country road A-D and fished down to the private property with no luck(I didn't really even see any fish). I had read your report @Johnsfolly but your trek looks like a doozy coming down CC and I went a bit farther and started at the confluence with sinking creek and fished up again to roughly the private property line that direction. I did see a couple larger fish coming this direction pretty early on but they were ultra spooky and generally in deeper holes with logs so fishing them effectively was difficult. 

My feeling is that populations here are very low and I didn't see a lot of smaller fish so the larger fish are much more difficult to fish they were all hanging out in tough to fish deep holes. I thought there might be smaller fish in the fast runs and riffles but didn't find anything. 

I lost a lot of fly's and fished about 7 hours. I'll be going back eventually but for now I've put this one on the back burner. I'm doing the slam with a friend which is making them pretty difficult. 2 guys on small streams means someone is always fronting the other person and spooking fish before the 2nd can fish a spot. The pressure goes through the roof once one of us catches a fish. He believes I'm a better fisherman than him so he is out ahead of me so I've had a couple creeks I have to revisit as I just couldn't get it done.  

[Johnsfolly]

1 minute ago, Devan S. said:

I had read your report @Johnsfolly but your trek looks like a doozy coming down CC

It was, but I felt that there would be less pressured fish in that area due to the difficulty of getting to the creek. Trying not to spook fish for one guy can be bad enough, but two on those little streams may just not work as you are seeing already. Good luck!

[Danielbauman]

1 hour ago, Johnsfolly said:

It was, but I felt that there would be less pressured fish in that area due to the difficulty of getting to the creek. Trying not to spook fish for one guy can be bad enough, but two on those little streams may just not work as you are seeing already. Good luck!

That’s what I ended up doing, heading down from CC. It’a a tough way down but you reach a creekbed to follow which helps. A little more water and some better structure and holes

[billym100]

Barren Fork was a tricky one for me as well, was fortunate enough to luck into a really nice colored up rainbow to achieve my silver on the slam. Seems we have a lot in common, as I am headed to college this fall and I also only have the NFOW and the Eleven Point to go. Best of luck to you, maybe we will run into eachother on the water. 

[Johnsfolly]

45 minutes ago, billym100 said:

Barren Fork was a tricky one for me as well, was fortunate enough to luck into a really nice colored up rainbow to achieve my silver on the slam. Seems we have a lot in common, as I am headed to college this fall and I also only have the NFOW and the Eleven Point to go. Best of luck to you, maybe we will run into eachother on the water. 

Awesome rainbow! Congrats and good luck on the rest of your Slam! The hardest parts are over. 11pt is by far more accessible to waders than the NFOW. For the NFOW if you don't have a canoe or kayak, I would look into Sunburst ranch or canoe/kayak rentals or shuttles.

[Danielbauman]

11 hours ago, billym100 said:

Barren Fork was a tricky one for me as well, was fortunate enough to luck into a really nice colored up rainbow to achieve my silver on the slam. Seems we have a lot in common, as I am headed to college this fall and I also only have the NFOW and the Eleven Point to go. Best of luck to you, maybe we will run into eachother on the water. 

Awesome looking fish! Haha you have to have a lot more than luck to hook into a rainbow like that on that creek. Guess you saved the big rivers for last as well. Can't wait to hit the 11 point; it's my favorite trout stream and float in the state.