Meremec Spring Park, Phelps County, March 30th, 2010: Water is high and fishing was challenging

The warm weather may finally start to be upon us....got an opportunity to fish Meremac Spring on my way back from Springfield for a couple of hours. Arrived around 3 p.m. and fished until about 6:00 p.m or so. Used just my fly rod on this trip. This park can be a challenge on a fly rod, at least in my opinion, due to the fact that there are no zones. So you can be throwing flies and the next guy 10' from you is throwing Power Bait. I think that can throw it off for fly fishing sometimes. Let it be said, I have nothing against Power Bait....matter of fact, I have an entire kit dedicated to bait and artificial fishing. I may come back later and do some bait fishing, matter of fact....this would be a good park to do so.

Used several jigs in different colors, as well as both an orange and red San Juan Worm, which I thought would tear them up. This park is famous for drift fishing plastic worms w/ small bobber, wacky rigged....maybe next time?

Fish ON!

MLT

Roaring River, Cassville, MO. March 17th, 2010: Trout hit on San Juan Worm

Got to the Roaring River around 3:30 or so...I was on my way from Joplin to Branson, so I had a couple of hours this week to get into the water for a short spell. Fished just zone 2 (Flies, Catch and Release only) at Roaring. This is one of my favorite areas in one of my favorite parks..had this streach of the river all to myself. Threw some Wooley buggers first, then a few brown/tan Zebra Nymps with no success. The river is real low right now and gin clear....I went ahead and tied on some 7x tippet as well, just to give myself a better shot at getting on a fish.

Hiked past the first riffle into a deeper, slower moving pool area and switched to a red San Juan worm with a yarn strike indicator. Caught this gorgous fish on my 4th cast out....barely knew I have one on...was getting ready to pull it back to cast again and there it was!

Very nice sized Rainbow Trout! Largest one I have caught on the fly rod this year! Kingfishers were going crazy....spring must be right around the corner. Left around 6:00 p.m. .....started to really cool down. Cannot wait to get back to Roaring River!

Fish ON!

MLT

Bennett Spring, Laclede County, MO April 14th: Fishing a little slow, nice day to be out

Turned out to be a really nice day, a bit chilly, but nice. Was out a few hours and stuck w/ the fly rod....threw nymphs, San Juan worms, white and brown jigs, with no success...seemed like the fish were scattered about.....there were some people catching them right below the falls.

The muscrat video is pretty cool....these guys are getting busy! Spring is here!

Fish ON!

MLT

Montauk SP, Current River, April 11th: Great day to get out!

Great day to get out on the water at Montauk SP. Trout are looking good, the weather was the best you can hope for. Started off in the fly zone, fished the deeper pool first with a nymph. No success, so I hiked into were there were some runs and pools. Lost one on a nymph, and later in the day in the fly area lost one on a red San Juan Worm.

What I like most about fly fishing is you learn something everytime you go out. My knots on the flies were improved cinch knots....I know that if I would have tied a Berkely knot (just like a cinch, except it goes throught the eye twice) I would not have lost as many. I was using a really thin tipped (8x), so I am going to try that next time.

After lunch, grabbed my spinning gear and fished from the bridge down. Last year, this was the spot that had all of the trees shoved under it......caught my biggest trout of 2008 at this spot. The trees have moved and it is much different now...not much success

The family came with me, so it was great to do some other things as well (took a hike around the upper spring area, Lake Montauk, etc). The weather could not have been any nicer- 70 degrees and sunny.

Fish ON!

MLT