Stu675

I am hopefully heading out tomorrow. It is supposed to rain though, so we will see if I feel like attempting it or not. I will update with a report if I go out and have any success.

Congrats, thinking of going down this next Sunday or Monday depending on when I get back home this Friday from out of state. Just want to make a quick day trip, will see what the crowd is like most of the week to make my decision. May just drive down south instead.

Nah I don't pay for my camping, some find it disrespectful, but I am not on their property so I see no issue with it, plus some places charge a stupid amount for basically just buying land and clearing a few trees, I am more than happy to pay for cabins, or something like that but all I use is a small 1 person tent and refuse to pay for something like especially since I am by myself. I just pack my hiking pack up and wear it while I fish. Last time I went down there I just cleared a spot out in the wooded area and set up my tent. Marked it on my GPS and went back there at night and slept, then went right back to fishing. I am weird about what I eat, I don't eat breads or really anything man made, so I typically just take homemade beef jerky and homemade peanut butter or some kind of nut. Both have plenty of protein and will keep me full. So those two items pack very easily. Then for water I have a travel water filter that has not let me down yet obviously. I typically smell pretty rank after these trips, but to me I love them, my home life is very stressful with business, so I like simplicity and it does not get much more simple than that.

Also the snake thing reminds me of when I went down in Jan and had a muskrat swimming around me, little guy never bothered me, but came pretty close to me, so I kept my eye on him, but he was funny to watch swimming around.

Hahahaha good idea, but then I would freak myself out and probably leave since I hate snakes But I have been watching the web cam, today there was only one guy by the dam most of the morning. When I get back into KC I was planning on making a trip somewhere, depending on the weather I may ride down to Bennett during the week. Would be a nice ride and get some fishing in. Need to test my new Flying Pig rod out

I have talked to both guys from ROLF and Sunburst. I will probably buy some flies from Sunburst shop and fish that area, but I was planning on just making my way up the river and see what I could do. I would probably make it into a weekend trip and take my 1person tent and camp out. We will see though.

I totally agree, I guess I was just talking mainly on the opening day/week when it is just to crowded for my taste (typically), I also love that area, sometimes in the spring and summer I will even ride the motorcycle to go fishing down that way. I am just not a big fan of having people around me when fishing for some reason, and honestly I love going there during the C&R season, being so close and it makes for an easy day trip.

Yeah I am not sure who the guy is in there, he is pretty cool once you get talking to him, I think he was a bit hesitant with me since I am younger and most of the older champs usually think I am some punk trying to look cool or something, not sure, but now that I have spent some time around there and of course spent more money then I should buying tying stuff from them and just bought a new Hardy DD reel from them, they seem to be cool with me. Plan on hitting the North Fork in hopefully a month or so, got a few business meetings I have to go to down south and then going to east coast to see family, hopefully the weather will start warming up a bit so I can ride down there.

I am the same way, when I was a kid my grandfather would take me to the parks, but opening day is just horrible, a bunch of people smashed into the parks, to me fly fishing is about being out in the middle of a stream, and having a peaceful time trying to catch some nice fish, I dont care about size. I have been all over, it is just about not dealing with the daily stuff, and being smashed into a park with tons of other people that is not getting away from anything to me. So I let them have their state parks. I am proud to pay for anything that helps people enjoy something, but it just is not for me.

To me parks are over packed and boring during the season. I go during winter season because no one is there and it is peaceful, but during season I am down south where the real fun is at. If you are just learning how to fly fish the parks can be nice, but just to packed for my liking. Especially for fly fishing.

I will probably try to make my way down there in a few weeks. Will report back when I do, hopefully won't be a total failure, but either way beats going work haha

I had great success with white flies, I never tried any egg patterns or worms though stuck to mainly dries the week before. I dont fish in the parks that often, typically only when catch and release comes around.

I live down in Leawood/Overland Park area and kk fly shop is off 87th, I try to support little shops like that rather than Cabelas or Bass Pro, especially since their pricing seems to match everyone elses which is nice.

I usually make my own out of mono and flouro, but I got a contact her name is Joni, and gets talked highly over on the flyfishingforums. and her pricing is awesome. Basically got 3 leaders for 16 bucks for my first purchase. But this will be my first time using them, so can not wait. I also made the mistake of going into KK fly shop over by me in Overland Park, ended up leaving with a new Hardy DD black edition haha

So I dont post here much, but I figured I would post up my trip from Friday. I drove down early in the morning from Kansas City, which is like a 3 hour drive. Started down by the spring, and after getting the useless pre made leader I for some reason used, fishing began. All day I just used #20 - #18 sized white dry mayflies. The morning started slow, I worked my way down the stream and on the other side of the small dam, found the place to be, I caught 4 or 5 fish in that area. park was pretty empty till about 10am when the weather started to warm up and it ended up being a very beautiful day. I am typically not big into fishing the parks since they are usually just over packed with people and I am a loner when I fish, but it was very peaceful out there and once my new furl leaders come in I will be going back down.

Ah nice will hopefully be able to hit up plenty of tracks next year depending on work and all that good stuff. Also just scored a new Redington Rise reel for 80 bucks off steepandcheap so pretty hyped about that.

That would be him haha and nice. I wish I could find pictures of me, but I believe they would be on the external hard drive my ex now has hahaha But hopefully I can get out to Topeka and maybe Gateway next season and heck hopefully many other places, but we will see.

yeah used to go there all the time, I actually bought my bike off a guy in STL that races for MCRA. Forget his name now though. Most of my mileage is sadly street, from going down south, I havent been to a track in a few years now. Though my buddy just picked up a Jeep and now swears we have to go to the track haha Right now I have about 18k on her, bought it with 500 miles on it so most of those are either me riding to work or going down south. But this is my baby, hopefully will do a lot more track riding come next year.

Yes it is, I am big into motorcycles, used to race, but now I work to much. Currently have a Daytona 675

Just think of the stuff they would find in part cove... I shiver with that thought.

Yeah it was between the SageONE and Zenith, and since I was set on the DD figured WTH lets try the Zenith and it had good ratings everywhere I read. Now I just need catch and release season to start up so I can head down south. Then there is the whole picking where to go part hahaha But thank you for the welcome guys.

Hi all, I am Stu from Kansas City, been fly fishing for about 12 years when my grandfather took me down to Bennett Springs for the first time and taught me. I fell in love with the sport mainly cause I could get away from everything and just stand in a stream and fish, sadly havent fished for about 3 or 4 years now though because of graduating college and my job taking up a lot of time in my life, but now I am getting back into it for a little me time more often. Just ordered a new Hardy Zenith 9ft 5wt with a Hardy 5wt DD can't wait to get her in. Also loving the site so far, been just searching through and reading stuff, some great photos on here to, make me want to really get back out there. Planning on going down south sometime this winter and doing some catch and release, excited about that.