timsfly

I talked to a friend at Bennett today, he told me the river came up about 6 feet this morning, he said it would be dirty for several weeks.

Yep if you don't run into the person that is going 40 around all the curves I drive in from Billings everyday, most days it is about 45 minutes, I leave after 7 in the morning it is an hour and 10 minutes most days. Alot of people seem to think they can't drive around those curves unless they slow down to 20 You'll have 20-25 minute days and lots of 30 + days. I can make it to taney to the dam in under an hour from the house here, but if I leave after 8 in the moring it may take an hour and a half to get there, leave early and you'll be fine most mornings. At night well good luck, lots of older people and what appear to be drunks driving that road. Seems like a lot of them like to take those curves on their side and mine Good luck

Depends on traffic, but 30 minutes would be a safe bet on most days. Traffic can be slow at times, no traffic, you can do it in 20 most days you'll have traffic, and heaven forbid you get behind one of the school buses allow 30 minutes to be safe.

Roaring river came up big last night, we recieved 4" of rain here at cassville, the streets in town are flooded in all the low places. I don't expect Roaring river to be fly fishable for at least 4 days, and that is if the rain quits pretty quick, from what they are calling for it may be next weekend before the river is down enough to fly fish. So for now, big jigs, powerbait, crankbaits and gold spoons will be the trick. oh and 4 or 6lb line will be ok for a week or so.

Roaring river is still murky and up about a foot over normal, fishing has been good, buggers, Y2K bugs, glo-balls, san juan worms, copper johns, any flash back nymph flashy zebra midge type flies have also been good. Dry fly fishing is getting better, but it should be good in a week or two if the rains hold off. I've been catching a few whites below the 86 bridge on lower Roaring river, they won't be in there much longer.

the river is still muddy and high, not bad fishing but not good for dry fly fishing. We have been getting em on buggers, Y2K bugs, copper johns, stuff like that.

I was up above the dam

Me to, I caught maybe 50 nice sunfish on wed, several in the 9" + range, lots of 8 inchers, but those 10 and 11 inchers were the best, I love the way they fight on a fly rod.

I'm using a 6'9" 6wt scott heli-ply for my smallmouth fishing, it is great for wading or canoe fishing.

Had a good day at upper capps creek, lots of sunfish, and 1 18" LM and 3 just a bit over 15" and tons of short bass, to many to count. Most came off of a grey and black cone head # 8 woolybugger. Two of the sunfish were a full 11" long, lots of 9" and a couple over 10" it was a great day to be on the water.

Water at Jenkins appears to still be a few feet higher than it was last week, still muddy. In a week it should be great floating again. Be at least a week before it is good for grabbing again. Still very muddy. 1' visability at best yesterday.

The bead is silver on the burlap in the picture.

I put the bead on, and tie my thread to the hook, run it to the back of the hook, then back to the just behind the bead, I tie in my burlap there, tie it back to the back of the hook, then run the thread back to the eye of the hook. I then wrap the burlap up to the bead tie it off, tie in a bit of peacock, ostrich, or just put some dubbing on right behind the bead, whip finish and then go catch fish. I have lots of burlap, I still see it at flea markets and even at rumage sales sometimes.

Roaring river came up about 2 feet yesterday, but it has dropped 6 or 7 " already, the river has remained clear, now this could change. I've seen the river get murky days after a heavy rain, but so far it is in good shape. Here are a few pics. http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u294/timsfly/P4130075.jpg http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u294/timsfly/P4130076.jpg http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u294/timsfly/P4130078.jpg http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u294/timsfly/P4130079.jpg

Here is the fly I tie of Burlap, I tie it with and with out a bead, I usually tie it on a # 14-#20 scud hook, your favorite will work fine. I don't always tie it with peacock. The fly is tied with real burlap, the jute you buy at hobby shops does not work as well. Burlap gets much darker after it gets wet, and the more ragged it gets the better it usually fishes. I've caught lots of browns at taney, bennett, mountauk, and at Roaring River on this fly. http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u294/timsfly/DSCF2041.jpg

Caught all the browns below the dam, most in the shallow waters behind the bridge(just down stream of the hatchery) Bennett like Roaring River receives a few browns a year. A burlap fly is a fly tied with burlap, from a burlap bag. Tie it like you would a chennile grub.

9lbs

Biggest fish I ever hooked that I didn't land was a tarpon in Florida, I had a guide and he told me the fly rod I had wasn't big enough, (we wern't tarpon fishing) but I wanted to at least hook the fish, so he got me in range told me what to do and I hooked the big tarpon, the guide figured it to be 150 + this fish jumped and made a run, jumped again and threw the hook, well I reeled in the rig, happy I had at least hooked the fish, just to find out I had never hooked the fish, the hook was smashed flat and was not capable of hooking anything, the big fish had just took the fly, smashed it flat, jumped up and laughed at us and spit it back at us, so I guess the guide was correct, I didn't have a heavy enough outfit, kinda like walking into a gun fight with a knife

What time were you at the Lower area, I was there real early this morning and didn't see anybody when I left. I think I left about 9:00 a.m. Fishing was good for me this morning, landed two real nice fish and several smaller fish, I was using a 1/32 oz wooyjig on my 5wt and also used a big possmum nymph(like a rabbit leech only tied with aussie possum) I didn't know you had to put the battery back in your camera after you charged it If you leave it at home in the charger, your camera is just excess weight Oh well I wouldn't have caught either fish, if I had, had my camera with me. Water is looking good at crane right now, if we don't get hammered with rain the next week or so it should fish good all month.

Fished Bennett for a few hrs today, lots of fish in the water, not what you'll see in the summer but plenty of fish in the river. I caught several nice 15-16 inch browns, lots of small rainbows and two rainbows in the 17-18" range. Caught most of mine on a cream colored san juan worm, and several on the burlap fly, # 16, the san juan was on a #14 scud hook. I left about 2 the river was pretty colored up, only about 3 feet of visability, maybe not that much above the dam. There was a nice mix of trout in the river, I was glad to see that, because, I had heard it was really bad fishing at bennett this year, but that is not the case, saw several nice sized trout, I hooked one in the riffle below the hatchery that would have gone an easy 5lbs, but we parted company very quickly. I had to use 2 # 4 shot on the burlap, but none on the san juan worms they had a 1/8" tungsten bead on them that took them down quick enough. http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u294/timsfly/P4080070.jpg http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u294/timsfly/P4080072.jpg http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u294/timsfly/P4080073.jpg

the creek is up a good 18"

Below the dairy farm, I think I'm going back down this afternoon.

Some people ask for pics of the river, here are a few.

Crane looks good, the creek is up a good 18" and is a bit off color, fishing was good we landed 2 and hooked a few more, one on a # 8 tungsten coneheaded pine squirrel thing, and the other was on a san juan worm, pink. Here is the pic of the first fish, it was pretty and the biggest we caught today. This is Nathan Honeycutts first trip, he is a local pastor in Cassville. I think he is hooked.

http://www.troutmagnet.com/ I sell them in the shop, they are good little rubber jig, I have had some luck with them over the years. The do great on crappie.