jefly77

Today I fished Crane again. I got humbled a little. I did manage to catch 4 and lost two nice 14-15" fish that both jumped out of the water like they were on fire and shook my lure out. I managed to take a pic of this 9-10" fish before releasing him. Jefly77

No problem, you must be one of the tree stumps I was talking about!! As soon as they start lowering the releases I'll be down there fish all over the first couple of miles. I like moving around a lot, not just standing in one place barely moving my line.

I'm starting to realize how lucky I was to have caught that bruiser. Hopefully I can pull another one out of Crane next week. It was a beautiful fish. One thing I noticed about the trout there was that even the 12" fish still had what appeared to be par marks on them. Is that a McCloud characteristic? Jfly

I thought real hard about keeping that fish so I could get a picture of it. I left my phone(camera) in my car. I just couldn't do it. I lifted the fish out of the water and held it for a few seconds and decided it was too pretty to keep, plus a fish of that size is a good breeding fish for the creek. Next time I plan on having my camera with me so I can document the beautiful McClouds I catch there. I didn't catch any really small fish , my smallest was about 11" or so. I think the fact that I use spinners and lures in the 1/16 oz - 1/4 oz range has something to do with it. Jefly

Expect there to be a crowd around the first two outlets. The high water limits the fishing to just a couple of spots right by the outlets. I have been there twice in the past week and it kind of sucks because the outlets get hammered and some guys stand right next to the outlets and barely move their lines. Back and forth, back and forth . . . boring fishing if you ask me. Until the water level drops, I'm avoiding Taneycomo and the tree stump flyfishermen who crowd it. Jefly

I hear you. I always read the regulations before I fish a new place. Do you usually fish from the city park upstream or from either of the access points along the Old Wire Road? I started at the farthest upstream access yesterday and fished down and then back up. It is very jungle-like along the creek right now. I had to pretty much fish and wade from the creekbed. Is the creekside a little less overgrown near the city? I like the jungle conditions, it keeps a lot of the less adventurous and lazy fishermen from mobbing the creek. Jefly

I've got the Missouri fishing regs right in front of me and it says Crane is an artificial LURES and flies blue ribbon trout stream. It doesn't say anything about single hooks or flies only, so before you preach the regulations to me, make sure YOU know what the correct regulations are. I used hard lures like rapalas, rebels, and roostertails and I smash the barbs down on all my lures. I read the regulations before I went and I followed them. I also made sure of the definition that MCD applies to artificial lures. So you are wrong , rebels, rapalas, spoons, in-line spinners, and non-plastic lures are legal on Crane. Jefly

I just moved to the area and fished Crane for the first time today. What a pretty little creek!! The recent flooding has left downed trees and junk at just about every turn of the creek. I fished downstream from the bridge and caught around 8 fish in three hours from 5-8. Most were about 12-14 inches, but I did catch one really nice fish in the 20-22" range. I was fishing a little white roostertail and the big Bow just smashed it. I was pleasantly surprised by the fight and size of the fish. White, yellow, and light blue in-line spinners worked well. I also caught a couple on a rebel crawdad and a small silver countdown rapala. Those McCloud rainbows seem to fight a little harder than hatchery fish. It was a great first trip and I plan to return real soon. It's more fun to fish Crane right now than Taneycomo. I hate standing in one spot by the outlets without being able to "stalk the water" like I did today at Crane. What a jewel of a little creek. Next time I'm going to try farther down by the access near the railroad bridge. Any tips and or words of wisdom are welcome. Jefly