MST SigEp

Thanks for tips guys. I will def check things out when time permits and update on how my trip/trips went!

Ah come on, ha ha. So regardless of where I go to fish mukie, does anyone have any tips that might help me be productive. I understand that it might take multiple trips but anything will help! Thanks again.

Hey all, Has anyone on here ever fished at Pony Express Lake in the North West of MO. MDC shows stocking of muskie up until nearly 10 years ago. I was curious if anyone has ever specifically targeted muskie there with any luck. I currently live in KC so I'm trying to find the closest muskie trip. I haven't ever targeted muskie but would definately love giving it a try. I hear Pom de Terre is excellent muskie fishing but was hoping to find some a little closer to home. let me know if you have any information that might help! PM me if you like.

Hey guys, I have been fishing Bennett for as long as I can remember and have never had a bad day ( well only once or twice). I have caught more than enough rainbows in my time there to make any trout snob happy but never any brown trout. What's the secret? I know the browns are not as numerous as the rainbows but I see people have a great deal of luck catching them withing a few months span. So any help with locations, flies, techniques, so on and I understand that people are defensive of their secrets so pm me if you don't want it to be public knowledge. My father and I are making the trip right before closing day and I would love to try my luck at a brown (and a few more rainbows) haha. Thanks guys for the help.

Sounds tempting but I'll be on a cruise!! In all seriousness a buddy of mine and I both went Monday from around 11am-4:30pm Fished a healthy section of the creek and caught about 4-5 smaller trout each. I caught a decent sized one near the end of our wade and guess it was probably close to 10-12in. All in all I thought it was a good first run on the creek (we normally fish Little Piney). To our surprise nymphs were not hitting and the drys were? Go figure... I had luck on a #14 elk hair caddis (tan/olive). Let me know how you fair, Maybe another day! Good Luck!

Does anyone on here have much experience fly fishing in Idaho. My father is taking a job for six months in Idaho Falls and there is a really good chance I will get to visit him. I hear the Snake River, both the north and south forks are excellent but don't really know much more than what I have heard. Anyone want to give out some tips for someone who will likely only have a day to fish and would like to improve his chances of large frequent hook-ups (wouldn't we all ) Tips on locations, dates, flies, you name it I would love to hear what people have to say about fishing the snake or really any other river/stream near there that regularly produce nice sized fish.

My overall goal is to have an all purpose solution. I want to keep the sun out in the summer and be able to dip it in the stream to keep cool. I also want to keep the cutting wind off my face and mouth if at all possible. I already have a bandana and it works well in the summer but I want to gear up before it gets cold.

Does anyone here regularly use a bandana for a face covering while fishing/fly fishing? You see every once in a while a few people with more expensive face coverings I was just curious if anyone used bandanas. It hasn't really been cold enough to really get a good feel for how they preform and I wanted to know before it got to cold. Thanks for the help!

The long awaited pictures! This is just a few of the pictures I took. I have a water proof digital camera and although it sounds good sometimes I forget to wipe the lense and the water drops on it mess up the pictures. I hope you enjoy!

Made my way down to the Rolla area this weekend and ended up camping a night at Lane Spring. After a early morning light rain I set out and fished the section around Lane spring and then around the Vida slab area. Had the whole stream to myself as far as I'm concerned didn't see a soul. As far as the fishing goes it was only my second trip down and my first real day on the Piney. I brought 7 trout, 2 perch, and 2 smallies to hand in about 5 hours. I also had two more trout on but they wiggled off my line, one was small but the other in the 12" area. All in all I had a really good time. Not a place to get your hopes up if you want trophy sized fish but I pulled in some of the most beautiful fish I think I have ever personally seen. Only used two diff flys, bead head prince, and a copper john. I didn't have any trouble catching fish so I never changed flies. I'll post pictures when I can get my camera uploaded.

I'm a new fly fisher and a very very new tier. I was just curious if anyone would be interested in a fly swap. I can tie a few basic patterns and was hoping to expand my fly selection some patterns that I am ok at are wooly buggers and pheasant tails. Anyone up to host one?

I think I'm with the few of you, I don't think I'll make it down to the park anymore. The last time I went to the l.p. I was in awe of how beautiful it was and not a single person was around. Sure I only caught one dink in the hour or so I was there but it was my proudest moment to date. My first wild trout, and on my fly rod to boot. (I just took up fly fishing around march.) <rant> Needless to say there are more beautiful places with more beautiful fish to go to. Besides the mindless idiots at the park who poach their freaking butts off. </rant>

Had a little business that I needed to take care of this weekend for school and thought I should make it down to fish at least one day. Rolled into the park at about 6am and it was already pretty crowded. (I'm use to going on tuesdays and thursdays so it was very crowded) If I remember right they released 1000 fish for the day. I caught 3 I wasn't the only one who was a little erked by the slow fishing but sometimes thats just how it goes. I think what really surprised me was how small the fish were. They must have just switched over to the newest batch of trout. The first 2 I picked up were on a 1/16 skunk rooster tail with a gold spinner. Both were very small and caught in the hole down from the log crossing. I also saw about 5 muskrats. Then I decided to move around a bit and ended up scoping out an empty part of the stream with a small stump jutting out. I switched to my fly rod and tied on a bh prince size 12. First drift in the seam lands a monster trout! No not really probably only about 8" I was tired of the slow crap but decided to keep fishing for about another 2 hours. After not catching any more I decided to go home. That afternoon was even slower but since I didn't catch anything I'll just leave it at that. I should have skipped the mac and fished the wild streams........

Thanks for the help guys it just stinks that what I feared is true. I guess that I'll have to settle for the summer unless I can make my way down to Rolla again this summer.

I was wondering if anyone had any info on the closest streams to the Fulton area that produce trout. Wild or stocked isn't really a big deal. I haven't really seen much up here and don't want to have to drive down to where I normally fish when at school. Summer really stinks when I'm out of school...

I never got back to you on the rod sorry. I'm using a St. Croix 7.5' 4/5w with a cortland crown II 5w reel. The line is probably the cheapest sale line availiable, which suprisingly cast "good". I typically use a 4-5x leader and tippet when needed. I love using john deere jigs, copper johns, and many other nymphs for trout. I have caught more bass than I can count on woolybuggers but never trout, also I have caught a bunch of bass on drys but only one trout I can remember. I hope you can get a feel for the raw beginerness I'm sure I just ooz when I'm fishing in public. I'm sure old farts get a chuckle watching me. Then again its almost always one of them that are eager to give me what they are catching on or a tip if asked.

I'm trying my hardest to get a good start to fly fishing and I don't want it to be that I'm just fishing the wrong spots to be the reason I give up. I have been scouring the internet on techniques, flies to try, and how to choose a fishing spot. I have been told that the little piney really isn't the place to start but I say if I can do it there I could do it about anywhere. It seems like the little piney isn't as difficult as I was told. Heres to hoping.

I'm really feeling the love for being a SigEp! Just kidding, I'm glad people are giving me tips. I went right after my last final during finals week and waded up from the vida slab access and fished. I caught one dinky little trout which was all I ever could have asked for, I was pumped. After I caught it I dropped my iPhone in the mud trying to get a picture and release it quickly. (my phone survived without a scratch) I fished for maybe 10 more minutes and it started to rain. About the time I pulled off my waders the rain got heavy and the stream jumped up a few inches. I haven't had a chance to return and now that I'm not near rolla this summer I don't have the chance to fish as much. I have been trying to do as much recon as possible so that I can hit it hard when I get back. Besides what is listed already here is what I have found on the side. First of all was http://www.missouritrouthunter.com/ it has more than just info on the little piney but also most of missouri. Specific information I found useful were fishing reports and I believe a map of the area. SO so much information to be gathered from here. Second I found http://www.ozarkchronicles.com/ This is a blog about some fly fishermen that live in missouri. They have a pretty extensive overview of local streams and parks. Also lots of information to be had. Lastly while looking through some fishing reports on missouri trout hunter I came across a report from a professor at MST. I guess on his personal webspace from the school he has a little page for the little piney. It isn't super detailed but it does have some useful information in it as well. The link for this is http://web.mst.edu/~gbert/LilPiney/piney.html If any of the people responsible for any of the mentioned sites are on this message board I just want to extend a very large THANK YOU! Thanks again to the people who have helped and feel free to PM me about setting up a trip or if you want to share some more specific information. ps.......At least I'm not a pike (just kidding)

I just ordered and recieved my Orvis top 20 flies for 10 dollars shipped the other day and all I can say is wow. Such a great deal for 10 dollars for someone new to fly fishing or for someone adding common flies. They seem well tied and solid. Now I just have to get out there and use em. Note: I like nymphing more than I like drys. This set has mostly drys so it didn't fit my style perfect but it still was a heck of a deal. Link: http://www.orvis.com/store/product.aspx?pf_id=76TK&dir_id=758&cm_ven=performics&cm_cat=*FatWallet.Com*&cm_pla=NO&cm_ite=875&adv=875

Would anyone be willing to give a few good spots on the Little Piney to a new fly fisher. I go to school at UMR/MST in Rolla and I'm looking to branch out away from the trout parks and into the wild. Im mainly fishing for trout so please keep that in mind if you are pointing out a spot. Also I understand that some people are very defensive of their "secret" spot and I assure you that I only catch and release wild trout and it would only be me fishing it. If you want to lend a hand to a new fly fisher looking to branch out either reply to this thread or pm me and I'll keep the secret.

Well I made it down to Bennett over Memorial weekend and got to fish 5 out of six whistles I was there for (had church Sunday morning plus I was dead tired). I took all of your advice and some I recieved from Weavers tackle and put it to good use. Seeing how the morning was shoulder to shoulder I decided to stick with my ultra light until it cleared out. Soon after everyone cleared out I began using my fly rod under the bridge in the first hole from the left facing upstream. I fished for about an hour with not a bite, I think I was using a copperjohn under a strike indicator and a small shot about a foot above the fly. I gentlemen slide out to the center hole and fished upstream and pulled in a mess of fish. I asked him what he had and he handed me a john deere jig he tied. That was the begining of an amazing weekend. Every day after I caught fish on every other cast and people were hating me for it, seemed like no one was having luck but me. Also a guy came through next to me fishing pink brassies and had a lot of luck. It got slow on the john deere so I switched to the brassie and it heated up again. All in all a very productive weekend. I even caught an almost lunker, 1lb 12oz, it barely would fit in the scale at the park store. Thanks again to everyone who posted and sorry it took me so long to give some results!

Hello all! I have been fishing Bennett with my family for years and have always used a ultra light. Recently I have picked up a fly rod and doing the best I can to learn the ropes. Any tips on flies that work well and maybe some presentation tips? Anything would be a great help!