Fall Fishing Outlook

A picture is worth a thousand words....

With a LOT of the canoe traffic slowing down, the nights cooling off, and already some leaves changing color it is time to look at the outlook for fall fishing. Besides, when you see temps in the high 40's in late August--you can't help but to look forward to fall fishing.
Usually when we think of fall fishing we think about water levels being low and crystal clear, not so much this year. We had a great summer with water levels staying as close to the 60 year average as we have seen in a while so the low and clear water we usually have this time of year really isn't there. With an above average prediction for rainfall in September we are looking (and hoping) for water levels to do very well.

With the water levels being higher than they typically are this time of year we are taking full advantage of it, we are still fishing bigger flies, and above that we are still getting away with heavier tippet. You see, the peak of the colors changing is pretty close to the peak of the brown trout movement as they get started in their spawn....which makes using 4x tippet to any given nymph and 3x + on streamers incredibly helpful and landing any "pig" you happen to hook--we like that ;)

Finding the fish is usually pretty easy in the Fall. The deeper tailouts and deeper riffles are the go-to without a doubt. I have said it a thousand times but it demands to be said again, if you see a drop-off fish it HARD, especially in a faster running tailout. While nymphing, nymph DEEP (another thing I can't stress enough) lose flies! If you are a fan of stripping streamers jump all over ANY chance you get this fall...basically any low-light situation be it early morning, late evening, cloudy, rainy--all of this equals good stuff for streamers. Be aggressive with it, if I am personally stripping streamers for fishing I am not going to mess around--give me big and nasty and I'll strip it back like my life depends on it, unless the fish tell me otherwise. :P

The most beautiful time of year equals awesome fishing....even if the fishing is tough.

Brian Wise

Head Guide

River of Life Farm

http://www.riveroflifefarm.com/

April Fishing Report

April brought us many ups and downs as far as fishing goes on the North Fork of the White.....and most of those ups and downs were the water levels. :)

All in all fishing was real steady even with the fluctuating water levels. Of course fishing on the miles of access at River of Life has been real good too. The key to catching fish on slightly higher water levels are to fish REALLY DEEP(sometimes 9+ feet under an indicator) The fly of the month....the Rubber-Leg Stone that has been catching us a ton of fish this spring, along with San Juan worms, Mohair Leeches, and Psycho Princes--all of which can be found in the grab bag of flies in the store in the lodge at ROLF.

Brian Wise

Head Guide

River of Life Farm

http://www.riveroflifefarm.com/

A great letter from a world class fly fisherman and ROLF guest.

Dear Myron,
My name is António Rodrigues, from Portugal and i met you last october. I was with John Wilson giving the Chech Nimph Class (Of the Conclave)in front of your house! I have some pictures of that day and i want to share those with you! Thanks to alloud us to use your Wonderfull Farm, to give that lesson, and also (for me) to visit one of the most beautifull places i ever saw!And Easter is time to share! God bless you and all McKee's family!
Best Wishes
From Portugal
António Rodrigues - Tony

Fishing Report 3-28-2009

-After a night of rain Friday night/early Saturday morning I met Jack and Brett at the Mountain Log Lookout Cabin, we talked a little about what the water may do. Everything was great so we decided to put the drift boat in. This was NOT a beautiful Spring day, temps started out in the mid 40's and dropped out quickly...add a cold rain and some pretty strong winds to that it you could say it was fairly brutal.

-Floated from ROLF to Blair. The morning started off nicely, catching fish and having hook-ups consistantly. About mid-day we noticed that the water was coming up nicely (not too fast but coming up) and then it got a little dirty and the fishing slowed WAY down. At one point I thought that it really looked and seemed like the water was going down but that didn't last long until it started coming up again slowly. It turns out I was actually right and looking at the graphs that is exactly what the water did. It was a lot like the tailwaters only not so dramatic.

-As the water changed so did our style of fishing. I had one guy fishing a NASTY nymph rig with a huge stone and a San Juan Worm and the other guy with a double streamer rig. The double streamer rig (that was being drifted at the time) got a huge take and the fish literally ran 30' in about 4 seconds, one of the most stout runs I have ever seen. Got the fish to the net and it was a super nice 20+" rainbow.

Had a great time with a couple of fellow Mountain Bikers! :-)

Brian Wise

Head Guide

River of Life Farm

Fishing Report 3-13, 14, & 15, 2009

I don't want to sound like a broken record but floated from ROLF to Blair all 3 days (3 different groups of people) and all saw very good fishing including a couple of guys that had never fly fished.
Hands down the Psycho Prince is tearing them up this Spring and the regular Rubber Leg Stonefly with the Psycho Prince dropped off of it has been the ticket most days. But the suprise for all 3 of these days was a GREAT dry fly bite in the afternoon. BWO's and Caddis were coming off but it was the BWO that they were rising for, and rising often....and vicously! :) Best dry fly of the 3 days was a #14 Parachute Adams.

Did I mention we had a little fun?

Brian Wise

Head Guide

River of Life Farm

Fishing Report March 6 & 7, 2009

I had the opportunity to take Keith, Nick, and Jimmy from Chicago on the North Fork for a couple of days. Water levels had been really good and the weather was more than cooperative.


We put the boat in at ROLF and decided to float to Blair on the first day. I could write a riffle-by-riffle report but it would be easier to say that every stop and drifting in the boat between those stops produced fish. Fishing was great. Didn't catch anything big but the numbers were through the roof!

A Psycho Prince being the number one fly for the day.

After having such a good time the day before we decided to take the same float and target some bigger fish. Although we didn't catch anything huge we did end up with a couple of 16" rainbows and a fat brown for the day. The fly of the day was a toss-up between the Psycho Prince and a Rubber-Legs.




Had a great time.....and fishing was fantastic!




Brian Wise
Head Guide
River of Life Farm

Fishing Report 2-21-09

Before starting a crazy month of guiding coming up in March I had the opportunity to fish with a buddy. 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. 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. 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 excitement on my face.

Had a great time. And for a little more info on the river, it does look like the really, really nice 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.

Brian Wise

Head Guide

River of Life Farm

2009 Spring Fishing Outlook

With the temperatures hitting 70+ today (February 7) I thought it was time to take a look at what to expect for spring fishing on the North Fork of the White River.
As most of us remember last year epic floods moved through the area and at one point an Ark was handling the river better than my drift boat. All we can do is hope that this year those floods don't have as much of an impact as they did last year.

Gear-wise, your standard 9' 5wt is going to cover a lot of different scenarios on the NFOW. But those of us who enjoy using some lighter tackle Spring is a great time to break out a 3wt for swinging wet flies or tossing some dries. I have a tendency to use a long leader but 9' 3-5x leaders will cover all your bases there, while 4-6x tippet will do you well.

Spring-time is, of course, a great time for hatches. From Blue Winged Olives, Caddis, Mays, Stones, and on and on the hatches on the NFOW are solid. To match these hatches make sure to bring #14-18 Adams, #14-18 Blue Winged Olives, #12-16 Elk Hair Caddis, #12-16 Cracklebacks, and #14-10 Stimulators. A lot of the time you may run into one of these hatches and not see a single rise (or very few anyway) so also have in your arsenal some soft hackles, some general wet flies, and emergers to get the fish that are eating those bugs before they get to the surface...which is a super fun bite as well.

Nymphing is without a doubt the best way to fish the river any given day. When nymphing make sure you are deep, DEEP. I can't say it enough, if you are nymphing make sure you are deep enough that you are going to lose some flies--or at least come close. :) Probably the best rig for nymphing the NFOW is going to be a heavy stonefly with a smaller nymph as a dropper. The dropper can be one of an array of different flies like Princes, Hares Ears, Psycho Princes, Red Fox Squirrel Nymphs, San Juan Worms, and so on.

Fish Hard, Nymph Deep, and Tight Lines,

Brian Wise

Head Guide

River of Life Farm