timsfly

Crane creek is fishing pretty good right now, fished it yesterday, caught five nice trout, biggest one was about 12 inches, lots of top water activity. I caught all of my trout yesterday on a #12 parachute Adams, if you’re looking for something to do while the tail waters are still running hard and fast, crane creek can fill the void. Caps creek will get it’s first stocking of trout in the next week or so. Don’t forget you can fish below Roaring River State Park, and that water is very fishable. C&R season at Roaring River State Park starts up on November 8th.

Water is in great shape, and should remain so up to march 1st, we had a great winter fishing season, plenty of nice sized trout were caught, several over 10lbs are still in the river and will be ready to catch on march 1st, these fish will make someone quite a story to tell. Water is up a bit, but is pretty clear, should be a good day for jig fishing and fly fishing, of course the lure of the day for the first 30 minutes or so, will be a spinner of some type. 1/16 or 1/8, seem to work best early, usually dark colors are best, but I've seen plenty of nice trout caught on bright colored spinners right at the siren. The hatchery is still continuing the work, on the hatchery, there will be plenty of trout, coming in, in the next few days from Montauk State Parks Trout hatchery. Around 40,000 trout will be transferred to R.R. in the next few weeks, that will be plenty for awhile. If your fishing conventional tackle, plastic worms, and plastic eggs will be good all day, white eggs and yellow eggs are always good, and anything that imitates a trout pellet, (brown) will work well also. Plastic worms in orange, orange/white, cheese yellow, white, and electric chicken are always good colors. White jigs are always good on opening morning, as you can see the jig very well, and if jig disappears, you need to set the hook, as it usually means a trout has inhaled your jig, black/yellow, olive, orange, and black are also usually good colors, nothing beats the old Roaring River special, as it will work all day, olive is usually the best color. Small crank baits are usually great at R.R. almost any small crank bait, 3" and smaller will catch trout. There have been some very big trout caught on small crank baits and spoons. Water is clear, so 2lb line will work best, but most of us will start with 4lb just because you can get away with 4lb for the first hour or so. Fly fishing was great all winter, lots of midges hatched almost everyday, so #18 and smaller Griffiths gnats were good most everyday, lots of nice B.W.O. hatches happened all winter long as well as the small winter caddis, (dark dun) B.W.O.'s and caddis #16's and smaller. Mega worms, mop flies, glo balls, Y2K's, a variety of san juan worms, all worked all winter. Copper johns, pheasant tails, sow bugs, black, purple, gray and brown zebra midges were all good this winter, and they work all year long. We have had good luck on soft hackles all winter, orange, green and pheasant tail soft hackles were all good. Black, olive, white, brown, and black/yellow wooly buggers will also work well, they work all year long and will be good on opening day. Water is clear so using dry flies, I suggest 9' 7X or longer leaders, and using nymphs, I use a 9' 6X most of the time, and when using buggers I use a 9' 6X or a 9' 5X usually . Good luck on the river this year, should be a good opening, the good water will really help this year.

The big fish have not moved there are plenty of smaller fish to play with there are a lot of 3-5 pond fish in the river. Roger said that he caught a bunch on Monday mostly on dry flies.

No snakes at Crane, they have all moved on.

water is finally down a lot, it is only 84 CFS this morning, the dry fly fishing has really gotten good the past few days, blue wing olives, caddis, adams, ants, and beetles are all working well. Still good fishing with buggers, olive and black still being the best colors. Copper johns, sow bugs, caddis nymphs, black, brown, and gray zebra midges are still working. San juan worms, glo-balls, mega worms, and mop flies are all working very well. 9' 7X leaders are great for drys right now, and for nymphs I'm using 6X and for buggers and larger streamers, I'm using 5X or 4X fluorocarbon. Spinners, and spoons are still working, and small crankbaits are good also, little crawdads seem to work everyday. Plastics are still very good. Powerbait eggs and worms work very well, cheese yellow, white, orange, and pink have been good colors. If you are jig fishing, black/yellow, green/yellow, white, brown/orange, and olive RR specials are working very well. We are using small jigs again, micro jigs and little Ozark jigs are tearing the trout up. Good luck on the water.

The MDC usually stocks 12-14 inch browns, and you would be surprised at how many make it to 18". and we see 5-8 pound browns every year, and the MDC only stocks a few each year at RR

River did not flood Roaring River came up about 2 feet last night it has already started to fall,the water is still murky and still has a very strong flow, so again extra weight will be required to get down to the trout. Heavy jigs, spoons, spinners, and power bait will be your best bet for the next few days.

Full but fishable, it's two feet higher this morning

Roaring River has recovered from the flood,fishing has been very good for the past two weeks, still not much dry fly fishing but woolybuggers, streamers Copper Johns,pheasant tails, Zebra midges in bright colors, have all been doing very well bright, pink bright, yellow bright orange, and bright red, San Juan worms are also doing very well as are egg patterns in orange,orange/ white ,pink and, chartreuse I think most people are catching the biggest fish on power bait in zone 1 I have been fishing with sinking lines, on my 8 and 6 wt. fly rods. River is in pretty good shape not clear yet the clearing quickly.

Kids day is this next Saturday, bring your kids, grandkids lots of fun for kids 15 years and younger for more info call Paul at 417-847-2430 i think they are still needing volunteers

Roaring River is low and clear and the dry fly fishing has been pretty good all year, I went down last evening caught a lot of small trout on a para adams, with a #20 pheasant tail as a dropper, fished the dropper about a foot off the adams, lots of intrest in the pheasant tai, caught maybe 7 on the nymph, broke the nymph off and started catching fish on the #16 para adams, and the fish on the dry were bigger than what I was catching on the pheasant tail. Still catching a lot of trout on san juan worms, mega worms and chamois worms, and small eggs will catch trout all day. zebra midges in black, olive, gray, and brown have been pretty good lately, and we are still doing pretty gook on #16 and smaller copper johns. I fish a pheasant tail a lot, because it catches trout every day Burlap nymphs work well right now, they make a good caddis nymph. woolybuggers in olive, black, and gray have been good lately. I will fish a bigger bugger early, up to a size 6 sometimes, and as the day goes on I'll fish em a bit smaller. Water is so low right now, I wouldn't use anything much bigger than 6X and I'm using 7X most of the time, 9' leaders are best. The MDC will start stocking big trout next week, a few hundred 3 to 6 pound trout will be stocked as will 3500 12-15" trout. C&R starts Friday, November 11th, the fishing is still allowed fri-mon 8 a.m-4 p.m. Flies only.

Caught most on a #8 black woolybugger tied with a lot of weight

It's in great shape, fished it yesterday, if you fish crane correctly, you'll hardly ever be in the water

RR today