Bennett Spring, Laclede County, MO March 15th 2010: Some Success on Nymph fishing

I got a chance to fish Bennett Spring for about 2 hours on my way down to Joplin Monday. I had to re-spool my fly line onto my reel, and it was tangled up, so the first 40 min. was dedicated to getting that task done.

Hit one of my favorite spots in Zone 1 fly waters. Weather was overcast and cool. Started throwing a brown bead head Wooley Bugger, with no success.....As I was in the water, I noticed a hatch going on, so I switched out to a brown/tan zebra Nymph w/ a yarn strike indicator (was using a 7.5' leader, by the way. Got the trout to hit as I was still rigging it up. Lovely fish, lovely day! Short visit this time.....

Fish ON!

MLT

Montauk SP, Current River, March 10th, 2010: Weather held out-not bad!

The weather looked to be bad up in the St. Louis area, so I decided to head south for one of my favorite places to stream fish in Missouri- Montauk SP and the Current River. It was overcast all day with some moments of drizzle....it stayed cool- around 40 degrees all day. I am glad I was able to dress warm. I just got a TFO Lefty Kreh rod at Feathercraft Fly shop (off Manchester by the Innerbelt/40- very knowledgeable) and I really was wanting to use it it bad....I have been having some casting challenges, especially in casting Wooley Buggers and heavier jigs, so I wanted to help fix that this year. The rod, along with some study of what I have been doing (too much wrist) really helped.

I got to the park around 8:00 a.m. and went to the fly only waters first. Hit a nice hole right by a big rock and caught a couple of trout right off the bat with Brown bead-head Wooley Buggers. Was not able to hook enough to land. I think I figured out what the challenge was- I had my rod in my sleeve to keep me from using my wrist when I cast....unfortunately, I think you really need your wrist to set the hook....hmm, real dilemma. They hit them real hard, however.

Got some lunch and came back, but there were 4-5 people "asses and elbows" on the hole, so I decided to go down river. That is the only thing I do not like about the trout parks. If you find a spot, you really need to hog it to keep it.

Went past the park and fished the Current River right around Tan Vat Access point....that is where I got the "moment of Zen" video. Did not catch anything in this area, but I belive there are fish...I just was not able to get on them.

Cannot wait to go back!

Fish ON!

MLT

Meremec Spring Park, Phelps County, March 4th 2010: First Trip of new year

This has been a very unusual winter we are coming out of in Missouri. Usually by this point, I had quite a few trips either to Busch Wildlife to fish the winter trout, or the trout parks for the weekend catch and release season. Seems like the last time I went fishing was in November. This has to be the coldest winter I can recall in a real long time.

This is a short report....fished the spring for a couple of hours in the afternoon after work. Used the fly rod.....all I have to say is that you would think that I had not ever used one. My casts got better towards the end of the day, but really was rough the first hour or so. Threw some wooley buggers and a copper john nymph with no success....the day was most beautiful, however, and the tranquility was just what I needed.

This is going to be the best year ever in regards to fishing and kayaking.....see you on the water!!

Fish ON!

MLT

Bennett Spring, Laclede County, MO. Oct 29th: Streaming Wolley Buggers is the key!

Arrived at Bennett Spring around 2:00 p.m. and had a chance to hit the water for a couple of hours....fished it about 2 1/2 hours. A big rain front was moving in for later, so I was curious how well the fishing would be....either real good or real bad.

I spent the whole time in the spot right below the first falls. Flow was very sporty and was at a nice pace. Some things I have learned this year as an angler: I think 9' leaders will work better for you in most applications opposed to the 7.5' leaders.....just a thought. When I rigged up this time, I made sure to strip off the tippet and tied on 5x tippet for stripping wooley buggers.

Cast out into the current and let the current strip out the bugger....got it down stream about 15' and then slowly stripped back to me....so the wooley bugger was actually swimming up river. Caught (3) trout using this method. I was using this technique right in the seam of the river (where the fast pace hits the slack water). I really enjoy this technique to acquire trout. It seems like as we get later in the year, this is a great method (opposed to dead drift fishing nymphs).

Even if I was not to catch a trout one, the day was absolutely gorgeous and well worth the couple of hours spent...what a great day!

Fish ON!

MLT

Montauk SP, Current River, Oct. 25th: Fished in and out of the rain

The weather was very changeable on this day, but we decided to head out super early....we have had so much rain this month! My sister got a new pair of waders and we wanted to try them out, so we headed down to Montauk on the Current River. This is one of my favorite parks and probably the least fished due to location.

When we got out on the water, we hit the fly waters first. I was in the water for a while and noticed a hatch. I also noticed that there were trout together right in front of a rock coming up and hitting on things towards the top near the film of the water. I took the wooley bugger off and tied on a really, really small emerger type nymph and cast out in front of where they were at. Second cast caught a really nice one. Seemed like it took at least 10 min. to land it...I had really thin (7x) tippet tied on, so I did not want to horse it in and either break the tippet or leader. I was also upstream from where it struck, so that made it a bit of a challenge as well.

Jenni did not fare quite as well, but she was still getting accustomed to the spinning rod and rooster tails. We will get her started off on the fly rod once she masters the spinning outfit.

Took a lunch break and it was raining very, very hard. We sat in the car for awhile afterwards, and then decided to get the rain gear on and fish anyway....like some kind of a miracle, the sun came out, and the rest of the day ended up being better than the first half!

Fish ON!

MLT

Roaring River, Cassville, MO. October 14th & 15th: River up, Trout hitting on Wooley Buggers big time

I got a chance to get on the Roaring River for two short spells this week. I got a new pair of waders (we finally retired the old Hodgeman waders due to leaks that we could just not fix) so I wanted to give them a try out as well. They performed excellent and were so much lighter than the old Hodgman rubber/canvas one boot waders. I got a pair of Simms goretex w/ seperate felt soled boots....big difference!

The first visit I got out on the water around 4:00 p.m.--fishing closes at 6:30, so I only had a couple of hours to really fish. My favorite part of Roaring River is the fly fishing/catch and release waters. Started off throwing a Zebra Midge...I have had success throwing these along with a yarn strike indicator. The water is up about 5-7 " with quite a pace, so I figured maybe I should move to something else. Tied on a grey wooley bugger and started to get hits right off the bat. Caught a nice one right before the horn went off, but it snapped the tippet I had on....I had a 7X tippet tied. After some thought, I realized that the tipppet really needs to be adjusted to the water conditions. Light tippet is great if you have gin-clear waters that are low and especially if you are fishing midges, but for these conditions, and throwing heavier flies like wooley buggers, I realized I would need something like a 5 or 6x tippet. Weather was overcast, cold, with moments of drizzle....perfect!

The next day, I came back to the same spot. I only had a two hour break, so I knew I need to be more efficient. I changed the tippet out to a heavier one (5x) and started to throw grey cone bead wooley buggers with a couple of pieces of split shot as well to get it down in the water column.

Here is a technique that worked out really well for me. Cast straight out into the current, and then start stripping line. got it about 20' downstream, then started to slowly stripping it back...got it right in the seam where the main current and the slack water hit. These streams are like a conveyor belt of food for the trout, so that was the perfect spot. Caught 4 trout that day using this technique. Cool and totally overcast skies. I think this brought the trout out of structure and into the main channel.

fish ON!

MLT