Sharps4590

Given the recent rains in our area Mill should be good. I haven't fished it hard in a couple years but my best luck was with a dry/dropper rig. Dry depending on the season and my dropper is nearly always an amalgamated creature a young fella from South Africa and I came up with several years ago. As others have mentioned I don't know that the particular fly makes so much difference, except for the dry, as does presentation and to reiterate what others have also said, stealth. You don't so much fish for them as hunt them.

How can one not love the Little Piney and the beautiful fish that live in it? Well done, sir!

Wow....and I thought the 6'6" bamboo I built last year was short!!

Well done Kayser!! The Big Piney is nice but even as close as I am I don't spend much time on it. Take your fishing gear to Wisconsin with you. Beautiful country and water.

Well done bkb. Congrats!

Well done Jack!! There is some nice fish in there. From our trip back in February and what I've seen posted of late evidently there is several good year classes of fish in the LP. That is always a good sign.

Thank you Greenhorn. Always enjoy seeing someone have success on my "home waters". Beautiful fish, as usual.

This occurred almost a month ago and I apologize for being so late in posting. mreed81 and I had been trying to get together since last fall and the day before my birthday all the stars aligned and we finally managed to put a trip together. Matt and I met in Rolla at the Moto-Mart then continued down to the 63 bridge at the Little Piney. The creek was beautiful, plenty of water with just a hint of color. That Saturday was clear, very little wind and warm for the 27th of February. A hatch of Trico's came off and another itsy-bitsy bug, smaller than a Trico, that I didn't recognize. We both caught a few smaller fish that were beautiful in their parr marks but nothing of much size.......until. In one nice run I kept getting a pretty good tap in almost the same place but after 3-4 times I expected I was hitting a rock or submerged limb. I was fishing a dry and dropper rig and on one "tap" the dry disappeared. I figured rock/limb again but just in case lifted the rod tip......and the fight was on!! That trout must have been feeling really frisky because he jumped at least a half dozen times over a foot out of the water where I got a good look at it. I thought it was fully 16 inches of incandescently marked rainbow trout but Matt should be consulted for confirmation. 'Course no fisherman EVER overestimates the size of "the one that got away". I was fishing the 6'6", 4 wt. bamboo rod I made last spring from a Tufts & Batson blank and I had my hands full. Matt heard the racket, had to see some of the jumps and yelled to me asking if I wanted him to bring his net. I quickly accepted his offer. I had it close to the bank 2-3 times but I knew it was no where near ready to come in. Each time it turned into the current and took off for the tall and un-cut. With 6X tippet I couldn't put a lot of pressure on it so just stayed steady on the fish hoping it would be enough to turn it and eventually get it close enough to net. The last time I had it close to the bank....I knew it still wasn't ready to submit....it made it's usual turn and run, leapt what seemed to be two foot into the air.....and my line went slack. Matt asked if it broke off but I didn't know yet. As I reeled in my line I could see both the dry and the dropper so nope, wasn't broke off. I looked at the dropper to see if anything happened to the hook and it was fine.......except.....it was about as dull as a butter knife. It was a "dry/dropper" rig I had used the last time I fished almost a year ago and evidently there had been enough moisture on the hook when I wrapped it around my hat and stuck it in the hat band so that it rusted the point down to a dull, round nub. Losing the really nice trout was my own dadgum fault for not checking the hook when I tied it on. Howsomever...I was immensely pleased with the way the little Tufts & Batson blank performed and it was a genuine hoot playing that fish on that light rod. Ah well....that's why it's called fishing and not catching. Great day to be on the creek with beautiful weather and delightful companionship. We WILL do it again! Matt, I'm really glad you came down. After the last 9 months I didn't realize how much I needed that therapy.

A good pipe, patience born of frustration and study goes a long way when fishing skinny waters....now if I could convince myself of two of the three....

ness, I doubt there will be any pictures forthcoming. My skill with a camera is just about deplorable and the more refined the photography needs to be the worse I get. I need to either take a class or have someone show me what I'm not doing or doing wrong. Reference the firearms, all of the drillings are German as are the single shots and combination gun. There is one British double rifle from the 1880's. Truth be told those are my first passion. For most of them to come up with cartridge cases required re-forming and/or lathe work and often a custom bullet mold but, that's ok. I really enjoy putting the unusual and obscure back to work That and there is an elegance to those old German firearms that simply is not seen today. Gavin, thank you for the tip!!! I will try that. Makes perfect sense to me. My wife is doing fine now. Two weeks ago she had her 6 month check up from the brain surgery and radiation and the MRI and PET scan came back good. All "ologists" are pleased with her recovery and tests. It's been a rough 7-8 months and I don't recommend it.

Well thank you very much! Were my photography skills better you might not say that....lol! It's deer antler sw but I don't burnish with it, I use it to push the wraps tight together. I filed a little flat tip where the point is. That's silk and if you burnish it, it gets all fuzzy. At least it did on me the one time I tried it so maybe I don't know how to burnish silk. Silk is all I've ever wrapped with so it's entirely possible I don't know how to burnish anything.... On a few of the wraps evidently I didn't get the tag ends cut close enough and when I varnished them there was an itty bitty bump there. It doesn't "hurt" anything but it annoys the crap out of me. I thought they were all fine. When we were in St. Louis for my wife's radiation treatments we went by Tufts & Batson one day and Amelia, I think that's her name, told me how to correct that on my next one.

Gavin, I fear the pictures depict my usual "not very good" photography skills but, here it is. The rod is a two tip but I only had the one finished when I took that photo.

A Phillipson is one blue collar rod I have yet to add to my accumulation. A friend has one and I cast it and liked it. I can't imaging any Boyd being wrong!!! Winter and spring of 2015 I wrapped a 6' 6", 3-4 wt., Tufts & Batson blank and it's a sweety too!

Good times, good on ya'll!....and when you get to vintage bamboo you'll know you're hopeless.....

Wellll....not quite. There's some brookie in there also... I believe it's a "cuttybrookybowbrown"

Absolutely gorgeous fish!!! Good on you Matt!!

Fella's, it's gonna change again after this bout of rain.

Eric, don't know if you're off to Mill this morning but if you are, we received precious little rain here yesterday. Certainly there will be no increase in flow or color. I haven't been over Mill in a while but I'm not surprised to hear it's so low. We went over two months with no measureable precipitation down here.

The Ozarks are truly beautiful....any time of the year! Gorgeous pictures

Fairly typical for Lane although there is some surprisingly decent sized fish in there. How was the water level? Last time I was across it, it was pretty low. We haven't had any measurable rain here in over two months.

I never met the man but after the summer my wife I have been through our house will certainly be offering up prayers for the family and anyone else suffering from cancer or its effects.

Good on you seeker!!!!! I believe you're going to like that Imperial. I bought one....goodness....18-20 years ago? I know it was before we moved to Wyoming in 2000. Sure caught a pile of cutts on that rod. For a few years it was my go to rod.

Welcome to the "benign addiction". You have taken several steps on what often proves to be a slipper slope....but an absolutely wonderful slope. Sort of like a favorite blue or balck run in the Rockies when skiing. I upgraded from synthetic rods and plastic line to bamboo and silk. No regrets and nothing synthetic has been fished with in over a decade but, take it from experience, think long and hard before you take that step.

I see you learned my "secret" to Mill...(the EHC).....if there is a secret. I know every hole in every picture and that creek was still very low. It's now March of 2013 since this thread and I expect the creek is in much better shape. Locally we didn't receive the heavy snow and/or rain of other parts of the state but what we got was desperately needed and greatly appreciated. Last year I didn't fish Mill after April. The early part of the year was because of time and committments...after that it was too (*&*$# hot and I new the creek had to be low. Maybe I'll run over there tomorrow and have a look see. It is one of the treasures of the Missouri Ozarks....if we could just keep the poachers out. Oh....and your photography is abosolutely stunning....wow is all I can think of.

Rich's Last Resort west of Licking. I'm sorry I don't have the contact info in front of me but a search should turn it up.