ekl-stl

Two of us made it down Saturday about 9:30 and fished pretty much until the siren at 4. I landed 22 rainbows, 3 smallmouth and 2 goggleye fishing zone 2 and 3.. The trout were mostly small and slender but stong.. The smalleys were between 13" and 15" and gave up a great fight.. Sunday was about the same.. 11 trout, one brown about 2lbs.. 1 smalley, a goggleye, a shiner and one green sunfish. Trout were taken on #12, #14 and mostly #22 scuds. Orange worked the best. Tanned deer hide San Juans also seems to work at times. Egg patterns were quite slow for some reason... Pine sculpin and black rabbit leaches were hot and cold at times as well.. Weather was great and the stream looks a little different from the last time I was down about 5 years ago.

I was doing inventory before this weekend and noticed I need to tie some more double bunnies. Previously I have used head cement, arrow fletching cement and even super glue but these are too rigid when they dry. I cant seem to locate Tear Mender locally but was wanting to know if there were any products at Michaels that would work the same.. Thanks!

I went ahead and booked a room at Larry's.. I haven't fished Bennett in exactly 4 years so we are looking forward to this trip.

Good luck with the rest and the repairs.. ICE is a terrible thing.. hard to plan for.

A buddy and I were planning to come down this weekend and tent camp. Does anyone know about how much snow the park or Lebanon got? Also, what are a few of the hotel/motels up the hill?

I went to Cabelas on Wednesday night last week and was greeted and assisted by an employee (middle 50's) for the 30 minutes that I shopped. They are re-setting the fly shop with a different layout and new items, so it may have looked a little thin.. Not sure about your experience but sometimes staffing issues pop up..

Thanks guys.

I picked up a package of goose biots this week to tie into some scuds. Can someone identify what part of the goose this comes from and if there is much preperation to get the final product. We take numerous geese a year and it would be nice to get a little more out of them.

Heard about this on the news. I guess he was attempting to ICE fish.. Just glad he was saved and he wasnt out there by himself.

Talked to my Grandpa today.. Him and his buddy went this morning, some ice, but manageable. Only one trout and 1 bluegill caught between them at the C&R Lake... nothing at the others but saw a grand total of 4 caught by other fishermen.

Not sure.. I had my wisdom teeth pulled on Tuesday and havent left the house.. My grandpa is going on Friday.. Will report back after that.

From the messag, they will be stocking on 9 January at Busch. Lake 22-410 Lake 23-400 Lake 24-310 I planned on going out Sunday to the C&R lake, but may have to check these out as well.

I have an original Ross 301 and absolutely love it. My brother has the Cardiac and I can see some improvements including arrow speed. I too hunted with a Pearson recurve for several years and have never looked back once I made the change.

I can get you some.. May be a little bit of time but shouldnt be a problem. Any other feathers you need while I am keeping track.

By the dam..

We made it down from St. louis late on Wednesday and hit the water from 10:30 to around 1:30.. fishing was a little slow but the three of us managed a few on red/yellow jigs and white leaches.. .. Thursday was a decent day but fishing seemed tougher than normal with the generation.. Fishing Thursday night from dark to 11ish was pretty good around outlet one.. Manged a nice walleye that fed the five of us on Saturday for lunch.. Ran into Leonard, nice to meet ya and talk breifly.. Friday was more of the same.. some fish but tougher than normal.. Chamois worms with an egg dropper under a float in the current between one and two was producing pretty well.. Saturday morning fishing was pretty good with the water off, but it wasn't too long before they were back to a good flow.. I threw some deep diving Shad Raps saturday evening and caught three nice rainbows in the 18-21 inch range below outlet one, below the old boat ramp and down below outlet 2... Sunday was a football watching and eating day after a little early morning fishing.. Monday faired very well as the water was off until about 9ish.. I found a spot at the top of the rebar whole and was hooking up every drift on a large foam hopper with a scudd dropper.. there were some bigg fish in that area... first time I had seen a concentration of bigger fish all weekend..

I caught it on the down stream side of the big dam on the fly rod.. it was a male with a nice sharp jaw as well.. I only saw one other big fish caught, just below the handicap hole in the campground and I saw a BIG fish above the dam but she was cruising. 10pt- nice fish congrats.. I never did see a big one in the spring and we fished with about 10 people up there for the first hour on Saturday without a single tagged fish caught.. I think they didn't stock that area..

Fishing was pretty good today.. Weather is great and it appears they are raising some good money for the Hear Association.. No tagged fish but I caught a 7lb 6oz bow on a brown Pine Squirrel.

Heading down in one hour for the weekend.. Thanks for the report.. Any good fish in the upper fly water?

Thanks for the report.. I will be down there for the Rose Holland so the stream should be in good, clean shape by then.

Thanks for the report and good to hear you got out.. Heard the Rangers were going around quite early moving people out. Kind of a crazy year with all the floods down there.. The stream needed it, but not this many times. How was fishing on Saturday?? Any big fish?

Ill be on private land in St. Peters.. Columbia Bottoms was flooded pretty good this year, so you may want to give it a look before the 8th to see what its like this year..

I'll be out on Monday... bright and early..

I dont wrap them either.. I smoke for about 2-3 hours then I like to stack them on each other and spray them down with apple juice... I also try to get that temp around 200* by using more wet wood or closing my dampers..

Thanks for the replies.. I have been looking around and there arent many options on this path.. The eleven point might be our only choice or I might just have to pass on planning to fish on this road trip. I am going to check in to the Norfork and the Spring River..