Time: 10:15AM – 4:40PM

Location: Between Buford and Trappers Lake

North Fork of the White River 09/11/2025 Photo Album

What can I say? After a relatively tough day on the South Fork, Thursday on the North Fork could not have been any more different. The most obvious deviation was the weather. The sky was covered with huge gray clouds much of the day including a thirty minute downpour at lunch time. Fortunately I pulled on my rain shell in the nick of time and huddled under a dense cluster of deciduous trees. The temperature took a major dive from the low sixties, and I was pleased to be wearing my fleece hoodie and raincoat.

What Colors!

I chose the section of the North Fork to fish on Thursday, because I had the entire day, and I hoped to progress farther than previous visits. My mission was accomplished. For casting, I chose my Loomis two piece five weight, because I like the slow action and shorter length on the smaller stream.

Small Stream Beast

Long Pocket

From 10:15AM until lunch at 11:45AM I tallied fourteen trout. I was deploying a tan pool toy hopper and a beadhead hares ear much of this phase of my day, and both flies delivered outstanding results. Two splendid cutbows of thirteen inches were part of the morning haul.

Best Brook Trout of the Trip

After lunch and waiting out the storm, I resumed with a peacock ice dub hippie stomper and a salvation nymph. The combination produced with most of the action on the hippie stomper, but the salvation was mostly ignored. I decided I needed a larger nymph, so I swapped the salvation for a prince nymph. The change improved results, and the fish count climbed to twenty=six.

Another Colorful Masterpiece

Small Productive Pool

At this point, which was around 2:00PM, I weathered a slow phase, and I decided to test a double dry, since the nymph was attracting minimal interest. I snipped off the prince and replaced it with a size 14 light gray deer hair caddis. This double dry combination was magical, and the fish count mounted from twenty-six to forty-three. Both flies generated takes, but the caddis seemed more effective. Although the double dry yielded a steady stream of trout, I felt that the size of the fish was not as large as earlier catches. Some of this related to a higher proportion of brook trout.

Splendid

Sweet Spot

What a day! I covered a mile of the North Fork and racked up forty-three trout. Wading was difficult among the high gradient stream, and I was rather selective regarding targeted spots. It seemed that the ratio of twelve to fourteen inch rainbows and cutbows was lower than last year, but that could simply be fading memory. I will not nitpick over a forty-three fish day.

Fish Landed: 43

Another Pallet of Colors

Rare Open Area to Cast