fishinwrench

the first C&R was in 1976 ? Naw, It hasn't been that long... has it ?

I know this isn't the place for this, but I wanted y'all to see the colors on this little doe that has been coming up in our yard....We call her patches. Wish I could have gotten a better pic but her and Momma are real easily spooked.

Np problem, just thought I'd throw that out there. Hate to see it set all winter without a proper home. If I come across anything else I'll keep you in mind. Good luck

I'm not sure what your guns are worth yet, but I have this rig for sale, asking 2000.00 1979 Cajun/150 Merc runs like a dream...it is FAST... and everything works fine. It's a good, sturdy, fairly clean old boat. Clear titles on everything.

LMAO.....If I did I'd never admit it. Naw, the sinkin' stuff is called Xink's, of which I have no use for either by the way, since mud, beads, lead wire or split shot are always handy.

Well yeah I know, but I can blow or squeeze a untreated fly dry and it will float just as well as a treated one. Theoretically once treated it shouldn't soak up much water after submerged, the water should fall right off of the fly on a false cast...but it doesn't. Matter of fact the untreated flys I left out to dry after my episide last nite are still floating better than the ones that were initially treated (if that makes any sense). Not to mention that it mats down flys with peacock herl KILLING THAT LIVING-BREATHING THING and makes them look like crap LOL I dunno, but I have lost all faith in the stuff and I guess I'm just in the mood to preach that dry fly fishermen are better off without it.

I was tinkering around with several compara-dun patterns last nite in the kitchen sink, which eventually turned into a full scale experiment on dry flys of all types that didn't end until way past bedtime (since after slopping water everywhere, it was requested that I do dish, counter and floor duty, afterwards).... Anyway, I pretty much convinced myself that Gink's is worthless, massaging it into your flys is a waste of time.... and it is taking up space and making my vest pocket all greasy for no good reason. I understand the "science" and all, but I sure couldn't prove to myself that it actually will make a fly float any better, or longer regardless of the fly design. I didn't have any other types (brands) of floatant at my disposal, but with the popularity of Gink's I just kinda assumed it was "the shizznit" as far as floatant is concerned. Just curious if everyone uses this stuff because of what they have "heard and read" like I have been for longer than I am willing to admit, or if I am missing something valid. Tried some pieces of tippet material also....with no noticable change when compared to the floatation capabilitys of untreated mono, or flouro. Anyone have any feedback on this ? cuz I don't get it.

Sweet ! it's good to hear that Mill is doing ok. I haven't tried to fish it since '03 (it wasn't fishing so well then). I had fished Roubidoux earlier that day and got skunked so I drove over to Mill and did catch three tiny bows from a deep undercut spot along the bank. I turned over a few rocks and the bottom of the stream was crawling with green caddis worms, I did have some green rockworm patterns in my box and although they were 3 times larger than the ones under the rocks I tied one on to try. But then I rounded a bend and saw the only black bear I've ever seen in the wild. I had been hearing some rustling but just thought it was squirrels, as I rounded the bend the bear was rooting around digging at the base of a deadfall and we noticed each other at the same time. It held its ground and kept sticking his nose up in the air, either trying to "wind" me or trying to look bigger. I backed out real slow and he/she never advanced nor retreated, nevertheless I kept looking back every few steps... all the way back to the truck. LOL It shook me up a little and that ended my fishing for the day. I always assumed that if I ever ran into one here in Missouri it would be a cute little bugger no bigger than a dog...but that one was pretty big and heavy looking. Those are some real pretty little Rainbows, makes me wanna go back real soon. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks !! pic doesn't do it justice....he was a brute.

Depends on how you look at it I guess. Are there too many deer...or too many cars, going too fast for the conditions ? Hell, if there were only 3 deer in the whole state I'd betcha two of them would eventually get hit by a vehicle. Watching out for animals, whether it be a deer, a coon dog, an escaped herd of cattle or goats, or Bigfoot is all part of driving outside of the city limits. I don't intend to be a smart-butt, but, If you've almost hit 7 deer in 2 months then you should be driving at what YOU PERSONALLY FEEL is a safe speed, instead of what the black and white sign says you are allowed to. You live in Missouri where there are sharp curves, lots of hills and a "HEALTHY" deer population..... That's a blessing, not a "crisis". Seatbelts and airbags are great, but don't forget that the most important piece of safety equipment in your vehicle is right between your ears.

So is it a male/female pair... one of them tended to lead the way and the other followed. Neither were the least bit spooked by me, almost as if they were looking for a hand-out. By the way...how'bout that Smallie?

What are these birds ? They were almost as big as chickens and totally tame. Sized and shaped like a city pigeon, but colored like doves. They followed me around today on the creek near my house and were really tame. Just to keep it fishing related......

I would hope that it would NOT effect the 2009 season stocking in a noticably negative way.....$427,492.00 for tag sales alone, is STILL a lot of money. And lets not forget that Catch and Release, even during the regular season is becoming more popular and practiced each year. You don't see guys carrying stringers of fish out of there like you used to, I myself only kept about 10-12 fish from the park all year...and I have a stack of tags 2 times thicker than a hardback copy of Trout Bum.

I can honestly say, that in 30 years of fishing trout parks, streams, and rivers all over I've never seen anyone in a tree with binoculars and a walkie-talkie. When did this epidemic begin ? I have seen guys bait fishing in zones 1&2, seen guys intentionally trying to snag fish with crappie jigs, and even saw a guy helping his kid fish in the hatchery raceways. Maybe the "tree people" were rangers keeping an eye on someone. We should start a thread about weird and hilarious things we have seen at the trout parks....Never forget the time I drove by the spring hole one day during the closed season, this was back before they had C&R winter fishing and it was cold as hell and not a soul around. I was just idling by real slow, checkin things out from the warmth of my truck.....and a big black and yellow FROGMAN popped up out of the spring hole, shed his nymphal shuck, morphed into a human, threw his shuck and himself into a blue Ford Pinto and drove away without ever even looking in my direction. swearta God !

Well...that's the cool thing about "fishing", you can take it as slack and leisurely.... or as fanatical and serious as you choose. It's a personal matter as to which level of enthusiasm leads you to the feeling that you are enjoying yourself. Sometimes I go at it like I'm splittin' wood and fish with the mindset that I wanna catch every fish in the stream, sometimes I just sit and look at the water most of the day, and other times I strike a pace somewhere in between. As long as it is legal, ethical, and doesn't offend anyone that matters...then all is right with the world. No?

Nothing illegal about it, far as I know. It is fun to watch your buddy work a fish...but to be honest it really doesn't help having someone on a high-bank playing guide (narrating each drift and coaching you where to put your next cast). The spotter should keep quiet and control himself unless asked to do otherwise. JMO

Exactly. Kind of puts a different spin on the old belief that trout expend alot of energy when holding in the riffles and fast water. Apparently they expend more energy (just trying to hold their position) in still or slow water than they do in fast water. The way the sculpins oversized pectorals keep it "glued" to the bottom was interesting also. Like the wings on a soaring bird....the bird couldn't hold his position in the wind with a clipped wing, and I can't help but think that clipping fins on trout hamper their ability to deal with the environment they live in.

Right on ! Since you pointed me in the right direction I haven't visted that particular spot but I have worked over a few similar spots, quite a bit further downstream. There's a definate pattern there in those slow deep pools that is way more consistent than the riffle/tailout areas, and the fish are notably grouped up in "pods" ... just like you said. You'da Man ! They won't eat MY leeches, but I am using my trusty Hotwire Muddler on a sink tip to find'em, and then switching over to a soft hackle when they quit chasing the muddler. Still no Browns (except for one skinny little 12 incher), but at least I'm into some fish now. THANKS !

Gavin, You see a pectoral on that fish ? I only see a nub. There's a 2 part TU sponsored documentary type film called the underwater world of trout that has a segment on the hydrodynamics of fish movement in rivers and stillwater, if you haven't seen it you should. It goes into a study on how each fin (or sets of fins) are used to position and move the fish through current. I thought I had a pretty good grip on it...but I learned some interesting stuff from watching those videos. A notch out of the tail is no biggie, but a missing pectoral, pelvic, or adipose fin effects the fish quite a bit. I see quite a few fish in the Niangua with snipped pectorals and that has always bugged me. And it bugs me even more since I saw those videos. I don't want to hijack BKB's report thread, it just looked like to me that his fish had a pectoral snipped.

What the heck were those fish doing down there in that slick-water weed hole ? I fished the access area Wed. afternoon/evening (after getting my butt kicked further down) and could barely squeeze 3 little bows out of it. I'm so used to them piling up below the riffles it never occured to me to fish the slow deep holes further down. Good job PC...and thanks for the lesson. Ya know... the last high water event filled those riffles in with gravel, and they aren't holding fish like they used to. At least that's my excuse until I learn it all over again. Learned something about those eagles the other morning that I'll share with ya.........DO NOT continue walking/wading while watching the eagle fly over...STOP, watch eagle, then continue wading along. The eagle was very graceful, I was less so. John Gierach would have been proud.

What a healthy lookin' bow ! Nice job. But tell me...Why the heck do they cut the pectoral fins off those fish ? Anybody know? Is it so they won't travel very far, or what? If it is just to "mark them" I'd think there'd be another way. Then again, she mighta broke you off if she had'em both. J/K

Congrats to PC and KSB, sounds like you guys ruled the river last weekend. I wheeled thru the park Sat.about 11am, it was "assholes to elbows", so I stopped at the park store for a soda and to see when the last river stocking was (I believe they said 300 were stocked on the 23rd) so I headed for the river. Crossed the 64 bridge and took a look downstream....you guys already had that "under control" so I headed on downstream via gravel until I found a piece of river to myself, not that I mind joining-in but I was in one of those solitary moods. I ended up a little below Maggards and there was a killer brown caddis hatch going off (mixed sizes) along with some #18 white mayflys and tons of itty-bitty white midges. No risers were apparent so I started out by drifting and swinging a few soft hackles, caught a few little smallies and twice as many chubs but no trout so I changed over to a sink-tip and worked over a nice stretch of water (good tailout, and a pool with some wood cover) with muddlers, cougars, and leeches hoping to get slammed by a decent Brown but it never happened. The caddis' were coming off even heavier by then, some of them were huge...like a size 8 ! and the wind was blowing them across the water in textbook "crackleback skating fashion" but I never witnessed a single surface splash....I started to think that there were either no trout in that area or they were holding tight in the pocket water, so I switched back to the floating line and a weighted nymph rig and set out to just avoid a skunkin'. Finally after getting my weight adjusted right I started getting some bites. Caught 7 fish total, 1 or 2 rainbows apiece on a RFSN, a copper john, a hares ear, and a big rubber leg stonefly nymph but only if I put it right on their nose, they didn't seem to be willing to move more than 6 inches to take ANYTHING. The fish down there appeared to have been in the river awhile, nice colors, all fins present, and really scrappy when hooked. Best fish was a pretty 14-15 inch bow which I snapped a quick pic of just to prove to my g/f that I actually fished instead of hanging out in at the flyshops shooting the bull and spending money all day. I stayed late, clear up until I couldn't see the end of my line hoping to cross paths with a decent Brown cuz the weather and water just seemed "right" for it.... but no dice. The trees sure are pretty now...I love Fall on the river ! Did you guys catch any Browns up there ?

There are a lot of really good places for big fish to "hole up" in Z3 ...wouldn't ya love to fish it at night ? As far as making little plastic critters,,, you can make an impression in a piece of plaster of paris, coat it with ceramic based paint (engine paint) once it has set up, then melt down your old bass worms in the micro-wave or in a pan on a hotplate and pour them. OR, you can lay pieces of torn up worm in the mold and melt it into place with a soldering iron or worm welder. Pull your "critters" out while they are still pretty warm and drop them into ice water to cool. Add a bit of cotton into the melted plastic and they will stay on the hook better, and hold scent if you choose to add any.

I think Jack was THERE (in the room) during the time that all the discussion on changing fly/lure/bait descriptions (wording) were being debated and decided on. He knows what's legal and what's not. It was without a doubt a "legal" catch...providing it was hooked inside the mouth.

Nice fish Jack Good timing too ! only "legal" for a few more weeks. I hope she got released though. Wonder how long before plaster of paris, ceramic paint, marmilade Mann's jelly worms, and little micro-wave ovens will be available through Feathercraft ? LOL