In the "humdrum" existence of Fly Fishing the Ozarks I have kind of neglected my home river and the river I learned this crazy sport on--the North Fork of the White.
Anyway...
Before starting a crazy month of guiding coming up in March I had the opportunity to fish with a buddy. Fly Fishing the Ozarks Contributor and Ozark Chronicles Czar Matt Tucker came down from St. Louis after I sent him several emails about the incredibly nice water that we have now. It had also been a while since either one of us really had the opportunity to shoot some on-stream photos besides regular fish photos.
We started the day by putting the drift boat in at the dirt (read MUD) "ramp" at Kelly Ford which is always a fun experience in itself and I'm pretty sure I have donated several pairs of wading boots to the mud....never to be found again. But as soon as the boat hit the water it started snowing...big snowflakes. Turns out that was probably the warmest part of the day as the wind really blew later in the afternoon and it was a "too the bone" kind of wind.
Water levels were around 740 cfs which usually equals crazy-good water for drifting. We rowed up to Lamb and nothing happening so we drifted through to Kelly--made 3 drifts at Kelly and landed as many fish. We hit another stack of fish below McKee Bridge and caught several, several fish in one spot.
Ok, so pretty much every stop and pretty much all riffles produced fish the rest of the day so lets get on to the photos. 
Even caught a nice......sucker.....yeah, that is a look of pure unbridled excitement on my face. There is nothing like setting the hook and seeing that golden brown flashing from the depths to find out it's a sucker instead of a big brown. It was painful.
Had a great time. And for a little more info on the river, it does look like the really sexy water we have now will be holding on for a little while. The fall-out is really slow and with some rain coming later this week hopefully it will hold on that much longer. Don't be shy about fishing 700cfs and under, it can be some of the best water levels to fish the river. It doesn't make wading an already sketchy wading river any easier so watch your step and remember....most of the time you won't have to make a very long cast to catch these fish at higher levels so wading out real far and casting into the SUPER fast water really isn't necessary (you wouldn't stand in it so why would a fish hang out in it for very long) hit the seam.
For the rest of the photos shot during this outing click here
