fishinwrench

The bottom composition in the upper spring area is mostly sand, gravel, and smaller rocks. This is the home of big burrower Mayflys and not much else. The further you move downstream the more large rock you'll find covering the stream bed. That's just the way erosion works in a spring creek. Stoneflys and caddis need bigger rocks to get under, so you'll seldom see Stoneflys, Caddis, or Clinger Mayflys hatching over plain old sandy gravel streambeds. Swimmer mayflys, like BWO's, PMD's, and Midges take hold in weedbeds, moss, and streamside grass in slow to moderate current areas, like you have in the lower portion of Z1. Scuds are thick there too. Typically speaking.....the bigger the bug, the less dramatic the hatch. The best size of bug hatch to find is a #16-18. Because the fish still need to eat quite a few of them, and it's a big enough bug that they can see it for a distance..... the fish will even fight each other to get to them first. A big lazy trout sipping on Trico's or little 22 BWO's will drive you absolutely crazy.

It ain't "whining" when it's a legit complaint. I graciously spare you my weekly rant about lawn tractors, FedEx, underage partiers, and how many liquor stores I have to drive past to get my beloved MGD. But I refuse to spare you on ANYTHING that has to do with the boating/fishing world. 😋

Little black caddis (#18-22) are thick in the Fall&Winter, streamwide. Midges are too, but they are TINY. A little BWO that everyone calls a "Celery fly" (#20-22) is heavy in Z1 and Z2 almost every evening from April to December. Heaviest around weedbeds. Scuds are thick around weedbeds everywhere, and Sowbugs are pretty thick in the stretch just above the dam, and also just above the whistle bridge. Z3 has some golden stoneflys, leeches, and tons of midges. The hatches aren't "large", and they are spotty, but they are dependable, and the fish in the area absolutely turn on when it gets going.

I see good deals on 14 footers on the FB groups all the time.

Alot of guys snort at the Trout parks, but they are a great place to hone your skills. The hatchery raised trout in Bennett bite (or don't bite) the same way, and for the same reasons that the Wild trout in the NFOW do. Of course that doesn't mean that you can become a good dry fly fisherman by standing at the outlet drifting a glo-ball or thread jig under a bobber all day long. A fun exercise, if you're going to be there most of the day, is to try to catch 4 dryfly fish, 4 wetfly/nymph fish, and 4 streamer fish from Zone 1. Have lunch, and then go do it in Zone 2. It ain't always as easy as it might sound. Matter of fact, if anyone wants to put up a Benjamin to see who can complete the course first..... I'm game 😊

It hasn't grossly increased at BS during the weekends. It used to get pretty crowded back then as well. And they haven't seen fit to add any new parking lots since 1974, so...🤔 I think that possibly it has increased somewhat during the week though. Alot of us used to be WORKING during the weekdays and didn't get to go much then.....so I can't say for sure. I didn't get to start PLAYING on weekdays until I hit the age of 42 They can't honestly claim that they are selling THAT MANY more tags now. Because if they were, then they could hire someone to just sit there and sell tags.....So that you wouldn't have to stand there, tapping your foot, waiting for the dude to finish making someone an ice cream cone so that he could slowly wander over and sell you a tag. 🙄

You forget to c&p this part.... "it will be able to accommodate a 60% increase in the number of small fingerlings ready for distribution at Bennett Springs Fish Hatchery or the Department's other cold water fish hatcheries." Honestly, if anything.....there is a noticable 60% decrease since their production way back in 1987-89 when they had way LESS cool new $#!t to work with, and considerably less staff on the clock. Seriously, what kinda drug do you swallow daily that allows you to so staunchly defend an organization that is undeniably failing more and more as time goes on ?

It sure isn't. Very few fish get kept from Bennett. If 2.5 fish are stocked per tag sold...then the fish population would GROW daily. It ain't growing, and it isn't because of otters, eagles, or snapping turtles. I bet you could walk the stream tomorrow evening and not find a single gut pile from the spring hole to the whistle bridge. Catch & release is way more prevalent among the anglers at BSSP in Z1 & Z2 than catch & eat. If they indeed stocked 2.5 per tag then Zone 1 & 2 would be literally overloaded with trout. And zone 3 should be a literal dead zone.

Oh NO.....The reason for expanding the hatchery was "to produce MORE and BETTER QUALITY fish". So they could better stock the park and the 8 miles of White Ribbon area. They clearly stated that before they even began the construction. That was definitely "the point".

One beef I have with the urban program is that they don't just throw those dink 10-12 inchers in there, like they do at the parks and the White/Red ribbon areas. Noooo, they pick out all the GOODUNS! 😣. 15-20 inchers! They report that they stock the White Ribbon areas at least once a month, but I know for a fact that monthly stockings get skipped very often. Also the Niangua is reported to get a load of Browns from Shepherd every Fall, but it hasn't had any browns stocked for 2 years. If it gets none this Oct/Nov then that will be 3 years skipped on the stocking of Brown trout. They'll never skip that urban BS though. Not ever! So WTF? Why are the special Ribbon areas sucking hind tit in order to benefit the lameass urban program? The ribbon areas came FIRST, didn't they? Bennett is always supposed to have some browns in it, as is the Niangua. I challenge you to find one NOW.

I'd quit working so fast it would make your head spin.....if I knew that all my bills would get paid. I could actually have health insurance if I wasn't such a stubborn working idiot.

Woah! Awesome pics.

In short, basically, they bought all kinds of new equipment, did a major upgrade to the hatchery......and the result of that within the park and the "Trout management areas" appears to be less fish numbers overall, and less average size. They've all but completely stopped stocking Browns. The only thing that "improved" was the amount and size of Rainbows that they haul to the city carp ponds every winter. It's as if that is their only real goal now. You would have had to live through the GOOD YEARS (back when they didn't have near as much fancy equipment) to truly grasp the downfall, I suppose. Because they did WAY BETTER when they had WAY LESS. It's just stupid, and makes no sense whatsoever.

Just from hanging around there and observing. I mean, the water is clear (usually) so you can see how many fish are there, and they supposedly dump 2.5 fish per estimated tag sold EVERY DAY during the regular season. And I only see a couple folks toting a stringer on any given day. You can see the stocking truck, it sits there in plain sight. So if there isn't a big wet spot under it.....guess what? It hasn't been used that day. A quick assessment of the overall stream population can be made at anytime just by looking to see how many fish are crowded around the outlets. When there are only a couple of fish chilling near the outlets you can safely assume that the overall numbers are low.

I've heard that before. A mosquito repellent too supposedly. I tested positive for RMSF 7-8 years ago.....or so they said. Who knows really. The "treatment" they suggested was going to cost over 900.00 a month for 4-6 months, and then they'd retest to see if further treatment was necessary. I freaked out about it for a week or so, then blew the whole thing off. I guess I'm lucky to be alive and still working/fishing. There was never any "fever" associated with my symptoms, so I don't know why they call it that. 🙄

Nah, this has been going on, to a degree, before anyone ever even heard of Covid. Nobody was laid off at the hatchery during the "pandemic", and record crowds visited BS during the whole fiasco. They built a high dollar expanded hatchery operation, raised the fees for Trout Stamps and Daily Tags......then went on vacation.....is what it looks like to me.

The first I ever heard of it was this☝️ post. What is it?

200-500 trout per day? I kinda doubt it.

Not much going on there last week. The most recent high-dollar hatchery building has weeds as high as your armpits around it, and the windows haven't been hosed off in 6-8 months, but if you spit on one and wipe off a spot to peek into you'll see empty tanks and dusty floors. 4 of the 14 raceways have about 3 loads of 12 inchers apiece in them. The head broodstock raceway has maybe 30 big fat momma's. I couldn't find any raceway with fingerlings in it.....so that leads me to believe they have been getting fish from Shepherd instead of raising them there. Lots of nice equipment... just sitting there 🙄 The stream isn't full of fish by any means but there are some fish scattered about in there. Of course that can change overnite if they decide to dump in a load or two. I seldom see anyone with a stringer keeping fish, so I'm confused about where they all go.

I bet you interrupted a party. 😅

And THEN made cookies! 😋

I'll celebrate THAT. 👍 Cheers 🍻

Is it even possible to leave a doctor's office, or hospital, without a prescription? Doctors are incapable of saying "Everything looks good, go live your life". A friend of my daughters had what seemed like a severe anxiety attack and was taken to the hospital. They ran tests on her and found nothing to be truly physically wrong with her.....but instead of telling her to lay off the Redbull's and energy drinks they gave her a renewable script for some kind of downers comparable to old school Quaaludes.

They use clay tile to line the inside of fireplaces. Any kind of concrete block should have at least as much integrity as that brittle crap does.