laker67

RR always fishes good. If you are looking for a big fish, winter time will seldom dissapoint you.

It is quite the experience that every missouri trout angler should endure at least once in his lifetime. Most people that you will encounter, will have the streamside manners of a grizzly bear. For some it is a tradition handed down from father to son. It may be the only day during the year that they trout fish. It will be quite entertaining to say the least. Use the same lures that you always use. The only exception is a black and yellow maribo jig. New fish love black and yellow. Good luck and be sure to report back.

Hook removal from body parts is a whole lot simpler with barbless. Twice, in as many years, I have had to rip and tear flesh from the palm of my hand to remove a size 10 2487. Also much quicker from fish when fishing places such as RR where you are restricted to the bank and reaching a fish is sometimes awkward at best. Barbless or barb bent over is the way to go.

It is really hard to pin point a "single" trip outweighing another during the 2011 season. I had so many good trips with big fish caught. It has been my best season for big numbers and big fish since 2005. Seventy lunkers caught in 2011 with 3 of those over 10lb. Reading the replies above, it appears that alot of good fish were caught, and alot of great times were had. Congrats to all.

Well Drew, one of the best tips I can offer, for you or anyone, is to spend countless hours fishing for little fish that are highly viisible in the water. Pick out individual fish and learn how to catch that one fish before moving to the next fish. Learn what every move or reaction they make might mean in terms of liking or rejecting your presentation. Watch your fly in the water and watch the fish at the same time. After a while , the fish will tell you about your fly, even when you can no longer see it. Learn to sight fish to individual small fish and you will know what you need to do when the lunker presents itself in a fishable location. Finding, approaching, fighting and landing a big fish, are more skills that you will have to learn as you go. In 1975 I witnessed a gentleman land his 100th lunker trout. at bssp. His name was Jack Bushacker. After witnessing that feat, I decided right then and there, that I was going to learn how to catch a lunker, and I set a goal to catch 100 lunkers in the next 10 years..

Hey there Duane and Brother Dave, time to chase some trout guys.Hope to see you both on the creek soon.

Well done OTF, a good solid basic concept for winter in the parks. Following this advice will give the first timers a heads up on flies to bring and good idea how to present them.

Great photo Chief. After working tues thru today in 9 to 38 temps, I am really ready for that warmer weather.

We are so used to seeing you post a fishing report that, like myself, most of us take it for granted. Its kind of what you do. Just wanted to say thanks because they are appreciated. Crappie were off here at loz today as well.

Thank you Mitch. I like to use the tan sowbug as a tracer bullet on a hard drift. It's easier to see than grey, and allows you to fine tune your drift if you have to change flies. It's a good winter color and like yesterday, it was working. The error that I made was allowing my 15 foot leader to wrap around the rod tip. While the fish was doing the head shakes, I was trying to free up the line. Didn't succeed and the fish broke off with no problems. On an average I land one out of three hookups, so I was ahead of the game by the end of the day. I fooled 3 good fish and that's the part I like best.

You;re right Gavin, finding the fish, working into position, and anticipating the strike is like buck fever.

Are you sure that your duck calling doesn't sound more like a wounded rabbit?

I tied my fly line to a tree branch and used it as a trotline in the current. I hope 5 flies is legal.

As I know you will Duane. A guy will have to get out early to find a dumb one, before you have time to work them over.

Yep Fc is correct. Years back in the trout parks, a fish was deemed a lunker when it reached a weight of 3lb. "Metal" lunker buttons were awarded up until about 1980, after then you got a patch. The old Fall Creek boat dock used to hand out metal buttons as well. I would suppose that Phil, and a few others would remember that. The parks also have a " I released a lunker" patch for 18 inch fish. An 18 inch fish is hard pressed to make 3lb. Thanks for comment Buzz.

Headed out to one of the local parks today for a chance to hook up with my first lunker of the 2012 season. Left the powerbait and the trebles at home and did quite well without them. Didn't run into any clowns, didn't pound any outlets, and didn't snag a single fish. Started off by losing the biggest fish of the day due to operator error. A real nice 11 to 12lb rainbow, not a good start to 2012. But hey, fooling a big fish is the part of the game that I like the best. The battle and the release is just an added bonus. I did manage to redeem myself later in the morning with a picture perfect hookup, battle, and release on 2 more, a 6 and 8 lber. A good ending for the day in my book. Found about 2 handfuls of lunkers, but these 3 were all I could fool. Ended the 2011 season with 70 lunkers, I am in hopes that 2012 will be just as good. All the fish today were fooled on a tan sowbug, size 14.

Things sink quickly in a lake because you are dealing with very little current in most situations. A sink tip would be hard to use fishing from shore, deep to shallow, but would be beneficial from the yak. I fish unweighted woolys 8 to 10 feet deep on a floating line. This requires a long leader, with the sink tip you would go short, maybe 2 feet or so.

Man you got alot of stored anger there WF. Sounds like you need to get out and kill a few trout and chuck a little powerbait.

I respect his decision to do what he did. For all we know, he may have included those fish in his daily limit.

I'm sorry tc and wf, but some of you guys are way to hung up on what to do, or not to do after a fish is caught.

Parks like rr and montauk always release fair to good numbers of large fish for the catch and release season. Bssp and meremac, not so much, you will normally just find hold over fish at these 2 parks. This is a way for mdc to get rid of their unproductive brood stock and allow us "park rats" to have some fun. I have no doubt that you will top your old record, it is good to set goals for yourself. I have done that very thing for years.

What I am asking, is this a no creel stretch of river that does not allow you to remove the fish from the water, or a strictly enforced length limit which would require a short fish to be returned to the water immediately, or someone just pitching a fit because they sport a c and r bumper sticker that was furnished by the local fly shop.

Yeah, what Thom said. Thanks Phil.

Pardon me for missing the point here. Is there something illegal as to what he has done?