10pointer

upstream from the mill hole. Its deeper and wider now post flood too! Some big boulders got washed in through there!

Heres a couple pics of the bridge area. Almost the whole underside of the bridge is a big logjam! The stream now forks after passing under!

the guage hole looking upstream(first parking lot off the gravel road at the bottom of the hill from the big lodge cabins at the top of the hill in front of the lodge.) This area got ripped out it seemed on the far bank side (left side in pic). The flood created a nice little hole on the right side of the pic where the bank used to be This pic below is a water level pic of where the big hole used to be almost smack dab right inbetween the big rock hole( upstream) and the dam. Amazingly this hole was id say 15+ feet deep a couple weeks ago. Now its waist deep as with most of the stretch upstream from the dam all the way up to the big rock hole

the spring, the water here was the clearest and i like the new bend and hole the flood made. About time the spring got deeper/ added more character!

Just thought that I would post in this section as a small report in general of the south missouri streams. I know alot of people were wondering how the water and fishing was doing and were planning trips accordingly Headed for montauk yesterday with a couple guys from work (tuesday) and made it in time for the horn. The water was pretty murky so sight fishing was definitely not an option really (visibility 1-1.5 feet). I thought we might catch a few. Boy was i wrong! We started at the blue hole below the spring (which since the flooding the whole river has changed pretty dramatically in some places SEE PICS..). Right off the bat we started tearin em up. Throughout the flywater area we seemed to do no wrong and there were streches where id hook fish on 6-7+ straight casts even at 10 am! The fish were everywhere and it seemed we hooked multiple fish in every hole. The trout were rising on the end of the swing and would come up to the bank chasing jigs etc. It was absoultley incredible how many fish i caught throughout the day yesterday 100+ easy it was like we were fishing in the hatchery almost! I seriously was tired of releasing fish (just kidding fellas! ) The definite hot colors were black, blk/chart, blk/orange, white in 1/32 and 1/16 because of the heavier than normal flow of water. Switched between only these jigs yesterday and today also, (i would have liked to fish the usual fish slayin jigs i make but the 1/64 and 1/80 size just wouldnt get down) . Crawled the jigs along the bottom with little to no jigging (just slight shaking id say) and let the current have its way. Boy they smashed em like a ton of bricks. Any other way didnt really produce, but once we got the ticket we stuck with it! Honestly this was by far the best trip i had in years! I was expecting to catch a few and was thinking of cancelling the trip but needed just a couple days away! Now i usually catch 50+ on a bad day id say, but the guys that arent real big trout fisherman were catching quite a few too! I cant say much for the other south mo streams, but montauk was clearing up considerably the couple days we were there and the fishing was absolutely fantastic! PICS TO FOLLOW! uploading them right now!

ill be down there tuesday at the buzzer through wednesday afternoon. Ill have on a black g loomis hat on and gray simms waders, and an orangish tan vest. Ill keep an eye out but if you see me dont hesitate to yell! i saw the video and hope the water clears up a little, it clears up pretty quick but i havent seen a flood like that in years so who knows how long its gonna take!

ive hooked a few monsters on my flyrod and spinning gear over the years near the wire at the end of the park. Seems those fish no exactly what to do and run for cover and bust ya off....ive hooked into one in the 8+ lb range a few years ago and i couldnt even turn her! but yes ive hooked a few good ones that have run me under the shute that comes out of the rearing pools...it must be somewhat hollow under the tanks because i had a nice one rip drag off for quite a ways under there...i ended up landing it and it was about a 6 lb brown about 4 years ago before they redesigned the c&r partial stream. I didnt know there was one that big in that little c&r stream though!

i too was down for the opener. Friday scouting i saw at least 30 lunkers in the water and it seemed to be clearer than i was expecting. Saturday the opener he water seemed to be churned up most of the day compared to friday because of all the traffic in the water. I caught a ton of fish throughout the weekend and only a couple of us lunker guys caught big ones. They were very hard to see and sightfishing was tough. I saw one lunker cruising during the weekend and i know the others were laying deep as i knew they were in there on friday and noone caught them saturday or sunday, so there should be quite a few big fish left in the stream. The water was going back down to normal but with this snow they had earlier this week, who knows. Ill be down there the 14th and 15th for the mens tournament, and the 23-27 with some buddies of mine mid week, then several weekends in april also. Hoping the water clears up and i can get into my element!

i remember the old days when they had quite a few trout in there....now they got few trout and them big things you might be seeing schooled up are the grass carp. That lake seems to get more moss and junk in it every year. Not worth the time, yea there are a few springs in it but with all the fishing around it, id fish somewhere besides the lake for sure!

it was a fun weekend for sure, i broke off a couple lunkers but i did manage to land a 5 1/2 lb and caught a ton of fish but no tags. It was my moms b-day weekend and she really had a good time this weekend along with my sisters and my dad. One of my buddies caught 4 lunkers this weekend, one with 2 and four or five of my friends ended up with one each. I think they put in 40 lunkers or so total so there were quite a few nice ones in the water. ...had a blowout on hwy 63 on the way home so it took us forever to get back...had to hobble from edgar springs to rolla walmart on one of them dinky spares till we could get a new tire lol ........ u have any luck this week or have you not had the chance to get down???

like it says anybody goin down this weekend...5th6th7th for the heart association rose holland derby. We will be down there friday morning through sunday afternoon.

ill be there this weekend too, it is the mtfa tourney and the weather forcast looks good from what i saw. park shouldnt be too too crowded but more than the usual numbers for sure though. maybe ill see ya down there

i wouldnt think you will have to worry about too many people foating as everyone is back in school and the last major weekend to float would be this weekend being labor day weekend. Montauk will be where the crowds would be because of the mtfa touranament, ill be down there for that and fishing outside the park through babtist camp access. Should hopefully be nice weather!

hey there lilley hope estes us still treatin ya well. we have a house up there on peakview drive. I love estes to death but unfortunately we couldnt get our family off all at the same time to make the trip this summer. lilley lake is fantastic, one evening a couple years ago i could do no wrong and caught 18 greenbacks in a few hours during a crazy hatch between storms.. it was unbelievable! Last year wasnt so great at that lake but still caught a few. if you are going to be up there for a few days try to hit morraine park just inside RMNP on the edge of estes. Its a great little stream that winds through the valley and you can get some amazing pics and you dont really see many people. The browns and brookies in there are very spooky so you have to sneak around. You can be dropped at one end and be picked up atthe other. Its at the headwaters of the big thompson. I always catch quite a few but you will find the size of the fish unlike those of taneycomo lol. The fish are small but alot of fun still. i keep nothing but variations and sizes of the elk hair caddis on as thats the most popular fly up in that reason because it works well! lake of glass is a great hike and the fishing is well worth it. Loch vale is also on this hike and its also one of my favorite hikes to fishing lakes that sees very little pressure. check out a park map for the hike if you are interested. bear lake is a neat spot to take family or anyone else you might have with you that isnt into fishing. There is no fishing allowed there but you can see quite a few nice ones swimming around! theres alot more things i could tell you about but ill keep this post short. have fun up there and if you need any more good places to hit up there let me know! shoot me a pm if you need!

was down this weekend and the water was really high and really muddy. You might want to check the flow levels because it was flying through the park and along with it logs and islands of moss. I was going to fish tanvat but the only fishable water really saturday was the bait area of the park. I was very dissappointed although i caught a ton saturday and sunday. Good luck on your float i bet the water will be back down but still murky though. With all that water it ought to make a nice float!

heres that picture i was going to post a few days ago. this year has definitely started off right and the mother lode has yet to even come! heres a neat board all about where and when and who's finding shrooms. Dont know if its been posted yet but its a great tool! Play around with the site and many states have boards and photos to check out! http://www.morels.com/missouri/guestbook.html

in environmental biology class we learned that a rediculous amount of medincines we use ( i think like 75%+ come from plants in the rainforests) CC you are right...the big drug companies live off of the rainforest...once the plants are gone the med supplys will dry up! Not to mention that its not totally inconcievable that almost every disease can be lessened or eliminated by what we havent discovered in the rainforests.

Its been a great early season for me and i have only been out a few days. I think we have picked over 600+ and found around 1000 total (some too small and smashed/old)so far as a conservative estimate! We have some great spots and a new spot produced 500 around one dying elm in a creek bottom but we only picked 300 from it...all were greys for the most part and all were 1.5"- 4" inches tall We havent been up to the land of morels (northern mo). Last year was particularly slow but we usually get around 100 lbs of shrooms or so from up north in a few days. If things go right this year it should be better. A few years ago we filled 3 jumbo coolers and a few trashbags full of em in a couple days trip! Plan on this year selling em and making a few bucks so i can buy a few new toys for myself. My cousin usually sells em quick and for $20+ a pound most of the time. We will see though we dont wanna count our chickens before they hatch! Ive been finding them in the bottoms near mature and dying trees. Hit public lands...we always find a bunch here locally in the st.louis area at mdc and county park areas. Check them out and dont be afraid to walk far! Ill post a pic of the 300+ find from last week...I dont have the pics on this desktop but i have them on my laptop. Will post soon!

what areas of the state are you guys finding em? Im here in st.charles county and i havent even begun to look for em for fear its too early. I have some super hot spots locally that produce alot each year so im not too worried. They say its looking to be the best year in a long long time because of all the moisture etc. Cant wait to get up to the motherland up in northern missouri where we usually find hundreds each year in just a day or two. Up there wont produce for another 2 weeks at least though...

its sponsored by the mdc and the lodge....mostly the lodge though... i belong to the mtfa and it wasnt one of theirs

i had other things come up this weekend so i didnt make the trip down. I dont have a problem with a little fun competition as long as people are respected and the fish too. It spices up the usual monotany of the everyday fishing down at montauk. Im there to have a good time and the minute i ever get stressed or feel pressure to win i will quit fishing all together. Im down at montuak many many weekends a year and the tournaments are just a little fun, and easygoing at least for me and the guys i know who are usually the guys that fill the board down there regularly. Some would tend to think that we focus on big fish and trophy hunting but ill catch 75 in a day most of the time, and so do the other guys. Nothing is really taken serious, and those (cheaters/disrespectful) never end up winning anyways. Theres a few bad apples though that ruin it and give the rest of everybody a bad name.... As for the violators , its sad but it happens everyday down there. Many of these guys that cheat never end up winning anyways so they are just treading water. I laugh when i see guys trying to snag lunkers then i come in and hook the fish legitimately. Cheaters never win in the long run and they have to live with themselves. I could never cheat any game animal and violate any regulations because the way i was brought up. No matter what the prize could be for anything i will go about competing with respect and abiding the law. I won the mens tournament last year and could care less about that $25 certificate to the lodge , there could be no prize or tournament at all and id still be down there because i love the place...but a little friendly competition never hurt anybody...but i relax and just have fun! could you post the pics, id like to see if its anybody i may have seen down there, or those that i should watch out for

yep ill be leavin to go down saturday morning about 3 am to make the buzzer. Ill be leaving though and just driving down for the day. the state mens tournament is goin on down there this weekend heaviest fish and heaviest stringer of fish for fly and bait categories i believe... just so you fellas know. It wont be crowded though if its anything like years past... Last year i won it with a 5 1/2 lb rainbow, hopefully i can do the same this year! i cant wait!

i think these new regs will definitely help things with the belligerent jerks on the stream. Hey im all for people having a good time but i think when you get people drinking as much as they want theres problems. i definitely see the littering as a problem to get rid of the eveidence, but since the 6 can limit is just a suggestion and not a regulation then i think it will be okay. I dont mind people getting drunk and having a good time but alot of them get wayyyy out of hand last years float was pretty nice from cedar on down. We went on a friday but it was still pretty packed, and you still cant get rid of the crude. Quite a few times i almost had to rearrange the faces of guys hollering at my gf, which guys usually do (tall hot blonde . Funny thing was when i mouthed back to em and stepped up they backed down quicker than you can believe. Hopefully these regs will make it a little more family/outdoor/fun oriented instead of the typical party/bar/stripclub attitude alot of those idiots got down there. doubt it though. I too saw several agents around checking stuff. It would be nice if all the idiots could just migrate down to the huzzah!

Ive never had a single complaint about shimano im a big fan. I work with reels everyday and see alot of what comes back and under repair. Shimanos like Diawas are great reels, and if you want an excellent shimano reel go with a stradic 1000, even though i wish they made that model in a 750 size. I absoulutly love mine and own almost one of every single model of shimano reels. As far as a rod goes i can tell you this much...once you buy a nice rod thats a little out of the price range it does make a hugeeee differnce in the feel and numbers of fish you catch. I personally use gloomis and st.croix avid rods and couldnt be happier with them. The loomis is the way to go as far as sensitivity and quality go, and has a lifetime warranty. I never thought that a rod could make such a difference but if you needed gift ideas to give someone then id suggest the loomis rods. I prefer mine in the 4'6 and 5' but are offered up to and around 6' and they cast small jigs a mile. The GL3 and the IMX cant be beat and they can be found in the $120-$190 range. They really are worth it in my opinion and rods you will keep for many many years. As far as a rod that would be more economical i would go with the bps microlite, the falcons, or the shimano ultralites that have the instore lifetime warranty at bps.

oh yes ive spent a few st.pattys days down there....too bad ill be fishing this year!