10pointer

You made it there just in time luckily. I'm already paranoid about lowlifes breaking in my car down there and now I have good reason it seems. Its a shame that it has come to that, Ive heard a lot of problems at other parks but montauk has rarely been hit that I've heard of. Just a few years ago a friend and his gf were down in the park and several cars were broken into and her purse was stolen from the trunk and it was out of view along with all other valuables. I heard that they caught the meth heads but im sure like usual they only received a slap on the wrist. Ill have to keep a look out for that van

yep oct 1st, 2nd, 3rd is the Holland. They will have alot of fish and nice ones in the water but the park is going to be absolutely packed. Even outside the park will be really busy that weekend too fyi

I wouldnt be too worried about any real big crowds...this derby only has around 175 or so people entered usually so its not too noticable....now if it was the Rose Holland (first weekend of oct) thats a different story all together thats where you get the whole park packed and it gets pretty crazy. I wouldnt think the park will be too crowded this coming weekend as alot of people have been down this weekend for the holiday. And I definitely second the fishing outside the park, I rarely spend anytime in the park. The wire at the end of the park on down to baptist camp is my favorite stretch. Im actually heading down to the park here in a few hours for a day trip. Ill let you all know how the park and outside the park is fishin

Ill be down there and id be glad to show you some things in the afternoon after my meeting on saturday if you will be down that way. The st.louis chapter of the mtfa is having a derby so i need to be there as a state officer and a st.louis officer. The meeting is at 1pm but im free after that There will be tagged fish (gill clips) for prizes. Its a great time and alot of fun!

watched that episode a few weeks ago great stuff!!!

I have 4 pair of photochromic polarized glass lens Smith's for fishing, each for different conditions.... I honestly dont think you can find a better pair of fishing glasses. Costas are great glasses too but I dont think ill ever own anything for fishing but smiths. But I do wish they made more designs like my oakleys, because the smiths arent the more stylish/ casual/ out on the town/ driving type glasses IMO. But they definitely serve their purpose very well

u can get service with a few companies if you are up at reeds cabins, when i had cingular and uscellular i had service but only a spotty bar or two. I have uscellular now (i work for them) and i have service up at reeds reliably.

BINGO! Everyone is entitled to their own opinion on the subject but I can tell you this from experience that once word gets out on a limited resource like a few certain small lakes or streams i know...that they will be cleaned out and ruined once people open their mouths. I dont have a single problem talking about areas of the current and other places everyone knows about but those small lakes and streams can be fished out fairly quickly. I had an awesome bass lake that a few people knew about when i worked at BPS and one of the guys I took told a few people and soon there were people everywhere fishing it and taking big breeder bass out of the lake. I used to land at least 5 or 6 5lb-9lb bass every night out there............and now noone i know has caught a decent fish the past couple years. It doesnt take much.... Believe what you want but ive watched it happen!!! ok im done beating the dead horse

I had the privilege to net a friends boys fish for the kids day derby. His rainbow went 11.5 lb. He gets big fish every year and no matter what other sore loser parents say he does it right and catches them legit. Ive witness many of the big ones he has caught at montauk and rr. He is the real deal and will out fish most adults i know!!! Its just a shame that a youngster gets harassed by people who wish they could be anywhere near as good of a fisherman as he is. There are a few kids down there every year who intentionally snag big fish and give the kids that do it right a bad name sadly though Ok im off my soapbox! I did have a great day after the kids day....I caught a whole lot of fish and also landed my biggest brown ever at 10lb. Buttttttt my buddy had an even better day and landed a 15 1/2 lb brown!!!!! They sure put in a whole lot of big fish for the kids!!

if you have at&t your phone will work....im not sure on the others but working in the cell industry i know that most of at&t's towers are private. Im so glad my phone doesnt work in the park, i got there to get away from girls and if my phone actually works i wont have an excuse any more lol

Ive had too many spots (mushroom, bass, arrowheads etc) ruined because ive told someone under strict secrecy. These are people I trust but they end up telling or taking a friend and once word gets out your honeyholes are shot. I look at it as i have to take the time to find the place on my own...so others should do the same. Being kind hearted especially on the internet isnt always the best idea, you never know who will see what you post. Id be more than happy to tell somebody or take someone with me that i personally know well. I guess it has come down to being burnt so many times on great spots that have been overrun.

Reed's cabins is definitely the place to go if you are looking for flies or pizza or anything for that matter. They are great people and always willing to help. The have the absolute best selection out of ANY trout park fly shop that I have seen. They are always adding new products and improving their selections The lodge does have pretty decent food though if you dont want to drive to licking or to salem though

I primarly tie on one of my fairly basic vise's most of the time, you can learn to use it well and tie many flies with it. Once you get more into it you can always move up to a higher quality vise. Nothing beats catching fish on your own flies, and its even better when you can come up with new patterns or modify others and tear the trout up on em! Id be more than happy to help you out and show you a few things if you were ever in the St.Louis area MTFA does offer classes, our springfield chapter does quite a bit. Heres the website if you were interested in taking a class http://www.mtfa-springfield.org/

I love my St.croix's I love my other Sages, Loomis' etc, but you cant beat the customer service of St.Croix. I actually just got back an avid I sent off about a week and a half ago. They called to ask if i would like to upgrade and only charged me $20 for a new replacement rod even though the break was my fault. Just got it back in the mail yesterday and cant wait to hit Racine in a month with it! Alot of rod companies could take a lesson from St.Croix when it comes to taking care of their customers, their service is top notch!

Thanks!! ill definitely have to give him a call

Just wondering who you guys use to purchase bulk flies? A couple of us are going to Racine, WI late september and again in late october for the salmon and big browns. I tie all of my own stuff usually but I'd rather buy eggsucking leeches in size 6 (black, white, purple, olive etc) or so and a few other flies because I need so many and I really dont have time to tie 100 or so. I need them to have a strong shank because they usually land some big fish up to and over 20lbs. Any place online thats good??? Or is a shop my best bet? Id like to keep them as cheap as possible...any real good places to get them?

Meramec is a flat out joke. They fib on the amount of fish stocked and what they do stock is all smallish dinks. They did just have somebody new come to help run the hatchery, and he came from montauk where he learned from the best. It's aggravating to hear that the other parks have to grow meramec's fish for them since they cant seem to grow their own. I really cant stand the people that fish that park. The trash not only covers the banks but many of the "fisherman" there are trash. I swore i'd never go back after what happened on their derby weekend last weekend of oct a couple years ago. It was literally 99.99% full of snaggers, cullers, people with way too many fish over the limit, and downright rude people. I had to leave the stream to keep from losing my cool....and im usually very laid back. Ive fished every single park and know what to expect sometimes in the parks but Meramec has to be by far absolultely the worst. Its by far the worst park and I surely wouldnt mind if it disappeared as long as most of the people that fish it dissappeared too.

I was on the current yesterday (thursday) from the end of the park on down to tanvat and we had 2 big groups float by on innertubes. Thats usually not a spot you will see people float as much, but ive been down baptist way and below and its a pretty steady stream of canoes even during the week. It gets pretty aggravating but cant really help it i guess. The thing that bothers me is that people seem to have to act like idiots and cant just float by.... they seem like they want to scare every darn fish outta there with jumping in and goin wild. When i float and i pass people that are fishing i have respect and slip by with as little disturbance as possible. But thats just me. Its still worth the trip for sure but just be prepared to see quite a few floaters.

Just got word from my cousin that his buddy just broke the world record today with a blue cat that weighed in at 130lbs. The previous world record was 124lb and this fish crushed that record! Ill have pics later as ill be going with my cousin later to see the fish, and I did call MDC just to make sure my leg wasnt getting pulled! I couldnt imagine catching a fish like that let alone on a rod and reel!!!!

This may sound stupid but i thought i would ask this here as I don't know if this is true or not... I have heard from a friend that knew of someone that had their fishing equiptment confiscated by the sheriffs dept upon arrest for trespassing for a first offense. Is this at all true?

great story al, thats why we live for this stuff !!!

I doubt ill ever go back to meramec again. I honestly cant remember the last time where I didnt run into scum of the earth down there. I have no idea why the place draws that many number of idiots that it does. The place is a joke in my opinion. Ill fish cardiac but never the park ever again. Had a few buddies head down that way and catch very few the past couple weeks. These guys are expert fisherman and couldnt believe how poor their numbers were. The very few fish they caught were dinks. Had another friend make a quick run through the park saturday and saw veryyyy few fish all day... when it said 1200 were stocked. I really do think they arent putting in anywhere near what they are saying they are stocking. I could care less though because ill never go back. Ill leave that park to all the clowns, just hope them fools dont find their way down to the current.

awesome eric! glad to hear she caught some fish. It usually gets stacked up in that area but ive never seen it like that...im betting it will get even better nice work on the lunkers too!

yep what they said!!! montauk is by far the best so any reports back on the fishing this weekend? I had a friend say it wasnt very good and the water was pretty dirty???

it was super clear eric, at least in the park, out of the park was pretty clear too. I thought the stream would blow out last weekend with all the rain they had down there but thankfully it really missed the licking area for the most part. I volunteered for the kids day down there and the lil ones had a great time. I didn't get to fish on saturday but on sunday the river was looking to be in prime july no rain type clear!!!! If you fish the park.....theres probably 2000+ fish in the stretch just above hudson right about where your dad hooked that monster on opening day. Ive never seen the stream that packed with trout. It was pretty sickening catching them on pretty much every cast!