Randall

That's a good bass, I don't care who you are... especially on 2lb. Drum are fun too. We get into them hybrid fishing at the Truman dam and they just pull. I bet that little guy put up a pretty decent fight. Gotta love the Meramec, the upper river is pretty much where I grew up.

Nobody was knocking bait fishermen. I was just pointing out the fact that when you see somebody keep a big fish its generally a bait fisherman. I also pointed out the fact that keeping big fish is looked down on by most fly and many spin fishermen. Taxidermist did not seem to be knocking anybody either. He accurately pointed out that the people you see post on here are mostly fly and spin fishermen who use artificials. As far as offering advice on spin fishing with artificials, I don't think either of us were out of line. We both posted productive non-fly methods. As long as a person is within the law and exercises ethical fishing practices, i.e. not releasing fish that are hooked too deeply and will not survive, there is absolutely nothing wrong.

I saw a guy fishing sculpins once but I think he had to catch them himself. He also killed a 22" brown. I know its legal in some areas but its still looked down on. To tell you the truth, if you're spin fishing you'd probably be better off with jigs, spinners, or rapalas, just make sure you're within the law wherever you decide to fish.

I feel you on the trouble with getting a good hook set and keeping them on. It still takes concentration to remember to strip set. When its all said and done though, I'd rather fish a streamer than a nymph any day of the week. They're more fun to tie too.

Jeremy, I felt kinda bad calling at 9 on Friday but you found out I was coming down about 5 minutes after I did. I really didn't expect you to be free but I couldn't come down without giving you a shout. How was the White? I heard you and Billy had a group throwing streamers, anything big? I'm gonna make a trip down either toward the end of this month or during the beginning of August, depending on when my move-in date at the new apt is. I'll make sure to plan it out beforehand and give you some notice next time. Jdixon, not sure which boaters you were talking about. There was the guy with his girl in a jet boat that didn't know what he was trying to do and then there were the guys in the boat that put in and went upstream from the ramp then on down early on in the day. Neither really bothered me but I did see both being a little inconsiderate.

Well, I decided to make a Taney trip on Friday night around 9, left about 9:30 and waded in the water a little before 2. Needless to say, I was the only person on the water. I started out at outlet 2 stripping a black slumpbuster variant with decent success. I moved down to rebar still fishing the same pattern when i stuck a 19 inch brown that put up a solid fight. It was the biggest fish of the night, but my feelings definitely weren't hurt sticking 15"+ fish till dawn. At daylight there were only a few other people around so I fished outlet 2 for a half hour or so and caught four pretty average fish before people started showing up. After that I randomly met a few other guys down there doing the same unplanned thing and we all just kinda hung out and fished for most of the weekend. We went down to the boat ramp and cleaned up for the rest of the day with streamers. It started out foggy, then it got rainy, then it got hot. At about 3 they turned on two units so we bagged it for the day and relaxed up at outlet 2, enjoyed a few cold beverages and watched the guys still fishing. Earlier that morning, in the heavy fog, a couple people put boats in the water, but one guy was bowfishing. He was actually in the middle of the fishermen just upstream of the boat ramp and probably 30 yards downstream from me when I watched him loose an arrow. We saw a game warden later that night and told him about it but at that point there's nothing he can do. Sunday started out a little on the dangerous side with the lightning so it wasn't until a little before 8 that we started fishing. Again, stripped streamers from the boat ramp area this time down to point royale with great results. It was kinda fun doing the whole iron man/trout bum weekend. I slept a total of 5 hours between Friday morning and Sunday night, but it was an absolute ball. One thing I noticed was the fish I caught this weekend looked a lot healthier and fought a lot harder than I've ever seen. It really surprised me. Granted I was fishing streamers but they were all really thick, aggressive, and engergetic.

A barbed Easton Arrow fly with like 18/0 X braided nylon tippet should do the trick i think.

So I guess that means its time to bring the old hoyt down to Taney...

I don't think full waders will sink a person, but I do agree that he probably had some warm water in there with the cold when it was all said and done.

Leonard is absolutely right. I know a few people that tried flyfishing but gave it up after a time or two because it was "too hard". Hiring a guide for your first few times can drastically shorten the learning curve and make the experience much more fun. There are a host of guides on this forum that cover about every piece of water in the Ozarks. For a beginner, you can't really go wrong fishing Taney or the White with a guide, especially if they're running water. If nothing else, you can go to a fly shop and pick their brains a little but its not quite the same.

Those beads look pretty consistent regarding size, what are they called and what craft store? I picked some up at a Michaels but they are of really poor quality. The jig skirt idea for legs is pretty good, but does it save money over buying legs at a fly shop? Bugs look great... bet they'd catch a fisherman and probly a few fish too.

In my somewhat limited experience nightfishing for trout, I've noticed that when I hit the water with the headlamp I stop getting as many strikes. The idea is definitely logical, give it a shot... at worst you have a slow night fishing.

It really is a neat river. It made me a bit nervous in a few spots and I had to back out and not go any farther so I'd like to get to know it a little better in that respect at least. I tried shortening the dropper but it didn't seem to help, took it from 16ish" down to closer to 10. It may well have been a fluke day in that regard... I don't know. The main reason I was going to get rid of it is that I caught almost everything on the lead fly, so the dropper was really more of a hindrance. Truth be told, I never really use droppers (mostly because I quit using them before my cast was worth anything). I've only used them on Taney and now on the North Fork. If I go back and don't have as good success it may go right back on though.

That looks great man. Do you do replicas by any chance?

I'll attest to those fish fighting hard... i was definitely surprised. The bows were super acrobatic too. I kind of expected that though. It was kinda hard to get used to throwing nymphs that big... but they worked really well. I am kinda thinking about not throwing the dropper again though because I only caught a few fish on it and it got hung in the weeds a lot plus I foul hooked about a half-dozen or so. Did I just have kind of a wierd day catching all but 2 of the fish on the lead fly? I know when I used to fish tandems on Taney I caught the majority on the dropper. I was using a 12 Prince so i don't think I really needed to go bigger, especially with the 8 stone in front.

Wow that's a lot of water. I have to say catching wild rainbows in current like that is retardedly fun. I've wanted to fish here for about the last year but never was able, so it was kinda cool finally getting to fish it. The day started with light rain but cleared up pretty quickly at daybreak. I started at the Blair Bridge access before dawn fishing streamers. I didn't know the river so i was real careful and shy about getting in the water so I really didn't have much of a chance. When it got light I started fishing a rubberleg stonefly with a prince dropper and got into some hard-fighting rainbows almost immediately. I fished through the s-bend downstream of the access, catching fish for most of the way, including a smallmouth on the prince. I didn't catch anything bigger than 15-16" but it I know bigger fish have to be there. By about 10:30 it slowed down a fair bit so I bagged it and went to River of Life to check out their operation and get some water. When I walked in there were a bunch of guys in there getting set up to camp and one guy looked over and called me by name. Turns out we grew up together and hadn't seen each other in about 11 years. He was there with Wounded Warriors, apparently he had been injured in the desert and he and maybe a half-dozen others were there camping and spent monday learning to flyfish. It was about as random as it gets, but it was pretty neat. The lady in the office asked if I wanted to come out but I had to work so I couldn't. I went to Kelly's Ford after that and got blanked except for another smallmouth, this time on the stonefly. I spent about an hour there and decided to call it a day. I'm thinking the canoe traffic kinda turned the fish off as it got thicker. That coupled with the bright sunny sky definitely made the fishing a little more difficult. I'd definitely like to make it back during the week sometime, but I don't think I'll be strictly wading it again.

If you can talk somebody into it, I had a guy who knew what he was doing show me how to wrap and finish. There are a bunch of little tricks that are best left to hands-on teaching. You're best bet is to buy a kit like they have at Cabelas and follow the instructions as you do it. It has all the stuff you need and they're reasonably priced. One more thing, if you're patient, wrap, undo and re-wrap the top guide a few times to get used to it. Its the hardest guide to wrap because the rod is so skinny but once you get that one down, it only gets easier. When you finish, make sure you have a motor that turns at around 6 rpm + or - a few. I can't tell you how much quicker and easier it is to have a finishing motor.

Are you talking about casting it out and letting it sit on the bottom? Not sure how well that would work, but it would be legal.

For the absolute best results, I like a big rusty treble hook with huge chunk of trout guts which you can get plenty of in the park.

I agree 100 percent that a legal "fly" attached to a crankbait would be a legal fly. I still think that a bare hook would qualify as well because the definition states that it should be tied glued or otherwise permanently attached. The meaning of "or otherwise permanently attached" is that you don't necessarily have to tie or glue the material to the hook. The part about the fly being constructed on the hook could be interpreted more than one way. The plainer meaning that most people would think of is that the hook is the centerpoint of the fly, the part to which everything is attached. You could argue, however, that attachment to the hook is the meaning of "constructed on". Under that definition you could say that by permanently attaching a crankbait to a single hook, the "fly" is constructed on that hook. Now, who wants to throw a crankbait with a single hook point? I guess I should say that I have no problem with spin fishermen in the fly-only areas when they are fishing in a similar manner as you would with a flyrod i.e. drift, steady retrieve, or jigging. In that sense, the only real difference is method of casting.

So where exactly in the CSR does it mention a roostertail with a single hook being a fly because I can't find it. The point I was making is that the definition of a fly in Missouri is so loosely defined that legitimate flyfishing is not an essential part of legal flyfishing in this state. Cadillac, There is no right or wrong answer to the question I posted. Any answer has a 50/50 shot at being right or wrong.

Back to the crankbait thing... what is the definition of permanently attached? A single hook on a crankbait is not tied or glued, the same as a single hook roostertail. You can dis and reassemble a roostertail simlply by untwisting the wire. You can change the lead bodies, hooks, and blades without permanently damaging the lure. So if that hook is considered permanently attached then I would say that a hook attached by a split ring is also permanently attached. Furthermore, the roostertail is not constructed on the hook any more than a crankbait is yet it is legally a fly.

I'm really more worried about cosmetics. I hate to have a goofy looking tip and when somebody asks I'm less than proud to say its one I built. As far as the warranty, its a Cabelas blank and they already told me there is no way I can get a new tip or even trade it in.

Without doing any research, I'd say that wading in the fly area and casting in the bait area would be legal up until you got the fish into the fly only area. This really could go on for a while, but suffice it to say that a person fishing bait in the bait area while standing in the fly area is probably going to be okay. As far as what you can use to be considered a "fly", pretty much anything with one hook point that is not natural, scented, or soft plastic is legal. If you wanted to fish a rapala with the trebles removed and a single hook put on it, you could.

I posted a picture of a brown that had been hit by a heron on the Current river thread. There's a pretty big difference between that and a gig wound.