wackaloo13

The big box is 9 x 4.5... same box as the bugger barn. The little box is 4 x 6. In the little box shown, I put 14 slits for blue gill poppers. That box can hold all of my bluegill poppers and spiders. I made a small box for bass poppers as well - 6 slits. Its enough to hold 2 yellow dahlberg divers, 2 white dahlberg divers and 2 black dahlberg divers. If i cant catch fish on one of those 3 flies it is time to go drink. I like only having foam on one side of the bass box - plenty of room for the deer hair bugs. The deer hair bugs get crushed in my bugger barn. For trout fishing i carry - 1 big box of articulated streamers and 1 small box of trailer flies. The silver sharpie lines on the slits make it 10x easier to get the hook back into the slit. I like this style of box because it doesnt get all ratty like the ones where you have to stick the hook into the foam.

I used neoprene closed cell foam. It looks like cliffs used Eva foam (craft foam). I ordered the boxes from mouser electronics. It is actually a flambeau box. P/n 4040-2. They are $4 per box

I decided to make up a batch of fly boxes for my brother and I. Buying a bunch of cliffs bugger barns was too expensive. I made 2 sizes - one the same size as the traditional bugger barn and one about half the bugger barn size. I think i am going to make the slits go the other direction on the next version of the larger box. It is about right length for the articulated streamers that i fish. I am going to get a cutter made to cut the outside & slits for the foam - the prototype looked like a drunkard (aka me) cut the slits. FYI, it is not worth your time to make just one of these - you get killed on the shipping of the boxes and foam.

I ended up getting a brown and a rainbow on Saturday on a pheasant tail nymph. I might have done better if I didn't spend the morning throwing streamers. We really do need some rain.

I knew it was going to be slow but I had to scratch the itch. Nothing cures the ills of 50+ hour weeks like the current river. I am looking forward to October. Although, I am really looking forward to nov- dec. Got to love the days when you don't see a single soul all day.

Fished baptist up yesterday am and down in the afternoon. Threw big streamers for the majority of the day with no real hookups. Had about a dozen chases from decent fish. Switched to a indicator rig around 330. Landed 1 on a San Jaun. Had a brown try to eat my indicator. I'm not sure why I don't tie a hook to it.... Went back to the streamer and had a nice brown swing and miss the fly. All the high water has changed up some of the holes. I'm not sure if it is for the better or not. Water was still pretty warm. Hopefully as we get into fall fishing picks up. I'm looking forward to having the entire stream to myself once the river gets crappy.... To many floaters. On another note, I saw a woman crash her canoe. It was hysterical. I was a gentleman, I checked to see if she was ok and waited for her to get around the bend before I cracked up.

This just caused me to buy $100 worth of fish skulls...

Game plan: Hero or zero. Flies: Gigantic streamers - sex dungeons, ice picks, butt monkies (all flies were 4+ inches in length) Results: 2 great days on the water. Caught some decent fish. Saw some gigantic stripers that did not want to have anything to do with me. Had fun. Fat 17" bow with a mouth full of ice pick The picture does not do just to exactly how coppery colored this fish actually was. 15"ish bow with a mouth full of sex dungeon. I didnt have a chance to snap a picture but i also had a 7" sucker chase down an ice pick and hook itself. im not sure what that fish was thinking. Lessons for next time: 1. dont trust google map directions on an iphone - print them out 2. strip set. 3. strip set. 4. strip set. 5. stop half-assing your double hauls. 6. put the stripping finger on the first day, not 3 hours from the end of day 2 float 7. bring advil.... my wrist is not used to doing that much stripping.

Headed down to the nfow this weekend. Drifting Saturday and Sunday with Brian wise. Hopefully the weather behaves. Report to come.

I use my tying vice to crush the barbs

I debarb bigger hooks. I don't debarb little stuff.

I fished 4x for my big cicada patterns last weekend. I use 4x when I polish nymph. If I am fishing little nymphs and midges I drop down to 5-7x. I fish 2x for streamers. I use flouo for 2x-6x and mono for the 7x. When the water is really clear, I tend toward the lighter tippets and longer leaders. I also use smaller indicators.

Good luck! Adam, your parents didn't by chance teach at Burroughs did they?

Left the house in stl around 615 and went to schnucks for some breakfast and to grab lunch. Standing in line, I realized I left my waders at home. Fml. Run home and grab the waders and headed out 44. I managed to get a speeding ticket near the Salem airport. Fml. Got to baptist and the canoe hatch was just starting so I grabbed my 11' nymph stick and headed upstream. I tied on a czech nymph setup with a heavy anchor worm and a caddis pupa and immediately hooked 2 nice rainbows. Worked my way further upstream and saw fish rising to cicadas. I tied on a cicada imitation I came up with the other night at the tying bench and started fishing some fishy looking water. Brought another 9-10 to hand before lunch. After lunch headed down stream. Hooked 3 8" browns on the way down. Switching back to a nymph rig I worked my way back up and got into 2 or 3 pretty big rainbows. Switched to an elk hair caddis, tan and hooked up with a dew more smaller fish. Biggest fish of the day was 18-19. I was hooked on a bigger rainbow but it chucked the cicada mid fight. Overall a great day of fishing.

Do y'all think that the current outside of the park will be fishable this weekend? I'm guessing it might be fairly crowded with a lot of floaters. What flow rate would you consider to be wadable?

You might want to wait for the water to come up a bit.

1/29 - Left STL around 6:30 and arrived at Sunburst at 10:30. Paid my $5 access fee and wadered up. Rigged up with a variegated brown rubber legs and an egg on a tapered 10' 4x leader. Fished from the soon to be fly shop upstream. Landed a 17" rainbow in the pool below the island at Sunburst on the rubber legs. The egg wasn't pulling its weight so i put on a 18 or 20 $3 dip. I worked my way up past the island a ways to the next bend in the river. Landed a 15" brown on the $3 dip in a pool just below the riffle. I worked my way back down to the island and fished the fork of the island with less current flow. I spotted a much deeper pool about the size of a large bathtub with an over hanging bush. I landed 4 fish on 4 consecutive drifts through the hole. Overall, one of the better days of fishing I have had in MO. I even managed to hook 2 fish at the same time (landed the smaller one of the two). You cant beat mid 60s and sunny in the middle of winter. Headed down to Dawt Mill to check into my room for the night. The food was pretty good and i enjoyed a rather healthy serving of scotch. Get into my room and the smoke alarm battery is dieing.... beep beep beep. Joy. I get moved up to another room which wasnt much better. 3 tv channels, an OPEN pocket knife laying on the floor of the bathroom and the hot and cold were screwed up on the shower. They ended up refunding my money for the night and giving my a voucher for a free night. I was satisfied with the outcome. 1/30 - Started fishing around 8:40 because I had to wait on the manager to show up at Dawt Mill. The weather had gotten crummy. Mid 40s and overcast. Went to the northern Patrick Bridge access and went out with the same rig that worked the day before. I walked up the trail at the end of the campsite to the island. Hooked 3 but due to lousy hook sets, landed none. After lunch i went back to Sunburst. I fished around the island and got 2 rainbows. Since the weather was pretty crappy I headed home around 3:45. For my first trip to the NFOW I thought I did pretty good. I will definitely head back down and float it this spring. Also, was it just me or is there quite a bit of litter in the river/on the banks? I ended up picking up quite a bit when i was walking back to my car at Patrick Bridge.

build one. get a mhx, rx7 or rx8 blank and do it yourself. for about $150 you can build yourself a nice rod.

I am thinking of making a trip down to the White this weekend. Is the fishing better at River of Life or at Sunburst Ranch? Thanks

I am guessing these are custom fitted stocks. Do you have the measurements on the stocks?

for all the blind folks out there trying to fish tiny dries.... tie on a # 14-16 (whatever you can see) para adams or something like that and then tie the #22 bwo off the hook bend. if something pokes its head up within 2 feet of your para adams set the hook or if you see the para adams go under set the hook.

Great report. Care to share a picture of your caddis larva fly?

Buy the smallest size thingamobobber in the color you want. Attach the float to your line in the normal way. Take a chunk of line and tie a hook to the ring on the float.

Fishing is good downstream from Montauk. Plenty of fish (at least in the bits i fish). I like Baptist but i know people that like welsch spring access. Fly selection: eggs - pink or orange - i rarely fish them but they work for most people 16 copper john 18-22 zebra midge 16 elk hair caddis 10 mohair leach 14-20 scud, orange, tan or gray hoppers ants beetles I rarely fish dries. I have seen clouds of tricos coming off and the fish refuse to rise. They will come up for some terrestrials on warm afternoons. I like the Japanese beetle from Cabelas. I usually start with the copper john and a midge or a orange scud and a midge. I fish 6x and 7x flouro tippet. Make sure your flies are on the bottom. If you arent getting hung up on the bottom every once in a while you are not getting deep enough. My usual rig is a 7.5' leader tapered to 5x or 6x + 2' of 6x tippet. I usually add another 12" of tippet to that with a blood knot and leave one of the tag ends long and use that to tie on an additional fly. Weight and indicator placement really depend on the water you are fishing. Use the smallest indicator that you can easily see. One thing to remember when casting a double nymph rig.... dont false cast. If you rush your forward cast you end up with a gigantic tangle of line. I generally use a water haul. At the end of your drift, let the line straighten out downstream of you and do a forward cast at your desired target. The surface tension will load the flyrod for you. Everyone has their own preferences on what and how they fish. This is what works for me.

about what size are the october caddis?