Gavin

When you see them podded up near the surface in flat water they are usually taking small midges (24-32)..it can be frustrating. Thanks for the report.

A couple ideas...Gartside's Sparrow nymph, Garside Pheasant Hopper, Mrs. Simpson. Cheers.

WW championships are usually on the 3rd weekend in March..definitely worth the trip..So is the 1 lb Cheeseburger and pepper fries at Cherokee Pass.

I'd sand it with some 240grit to get most of the glue off then final sand with 400grit..Make sure you use a sanding block and dont round off the corners. As for varnish, spar varnish is whats on the rod..if you cant find real spar Helmsman Spar Urathane from HD or Lowes should work to. Buy the cheapest one you can find and thin it out with some turpentine or mineral spirits, whatever the Mfg recomends for thining.. Its important to use silk thread for the overwrap because nylon wont go clear. I usually use YL1-100 silk in white for repairs. You can get it, and just about anything else for cane rods from Goldenwitch. www.goldenwitch.com Cheers

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/mo/nwis/uv/?site..._cd=00065,00060 Guage at Montauk is only running at 46cfs...it will be super low and clear unless they get a bunch of rain. The river and park could certainly use a good flood. Cheers.

I've built a few and repaired a bunch of them..your delam isnt to hard to repair. Open up the joints with some pins and fill the area with some Tightbond III and wrap the area it with some waxed cotton cord or dental floss. Clean off exces glue, straighten and let dry. When dry peel off the cord, sand off the excess glue. Overwrap the area with some white silk rodwrapping tread. Then apply a couple coats of spar varnish. The white silk should turn clear. Cheers.

Browns certainly go through the motions but I dont think the have any significant reproduction. MDC usually clips a fin on almost all of the browns they stock because it helps identify the year the fish was stocked when they sample. so if you catch a brown big or small, check the pelvic fins and the adiopose fin for evidence of a fin clip (one fin smaller than the other, missing fin, deformed fin. If it has one it came from the hatchery. Take this little feller from this January. Adiopose fin looks fine, left pelvic is OK, but he was missing his right pelvic fin. Cheers.

Nice fish Ollie.. No worries Ham, Hickory creek is no secret spot. The conservation even publishes a map;>)! http://www.mdc.mo.gov/fish/sport/trout/areas.htm

I've never found a decent set of gloves..for the most part I use a pair of Simms fingerless fleece gloves, but your hands will still get cold...fingerless fleece for when I'm fishing and a pair of gore tex ski gloves to switch out when my hands get cold. If I have the canoe out when its below freezing I keep at least 3-4 pair handy, when I'm wading its always two pair and a couple handwarmer packs. Gavin

Shadow bass are a subspecies in the Rockbass family..There are three species in MO. Common Rockbass or GoggleEye Ozark Bass Shadow Bass Cheers

Thanks for the info. Caught a couple nice fish on every trip down there this fall but numbers were way down. Now we know why. Cheers.

Depends on were you go on the Jacks, the upper section offers great scenery(Prong's to Rymers) but can be tough for an inexperienced paddler..its fairly twisty, with a bridge chute & a few ledges, but the real hazards are all the big rocks that seem to lurking just under the surface of the water. Pretty easy floating below Rymers though. Cheers.

Sounds like a good deal...go for it.

Hum, same think happened to my old squirrel killer (Crossman pnuematic). I figure the seals deteriorated over time. Thought about sending it back to the factory for service, but I havent taken any action on it yet. Might have to do that.

Mad River makes some nice boats, but are you sure you want a square stern? They are great if your always running a trolling motor, but if your not they are usually alot heavier, and wider than a double ender. Plus most have a keel, which will take a lot of abuse from our stream gravel. Might look into a royalex or crosslink double ender with no keel and buy a trolling motor bracket from Old Town instead. Cheers.

Hammond to Sunburst is a long float..probably 10-11 miles..I'd rate the smallie fishing as fair at best but the scenery is good. If you want smallies, youll have better luck one valley over on Bryant Creek. Cheers.

Spent the end of last week and the weekend on the Upper Current. Overall the fishing was a little slow, but we had a great time anyway. Spent Wednesday night I camped at Eagle's Park with my friend and his father, cold to say the least. Temps got down around 0 and it was very windy. Got on the water just after dawn on Thursday and fished around Tan Vat Ford a bit before heading downstream. Great winter wonderland scenery but poor fishing. Rolled two fair sized brown trout on a J-9 rapala, but no hookups. Got back to camp around 10am then headed to Baptist to put the canoes in the water & run our shuttle. Got a 13-14" brown on a the J-9 rapala while paddling in and we set up camp about mid-way between Baptist & Parker. The temp finally made it into the 30's that evening! Got up at dawn on Friday, and fished upstream past Ashley Creek till I started running into some traffic coming down from Baptist Camp. Fishing was really slow below Ashley, picked up a small bow and a brown trout on a olive zonker in some ast water but nothing on the Rapala. Fishing upstream of Ashley was much better. Caught ten more, 4 on the Rapala, all nice browns trout in the 14-16" range, 4 small trout on the Zonker, and two including my best fish (17" brown) on a rubber legged hares ear dropper. Saturday, was really slow. Fished down from camp to Parker Hollow and back. Didnt see a soul, but I only brought two small brown trout to hand. Rolled a really nice fish, but couldnt get it to commit. Didnt fish on Sunday, just packed and paddled out in T-Shirt weather. Cheers.

I'd recommend Sunburst Ranch. Justin and Amy are really nice folks and they offer camping, nice cabins, boats and shuttles. Kelly to Sunburst is a nice 6 mile float, and Sunburst to James Bridge is a nice 3-4 mile stretch. I wouldnt recommend floating below James (James to Dawt) because its a really ugly stretch of river. Cheers.

The NFoW is a hard stream to spot fish on. I rarely see them if I'm wading, but I see lots of when I'm paddling in my canoe. The area between Patrick and Blair holds some good fish..Usually around the islands above Patrick, some hold near the confluence with Spring Creek, in front of Sunburst Ranch, and the big ledge just below Blair. As a rule, I rarely see fish in the choppy water were you can catch them and most of the fish in the long slow pools (usually browns) tend slink away once you get withing 75' of them. Cheers.

Below Tan Vat Access, morning of January 3rd.

I'd recommend Missouri Hick BBQ in Cuba. I almost always stop for ribs to go on my way back to St. Louis and I've never been disappointed. The restaurant at Sand Spring would be my choice for ribs down at Bennett. Cheers.

Sorry to hear about your fishing buddy. Best to you and your family. As for Meramec Springs...its open 7 days a week, so the fish are probably very picky. Mohair leaches and eggs will usually produce a few fish if your the first person through, after that youll probably want to switch over to some skinny tippet and some small scuds and midges. Scuds in the 16-20 range, and midges in the 18-24 range usually do the trick for me. Cheers.

If the water is up, you might be able to float out of Boiling Springs, but most of the time I float the section between Slabtown and Ross Bridge..its floatable year round...Slabtown to Ross is a two day trip with good scenery. 6x to Ross is a good day trip, but the fishing is usually better between Slabtown & 6x. Rich's Last Resort just below Ross Bridge is the outfitter that I'd recommend for that section. The float I'd really like to do is through Ft. Wood, but I havent gotten around to it yet. Cheers.

The Hill County has some good fishing opps on the Llano & Blanco. Might check out a guide named Lefty Ray Chapa if your planning a visit to the area. Cheers.

Good advice..I see lots of folks starting their cast with the rod up in the air like a spinning outfit and a big belly of slack hanging from the tip. Get that tip low, pull in all the slack, and aim that backcast high! After that its a matter of putting some stops in the cast so the rod can load and unload."Stop Stop, not Flop Flop" as Mel Krieger would say. After that its a matter of increasing your line speed with a double haul, and increasing the casting arc with a drift for added distance. Drift is what Old Al is talking about when he's talking about following the line back after the stop on the back cast. The line is already unrolling in the direction its gonna go after the stop on the back cast, so its possible to drift back a bit to allow a longer stroke on the forward cast. I look at it as free power. Cheers.