timsfly

For a delicate presentation on the water and for fishing over spooky fish, it will be hard to beat the Tri-angle taper Wulff lines, I can fish any line I want and I get a lot of free lines every year from cortland, so for taney and bennett it is a good line. I fish the olive color and have used it all over, and it is a good all around line, it is made for Wulff by S.A. so you know it has to be good. I like the Rio Clouser lines but have not used anything else of theirs, so I don't know how the cast, but the clouser line is great for heavy flies. I use about every line made by orvis, cortland, monic, and S.A. and for slow water and spooky fish the Tri-angle taper is going to make you a good line.

Tie a #20 or #22 thread midge, I'm going to tie one that is brown, with a black head, tie one that is olive or red with a black head, and rib it with copper or silver wire if you want, I don't think it is always needed but it does add some color on a cloudy day. Tie the body of a nice olive thread I taper the body a bit, and then just tie a black head just a bit bigger than your tapered body. I think somebody earlier suggested this fly. It is good fly to use, you can dress it up some if you want with a glass bead or a brass bead if you have some that small. Do your best I'm sure it will turn out well for you. Good luck.

Fishing was pretty good after they stopped running water, about 11:00 the fishing got pretty good, I used the 2 #22 thread midge combo and a yarn indacator and fished the rig about 4 feet deep, didn't hook any big ones but caught 9 trout, all browns, didn't get a rainbow, saw one good one swim by a few times, I only fished about 2 hrs. There were several nice fish moving around, the first fish I hooked on a san juan worm was probably about 5lbs, I got to fight it for about 5 minutes but we soon parted company after that.

Yes there is a difference in 8X and 7X some days the 8X will get you more action, but you'll break off a few times more, I can usually get by with 7X, now if I'm using, #24's and smaller I'll use the 8X most of the time. I use the 6 turn fishermans knot myself or a palamor knot, I like it best but it is tough to get the line thru the hook eye twice on a very small hook, and you use a bit more tippet. A stip set will work and sometimes works well, but I miss fish doing this, I just use a 2 or 3 weight and I just try not set the hook to hard I use the shock gum if I have trouble setting the hook to hard, it helps.

The fly area (zone 2) probably has the best numbers of fish right now, the C&R area has the biggest fish in the river right now. Droppers are legal, I fish a beetle/pheasant tail dropper a lot this time of year, but a Crackle back is a good fly down here right now. I use the green/grizzly crackle back most of the time #14 seems to be best right now. I have been catching fish on griffiths gnats, lt. cahills and a few fish on caddis, everything #16 and smaller. The Zone 3 area produces some big fish, there have been several fish over 12lbs taken out of there the past few years. In zone 3 you can fish anything you want and most of the big fish taken out of there have been caught on bait. Sowbugs and scuds both work well at the park and any small thread midge, zebra midge or diamomd Jim type midge will work well. Small glo-balls and small woolybuggers have been doing pretty good, the water is very clear right now, so 2lb or 1lb line is working best, 9' leaders are going to work better than 7 1/2 leaders. Good luck stop by the shop when you are down if you need any help or just want to ask some more questions, good luck.

Egg patterns will work all year long, but sept-march I seem to have my best luck at taney, I use them here at Roaring River all year long, and catch some pretty big fish on egg patterns, I tie them as small as #22's and as big as a #6 for taney. Good luck.

I was going to make it up and holler at you when I was on the Juan, but the fishing was so good, and I only made it to Aztec for gas and groceries one evening. I had thought about fishing up your way, but had heard of all the rain and muddy water, so I just stayed and fished on the juan every day, you know those little brown #24 thread midges will catch fish just about everywhere if you tie them the right way, I have found if you keep the flies very tight and smooth they work better than the small ones that are shaggy, I run them through my alchol burner before I add glue, this removes all the stray strands of thread and leaves the body very smooth. Thanks for hosting this fly swap, I hope we get the 25 people, more flies the better

Count me in, I just got back from 6 days on the San Juan I'm over run with #22 and #24 midges, fishing was great. I tied flies every night, so I have plenty. Forgot to tell what midge I would tie, I'll tie #24 brown midge larva, they really worked good on the juan last week, and they work just as well on taney and at R.R., they are simple but effective.

I tie them from #18's to # 8's most of the ones I fish are about 1 1/2" long, but I fish them as long as 3" sometimes, today they wanted the # 18's in cream and they were under an inch in length.

White, cream and orange, I caught maybe 20 on them today, at taney. they catch me several 10lb + trout every year.

Glad you had a good time, thanks for comming by the shop.

Received the flies today, they look great, I'll try the ant out first, I caught six rainbows and one brown last night on ants.

I'll be on the san juan that week, I might drive up on sat, I haven't been to a show in a few years.

Rockbridge can be a lot of fun, you can go over there this time of year and catch a lot of fish on hoppers, and beetles, now you are right it is not nears as tough as a full day on san juan or on the green or other places like that, but the trout do fight hard and are fun to catch and they can be spooky but usually they are not. Rockbridge stocks nice sized trout and plenty of them, I understand they are rebuilding the end section of the river and are going to make a C&R area, for a fee. Anyway don't knock untill you've tried it, when the water is to high at the tailwaters and the parks are overcrowded a day trip to one of the pay to fish creeks in missouri can be fun. Just my opinion but they can be fun, are are a great place to take a kid, they are never as crowded as the parks and when it is this hot it nice to wet wade and fish all day.

Mohair Leech #2-#14 3X or 4X long hook .025 or .030 lead wire Purple thread(black will work I like purple)3/0 or heaiver Thick Black Marabou for the tail Black leech yarn for the body. I tie the the thread on run it back on the hook just above the barb, I then wrap about 10 wraps of lead in the middle of the hook and then run the thread back to about 1/8" behind the eye of the hook. I add head cement at this point over the entire length of lead. I then tie in the thick hunk of marabou in just behind the eye, lifting a little as you wind back towards the bend of the hook, keeps the marabou right on top of the hook. I like the tail of the leech to be the same length as the hook. Tie in the leech yarn(about a 6" section) and then run the tying thread back to the eye of the hook, then wrap the leech yarn back up to the eye of the hook, whip finish and glue the head. If the leech is not hairy enough for you, then rough it up with a brush or a dubbing pick, I use a plastic tooth brush with the bristles cut down so they are good and stiff to rough my leeches.

I have a fabrill that only costs 12.95 it is big enough to hold a 8lb fish and has a rubber coated net and a graphite frame, not the best looking of nets but is light, and lures don't hang in it to bad. I sell them in the shop

Steve is right, we have good enforcement right now, better than the past few years anyhow, the wardens are in the park quite a bit, I see them almost every day, but you know they can't be everywhere all the time, and Jerry the hatchery manager is a game warden and he can enforce laws and he is in the park 5 or 6 days a week and Jimmy the park ranger can and does enforce the laws all the time, he is a great + for the park.

I have seen some bigger fish in the lake above the dam, but the creek on the hill creek lodge land doesn't run into capps creek, it runs into shoal creek, I have fished there many times, so I doubt many of them make it back into capps creek, let alone how would they get above the dam ? But you are right the fish above the lake get fished for very little, I have fished it a few times and it is so brushy it would be better fished with a spinning rod.

Once while fishing a farm pond (20+ years ago) I caught a bluegill and had a 6 pound bass eat it on the way in, landed them both took the bass home, the poor little bluegill gave its life so I could catch that big bass, I was happy to catch the bass, while fishing in Roaring River a few years ago, I had hooked a small 10" rainbow and I had a brown come up and take it away from me, I'm sure it was a good meal for the brown, he took the rainbow and left me with my fly, it was neat to watch.

I saw a pic of a brown a few years ago that the guy told me weighed 13 pounds and he told me it came out of Capps creek up by the mill, the biggest brown I have ever caught out of there was about 6 pounds and I caught it down a mile or so below the Mill.

I talked to Kevin today, he is the asst. manager of the Roaring River Hatchery. He told me the hatchery would stock 50 more lunkers(around 3-4 pounds) again this friday night, the spring he told me was still producing about 6-7 million gallons per day, and that at the last meeting he attended the talk was friday thru monday this winter at all parks except merimac springs, I think it was said earlier they are open all winter for C&R. Hope this helps, fishing was good last night on a green ant and a #22 apricot fur bug, and black beetles will catch fish all day long, still getting a few on caddis, small adams, and on lt. cahills near the end of the evening.

Yes the Joan Wulff favorite has a great grip and is popular, I have sold a lot of them the past few years, your wife will always think it is to much money but I'm sure she would be proud to own and fish a rod of that high a quality, the st. croix rods are good but no where near the quality of the upper end winston rods, and the winston rods carry a great warranty, Unconditional for life of the origianl owner. But a sage is ok to, my wife likes the SP 8' 9" 6 pc sage, it is her favorite fly rod.

The river is fishing well, I fished for an hour and half yesterday, caught 15 trout, all on a green/grizzly # 16 ant, caught a few on a # 14, 7X frog hair made all the difference, the fish would only chase the fly when I had 6X on for the tippet, and I did better when fishing a 12' leader.

8X made a big difference last night, had to use a #30 glo-ball and 8X just to get them to look, but after the sun went down a bit, I was able to go back to 7X and a green/grizzly ant and caught a bunch. I don't break off a lot with 8X but I'm using my 1 weight or my 5' 3wt fiberglass winston, and these are real soft, great for using the light tippet, I have some 10X and 12X also but it is too small for me, but there are a few brave souls that use once in awhile. Fishing was great at the park last night, but the water is low and light tippet is a must, good luck.

Don't know a thing about the St.Louis chapter, but the K.C. bunch are a great bunch of guys, I have delt with them for years, when I worked at Roaring River and still here at my shop on the hill. Good bunch of guys and they all seem to be enjoying the chapter and it outdoor activitys.