burninworm

I'll try and make it again this year. Glad the NFL accommodated our request to flex the Chiefs game to 3:30. Of course fishing always comes before football.

Here's a pic...

Yeah, he caught 'em. Here's some proof. It was great meeting you Ollie. I'll be back down sometime in December if this weather holds. Maybe do a little fishing at Hickory too. I'd really like to float shoal with you guys sometime, maybe in the spring. I've waded it some a couple of times. I don't ever have anyone willing to make the drive down, so I don't ever bring my canoe. Thanks for showing me the creek. -burninworm.

I'm gonna try and make it. Obviously with two little kids I may get stuck at home last minute, but the wife already knows and I'm planning on coming.

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/11/08/3907643/outdoors-digest-for-nov-9.html Way to go Dan! Released it too. Nice work.

wow! Congrats!

Was able to finagle the day off from the new baby and the three year old. Since I wanted solitude more than anything I hit Capps at dawn. Had a few on, maybe a couple of follows. All the action was in the conservation area, only saw a couple fish in the Mill park. Too bad I can never time my trips with the stocking truck. There's a dead cow about 1\4 mile upstream from the bottom conservation lot 25 yards in on the conservation side. Green tag on it's ear, Maybe been there a while. Not wanting to mess with Crane due to the spawn, I went below RRSP til the sun went down. Low water, so clear. I saw three trout. Man it needs the rain so bad. Does anyone know if they ever stock the RR use area, or is it dependent on escapees from the park? So beautiful down there right now. I guess there's no point in stocking it right now, cause there's nowhere for those fish to hide or go. Caught the prettiest Longear I've ever seen, it was crimson on all of his fins and tail. So I fished all day and caught one sunfish, 10,000,000 creek chubs or minnows, and three bona fide trout takes. Maybe not the best trip catching-wise, but I was smiling all day. All my takes at capps were on a white or green scud, tried to fish it deep. Tried lots of other flies, but the scud was the only thing happening. I'll upload a pic of the sunfish in the morning - I sure am beat.

Gonna head down and camp in the park with my 13 year old son Sunday thru Tuesday. We've fished more than a few times together, although he's never fly fished before. Now's the time to show him what little I know about it, before I lose him completely to teenager-dom. I've got my patience hat and my smile glued on. This trip is all about getting him on some fish and showing him a different way to spend your time. I figured we will probably hit the Park a bit, maybe hit Beaver too. I'd also like to do either a short float, or wade for some smallies. We'll probably spin fish if we float. Any advice, suggestions, anecdotes or encouragement would be greatly appreciated. We will of course be picking up any trash and practicing catch and release for all fish. Thanks! Burninworm

Here's a few from last weekend, all were returned to the water quickly after being caught. Hard to avoid pulling the big one's off of their beds, mostly tried to fish shoreline and structure, also I fished exclusively with my flyrod after the first half day. The rain event monday screwed up our plans to float so we poked around the three forks, and fished below lesterville some. What a beautiful river, and such nice people in the area. Thanks to you kind folks for all your great advice. Removed 1 large trashbag full of other peoples trash over three days, which considering how much ground I covered wasn't too bad.

Ron thank you for this advice and all your informative posts. Hope to meet you some day. If you end up in the area Saturday - Tuesday and see a tall skinny guy who looks like he doesn't know how to fish, it's probably me, so please introduce yourself. We haven't decided the details of our float. We may just try and do a short float monday through jeff's outfit, and wade fish the rest of the time.

Al, that seems like a good float, thanks for the advice. Since there's two of us I think we can handle a portage at the mdc access. Any ideas for camping? can we just camp on a gravel bar in that stretch? MZ, great story. I think we want to avoid the lopsided boobs, he lives in cape, I live in kc so between the two of us we've seen more than our share. I think that poplar bluff is too far south for this trip.

Ideally the river, but open to a campground. We would be camping but not floating sunday night. We could start the float first light on monday if the self shuttle is workable.

Good idea? Bad idea? I'm actually planning to show up in the area saturday afternoon to wade fish for a day until my buddy can join me for our float. have our own canoe and two vehicles, so if there's available parking, self shuttling is an option. We can float the entire day monday, but need to be done floating by 4 or so on tuesday. It's my first time visiting the river, so any advice would be very much appreciated. We definitely are both conservation minded, have our stream team bags, and don't keep any fish of any species. Thanks again for any input. Burninworm

(look Hiawatha is killing his teacher, dude is a poacher\terrorist\flyshop-shoplifter, bad tipper - no way his teacher escapes this novel alive...) Hiawatha quickly dismisses these thoughts as he creeps through the brush to a rock outcropping just above his former teacher - Mike Shanahan.... (The former coach of the cheatin' Donx, aka the Denver Broncos.) Readying his hatchet, Hiawatha decides to turn the blade against his trusty super-awesome Black River sharpening stone, (in order to split Shanahan's head like a piece of dry alder) just then a stealth helicopter from nearby Ft. Leonard Wood (piloted by yours truly, even though I can't fly one I've been to crane in the last two weeks so it's possible) mows the former evil donkmaster down in a hail of 50 caliber machinegun fire shredding him into something resembling Kobe Beef... Hiawatha's conscience is clear as once again, the former U.S. government is to blame...Satisfied that his dreams are still alive Hiawathatha returns to camp enjoys an elk steak and settles in for the night....

become "New Native America's" first new President. The Zombie Virus didn't kill any of the Indians, (whoops I mean Native American's), nor did it kill anyone who had recently been fishing Crane Creek, MO. due to a special fungus which was airborne by the creek in the lower wire section, (not city park) that innoculated those who had been there the past several weeks. His sixth grade teacher had the dirt on him, Hiawatha wasn't an Native American, he wasn't even from America, he was French and had just so happened to be at Crane last Thursday. He had no choice but to double back then creep up through the woods and kill his sixth grade teacher, who was also a poacher, dogfighter, terrorist, shoplifter, meth addict and a lousy tipper. He had to do this, for the good of His New Nation, and his as of yet unconceived children with the fabulous Pamela whom he meets later in the book. Hiawatha crept towards his prey as only a Frenchman masquerading as a Native American can....

whoops forgot we were on the white.

but before hiawatha could do anything about it, a roving herd of hungry elk which had escaped peck ranch appeared, since all MDC regs were moot at this point, Hiawatha notched an arrow, raised his bow, and took the largest cow. Cricket had some work to do, cleaning the elk, and setting up camp. Hiawatha, having taken the alternate route to manhood by killing an Elk, took a walk to think things through...Rounding a corner he heard a voice coming from below outlet #2...

to avoid the ensuing "Zombie Apocalypse". The Zombie Apocalypse of 2012 was caused by the lowering of the water table, which in turn caused a pontoon loaded with drunken MSU coeds in party cove LOZ to strike the secret underwater vault, which released a government engineered virus, which turned the entire world into flesh eating zombies. Now Hiawatha was all alone in this world, or so he thought...

Does anyone think they'll shut the water off tomorrow night at all. Contemplating taking a trip down to wade fish tomorrow night and friday. It looks like there's at least a 50 percent chance I won't get soaked or struck by lightning.

Preach on Brother! I feel your pain - I haven't kept any fish in years and I've never kept any freshwater fish period. It seems like they don't care much about smallmouth here in Missouri. I forgot what the regulations were in Maine as far as Smallmouth, but I think they were pretty strict. Missouri does feel like a giant put and take sometimes....

Woke up really late, shouldn't have gone due to only having about four hours to fish but I went anyway. I Hit Bennett @ 10 and decided after about 45 minutes that what I really wanted was some solitude. Drove to Barclay walked around and fished streamers looking for smallies, trout or anything that would bite for about two hours. Nothing bit. Went back to Bennett and fished another hour. Too windy for my lack of skills, although I was able to get a few on the hook for a bit. Red San Juan with Various scuds, later just the tiniest black midge, a lot of refusals, some takes, nothing to hand. So I drove six hours to fish four, still no regrets because any day fishing is a great day. I need to really get an expert stream fisherman fishing buddy to help me elevate my game. As always picked up trash, and the fish all released themselves saving me the trouble. I could have done better, but my head was someplace else yesterday, still I'm not bummed or discouraged.

They get big in Maine, I've seen Lake smallies around 5 lbs caught pretty routinely, I personally stuck a 3 + lbr on the Kennebec river on the 6w fly rod. I'm not much of a fisherman either.

I've fished it twice the past couple weeks, been really slow. Only managed a couple of fish each trip with one being a decent 1-2 lb brown. I fished pretty hard both times and covered nearly all the public land. It is really beautiful in the winter.

My attorney wife reads E v Delcour as saying that any walking, fishing, etc inside the normal confines of the stream bed is permissible, and you can portage around obstacles in the stream blocking passage. If I'm fishing and I come across an obviously angry landowner, which so far has been pretty rare. I'm always polite and just beat feet because the only conflict I like when I'm fishing is the one that's being had with a fish. When the guy goes from angry to actually threatening me with his gun or calling the police, then I tell him to go ahead and call and to please shoot my unarmed L.L. Bean wool vest wearing butt and see how it turns out for him. The phone camera comes out and on, the lawyer wife gets dialed and we play ball. I got no problems respecting a landowners wishes, even if they are wrong according to the law, but I'll be darn if you are gonna threaten me with a gun, or waste my time with it. Once the threats start, then it's on.

Phil, the new site looks great, you'll work out any kinks I'm sure. Thanks for all the hard work. tight lines! Burninworm