FlyFishinFool

Old thread - but a quick comment and an opportunity for someone. Comment - I use the Glacier fingerless gloves and then ALSO use a Ketchum Release - keeps the hands (and gloves) dry and warm - only the exposed fingertips get cold or damp from the flyline. Opportunity - As of Monday 6/13 FeatherCraft in St. Louis has 2 pairs of Simms WeatherStopper fingerless gloves, size XL, on the clearance rack for 1/2 price - original price $35...these are last year's design (I don't know if you can get these via mail order - may be in store only). The new design has increased the price to $44 in the FC catalog. So first come first served - 2 pr XL Simms WeatherStopper fingerless for $17.50 - really good price!

Conservative?...Liberal?...I was asking about flycasting and spectators. I would hope it is possible to have a discussion without attaching names/labels. Unless you are talking about the morons who walk right behind me when I am casting!

For the last several years Charlie has been making several trips per year to a lot of exotic places including New Zealand, Christmas Island, Russia, Brasil, Patagonia, etc. - if anyone is interested he frequently sets these trips up as a small group trip and coordinates the logistics for local travel, lodging, etc - just ask him about the next trip!

When I have to pass behind someone who is fly casting, and there is not sufficient room for me to loop around them (e.g. I am forced to walk somewhat close behind them) I always watch their casting rythym, wait for them to throw a cast and/or mend the line, and then I tell them that I am going to walk behind them - and then I move through their backcasting zone as quickly and safely as possible. If another fly fisherman walks directly behind someone who is casting, I would assume (since they should be knowledgeable about casting a flyline and the dangers of fly hooks) that they have the responsibilty if they get hit because they failed to alert the caster. What about pure spectators? People who may have no understanding of fly casting, and may even want to get as close as possible to take a picture. Polite individuals will quickly walk through a caster's backcast between casts and only after announcing that they are walking behind the caster to warn him they are in the range of his backcast. However, if they quietly walk right up behind someone who has been casting and stand there, then they may well get hit/hooked. I saw a spectator get hit & hooked last year and the individual's friend wanted the fisherman to give him his personal information to cover the cost of going to a doctor to get the fly removed. Needless to say the fisherman declined to provide the personal information they had requested. As the spectators departed they made several crude comments about the fly fisherman not owning up to his responsibility. If people walk right behind someone casting a fly rod isn't it the spectator's responsibility to avoid the fly line? After all - the person casting does not have eyes in the back of their head. Just curious what other opinions are out there.......

Since the water is still up a little high, the current below the rock dam in zone1 may be too fast for kids to learn - they will have to deal with prety fast current. Also, the water will be a litle deeper than normal so they will have to stand closer to the shore, which means more backcast issues with trees and spectators. I agree that the long hole in zone2 is the best place for kids to gain experience, with a shallow easy sloping bottom, and lots of room to cast with a moderate current.

Al - I agree with most of your comments, everyone knows the fishing was always better yesterday (or tomorrow!) and what the fish are biting on is only for a few moments. My issue is the comments that the water level is normal and clear, when I was there a couple of days before and the water level was NOT normal and was NOT clear, and I left in the morning just before they had a gully washer of a storm that afternoon. Then a couple of days later they are stating the water level is near normal and clearing? This is nothing more than blowing smoke in the hopes that people will come down and spend money. All I had to do was check the USGS water gauge and it was obvious that the BSSP stream level was more than a foot above normal. So my comment still stands - MDC needs to get someone who gives accurate reports or just drop it off the fishing report altogether. I would prefer not to have their input than be provided obviously false information. And if that fishing report is full of manure, it reflects on all the other reports as well - how many of them are also just BS in hopes of folks coming down and spending money?

I agree, used to be much more accurate - now the Weavers fishing report is frequently sunshine, clear water and fish attacking the same set of flies they regularly sell.

Maybe MDC needs to get an independent local fisherman who will provide a weekly report to be summarized in their email report. If they are relying on local vendors to provide a report it appears that they hedge their report to the good side - after all the vendors do not want to scare away their own potential customers. Personally, I would rather have an honest accurate report than have someone just blowing smoke! I NEVER rely on just one fishing report, but can usually get some kind of an idea what a stream looks like before I make a trip from a combination of the water gauges, several fishing reports, a phone call or two, etc.; and with the price of gas these days, I want as much accurate information before I spend my limited gas $ .......

The water is up about a foot and a bit dingy, but is slowly falling. You can read what is recommmended in this report: http://www.missouritrout.com/weavers/report.html Bottom line, the higher & faster the water, the deeper & heavier the fly - try heavy bead-head wooly-buggers or maribous in bright colors. Another good way to fish the high/fast water (assuming the stream is not too crowded) is to swing a weighted soft hackle.

The USGS gauge is in the Bennett Spring State Park at the gauge house which is located in Zone-1 about 200 yards directly below the spring.

The MO Dept of Conservation publishes the MDC Fishing Report email on a weekly basis - has anyone else noticed that occassionally the reports for some areas are absolutely WRONG? This week's (5/26) MDC Fishing Report says that at Bennett Spring State Park the spring stream is near normal and clearing. Now I was fishing there last week and the BSSP stream was nearly a full foot above normal level (still falling from being even higher) and was so dingy you could not see your feet on the bottom in front of you. And since I left BSSP has had even more rain, and according to the USGS water data the BSSP water levels have gone up even higher. I tried to report the obvious bad fishing information to the email link included in the report, but keep getting a bounce-back saying my email has been rejected, so I do not know who to let know about this really bad report. Maybe someone from MDC reads this forum? or perhaps someone here can forward this information to someone in the MDC? Bottom line, I do not know who writes the fishing reports, but they need to actually get out on the stream. I highly suggest the MDC have someone local submit a report in the future, since some of the current reports are totally inaccurate. I wonder how accurate all the other MDC reports are? Just my suggestion.........

I went fishing down at Bennett Spring last week, and I damaged a TFO Jim Teeny 5wt flyrod. So when I returned home on Friday, I packed it up, put a note inside to explain what happened (along with a $25 warrranty repair check) and then mailed it off via USPS the following day on Saturday morning. This morning I received a new replacement rod from TFO - Saturday (shipped standard parcel post) to Thursday morning (door-to-door)a total of 6 days including the weekend! Then, just to top it off, TFO also returned my $25 warranty check - I guess they decided the problem was due to a defect and not my fault. This is GREAT Customer Service. With excellent rods and customer service like this, I am MORE than happy to keep using TFO flyrods!

Hey Jerry, I finally made it down last week for a few days. No Luck's description was pretty accurate , water up just a little, color still murky, fishing decent but too many small fish. A couple of guys did well fishing for browns in the river until the rain cut loose on Thursday. Now that being said, I was still using 5X fluoro and caught fish on a slow but steady basis - about 5 to 6 fish per hour. No Luck is right, I did find using a fairly long tippet to be critical to consistent success. On the positive side, there was a 7+ lb Brown caught in Zone1 the week before I was down, and a guy caught a a brown just shy of 8lbs in Zone3 while we were there (gave the fish to my daughter after getting his picture taken at the store - we filleted it....delicious!), and there was another big brown caught that week in Zone2 as well. I would say 75%-80% of what I caught were small/average sized. Also, a couple guys were starting to have some luck throwing cicada flies - worth a try! Of course the bad news is it rained Thursday & Friday (when we left), and apparently almost every day since then. I would recommend anyone planning to go down to monitor the water level website VERY closely. Good luck!

Midge color? The quote in the signature block says it all.......

I left BSSP today BEFORE the big storm, and the river looks like the Mississippi - wide, high, brown and fast. Not good for floating or fishing - several folks who had been fishing the river had to come fish in the park because the river was coming up way too fast. And I repeat - this was BEFORE the big rain on Friday afternoon!

It has been a couple of years since I camped at Riverfront, but it is definitely NOT a party scene. Jack Glendenning owns the place and they run a family oriented campground. They have staff on site during the evening and if you get too wild they will give you one chance to setle down or they will ask (then make) you leave. Riverfront has about 1/2 mile of river frontage and there is some decent brown trout fishing, but when the canoe hatch comes through the fishing shuts down for quite a while.

FYI - I posted this in case anyone needs some inexpensve fly fishing gear to get started, or to get a child or family member started. See the current sale at Cabela's - 5/5 thru 5/15 they have the Wind River Fly Combo on sale - includes a 2 or 4 piece moderate fast fly rod with a Three Forks large arbor reel, including backing, flyline and leader for $70 ($40 off).

The only problem with using straight mono for a leader is that when you are fishing for spooky fish, then you need to lengthen your leader, and the straight mono will have trouble turning over and laying out straight certain types of flies. Also, with a heavier fly the sharp transition from the fly line to light-weight straight mono can cause a hinging effect when you cast, which will slap your fly down with a very obvious splash. I have found it is better to use a furled leader and then tie the tippet directly to the tippet ring. If you contact Troy & Emma Simonton, you will find they have some very durable furled leaders that last a long time, and they sell them for less than 1/2 the price the big commercial places want. - http://www.thesimontons.com/Fishinggear.html

If you want to use the reel for stripers (or even carp), then spend the extra $5 and get the next larger reel. The 7-8 reel only holds 150yds of 20lb backing, and you will want to use 30lb dacron backing with those fish. If you want to use gelspun or braid backing, then the 7-8 reel is acceptable, but still use the 30lb backing.

I missed the original posting date - did not see that this was a really OLD posting. By this time you could have grown your own fish!

I agree with Dano - If my flyline does not have a welded loop, or when the welded loop wears out/breaks, then I use Amnesia line (20lb or 25lb) and nail knot a small section to the fly line, then tie a Perfection loop on the end - this is the flyline butt for my loop-to-loop connection for using furled leaders, or any other type of leader. When I very infrequently use a tapered knotless leader, I just tie a Perfection loop in the butt end of the leader for a loop-to-loop connection. For the original question - a triple surgeon's knot will work fine for tying tippet to a tapered knotless leader, but you can tie a Perfection loop in the end of your leader, and then tie a Perfection loop on the end of your tippet for a loop-to-loop connection. This will eliminate the shortening of the leader each time you have to tie new tippet onto the leader, but the disadvantage is that it will pick up more moss/debris if you are fishing in an area with a lot of vegetation. Lastly, I suggest using a Davy knot for tying the tippet to the fly - it is the simplest knot to tie, easy to learn, and really strong!

Many of the folks that throw sinking lines at BSSP throw full sinking lines - unfortunately full sink lines just wear out my shoulder (I had rotator cuff surgery). Rio offers sink-tips in Type-1,3,6,8; while SA has sink-tips in Type-1,2,3,4,5. Based on the old charts, here is the SA sinking rates (this is the sink rate for flat water): Line..... Sink Rate..... Optimal Depth Type I ..... 1.50-2.25 ips ..... 1-2 feet Type II ..... 1.75-2.95 ips ..... 2-4 feet Type III ..... 2.50-3.50 ips ..... 3-7 feet Type IV ..... 4.0-5.0 ips ..... 10-18 feet Type V ..... 4.50-6.0 ips ..... 12-20 feet At BSSP I throw a sinking tip attached to my regular floating line, as I find it easier to mend if necessary, and much easier to pick up and re-cast without having to strip lots of line back in. At BSSP I am throwing it in water that is only 4-6 feet deep, but since it is moving water, I usually use an SA Type-4 sink-tip that is 15-foot long. Hope this helps.

No one can tell you what the water will be tomorrow, much less almost a month from now (although I understand the "getting anxious" part!). Here is the link to the BSSP trout cam (refreshes every minute) for a look at today's water - http://mostateparks.com/page/58502/trout-cam Here is the link to the USGS water information at BSSP - http://waterdata.usgs.gov/mo/nwis/uv?cb_00060=on&cb_00065=on&format=gif_default&period=45&site_no=06923500 The USGS water level and flow rate website always opens with 7 days of data, but you can change the number of days to review (near the top) for anything up to 120 days. Hope this helps!

There have been two bald eagles hanging around all winter. I saw them in the Zone 1 area every time I fished the C&R season. I agree - cool!

I am not sure it is actually video. It looks like it is just still shots, but they increased the refresh rate to 2-3 time per second, so it looks like a very slow video. I am running on a 10MB broadband ISP connection; if it were actually streaming video I should see continuous motion and not the stuttering effect.