Greg

Thanks Michael. I had forgotten that you told me the last time I was in that you knew someone that knows the area well. Both you and Jim had some good advice about the Animas and the San Juan when I was in last week too. Hopefully the weather will cooperate so that my fair weather fly fishing wife will have fun too. I can't wait to go!!!! Greg

Bill I didn't catch it in your first post/question either - that you were not talking about the extreme upper end of the lake. I agree with you that down there the channel should not be blocked. I'm also with Terry - I've always kind of thought of the upper lake (dam down to the rocking chair) as mainly for wading fisherman. Especially with 0 units on. I have to say it irritates me a little some of the guys that motor up right past us waders when there is very, very little room (with no units running). But I am primarily a wading fly fisherman so I'm probably kind of biased. LOL. I do think what you propose is reasonable Bill. However there are a lot of unreasonable people out there some days. Greg

Hey that sounds great. Please let me know when you're back. Greg

Talk to Michael at Back Country Outfitters in Spfld, MO. He's definitely one of the local night fishing gurus. Greg

My family and I are heading to CO for a week long family vacation towards the end of July/1st of Aug. Mostly a family trip but I'm planning to spend a couple of days fishing. Our rough plan is to spend a few days in Durango, Denver, and CO Springs. I'm looking for some advice on Fly fishing in CO. My only experience is that many years ago my wife and I took a rafting/fishing trip on the Arkansas river. It was fun but I really prefer to wade fish. I'm thinking Durango is probably my best bet for my limited fishing time? I was maybe thinking about fishing the Animas one day and driving over to the San Juan in New Mexico another day? Good plan? So I'm really looking for advice on these 2 rivers or other areas to fly fish in CO/North New Mexico. Thanks in advance, Greg

I couldn't get on either. You don't realize how much you would miss something until it's gone. Greg

Fishmeister I really like that CV2 line. I've got 3 or 4 of them in various weights. I have always heard that SA makes it. It has been very durable for me. It's only fault is that after a while (and unless you clean and redress it) the tip sinks. But a lot of fly lines have that problem even very expensive ones. I think it would be a fine line for a beginner. I didn't know it was on sale for $15. What a deal!!! Greg

We did fairly well. Maybe 20 fish between the 2 of us (in about 4 hours). We were catching fish pretty regularly on the upper (artificials only) sections. But it was fairly crowded up there so we moved down to the fly only area after a while. The fly only area was tougher. But they did start hitting better towards evening. I took 3 in a row on a small dry (griffins gnat) in the last few minutes before we left at 7 PM. It was fairly hot. I like roaring river but it sure gets hot when you don't wade! Happy fathers day everyone. Greg

Dano I didn't see this until this evening. My wife and I went (for father's day) and had a pretty good day fishing. I hadn't been to RR in almost a year. Greg

Thanks for the advice. I need to try it again with a little more patience I think. Greg

Larry I'm looking for a good 5 wt sink tip also. I can tell you that in my experience the cortland 333 5 wt sinktip doesn't cast well for me at all. My favorite 5 wt rod will handle both small dries and fairly large weighted streamers and indicator bead head nymph rigs but it just doesn't cast this line well at all. But this was my first experience with a sink tip line. Maybe they are all kind of difficult to cast? Greg

Yep you were definitely right and I was wrong Steve. Although I still think that CV2 is a good line at at great price the top of the line SA is definitely better. I had it on my list of things to do this summer to make a trip to the beaver dam store. Sorry you are moving on. But I'll try to look you up in Cotter. I hope you stay on this board. I enjoy your posts. Greg

Last week on impulse I bought a SA GPX dry tip line for my favorite 5 wt. I have to say it is the best line I've ever tried and may even be worth the $60 price tag. In the past I've been on record as saying that I didn't think the premium lines were worth the premium price. And I'm still not sure they are worth 3X what a BPS CV2 costs. But this line is definitely better. Super smooth casting, seems to load my favorite 5wt a little better and the best thing is the tip floats super high. It floats high enough that mending line seems much easier. Time will tell if the tip continues to float. Hopefully it will. Has anyone else tried one of these? Greg

Sounds like a great day. Did you catch the bigger fish in the catch and release stream section or the ponds? We didn't do as well as we usually do in the stream section last weekend. There didn't seem to be as many fish and there was a lot of moss. We did catch several in the ponds though. And we did see one monster in the catch and release stream area - probably 10+ pounds. Montauk is always good for me. My goal this year is to fish the trophy water below the park more. Glad you like your Z-axis. I've seen them and want to cast one. Greg

Of course they reproduce in hatcheries. But ask anyone in the MDC and they will tell you that any reproduction of brown trout in MO streams is either non-existent or very, very limited. I've both talked to staff at the MDC and read this. So again I say that even though they can reproduce in a hatchery setting - all the MDC has to do is stop producing them if they are causing a problem. Which I seriously doubt they would in the first place. See this website: http://mdc.mo.gov/conmag/1999/05/30.htm There is no mention of wild brown trout. Only rainbows because that's all there are. Greg

What a crazy thread this has been!! But personally I think it ALL worked out for the best. And regardless of what was said - this is the best forum going. With some great members. My wife and I were at the Landing today and had lunch (famous Daves BBQ)outside on the patio and noticed a great continuous mass of vegetation mid-lake working it's way downstream. I guess this is what Bill was talking about? Pretty sad. I hope the lake recovers quickly and the fishing does not suffer too much. It's been so good this spring and early summer. I would like to see the MDC look into this and try to hold "someone" accountable. We also fished for a while this afternoon and I ran into John (mr. Ducky) for a short time. The fishing was just so so (running 2 units) but I enjoyed visiting with him. Greg

Evil forces????? Now come on!! Brown trout do not reproduce in MO waters. So if some browns are stocked in the 11 point and some detrimental effects are seen to the rainbow and/or smallmouth populations (which I doubt) - then the MDC just stops stocking them and there is no further problem. And I'm no expert here but I think Al is absolutely right. In areas of our MO streams that are springfed and that stay pretty cool year around - smallmouth just don't seem to thrive. And I'm sure it is NOT because trout are stocked. It's been my understanding that was the case way before trout were ever stocked. So if we have these areas where a top level aquatic predator does not thrive (bass) why not stock trout (rainbow and/or brown)? Greg

Rich I don't know of any other sites that do regular reports. I used to like to look at the one from Reed's too. But I can maybe help a little. My family and I were there (at Montauck) yesterday. We had a good day. We fished mainly in the fly only area. We did well on small (18 to 20) bead head nymphs and midges. I also used a mohair leech with some success and at one point caught 4 in a row on a dry (foam/hackle ant). The water was up some from the recent rain but it was still very fishable. We caught quite a few fish and I was impressed with the size of a lot of them. All rainbows. No browns. We also fished the little catch and release area and the 2 ponds for a short time. We caught several there too. I wanted to fish the trophy water below the park too but we ran out of time. It was my birthday. My kids (19 and 13) birthday present to me was to go with me and fish with me even though that's not really their thing. Best present I could have hoped for and they seemed to have a good time as well. Greg

You're right. I think a 6" fly would be way beyond my 5 wts capabilities. I've never tried to throw anything that big. The biggest fly I've ever thrown for trout is a #4. And I usually don't ever go above a #8. But I don't pretend to be an expert at night fishing or even streamer fishing. I fish nymphs 90% of the time. But I'm planning to expand my horizons and throw more streamers and soft hackles this year as well as fish a little more at night. Greg

Terry already mentioned them but I'll second the mohair leech. It's a great pattern and when I started back into fly fishing 5 or 6 years ago it's about all I used for a while. It's hard to fish it wrong. But they are a little hard to find. Greg

I'm certainly no expert on night fishing at Taney but an 8 wt seems a bit heavy to me. Whenever I've fished at night I've always used the same 5 wt I use in the daytime. My favorite 5 wt throws the bigger weighted streamers very well. I could probably see the benefit of a 6 wt at night but an 8 seems like overkill to me. Not nearly all the fish you catch at night are monsters and the average sized fish is a lot more fun in my opinion on a lighter rod. But like I said I'm far from an expert on the night fishing thing. Greg

All Brian did was present this for general discussion and posted a "poll" that is really a petition for us to either sign or not sign. I see no reason for any attacks on his motives. I think he stated his case very clearly and if you disagree so be it. That's great to give reasons why you wouldn't want the browns in the eleven point. But can we refrain from making this personal? Greg

Terry thanks for the reminder about conclave. I've never been but my wife and I are going to try to make it down. I'd particularly like to meet and/or hear Dave Whitlock speak. When I was a teenager I read everything of his that I could find. I've always felt he has a good no-nonsense approach to fly fishing. Greg

I was out yesterday too. Just a great day. One of the better days I've ever had on Taney. I started out at about 11 AM and fished until about 7:30 PM. I'm guessing 50+ fish for me too. They ran one generator for a couple of hours and I fished through that with some sucess. Started out at the rock - fished down past the old boat ramp. Then later moved to the upper river. Everything I threw at them worked to some degree. Something kind of odd about yesterday was that just about every single fish I caught was in the 14 to 15" range. Very few dinks and only a couple that were larger than that. Last fish of the day was about 18" a beautifully colored rainbow. Wish I'd had my camera. Only one brown and he was about 14". Regarding leaders: I've never had that happen. I use both Rio tapered leaders and the cheaper BPS ones. I've never had one fail like that. I generally buy leaders tapered to 5X and depending on conditions tie on several feet of 6x mono or fluoro tippet. But one time I did get a bad spool of Rio tippet. It was brittle and broke too easily. One other note: As I was fishing up by the old boat ramp I saw what looked like a couple of otters. definitely not a muskrat and I don't think they were minks. Has anyone else seen them? I've never seen otters in the wild before. Greg

My Simms Lightweight model waders are now 18 months old with no problems. That's 6 months longer than any of my BPS waders lasted. I'm very pleased with them. Greg