Steve Smith

You're going to see this everywhere, and there's not anything you can do about it. Go to any State trout park, and you'll see folks staked out on "their" holes an hour before the horn, along with folks we call campers who will setup lawn chairs to stake out “their” sweet spot. I have also experienced days when there were four or five of us total on the river, and guys have walked up within feet of where I was casting. It’s all part of fishing public water, and you just have to move on.

We fished Roaring River Friday afternoon, Saturday, and Sunday this weekend, it was cold and slick, but the fishing was great. Tim's right on the water looking good. The color is perfect and the flow is up. I hope it continues. We had some action on a golden badger and grizzly cracklebacks, but you really had to work the water. When we found fish that were looking up, the action was fast. If not, it was best just to move to the next hole. That’s not such a bad approach, but as cold as it was, we tried to stay close to the truck as we could. I was fishing the seams with a gray G Bug and cheese colored mini egg combo in size 22 with a pink spot and an indicator float. I was using no weight at all about 18 inches of tippet under the float and I let the egg float about 8 inches or so under the film. I did try a small spit shot for a while, but they didn’t want it weighted. If the trout smacked the indicator [some would grab on and not let go!], my buddy would come back with cracklebacks. It was a sure bet they would go for a dry if they attacked the float. I got to meet Don from Clever MO yesterday afternoon. Don got to talking about his smoked sausage recipe, and I had to smoke some last night. That’s good stuff. Look in the recipte forum if you;d like to try it. Don; did you do any good on the min-eggs? All in all a great weekend to fish for as nasty as it was.

Welcome Doc. We'll probably will or have run into each other in the park.

Sent my letter yesterday Dano.

You know Dano, here in Missouri, it's always open season on HOGS.

That’s great Jeremy that you helped the kids out. I did well on egg patterns too in Roaring River on Sunday, but I had to drop down to a size 22 to get them to look at it. I decided that maybe I should try the small stuff because the fish were active, but not taking any fly I could offer. I took my 4 wt. with a 6X mono leader. I cut off about three feet of the tippet, and tied in a tippet ring. I took about two feet of 6X from the tippet ring to a gray size 18 G Bug. I tied about a foot of dropper 6X tippet from the hook eye of the G Bug to a size 22 egg pattern in Oregon Cheese with an indicator. I just let the setup free drift… no sinker. I’d watch for the swirl of a midging trout and cast just in front of the fish. I caught most of them on the micro egg rather than the G Bug, and it was really tough getting the hook set. It took me a while before I realized you can’t snap set a size 22 hook. Oregon Cheese and Oregon Cheese W/ red did well on Monday too with a four pound ‘bow.

I don't think it is Gink you want, as that is for dry flys. There is some sinking gel that you can add, but don't remeber what it was or if it works. Some of the best Taney fly fishers I know rarely ever use an indicator at all. My eyes are too old and poor not to use one, but these guys sight fish unless the wind or water conditions require it. How about it Tim? What's your advice?

The real issue LMW is how you going to some up with a second act that beats the first. We're all waiting?

Once you see a trout come up like jaws and take a dry, you're ruined for life.

John; I forgot to give Tim some leaders to ship with the pack. I've got those separate in the mail. Since I wasn't sure what types they needed, I sent an assortment from 7X all the way up to 4X. Thanks for putting this together.

Phil; Mondays are a good bet on Roaring River. I fished the upper end Monday afternoon and there was one other person in all of Zone One near the hatchery. You can dang near have the park to yourself Dano; I heard somewhere they decided to only allow four days because of the low water table at Roaring River.

My winter approach is about the same as in the heat of the summer, except I don't fish at night. Find fish on the graph, and jig structure spoons through them. Sometimes white and sometimes silver. I work mostly bluffs and deep timbered coves and creeks. I've tried jigs and couldn't get the feel for it either.

That's it. It was a pretty nice tie, but Dano kept feeding it rainbows in Roaring River. I'll see if I can get a pic before Dano got hold of it.

Here's a picture of one after it's been battered several times by fish. I haven't figured out how to post a picture so here is the link

Here's our big fish of the day opening day of last Friday in Roaring River. A 3 1/4 pound rainbow caught by Bob Garrison - Cassville. http://pic1.picturetrail.com/VOL1112/71869...0/204874265.jpg

Yes indeed. Two boot sizes bigger is the best route to take so you can layer on socks. Especially if you wade cold water fisheries like Taney. Breathable waders won't keep you warm like neo models, so you need to layer to make up the difference.

I contributed a Golden Crackleback in the first swap.

Dan; I’d appreciate a photo. My camera doesn’t do well on a small fly. The Big Ugly [A.K.A Dead Chicken] was my early attempt to tie my first dry fly. I didn’t have a clue how to “size” hackle or to palmer it. The result was an over hackled; really ugly fly that caught trout well on Roaring River and Taneycomo. My friends thus dubbed it the “Big Ugly” accordingly and I couldn’t tie enough of them. The materials include a dry fly hook sized to the hackle, peacock herl, and gold badger hackle. Gold badger hackle usually has a black center and gold edges. Silver badger works well too, but gold is better. Size your hackle a little bigger than the hook gap, and tie onto the back of the hook with the dull or inside curve of the hackle towards you. This will cause the hackle to orient itself straight up or slightly towards the eye when you palmer forward. Be sure to catch a few barbells of the hackle feather when you tie it in, as this will create a short badger tail. Next tie in two strands of peacock herl. Carefully twist the herl with the black tying thread as you wrap the herl body [making a rope of herl] and tie off leaving enough room for a head. Then palmer the hackle forward in very close wraps, create a small thread head and cement. I tie these up to size 8 and my friends generally like them as big as I can tie. Fish it just like you would a Crackleback. Float it over the feeding lane, and then jerk under to strip back.

No pictures of the gravy... there wasn't hardly any left. We had our annual biscuits and gravy meet-up Friday morning for the opening day of catch and Release at Roaring River. Dan [Dano] Sears came up along with several of our local folks. I think everybody enjoyed the get togther. We did really well on orange and chartreuse San Juan worms, all ginger bead-head woolies, and gold badger big uglies [some call this pattern a dead chicken]. We caught a lot of trout, but not any trophies, however it’s early in the season. Bob Garrison had the big fish of the day in our group; a three and a quarter pound rainbow. I’ll post a picture first chance I get. Bob caught it drifting an orange San Juan worm. We fished in Zone Two [fly only area] most of the day, and switched over to the upper end after the cold front rolled through. Typical Ozarks weather, sweating in the morning from the high humidity, and freezing cold in the afternoon. Ran into Tim Homesley from the fly shop, and that guy is just awesome at catching fish. He had a counter on his belt, and had caught and released 105 trout before he finally gave it up. I went back Sunday and had really good luck with the chartreuse San Juan again. I was fishing it without any weight, and just letting it tumble through the feeding lanes on the upper end of the river. By the time the sun got to shining on the river, the trout were getting really line shy. Nothing caught worth a picture, but plenty of fun. I probably could have dropped to 7X [using 6X at the time] and did a little better. On the San Juan worms and ginger woolies, sometimes we'd give them a little shake of the rod tip to turm them on. All in all, it was a great opening weekend.

Don; those trees were dead or dying sycamores. The park folks said they were afraid some one would get hurt if they didn't cut them down. We did really well on orange and chartreuse San Juan worms, ginger bead-head woolies, and golden badger big uglies.

I went to the park and walked the lower end, and it is about the same as the upper end. Mostly stockers, a few nice ones but no bruisers could be seen. The stocking truck was making rounds so that may change by morning

Tim; I know you have thousands, but I think I might have two tied up. I'll try to get some done tonight

Come on folks... don't make me sic Terry on you... join in. Tim; let me know when you'll be ready to send, and I'll drop them off at your fly shop.

I don't think the law is clear enough, but when is it? MDC has postings throughout the parks that state "everyone must have a trout stamp".

Our service people sounds like a winner to me Caddis