STL Matt

I'm too busy/lazy/broke to make it out to points west as much as I'd like, so I end up fishing at Jefferson Lake in Forest Park a lot. Lots of fly guys there who'll give you tips and since it's catch and release til spring you don't have to worry about going right when they stock. I concur with the little olive or brown maribou jigs or the little cream-colored thread things. When they're hitting it doesn't seem to matter what you throw out there, which is gratifying if your tying skills are as weak as mine... Wind is good. They seem to get bolder at dusk, and every time I come home when it gets dark it seems like the last thing I had on was a black wooly bugger. I've caught a handful stripping in streamers, again when it's windy or at dusk. A few times a season when they are rising like crazy I try a few dries but have never had a single take.

Hello, I am gonna come down there and camp at Greer or Turner Mill and do a one day float on July 24. Any ideas on which stretch I should try to convince my mostly non-fishing friends to choose for my own selfish ways? Prefer trout on the fly, but if the water's too high and fast to get anything that isn't crazily heavy down to the fish, I wouldn't mind doing the more smallmouthy part above Greer instead (I broke my heavier rod, and throwing big hunks of lead on a 4-weight doesn't sound too keen). Thanks! Matt

Out at Jefferson Lake in Forest Park for a few hours on Saturday and Sunday, and the trout seemed a little bigger than last year. Weirdly, my first winter trout of the urban trout season ended up being a catfish, and a purring one at that (my first cat on a fly, too). Then my buddy's first trout of the season ended up being a crappie. Neither of us came prepared to keep any, so those guys are still in there. Haven't seen any poaching yet, but it is sure to happen, keep your eyes peeled.

Nice! I just found my first hen this morning. Don't tell any of the fishermen on here, but I secretly believe that hen of the woods mushrooms taste better than any fish..

I am pretty on board with hydropower in general, and didn't mean to start an energy debate. What my buddy tells me the danger of this law is is that it will make it really, really hard for conservation/restoration groups to take down old dams or improve habitat on rivers. His company has done a fair amount of that up in Ohio with really good results for the small towns in terms of tourism and fishing-related business income, and I understand lots of groups have had a lot of success on Pacific streams too (over there it gets all tangled up with Native American politics), re-opening spawning routes and such. All that stuff would get a lot harder to do if this bill passes.

Cool to hear the opinion of someone from the Corps. I don't really feel too educated on the issues on this one, but figured someone around here would...

My buddy is a hydrology scientist up in Ohio and tells me this bill is bad news for conservation and fishing. It's sort of disguised as a pro-hydropower bill, but it seems designed to protect energy interests at the cost of scientific water and fishery management. At the risk of breaking the rule of posting about politics, I just wanted to pass on a couple links where you can at least sign a petition, whatever good that'll do. I figure yeah, it's politics in that it is a congressional bill, but on a fishing forum maybe we can all agree we don't want a law that actually makes it ILLEGAL to tear down an old, dangerous dam or to work on river restoration, not to mention we probably don't want to fund subsidies for new damns with taxpayer money but no input from water scientists or fishery habitat biologists. https://secure2.conv...rAction&id=1341 http://www.wildsalmo...nvironment.html

My buddy is a hydrology scientist up in Ohio and tells me this bill is bad news for conservation and fishing. It's sort of disguised as a pro-hydropower bill, but it seems designed to protect energy interests at the cost of scientific water and fishery management. At the risk of breaking the rule of posting about politics, I just wanted to pass on a couple links where you can at least sign a petition, whatever good that'll do. I figure yeah, it's politics in that it is a congressional bill, but on a fishing forum maybe we can all agree we don't want a law that actually makes it ILLEGAL to tear down an old, dangerous dam or to work on river restoration, not to mention we probably don't want to fund subsidies for new damns with taxpayer money but no input from water scientists or fishery habitat biologists. https://secure2.conv...rAction&id=1341 http://www.wildsalmo...nvironment.html

Yes! I love it. I'm with you on time ceasing to exist when fishing. I can't count the days where I went out in the morning, then looked up and assumed a storm was rolling in, but actually it was just dusk already, and no wonder my stomach was growling...

Hahahaha, hilarious. Snap! Snap! Snap!

That is eerie as hell and really cool, thanks for posting.

Well that guide report makes me feel better about not catchin' any. I can vouch for at least one little rainbow being in there two summers ago, because it was the first fish I ever caught on a fly. Dumb luck I guess, cuz on that particular trip I never got another fish at all. Have fun up there, man, savor it because it hurts to come back, Count me jealous of the fish and the fall colors and say hi to the big ones I let go.

Ok, that was the greatest fishing of my life. I only went three days, and caught all the fish I caught, but man it was fun. My brother and I explored a few creeks down south, the biggest being Honolulu creek, which sure looked fishy but I couldn't find any. Then we tried a couple of the really small streams as you head east on the Denali Highway with similar results. Things changed when we hit the Brushkana river, though. First of all, what a tremendously beautiful place. Second of all, I was with my brother and his brother in law, neither of whom have much experience fly fishing (for that matter, neither do I, but I'm a couple years ahead of them, anyhow), and before I had even tied on a fly my fishing buddies were into the grayling. As I wasn't seeing any rising, I was trying to do it right by dead drifting little copper johns or BHPTs but getting nothing. I went to put on a bobber strike indicator, but accidentally dropped my whole little bag of them and watched helplessly as they found the rapids downstream. Meanwhile my two fishing mates are catching 'em just fine, and I realize it's because they are letting their lines go tight downstream and just sit there for a lot longer than I was. Sure enough, once I figured that out, I could tie on seemingly anything, including some monstrosities from my own vise, and let them swing up and sit in the current. I never could get my eyes to where they could see the fish holding, but it was easy to narrow it down to a rock or two, and they never seemed to get spooked away. The next day there was a hatch of some little mosquitoe-looking bugs, which I couldn't really match but tried the closest thing I had and sure enough the graylings rose willingly, sometimes even jumping out of the water as they took the fly, sometimes rising the milisecond it hit the water. As the hatch died down, I realized they just kept taking them. At least it felt more sporting than the wets, because you did have to get a natural drift with the dries (though occasionally they'd also take one skittered back towards me, too). The next day I spent most of my time fishing elk hair caddis to likely places and sure enough they just kept rising for it, big (like 14") and little (down to fingerlings) both. Must have got 30 fish that last day, which is a ton for me. The locals say they aren't great for eating any time, especially not fresh. Seemed fine to me when we ate some at the campsite, but I was still in that afterglow from feeling the rod bend so many times. For a bit I tried to find the rainbows that I know also live there, but it seemed silly to tie on more weight and search around the rapids when I could fish dries to my heart's content. Unfortunately I forgot pics except these two of one my brother was fighting, a pretty big one for greyling. I wish I had picked up a disposable camera instead of being scared to risk killing my iphone, but those big ones especially are incredibly colorful, with beautiful spots and that giant sail-like irridescent dorsal fin. Anyhow, that's the story, thanks again for the advice. Next summer my goals are to hit a salmon run and to stalk some tiny arctic char (they call them dolly varden there) in the smaller, more bear-anoia-inducing streams.

Yep, I gotta admit, it feels pretty good to check the Angels box score every day and gloat in every Pujols 0-fer and GIDP.

Just spent the weekend at a friend's wedding out by Hermann in a cabin with a big farm pond full of big largemouth. The only rod I had on me was a 4-weight fly rod, so I tied on my one and only sneaky pete and went out in a boat to see what happened. After breaking the skinnier part of my leader (leftover from last trout outing) a few times trying to set the hook, I finally started landing some big suckers. I found the 4-weight plenty strong to set the hook, and plenty strong to fight some 16-18 inchers, but really bad for how sore and tired I got from casting with it. In this particular pond it didn't seem to matter if you let it sit or moved it, either way if you got it anywhere close to the deeper bank you'd get a hit on just about every cast, and some of those fish would let you miss 'em two or three times before they wised up. Man, what a fun time. I love Sneaky Pete. But I'll definitely bring a heavier rod next time I go...