timsfly

Water is up in the park again at Crane, it was out of its banks when I came thru this morning, it was red/brown and running hard, looked like it had been higher in the night.

I've used a Buck camp axe for a lot of years, don't know if they still make one, but it has been very dependable and it was only about 30.00, but that was 20 years ago.

Good to see the grand re-opening went well this morning, it is always good to see that many good people in one place and all interested in fishing. Good to see the tiers, they were all working hard, Michael was just giving stuff away, there were free donuts and coffee to the chosen few, he had them hid in the back The new shop looks great, good luck.

Very nice pictures, I went down again this morning, it was like fishing in a rain shower with all the ice melting, I only managed to catch 3 trout and few chubs. It was very pretty this morning, no footprits in the ice and nobody around, that is the main reason I fish crane, that and the fish are very pretty.

Riffle water, deep holes and oxbows are all there. I fished Crane an hour today and caught 2 10" trout and hooked a couple of more, all on #10 olive bead head woolybuggers. It was very calm and nice today, nobody around at all, the back roads are still very slick, and I think were slicker this afternoon, after there was a bit of melting. I fished just below town, about where the water treatment water enters the creek.

It is a brushy little creek with very little backcasting room in most places, any trout is a good trout. I have caught trout over 20" out of there, but most are between 10-12" and they fight like they are bigger. I catch a lot of fish on buggers, san juan worms, and glo-balls. I use some bigger nymphs like hares ears and prince nymphs. I drove over it this morning, it is up some, but still clear. I use 5X most of the time, in the summer when I'm fishing beetles, ants, caddis and adams, I use 6X and sometimes 7X.

I like woolybuggers, I think any game fish will eat them, I've even caught saltwater fish on woolybuggers, one time I ran out of ginger Crazy charlies, I had a few #10 conehead buggers in the same color, and bonefish didn't seem to care, as long as it was on the bottom when they seen the fly, I had a hoot fishing them that day. They are as good an all around fly as there is. Some days they work better, and somedays they don't work so good, but thats fishing. I like them in a #14 for the parks stocker fish, but when the water is up, I like em as big as #4's and real bushy. I have found that sometimes just dead drifting a bugger is as good as a slow retrieve, there really isn't a right or a wrong way to fish a bugger, I've even seen people fishing them under indicators here at R.R. and catching fish, go figure, game fish really like them.

Roads were pretty good from Monett down to Roaring River, but it is raining to beat the band, I fished long enough to get wet and catch a few trout up by the hatchery, had a good one on and he promptly got off, but I managed 3 12-14" rainbows, and got out of there. Anyway the roads are good now, but I think it is supposed to get nasty this afternoon, it is still raining hard here. I'm heading back home and I'll fish a day when it is not so wet

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you are comming to R.R. today drive careful, roads are nasty, now MODOT always works the road over real good, but it is still nasty, there is about 1/4" of ice over everything, gravel, sidwalks, trees, and it is still comming down, I'm going to be down, but I'm going to wait untill this afternoon. Fishing has been good, the water as of yesterday was great, I doubt it has come up much, but it might this morning, we have been getting some rain, but I don't think it will become unfishable today. This will be a big streamer, bugger day

Yes I'll open at 10:00 and close at 1:00.

Below the park will not be busy. Make sure you are out of the park, zone 3 is closed all winter, untill march 1st. You'll have to go down to the conservation area, to be completely out of the park.

I might fish tomorrow, can't fish tomorrow afternoon, so I'll be there early.

I'll be at the shop after 10:00, I have to fish a bit before I go to work.

Water is in fine shape, it might have come up a few inches but is still clear. Still 8lb fish around, they are pissy but they are still in there, the high water has been good for them, the snaggers have not been able to get to them like they do when the water is low. Come on over and play, this is the last weekend. The stocking for the 1st will not take place untill the week before march 1st.

Water is still in fine shape, we got just a bit over 1/2 of an inch of rain. Should be good fishing this weekend.

Glo-balls, san juan worms, small jigs, black/yellow, olive, and white are good colors fished under small floats will do the trick. Fish up by the hatchery in the afternoon and in the morning, when the fish in the hatchery are being fed, feed trickles into the river and a brown glo-ball will catch fish very eaisly, this can be very productive. Yes everybody of any age if they are fishing during the C&R season needs the trout stamp. Good luck.

For up close and personal nymphing I like a DT-5-F cortland lazers are my favorite for this, or a Triangle Taper Lee Wulff line is hard to beat. On a rod of that length a WF would be best, but the Wulff lines are sure nice, and easy to cast at any distance.

One of the local game wardens down here at R.R. told me that a fly that is tied togeather and fished as a single fly, needs to have one hook, not two, if you have two flies tied togeather with a piece of mono, tied in at the hook bend or at the eye of the fly and being fished as two seperate flies, that is what he would define as a single fly and a dropper, a fly tied at the vise and being held togeather with wire or mono, but being actually one fly, to be legal would only have one hook, not two, so you can tie them in the articulate style, but cut a hook off to make it legal. I showed the warden a sample of each. You can use one fly and 4 droppers and still be legal in missouri, man what a mess in the net that would make. This is info I got from one of my local wardens, who is not retired, but we talked of this at length several times over the years.

Charlie has a huge supply of TMC, Diaichi and gamaktsu, as well as mustad, his prices are always good. I buy a few from him when I can't get them from some of my wholesalers. his # is 417-588-4334

Fishing was pretty good this weekend, good dry fly fishing, caught most of mine on adams, caddis and small #16 cracklebacks, caught a few on griffiths gnats, Caught most of mine today on olive mohair leeches and tan baby buggers, this morning, in the afternoon, I caught most of mine on small zebra midges and pheasant tails, and a few on a sulphur dun #18, I had to go to 7X tippet this afternoon, but I got away with 6X this morning. Caught a few this morning on a possum leech, lt tan. I think tomorrow will be even better, only tomorrow and next weekend left for C&R season and then it is back to the regular season. Good luck see ya on the river.

Those are fine inexpensive reels, I get a lot of them in the shop that the screws have fallen out, I suggest you take each one out and put a dab of lock-tite on the screw, this will help prevent the loss of a screw, don't overtighten, the little treads on the reel will strip out. That is the only real problem I've ever seen on this reel, they function well, and they are not real pricy so after 20 years of service if it breaks down, hang it on a nail in the garage and buy anoter one.

Yes the new baffles look good, but I think they messed up here and there, the hole in front of the lodge is down almost 18" lower now than it is even when the water is low, I also think the way the holes are now, it is going to reduce the available fishing area, and we needed more not less, the baffles look good, but why would some of the holes be lower now than when they are low in the summer, I've never seen that hole in front of the lodge as low as it is right now, and the water is dropping it will only get lower as the water drops, check that out next time you are at the river. I forwarded the porta potty problems to the conservation dept and the DNR. I'm not sure who is responsible for them. It was nice at Bennett today, their bathrooms were open and nice and clean, and heated don't know why they can't do that here at Roaring River.

Bennett sure fished good today, very windy but the fish were hungry, I caught 32 and the wind was just to much for me, about 1:00 I decided to leave, didn't catch anything of size, had one rainbow about 17" it weighed 2 1/2 pounds. Caught most on a apricot egg #16, caugth a few on a brown beetle up on top and caught a few on various nymphs, I only fished from the dam down to about 100 yds downstream of the bridge, there were plenty of fish in there. There were a lot of fish down by the hatchery outlet, but I think everybody else was there also, but there were a lot of nice fish hanging out there.

Thanks for the report, I think I'll head that way tomorrow morning.

No I'm forced to fish every monday.