mhall02

I haven't fished it in years, but used to catch about everything there at the junction of the two. Smallmouth, largemouth, and rainbows, and now I guess, browns. I ususally went downstream, not up, pretty section of water from what I remember. Used my spinning rig with marabou or small crappie jigs.

I took ichthyology at College of the Ozarks in '89 and we went to a slough in Crane Creek and and netted some. Haven't fished the creek in years, but caught an 16" rainbow back then, screamed line off my ultralight like you wouldn't believe.

I'm pretty sure the 3.3 has a timing chain, not a belt, glad to hear your back on the road. I assume with the lower mileage engine discussed earler?

Yep, I have one of those as well, maybe not as old as that one. Got it for Christmas in 1987 or 1988, so it's getting close to 20 years old. Sits on my 4 wt St. Croix.

Which engine? 3.8 or 3.3 (I'm assuming a Dodge or Chrysler)? Never heard of such a thing as an engine just locking up like that, maybe the crank or camshaft broke? Be sure you get the low-down, maybe even get the broken part, hopefuly they aren't taking advantage of the situation. Most modern engines if they are taken care of can easily exceed the 200,000 mile mark. I have a '99 Pontiac Montana minivan (3.4 V-6)with 164,000 and a Jeep Cherokee Sport (4.0 inline six) in excess of 130,000 miles, both run great, knock on wood.

Yeah, we use Skype. The owner of our company is in Italy and it works great. We don't use the video feed, but the audio is really good, he has a laptop and a headseat and we have a desktop, speakers, and a regular microphone.

Ahh....got it, Montana. Good luck, post how ya did.

Size 18 seems to be the ticket for me. What is the cats reference? C of O Bobcats, Neosho Wildcats, or something else?

I fished the Baptist Camp access downstream on the 5th, caught a number of tiny brown trout 3-5", does the state stock them that small? Caught one nice one around 16", no rainbows and I didn't see a soul except at the parking lot, nice day!! Fished the next day in the park, see my post under Montauk Park for that summary.

Finally made it down to Montauk, a long time coming. Using my 4 wt caught at least 20 fish by the end of the day, they were hitting everyting I used. Started with scuds under an indicator, grey seemed best but did ok on olive as well. Caught a number on an Olive wooley bugger. I didn't see any huge fish but a lot of fish to cast at, did have a nice one (maybe 2 lbs or so) break off my olive bugger with a black tail. All and all, a nice trip. I'll have to make it back down there before the end of the season, it had been nearly 11 years since my last visit. Did see one deer in the water, muskrats swimming right past me and a few snakes to mix it up.

Hands down, the black with a silver spinner for trout.

Sounds like my day at Meramec Spring with my daughter, Obviously they are kids so when they crowd in to within 2 feet of you when my daughter started catching fish or go stand right in front of us to look at a snake, I had to overlook it as ignorance of a child, not rudeness. Fortunately we were able to get in a good spot in the mid-afternoon and she limited out in 25-30 mins, but I have never seen so many people (kids) fishing in my life. I may pass on it next year as well, but hey, it was free (other than the $30 in gas to get down there and back, but that is another post already discussed).

Holy cow, I don't see another soul in that picture, looks like she had the hole to herself. I took my daughter to Meramec Spring Saturday for the kids day, it was a zoo, elbow to elbow kids. Like opening day scene at the whistle, only all day long. We finally got into a good spot around 230 or 300 p.m. and she got her limit in about 25 minutes, but it was crazy. I would like to take to her RR one day, I grew up around Monett and fished there for years. Yep, my first 'good' fly rod was a 7' six wt. Eagle Claw just like in the photo, bought it when I was around 14 or 15, those things are great.

Wow, this discussion takes me back. I had a 7' six weight for years ('85 to 2000), what a rod!! I had a lot of fun with it till it snapped. Went to a 8' six wt. Dogwood Canyon, which broke w/in 2 years and now have a 4 wt 7' St. Croix that I love. I haven't seen these fly rods in years on the shelf, I bough mine from Consumers grocery store back when they were in business for around $15 or $20. I wouldn't mind getting one again for fun, may have to try that link above and track on down.

How much are you wanting to spend? I have a set of neoprene Bass Pro Bone Dry that I've had for the last 3-4 years, I think they were under $80 bucks, not too bad. Fish Taney, Current and Benett Spring and they work just fine.

I have never caught a fingerling rainbow in Capps, but I have caught some 11-13 inch beautiful fish. The fish dumped in from the hatchery don't remain dull, they do color up nicely if they are in the stream for a while. I have fished creeks where trout do spawn and you ususally catch or see a 1-3 inch rainbow fingerling now and then, Crane Creek for instance, but personally never have caught one that small at Capps. I would spin fish using jigs or a Rooster Tail and even caught some nice smallies, no juvie rainbows, however. I'm not saying it could never happen, but have not seen any evidence to make me believe they do.

FYI, the ponds stocked are not just in the city, Busch Wildlife Area in St. Charles CO has four lakes stocked, two are catch and release (#21 and #28) until Feb. 1st and they are pretty nice looking ponds/lakes, not the concrete sided ponds of the city. I would recommend giving them a try.

Had a chance to hit Lake 21 at Busch Saturday morning, fished from about 0700 - 1030 and caught about 8-9 in the first 1.5-2 hours, then it went dead when the sun got a little higher. All rainbows, in mid-Nov. MDC put browns in and I saw a few in the shallows on the far side of the lake, they were spooky and showed little interest when I was able to get a good cast to 'em. Caught all on a small white jig under an indicator anywhere from 5-15 feet off shore off of the dam, about 5-6' down. Anytime the indicator bumped, I set the hook and most of the time it was a fish. Biggest was around 14", most were around 11-12".

I had a chance to fish Busch lake 21 and 28 some last year. Fished 28 in late April early May and caught a brown!! When I went to 21 in Dec. or Jan had good luck off the dam w/ a small pink jig, set under the indicator at 10 or 11 feet, tough casting, man they were deep. Any indicator movement let to a strike that was usually a hook-up. It is nice to trout fish again only 20 minutes from home, grew up in SW Missouri and miss Roaring River, Capps, Crane and Taney.

I fished this stream a fair amount in the late 80's, early 90s and caught and released some nice fish (4-5 lb male in Dec. of '91 in beautiful spawing colors was the biggest). Funny story, my Dad and I were fishing it one day, he caught a 3-4 inch chub and was reeling it in an a 2-3 lb rainbow was in hot pursuit. Spooked when it saw us but that was a first!! I grew up about 6 miles west of the creek (between Monett and Freistatt) and this creek had a history of dioxion contamination. I wouldn't worry to much about the locals catching and eating those fish, but things may have changed, who knows. A fine little creek none the less, plus I haven't seen Crane Creek fished out (lower section) so I doubt that even if the word gets out, there still should be fish. Plus, it is private land, you gotta get permission to fish, not just walk on in like some streams.

Wow, that really beings back memories. $1.50, what a deal, I grew up around Monett and Dad and I started fishing down there around '77 or '78. Many fond memories, I remember loading up some guys in my old '78 F-100 and heading down for Opening Day my Senior Year of high school. Yep, it was an excused abscence, as long as you had your tag to prove it!!

Here is a link to a story about it. http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/st...View/sid/15644/

10 pounds? Wow, I have never seen anything pulled out of there bigger than maybe two pounds at the most, but I haven't fished it since the early 90s. The fish your describing would eat most of what I used to catch (dinky silver bullets from Neosho FH). I walked up from the dam a couple of times but didn't find any deep water after about 1/2 to 3/4 mile or so, where do these big boys hide? The water seemed to get kinda warm after I passed the first spring. I have caught some nice smallmouth from the second bridge on down to where it flows into Shoal, but no big trout. I would like to hear more on this subject as well.

I've wondered the same thing, didn't Arkansas Fish and Game put Lake Trout in BS as well?