Foghorn

Awesome trip, boys!

That rascals been eating good!

When we were kids, we would watch my Grandpa and Uncle Nip hand fish in the upper stretches where he was raised at Enough. Wasn't any chance I was sticking my hand under rocks and logs to fish. Wife Susie caught an 18" smallmouth just below the dam at Council Bluff when we were first dating. Never knew what mile post marker any of the stream was listed as.

Awesome colors on those fish!

Officially 11 years ago today for Susie and I.

Retirement life is good!

You did hit the high notes pretty good.

Pat doing the hard work. Not shucking the corn but listening to Marty singing!

Older brother had been camping at Montauk from 06/16-06/23 and had called home and said they had pretty good fishing in the fly zone. I had told him about the browns moving into the park but he had stayed where he saw the most fish. Okay, Susie and I made the 2 hour drive Monday and had a great day. Starting in the campground below the bridge, we started seeing nice browns. I picked off an 18" chunky female within the first 15" and lost another male that was a shade longer. As I worked my way downstream, I found a bigger brown in the 4# range in a stretch of water that wasn't 2 foot deep. He wasn't buying what I was selling so I moved down to catch up with Susie. She had caught a brown similar to what I had caught and was having a discussion with a couple who couldn't understand why she let it go. We fished to the handicap area and got out of the water to go to the 300 campground area. Saw 5-6 browns in the 2.5-5.5# range but no takers the first round. I didn't want to go further down even though we got into some good browns on our last trip. We decided to circle back upstream and make one more pass thru this section. Almost immediately, Susie had another 18" brown on and released it. I had put on the old trusty red fox squirrel nymph and got a couple good drifts on the biggest fish we had seen. She took it and I set the hook like the proverbial 800# gorilla and she was gone. Within 15", another brown in the 4-4.5# range moved into the whole and the RFSN did the trick. I let it go as a youngster who witnessed the fight couldn't understand why I wasn't going to the lodge to weigh it and get a patch. Told him it would be there tomorrow for him to try and catch. Older brother's campsite wasn't 50 yards from where we had fished for those browns. No pictures as I was wet wading with the hot weather.

Thanks Marty. Had been a bit since I got any shots at a decent brown trout. Surprised these survived the locals.

Susie and I haven't got out to fish a lot lately with 4 grandkids playing summer ball so I suggested a day trip to Montauk. We got to the lodge around 09:00 and noticed the water in great shape. I usually check the water levels before we go and it was showing 168cfs. We started as usual in the campground across form the big shower house. Had one family of 4 fishing so we worked around them and started finding fish. Caught a lot of fish on a tungsten bead egg pattern and eventually heard the Dad tell his daughter "ask him what he's using". So, I gave him a couple of the bead heads and a quick lesson on sight fishing. We decided to head downstream and proceeded to catch fish down to the Handi-cap access. Out of the stream for a short walk to the 300 campground area of the stream. I didn't time it right and most of the stream was in the shade and it made it harder to spot fish. There were more fish in the park than I had seen on previous trips and that was a welcome sight. We skipped around to the long hole at the lower end of the park and it was stocked really well with enough 13-14" fish to keep us busy. Then, we started seeing some nice brown trout as we reached the lower end of the park. Caught one 17" brown and lost another at the net in the 4-4.5# range. Had a good walk back to the car and a light lunch and an enjoyable day in the Park.

Great pictures as always.

Kids big chocolate lab died here recently at 12+ years old. Gentle with the kids and an excellent watch dog. He had a mini farm to roam on and was never caged. I'm like Pete in that I like dogs but don't want to keep one in the house or penned up all the time. I sure do miss old Bishop greeting us with that deep bark and wagging tail.

👍

Ran over a bunch yesterday while mowing the yard. Watched 2 squirrels munching on the hulls later on.

Sweet Baby James by James Taylor

Saw a few cicadas here in St. Francois county on my morning walk.

That mole was bigger than some of the trout I caught the last time Susie and I fished the parks!

Nice browns!

Maybe Pat is like Susie. Cares enough about the female population to not saddle some other gal with all all that requires being married to us!

Awesome Marty and Pat!

Good looking fly ,Marty. Several years ago I got the materials and pattern sheet from Feather-Craft to tie "Bill's Crayfish" fly. After several attempts, I had a pretty good resemblance of his fly. I headed to Montauk thinking this might be another hot fly for some of the browns that I knew were in the campground area. I think I scared every fish out of the first two holes I fished.

Sure looks like a good way to take a rest break from driving. Awesome Pete!

Roaring River is easier to fish because the only areas you need waders is their C&R area and the section below it to the start of the fly zone. Susie and I fished both Roaring and Bennett last Friday and Saturday and they fished about the same. The flies/lures that the guys here recommended will all work well. Bennett has a lot of construction going on above the big bridge upstream to above the dam that knocks out some quality water but there's enough water still yet to have a good day fishing. There are a lot of decent and reasonable places to stay around both parks. We stayed at Roaring River Resort while at Roaring and roughed it at the Holiday Inn in Lebanon. With Bennett's hatchery shutdown, the size of the stockers are a little on the small size . Good luck and let us know how you do.

Charlie Lau had the same sequence in his book "The Art of Hitting 300" only he had George Brett and his swing as you thumbed thru the pages.