ollie

I got out yesterday and did pretty well myself. From 9:00 until 3:00 I caught right at 35 fish. No big ones until the end of the day. It was the funnest one too. Playing cat and mouse with my jig until finally she pounced on it! I would throw upstream and she would come and look everytime until the last time when I drove home the point! Ended up about 19" and really thick. I would guess around 3 lbs. maybe. Also caught a female that gushed eggs all over me and the bank. I too like the C&R season down there. Real peaceful with very few anglers. When I got there at 9:00 there were only three vehicles down at the lower end. Not many people, beautiful day, and good fishing.

Jigs, my man, jigs. I prefer a 5' Falcon with a Daiwa reel and some #4 test line in suble green. St. Croix and Loomis are nice too, but the Falcon gets my vote. The Daiwa is the only real other than the older Abu's that I have found not to bind up after a good dunking in the drink. Have you lived in Edwardsville long? Only asking because I knew a couple of older brothers from there. One use to own a classy Italian joint downtown. Badalamenties or something like that were there names. I couldn't spell it then either! It's funny Tightline mentions fishing in the C&R area with spinning gear. About five years ago my brother and I were down on Norfolk at the C&R area and I thought someone might shoot me for spinning gear! I got some awful nasty looks, but I still held my own. Even the old fart who ran the place gave me a heads up on my redneck ways!

Want to go, but that dirty four letter word keeps coming up. I'm going to try and make it down either Sat. or Sunday.

Ok, just didn't know. Good thing I didn't bring my son without him having the stamp!

Really? I didn't think a kid under 16 had to have a license to fish, let along a trout stamp. Apparently just for the trout parks? Have the rules pertaining to trout stamps changed in the last few years? I get mine automatically every year w/ my license so I guess I never noticed.

Hey Dano, Give me a heads up before you decide to come this way. Now until after Christmas I will only have Sundays off so there's your invite. A 1/64th olive wooly jig I tie. Looks like a booger only in jig form. Honestly it wouldn't have mattered what size the lure was, they were dumb stockers! Now give them a few weeks and they might catch on if they are still in there! lol

Did well in fact. Got there this morning about 8:30 and the weather was perfect! No rain, which I thought might happen and cloudy, overcast skies all day long. Let me point out there was also hardly no wind. Calm winds make for an enjoyable trip to Capps everytime. If you have been there when there is even a slight breeze you will know what I mean. Started down on the lower part of the creek and the second deep hole I found there were a couple of stockers eager to hit my jig. Moved on upstream again and found a large tree down in one of the deepest holes of Capps. I decided not to fish this one because I couldn't really get around it in the water. Yes, I did have my waders on. Those got awful hot as the day went on too! Got up to the last hole I wanted to fish and pulled out 9 in that stretch. Caught the same small brown twice I am sure of that. After I walked back to the truck I ended up C&R 15 trout. It was then around 10:30 so I headed-up to the mill and on the way I noticed some changes. MDC or the guy who owns land by the mill has built a fence closer up to the road. This would be on the high bank side just past the new bridge by the mill. Also found out the MDC has gone and put chunk or rip-rap under the mill dam I am guessing to keep it from eroding away. I ended up catching 5 more fish on the upper end. One was a bluegill of course! lol I did catch a beautiful brown with bright marking on it just below the mill dam. Thought it was just another nice size sucker fish until I pulled him in. Bright orange tips and spots, but only about 12". In fact all the stockers were decent in size except for one that was probably around 8". I'll take 20 fish for three hours of playing anyday! I don't know when they stocked last, but I am guessing sometime last month because some fish are still condensed in holes and other where spread out.

If it's not raining real hard I will probably go over there and check out things. Anyone want to hook-up I will be in the old blue chevy s10 on one of the lots.

Sorry dude, I don't think anyone see's the same thing you did from that photo.

All for it over here!

I feel your pain, I feel your pain.

The few times I have been there during this time I have always seen the campground with extra area to spare. Now the people on the water are a different story. Pretty crowded from what I remembered, but we also fished a lot at night too. When they weren't running power I was fishing from the yak so I could venture out more. Make sure and hit the C&R area below the deep hole (can't think of the name of that hole). Have fun and let us know how it goes.

You know the warden is po'd I even thought of it! I was considerate enough to tell her she would definetly get wet if she went with me!lol

I don't need help with my paddling or a spot to go to. I was just hoping someone rich would feel sorry for me so I can go paddling for some fun! I need some cash so I can go down there on Thursday and play. Oh yea, did I mention I would be skipping work if I could go.

I have fished it twice in the last couple of months and I have had good and bad days. Wayne's right, it is pretty low right now. I fished it around 5 weeks ago and did great! Fished it a couple of weeks ago and it stunk! I did talk to a guy doing well for cats, but he wasn't even trying for anything else. Good luck to you, maybe we will get some rain between now and then.

Let's see, May 18, 2007.

Yes, Quail is on the agenda unless they changed it this year. I lot of people deer hunt around there also. I have also been told they re-located or "put" quite a few turkey around there. I know I have seen a lot of wildlife around there. Mallards, dove, deer, rabbits, and of course lots of squirel.

I would imagine pretty low water indeed. I normally don't even go down there until a lot of weeds and brush die off. That and the snakes are terrible in the summertime! I'll get down there sometime the end of this month or sometime in Nov. It will be interesting to see what has happened though.

Sounds like a good time at least. I went out on Sunday and didn't do very good either.

Wow Impressive at least. Hope the two on the right survived the man handling under the gills. I agree with others, don't give specifcs on locations. It's not clickish, but just good common sense not to give out details to the whole world who can read those posts.

Ok Fishbork, I know where your talking about now. At first I thought maybe you were talking around Carthage, Joplin area. I lot of creeks and rivers around here were experimental trout stocking programs for MDC way back when. Either that or someone's "pet fish" escape the impoundment!

I remember as a kid we only saw them in pictures and never dreamed of them coming this far north. I moved away to St. Louis in '87 and when I came back to SW MO in '94 they were everywhere! A kid at work swears they got here form under truckers trailers. lol

On the same Spring River that eventually flows into Grand? I guess it's possible. They found rainbows below the falls in Joplin on Shoal creek some years back, but I know where those came from. How would rainbows show up in Spring River?

Great pics, I too like seeing them. At least I had parents and grandparents that could tell me stories of how it "use to be". I dig that kinda stuff.

That's a good looking rig Fox, but it wouldn't be practicle on some of my flows. I wouldn't want to portage that rig around any obstacle. Going upstream is good WHEN you have enough water. I'm lucky to have over 100 cfs on any of my local streams this time of year, yet alone any other time. Just like any boat, you have to give up something to gain something!