Missouri Blue Ribbon Streams

[jlynch]

I completed Missouri’s Blue Ribbon Streams a couple weeks ago and figured I’d give some insight into it. Always fun to explore more water! I was pretty impressed with the lack of people and cleanliness with all of them. Spring Creek and Mill Creek were probably my favorite, which are only about 20 minutes from each other.

Crane Creek- I imagine it’s probably been visited by most on this forum. Fun creek, averaging about 10’ wide or less with several areas to enter. Plenty of fish to be had and all types of water. Closest to Oklahoma.

Spring Creek- Very similar to Crane in size, but I really enjoyed the setting more. Not quite as tight as Crane when it comes to casting and had some good size fish. Only one good spot to enter.

Mill Creek- Basically just like Spring creek, but even more open. Spring and Mill are a great mix of tight and open spaces with multiple features in short distances. Only a couple good spots to enter.

Little Piney- Wasn’t super impressed with it, a couple big bends and super shallow runs. A park sits along it so I can see people being a problem here and there. Nothing exciting in my book, but fish are available.

Blue Springs- Second most difficult place. Tight, small, and spread out. My 7’9” was almost too much. Pretty spooky fish and only got one or two casts before you had to hike to the next spot between real shallow runs. Two good spots to enter.

Current River- Definitely the busiest, but people didn’t really wanna hike so you could get away from the crowd easily. Small river with lots of browns and bows. You can drive a short ways and the river has something totally different to offer. Plenty of access and hungry fish.

Barren Fork- By far the most difficult. Clearest water and spookiest fish. Anyone that talks about how difficult Crane is would hate this place. Most of the fish holding water was 5’ wide. It’s a short run and private property splits the two spots. It’s also pretty far out there with no service for 30 minutes prior to arriving and somewhat difficult to find. Took me two trips to get one and had enough when I did. Great place to test yourself!

Eleven point- Most people float this river and it has fantastic scenery. Good medium size river varying all depths and also pretty far out there. I didn’t have floating planned for this river and stopped at the bridge, bushwhacked down to the bank and launched a big San Juan about 12’ deep on a couple split shot. Took me about 10 minutes to get one.

North Fork- Beautiful stretch and fun river to float! Got a raft and stopped at several places along the way. Appx. 11 miles takes 5-6 hours. Caught more browns than bows. Eager fish and has all kinds of water to choose from. Also has smallmouth and striper to get at this time of year. Definitely the best one to kill some drinks and time on and if someone isn’t fishing they’ll still enjoy themselves.

I’ll definitely visit several of these again and it was a good time. If you got any questions on where to enter, stay, ect. let me know. Just wanted to hopefully inspire some others to venture out! Of course it’ll never get old sippin on the flask on the LMF.

[turfdawg]

I would like to try this sometime.

[darrelln09]

Great report and accomplishment! Congratulations!

I only have 8 of 9 streams completed. Need to get one at the North Fork of the White. Tried for a few hours one afternoon but the flow was high and I just couldn’t get one to the net.

Your assessments are great, especially the Barren Fork, but I have to disagree a little on Little Piney. I think that stream is awesome. If you start at the campground and head downstream, there’s great water to fish for at least 3 miles. That place and Crane Creek are my all-time favorites with Little Piney being significantly larger, perhaps 3X wider in most places.

You can read my report here.

[jlynch]

Jul 13, 2021 5:32:10 GMT -6 darrelln09 said:

Great report and accomplishment! Congratulations!

I still have only 8 of 9 completed. Need to get one at the North Fork of the White. Tried for a few hours one afternoon but the flow was high and I just couldn’t net one.

Your assessments are great, especially the Barren Fork, but I have to disagree a little on Little Piney. I think that stream is awesome. If you start at the campground and head downstream, there’s great water to fish for at least 3 miles. That place and Crane Creek are my all-time favorites with Little Piney being significantly larger, perhaps 3X wider in most places.

You can read my report here.

Thank you. Well now I wish I searched before posting! Your report is great and very informative. After knocking out two steams so fast on day one I didn’t spend a lot of time at Little Piney due to wanting to cram as much as possible in. I didn’t venture that far down steam after seeing a somewhat long stretch of featureless water, but will do so next time I’m up there for sure. I can’t figure out how to get pics on here or I would of posted some of my favorites. If your not floating North Fork, Blair Bridge had great wade in access if your just passing through. I caught fish on every stream except the 3 bigger rivers with a size 20 olive RS2. Current was a size 12 stimulator, North Fork was a size 14 stonefly, and Eleven Point was the San Juan. Pulled a 19” bow out of Spring Creek, being my favorite fish of the trip.

[darrelln09]

1. I never would have guessed that Spring Creek would hold a 19” trout! All I saw were guppies. Perhaps it came up from Little Piney?

2. A small RS-2 is an amazing fly. I don’t doubt it was effective for you on those small streams. I usually use a dry fly because it won’t hang up in the shallows.

3. On the North Fork, I waded in at Patrick Bridge Campground and Blair Bridge Park with no luck at all. Didn’t get a bite or see a fish in either place. I wonder if there’s a reason that I was the only one fishing there? I finally did get some bites downstream of Blair where there is an island in the middle. I resorted to swinging a streamer but the current was so strong that I just couldn’t keep them hooked while trying to get them back up to my net.

4. For the most part I fished either dry flies or Euro-Nymphed with a heavy jig nymph and a lighter nymph above it. That plan of attack worked well for me.

5. Posting pics can be a challenge here. Normally I post them by using “Add Attachment” and then checking the “Insert” box when I start the upload. However, that’s been a problem lately because this website is out of storage space. Another option is to upload your pics to some other website (Dropbox, perhaps?) and then linking to it here. To see those options you have to use the “Reply” screen though, not the “Quick Reply”. Those options show up if you “Edit” one of your posts as well.

[jlynch]

ibb.co/b2y1Lf1

Maybe that link will do it. As much rain that’s came through the last few months I can imagine it’s allowed fish in those streams to get into new and further areas. He was sitting in a skinny deep trough early in the a.m.

I have yet to try Euro, but seems extremely effective.

As large and swift as the North Fork is I can see it being pretty difficult fishing if the water is up. If you managed the other 8 streams I imagine it was just an off day there!

[feathernfin]

Great to read this. I heard about the Missouri 9 recently and headed over to Crane--it being close to Grove, OK. Wicked shallow water with all of this drought weather. I did manage a fish, lost one and spooked a few. I fished for not much more than an hour as the wife and dog were along, but mission accomplished--I learned the access points and got a look at the water at both ends. I will sure go back when the water comes up. Crazy low.