Paola Cat

Fished for 5 hours today. Started out in the Zone 2 riffles. The water's got a green tinge to it and really looks good. It was an unbelievably slow start. Struggled to bring 4 to hand on red zebra midges. Switched to a Y2K and moved up just below the stone arch bridge. Brought 5 or 6 to hand and helped a fellow angler take a picture and measure a nice 22" rainbow he had just caught. Broke off a fish losing the Y2K. Moved up just below the dam and took another 5 or 6 on a peach egg pattern. A nice 20"+ fish came up and engulfed my strike indicator. That about freaked me out. I need to learn to tie a strike indicator pattern! It started to get too crowded so I moved to Zone 3. Started about half way down and walked all the way down to the river. Consistently caught fish on the peach egg in any slack or pocket water area. Brought about 10 to hand. Walked back to the truck, ate a sandwich, gave the back a break, and then tied on olive mohair leech. Fished the same Zone 3 water and caught 4 smallmouth and one of RC's famous chubs on the leech .... no trout. Used the new Launch today ... pretty happy with it. Nice day, big crowd. PC

Been using a BPS XPS Stalker tackle bag as a fly fishing gear bag for over a year. Works great, no complaints. I use the the end pockets for reels and spools. Use the side pockets for accessories and stuff. Then I fill the interior of the bag with fly boxes, tippet spools, leaders ... etc. Pretty functional. Had used a Cabelas gear bag in the past but it was too small. What do you guys use? PC

Caught several chubs or some kind of minnow things last time I fished Zone 3. Over the years, I've never taken the time figure to out what those things actually are. They don't fight until you pull them out of the water and then they go crazy. Will post a report tomorrow evening. PC

1. #10 Olive mohair leech 2. #12 Olive crackleback 3. #18 tung. red zebra midge 4. #14 brown woolie 5. #16 peach egg

I'll be there tomorrow. PC

Just retired an older Cabelas jacket. Purchased a Columbia Queets River Jacket. It's a basic jacket no bells and whistles but seems OK so far through the winter season. Probably not as good as the jackets 3X its price but so far it appears to be a pretty good value. PC

If I don't tie it myself, I try to give the local shop the opportunity first. Second, I try to give the shop nearest to my favorite stream the opportunity. Third, I have used a multitude of mail order shops like www.bigyflyco.com and www.blueflycafe.com. I have found these OK for certain patterns. I have also got in on massive Kenyan and Thai fly orders that have been OK also. PC

Catching chubs and suckers on top .... almost as good as catching sculpins on nymphs .... doesn't get any better than that! PC

JobyKSU (Wildcats!) .... Thanks I'm going to give them a call. You're right, it doesn't hurt. I've actually got several Lamiglas rods ... I'll pull the long time customer thing and see if that works. I'll try the Launch out on Saturday .... BSSP C&R. I liked the way it felt the one time I lawn cast it on the frozen tundra in the front yard. PC

Noluck ... that's a good spot. I've caught several giants there over the years. Deep drift/strip a zonker, bugger, or even a heavily weighted egg. I've had fish come out of the deeper water and bust a renegade on top. Fish big enough to make your knees weak. Had one rise on a white humpy 2 weeks ago in all the current and high water that was huge. That area is second only to the riffles below the bridge for quality fish for me. PC

¿Dónde está Zach? ¿Suerte? How'd you do? PC

Thanks for the picture and the report. You had a great Crane trip! PC

I agree, those featherlights are a little heavy by today's standards. I owned the 6 1/2 foot model in the early '80s. Paid $15.00 for it back then and thought that was fortune. I used it to mess around with smallmouth and assorted bream in the upper/upper Niangua downstream from the MDC Charity access. Actually sold it at a garage sale with a codura covered rod tube for $35.00 several years ago. Fun little rod with great durability. PC

Jerry ... All I can say is wow! Too cold for me .. I am jealous. I hope that guy that took the dunk is OK. I had a major case of the BSSP C&R withdrawls this weekend. Looking at the long range forecast, next Saturday looks good. I'll be there ... whipping the water into a froth in Zone 2. PC (Mike)

Nice ... way to rub it in. PC

RC have a good time ... please post a report including water conditions ... thanks. It'll be cold early ... don't get your hands wet! Been tying scuds, zebra midges, soft hackles, eggs, and cracklebacks today (with a trip to Cabelas thrown in). The long range forecast has next weekend frigid too. Going to have to get out sometime. Might have to hit the river sometime during the week. PC

The launch arrived today .... nice. PC

It's a done deal ... decision's been made .... not going to BSSP this weekend. Too cold. I'm going to stay home and tie, clean out my vest, sort through the gear bag, and gonna make me a list of the stuff I think I gotta have. PC

The only day I can go this weekend is on Saturday. Might be too cold. The forecasted high is 25. That means it will be frigid in the morning. Keeping an eye on it. Looks like the forecast for the 20th and 21st is the high 30s ... that'll be perfect. PC

Just ordered the Launch .... I've been told it will ship today. PC

RC ... sorry to hear about your son. I hear ya on the problem child deal. My son hit a deer about a month ago and his SUV is still in the shop and I'm getting tired of him hanging around here. Yesterday, the spring was up and flat gettin' with it .... I expect it will settle down pretty quick. BTW the long range forecast for next weekend shows an arctic blast coming in. Might even be too cold for the Cat to fish. We'll see. Gotta capitalize on this while I can. I've got to go to India for a couple of weeks in February and will miss at least (2) weekends. Spending this afternoon watching football, cleaning out the vest, and re-organizing the gear bag. It's amazing how much stuff you find or forgot about! PC

Fished for 4 hours today. The spring branch is up, flowing fast, and off color. Zone 3 was unfishable. Fished Zone 2 .... fishing was good. Too much current to get a good drift in the middle of the stream so fished close to the bank and out of the current. Caught at least a couple dozen. Used peach and red egg patterns. Gotta give them something they can see. Fished with an indicator set at about 3 1/2 feet. Caught (1) rainbow that would push 4 lbs. Also caught (3) small browns today. Lots of small fish today. Crowds weren't too bad. Pretty cold at the siren but warmed up OK. PC

RC ... we could do that. Sometimes I fish the river at the Highway 64 access ... I wade out directly from the 2nd boat ramp and wade downstream. Sometimes it's pretty good and you can also get into some big smallmouth if you're into that. I've caught some giants stripping an olive bugger. I also wade upstream from the 1st boat ramp towards the park. I've taken browns up to 9 pounds in the stretch between the boat ramp and the park. Sometimes the Barclay access is good also. Do you fish RR or Montauk? I've got the itch real bad to get down and fish the RR C&R area. I expect the crowds will be big tomorrow. Probably start at Zone 3 .... we'll see how it goes. Looks like the weather is going to be good. PC

RC ... Sounds like you've got the ammo. You might want to stand in the middle of the spring branch and drop one of each of those patterns in the water and see which one they take downstream ... LOL. I'll start with the egg patterns and see how it goes. Those are hard to beat this time of year. My vest is weighted down with a ton of options. Looks like it might be a bit chilly on Saturday but that's what they make cold weather gear for. Anyway, I'm seriously considering starting in Zone 3 and then maybe doing some sight fishing for the big boys in the other zones. The midge hatches have been real frequent this C&R season. I might mess around with some dry midges also. It's also been awhile since I fished the river ... I might spend some time downstream from the second boat ramp at the Highway 64 access. Wow, too many options and not enough time. I'll post a report Saturday evening. PC

I don't think so .... I'm going down on Saturday ... I'll post a report with the water conditions. PC