JestersHK

Nice! Next maybe try a fish a minute. Catch a fish and it restarts the clock. See how many minutes you can keep it going. Duane looked like he has it down pat LOL.

What an awesome idea. I have never tied any flies, but is there any other way to donate to this cause? Gofundme page or anything like that? Thanks,

Man that was a nice looking Brown... Cant wait for my planned trips down there. Looking forward to fishing off that dock! Thanks for sharing.

I still counted more catches than misses! LOL Nice vid. Thanks for sharing.

Finally made it down to Bennett for the first time this April. Forecasted weather looked really good, but after the rain and reports I figured water would still be a bit high. Turns out both were true... I got down to Weavers Late Thursday night so no time to pre-scout the river. I woke up early Friday and headed down to my normal starting spot above the Dam and waited for the whistle. Walking over to the Dam I noticed the water was a bit high but not out of its bank or anything. Water was green and murky with visibility maybe being 3ft or so if that. You can kind of see it here. I started jigging from the shelf and was rewarded with my first fish of the day on my first cast on a 1/16oz Bumblebee patterned wooly bugger I'll have a pic below here that will show you all the lures I used. Pretty easy at the whistle though... I fished here for about 30 minutes and after 8 or 9 fish headed on down below the Dam to start working my way down river. Got this guy off the platform right by the bridge. Water was moving fast down here as well and was still very murky. All fishing by the rod tip for pretty much the entire day. All of the fish were holding very low. Occasionally you would see one rise and there was some type of hatch that they would pop up and hit on the surface, but I had the most success jigging off the bottom. I would keep the rod tip bobbing up and down and then use as slow of a retrieval as possible. I mean SLOW here. Really letting it work the bottom. Broke off a few times, but was getting good hits consistently through the day. I finished up early afternoon with 4 nice fish on the stringer. Saturday I started a bit late. Fished with my neighbors from Weavers and they showed me some nice spots on the other side of the Dam where we immediately started tearing into some really nice size fish. 1.5 to just under 2 lbs were tearing up some glow balls on their fly rods and hitting the wooly buggers on my spinning gear. Fish I saw this weekend definitely were larger and more solid than I have seen in a while. I finished out the afternoon with a nice stringer, even nabbed one of my keepers on my buddies fly rod. Heres the line up of jigs I used. Pretty much all I needed. The bottom lure was on the fly rod about 3-4ft below an indicator All in all had a great weekend with over 40 fish caught. Park was pretty empty Friday. Saturday got a bit crowded, but nothing too bad. I was very happy with the results given the water conditions. Thanks for reading, and good luck out there. JestersHK

Thanks for the update Oneshot! We'll see if we can't get them biting. Weather at least for once looks like it is going to cooperate.

Water still up pretty good? I am heading down tonight to fish Friday and Saturday. Looks like deep and slow will be the key from the last reports I heard...

Nice to see a productive One-cast even if he was just a little guy. Water still looks to be moving pretty good. Thanks,

Man that water is moving... I'm guessing they are still pooling up in the creeks? Still running 4 units?

Thanks for doing this Phil. Fantastic idea for those of us that have a long haul to get to the water, it saves me some time knowing water conditions in potential places we may go to fish. Last weekend was a prime example. Was thinking of making the run down to Tany to wade fish the trophy area, but then read the reports on 4 units running... Sure we could of came down and rented a boat or hit the creeks, but knowing ahead of time helped me replan the weekend.

Nice Blog Post. Not that I enjoy your misfortunes, but its good to know I'm not the only one that this happens to LOL. Looks like you at least got some good recon in for hopefully a more fruitful future trip.

I've fished many species my whole life, but this is only my 3rd Trout season. Now I can say I had an awesome teacher in my fishing buddy who has been fishing the parks and rivers for almost 20 years. Most important thing he taught me with jigging is that its all about the rythm. Not only should you try different lures and jigs, but the method you fish them is very important starting with a good rythm during retrieval. Maribous get a slower rythm while mixing up your retrieval speed. A wooly bugger gets more of a fast action almost erratic type of jigging again while mixing up the retrieval speed. Out of all my jigs I own theres really only about 4 or 5 patterns that I rely on. Occasionally on a hard day I will go to the odd box and try a really out there pattern, but I have found its all in the speed of retrieval and jigging technique that get them on the line. Maybe its dumb luck, or maybe he was on to something with his teachings, but I have never not been able to "limit" out on fish in the parks, and even fishing Tanycomo and the rivers I can usually find a method to land fish in good numbers. If you are ever down at Bennett when I am fishing I'd be happy to show you what was taught to me. I've had success teaching a few of my other buddies as well as my 10yr old daughter who even throughout the day well past the whistle can still get them biting. JestersHK

Made it back down to Bennett this past weekend. Lots of rain Friday night created some pretty deep murky water, Saturday the weather cleared up mid morning and wasn't to chilly so headed out to the normal spot above the dam to start. Fish were biting pretty good up there early for the first half hour or so as usual. Jigging a black and yellow patterned 1/16oz Maribou with a gold head landed quite a few fish. I switched back to a gold headed olive wooly bugger 1/32 variety with some metallic green in it after the black and yellow died down, caught a few more, and then headed down below the dam. Slowed my jigging down to a really slow rate and retrieve and it seemed to get them biting again. Fishing was slow. Water was moving really fast due to the rain, and visibility was nill. Mostly fishing by rod tip. There was a ton of debris in the water and about ever other cast I was cleaning jigs off. Walked most of the river minus a few deep parts down to the whistle bridge but only caught one or 2 more. Sun poked out in the afternoon so I made my way upriver towards the spring. Again fishing was slower than usual. Less debris in the water up there, but it was pretty packed people wise. I finally caught one last keeper and called it a day around 4:30. I caught 14 fish all day which was a bit off my normal marks, but saw allot of fly fisherman having luck drifitng glow balls and white and red midges. Sunday I had to head back early, so hit the upper dam spot again at the whistle. It was colder than expected, but warmed up pretty quick. Started out with the Olive wooly bugger again and started catching them on my 3rd or 4th cast. Lots of little fish below 12inchers and it took me about 2 hours to limit out. All in all a good trip. Olive seems to be working very well this time of year. Not much luck on white patterns. When the suns out anything with a gold head gets them biting, and with the water as fast and as deep as it was it was all about finding the right speed and rythm to get them to bite.

Thanks for the report and nice pics. I will be down next weekend, and hope they stay bitin!

Here's my attempt to recap my weekend at Bennett. Sorry its not Montauk, but I will be there in a few weeks and can hopefully get a report.

Hello guys, I am a new guy around here and found this place a month or so ago and have been lurking. I am on my 3rd trout season now after my fishing buddy got me hooked on this trout fishing stuff, but have fished pretty much since I can remember. This will be kind of wordy, but wanted to share my opening day experience in full. For the TLDR crowd. Had a white knuckle driving trip from STL. Had awesome BBQ. Got car stuck at my camper at Weavers because I had a brain fart. Caught Buckets of fish on Sunday and Monday! Ok so here goes it. Part one is me blah blah blahing about my trip and my inability to respect the weather. Part 2 will be mostly all fishing. Part 1 Started out from STL around 11 or so Saturday. I have a 4x4 and a RWD but latest forecast still said an inch maybe 2 so I grabbed the MIL's little Nissan Versa to save on some gas and headed off. Hit the heavy snow on 44 right before Rolla. Started to see the accidents and slide offs. Missed the major pile up at Rolla and the little versa kept chugging along behind the semi's. Last 20 miles were rough and snow packed, but I pulled into PigPen BBQ in Lebanon around 2:30 or so. Awesome BBQ and I had lunch with the guys who own the place after meeting up with a guy who I met off a gun forum. Good people and the food was awesome. I highly recommend it to anyone who has not been there yet. They are right behind the Walgreen's there in Lebanon. The voyage then continued to my camper at Weavers. Last year my fishing buddy and I purchased an old camper together and rehabbed it into our own little trout lodge. We towed this old camper from the middle of Arkansas and dropped it off at Weavers for its now semi permanent home.(that's a story all on its own). After some TLC we now have a perfect jumping off point to all the trout parks and Tanycomo with Bennett being our favorite. No more waking up at 3:30 to make the whistle in the morning. After I finished up lunch I rolled into Weavers around 4 and stopped in to say hi to Rick and Lucy the owners there. There was about 2 inches of snow now and it was still coming down. It was here I made one of my first critical errors. I drove down to the bottom of the hill to unload all my gear and proceeded to open the camper up. Thought about pulling the car back up to the parking lot and leaving it, but got busy and figured hey its a light little FWD car its just an inch or 2 of snow. Should be fine. Not one of my brightest moments... So I settled in had some dinner, warmed the place up, and started in on a book in my solitude without the normal sounds that accompany a wife and 3 kiddos and a busy life. Set the alarm and dozed off... I was awakened at 5:30 to my annoying phone blaring its alarm. I had my fishing bin prepacked. I layered up and went out to start the car to let her warm up. I then quickly realized the critical error of the prior day. Probably a good 5-6 inches of snow was covering everything. I tried a few times to get the little car to make it up the hill but it just wasn't happening. I was stuck... I tried for about 30min the usual tricks, but it wasn't happening... I walked up to Weaver's and told them of my predicament, and figured maybe I could hitch a ride with someone down to the park. Rick and Lucy are amazing folks and Rick offered to drive me down there. I was blown away by their generosity of giving me a ride and telling me to just call when I was done and they would pick me up! Truly great folks indeed. Many Thanks to the both of them! Part 2 Now onto the actual fishing. I will warn you ahead of time I brought no fly rod with me this trip. 1. I suck at fly fishing but am getting better as I learn... 2. Me fly fishing on a crowded river is no good for anyone involved lol. I took my trusty little spinning rod consisting of a Quantum Energy PTi mated to a 4'6 St. Croix ultralight in a fast action running 2lb maxima for the line. This combo has worked very well for me so far and had been super reliable with accurate casting and very rarely will I get any backlash. Rod is very tight and sensitive, yet gives me a nice buggy whip effect so that even in its short length I can still reach out to those holes on the other side of the river. I made it to Bennet around 6:45 after everything that had occurred thus far. I went in and picked up my tag which read 861. Now after last year at Bennett opening day where it was packed this was a nice surprise and I looked forward to the sparce crowds. I headed down to my usual starting spot above the darn by the retaining wall and had a solid white 1/32 jig on with a red neck. I walked out by where the 2 benches were and cast out. I began jigging and immediately I was rewarded with a hard strike and a fish on my first cast. Not a huge fish, but about average size from last year, but felt good landing a fish on my first cast. Last time I fished was end of November in Tanycomo so was great to knock the rust off at this relatively easy spot for me to reel in some fish. I saw some guys who were also staying at Weavers fishing next to me, we chatted about what we were using and such and soon after that one of them hooked into what would be the biggest fish I would personally see Sunday and Monday. He was using a spinning rod and a rooster tail and hooked into a nice fish. After a bit of a fight he landed him and we realized it was bigger than we first thought. Was a beautiful fish and I think he will be the first on Weaver's lunker board and weighed in right at 3 and 1/4 lbs. I left my starting spot and went down below the darn. I switched to a Green and Drab wooly bugger with a gold head in 1/32 variety that you can pick up at BassPro. I swear by these little guys and they come in both Olive and Brown variety. They have a longer body for a jig and have a bunch of metallic in them with a trailing tail. When jigging them you get a sweeping side to side action out of them that the trout can't seem to resist. I caught some decent fish below the darn and had 2 fat little 15 inchers on my stringer thus far. I fished from the bottom of the darn all the way down to the whistle bridge and was rewarded with right at 29 fish from my starting point to where I ended. I caught one last little chunker which would make some nice filets and called it a day as I was worried about my car situation. All in all I started around 6:50 and ended up fishing till around 1:45. Not a bad day at all and plenty of action on the line. I made it back up to Weavers after cleaning fish and started working on the car situation. They had plowed the main hill down to the gravel and after a little bit of working the little car out of the ruts I was able to get her pointed back up hill. A few nice gentlemen who were staying down there helped me with a push and I was able to get unstuck and back on solid ground! I was relieved as I now had a vehicle and was no longer stranded. I rolled into Lebanon and had some early dinner made it back and went back to the quiet solitude and reading until I dozed off at the end of a great opening day! Day 2 I was again awakened by the annoying alarm. but well rested I hopped up, loaded up and was ready to go. It was much colder and in the teens, but I grabbed some hand warmers for the gloves and headed out. I started again in my usual spot using the same Green wooly bugger from above. I caught a few fish and then they got bored with it. I tied on a 1/16 maribou jig with black and brown and a black head with a red neck. First cast BAM! a fish hammered that thing and jumped right out of the water. He was a jumper and after a few more I had him landed and released. Next was my first keeper of the day which was a really nice rainbow right at 16 or 17 inches probably a little below 2 lbs. She was long and super skinny though, but a beautiful fish. Goal was to make a nice stringer that day so on she went. Around 7:30 or so I was fishing next to another gentleman and he made the observation that the dam was completely empty already. I guess it was too cold for some and the place really cleared out, but usually there's always at least one out there in the morning. He remarked he never saw such a thing and went to get his camera to document this LOL. I followed my routine of heading down below the darn, and got into a nice hole under the bridge where I was catching them on about every other cast. Caught some decent fish down there then headed down stream when it started tapering off. I fished the faster shallower parts and landed some smaller fish down that way. I hit the big rock wall and caught some there as well. It was allot of find a spot, catch a few, and move on type of day. I made it right to where the fast water inlet empties out and I caught my 2nd keeper of the day. Was a nice fish about the same length of the first, but filled out a bit more and laden with eggs to find out. At this point I was at 21 fish already for the day. The amount of fish and lack of people was turning this into a great day indeed. I hit the whistle bridge again, cleaned my 3 fish and then planned on C&R for the rest of the day. I went back to the top of the darn and started working my way towards the start of the spring. Things slowed down when I broke off the black and brown maribou on a nice fish. I went back to the wooly bugger, and bumblebee maribou, even a solid brown was slow. I eventually found a magnet in the form of a black and tan wooly bugger with some yellow highlights and a gold head in the 1/32 size. Closely resembled the coloration of a pale bumblebee. It was a trout gold mine after this. I started wading and would catch a few and move along in and out of the other fishermen who braved the cold. I made it all the way up to the overflow when my jig head broke off from the hook... Low and behold that was the only one in that variety I had. I must of caught around 15 fish on that jig though it lived a good life while it lasted. I finished up with my last fish landed around 3 in the afternoon. Tired and hungry I turned towards home with 37 fish total caught on the day. With raw cold hands I packed up and headed out. This was an awesome first weekend I have been looking forward to since november of last year. The snow and the spring were beautiful. The fish were plentiful, and anytime you can catch close to 40 fish in one day for me is spectacular! Most everyone of the guys out were friendly and nice to chat with. A very relaxing weekend, and even now as I write this up at work I wish I was back down there. For those of you that read all of this I hope you enjoyed it. Hopefully for those that couldn't make it, it gives you a taste of the new season. If you see a guy in a red hoodie, a red cardinals stocking hat on, and in tan waders say hello! JestersHK