Andrew324

Going to be doing some paddling on the James this Saturday. Going to bring my fly rod, either my 8'6 5wt or my 9'0 6wt, can't decide. Going from the Dam to Delaware Town. Anybody have any advice on how to fly fish this? I have never fished for bass on a fly rod. Streamer and minnow patterns, mohair leeches, woolly buggers? Thanks!

The rocks in the city park are there for erosion control I believe. A while back I was talking with Ray (if anyone has his email, pm me, I'd like to thank him for the flies he left in a paper towel under the windshield wiper) and he explained that they were there for that reason.

Had an up and down weekend. A buddy named Jake from Willow Springs had to cancel camping plans on Saturday night, as his grandfather is very close to passing. He needed to return home to get canoes and see him, planned on meeting at Hammond in the morning before noon. Hammond Campground was closed (gated), so we decided to just find a point in Mark Twain to just camp for the night. Wish we would have went to Sunburst. Woke up early and drove to Hammond, thought about fishing a bit but are there trout up there? Met Jake at Hammond in the morning, decided to float between Blair and Dawt, shorter and more fishing time. Got on the river around 1 and met a guy from Kansas City, he loaned me a stonefly nymph, and I strung up three rods for Jake, his girlfriend, and my girl, who was sick and not feeling well at all. We fished the riffles and runs from Blair to Patrick. Fish seemed to really hit anything with a bead head. Had several different nymph patterns which all produced. I was the only one who caught a fish that day, just a 6-7 inch guy, no paw marks. We camped at Patrick Bridge. Other than having to carry everything up those stairs we had to put up with several people from Mountain Grove, etc. being very loud, playing music till 3am, shooting fireworks. They didn't even camp there. They just came down to get drunk. My girlfriend, trying to get a good nights sleep after basically being sick to death, cussing in the tent, and I wondered how they could be so rude. There were other folks camping there as well. Wish we would have camped at Sunburst. Today, Sunday, was better. We woke around 9 and had coffee and breakfast. Fished directly below Patrick Bridge today. Caught several small guys there. Fished each good riffle from there and had luck getting Jake with a fish on the line. He had never really done much fly fishing, but when I explained my probably imperfect way of nymphing, he seem to catch on. And boy did he land the fish of the weekend, hell maybe the fish of his life. A really colorful rainbow, i don't know maybe 14-16 inches. Pictures will follow once I get them from him. He had a big smile on his face. He told me there was an egg pattern stuck in the fish's mouth, (because that's what I tied on for his the previous day), but it actually turned out to be a strike indicator and some tippet that appeared to be caught in the mouth & gills. We were able to remove it all and get a quick couple pictures o before being released. We took out at Dawt and I caught a few small bows. Maybe bringing my weekend total to maybe 10. Will definitely be back, awesome river.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I am going with a few other people, so I will have to balance my fishing time a little, but it is mainly a small group float. I knew I would need to do something like this before I could come back and really work it. I appreciate the word of advice on where to concentrate, and the beer offers. I may take you up on that Chris! I will be bringing some type of canned goodness, I'll be the guy with a cute blonde in the front of the canoe. I do run into Kyle Kosovich here at Missouri State quite often. Great guy. He was going to do some guiding for Outdoor Adventures, but his graduate position disqualified him. (Dang university red tape). I'm used to getting skunked (I fish Crane). I'm just glad I get to fish some new water, and get outside. Sounds like we will still do Hammond to Dawt, and I will focus on the spots 2sheds recommends. Don't know if we will be at Sunburst for camping. Waiting to hear back from my friends.

Headed to the river for my first time this weekend. Pretty stoked. Going to try to float Hammond to Dawt over Saturday and Sunday morning. Bringing an arsenal of pheasant tails and hare's ears, bead headed, sizes 12 thru 16. Also have some glo balls and wooly buggers for good measure. Anyone suggest anything else? Thanks

Fished Crane this past weekend. Caught fish on hare's ear size 12-14. Creek is low even with snow and rain, I was using 6x fluorocarbon for nymphs. Have not seen any redds and majority of big spawning size fish I have seen are in deeper water. I'm not a expert, but I think the spawn has already passed. I saw a post here not too long ago about a guy seeing redds at the city park, but I'm not so sure I saw any. I caught a good 12-13 incher a few weeks ago and it was not in spawning colors (compared to other photos I've seen of both McClouds in spawning colors) I definitely haven't seen any redds on the lower access. The upper access water is even lower, but it seems to be coming up.

Went out to the lower access again yesterday. After I had luck on Wed I was itching to get back, also did ALOT of tying the previous night (just bought a kit and can't put it down). Caught around 6 fish all ranging from 5-9 inches. Using olive woollys, olive soft hackle (Ray's Advice), crackle backs, and zebra midges. Got a huge bite off my first mikes mohair leech that I tied the previous night, heavily weighted, stripping it through a deep end of a run. Saw the fish's gigantic red side, but he splashed and broke my 5x tippet, and bye bye mikes mohair. This was by far the best day on Crane I have had, a beautiful day to end 2010. Thinking of hitting Roaring River tomorrow before I have to drive to Minneapolis this week. Happy New Year!

I'm new to both the forum and fly fishing in general, so I thought a good day at Crane Creek would merit a first post. Walked the upper access today with my girlfriend and after went down to the lower access. Using a Cabela's 8'5" 5wt 4-piece. Fished upstream looking out for any redds staying off the stream as much as possible. I haven't seen any. Talked to another guy with a dog and he had been having luck. Caught my first sizable fish under a tree with a 10 olive woolly, he came flying outta the water, I think he went at 12-13 inches. Positioning him upstream, and it only took a for him to swim away. Beautiful fish. Fished a few more runs and then ran into Ray and had another conversation about flies, great guy; and then headed home. I think the small rain and low light conditions contributed. Funny thing is, FIRST time I don't bring a camera or my phone, I catch the maiden fish of my fly fishing voyage.