FLY FISHING MISSOURI? YES MISSOURI!

By David Grossman

When first approached by our new found friend Kyle Kossovich, of Long Boat Outfitters, to make the trek to Missouri to fish and film I was more than a little skeptical.  I mean I know the N. Fork of the White River in Missouri is just a hop, skip, and a jump to Arkansas where the trout fishing is incredible, but Missouri? Yeah, I thought I was being sold a bill of goods, and that swamp land in New Jersey never quite worked out as promised.  But we loaded up the truck and the boat and set out on a cross-country voyage that I nay say would leave me a changed man.  Not really changed so much as in desperate need of a shower, and shave but we’ll get to that later.

The first day-and-a-half of the trip would involve smallmouth bass, goggle-eyed bass, and numerous other warm water species.  We worked our way down river popping some nice bass and other various species along the way.  The real treat of this float is that the upper sections of the river lie in the Mark Twain National Forest and therefore gravel bar camping and multi-day floats are the preferred methods to get the whole wang dang doodle experience.

We got into camp around 4pm.  We had only been on the river for three or four hours but it already seemed like we had checked into the Hotel Wilderness. The gravel bar we camped on reminded me of something you would see on the Flathead or the Smith up in Montana but definitely not the Midwest.  Just goes to show you, you are never to be old to be surprised.

After we had set up all the proper accouterments, we had a great camp-cooked meal and settled into that great campfire game of musing on the ways of women, money, and trout.  A good night sleep was had by all.

The next day was much anticipated as about halfway through our float, Rainbow Spring started dumping millions of gallons of cold water into the river, which means that my favorite fish would be making an appearance sometime today.  I had done my research on the river and there haven’t been any rainbows stocked in years.  Browns are stocked but hold over pretty well as the spring dumps cold water into the system year round much like a bottom released tailwater.  The magic happened over a two-hour period where Ryan, Kyle, and my man Chris stuck the three best fish of the trip.  When it rains it pours. Ryan was first; I didn’t see the take as I was in the boat behind him.  I did almost run him over, not once but twice trying to net the fish from the boat as he was fighting the thing in a wicked current.  He eventually reeled in a nice bow despite the multiple factors working against him.  Chris and Kyle doubled up on their giant rainbows and we all had smile for the rest of the day.  The remainder of the trip was spent throwing large streamers to large fish and even hooking a few of them. 

After this trip I can definitely say that Missouri has a serious trout fishery in the N. Fork of the White River and needs to be respected.  Keep an eye out for a CWO sponsored trip to Arkansas and Missouri next year to chase some of the monster trout that live there