Andrew324

Farewell to the Keeper, Mayor, and Friend of Crane Creek. I still have some flies from him that will now go on the mantle. Heard the news from Lancer today. Haven't been on OAF since I moved out here to Colorado, and meant to send Ray an email letting him know I was moving. What a pleasure it was to talk with him on the sides of the stream, Rusty and Jake rooting around, wallowing in something. Ray always had a good deal of knowledge about the stream, and loved it dearly. He always like to keep a good hiking stick by the tree near the trailhead at Lower Wire. I will miss him, and it makes me sad that if I whenever I return to the creek I won't run into him. I found one of the last emails he sent me in which he wrote about seeing a nice fish: "Let me know when you are going to be here will show you where. Boys and I are going out now. Dogs guns fly rods what a life all most forgot wife. get well rfc" Cheers and here's to you Ray! Andy Nelson

Thanks for the story Jim. A friend of mine who grew up in Hurley said he used to catch real big-un's on worms in the 70's.

I was only kidding about the creek. Just having some fun and offering perspective by introducing the speleological contrast. I actually think it should be catch-and-release, but am not overly up in arms about the current regulations. The only legal fish I've ever caught on the stream I released unharmed. I agree with my friend Ray, that we are the key to protecting the resource we all love.

I think Crane should be "watch and see" only. Like the National Speleological Society says about caves: "Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints, kill nothing but time". In fact, those Crane trout are dang near endangered - just like gray bats. And if they truly are one of the last "pure strains" of McCloud then we ought to just prohibit fishing there, or maybe close Wire Road to the public like all the caves. j/k...............

There is still a siren, although it doesn't mean you must stop fishing, but for most fisherman it does LOL.

Now is the time that they are really out. Autumn you won't see many, but right now they are all over. Like I said, just carry a big stick and make noise. I nearly stepped on the one which got pissy. Have you seen the southpark episode about the Harley riders? haha

The name of the biker gang was the Vagos, who were involved in a shootout on 44 last august. Eric - Ray says "walking on water is better than getting your feet wet". I never come to Crane in a hurry, to fish or to leave. Ray is always nice to loan some flies. I got several dries and nymphs which were productive. Fished Taney last night into 12pm today. Haven't slept yet. Oops.

I may have to mosey down there tonight Duane. I've been waiting for them to shut if off at night for several months now.

Haha this title might really attract some attention, especially from my last post. Anyway, was fishing the LWR yesterday and ran into Ray, he was doing his usual, running the dogs Rusty & Jake. He mentioned that there will be a large bike gang coming into the Crane/Highway BB Area this weekend. Apparently he heard through Crane PD, that highway patrol, FBI, and BATF may be in the area too. So he just wanted to let everyone know that if you plan on fishing Crane this weekend, be aware. Water is low. Fishing is average. Saw three cottonmouths. They are out now. Walk slowly and carry a big stick. The weeds are thick at LWR. Usually they will bolt, but one I got close enough for it to straighten up and display its fangs.

The streamer express line does not roll cast well, at least with the White River Classic I'm using it with. You have to get a few strips of the tungsten in before you can pick it up and throw it. Whenever the shooting head is in the air (its rather long, I think 30-40 feet) it flies. It definitely tests your casting ability. The Classic is a mediocre rod for the line I think. I would rather the rod have more backbone like a TFO Axiom. I agree with Jeremy Hunt that when your throwing these large setups, its better to have almost dang near a saltwater rig, a super strong stiff fly rod.

I was fishing minnow and bait fish patterns. Two in particular that my ex-girlfriend's mom bought me (subsequently I never use them, and figured I could care less if I loss them haha). They both had unweighted eyes, and sparkle hair, craft fur type stuff. I think any clouser in bright green would be good. These flies I was using yesterday were mostly olive and brown. As far as leader setup, with the floating line I used a standard 9' 5x leader. When I had the sinking on I just used about two feet of 15lb monofilament as the leader. Very much the same setup I use on the North Fork of the White River for browns out of the driftboat. The sinking line is Scientific Anglers Streamer Express 250 grain 7wt. It has its advantages, one which I like better for Fellows, is you don't get a whole ton of back casting room, so its really just one false cast and BOOM you shoot that tungsten head as far as you can. Then I just erratically stripped in back in. Anytime I would snag, since I was using that 15lb, I was pulling logs off the bottom of the lake. I would really like to get out onto a boat and explore Fellows. A co-worker of mine goes to Pomme and Stockton often, I might see if he would take me out on fellows in his boat. Yesterday was my first time, and I really wanna battle a big muskie on a fly rod!

Went to Fellows today and fished from the points and banks. Switched it up on a 7wt with both floating/sinking lines. Caught a few largemouth. No muskie. I think you would definitely want a boat.

Okay, I did enough searching before asking this question. I've got all this big rod setup for chasing browns on the North Fork, but I only get to do that every once and a while. Anyone ever heard of someone targeting muskie specifically on the fly at Fellows? I guess you would need a boat? I guess most fly anglers don't have a boat or are prepared to handle a muskie? Thoughts?

Nice brown! Nice Clacka! Looks like the river was murky! Thanks for the report

Sorry fellas, I have been occupied (breakup with girlfriend/graduate school/work) an unable to respond, and everyone seems to have added a lot of depth to this post. Crane is a little stream we all love, and its comforting to know that there are lots of individuals who have a passion and concern for it. My feelings are that we can battle the unknowable side-effects of the internet/OAF with the good we agree it can do. Although I only anticipate being in the Ozarks for one more year, I have always enjoyed the idea of a group of "Friends", "Crane Creek Creeps" or "Blue Ribbon Brothers" (no offense ladies, but I did just get out of a nasty breakup!) having an impact on the conservation of this stream.

Thanks Chance. I'm now very inspired to try some new techniques on the slack water there at Lower Wire. After chatting with Pruett I'm willing to give this water some of my time. Here is a link to a nice 20+ inch fish I got on camera in the park. This fish was in a foot of water. Water very much like the water we are talking about here at Lower Wire. It's not amazing footage, you guys will know its a big fish. Its not long footage and is best in 1080p

I see your interests include geocaching - that's pretty much all that the Google software does. I believe you can drop pinpoints by latitude & longitude. The Google earth program (free for download, not the Earth feature on google maps) just contains all the years of past aerial photos, and a lot of other cool stuff (weather, the moon, mars, etc). Check it out!

Decided to fish lower wire to prove to myself that there still were some trout there. Lower wire is my favorite area, and the biggest fish I've ever caught from Crane came outta there before the flood one year ago. I focused heavily on the larger water to the back....and those fish were there. First cast landed a nice 12-13incher. Walked slowly in the grass watching, and I could see many fish that I spooked. Perhaps 30 minutes later I targeted a slight riffle in some deep water and out came the best fish of the day, a good 15-16incher. Moved up the stream and saw a guy looking for morels, but I didn't see any today. The rest of lower wire was productive with some smaller trout, but the holes which get fished a lot didn't produce much. I did chat with I guy who mentioned that he was doing some trapping for the otters, so hopefully that will help out. I did fish the park and brought in several more fish but nothing noteworthy.

I'll likely be headed to Vienna for Easter Sunday with my family. Usually on these trips (July 4th, Thanksgiving, etc) I stop by Mill and fish it. Anyone fished it lately? I'm assuming it will be doing well. I will post a report with photos.

Yep. Zeke thinks that now he's been stuck, he knows "what its like" for those browns, and has "felt their pain", therefore increasing the chances of catching a monster haha

It was actually Zeke that got that dungeon in his arm. I was on the sticks when it happened. All I heard was a "whap!". He turned around and was like "duuuuuude!!". The agent did tell us to use the fishing line yank method. I told Zeke that I thought it would work. He wasn't on board with that and he wanted to have control so he poked it through his skin, cut the hook at the barb, and slid it out. I think I would have done the yanking method. Was that hook past the barb in your shoulder Brian? Did it leave any damage on the way out?

Phil do you think 1 unit would be good water to throw a sink tip? I was thinking of bringing the rig I've been using on the North Fork of the White. Might come down and fish tomorrow morning if its low generation.

Reached Sunburst a little after 8 to pick up the drift boat. Heard from Justin about the good fishing had the day before. We did fairly well, but didn't stick any larger browns. We floated Patrick to James twice and the river was moving swiftly and the water is still a bit turbid. I think its safe to say Zeke and I both couldn't get a good hook set on the larger fish we turned, but we were throwing new setups. I'm using a 7wt with a 250 grain shooting head streamer express line from SA. Zeke was tossing an 8wt with a Cortland shooting line. There was a decent bit of traffic on the water: canoes, floaters, and a jetboat (is that prohibited?). So if your going on the weekend in April and its as hot as it was, then expect crowds. The most thrilling part of the day was towards the end, to which I will let Zeke tell it, but the picture says it all.

Chance you guys always seem to pull some nice fish out! The creek is in good shape. I fished it on Wednesday and caught many fish but nothing of tremendous size. Looks like your in the park but did you guys fish lower wire?

Will do. Admittedly those flies look decent from watching Mr. Wise's videos. Also a double edge razor makes all the difference on the deer hair.