Sunburst ranch and the North fork of the white river

Every fall or early winter I make a trip over to the Missouri ozarks to do some trout and smallmouth fishing.  Most times I will head to places that I know well, so I can assure myself that I will do well.  This trip I opted to head somewhere that I have only seriously fished a single time.  That was shortly after I had begun flyfishing, and I had little success.  I made arrangements for a car shuttle and made the 5 hour drive over to Sunburst ranch on Thursday morning.  After setting up camp and getting my rods rigged and ready to go, I had about 3 1/2 hours of daylight left.  I rigged up with a stonefly imitation and hit the water.  The first thing that I noticed is that the river in front of the campground had some great fishing water, and beautiful scenery.




I landed a small brown almost immediately, then went fish less for about 2 hours.  That is the typical experience I have had on this river...tough fishing.   These fish are not your typical trout.  The rainbows are stream bred and they require long drifts, good mends and flies that are deep.   I gave the river a rest for a while and made a sandwich and had a couple of brews. I tied on a streamer pattern and decided to just go with something that I know how to do well. I made it back down to the creek with about an hour of daylight left, and the fishing was epic.  In about an hour I landed an 17-18" brown, a 15" rainbow, and several small rainbows and browns.  In that hour of fishing, I caught more NFOW trout than I had in a full weekend of fishing on my last trip. 





















I was feeling pretty good after that hour.  If I didn't catch a fish for the rest of the trip, it would have been worth it.  I was up early to get ready for my car shuttle in the morning.   I took down camp, ate breakfast, and packed the car and had about an hour to kill before Justin ran my shuttle.  I headed down to the river with my streamer rod rigged.  I fished for about 30 minutes with nothing to show for my efforts.   Right around 8 am, a giant brown charged my streamer from the far bank.  It didn't take, but it hovered over some lightly colored sand and I could see it plane as day.  I made another cast and it charged it again, this time right up to me feet.  I made another cast and it made another lazy follow and disappeared back to the far bank.  I thought that I wouldn't get another shot at it, but tied on a different pattern and made a bad cast.  As I was picking up my slack line I saw the brown rush out and destroy the fly as it was sinking. I set the hook and the battle was on.  The fish somehow rolled and lassoed itself, so the fight wasn't that amazing but it was a hell of a fish.






What a start to a trip.  I still had a full day of smallie fishing, a night gravel bar camping, and a full day of trout fishing ahead of me.  I picked up some flies and Justin ran the car shuttle for me.  I put in a twin bridges and kind of just soaked in the scenery for an hour or so.  It was a cold morning, and the fishing was slow.  The scenery made up for the slow fishing.  The NFOW is beautiful in this section.  Big bluffs and complete solitude.  I didn't see any smallies until about 4 miles into the trip.  They were grouped up and really skittish.  When I found a group, I could usually only catch 1 or 2 fish before they would scatter.  When I set up camp, I had only caught around 5 fish.  I did pick up a few more around dark.




















I wake up the next morning well before the sun was up.  I took down camp, packed the canoe and started fishing.  Smallies were eating even before the sun was up.  I caught a bunch from the pool that I camped next too and few after I started floating.  Biggest was 16.5".







 



I made it down to the trout water, and didn't catch anything for a while. Then it happened.  I was deep nymphing a fast riffle and I had a take.  I set the hook and a giant rainbow cleared the water and took off downstream.  I cannot begin to describe how hard this fish fought on my 5 wt.  It took me nearly to my backing and I thought that I was never going to land it.  Luckily I did.  The picture isn't all that great, but it gives you an idea of how big it was.  I am guessing 18-19". 







So I am feeling really good right about now.  I decide to cross the river and fish the riffle from the other side.  I switch rods and throw a big pat's rubberlegs onto my 7 wt.  No more than 5 casts in, and get another big fish on.  It made a giant run and then came charging back upstream to me.  I could barely move it, and for a while I thought I was wrapped around some obstruction.  It just turned out to be a HUGE rainbow.  This was was over 20" and was the biggest rainbow I have ever caught. Again, not the best pictures, but I was just focusing on getting the fish landed rather than getting my camera set up.





 


At this point, I was pinching myself to make sure I wasn't still sleeping.  This trip will go down as one of the best of my life and I have a full day of fishing ahead of me.   I didn't catch anymore monsters, but I caught lots of fish and a couple of good ones.   I made it back to the campground around dusk.  I enjoyed some chili and beer around the campfire with some folks from Kansas city and I hit the hay around 10 pm.   What a trip it was.  

My 30th birthday floatfest

So I turned 30 last week.  My wife asked me what I wanted for my birthday, and of course I said I wanted to go fishing.  She somehow understands my passion for smallmouth bass fishing.  I decided to float 3 days solo on one of my favorite little creeks, and then spend 2 days floating with my wife and a couple of friends on the middle current river.  The night before a float trip is always restful sleep for me.  I am like a kid on the night before Christmas, there is no way I am going to fall asleep.  I was up before my alarm and made the 4 hour drive and arrived before the outfitters were even open.  About the time I got there, the skies opened up and it poured rain for about 45 minutes.  I caught the first smallmouth of the trip while I waited for the outfitters to open.  After I paid for my shuttle I made the drive to the put in, I had to wait about an hour to get on the river because of some heavy rain.  About 9:30, the rain stopped and the sun actually came out for a while.

This creek is beautiful.  I won't name it, because it doesn't need anymore pressure and I prefer to have solitude when I fish it.  When it comes to smallmouth, trust no one and keep your spots to yourself.  It saddens me to see more and more two track leading to these gravel bars, as I know there is probably a good deal of poaching going on here.  








The rain threatened most of the day, with thunder and lightning to the south.  Around lunch time a buck came barreling down a steep hillside and crossed in a riffle about 30 yards upstream of me.  Where are these when I am in my treestand?











The heavy rain started again around 4 pm.  I had to paddle about a half hour in some VERY heavy rain to get to my campsite, and the rain would continue until morning.  About 1:30 in the morning I left the tent to move my canoe up the gravel bar because I knew that the river would be rising overnight.  When I went back to the tent, the zipper became stuck in the rainfly.  As I tried to free it, the zipper ripped completely off of my tent. What a way to start my birthday. I was able to MacGuyver the door shut with some bungee cords to keep the door somewhat closed, but it was a very wet night.

 



I was ready to go at daylight the next morning since I slept very little through the night.What a way to start my birthday.  About 50 yards downstream from my camp the next morning, I caught a very good smallmouth.  I always have great luck when I go fishing on my birthday, and this day would be no exception.  The fish were slamming my homemade spinnerbaits, along with buzzbaits and WTD topwater lures.  I must have caught over 80 fish that day, and my thumb was worn absolutely raw by lunch time.  I caught 5 smallies over 17 inches, and the biggest was an even 18".  It was a great day, no rain and even some periods of sunshine.











I spent one more night on the river and drifted out to my car the next morning, catching around 30 fish on the way.  The largest fish of the trip was hooked this morning, but it threw the hooks on the LC sammy right at boatside.  This one was easily 19 inches and might have been 20.  Oh well, I will get it next time.






I then made the2 hour drive over to meet some friends in Van Buren.  They graciously allowed me to stay at a relatives cabin.  My wife made the trip over and they served us some incredible ribeyes and potatoes.  We had some drinks around the campfire and I met some longtime current river rats.  We were up early the next morning and made the long shuttle up to our put in.  We hadn't floated long,  but it was apparent that the lures I had been using the previous few days were not going to work this day.  The fish would follow them but not take.  Crankbaits seem to be working well, and shortly my friends canoe had a double hook up.  Rita with an 18.5 and Kevin with a 16.5.





No more than 100 yards downstream I hooked into a really good fish in swift water flowing over some large chunk rock.  This one was big, and measured 19.5 inches.  If I would have pinched the tail it may have stretched to 20".  It's tail was huge compared to a lot of smallmouth that I catch.







 Everyone was catching fish, and we had multiple doubles between the canoes, including a triple.  I managed to catch two fish on the same crankbait at one point.  My wife picked up a solid 15" fish. We saw no other floaters and only a single boat.  It was a great day.






We overnighted on a gravel bar and the full moon was beautiful. The mist the next morning did not burn off until nearly noon.  It stayed overcast and cool most of the day.  We floated the rest of the way down to van buren and saw very few people.





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I can't wait to get back.

Two days as a trout bum

Made my annual trip to my favorite ozark trout stream a few days ago.  Water was as low as I have seen it on this creek, but still floatable.   Crowds were light, and most were close to the access points.  It was an odd trip, plenty of warm water fish in areas that are primarily dominated by trout.  It didn't seem to displace the trout though, I caught them the length of the float. Fishing was pretty good....I fished streamers and rapalas quite a bit, and nymphed every good riffle or deep run.  I had two great browns take but not hook up and had another good one on for a short while. (note to self, tie more tandem hook streamers) They were chasing like crazy but the big fish would often bluff the fly.  Smaller fish would usually eat on the second cast.   Rainbow trout were easy to catch most mornings.  Sporadic trico hatches had fish in the riffles.  There were little brown trout in almost every riffle.


I spent the night on the river, so I had the opportunity to spend an evening and morning on one of my favorite stretches of the creek. Burn bans in effect, so no campfire.  Oh well, it certain makes it easy to keep camp organized. Can't wait to get back here in the fall.


 


 



Rainbow trout fishing was great at times, and average size was pretty good.

 



 


 




This was the big brown of the trip.   I missed the opportunity to hook two others this size, and had another one slightly smaller than this hooked for a short while.  Nothing better than watching those big browns inhale a streamer.



 








This is what a campfire looks like during a burn ban.  It is also a bug collector, and helps to ID the evening hatch.



 


 





Streambred.