Gavin

The USGS Topo (Cuba 7.5 quad) has that labeled as Fox Springs. You can download free ones using the map locator under the Maps & Pubs tab.. http://www.usgs.gov/pubprod/ Missouri DNR's "Springs of Missouri" lists a Roaring Spring near Cuba & one in Stanton...but no Fox Springs on the Meramec.. http://www.dnr.mo.gov/pubs/WR29.pdf Definetly the same spring hole though. Cheers.

You have to be very concious about how much weight your using on the NFoW...I rarely drop below .8 grams (2 BB's, or one AAA) and I carry 4 sizes. BB-.4 grams, AB-.6 grams, AAA-.8 grams, SSG-1.6 grams. In high water, I might have 2-3 SSG's on. Adjust weight & depth for every run...add more till your catching fish. Cheers.

That would be Fox Spring....Richart is upstream from Scott's....Congrats on a great catch!

Did some family camping down at Lane Spring with 3 other couples and a mess of kids this weekend. Got a late start on Saturday. We didnt leave town till ten, hit rain in Fenton, stopped for lunch...rain didnt leave till us till Rolla. Finally go there around 2pm...set up the camper just in time for ...more rain...rain stopped before sunset, and the kids had a ball playing around the fire till 10pm. Got a little fishing in Sunday AM. Got up at dawn hiked from our campsite (#5) down to Lane Spring and fished down about a mile then back up to the top of the campground for breakfast at 9am. Fishing started slow...Picked up a trout or two hear & there on a variety of offerings...Prince, Fox Squirrel....but nothing on the mohair leach lead fly...Switched out the mohair for a Pats Rubberlegs....and the tables turned....The R. legs was the preffered offering and it got downright silly. No trout over 14", but a good number in the 10-12" range. The kids had a ball swimming & rounding up crayfish later in the morning...turns out that the Pat's was about the same size and color of many of the crayfish...go figure. Guess its better to be lucky than good. Slept in Monday moring , packed up, & went swimming for a couple hours.Stopped at Cookin' from Scratch in Newburg for some very good pan fried chicken. The homemade mashed potatoes, and rolls were good too. Round $20 including tip for two adults & 2 toddlers.....well worth the stop.

Send them back..Plano has a good reputation for customer service.

Medium action in the 5-6' range usually...braid with an 8lb leader on the spin setups...8-10lb mono on the baitcasters.

74cfs on the Hwy 8 guage....really low & clear at that level....pack light...make long casts....

Depends....sinking lines are a technical nightmare to figure out.....gotta work on almost every setup until its right. Figure an 8wt should handle a 250-300 grain shooting head pretty well....if its overloading the rod, or incredibly hard to pick up with proper technique (see below) cut the sinking portion of the line back a couple feet... Casting needs to be modified too......Strip it in till the sinking portion of the line is in the tip top...do a quick Roll cast to get the line and fly on the surface and straighten it out...then make a good backcast and shoot a ton of line on your forward cast....Takes practice. Ability to shoot line on the back & forward cast a big plus....Sometimes its easier to present on your back cast if you need a ton of distace with a sinker an a heavy fly.......Good Luck.

That C. mouth photo is pretty cool...I've never seen them doing that....darn near stepped on one on the 11pt last summer..Dont really look for them, see them occassionally...and never try to pick one up... Pretty rare to get bitten unless you try to pick one up........but a friends daughter got zapped by two little copperheads down at Redbluff on the Huzzah last year....two bites in the leg, at dusk, while hauling there stuff back the the campsite after swimming all day. She didnt like it much, but she's alive and well...

Does it come with a title....no issues then...no title...got a Manufacturers Statement of Origin.....ok there too....none of the above..pig PIA to register it...walk away.

Like the fly & the vid..nothing worse than a tying vid with some Zelmo talking & winding thread clockwise for 10 minutes....

As the others said...clean your line in some hot soapy water, check if for nicks & abrasions, and add some line dressing....the first 30-40' of line usually wears out first...If the line is OK, check the guides for wear & tear...Tip top guides usually wear out first, but its an easy replacement...Perhaps a new line is in order. Good luck with it.

Nice Carp! Heck of a catch on a topwater!

Thinking of a couple spring fed float & drag day trips....but a buddy needs a third in his Clacka on the 11pt next weekend....will have to flip a coin.

Just wrapped a 5' casting rod for canoe use.....the 5'6" I broke a couple weeks ago was a bit too long for working a plug while sitting in the boat..Epoxy needs to harden a bit more before I test drive it.

Thats a great creek LMB! Good for you!

I've got a blue dun neck in the hackle bin if you need a few feathers.

The main spring holes are at Medlock & Welch...both popular places to swim unfortunately...Welch to Akers would be your best bet for trout this time of year...and you might as well keep what you catch down there.. FWIW...a #14 or #16 rubber leg fox squirrel nymph is a great producer down that way...guess its about the size and color of a trout pellet, because it outfished 4 of my buddies drifting cheese last winter...the numbers were incredibly lop sided in my favor......fish em deep...at least 2 BB shot or more under an big indicator. Stocker rainbows arent very keen on crankbaits for some reason....but they seem to love spoons.....usually go with a 1/6oz or 1/8oz Kastmater in chrome or gold for covering lots of water quickly. Cheers.

Good for you...I started playing guitar a couple years ago when my wife was pregnant with our first. There isnt as much time to fish or tie flies these days...but its fun to pick and strum for 15-20 minutes a day..Practice! Practice!

Cricket & Wayne would be the fellows to ask about the Niangua's ills...I havent floated it more than a half dozen times, the scenery wasnt anything special, and the habitat appeared to be degraded in lots of spots (floater trash, eroded mud banks, & cows). Lots of eagles down there in the winter time though.

Al is a machine...he's great at boat positioning, and a very fast, efficient, & accurate caster. I figure he was getting 5-6 good presentations in for every 2-3 that I made when we were on the G. Nade a couple weeks ago. Chief, I'm glad to hear that youd be on board for a slot limit of some sort....Figure it will be a couple more years before we see anything from MDC...they have that smallmouth tag study going for another year or more so its doubtful that well see anything from them until that is completed. Now lets go fish.

Not sure....sounds like they perform pretty well, but is the performance increase do to the size of the guides...or just more guides to keep the line from contacting the blank. It would be interesting to wrap the same blank one with the same number of standard guides & one with micro's and compare the difference. Anyone know a rod builder that has tried this?

I dont have much of a gripe with folks keeping an occassional trout in the 18" plus category off the blue ribbons...I keep one occassionally...2 browns & 1 rainbow in the past 3-4 years...maybe 5-6 in the past 10 years....I just see a disconnect in between managing for quality trout with a 1>18" limit below Montauk, and allowing an angler to keep 4 small tidler 15" browns within the park limits. Browns are a stocked exotic...but they are a fish that has a high trophy value among the anglers in this state. We have restrictive limits in virtually every place that they are stocked. Lake Taneycomo...1>20" limit, Current River & North Fork of the White 1>18" limit...its no wonder that these streams produce allot of quality brown trout. Then we have our second tier streams that recieve brown trout. The Meramec, Roubidoux, & Lower NFoW. They are managed for 2 fish over 15"...both can produce some quality fish, but not as well as the first tier stream sections...Finally we get to our third tier streams that recieve brown trout...The Niangua & Capps Creek...These streams dont have a great track record of producing quality brown trout...The Niangua can, but doesnt produce many for some reason...might have something to do with the ability to take 4 browns >15". Frankly, I think the Niangua would be the stream that would benefit the most if MDC adopted a statewide limit of 1 brown trout...Legal harvest would be reduced by 75%....just look what happened on the Current when the went from 3>15" to 1>18"...Legal Harvest was reduced by 66%, and the average size of the brown trout went through the roof. I used to be rare to catch more than a couple over 14.5" brown trout in a weekend down there....These days, those 14-15" fish dont even register.

Cedar to Akers follows White Ribbon Rules.......but it will be crowded even on a Thurday...Bring some stuff to fish for smallmouth....some grubs & some flukes and your trout gear.....I usually catch more smallmouth than trout when the river is crowded down there, occassionally a chain pickeral or two from the spring holes. Good luck.

I prefer to use 6lb yellow suffix braid with a 6-7' 8-10lb leader on all my spinning rigs...its the thinnest stuff that I've ever found but not so great for abrasion resistance...therefor the leader. It seems to be much stronger than 6lb test under load....and it casts allot further than thicker lines. 8lb mono on my casting reels..usually Maxima Ultragreen or McCoy's Mean Green. Cheers.