NoLuck

Just remember if you can't hang meat in there it's too warm Jerry. LOL

Troy, I'll take 4 of the leaders when you get to them. I'm beginning to wonder if lighter colors may be better. But I'll take 2 olive and 1 black and white. Surprise me with the 4th I guess with something you think has been better for dry fly fishing. No pink though!! Tell Em sorry... LOL The last weekend I was down was Memorial Day weekend and I fished my usual, plus olive and rust mostly. I also fished a red wine color with black bead that did well. None of them other than my usual had wire. The one thing that I noticed was that in slower water though was that you had to give them a little twitch occasionally. I was also using 6.5x tippet. Charlie has it in the Trout Hunter brand. Just make sure you wet the knot good before pulling it tight or it will weaken and break off your fly. Let me know when you get those leaders done and I'll get you my address. I'm at a different one than you sent them to last time. Thanks

Troy, Do you do thread leaders 4 ft long?? I Need a few for the bamboo rod. Like for them to be olive or light olive. Let me know and I'll get them if you can do them.

Good deal Jerry. Last weekend they were biting drys pretty good. Also did pretty well on most midge colors. You just had to change up occasionally. Enjoy your trip and let us know how it went. Hopefully the weather wil cooperate.

Yeah a little slower than my BIIT's. but you don't sacrifice much really. The only thing I've felt lacking is hook set a longer distances. But I contribute that mostly to being 7' long.

Building a rod has always interested me but I'm too impatient now days. Bill Oyster did a class at one time I know. He builds some of the finest cane rods available. But again you would have to to be retired or something to be able to do that. Hint hint!! I didn't have time so I researched rods and came up with Sweetgrass rods. It has an unconditional lifetime warranty which is a huge plus for me. Charlie Reading had his expo Memorial Day weekend and they had some nice stuff there. I was talking to one of the factory reps there and mentioned I was interested in a Sweetgrass rod and he told me that they had a table there with a couple to try out. Long story short I bought a rod and a Hardy Bougle' reel. The rod I bought had some upgrades from a standard Mantra series rod which made it a very nice rod over a standard Mantra rod. Plus they sold it as a demo for cheaper than a standard rod. All in all I came away with a really good deal on a better rod than I was going to buy anyway in a few months. I fished it the rest of the holiday weekending and it's a blast to fish. I won't give up my other rods but the bamboo rod will get fished quite a bit in the future. You're more than welcome when we get together down there to give it a test drive.

No problem Jerry. If you get down you can fish my new toy. Sweetgrass 4wt 7ft bamboo. It's amazing.

Jerry, I'm planning on being down on August 20-25th. That has been our yearly vacation when we originally started the get together. Maybe we can all get together then and live it up a little.

CG 5 is first come first served. All the others you'll need to make reservations.. They all have fresh water faucets so you can fill your tank with a hose. Just bring your hose and fill it up. CG 1 is full hook up. All have 30amp service plugs and 1 has 50 amp plugs. If you get there early even on a Friday sometimes it's slim pickins. But most weekdays you can pretty much have your pick of CG5. Don't forget to check with the check in shack for potential reservable sites that are available as well. Most weekends are pretty much all taken but you may get lucky.

Pat likes CG 5. If you don't need full hookup it's just fine. Just make sure you are upwind of the dumpsters. CG 4 has better showers but you can always use them wherever you are camping. Also remember when you back in with the popup that your beds need to extend out. Good luck on your retirement Jerry.

Laker I don't know where the problem is either with money handling. But I do know just sitting around complaining about it is useless without coming up with ideas to possibly fix it. I know without a doubt that this all can be fixed in a short period if the right people and tools are put in place. Sometimes heads need to roll. If the people in charge of the people that are failing aren't aware of the problems they may need replacing as well. The problem here is that you have people that don't live in the risk and reward life. When you get money from a source that is already allotted you have no clue what risk even is. Like any other government owned or state owned entity they haven't a clue of what it takes to run a successful business. If they had to run the hatchery operation on a business type model they would put out a better product. But when your paycheck is set in stone you don't have to produce in their situation. Somebody needs to be replaced if they can't get it done. Plain and simple.

Raise the price of the tags a dollar. Total of $4.00 is still ridiculously cheap. If people can't afford 4 bucks a day to fish then they need to pick up something cheaper. I can't figure what that may be.

Jerry, It changed last year in the quality of fish went down hill drastically. The park hasn't changed much since the last few years with the exception of the normal progression towards becoming the Branson of trout fishing. You know. A tourist trap where novice fishermen come to learn how to trout fish and have to buy everything they need from the park concessionaire. Lodging,float trips,souvenirs,tackle,snacks, and on and on. But having said all of that, I still enjoy being there with good friends and having a good time.

I feel the same way about the fish quality compared to what it once was. I find it funny that there is the same people chiming in and telling us to just relax and accept below standard fishing compared to past years. I can deal with crowds and I can deal with a lot of things but when I know how things could be it just torques me royally. Heaven forbid asking people to pay another dollar to pay for the feed if that is their big excuse for poor fish size. There is an answer to every problem. Some people may not like the answer but all you gotta do is take a stab at it. Sooner or later it will bite them in the back side.

It's become more of a show anymore. Kinda like an amusement park. Too bad Montauk doesn't have the same RV parks like around Bennett. I would be down there instead. But if it did,it would probably end up the same way. Fortunately I am getting to the point where I just don't really care if I catch bigger fish all the time. Sure it would be nice to be able to hook into them once in a while, but I'm just as happy with just getting down to the camper and relaxing. If its too crowded I just wait till it clears out. When the crowds come back to the stream I just go back and relax. Pat, maybe we can get you and Danny in that hillbilly to get a pic. Then we can post it on here. Heck maybe even go in the store and spend some cash t keep ole JR happy for letting you use his prop.

The weather don't really matter too much . I've been working 7 days a week since March 4th, 10 hour days. I've driven close to 8000 miles in that time span. Needless to say, I could care less if it rains or the sun shines. Hope we can get together and fish this year.

Headed down for a day trip on Saturday. Then it's off to KY for a couple weeks. Can't wait to wet a line.

I'll be home late next week for a Couple of days. Then I'll have to go to Kentucky for a couple weeks. After that I'm not real sure hopefully I'll be home and be able to do some fishing over the summer.

We always need guys to crawl pipe and 40k hydroblast if you still want to work Jerry. It's a nice cool job in the winter. You'll never have to worry about sweating. I promise.

Waiting on a report from Brittsnbirds.

It would appear that what we have been seeing on the cam with very little people has gotten the attention of the higher ups. Sooner or later it has to catch up to them. I begin to wonder if the people running the concessions want people to not catch bigger fish. That way they people would stick around longer and spend more money in the process. Hmmmm

Jerry, if Montauk had more places to put a camper like Bennett I would probably be there instead. You'll love it as long as the water is normal levels. When it gets low the fish are piled up in all the deeper holes and it crowds in the people. Fish my "GoTo Midge" and you will do well.

Let me know when Jerry. I'll try to make it.

Just a few more weeks and I'll give you a report and it won't matter if the fish are biting or not. I've had 2 days off since the 2nd of March.

The parts that have a lot of fish.