WestCentralFisher

It looks like you found some beautiful places, some adventure, and beautiful, wild fish. I'd call that a success. Compared to fishing equivalent mountain creeks in the Rocky Mountain West, I find back east there is a much, much higher amount of exploration and frustration/failure required to find the gems. Between warmer summer water temps, higher pressure, etc, there is just a lot more water that looks fishy than what actually fishes well. And a lot of places that are only good for a few months out of the year. But when you find those rare creeks that defy gravity so to speak, it's all worth it.

Yup. There really is an impressive amount. And they're quite aggressive too. You have to size up lures/flies quite a lot to mostly lose their interest, but short of throwing musky lures you're going to catch some.

Spent a pleasant, if absurdly warm winter day yesterday on the Niangua. I fished down by Barclay, which when I do that, it's usually more for the scenery (which in my opinion is much nicer than around Bennett) than the catching. This proved true on all fronts yesterday. I spent a very pleasant day in a beautiful spot and caught two trout in perhaps 4 and 1/2 hours of fishing. One rainbow of the usual stocker size, one small brown. Not to mention the usual compliment of creek chubs this stretch of river seems to have more if than any other I'm aware of. It was easily the slowest day of fishing I've ever had as a grown adult on this river, but after all the chaos of holiday season I think a quiet day without much happening is sort of what I needed. I did go up and check out the Bennett Spring Access, and it was hopping with people, so I opted not to fish there. Hard to blame them on a 70 degree winter day that most people have off work/school. Planned to go back out today, but I woke up sick. Ah well. At least I got some fishing in first.

This post isn't a complaint, just a self-observation. I've noticed since about mid-October my fishing ventures have been in what I'd call a serious rut. All summer I fished just about everywhere I could in the Ozarks, but since it got chilly and the smallmouth have retreated to their winter holding areas, it's like every trip is groundhog day. This isn't a bad thing. I'm consistently catching trout and smallmouth bass every trip out, in the same few holes of the same couple rivers. It's not that I'm struggling, it's that there is no drama. I know pretty much what I'm going to catch, how I'm going to catch it, and there remains but little mystery in either. I've found myself passively hoping I'll get skunked once or twice to build some anticipation. It hasn't been unenjoyable. I find myself leaving the river after a couple of hours and going for hikes, scouting for deer sign for potential future outings, or just generally exploring. But I think I need to expand my horizons a little. Might be time to visit one of the particularly challenging wild trout creeks or go try and find the wintering holes on a smallmouth stream I don't know well. It's just a strange feeling I don't know if I've really experienced before, mostly because I've spent most of my life as a pretty mediocre fisherman, and I've generally had to scratch and claw just to catch fish.

I've caught smallmouth semi-regularly while nymphing for trout, especially with larger patterns, but occasionally even something like a #16 Hare's Ear. Smaller bass definitely seem to eat aquatic insects often enough that it's a pretty reasonable way to target them. Egg patterns, never before until today. I've also had very little (though not zero) success with them for brown trout or anything other than stocked rainbows (I know they get used in more natural contexts in places with anadromous fish or lots of actively spawning trout). For the most part they've always been the definition of a one trick pony, though a very effective one for their specific use. Even chubs usually seem more hesitant to take them than most other things. So that's why I found it strange.

Not much of a story here, just something I've never had happen before. I was trout fishing on a stretch of river that I know to periodically have good smallmouth bass fishing. But it's usually not consistent enough to target them. Anyway, I was fishing with an egg pattern and caught a pretty, fat smallmouth somewhere in the 12-14 inch range. At first, I was concerned it might be a foul hook situation, because what smallmouth bass would take an egg pattern? But no, it was an honest take. Knowing that when you find one this time of year there are usually more, and figuring that had to be a coincidence, I switched to a woolly bugger, then a crayfish pattern. Outside of a couple half-hearted takes, nothing. Figuring that it maybe had just been the one smallie, I switched back to an egg pattern to target trout...and caught several more bass, mostly smallmouth but one little largemouth as well. Barely a story worth telling, I know. But I literally have never caught a bass on an egg pattern in my entire life, so catching multiple in less than an hour was notably strange.

I caught a bunch on a #14 Parachute Adam's today on the Niangua. But I think it was one of those days where I could have caught them on anything north of a bare hook, and that's just what I felt like throwing.

My stock answer to that question is "Oh, just enjoying the beautiful day". It's not actually a lie, because I almost always am, and if people want to conclude I'm putting a positive spin on a bad skunk and move along, well that's on them.

People will really cheat over anything. All for $200. But it's not really about the money, it's about the ego boost. A guy I used to fish with quite a bit would regularly lie about the size/quantity of fish he caught any time we were not standing right next to each other...even though a non-zero amount of these times I was still close enough I could actually see him plenty well enough to know it couldn't be true. I wrote it off as weird but harmless, but eventually it became clear it was part of a larger trend of having to be better at everything than the other guy, which wore thin quickly. The silly bit is he probably was a better fisherman than me. He didn't really need to lie, but he couldn't help himself. I'm immune to these things, because I know I'm only an alright fisherman, and it's been a long time since I could be bothered to care.

After fishing the Niangua River yesterday morning, I popped over to an empty Bennett Spring State Park to look around. Not pictured are the many trout that were rising enthusiastically to the pieces of leaves on the water, presumably thinking they were pellets 😆

This is the exact time of year I worry about. Particularly on the stream that I very much fear is the one in question. They are just so concentrated in a few pretty obvious places, and it's so easy for one person to cause so much damage.

There were several large groups of people, but they were mostly pretty bunched up together, so it left some pretty decent stretches of open water. A lot of them were from a couple touring vans, and they all just kind of fished in a giant bunch up near the parking lot. That and careful camera angling makes the stream look much more secluded than it probably was in reality. But I never had to look hard for a spot, and a couple times had a whole pool to myself. That's pretty good by trout park standards.

I'd originally planned to go camping and fishing on the Current River today and tomorrow, but life just kept getting progressively more in the way, and by this morning, my timeline had been compressed to the point where it was pretty much going to be a quick trip to Maramec Springs or nothing. I'll admit, I was originally quite disappointed...but then I got there and remembered how gorgeous this place was and how nice it could be if you didn't take the fishing too seriously. With the fall colors pretty much at their peak and the weather perfect, you just could not ask for a prettier backdrop. And yes, I did manage to catch a couple fish too. What started off as something I had expected to be a disappointing outing ended up being a great few hours.

This is really cool, but I could never be any good at this sort of thing. As someone who has been through that particular state many times and hated it each time, I just don't think I could make myself drive past good trout water to fish in Illinois.

Though I don't remember my first fish, some important fishing firsts I do remember: First smallmouth bass: Big Piney River, around age 10-12 It was on a float trip that also yielded my first few dozen smallmouth bass, after a number of failed attempts. First Missouri trout: Maramec Spring, around the same age. I only caught one that day, but it was still a significant improvement from my first attempt, where I hooked only my own hand, but at least it was deeply enough to necessitate an ER visit. First trout on a fly: Blue Spring Creek, around age 16-17. It was soon after getting my driver's license, and it was about as far afield as I was allowed to go. In retrospect, it's a terrible place to learn to fly fish, but I got plain lucky and caught one almost immediately First really big fish: a 12 pound channel cat in the pond near my parents house. I stalked it and missed strikes from it a number of times over a few months before finally closing the deal. He tasted mushy and gamey. This was also the first time I wished I'd released a big fish I caught. I'd learn that lesson, but slowly. First really big trout: an honest to goodness 4 pound brown on the White River. I was maybe 14 or so. Even the bait-wielding, catch and keep focused guide gently suggested I release it. I didn't. It was the second fish I really wished I'd released, and after this one the idea finally started to take hold.