Dan and I had an enjoyable trip down to the North Fork River
and also nearby Rockbridge in southern Missouri. The river
trip was with a guide, Shelby, who we both really liked. We caught a number of
relatively small to medium fish, but it was nice that each of us caught a very
nice sized fish as well, all were rainbow trout except one small brown. Best
flies were the wolly bugger, rubber legged prince nymph, and I experimented
with a chartroose glo ball for a while and caught 4 or 5 on that. We went from Rainbow Springs to Blair bridge,
which has some really nice water, and beautiful scenery, about 6 miles. I was really impressed with how many cabins
that Myron has finished there at River of Life. Shelby had a ClackaCraft boat
with anchor spots on front and back to stand and cast; very nice. Even the
lunch was very nice. A very enjoyable day trip all around. We decided to take a
few big fish home from Rockbridge trout park. The water was running just a little high, and also
impacted by a recent flood which put a lot of small rainbows in the park. And
some areas had a muddy coating which made some areas EXTREMELY slippery to
walk. Each of us caught 10 – 12 nice
sized ones, all in the 1 – 3 pound range, averaging a little over 2 pounds. Their restaurant food was also very good as
usual. The spring creek that runs through their park runs into the Bryant
Creek, which eventually runs into the North Fork above the lake. While fishing
the first day, one of my boot soles came half off, so I’m very glad I brought a
backup pair with me. Weather was a little cold, but warmed up decently during
the day with some sun (teens & 20's in the morning, then mostly 40’s). The best flies I think overall were the
woolly buggers and then especially the rubber legged princes that Dan brought.
I even caught a couple of fish on a small purple fly that Shelby’s son made, and caught several in the river on a chartreuse glo ball.
