I think most FATC members would say Missouri is blessed with many good rivers and streams, but to my mind the North Fork of the White River north of Tecumseh, MO is the wildest and most beautiful river in the state. Long stretches of it run through remote, and unmolested forests. Once you’ve floated a few miles of it you begin to appreciate that it is one of the last all-natural, undammed coldwater fisheries in the Ozarks. It is somewhat strange because it begins as a smallmouth bass stream with headwaters near Mountain Grove, MO almost 60 miles north of Tecumseh. The coldwater influx occurs at Rainbow Spring and then the river gains more gallons from other springs and from creeks like Brant Creek. With the cool spring water onboard the North Fork continues south finally flowing into the White River and filling Norfork Lake in northern Arkansas.
The North Fork has a naturally reproducing population of rainbow trout. Brown trout are still stocked there. The river is listed by the Missouri Department of Conservation as a Blue Ribbon Trout Area for 8.6 miles after those springs and as a Red Ribbon Trout for another 7 miles after that.
So why isn’t the N. Fork higher on more fly fishermen’s list these days when they talk about catching trout? There are some theories about this and most of them revolve around the loss of a dam that separated the river from Norfork Lake just before the border with Arkansas and a massive flood in March 2017 that changed things on the river. That flood not only swept some 30 homes and the property of outfitters downriver, it also caused water to run unimpeded by a breached dam (named Dawt Mill dam). This allowed predator fish species like striped bass, hybrids, walleye and gar into the river. And it also took away trees that provided shade that kept the river cooler in the summer months.
So now that the river, or at least the lower part of it, is a multi-species waterway with more fish competing for crawfish, baitfish, insects and other food sources, the number of trout per mile has dropped.
Six years after the flood various ideas are floating around to try and return the river to the grand trout-catching place it once was. These ideas include rebuilding the dam (the owner doesn’t have the half a million dollars to do that) and restocking rainbows. Many who fish the river say that would change the spirit of the now native, reproducing rainbow. Meanwhile the river continues to look like it should contain monster trout and occasional catches indicate those trout are still there sharing the river with three-foot long stripers and gar. But the trout seem elusive and hard to catch.
Dan Staggenborg and I, Al Harper, decided to float and fish the North Fork 6/12 and 13/22 in a drift boat to see how it was doing. We had floated it last July but it was really too high and fast then to do a thorough job of fishing it (see that trip report here if interested: https://www.flyfishersatthecrossing.org/trips-floating-the-north-fork-of-the-white-and-the-white-river/).
Again we found the river just as visually appealing as ever and this year it was at a more manageable 750 cfs flow. Unfortunately that flow didn’t make the trout or smallmouth much easier to catch. In fact, because the fish are wilder here, one must take pains to try to cast well ahead of the boat while drifting down stream to prevent spooking the fish. Despite these factors and glaring sunshine that helped generate temperatures in the upper 90s, Dan managed to catch a huge smallmouth nymphing. He went on to catch other smallmouth slightly smaller in size and the occasional panfish as well. I caught a nice rainbow when it rushed up and attacked a streamer at one of the springs cascading into the river. The water was so clear we saw lots of fish feeding on the bottom and we even tried throwing a popper in hopes of getting smallmouth that way but didn’t have much luck with that. It just turned out that fishing was more or less a secondary activity while we enjoyed a 12-mile float on a pristine river. It made us feel a little better to learn that the owner of the property where we camped was also a fishing guide who had recently switched to guiding for striped bass only. He had despaired of disappointing clients hoping to catch trout. And yet he related that someone had landed a very big brown trout (in the upper 20” range) just a day or two ago on his river frontage property. We saw one striper during our float and it was a large and impressive specimen. The mainstay of his business remains people floating the river and enjoying the natural beauty of it.
Dan and I weren’t too disappointed in the reduced catch we experienced because we took a day and drove over to nearby Rockbridge Trout and Game Ranch for the practically guaranteed catching of large rainbow trout which was great fun as well.
Note on photos: the stringers we’re holding up we’re from Rockbridge, the rest from the N. Fork.
Al Harper
