timsfly

Crane fished very good today, I took the spinning rod and fly rod, because I knew some of the water I was going to fish was wider and slower than on the upper end. I fished down below the dairy farm, I went all the way to the end of the conservation area and walked back up, nasty going the floods have taken the mowed road out and it is covered in trees and briars now, it doesn't take mother nature long to take an area back over. Got down to the end, started throwing a pine squirrel streamer in black on a #8 hook, I use a 1/32 oz worm weight to throw this on the spinning rod, first cast caught a small rainbow, second cast caught as big a horny head as I've ever caught, 12" or a little bigger, should have taken a pic. I had 7 nice trout on the pine squirrel streamer in about 30 minutes, had two really nice fish on that I didn't land, I put a black 1/16th oz jig on to fish a fast run, and caught a nice 13" smallmouth, and then about an hour later I caught a nice pickerel about 12" and it got hot so I headed back, I stopped by the bridge below the dairy farm, I was going to fish down there a bit, but there was a white van already there and didn't want to mess up anybody fishing below, I made a last cast under the bridge with my black pine squirrel streamer, didn't catch any but had a nice one follow it out once and had a small one hit it just as I was bringing it out from under the bridge. All in all it was a nice day on the creek, never did use the fly rod today, but it was fun anyway.

Lambs Scrotum is sold in 1/4 oz packs like marabou. It is very soft and easy to dub, costs like $5.00 per pack holler at me and I'll send you a few pkgs Goat scrotum is the stuff to have, stiff and smelly but make a great streamer. Trout love hair of the goat.

Good fishing this week, lots of nice fish caught, there were several over 4lbs caught. We have had some real good dry fly fishing this week, the water has cleared up alot and is in good shape, still a little high for august, but it is the best water we have had in the last 10 years or so. We had good dry fly fishing all week long, still catching a lot of trout on beetles, ants, hoppers, renegades, adams, Lt. cahills, blue wing olives and on small tricos in the morning, and good caddis hatches in the afternoons( untill dark). Nymph fishing is still pretty good, a pheasant tail/zebra midge combo will work all day long, as will a copper john/micro egg combo. If you want you can just fish a white thread jig under an indicator and you will catch fish most of the day, the important thing to have right now is 2lb line(7X) for your spin or fly rods. If you are fly fishing , you need a 7X 9' leader for you fly rod, don't go any shorter than 7 1/2", 9' is best. Micro jigs and marabou jigs were all good this week, black/yellow, white, tan, olive and the brown have been the best this week. Roostertails in black, skunk, olive, red, and the white have been good early in the mornings. Small crankbaits are still working well, the crankbait crawfish, and the rapalas are good choices right now. Small gold spoons are good all day, especially in the deeper runs. Powerbait worms are still working very well, the cheese, orange, orange peel, and the white have all been good colors. Powerbait eggs are always good, hatch brown around the hatchery, and the white, flo. yellow and the orange have been good in zone 1 and zone 3. If you are fishing in zone 3, then corn, powerbait paste in white or orange has been good, minnows if you have them are always good producers, and nightcrawlers catch a lot of fish in zone 3 every year. Good luck this week on the river.

Maybe you should get into growing squirrels for their hides, like they do chickens for their hackles ? Commercial squirrel farms, it would be nice if we had 20lb squirrels, those hides would be dandies. Maybe it has just been a bad year for squirrels.

I go thru several thousand dollars worth of wapsi a month, really haven't seen a problem on my end, now I don't buy skins very often, I just buy the strips, rabbit, squirrel and mink. All have been good so far this year. Threads seem to be good also, I use about 12 spools of monocord a month myself(3/0), black, brown, and red, and a lot of 6/0 uni-thread and it is all just fine. I have a couple of tiers that go thru 2 or 3 doz spools of mono cord(3/0) a month and have been having no problems what so ever. Wapsi has as good a quality as anybody, much better than some out there

Hatchery is stocking 1000 trout in the 2-4 lb range, and 20 in the 6-9 pound range , tonight, some of these may be bigger than 10 from what I seen in the holding tank this afternoon. Should be a good kids day, the river has come up a bit and is murky, we had a bit of rain last night(1.5 inches). So bring the kids should be a heck of a nice day to fish, the weather is supposed to be nice, last I heard not much chance of rain, but we know how fast that can change Should be great fishing on sunday, when we get to fish for the leftovers.

It is a county road, I don't think the county will close it off to the public. There really isn't much of a problem with the 4-wheelers anymore, most of them stay over on the mark twain side. I fish down there a bunch, never see a lot of trash, maybe around the bridge some, but it hasn't been bad this year.

Water came up a few inches, but is still in fantastic shape, my wife and I were down to the river this morning and the fishing was great.

Had some rain this week, and this weekend, as of this morning the water is still mostly clear, you can see 6' + so it is still very good fishing. Good dry fly fishing this week, hoppers, beetles, ants, stimulators, blue wing olives, caddis and tricos are still good top water flies. Cracklebacks, griffiths gnats, cream midges and very small adams were also good this week. Fishing small nymphs was good this week, small zebra midges, pheasant tails, sow bugs and copper johns worked well, we were fishing the nymphs 24" - 36" deep under an indicator. Baby buggers in an olive, tan, black or brown did very well all week. We used bigger # 8 or #10 woolybuggers early and late. Glo-balls, san juan worms and furbugs were all very effective this week. In zone 1 the plastic worms were working great for everyone, the cheese yellow, white, orange, and orange/white were the best colors, and the plastic eggs were also very good, the orange, white, and the hatch brown were great all week. Roostertails were effective as always, (30 minute wonders) for the first hour of each day, the black, skunk, brown and olive were the best colors. A lot of fish were caught this week on kastmaster spoons, little cleos, and on the little colorado spoons. gold seemed to work best. Marabou jigs were good all week, the ones with a bit of flash in them did best early and on the cloudy days, best colors seemed to be the white, black/yellow, brown/yellow, green/yellow and the black. In zone 3 minnows, powerbait paste in white and the rainbow colors were best, corn has been good to for the past few weeks.

Give me a call at the shop, I have a guy who does great rod repair work. my # at the shop is 417-847-4956

It is a great book, I keep one at the shop and one at home. I look at them quite often.

there is good dry fly fishing all year, there are caddis that come off here every month of the year. the standard olive body brown wing caddis come off as early as march and go into nov-dec. there is a little dark caddis that comes off here all 12 months, about a #16-20 covers them. There are blue wing olive hatching march - dec size 16's - 22's are the sizes to carry. Midge activity is all year long also. Right now and on into oct, nov. beetles, ants, and hoppers, hoppers kinda go away in the middle of oct. but I have seen them down here on the river untill late nov. depends on the kind of fall weather we have. It only really slows down, when we have high water, there is good dry fly fishing most of the time if the water is clear and at a close to normal level or low.

I hate to hear that, in my early days when I worked at the lodge in roaring river state park, Ed helped me many times with gear and other items I needed. He will be missed, he was a great guy. I still use his book a lot, it a great read, I refrence stuff in it all the time.

The river just keeps fishing better, we had a bit of rain on thursday, made the water a bit murky, and it is still just a bit off color, but very fishable. We are catching a lot of fish on dry flies. Beetles, ants, hoppers, stimulators, humpys, crackle backs are all working well right now. We are still having the usual hatches, caddis, blue wing olives, a few lt. cahills, and tricos in the mornings, and there is good midge activity all day. Water is still very clear, and I would suggest 7X tippet right now, you can use 6X but it will cost you a few fish. If you are only bugger fishing or fishing larger nymphs, then you can get away with 6X fluorocarbon most of the time. Nymph fishing is still very good, pheasant tails, burlaps and sow bugs are your best bet right now. Small egg patterns and zebra midges fished as a dropper can be very effective now also. Small grubs, jigs, or glo-balls fished under an indicator can be good all day, the tri-color glo-balls seem to be working the best. Now if you are using a spin or spincast rod and reel, you really need to put 2lb maxima, p-line or vanish on your reel right now, it will greatly improve your chances of catching fish, as the water gets clearer and lower(it is dropping every day) the 2lb line will make the difference. For your best chances of catching trout, stay away from blue, clear/blue or braided lines. Marabou jigs are really working well right now, black/yellow, black/olive, white, olive/yellow, and tan have all been good colors this week. Roostertails are good early and late, the black, skunk, brown, and olive are going to be your best colors right now. Powerbait is still the eaisest way to get a limit of trout, very small hooks #12's or smaller are best right now. The best color of egg right now would have to be white, with brown, and flo. orange being almost as good right now. Plastic worms are also very good right now, the cheese yellow, white, pink, and the flo. orange colors have been best. In zone 3 night crawlers have been good, and so have minnows if you have them, white, and orange powerbait paste has been good the past few weeks also. Good luck on the river this week. Tim's Fly Shop

you can wade, swim do about anything you want in zone 3

Glad you had a good time, yeh very busy on sat. come again sometime, see ya later.

micro jigs in black/yellow, olive green, tan and copper headed/ olive have all been good. Marabou jigs in black/yellow, tan, white, brown and olive have been good also. Glo-balls under an indicator will always catch a few fish. use 2lb maxima, p-line, or vanish, anything else will not work real well. Good luck.

Dry fly fishing has been great, bring your 7X tippet and light rods. Good beetle, ant, and hopper fishing right now. Caddis, blue wing olives and tricos also. Water is in great shape, best water we've had all season. Good luck.

The dry fly fishing is just getting better, the water is dropping a bit everyday, the hot weather has made the beetle, hopper, ant and stimulator fishing better than ever. I have been catching lots of fish on beetles, the fish can't seem to get enough of them. There are still good caddis hatches, B.W.O.'s in the evening and still a good trico hatch every morning. Crackle backs, renegades, adams, royal wulffs, and humpys all caught a lot of trout this week. You can still nymph fish and do well, the pheasant tail, zebra midge, copper johns, and the burlaps have all done well this week. Small micro eggs, and sow bugs have also been very effective. The water is getting clearer everyday right now, and 2lb (7X) tippet really is best right now, so put the heavy rods away and get your 3 and 4 wt fly rods out because it is time to use the lightest tippet you can. If you are using nymphs you can still get by with the 6X fluorocarbon, and even 5X early in the morning or if you are fishing streamers sometimes the heaiver tippet will work ok, but stick to 7X when you can. If you are spin fishing, use the 2lb maxima, p-line or the vanish fishing lines, these work best when the water is clear. Good fishing this week on marabou jigs, black/yellow, olive, white, brown, and tan all worked very well, 1/32 and 1/64th size seem to work best right now. If you are micro jig fishing, olive, white, the sculpin, and the black/yellow have been working best. Plastic power eggs are still tearing them up, the white, brown, and the orange eggs have been working best, use #14 or smaller hooks right now, they seem to be working better than the bigger hooks. If you are using plastic worms, then the catalpa worm green, orange, white, orange peel, cheese yellow and the baby doll pink have all been good colors. Roostertails, are still working great in the mornings, black, skunk, flo.orange, white and brown have all been good colors. Small gold spoons have been working as have small crankbaits like flatfish, rebel crawdads, crickhoppers are all working well, but just about any small (3") or smaller crankbait will work right now. Fishing in zone 3 has been decent, you'll not have to much company in zone 3, if you are going to fish in zone 3, then nightcrawlers, minnows, powerbait paste, or corn should produce fish right now. Good luck see ya on the river.

Anybody been to rockbridge in the past few weeks? How is the water, have they been getting a lot of rain in that area.

200.00-300.00 for the rod, would be a fair price. Not sure what the reel is worth I can't remember what they retailed for, but for a used reel in real good condtion, about 1/2 of the retail price would be a fair price.

#12 or # 14 stimulators always work well for me there in the summer, hoppers, beetles have been good. I usually fish a #12-#16 hares ear, bead head works best for me, I tie mine bushy, I tie a few other patterns for crane, most are bead head, #8's - #12's and are either dk. brown or black. I use hares ear, possum hair, or any good bushy dubbing should work. Glo-balls and san juan worms usually work well for me in the deeper holes, good luck.

I'm using a#10 beetle most of the time, and # 10-#14 hoppers have been working best. I've been doing well on a # 12 stimulator, and #16 and #18 adams have been very good in the mornings and late afternoon. ' Been using a daves hopper most of the time, but a parchute hopper sometimes also, yellow or brown bodies have been best for me.

No I think your thinking of the Marksmen, the Angel is a good ole UK rod