Bamboozle

The creek today was running clear and fast, not overly high but certainly plenty of flow. Fished well in the late morning when the sun was out and then slowed down after lunchtime when clouds came over. Soft hackle dries and one on a bright green foam hopper.

Thinking of coming down during the week next week but wondering if CC is getting the same rain we're getting further north. Don't really want to go whitewater rafting...

What's the creek looking like today (7/7)? Fishable by Sunday?

My good friend Ray Krouscup -- known here as Ray from Crane or rfc -- passed away earlier this week. Ray was strong medicine and it was impossible to be neutral about him. He rubbed a few folks the wrong way from time to time, but it was always in the context of caring deeply about protecting and preserving Crane Creek. He almost always had a 357 by his side, but inside he was a teddy-bear who shared with all of us an awesome reverence for Crane Creek. I will be sad next time I am down fishing knowing that Ray's not going to appear on the horizon with a new fly-rod -- or handgun -- for me to try out. RIP Ray.

I would only say that typically these fish in shallower water will rise to a dry fly. There's really no more lovely way to catch a trout. I think it was Ted Leeson who wrote that for some fly fishing becomes something like a religion and like all religions its meaning derives from a central miracle: the rise of a trout to a dry fly. So before I brought out the San Juan worms, Wooly Buggers and other such power-bait flies I might give it a try with a lot of stealth and some elk hair caddis, royal coachman, orange humpy. You might find, like I have, that you'd as soon catch some medium sized CC fish on a dry as more or larger fish on San Juans and Wooly Buggers. No insult meant to other religions (or not much)...but I think you should at least give my creed a try. Ok, open the flood gates of opprobrium. (But don't bother telling me I'm an unforgivable and unrepentant snob. I already know that...)

I differ a bit in that I find the fish to be quite line shy. Typically I also find that they will spook to water you move by walking, shadows, fly hitting water too hard etc. Good news is that in shallower water these fish are not super choosy about flies and will take dries pretty readily. Please fish barbless and try to keep fish in water when you land them. The more fish who don't get injured the more fish for all of us to catch.

Oh yeah yeah my brain must have been in neutral. Not the first time...

Doesn't matter much in the greater scheme of things but I am not following your geography -- where does the RR cross the creek upstream from City Park?

Good points and concerns. I don't recall any of us actually getting into the creek during one of these clean-ups. Too cold and no-one's wearing waders. One of the great things about doing your cleaning up as part of this effort is that MDC co-operates to have the trash hauled away...including tires. Last year we pulled out about 20 tires from the new MDC land just opposite the ball fields. Usually the focus is on getting trash etc to prevent it eventually washing in to the creek. Obviously it's a never-ending task but what's the alternative?

Water levels are up from last year's lows but are still not "high." I have found fishing to be spotty at best with dry flies.

The annual Crane Creek Clean Up will happen again this year on the morning of Super Bowl Sunday, February 3rd. Sponsored by, among others, one the regional Trout Unlimited chapters. We will meet at 8:00am at the Wire Road area north of town near the railroad bridge for coffee/donuts and then we decide where to go from there. A great opportunity to meet fellow Crane Creek obsessives, to give something back to the creek we all love and burn off some calories before all the beer and chips later in the day... If at any time later in the year anyone complains about trash on Crane Creek on this forum and you weren't at the clean up I will let you have it with both barrels!

Sorry I didn't attach the image. I typically see redds in Dec-Jan time frame. But I have not seen as many this year as in a "normal" year, whatever that means these days. This was taken on lower CC.

I have been away from CC for a few weeks. When I was last down I didn't see any redds, despite my post last October! This weekend I saw several. I won't start an argument but I for one am trying to stay out of the creek to prevent damage to redds visible and invisible (older redds where eggs have been laid and hatched eventually get covered with moss again...) I am also not fishing now because the breeding fish are vulnerable. For those who are not familiar with what redds look like here's a picture of two redds I took on Saturday.

I caught a nice ~ 12" fish yesterday on CC with eggs coming out of her! I haven't seen any redds yet but if anything it looks like the spawn may be earlier than normal. This will undoubtedly bring up the annual discussion about fishing during the spawn. I'll proactively cast my vote that we should refrain from fishing Crane Creek from Mid-November until Mid-February. No matter how careful we are to avoid redds the fact remains that the adult fish are more vulnerable in any number of ways during this time and deserve to be left alone to propagate the resource that we enjoy the other 9 months of the year. In other news recent heavy rains have brought creek levels up dramatically.

There's usually a big clean up on Super Bowl Sunday. This in fact is where I met Ray! Last year we pulled out maybe 15-20 tires and oodles of smaller litter from the property MDC bought. And the thing is anything you pick up in the park is a piece of trash that won't eventually flow down to Lower Wire Road. So it's preventative clean up.

The other thing that occurred to me Aro was that all of this was based on landed fish. Part of the benefit of barbless is that more fish don't get landed at all and avoid getting their slime damaged, avoid the exhaustion and other factors that can cause mortality. This study doesn't address that variable. And I would argue that the process of actually getting landed etc can be quite hard on the fish. Especially true in CC where you're getting little ones. A barb is proportionally larger and I'd argue more damaging on a dink. Often with barbless the dink gets right off because he's not pulling enough to keep the hook set. So he doesn't get landed at all. Or if her does there's less damage. And dinks, of course, grow up. Or so we hope. So maybe I stand corrected on my standing corrected.

Yeah Ray and I was wet-wading so it felt cold to me...especially, ahem, the deeper water...

There was a good rain on Saturday -- much needed. Water temps in the creek ranged from high -- low 70s -- in shallow, still areas to mid 60s in deep areas. Still pretty high in general and the fish I saw seemed sluggish -- they didn't blast away at the sight of me -- and so, I concluded, stressed. I didn't fish for this reason. Also saw an armadillo, a group of baby ducks, a fawn with spots and a few turtles.

I eat at the Subway a fair amount and I'd say it counts for keeping it local. That said you should also try Spring Creek Pizza (much more than pizza) on 413 on the North side of town. Also the shop on main street -- across from the new library -- has amazing home-made pie and good sandwiches. It's not that Subway isn't keeping money local but you can't say its uniquely local like these other places.

Pure no. But it's a matter of historical fact that the creek was stocked multiple times between the 1880s and 1920. Not directly from the McCloud river but from the Neosho national fish hatchery, just down the road. Those fish were from the McCloud river, as is, going way back, nearly every stocked rainbow in the world, from Crane Creek to Patagonia. See Anders Halverson's book, An Entirely Synthetic Fish.

A friend sent me this link to an interesting study on wild trout mortality with barbed and barbless hooks. I will keep fishing barbless because, well, it pleases my sense of aesthetics. But... http://dnr.wi.gov/org/es/science/inventory/TroutHooking.pdf

There was an extensive string on this several months ago. It's a matter of record from the US Fish Commission that CC was stocked with trout many times in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. There was also a hatchery at Brown's Spring on Spring Creek which easily could have "leaked" fish into the watershed. The more important point is that they may not be native but they're wild and fragile and gorgeous. I am thrilled to see Andrew324 propose that there should be NO fishing in CC. I don't agree but at least it makes me only the second craziest guy on this string rather than the first. You're number one Andrew! Please understand I say that with my tongue in my cheek and a great deal of respect for you. Since Andrew is officially crazier than I am I will say that I think it would be good for the creek if public areas were limited access, like the quail areas MDC has. Of course who knows what the repercussions might be: it could be that this would backfire by creating publicity and increase pressure on the resource. In any case I do think something needs to be done to decrease fishing pressure on the MDC areas. I have heard that on private water in the area the fishing is better, which to me means fishing pressure is at least part of the problem on MDC. No easy answers.

Sorry Harps I don't know the name. Heard it from a friend who knows two guys who had been out with that guide. So like a lot of things I guess the story could have changed in the retelling. Maybe it was really 30 minutes! I was really just trying to make the point that "fighting" is hard on fish, whether the hook is barbed or not. Of course with a barbed hook the fish is less likely to get off, therefore more overall stress on the population.

In most cases where wildlife populations seem to be under pressure I'd agree that efforts are best focused on habitat. But in this case the habitat on the MDC is some of the best along the whole creek. Especially the lower Wire Road which has great water, lots of structure etc. Yet fish numbers on MDC are low. So we have to think that other factors are in play. Specifically angling pressure of one kind or another. [Of course "low" numbers can also be relative. I have been days and not seen a fish and assumed they're all gone and then come back another day and fish are everywhere.] I think we call tend to agree that one of the big problems is bait fishing. Feather & Fins: do you know of any place to buy circle hook flies? I am not a tier but I am intrigued by this idea.

Lots of good thoughts. As for mortality there are factors we can and can't control. Water temps of course we can't control. Handling time is absolutely huge but difficult to regulate with a cut and dried "rule." I know there's a guide in Arkansas who give his clients 30 seconds to land a fish and then cuts their line! As for 5% mortality due to barbed hooks a couple of thoughts. First I think barbed hooks will increase handling time, so it may be hard to separate one from another. Second I'd just point out the simple mathematics of compounding: a 5% reduction in population year after year will compound remarkably. Now there are counter balancing factors as well, like reproduction. But my point is just to say that 5% is not irrelevant, especially when it is a 5% you can change (versus a factor like water temp which you can't control.) I totally agree season should be closed during spawning though have gotten excoriated in past for this view. Yes the use of bait is a constant problem and frankly I think some locals keep fish just to give MDC a symbolic middle finger. So in some sense I guess more regulation -- especially if unenforced -- could be counter-productive. I love MDC and have at least a couple of agents I count as friends. But I also think that here and elsewhere they're quite imperious and don't try to get local input or buy-in when they put in regulations, they don't edcuate along with regulating and in a place like CC I think this limits their effectiveness.