Gavin

I've had problems with fish swallowing small senko (yum dinger) type baits before too. My solution was to quit using those baits..but I'f I did, I'd go with a no offset circle hook instead. Barbless of course. Cheers.

I havent stayed at Ozark Mountain Ranch, but some friends like it alot..I'm not much for the park CG...to many people, to much woodsmoke..Camping on the river is my favortite, but I stay at Eagle's Park when I dont.Think the History of Ozark Mountain ranch has something to do with the cival war..battle or a camp maybe...There is a cave a couple miles up Ashley Creek that has some interesting history...Saltpeter Cave is the name..it was mined for saltpeter to make gunpowder during the cival war era, and Henry Schoolcraft supposedly stayed there for several days during a torrential rainstorm on his voyage throught the Ozarks. Cheers.

The UTC 140 is kind of like a floss...its not twisted together like Uni Thread...so youll get a loose strand every know and then..Uni thread 6/0 holds together a lot better but it will cut foam..Might try to find some Danville 3/0, it wraps flat and it holds together. Uni 3/0 would work too...Gel Spun threads are great, but they are hard on scissors and you dont really need that kind of strength to compress foam...Spinning deer hair is a different story. Cheers.

Speaking of Doc, he will be at the Sheldon in St. Louis in May. Give me a holler if any of you are gonna be there too. http://www.sheldonconcerthall.org/showdetail.asp?showID=10

I think that Warts come with size 5 trebles. Unfortunately, most folks only stock replacement hooks in sizes 2, 4, and 6...I'd go with #4's. Cheers.

The snob in me thinks the idea is downright silly..Who cares about trout park "Lunkers" and "Lunker Patches". The cynic in me makes me wonder if somebody had a friend in the patch business. The rational me says I should be doing something more productive with my time . Cheers.

http://fishingcollectables.com/images/so52.jpg Come up with $39 and that one could be yours.

FW, I cant see what he's playing but the the chords sounds like G,C,D, and Em to me.....C,F,G, and Am would work just as well. Cheers.

My baby girl is still too young, but I've taken my nieces, nephews, and my cousin's kids down to the parks on several occasions...We have a blast, I buy a tag, but I dont fish. My time is pretty well occupied cuz I'll be untangling rigs, baiting hooks, and netting fish. It helps to have an extra rig or two handy so you can keep em fishing while you deal with the inevitable tangles, swallowed hooks, fish cleaning, etc....Plus it helps to have a couple fall back activities planned...fish for an hour or so, if they are bored, suggest a visit to the playground, lunch, a walk around the hatchery, then see if they want to fish some more later.

Sparkleminnows... http://www.ozarkflyfishers.org/fly/spminnow.html Here's the recipe that I wrote up for the Ozark Fly Fishers newsletter a couple years ago...and the brown/orange thats shown is probably the best color on the Meramec Drainage when its low and clear, followed by Olive, and Pearl...Black, Chartruese, and Pearl seem to work best when the water has some stain to it. They available commercially from Montana Fly Company dealers. My friend Greg Coffey from Lincoln, IL is the guy who developed it and showed my how to fish it on a trip to a heavilly spring fed Meramec River tributary a couple years ago..He cleaned my clock with one on our wade upstream in the AM...Then I cleaned his with a sneaky pete when it warmed up that afternoon...... Greg designed it to fish like a tube..and thats how it works best...Make a long cast upstream past a good looking piece of rock or wood. Aim that cast high and overpower the cast so the fly tucks back under the line before it hits the water, let it sink and retrieve some slack line to maintain a loose tension on the fly as it drifts back towards you and give it a little hop with the rod tip occasionally. Sometimes you see the flash as a fish hits, other times you'll see some tension form in you leader. or it might jump, or your instinct will tell you to set the hook. Hook sets are free. A long leader helps, I usually fish one about 10-14' long made of 3' of 25-35lb mono for the butt section followed by a piece of straight 10lb flouro...It also works when stripped on a shorter leader like FW's muddlers...short erratic 3-4"strips usually work a lot better than the long leasurely strips most folks use to fish streamers. My other favorite...The Gaines Sneaky Pete in size two...Fish it on a tapered leader 3' butt section of 25-35lb mono and a O-3x 9' tapered mono leader. Long cast up toward cover and dead drift it...Make sure the rubber legs arent fouled, because its worthless if they are. Sometimes a twitch gets em to eat it if they nose up to it and start to lose interest. The downside of the Petes is that they are fragile and the fish bust em up when they are really on a top water bite. You know its a good summer evening when the fish shred 5-6 of them. It helps to debarb them, and buy and use that little yellow hook out from Gaines, makes em last a bit longer if your not twisting the cork body when you remove them from the fish. Those two flies account for probably 80% of my smallmouth....but there are others...If you want some more ideas... a copy of Tim Holschag's Fly Fishing for Smallmouth book...I think its the best one out there at the moment. Cheers.

They are supposed to stock 8,000 but the numbers vary...The stretches that they electro fish in the fall (two stretches between Montauk and Parker) get 1,000 fish per mile and if they have any left when they get to Parker they are supposed to dump em between there and Cedar Grove, though I dont think that the Parker to Cedar stretch gets stocked that often. Cheers.

If your at Baptist...down is the better water...There is good water between Baptist and Tan Vat too, but most of the good spots are on the upper 2/3rds of that stretch. Its usually easier to walk down from Tan Vat then fish your way back up. Tan Vat up to the Corner is good to...if you dont mind a little brush busting. Its gonna be warm at night for the next couple days...expect some caddis activity..18 or 16 grayish tan probably, but bring a selection of dries...... Another factor...The park is open...bring some cream mohairs, and eggs to imitate all the gut & powerbait chunks flowing out of the park. Cheers.

The Falls are usually hit or miss for me as well. I'm sure that there are always some nice fish up under that ledge...but its rare to find it in an undisturbed state..I paddle right on over w/o stopping most of the time. Cheers.

Ness offers some good advice, and he wraps a mighty fine rod...Bought all you really need are some files to fit your grip, a notched out cardboard box as a wrapping jig and something to apply tension to the thread while you wrap. After that...you might want to add an electric motor to spin you rod while the finish cures, and look for a friend with a lathe if you want to do your own grips. Mudhole & Angler's Workshop have a good variety of components at all price points..If you want high end, take a look at Goldenwitch.

Got a great report from my friend Chris about last weekend...he hooked and landed a 28" brown at the Falls on a rubber leg stone...long snaky male..said they tore em up on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. His pic is up at Hargroves if you want to take a gander at it. Cheers.

Braided line like Power Pro or Spider wire works great for that connection...its also a bit more flexible. Cheers.

No I havent read his reports till just know...If I wanted to track down his spot....I'd start with the creeks that feed Taney, nearby pay to play streams like dogwood canyon, and look for possible public or private access below...The water he's fishing isnt that big, and he's reporting lots of 14-16" rainbows and the occasional big fish from small water..That doesnt usually happen without some help from the stocking truck, restricted access, or both. Cheers.

I'd be glad to own a company pitched out enough income to require me to pay a $1M dollars a year in taxes...Figure that would give me another $1M to spend and invest, and a net worth in the 10M+ range. Pretty easy to do an Altas Shrugged when your in that boat.

I've fished the Roubi a few times on the way back from someplace else..It seems that I've always missed the stock truck when I've fished around the Spring..I've had decent success on the lower end down toward the G-Nade...Mostly smallmouth & rockbass with the occasional brown trout. Its kind of hard to wade in some spots. Havent fished the upper stretch south of 1-44 but I've heard that its a pretty float, but the fishing is poor. Cheers.

Ice off paste works,,so does chapstick...the biggest problem that I've ever had is getting your reel wet...I've had both fly and spin reels freeze solid on me before after a careless dunking in single digit temperatures. Cheers.

I've got the same interpretation as FW...I think of soft plastic as the stuff they use to make rubber worms (Plastisol). Its alot softer than the silicone legs used in lots of flies and jig skirts...Cant see how you could attach a rubber grub to a hook with thread, the stuff is alot softer than silicone strands or round rubber. I've tried, thread cuts right through it. Cheers.

How many cars will you have? If you have two, I'd drive down to Suicide, fish up to the park then go get the other one with the second car back at camp. If you only have one, I'd drive to Suicide, wade up to the cabin hole and then wade back ,or head up the trail at Cardiac to your car (trail comes in about 1/2 mile below the cabin). You can always fish from the Park to Dry fork after the park buzzer sounds...Dont leave anything of value in your car down at Suicide. Its always easier to wade downstream, so save the upstream part for when your legs are fresh. Cheers.

Hum..Buddies froze in there tent and snoopy bags(unprepared), bunch of guys laying around camp all morning instead of fishing (not feeling well? why?) , buying breakfast before fishing (unprepared), then complaining about no fish and poor fishing after several thousand people woke up, went fishing at the buzzer and caught their limits. Better luck next time.

Yep...its a good substitute for real caviar. There is a lot of illegal traffic in paddlefish eggs.

Thanks for the report...sounds like you had a nice time...BTW, those 2am trips become a non-issue if you have an empty plastic bottle or two handy. Cheers.