brittsnbirds

Nothing! Just working. And wishing I could get away.

Has the water flow picked up any? Zone 2 has suffered this year due to the low flow!!

Dang. According to KCMO weather guru's we are up 10" in our area this year. However that includes all of the KC area. I'm south of the city and haven't had no 17" of rain. Oh well maybe some of this high quality H2O will make it down south from us eventually. Looking forward to an October trip around the 22nd. Fingers crossed.

You were just below Holland Dam.

Yep it was a good trip. Since NoLuck brought back some "secret weapons" from NM he was the winner this trip. Need to figure out how to tie some of the little suckers and try to keep up with him. As far as the retrieving cat, my wife did teach Buddy to "fetch"! Now all I have to do is have his yellow tail docked and get him to point quail and I'll be back in the game. That little sucker retrieves better and faster than any of my Brittanies did!! Doubt he could retrieve a Pheasant though?? My October trip is already scheduled with my wife. Plus I'm running low on time off, don't count on me.

dang jerry gave up to much info. will have to set out some claymores!!

I never go that far down on tippet. I am currently using braided leader with nothing smaller than 7x fluro. 7x is the lowest especially when I'm getting my butt handed to me by NoLuck and I'm trying to get an edge on him. I use 5 to 6x fluro when stripping CB's or streamers deep. 8x is a waste of time and $$ IMO. Plus it put's too much stress on the fish if you catch and release.

"Outside the park"? Why not inside?? Just wondering.

Ahhhhh retirement and BSSP. Dang Jerry, must be nice. I'll be in CG4, 446 right by water bib. Looks like my hill billy boss is coming on the 21st thru weekend. will have to help him and his son out on the fly rod a little. I'll tell him to have his wife whip something up she's a great cook from the farm.

Plans are to hook to the 5er Tuesday afternoon as soon as I can get home hoping ~1400). Have yet to hear if my old boss is coming with his son. His trailer is hung up at Camping World in Oak Grove. He is having a hell of a time with them. Doesn't have anything good to say since the old place sold out to them. If so he will be there Fri-Sun. Will have to dedicate some time to getting them hooked up on the fly rod. They haven't been able to hook up for some reason. Just need to get that first one on and it should work out. So what is the headcount for the wing fling?? I will go to Sam's and get the yard bird for out get together. You St. Louie boys take care of the sauce. Rich if you have your cooker already there then I will leave my 3 burner at home. It's a mother to drag around. Need to get rid of it and get a single burner unit. If it works out we might try a fish fry as well. If anyone is looking for a triple burner propane cooker let me know.

What colored EHC? And what color was the holographic CB feather.

Yes I did. There was a nice hatch on Wednesday just below Holland dam below the riffles. As luck would have it I wasn't able to successfully "match the hatch". Caught a few on a size 20 griffiths. No I didn't pull out your black jig. I know where they are though.

Too bad she isn't still in there. : ( Was kind of fun seeing her cruise around. He could have taken measurements and had a replica made. Darn I will miss her. Last of the big ones.

Game on, got a kitchen pass and time off at work!! Have a spot in CG4 reserved and ready to go!! Was down last week Tuesday thru Friday. The stream flow was really slow. Water on Niangua very low. The rain that his the Ozarks last week went north of Lebanon, just missed us. Hopefully some of this past went through. It will take a ton of rain to get the flow going. Don't get spoiled out in New Mexico NoLuck. We still doing Wings??

There you go "upstream" you'll be in business if you can find this guy!!

Chris, Great report, thanks haven't been to Montauk in a few years. If you like to see rustic old buildings and outposts you need to go to Nichols farm just down the road from Montauk. It's on it's way to Parker cross. It was and old home sted that is about 1/2 mile down a lane. Really cool place. You said you were using an olive crackleback. What color body did you use??

I'm not going to commit at this point. With the move to my new position coming closer I will go from twelves to eights. I'm hoping FNG will be off break-in by first of August. Hopefully he is my replacement. Then I'll have to try and get it off. And clearance from my social director!!

OMG, noluck stay out of that place. He will get you for another grand or so!!

upsteam, loose lips sink ships. you know that!!

From the sounds of things Upstream you couldn't get a pass this weekend?? Ok well NoLuck will do his best to replicate your wings!! Sorry you couldn't make it. Mayden voyage for Unit 2. Maybe Jerry could jump in?

Jerry, how lucky are you, congratulations! My wife and I call your experience at work "here's your sign" (as Bill Engvall would say). Karen has been having her "here's your sign" moments for several years. They just get more frequent, so she is done this school year as well! Getting back to your question. Like Rich said unless you have to have water and sewer I love CG5. There is more space between spots for the most part. If you can get in the first loop on the right you are near water. My favorite is 506, it is right next to water. However 507-509 are ok as well. Or if you get all the way to the south loop my favorite down there is 531. You have to travel a ways for the pooper but I take my bike with me and hall a@#. If you go during the week I would guarentee you a spot in 5. Only had to wait in line 1 time in all the years I've been going. That was when a holiday was coming. Really shouldn't have been there in the first place. You can get a spot in the other CG's however you are at the mercy of the reserved people. BTW if time is not an issue don't forget Montauk!!! Fish up near the springs, reminds me of Idaho! Actually CG 1 is all 50/30 Amp sites and CG 4 has one 50 Amp site (428 use to be the host). I think the biggest problem will be to coax the "shaggin wagon" to pull the PUP up the hill!!

The BIG question is "why did they change the way they dispense fish?" They went from using gauged baskets that allowed the smaller units out and kept the correct size in, to weighing everything that is in the pool regardless of the size. Just walk over when they are getting ready to pull fish for the trucks. You will see a variety of different size fish. I say again that a hog, cattle, sheep or anyother livestock farmer would not take a small unit to market. He culls out the runts and tries to put weight on them and get them up to standards. If he has to keep them a little longer he does. The current manager isn't doing that. So again I ask the question "why did they change the way the dispense fish?" What benefit does it have? It obviously cost them a good chunk of $$$ to get that operation going. New boom truck, scales etc. I seriously doubt that they laid anyone off to off set the increase in startup and operating costs. No Luck if you go to the meeting ask them that question. Why did they change?

Thanks for a great report FFF. I hope to get down the first week of June. Try and pull the new 5th wheel down and test ride it. Maybe even catch a few fish.

"Enjoy Bennett for what it is." So tell me what it really is. Not what it was a few years ago, or long ago!! Not to question your tenure down there but you are dealing with guys that have been fishing this stream for many decades. We don't want it to be a sideshow, good quality older and wiser fish. If you want to catch dinks then go to the winter fishing in the suburbs!! If you want a good laugh look at Weavers last report about there "quality" remark. Then look at the lunker board, average 2#ers. You don't see the random big boys; all of them are 2-2 1/2#. What does that tell you? As far as going down and catching the same size fish all the time it's ok. NoLuck goes down and slays 75 fish a day, no problem. No big fish like before once in a while, everything is average 3/4 - 1#. Is it a good time, heck yea? Sometimes the little ones fight better than the big ones. Will I continue to go, yes? But I am a consumer and I pay good money for entertainment that I know has the ability to be better, because it was. Let's get it back close to what it was and continue to better it, not make it a mediocre fishery. It really frustrates me that people continue to accept it and not question why they (MDC) are going the direction they are going. Comeone NoLuck, Upstream, RC and FFF get my back.

Sorry for the delayed report, but I've been busy trying to square a deal on a new 5th wheel. Cousin and I went down on the 14th and came back on the 17th. Weather was pretty knarly on Monday. It even snowed and sleeted on the way down. We set up in my favorite spot in CG 5. there was only one other tailer in the loop. Not too many people were down. Definately felt like the catch and release season (even the cold). Did ok on Monday. Various Midges were doing what they do. Didn't catch squat on the FC Crackleback, even on full sink. Did my best just below handicap access above Holland Dam. Late Monday afternoon sun tried to come out so I pulled out the ole Stetson and did some surveying. Paid off in zone 1 from the spring down. Had a good time, hooked about 50%. Rest of the time was so, so. Caught my best fish down from the high bank hole at the bend (can't remember name of the spot, has red bluffs) on a Y2K. Other than that it was Ok. Fish were a little better than last year however they still are weighing the fish rather than culling them to stock. If you really want to know what size fish you are going to get just go over to the raceways and look for the "big stockers" (joke) that they are putting in. They are much smaller than they use to be for sure. Then look at the smaller ones that are in with the stockers. This is where the problem lies, they don't cull the smaller fish out that are "runts". They all go into the basket get weighed then to the truck. In the years prior they used wooden baskets with slats that would allow the smaller runt fish to escape. Not now, new Guy running the show, new way of doing things. To include purchasing the new crane and scales to hoist and weigh the fish. Wonder how many guys lost their job as a result?? It's pretty sad that BSSP is getting more and more like a fricking amusement park. All the way down to the wooden cutout of a hillbilly fisherman and kid to poke your stupid melon face into for a photo. Seriously?? Next time I'm down I want to get NoLuck and Upstream to man up and let me take their picture with that stupid looking thing. Come on let mother nature prevail. Off soapbox!! Dang look what you guys did to me.