fishinwrench

Your best bet would likely be to stick with the Woollybugger since you've confirmed that they'll eat it, and experiment with the presentation. Now that I've said that.....I'll tell you about the fly that always comes to my mind when someone mentions cats on the flyrod, Some company used to (and may still) make a thing called "nymphform", it was a spear shaped piece of plastic that carried just enough weight to sink itself slowly. It was lashed onto the hook and gave a flattened profile to whatever pattern you were tying. quite a few years ago myself and a flyfishin'buddy discovered by accident that a nymph tied with one of those on a #8 9671 Mustad, with short stubby split-biot tails with a body and thorax of black rabbit dubbing, ribbed with clear mono...was a killer on the cats in every pond, lake, and strip pit we fished at the time. We would cast parellel to the shore on the steeper banks and consistently catch little 1-2 lb. channel cats if they were cruisin' the banks during mid-late Spring. Nothing special or fancy about the tie, but the best retrieve was always a slow figure 8 hand-twist with frequent pauses. It caught quite a few bull bluegill also.

What Dano said. Plus tie the hackle in by the tip of the feather, instead of by the base when doing woollys Just pinch the tip with your fingers, stroke the fibers backwards with the fingers of your other hand (to stand them up) and tie in the tip of the feather....shiny side forward of course.

Absolutely correct ! it is on the way to Ho-Humm looking down on the stretch just above Barclay. And yep, the other pic (the one Tarpon is referring to) was taken just below the 64 bridge.

Glad you liked it. Bonus points if you can recognize where it was taken from... Here's another...

Anyone interested in a 1978 Cajun 17' w/150 Merc ? 2500.00 (OBO) Pretty cool old boat, quick and very solid, has alot of life left in it. Trailer is sturdy but could use a paint job and fresh tires, original custom cover is still in good shape also. Owner bought a newer boat and just wants to unload it. Reply here or call 573-372-3304 if interested.

Awesome !

Thanks Ham, are you moved up here yet ?

Went out again yesterday (Sun.) and had it pretty tough. I strung up the 6wt. to deal with the "breeze" and tried a variety of locations and presentations only to find the bite "unchanged". Same flys and presentation were the only thing that I got any action with. I ended the day with fewer fish to hand as a result of "looking for something better". Had I stuck with what I knew was working I think I would have done better. Best fish was a real pretty Brown that just bumped 16", he hit a leech on the swing.

I finally got to spend some time on the river yesterday. Started about 10am and fished until 4pm or so. The river is low (1.45 @ windyville gage)and clear. There is quite a bit of moss building up below the Bennett confluence so nymphing along or even close to the bottom there was out. Caught 7 stocker bows fishing a leech pattern on the swing and caught one bow and a few chubs swinging a wet crackleback then packed up and headed to a spot downstream to get away from the moss. Down there I was able to fish closer to the bottom and slow my drifts down but the fish still prefered to follow the fly and bite at the end of the drift on the swing, I missed several decent takes and hooked and landed 2 little browns (both very skinny) and 2 more bows (short but fat). Saw 3-4 bald eagles, 2 of which hung around really close, they don't seem to be as shy of people as they used to be. Gonna try to get out again one day next week.

I STILL haven't had a chance to get out....well, that's a lie...had a chance and passed it up hoping for a better(less windy)day, and now I wish I had just went. Wayne, you been up this way lately. I hear the youknowhats are youknowhere. LOL

Yeah I did see that, thanks, and I'm pretty sure I know of where they speak. I was hoping to get out before T-giving but it looks like that isn't gonna happen. Maybe next week

The Niangua board doesn't seem to be getting much action. Is everyone fishing elsewhere, or are we just being tightlipped ? I haven't been out for awhile (too long).....but I'm going soon and wouldn't mind hearing a few reports before I head out. I'll give a full report when I get back. C'mon guys I know you've been out....Where are those 5000 Browns ?....feed me.

No suprise, you'll see that everywhere there is a place to launch. And we are supposed to believe that sportsmen of that caliber would NEVER gig a Smallie or a Trout ? I ain't buyin' it. Don't even get me started......................

She's down to normal and looking good. I stuck a nice Brown on a yellow foam hopper, caught a few smallies, and caught a dozen+ stocker sized Rainbows on cracklebacks and RFSN's. The last flood really moved alot of gravel and filled in some good chutes, we almost need another one real quick to wash them out again.

I'm kinda worried that they will cancel further stocking of the river, so as not to short the park. Hope I'm wrong. SOH has the fish to replenish, I'm sure, and the money should be there to cover it. Just hope they all aren't the scarred-up 11" dinks with their fins knocked off.

Brian, the level of water in the pools is the same as the level above the dam. From the looks of things it washed alot of fish over the rearing pools spillway, the hatchery outlet branch was full of dead rainbows and the ground from the outlet to just past the whistle bridge was pretty much covered with dead fish clear up to the parking area on Tuesday. I doubt it seriously, not live ones anyway. The last river stocking that I am aware of was on Aug.15 (500 fish), and I'm betting that they perished, since the river water was already pretty warm BEFORE this happened. I doubt that there will be another load of fish put in the river until later in the fall....but who knows. They gotta make up for the loss somehow, and they aren't going to short the park.

Dunno, they tend to be treating it like "no biggie", and maybe it isn't. But it was certainly more dead fish than I had ever seen before....and hopefully never will again. I Don't think there was anything anyone could have done to prevent it. Just one of those unfortunate things. I assume they will haul in more fish from SOH soon. I'm a bit concerned about the size of fish that will be in the stream during winter C&R....Hope it's not just a bunch of 11" dinks that look like they came from the same mold.....like it was in 03 or 04 (whichever).

I'm sure the sudden influx of warm water was hard on them, I could feel through my waders that the water was warmer than usual, still today. Which probably explains the lack of dead Browns...guess they can handle it.

Yeah, there's not much talk about it in the shops either. We fished it today for a bit....There's plenty of fish in Zone 2, but Zone 1 seems down on numbers noticably.

Morgan, We fished Bennett today for about 4 hours. Zone 1 noticably lacks the numbers it had previously, but I think most of the bigger Browns are all still there. Zone 2 from the hatchery outlet down to the whistle bridge is absolutely full of fish (mostly small) so I'm guessing that alot of them were washed out of the rearing pools, into that section. The "mess" (dead rainbows) has been cleaned up, and the hatchery crew appears to be hard at it, sorting fish and cleaning out the tanks. There's not much "talk" about the "loss" in the local shops....which I find unusual.

It really kicked Bennett Spring in the butt. Dead Rainbows literally covered the ground downstream of the hatchery yesterday.... it was starting to reek, and the buzzards were waiting anxiously for the parking lots to clear out. Bennett lost a lot of fish. That blast of warm water was lethal I guess. What if something like that happened on Crane? Trout in a small stream like that wouldn't have a chance, all the McClouds would be lost. I didn't see any dead Browns though, hopefully they lived through it.

Already tried it, nada.... but of course your milage may vary. I can fish a scud under the hatch and do just fine....but I've been on a dry fly kick for about 2 months. Just love to catch them on drys when I can.

Looks cherry Brian. Wife happy....or jealous ? LOL You are fixin' to get real busy I gotta feeling. I'll do my part to help ya pay for it, just as soon as work slows down.

Who on here is getting in on this lately ? We've been working it 2-3 times a week but still haven't found "THE FLY". Caught some specimens and they are light yellow olive, with a slightly darker thorax...'bout a size 24. We have matched it as close as possible ...to my eyes anyway, with just a thread body and poly yarn wing, greased and drifted in the film (anything with hackle seems to be a waste of time). The first few drifts (as soon as we get there) get taken immediately....then, as if by telepathic communication, the fish just quit taking it.....all of them. Even fish that are out of the immediate area of where we started, and haven't even been shown the fly yet. So has anyone got it licked ? This is a tough little hatch to figure out, the nymphs are really good swimmers and as soon as they reach the surface they pop out of their husk and take flight immediately...only riding the surface for about 2 seconds (if that). We noticed that when crawling out of their husks the duns kick their legs alot....and I'm wondering if that spastic leg kicking is what triggers the take. There's no way to imitate that though, tried slightly twitching the fly...but that didn't seem to help. Any suggestions ?

Trying to fish downstream of the cutting boat is MISERABLE.....avoid it if you can and try to stay upstream of the cutting. There are also quite a few eddys out of the main flow that you can fish during the cutting. Most all of the weeds will stay in the flow, it is like fishing stillwater...but at least it's fishing.