Big Brown Trout

Hey guys the wife and I floated from Lanagan park down to the low water bridge near eagles nest camp ground today. Fishing was good I caught half a dozen small mouth on wooly buggers and who knows how many small perch. The best color combinations were chartreuse body and black tail buggers. At one point I was pulling bass in literally as fast as I could cast back out. We ran float tubes today, I had no problems with mine (fly fishing with a cane pole as we went) my wife however popped hers and we had to improvise the last 3/4 of a mile or so. No pictures I'm afraid as we didn't want to risk the cameras safety. Water was moving fast which was a lot of fun and there was a moderate amount of debris along with four or so downed trees.

thanks lancer I just now saw you put this up! I really appreciate it.

Hey guys I haven't been on lately, but after tying this fly I thought I would drop in and post. It's nothing special here, just a traditional Royal Coachman wet. I had a great day a couple of weeks ago at Roaring River tearing them up with this. I had never used the fly before but I rapidly caught 5 trout with it. (I lost track of how long it took but my wife said it was in under 30 minutes). Unbeknownst to me (and later pointed out by my wife) I had a crowd of 10 people stop fishing and gather around me while I fished this fly.( I guess I shouldn't be surprised I'm probably the only person fly fishing with a cane pole). I got to talking with a guy from Texas who seemed very interested in my fishing. ( I heard him tell his wife, "Now this ol' boy here can fish". As I landed my fourth kept fish ( a nice sized rainbow over a pound). We talked a bit about fly fishing and I gave him a Royal Coachman with a little instruction on how to fish it. Once I got home I realized that I was down to my last one. Obviously this would not do so I planned to buy some more. I stopped by Tim's Fly Shop on Friday. My plan was to pick up some material for wooly buggers and some head cement. I talked to the always delightful Tim Homesley, we discussed fly fishing, and traditional wets. When I asked if he had any Coachmen on hand he said it wasn't very likely as nobody really uses them down there. Well no problem I thought. I got a white duck quill and some partridge to tie some of my own. (dirt cheap prices to Tim ). My wife wanted a long day of driving in the country so I was happy to meet her demand. Later on that night I dug out a few odds and ends, anyway here is the final result, the old-school, simple to tie and highly effective royal coachman. (which I now have a full supply of). As they say the proof is in the pudding: ( the little one on bottom was my wife's) I plan this to be a summer of fishing traditional wet flies so hopefully I will get the chance to post more soon.

that's good to hear, the only thing I've caught with those flies are crappie. (figured they would do well on bass though.) wish I had added some lead wraps to them though I think they are too light. what do you guys think? Thanks a lot of the pic DaddyO really made me happy. Hey lancer im sending you a pm.

wondering If anyone has caught any with the flies. I lost three flies. One fly I dropped ( the small midge) and lost. The green wooly bugger ended up in a sunken log at shoal creek, and the (amazing!) stone fly ended up in a fish. other than that I haven't had the chance to use any others. (btw whoever tied the stonefly let me know!) oh yeah I caught a sculpin today with the little orange bream buster. luckily I still have it though.

I got mine today, they all look great guys, can't wait to try them out. thanks again Mic.

went out fishing today with my dad on spring river. We saw lots of remains of white bass near the boat ramp. Our luck however wasn't that good. My dad caught two large white bass and I caught a 10-15 pound Gar on a wooly bugger (which certainly gave my 7 weight fly rod and 6lb test line something to think about).. We ran jigs, flies, crank baits, and jerk baits. The bass were both caught on a red and white crank and the gar on a white wooly bugger. the water temp was 53-54 degrees all day.

sent you the PM Mic.. let me know how the grubbers work out guys. I tried some at the pond the other day. . They worked. I would suggest you guys add some weight to them or use them with a flyrod (as long as you can cast biggish, awkward stuff).

Mic it says you cant receive any personal messages can you delete some so I can send you one?

tell me about it Mic. We have over 700 people working at my job. lots of sickness spreads each year.

funny you say that ruthead. I was just looking in the freezer and found...some crappie glad you got them Mic. Sorry again for the delays. Someday life will settle down and I will have time to live. (This Friday is my only my fourth day off work since last October)

Okay sorry, more stuff came up. I'm packing them. On the way to the post office right now!

hey sorry guys (Mic especially) I got really swamped with life and forgot to send flies /check the forum for a bit. they will be in the mail Friday I promise. sorry again things have been nuts!

lol never been to Crane ( yet) the ones I saw in spawning colors were at Hickory and at Roaring River and believe me nothing about trout in Missouri makes sense to me. of course I love it though.

^ well i'm on board with this of course. as far as the blue ribbon areas closed for spawning I could agree to it being closed. only thing is I have seen trout in spawning colors way out of season. (which confuses me b/c I am still learning a lot about trout and trout in spawn activity several months off of when they are supposed to be doesn't make sense...to me) if trout do spawn out of a set timeframe then how do you regulate it? or if most spawn at one time and stragglers come in later, again how do you regulate it?

amazing video Buzz thanks for sharing. definitely reinforces some of my own ideas of what fly fishing can/should be. thanks for posting.

okay expect to see mine pretty soon Mic. Probably send them next week, congrats on the new job btw.

I doubt it, we were alone in the woods.......if you know what I mean.....

oh that's cool, I like that

hey guys don't know if this exists already or not. keeping my hands busy so things don't end up like this: anyway I sat down at the vice and on a whim turned this out: let me know what you guys think... Basically they are just regular wooly buggers but the marabou tail is substituted with a zonker strip. I did black and chartreuse ;partly because that is what I had on hand, and partly because I read that trout see chartreuse better than any color. Also these seem like they would be good in dirty water or at night. I don't know if this fly exists yet or not, if not I guess I should name it. I have been thinking Bunny Bugger, Wooly Zonker, or Wooly wiggler. The only fly I could find that was similar was a bunny leech and I watched several ties but none were exactly like this. I plan to tie these in brown and olive also, I just did it in black and chartreuse because that is what I had on me and I like the two colors together. I doubt I was the first to come up with this but anyway here is the recipe: size 6 hook chartreuse zonker strip black marabou dubbed for body 2 black cock hackles super heavy bass bread head olive flashabou

depending on the M/F ratio this is either one of the best or worst stories ever...

and pretty accurate to. I've been out on Elk on days where you literally can't cast and not land your lure on a tube or canoe (luckily I wasn't fishing) the first (and last) fishing trip I took on Elk ended with us getting caught on a tree and a drunk canoer deciding the best way to 'help' us was to yank on the canoe until we flipped. lost everything including fishing poles and fish (and FOOD/DRINK). luckily we only had another 7 1/2 miles left to float. I would definitely advise Indian or Elk below the dam, or Elk on weekdays. all that said there is one spot on Elk I was aching to fish but having no pole I didn't.......maybe if I get a float tube..

thanks Buzz

living in Newton Co my whole life I have seen a lot of wolves. (I think in MO 3 wolves probably qualifies as a lot). Really though im far more concerned about the bobcat population. Out here by my place we had a pack of them that would roam around at night. Also one night coming out of a CA in McDonald county my wife and I were surrounded by a huge pack of at least thirty of them. luckily they weren't hungry I guess.

got mine came up with enough for a decent topwater. under budget to, I only spent $2 bucks.