timsfly

I don't think it will hurt a thing unless we get a bunch more rain today and tomorrow, the river is off colored but did not get real high, mostly runoff, so it should clear quickly, I don't know if it will be completly clear, but it should be in good shape by saturday. The gates, at the dam were still closed this morning, that means the spring didn't rise much.

Everything is fine at the shop, the river didn't rise much, but did turn muddy, we have received about 3 1/2" of rain here since yesterday, with more to follow. But things are fine at the moment.

relax Rusty, I told you when you come over to the shop, I'll show you the "real" secret fly

This is a fly I tied a lot of a few years ago, when I night fished, but we tied them as big as we could, I have scaled it down a bit and find it works in a lot of places, gives me the weight of a small jig, and the action and attraction of a bugger. I also tie these with a small fas snap on the back so you can change colors quickly. http://s171.photobucket.com/albums/u294/ti...¤t=DSC00003.jpg http://s171.photobucket.com/albums/u294/ti...¤t=DSC00006.jpg

It is a 9' 5wt Hardy Angel, I'm going to give it another chance in the morning, maybe it will do better tomorrow. I know it was the rods fault, making miss all those fish

Fishing was pretty good this morning about 5a.m. first fish was about 18" and a lot of the fish I caught this morning were over 16" saw a lot of nice 20"+ browns around and a few nice rainbows, caugth most of mine on a ginger #12 woolybugger with just a smidgon of crystal flash in the tail. The rain from 7-9 or there abouts really kept the crowd down. I had a good time and the fishing was good, landed maybe 20 in about 4 hrs. wish I could have landed all that hit, I was using a new rod today, I'm going to blame that for all the missed fish. http://s171.photobucket.com/albums/u294/ti...;current=18.jpg http://s171.photobucket.com/albums/u294/ti...;current=17.jpg

I was up about a mile from there a month or so back, lots of downed limbs, would be a tough float, the water was low then, it is probably a bit lower now, but the fishing was good, fished my small 6wt and woolybuggers, caught smallies, a few litte largemouth tons of bluegill and a few goggleye, caught them all on the brown buggers, #10's I think.

Great looking fish. But yes you need a better flash.

Thanks, Tim Don't you have a shop over by Roaring River? I am going to be on Table Rock the last week of this month. Maybe I can stop by and meet you. Thanks, Doug Yes I do, come by and see me if you get in my area.

I have a pair of the G-3's they are great and tough as nails, the only holes were caused by me fishing on small creeks in the area, briar holes are what I call them. If you can justify the price get the G-3's. I've never had a bad pair of simms waders.

Yes you are right some people fishing fly or bait over play there fish, that just goes along with no respect for the fish you are fishing for, it happens a lot unfortunatly. I want them to continue to stock fish for the tag buyers, I just think a C&R permit would take some strain off of the hatcheries and some of us that only get to fish an hour or two wouldn't have to waste 15 minutes of that time standing in line to get a tag. Sometimes you can step in and get one and sometimes you can't depends on the day. I know there will be a few fish killed by anybody doing catch and release. But the fly and jig and lure fisherman will kill very few if they are released properly, and I know as well as anybody that some will be foolishly killed, I've seen people release fish, drop them a few times and kick them back in the river and the fish does swim off, but I figure it is a dead fish swimming. Good comments so far. Good to know what people are thinking. It will make some of the higher ups look at some of the things going on in missouri.

You guys are right, there will always be people taking to many fish regardless of the type of permits they have. The good thing about a C&R permit is if you don't want one don't buy one, but if you do go out and get one, can't make everybody happy. But I think a C&R permit would be a great option. Thanks for all the opinions, I hope the guys in jeff city are taking all of this in.

The C&R permit would be for the parks, all zones, that is what I would like to see put into effect. The parks wouldn't have to stock any extra fish for the C&R fisherman, there are almost always plenty in the river for C&R fishing. The 2.25, and it is more like 2 per day now that the limit has gone to 4 per day, only applies to people buying the daily tag. The hatchery just stocks 400 per month now in zone 3 and 100 a month in the area below the Roaring river park, I don't know how the other parks stock. 7500 trout would be a lot more than we are getting now. The money for the 3.00 tag, now it would be nice if that all went to the hatcherys, but it doesn't it goes to the conservation dept and the hatcheries still live off an annual budget, that is never enough it seems. So where does all the money go ? who knows it doesn't all make it back to the conservation dept where it is generated, and none of the tag money goes back to the park, that is a DNR thing, and the tag is a conservation thing. The money does not go back and forth between the to. The hatcheries would look a lot better if they could use all the money that they generated. But the conservation Dept. has done a lot of work on Roaring River the past few years. I just think it would be nice to not have to go wait in line and fight the crowds just for a few hrs of fishing, it would be more pleasant, and the store is still making money, they are the only thing around selling pop and candy and what not, and they make more off a cup of coffee than they do a tag or permit. I have ranted long enough, Crane creek fished good today, only caught 2 but they were both decent fish, 1 about 10" and the other about 12".

Well some people buy a 3.00 tag and don't catch any, I don't see them wanting a refund because they can't fish, they are learning. It wouldn't cost much at all, someone at a computer types in the right commands and the vendor terminals at all the stores in missouri that sell permits are selling C&R permits, now how hard could that be. What would make it different from how they police the parks now? If they stop and ask you for your permit you show it to them, what is hard about that. You have to carry your permit with you, if you are fishing don't you? You should carry it with you at all times. The C&R permit wouldn't be any different than your fishing liscense, if you buy the C&R, fishing, and your trout stamp at the same time you only have to carry one. Of course if you buy them seperatly then you would have to carry three permits, just like you would now. Most of us would buy all three at the same time. I think the permit would be the same price for nonresidents just like todays trout stamps.

I think crankbait and other lures would be fine, I just think for C&R, bait and soft plastics should be excluded. The hatcherys are at full capacity now, if we were not buying a daily tag that would just be less trout they would have to stock each night, I would think in a years time that might add up to quite a few trout they wouldn't have to raise, and maybe take the burden off the hatcheries a bit. I think if they doubled the trout stamp, or for that matter they could just sell a C&R permit, just like buying a trout stamp only it would be for C&R at the parks only, all they have to do is program the permit machines with this info and it would be there for the venders to sell. I would gladly pay 15 or 20 dollars a year for this type of permit. And if a guy wanted to keep a mess, then he could go buy the regular daily tag. As for how to get this accross to the conservation dept. they are reading this forum everyday, I know several that are out there that have told me they look at it several times a week, they will get the message.

There are a bunch of us out there that strictly Catch and release, I don't have a problem with people who keep and eat them, that is what the conservation dept. raises them for. But who would be interested in a yearly Catch and release permit, and how do you think this would be best handled. I would like it myself, of course I live near Roaring River and fish a lot and it would be a great thing for me and a lot of the other locals, but if we had a C&R yearly permit, you could go down and fish. I think it should be flies only C&R, I don't have anything against the bait guys but there is going to more injury to trout by bait fishing, it can't be helped the fastest hook set sometimes can't set the hook before the trout can swallow the bait. And lets face it some guys can use bait and injure few trout but most can't. So what do you think, and keep the comments good and positive if you can, because I know several conservation dept heads that monitor this site. Just to see what we are up to. I would want the permit to cover all 4 missouri trout parks. Let me know what you think. Thank you for reading all this.

That works pretty good, we did that a long time ago, used a 1/64th ounce head, cut the hook at the bend, tied a small fas snap to the line, and then tied the line in at the hook, you would tie the line all the way up nearly to the head, and then pull the line back over itself, locking it in, and then added epoxy or super glue, we would leave the line and fas snap about 1" behind the the junction, and then we would put a woolybugger or a wooly worm or a streamer on the fas snap, we also did it with out removing the jig hook, this gave you two hooks but it fouled up some. I still tie a #20 or #18 treble hook in the tail of some of my woolybuggers, for when they are just nipping at the end of the tail. It worked great sometimes

30,000 stocking sized fish is what he told me, that is not counting what died in the stream, I guess the warm water really did a # on the trout. I've seen Roaring river come up 10 or 12 feet in just a few minutes but it never seemed to really kill trout, just moved them around a lot, but the water has never got into the hatchery, I know it almost did in 95, it was close.

I just talked to a conservation employee, and he told me Bennett lost 30,000 fish, man that is terrible, but he also said that montauk and shepherd of the hills had plenty of fish to make up for the lost fish, I'll bet that did stink, that many fish would be terrible, but I guess the scavengers will do well for a few weeks.

Fished taney this morning did ok, about 20 trout to hand, most were just 12-14" fish, I did catch one brown about 17" caught most of my fish on #22 tread midges and olive #14 woolybuggers, and a couple on a egg pattern, orange/red spot #16.

Jack went thru surgery just fine, had surgery on friday and home by monday afternoon, the things those doctors can do are amazing. I talked to Jack this morning, he is doing fine and feeling better and stronger everyday.

I use a 6' 5wt or 4wt, I use lots of buggers and bigger nymphs, #10's are probably my most used size of both. 9' leaders most of the time. It is the same thing I fish on crane. 5X tippet most of the time, sometimes I'll drop down to 6X, temps in the mornings will be 58 or 59, by 12 p.m. some holes will show a 2 or 3 degree rise in temp, I have found a few spots were the temp was 65 last week or so in the 100 + days, I find most of my trout in areas of 58 or colder water, but in the little creeks there are a few small springs here and there and if you know where they are there are always a few fish around and the water can be a nice 57 right at the springs, depends on the spring,

I actually fished that last week, it was very tough, caught more creek chubs than trout, only caught 2 small trout, I fished about 2 miles above hurley, on I think it is dodson cave road, not sure but it is above hurley, I did get water temps in the 60's. I did mangage to catch a few small largemouth bass and a few bluegill in the deeper areas. I put in a at a low water bridge and fish up, there are a lot of cattle fences up through there but it wasn't to hard to get thru. I fished maybe 4hrs and then went to crane creek, did better over there.

Great pics, I love lake leatherwood, I fish it several times a year, mostly in the spring and fall, there are some big panfish in there.

I think that must have been a chain pickerel. I don't think grass pickerel ever get that big, but that must have been some fun, I've caught a few chain pickerel and they are fun, but I've caught a bunch of these grass pickerel out of flat creek when were young, they love beetle spins.