3wt

I second the Merrill water shoes. I have the same ones and I love them. They do tend to get a little fine gravel in them. More of a problem on the Meremac than the Current. I don't fish much big water with big stones, so they might not be perfect for that. The soles are hard enought to keep you from feeling every sharp rock, and they're soft enough to grip pretty well. Best part, you won't know that you have them on once you get out. I wouldn't touch sandals...unless you are in a zero gravel situation. Maybe for in and out of boats, not for wading and walking.

I'd like to get my hands on one for my 5 wt. Passed up the opportunity at the Cabelas in St. Louis.

Rio Fluoro. I've never heard the thing about fluoro sinking. Sound wrong in my experience. When your tippet sits on top of the water, you'll have the worst case scenario as far as refraction of light. Fluoro has a refractive index more simlar to that of water than mono. Should give you a real advantage for dries on flat water on a sunny day. Fluoro is more tyable. Tougher. I think it holds a knot better, maybe that's because it's easier to tie. It does seem a bit less supple, but that doesn't bother me much. I think Seaguar actually makes a lot of the fluoro on the market. You'll find that with most manufacturing - everything's made at the same place.

Man, you guys make me want to expand my horizons. I don't get down there more than a few times a year, so I tend to fish with the same old things - dries or streamers. I really want to get better with nymphs and wets (recenlty started with the soft hackles which is great). I think I'm gonna try out the hopper/dropper rigs when I'm down there in a couple weeks...unless I don't immediatly start catching fish...I'll make sure I still have some mohairs.

Not to be a big nay-sayer, but this innovative fly looks an awful lot like a mohair leech, only instead of using yarn, your basically making the yarn and adding some flashy material. The pictures from the original post look different, but Rowly's looks like a familiar old standby to me.

I think a 6 is heavy for trout since the invention of the graphite fly rod. I don't know what a wiper is capable of...so if you need to handle both wipers and trout maybe the 6...but I personally think I'd be sorry for going so heavy if I mostly was looking for trout.

I prefer baptist. The tricos are tough fishin, and you're limited to morning. The deep areas hold the most fish - I generally catch fish in the deeper stretches with mohair leeches or buggers. Most fish I catch on the current are deep with a streamer. I tend to think the fish holding spots are usually pretty obvious. If it looks like there should be fish, there probably are. It's tough to get fish to rise if there is no hatch. The hoppers may get some interest. I have caught fish on elk hair caddis when there is no hatch, but that's about it. I don't typically get into the nymphs, but that's my problem, if you're nymphing I would use the hopper as your indicator and increase your chances. go to flies: mohair leech olive, brown or black buggers red san juan worms go balls (i feel inferior even bringing this up) others use zebra midges, soft hackles (where don't they work), i'm sure a hairs ear is a good bet. As far as big ugly dries, I'm planning on trying some stimulators next time, somebody here said they work really well. It can be productive at the strangest times. In June I caught more fish in the afternoons than mornings. Sometimes when it's 100 degrees outside I will catch fish like nobody's business.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=ddh+leech first 3 hits look promising

Yeah man, I wouldn't want to drag everything around all day. You could camp relatively close to baptist Camp (I think there's a gravel bar just up and across that could handle a small tent, but it's pretty rocky). But, if you were close enough, you could break camp, and stash your stuff in your car, swing by before the evening, head down stream and set up camp somewhere else. I wouldn't expect too many floaters after 4 or 5. If you set up a camp and leave it for the whole time, there are sandbars that have some real estate hidden behind that stream willow stuff that grows pretty heavy.

I like the way you think. If it were me (and i have done this, but not so minimalist) I would pack in from Baptist -best parking lot, easy walk-in access. Wade down with your gear until you find the nice gravel bars, it's not too far. Set up camp. From here you could feasibly fish up to Tan Vat and back in a day, and a could fish down to cedar (I really wouldn't bother going too far past Ashley) and back another day. The downside is your stuff is sitting there on a sandbar alone with drunken idiots floating by. Actually, they're not too bad this far up, not enough time to get blitzed yet. If you shoot for after labor day, it will be much less floated.

Don't do it, not in one day. It's not really worth going all the way to cedar anyway. Look at a post a couple down from this. I explained how to find the trail from Baptist down to Ashley Creek.

I've waded the whole way from Baptist to Cedar Grove. Don't bother doing that just FYI. From about Ashley creek area down to cedar is pretty slow fishing. I think there are a couple spots that you do have to go around spots. The water is up this year so there are probably some rough spots to wade. There is a "trail" on the west (?) bank (right hand side if you're looking downstream) Here's the trick - start at Baptist, wade and fish for a while (alot of good water) You'll get to an area with real big sand bar on the right, keep wading and fishing. The river splits a little and then there's a big sandbar on the right (not as big now as before the flood). Used to be a big log jam and then a HARD right hand turn with a nice pool created. If you go to the right hand bank (downstream) you'll find the horse trail (actually, it's been there for a while, just not worth taking it with the good fishing spots). It gets pretty rough. The river gets a bit slow here with bluffs on the opposite banks. I like to skip this - there are fish, but they see you coming a mile away. Fish the good spots. You'll eventually come across a creek, this is ashley creek. Follow it to the river and fish all around, up and down from here. Wade upstream and hit the good spots again. By the time you get to your car you're feeling like your legs will fall off from the upstream hike. Well worth it if you catch at least one.

It does sound like the trico hatch is back finally. I'd say a 4wt is perfect for this river. As far as leeches the answer is yes. Both. Dead drift and swing as appropriate for the water. Get weighted olive mohair leeches to avoid using shot or soft weight. I don't like what they sell at the park. I don't know where you will find them in your area, but some of the places around Springfield should have them. I like to swing them better, but let them get down - so cast just a little upstream and let them drift a bit before swinging. The take may be very suble this way. If you dead drift them under an indicator (also very effective) make sure you're deep enough to drag the bottom once in a while. Adjust the depth as needed. of all the fish I catch on the Current I'd say over 90% are on this fly. Do search, there is a good thread with a lot of the regulars here sharing their favorite flies. Most of the guys go for more variety than I do (wich is a good thing), but you'll always find a few fish with the mohair leech.

The return of the Tricos...finally. Stoneflies you say...wierd. I'll have to give it a try. I have seen the odd big yellow stonefly fluttering around, but wouldn't have really thought that the fish would care about a stonefly here or there. Maybe it's something they see just enough to know that they should eat it when they can. At any rate, I'll have to give it a try.

I usually fish from Baptist Camp, and usually go downstream. I haven't fished Tan Vat for a long time. A lot of guys do, and I think they like the upstream section better. Down from Tan Vat is a little slow until you get a little closer to Baptist. If you have a couple days to spend try both around Baptist and Tan Vat. I like to use #8 olive mohair leeches, #8 olive bh wooly buggers, red san juan worms, crackle backs, you can catch a trico hatch, so little bitty <#20 trico spinners can catch them, but you'll have to work at it. People often use the crackle backs dry with a nymph or soft hackle as a dropper.

Thanks to all for the help. Found the access the long way. Turns out CR 3620 is called Brennan Rd. Caught 8 fish, all on an olive PMS. My brother caught a couple, but they were in the 16-18" range. Very little fishing pressure, good water level, and lot's of fishy spots. The only downside was the floaters. The fish don't seem to mind, but from about noon on, you can't even get a break to cast between groups. I'll plan around that for next time...

Amen. My biggest gripe with my old 5wt is that it is a 2pc, and over 4' long in the tube. I used the thing all the time in college, and cramming it into the back seat of an '89 tercel was interesting if you had any other camping gear. The TFO's are quite a steal in my opinion. Nobody should spend over $150 on a stater rod now that these are on the market. Plus, you'll get a rod that you won't be in a big hurry to replace.

If your a serious beginner, I would get a griffin spider vise. True rotary, which is important, if you don't think so, you probably haven't used one. It's cheap enough to not break the bank, but good enough to use for many years. Will hold a range of hooks for anything you could think to tie. I think they're about $60 or $70. You can find them at Bass Pro, Cabelas, most fly shops.

Okay, I'm thinking about fishing for the day this Saturday, and I'd rather drive an hour and a half to get to cardiac than 3 hours to get to the current. So, as somebody who typically fishes the upper current I really would like to not get skunked on an unfamiliar stream. What flies do the meramec experts suggest? Which way should I wade from the access. Any hatches expected? Also, anybody care to share driving directions to cardiac from the 44 Rosati exit? I've been there once when I was in college in Rolla, but I don't quite remember. I do remember walking down a hill, through a field, down a road, into the woods, down another hill, and landing in a big pool in the river. I think I fished upstream from there.

Another light-tackle convert. Once you get a feel for it, you'll be using it for everything that you can. I use my 7'9" 3wt for most trout situations except for Taneycomo. I end up throwing everyting from #24 tricos to #8 weighted buggers with it. Try the upper current, the upper meremac or some other streams and you'll see that you don't really need to cast a country mile. On Taney, I usually use my 5wt, and end up needing to double haul to cast the necessary distances, but that's a once a year at most trip for me. The 4wt in my opinion is probably the most versatile weight if you only had one rod. A 3 and a 5 for me cover all trout and smallmouth options. I know alot of people use the 7's for trout, but I don't see the need unless your monster hunting at night, and are casting 10" streamers, in which case I'm not really sure a fly rod is really the best tool anyway.

Remind me never to carpool with you on a fishing trip...

Bummer man. Reminds me of the time my dad's alternator caught fire on the way down to montauk. We had the thing towed, all piled in a van with the other guys we were camping with, sitting on coolers or whatever we could. I think there were at least 10 people in a van with maybe 5 seats. Somehow we didn't die, looking back maybe not the best idea. Well, if it's consolation we got plenty of rain...

Saw the truck parked in the parkinglot by the hatchery, but didn't see you. I was in the big white f350 with graphics from a retaining wall company. How'd you do?

Dude, where was that trico hatch? I fished the 19-22 and saw no hatch to speak of.

There were both Tricos and midges on the 21st - upstream from Baptist. The midges were too small to even think about imitating, and the tricos were not in the normal numbers. No real fish keying in on them. The other mornings last week there were only a few random tricos in the fly water at Montauk. No fish coming up at all. I think they need more vegetation for the nymphs to cling to than there is right now. It's pretty clean since the floods.