Gavin

Best regards to you Phil, Mitch too...my dad passed 4 years ago today...tough time, but his death is what it was. Brought the family closer. I think he'd be proud of how we have carried on... Wouldnt mind a politcal forum...maybe make folks opt in..and leave it unmoderated...you get what you get and dont be a cry baby..

Nope, but its a nice property. Civil war battle field and lots of flat ground for camping.

Good for you!

Its been on the market awhile...and there is a bigger and better parcel for sale down the road. Ozark Mountain Ranch had a For Sale by Owner sign up last week.

Its floatable from Lane Spring on down when the water is up...so barbed wire across the creek seems like a stupid idea. The next flash flood should take care of it...Lousy habitat below Vida..there is an active gravel mine not far below the bridge. Always plenty of cows.

Would gladly take a bag of that salmon fur bug material off your hands Laker..You've probably caught more lunkers than anyone. A sample tie would be great. Looked in the bookcase for my first "fly tying" book. Say's Kennerly Elementary School Star Wars 5th Grade Autograph Book 1978 on the cover. No autographs...but I guess it was handy notebook for my dad to illustrate, and take notes. Mr. & Mrs. Sanguient (sp) taught the class at Paul's Bait & Tackle...... Need to scan that, and tie up some of those old patterns.

Kapok...Still have a bag of that someplace.

We dont really have a distinct fly tying culture like you find in the Catskills, Michigan, or the Mountain West unless we take credit for the development of micro jig trout park flies. Then their is Ed Story's Crackleback, Mike Kruse's Mohair Leach, Dick Ryan's CR Gold. A few others that I cant remember. Feather Craft in St. Louis used to have a book of Missouri Fly Patterns...but I pitched it long ago...Then there was a list of recommended patterns written by Nelson Renick founder of Ozark Fly Fishers in early 1970's. It was on the old Ozark Fly Fisher website..but it might be lost forever now. Forgot about the Army worm...and those red, copper, and latex worms tied on english bait hooks.

Rod selection depends on the size of the water...I think your 8' 4wt would work well at R. River or Montauk but you'd want a 9'-10' 5wt for Bennett, Meramac, and tailwater fishing. Short rods are usally more accurate, but longer rods mend and roll cast better.

No Camping at Baptist. If the moon is bright...I'd load the boats at Baptist and night float/walk in to the first gravel bar....or you could haul it upstream of the access and camp in the woods above the access...No camping at Welch...but you can leave a vehicle, put in, or haul out there. Its a steep dirt/gravel ramp...and kinda hidden...make sure your lead floater knows what he's looking for.

Very nice as always...They pull hard.

Thanks Gents..That appears to be a reflection Ness because the damage to Jr.'s boat was just cosmetic...It had 5 coats of spar over the glass and epoxy..and spar doesnt like gravel. He's looking into some kind of graphite epoxy coating...and if that doesnt work. He's gonna float it to splinters anyway.

Fun time on the Current this weekend! I met two of the usual suspects at Tan Vat on Saturday AM. Both reported great fishing early Saturday. They were the first to arrive but the lot had 5-6 vehicles in it when I arrived at 10am. We loaded up gear for five, and pushed off. We were all interested to see how my friend’s new cedar strip canoe was going to perform. He’d been working on it since February and this was its maiden voyage on the Current. We had a rainy float, loaded boats, and super low water to contend with. Not many people out below Tan Vat. There were 2-3 guys out between Tan Vat and Baptist, Two guys fishing on the boat ramp at Baptist, but no anglers on the river below Baptist. One canoe came through with a couple from Chicago but that was it for the weekend. They weren’t well prepared and poor canoeists. They asked if we had an extra poncho because they only had one rain jacket. We didn’t have one. Bet they had a miserable trip. We caught several fish on the float in...And finally found a spot with some firewood. All the usual gravel bar spots were picked over. We set camp with a small tarp by our landing plus a bigger one up the hill in. It was raining buckets at 5:30 pm…so we enjoyed the river view under our tarp, and took turns catching stocker sized trout and the occasional smallmouth. Curry Shrimp pot pies for dinner Second one out of camp on Sunday AM. Fishing was good. I covered about two miles of water with some decent numbers and a couple nice fish before breakfast at 10am. We putzed around camp and stuffed our bellies with brisket & ribs before suiting up for evening fishing. We didn’t get much in fishing in. We saw no risers and fishing just wasn’t on. Plus some friends from Minnesota hiked in earlier than expected. They soaked with sweat and eager for a beverage; so we had and early cocktail hour then steaks, mashed sweet potatoes for dinner followed by pineapple upside-down cake for dessert. I was the first one out of camp on Monday AM. I only fished till 8:30 or so, but very good fishing, good numbers and one worthy of a picture. The male browns are starting to color up. Fried smoked pork loin, egg, cheese, on an English muffin sandwiches for breakfast…then we packed up, loaded and hit the water by 10:30 am. We were dragging a lot more with the weight of two extra bodies. It would have been a lot of work if we were in a hurry, but we took our time and shot the breeze most of the way down to Parker. Fishing was slow…but we managed to get our guests into a few fish before hauling out at Parker around 4:30pm. Made it home in time to unpack all my wet stuff and hit the rack at 9pm.

Nice vid! Looks like you had fun.

Morning bite was good..still super low and gin clear. Good luck.

You guys did it right. I really enjoyed your report!

Awesome. Monticello has been on my bucket list for quite some time. Thanks for the report!

I've seen folks in RV's at Greer, Whitten, and Turner South, and McCormack Lake. They have water spigots at Greer, but I dont think they have electric or water hookups.....but thats not a bad thing. Sounds like a fun trip.

Lots of oysters out this weekend...Think its been to cold for chants...Sweatin and Chantrelles seem to go hand in hand.

Good for you! Thats a pretty nice pond bass....

Sounds great RPS!...Trout is usually the main protein..every night...when we float catch & keep water..but folks usually rave about the sides more than the trout...Gumbo. Chix & Dumps. Fresh fried hush puppies, dutch oven breads, cakes, & pies.

Gray Meat Stockers...two ways #1 gut, skin, and fillet the fish. bread fillets in Andy's and fry in peanut oil...tastes just like any other mushy fish thats been breaded in Andy's and fried in peanut oil. #2 brine overnight with a bit of brown sugar and Zatarains Liquid Crab Boil then hot smoke them for a couple hours...Cool in the fridge, skin and debone...Use it as party appetizer, smoked trout, smoked trout dip, or toss it in an oil or cream based pasta. Pink or Orange meat trout. Trout in Foil on the grill..grill whole or pan fry. Any salmon recipe will do. You wont want to eat a stocker again.

Cutty's on dries...great scenery. Time with the family...Cant go wrong! Glad you had a great trip.

Nice bunch of flies! Good Job!

Light tippet...6-7x...small flies...good polarized glasses...and some stuff to do for the kiddo's..pretty good bike riding park...fair playground in loop 3....tour the mill if its open...take a road trip and hike to Welch Spring, Devils Well, etc.