Spring on the North Fork of the White

2013-05-05

Long, but productive, day today. Left STL at 230am and floated the NFOW twice (lower section) with Dan Ritter and the guys from Chasing The Dream. We boated quite a few and stayed busy with plenty of chases, and even moved a couple of big fish…but no joy. Left the NFOW around 1pm, and headed for the Current to see what it looked like at 1600cfs at Akers. Cedar grove bridge was just covered and the water at Welch was moving….going to have to lower the max to about 1200. Could have probably floated Tan Vat to Cedar Grove in the boat today though. Good times as always, hope everyone else got out.

The Current River; Cedar Grove to Akers Ferry

2013-03-30pic002800pxThere are not many rivers in Missouri that allow trout fisherman to float in a drift boat through a National Park, but the Current River is one of them and at 825 CFS on the Akers Ferry guage, the Current River is just too damn sexy of a river to pass up.  This is a float that Paul Chausse, Dan Held, and myself have been wanting to do for quite some time, but we were always waiting for the right river level, but Saturday, March 30, 2013, was the day.  We put together this two boat exploratory trip to see how the section of river from Cedar Grove Conservation Area to Akers Ferry fished out of a drift boat.  This trip I was joined by Evan Muskopf and Brian Carr in my boat and Paul Chausse had Dan Ritter and Craig Peterson in his boat.  It was a good group of guys and we knew we were in for a good day on the water as we hooked up with a rainbow on a streamer within the first 30yds of our float and the day only got better….particularly with Brian Carr’s antics of finding interesting ways to fall into the river.  We had a lot of fun this trip.  This section of river is part of the Ozark National Scenic Riverway National Park and is an absolute joy to float through with plenty to see.  While we didn’t put huge numbers of trout in the boat, we all caught enough fish to keep us interested and the structure on the river and the scenery were more than enough to fuel us to get back down and do this float again.  Out of a drift boat, this float is probably floatable down to around 425cfs or so at Akers Ferry.  Here are the photos from our trip.

North Fork of the White Harlem Shake

2013-03-02pic024800pxA day trip to the North Fork of the White River is always a blur.  We rolled out of my driveway at 2am to pick Dan Ritter up on the way for a quick day float with the Chasing the Dream Crew from Oklahoma and Brian Wise of Fly Fishing The Ozarks.  It was also the first fly fishing trip that my dad has taken with me in my drift boat; he even went out and bought waders for the occasion.  The entire day was a blur, the flows were perfect for throwing big streamers and my Dad, Ritter, and I set out in my boat to float from ROLF to Sunburst and then Patrick Bridge to Sunburst Canoe Rental’s Lower Landing, and Brian Wise, Chris Richardson, and Chance Maxville set out in Chance’s skiff to do the same.  There was a lot of hooting and hollering and it is always a good time on the river with those guys.  Too many stories to recount so long after the trip  some of the highlights included someone in Chance’s boat pulling a big log of a tree limb crashing down onto the boat, a viking landing at Sunbrust, and subsequent Harlem Shake video, and my dad absolutely cleaning up on drop-shotting trout with his ultra light rod set-up.  All in all it was a great day on the river.  We didn’t roll back into the driveway until 11pm that night, so it was definitely a full day…..but the next time the river is at 1000cfs….you know where I will be.  It was a great way to reconnect with my dad on a fishing trip, after way too many years.

Here is a link to the Chasin’ The Dream write up from this trip — Click here for their take on this trip.

Here is a link to the YouTube video of the Harlem Shake video we filmed at Sunburst Canoe Rental — Click here for the video.

Here are the photos from this trip.