DeepDiver75

Thanks to all for the informative replies. I love to fish droppers when I'm nymphing and from what I have heard I think I'll throw one on next time I'm down at one of the trout parks. Tight Lines

Question for anyone who's up on their trout park regulations. Is it legal to fish a dropper fly at any of the Missouri trout parks? I love fishing this method and have seen numerous folks at BSSP doing it but didn't think that it was a legal fishing method. I even thought I might remember Tim from RR talking about using a dropper ( but he could have been outside the park boundaries). Any insight into the ruling on this would be greatly appreciated.

I think that they both trigger fish movement , when you get the right temp and high water then it's really good. I'm hoping there will be a pretty good amount of fish moving up early this year due to spring rains, but who knows , that's why we actually have to go.

Don't know if you are flyfishing or not, but if you are I can give you a little helpful info. If they are not generating and you are wade fishing the Trophy Area I would suggest fishing the shallow areas between Chute #1 and Chute #2 as well as the top end and south side of Rebar Hole. The entire stretch between the bottom of Rebar Hole and where the river widens up is a good area also. I would reccomend a 6x tippet (fluoro preferably) with a double fly rig and small white indicator. Fly choices are numerable, I generally will fish two scud patterns of different sizes and colors but many people prefer to use a larger attractor pattern on top such as a SJ Worm or egg fly. The zebra midge is also a good choice for a dropper fly. If you are going to be spin-fishing or fishing from a boat maybe someone else can chime in cause I don't do much of that down there. I know that 10 different people will give you 10 different ways of fishing the tailwater effectively so I hope my opinions help out a little. Good Luck!!

Will be at Osceola next Thursday for opening day, just wondered if anyone knew if the river was up or not. Havn't been there on opening day before, we usually wait until the second week but with all the high water this year figured it might stage them up a little sooner. Any reports on snagging prospects either at Osceola or Warsaw would be appreciated.

Sounds like those little scud patterns I gave you worked out pretty good JJ. My buddy and I probably averaged 50-75 fish a day using pretty much nothing but those small scuds. Purple was a real hot color when it was overcast, not so much when the sun popped out. I really think that the small size (#20) was the key to working so well last weekend. Good to meet you , we'll have to hook up and fish Taney one of these days when the generation slows down.

Just left down there on Sunday afternoon and the river looked great. Maybe up just a little but nothing noticeable. The clarity was good , no runoff or anything. Fished the river 3 or 4 times over the extended weekend and caught a couple of fish each time (nothing of any size, just small stockers). We were fishing the Bennett Springs access area.

I'll be down Wednesday morning to check out the stream and fish the river a little. I'll be in a white silverado with a dive flag front license plate and a Catch and Release sticker in the back window. We're staying in a 4-plex right up from suzy hole, if i see you i'll stop and holler. Looking forward to the fly swap as it's my first one.

If the swap is still open I would like in. I'll tye a glass bead soft hackle (wine color variation) size #16. Will start tying after I get back from Bennett this weekend.

Thanks for the link STL FLY. If I'm reading the info correctly it looks as though the stream definitely came up over the weekend. Not sure what normal levels are but it will be a good site to watch and monitor stream conditions.

Will be heading down to BSSP on Wednesday morning for 5 days of fishing the park and river. I was wondering if anyone knew how the latest round of rain has affected the water levels down there. The last report that i could find was on Weavers site but it was a couple of weeks old. Thanks for any info.

Thanks to all who responded with advice on the rods. I got to cast a Z-Axis at my local fly shop here in town and loved it. Looks like it will be a 9' 5 weight z-axis for me. Thanks again for all the great advice.

I am getting ready to purchase a new rod for the collection, I have narrowed my choices down to a 9' 5wt Z-axis or the same size rod in a Loomis GLX. Was wondering if anyone out there fishes either of these rods and what their opinion was on their fishing actions. I mainly fish the tailwaters using a double fly indicator rig. Any opinions or suggestions would be greatly appreciated, I have obviously looked at both rods but without fishing them I'm having a hard time making a final decision.

Fished Bennett with two buddies on the 6th. The two of us using flyrods had a good day, catching 50 to 60 trout apiece in about 6 hours of fishing. Our friend with the spinning rod didn't fare as well catching only around 20 he said. Fished from the dam down to whistle bridge spending most of our time working the edges or any shallow riffle water with various small scud patterns below an indicator. A size #18 or #20 in a dark gray or olive color was the top producer. Bennett can fish well when up slightly and discolored, just fish the edges where the fish can get out of the mainstream current.

Unless you strictly do business with a local dive shop i would check on Leisure-Pro.com. It's a very large retail dive shop on the internet, i have found that they always have the best prices around if they carry what you are looking for. Are you a diver also or just looking for a housing to take pictures on the stream? Am always looking for dive buddies when I'm at the lake.