Paola Cat

TB ... Awesome recipe. Try the Clemente VII Chianti Classico ... a little pricey but worth it on special occasions. PC

As far as braids are concerned, I've used most of them ... I really haven't found anything better than Power Pro. For me its got better reel loading, better castability, and is the easiest to work with. I use PLine for heavy cover (20#). I use McCoys, Gamma, Sunline Machine Gun, or Yozuri for general purpose (<20#). PC

Looks fishy .... add some bucktail and it'll have a damsel/clouser thing going on. PC

Besides the braid suggestions, Gamma High Performance and McCoy Mean Green have the least memory for me. They're both copolymer. The Yozuri Hybrid is good also. PC

TB POS .... now that's funny. Looks pretty fishy and has a serious damsel fly resemblance! They'll be tieing them in bulk in Kenya in no time.

I saw a small black caddis hatch last Friday in the same area .... tent wings .... just enough to be annoying ... and then they were gone. Also saw PEDs in Zone 2 .... not very many but saw a few ... looked like #20s. Saw (1) lonesome larger mayfly .... light colored .... #14-#16 in Zone 2. It hit the eddy water in Zone 2 ("at the bend") and was immediately devoured (even in the muddy flow) ... didn't get a close enough look to identify. Can't go wrong with the globall pattern right now. Slow down, fish deep, and be patient. I'm looking forward to clearer waters and other patterns. PC

Good to have you on board! Mongo catch big fish! PC

Good to have you on board. 24" walleye .... nice!

Great advice Flysmallie on slowing down and good line ..... A 5-6 weight should be sufficient. I own a 5 weight Launch amongst 3 or 4 other 5 weights. The Launch would make a great smallie rod .... so would the TFO Pro. PC

BKB .... Seams, eddies, areas of transition from faster current to slower current. Don't overlook areas that might be close to the bank. With the conditions like they are, it's very important to read the water correctly. A majority of the water is not worth fishing. You'll also have to fish deeper. I like to give them something they can see in these kind of conditions. I used peach and apricot supreme globalls last weekend with some success. Once you find them, they will be stacked up and you can take fish on repeated casts. PC

The spring's pumping out the muddy water. It'll be 1-2 weeks before BSSP clears up if they don't get anymore heavy rains. Check out http://www.missouritrout.com/weavers/report.html. They say they'll post a report if it starts to clear-up. Looks like they're calling for rain down there on Wednesday and Thursday. You can also check the BSSP flow at http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?cb_00065...ite_no=06923500. I was down there on Friday and it was ugly. I'm sure it's improving every day. PC.

RC .... Besides camping, I've stayed in the 4 Plex units in the park, I've stayed at Vogels, and I've stayed at the Bennett Springs Inn. They're all OK for me. I just called the wife and asked her to take the poll ..... she likes the 4 Plex units in the park the best. PC

What do they want for them .... still around $20? PC

James Taylor wanna be's .... home boys kickin' it in the park .... good ole boys blaring Lynard Skynard at all hours of the night/morning (you name the park ... its happened to me) .... I have yet to hear the classical music blasting ..... is that next?

Britt ... It was the worst I've seen it in a long time. I just kept moving until I found some takers. It's all about reading the water in conditions like yesterday (eliminating large chunks of the stream), giving them something they can see, and persistence. Black zebra midges below the bridge .... I'll have to try that .... I normally use red or rust. Do you fish them single or tandem? Good to hear you got some dry fly action in earlier in the week. What pattern did you use? I'm looking forward to some of that .... Did you camp? PC

Tim .... stopped by the shop Wednesday and you were closed. Stopped in again on Thursday and you were out. I did have a good chat with the guy that was there and purchased some globalls. I was surprised by the 22 incher. It was pretty cool on Thursday AM and my hands were numb. I was using the spinning rig and the hit was hard and the fight was good. Measured right at 22" and released in the same pool (I think it was the second pool up from dry hollow .... the pool above the 1st pier?) The guy fishing next to me couldn't believe that I was going to release it. He was doing pretty good on a real heavy white jig. The 18.5" was taken at about 1:00PM in Zone 2 with the fly rod and was a male with a kype jaw. Kind of a lazy fish not much fight to him. Most of the fish I caught Zone 2 were real healthy .... even "fat". Had a good time but it was probably the worst conditions that I have fished at RRSP. PC

Left RRSP (see that report in the RRSP area) and headed to BSSP this morning. Arrived shortly after the siren. The water conditions were horrendous. Even worse than RRSP. The water is way up, flowing fast and muddy. Fished for 2.5 hours. Left the fly rod in the bag and used the spinning rig with a heavy peachy king globall jig and split shot. Started in Zone 1 .... fished for about an hour ..... zippo. Only saw (1) fish caught. Moved to Zone 2 and took (3) in the area around the stone arch bridge. Moved on down to the hatchery outflow and it was elbow to elbow with nobody catching anything. Walked upstream to the "bend" and took (6) fish on the globall in about 45 minutes. Found the fish on the edge of the fastest current. Casting into in the current and slowly working the globall in the slower current area. It will be quite a while before conditions are back to "normal" at BSSP. PC

Made it to RRSP on Wednesday afternoon. Conditions were horrible. Dry hollow looked like the Mississippi. The water was up, flowing fast, and had a brown/green color to it. Anyway, I left the fly rods in the bag and rigged up a spinning rod. Fished for a couple of hours in Zone 1. Tied on the heaviest peachy king globall jig I could find in the gear bag and added (2) pretty good size split shot 18" above it. Used 6 lb. fluorocarbon. Caught (5) and was glad to get that. Early Thursday, I fished in Zone 1 in the first couple of pools up from dry hollow and caught (2) on the same peach globall rig. One fish measured 22" (biggest fish of the trip). The action slowed and I moved to Zone 2 and fished from the end of campground 3 upstream to the showerhouse. Made this loop several times on Thursday and ended up catching 17 for the day, all on globalls, in falling water conditions. Did manage to to bring (3) to hand on the flyrod using a smaller apricot supreme/red dot globall on Thursday afternoon. Pretty much a chuck-n-duck delivery with that split shot whizzing by your ear. The biggest fish on Thursday was 18.5" caught in the pool driectly in front of the 2nd sitting bench (heading upstream toward the showerhouse). The fish were there, you just had to be patient and had to fish heavy and deep. Lots of people in the park, pretty good weather, water conditions were bad ... but the fish were there if you fished slow and deep. Woke up Friday morning and headed to BSSP (see that report in the BSSP area). PC

Thanks Tim ..... Great ..... It figures ..... The wife and I coming down from KC tomorrow afternoon .... staying at the lodge for a couple of days. Maybe I should forget the flyrod and bring the baitcaster!!!! PC

RC .... #20-22 PEDs hatch there and the flat just above the dam in Zone 1. Awesome job. There wasn't much dry action on Friday. The dry action only gets better from here on out if the water stabilizes a little. Headed to RRSP on Wednesday. I hope it doesn't get blown out with the rain. PC

Britt .... I'd make the trip to Montauk. Great waters and great places to camp. I'd be heading there ... taking the wife to RRSP on Wednesday .... staying at lodge (good for her). Hopefully it's a little better there. PC

Don ..... great story. Here's a crazy story about fishing and deer. It was our first trip to Lake Huites, Mexico to fish for bass. Having no idea what the trip was really like, my buddy Tom and I arrived in Los Mochis, MX and were picked up by the lodge. After driving what seemed like forever through some freakin' remote parts and picking up the local police on the way to the lodge, we arrived at the lodge for a good meal. We woke up in the morning, had a good breakfast and headed out to fish. We were assigned a guide named Felipe. Anyway, we caught several nice bass in the first hour .... things slowed down a bit and we decided to head to another spot. Along the way, Felipe noticed something black in the water and started hollering (in Spanish) and gesturing. I finally figured out that he wanted me to drive the boat toward toward the black thing in the water while he stood in the front of the boat. I drove up to this thing in water and it was a deer that was swimming across the lake. Felipe then fashioned a lasoo out of the anchor rope and roped that sucker on the first try. Then, all hell broke lose. After much splashing and holding on, Felipe ran to the back of the boat (while Tom was in a state of catatonic shock) and wrapped the rope around a boat cleat. Then we headed to the bank with the deer. Needless to say the deer expired on the way to the shore. Once beached on the bank, Felipe hollered at the top his lungs and a few minutes later a guy came walking over the hill and picked up this deer and carried it off. I guess Mexican deer are pretty small and estimated this deer at no more than 50 lbs. By the time we got to the lodge for lunch. Word had spread through the hills that Felippe had roped a deer and he was a hero. PC

All fish were released yesterday. Occasionally, I keep a couple but not this trip .... all C&R. Not the best water conditions at BSSP right now. Have a good trip. I'm headed to RRSP Wed-Friday. PC

OK day at the park. Fished hard and caught around 20 in 5 hours of fishing. The water is still up, fast, cloudy green colored, and there's lots of floating moss and junk. No giants but some good quality fish. Most fish were caught on peachy king egg pattern with a cerise egg pattern or a Y2K dropper. Tried various combinations and really couldn't hone in on something they wanted. Tried SJWs, slumpbusters, leeches, and woolies without much success. Had to use split shot to get the pattern down. A majority of the fish came from Zone 2. The action was slooooow in Zone 1. Pretty big crowds for a Friday and the weather was great. I borrowed my daughter's camera and took some pictures. Gotta figure out how to get the pictures off of the camera ..... therefore pictures are pending. PC