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.