Oldschoolcane

Appreciate the update, hard to believe.

Yep, the casting baits I make out of cedar are great I am just not sure how a smaller lure would work with a fly rod.

Great info, a question about the balsa have you ever tried just using cedar? I suppose the balsa is lighter on a fly rod but I am curious to see if cedar would work any better? Tim

Great fish, beautiful coloring!

The topwater baits are great, they take a lot of time but they're worth it!

Haven't been to BSSP for a long time, hard to believe this much has changed.

Dan, thanks for the updates! Tim

For the record, to be fair about Kansas Wildlife & Parks I've met a lot of great people that work really hard in Kansas but they have a tiny operating budget compared to MDC. As long as people keep and eat Smallmouth, the rivers will suffer.

That's surprising, I never would have imagined that happening.

Brian & Justin, now that I have the NFOW 2009 Trout Population, (MDC report) in front of me which doesn't reflect the latest survey all of this makes sense. My latest fishing trips all occurred within that recovery from the drought window and I probably understated the affect of the drought on the rivers trout. Talking Rainbows here. But still, I do think there should be a real grassroots effort to watch and improve the river whenever possible. I think development and increasing use along with additional nutrification are something that we should all be concerned about. Plus, any additional habitat that could be created for spawning trout could only help. Not sure if this is realistic or not but its definitely something for those that value this river and its fishing to consider.

Brian, I really don't see anything in either of my posts to get defensive about? You have a lot of people on this forum that are new to the river and flyfishing in general who are overjoyed at having a wild trout river to fish in Missouri......me to. But I am also familar with the river from when Shawn Traylor was guiding on the river, Myrons cabins weren't around and Sunburst was still a small campground floating location. My questions about the river are based upon all the changing land use patterns, vacation homes, cattle pastures and the drainage, more commercial use of the river and everything that comes with that and I'd like to know what effect thats had on the river? I am not reminicing about the old days I am simply wanting a little more information than the average flyfisherman. What would I do if the river was in worse shape now compared to before? Get involved maybe someone needs to care about the area enough to see whats happening and do something about it.

Justin, I am not comparing the North Fork to the trout parks, for what its worth I was fishing the North Fork when you was just a baby......what I am saying is that compared to trout fishing on the North Fork in the 70's and 80's there are fewer and smaller fish in the river which seems to mean to me that the fishing is declining? Maybe the survey numbers will tell us otherwise? Someone needs to pay attention to whats happening with the Rainbows in this river, not just how its fishing today.

Thanks Sean and Brian, its been really dry here in Kansas and unless you've had more rain the river has to be really low?

I honestly don't know if I would agree with there being a ton of fish in the North Fork, having fished it off and on for years it doesn't seem quite the same or even close to what it used to be? What does MO Dept of Conservation say about the river?

Was considering my usual trip to the North Fork, couple of weeks from now. It looks really low, how is the fishing?