ksbass

Glad we got to finally meet you in person Jerry. Maybe in August we can all get together and do some fishin, eatin and talkin. Good call on the weather. Hope we can get some decent rains and flush things out a bit. Get the tinge going again.

Hi Rich, Yep we make them as short as 3' and as long as 7'. We've made several for the bamboo guys using some lt cahill and tan thread. Olive will be no problem as well. How many? I'll make you a killer indicator version as well to try out. Been using one all week and really liking it. Give us a week or so since we are fishin not working this week. What other colors for the BH midges were working for you. Did better today with a black head black thread and silver wire. Troy

Hi Jerry, Look us up if you make it down. We are camping #439 thru wed. Silver Ford 150 crew cab KS plates N2FISHN. Been hot and cold past four days. A bit slower today. Nice size fish relative to past two years though. P&P doing well. So are olive leeches. Fishing mostly zone two. Troy

<If you see a snake don't mess with it simple as that.> What about when one falls off a low branch into your canoe with my son in front! Made for a quick canoe exit with no one harmed not even the snake. Very memorable for all involved parties. I had a large black rat snake (awesome mouse eating machines!) in the drive on Saturday. I got out and tried to herd him across the drive to avoid getting squished. He puffed up and got all mean looking. I backed off. Finally he moved across and climbed an elm tree only to get harassed by a pair of nesting mocking birds. I was late for a lake date but would have liked to seen how things ended.

Found a great YouTube video of Brian Wise tying up a double deceiver. Looks doable. Looks like a great saltwater pattern as well

My daughter has been enjoying her new camera. We tried some flys and poppers that I had been working on as subjects. Here's a B&W shot of a white bass popper. Pic makes this look huge. Troy

What's the fly pattern? Looks like something articulated? Nice fish for sure.

Hi Pat, It was for the opening weekend of C&R. Saw several campers there. Website says open yr round. No water hookups though. I'm hoping to hit BSSP another time yet this year as well. Another 50 degree day and I'll head that way. Small stuff was working probably still is. Looks like the Suzy hole and above has some Smallie action as well. Hope all is well and your mom recovers.

SB you might get your wish. I don't have one but googled "Luck E Strike Wart Hog" and had a ton of hits. Some youtube videos too with Rick Clunn. Here a quote from a site: "Luck E Strike is introducing a new, old bait called the Warthog. This little crank is made for early spring and clear water environments. The colors are mostly translucent with the bait in its prime on light line. The scuttlebutt is that this bait has been a well kept secret in the Ozark’s for some time. Now the word, and the bait, are out. Look for them soon at your favorite tackle shop." Rick Clunn talking about new old warthog Sounds like a original re-make to me. Nice close-ups in video. What colors would be good to have? Troy

Sweet! Nice one to start with. Was this early or at sunset?

Thanks for the tips. I saw the cave on the left bank but didn't realize I should head further in as I was in about a foot of water but too far to the right. I hope someone else can use your advice this time as I had 17 emails from work and needed to head back this evening. I'm on the tail end of a project and it was hopeful thinking I could get away for 2 days. Rats! I did do alot of scouting around the Prairie creek area with the side imager. Amazing amount of shad everywhere. Various sized schools, some rather deep. I also found several groups of larger fish between the no-wake bouys. The flats area on the east side of the closest island sure had a lot of shad and white bass. Also several ducks in the small cove on the east side. Line up a few more 50 degree days in a week or so and I'll be back! Thanks again, Troy

Thanks WC, I should have picked up a new one at Cabelas. I drove down for the day here on Beaver. I found the shad in the back of the coves in ~8' of water. Didn't catch many though. I think my old net just sinks to slowly. Also not used to the smart Ark shad in the clearer water. The chocolate colored KS water definitely gives you an advantage. Didn't pick up any stripers, had two boil right at the boat, but had a good time with the white bass on top water. Might try again tomorrow. Troy

I'm looking to buy a new cast net for the larger shad and wondered what size and material type would be best. I currently have a 3 1/2' nylon net. Thanks, Troy

Here's a shot from yesterday. Not the biggest but one of the most colorful. Not bad for a cell phone camera. Didn't realize the bh midge would show up so well. Anyone else go to Bennett?

A solo trip today. Nice day to be on the stream. Was breezy early but calmed down finally around 2pm. Several anglers in the zone 2 riffles early but cleared out around lunchtime. I fished from below the dam to the Suzy hole. Started off very slow for me but picked up once I found what worked. I had great luck with an olive beadhead midge fished under a palsa float. Nothing big at all. Mostly 12" stockers and a few colorful 14" fish. I did catch a cutbow. First ever at Bennett for me. Several midge and black caddis hatches this afternoon. The water is as clear as ever and the fish are eager for a fly. Overall a great day to be on the stream. I met the KC Chiefs crowd coming home in Clinton. Glad I chose to fish!

I'm planning on fishing the park on Sunday. Any get-togethers planned?

Here's a link Bennett Fishing Platform to the news article showing a picture of the planned platform. Here's the pic too... I think it's a great idea especially after having slipped and skinned up my wrist on whats there now. Might run this by the boss and see about contributing from Dad and Ems account.

We really need to coordinate these OA get togethers a little better. FFM, I too would have enjoyed putting a face to a name and knowing that I was fishing beside you. So cool you introduced another young gal to flyfishing. What a wonderful spot (for a trout park anyway) to experience your first trout on a fly. Let me know what weight rod she gets as Emma will want to send her a Pink Flamingo furled leader. Also glad you were finally able to get down to the park and enjoy the awesome weather. Nice break from the recent heatwave. Noluck spotted my orange OA hat and we got to talking. I will say Rich sure knows how to rip some lips with those magic midges he ties. His 10 to my 1 Friday evening really said that! Thanks Rich for showing me "the way"! A leader swap for a hot fly pattern and technique is a great deal anyday in my book. Seth will eventually come around to the way of the midge. Seth and I struggled to find a consistent pattern this trip. A beetle pattern on top then a cat hair soft hackle fished under an indicator worked for awhile Thursday up by the dam for me while Seth rotated between an olive leech, a marabou midge, an olive scud, etc picking up several the last hour. Friday was about the same. We were both somewhat disapointed there wasn't more consistent dry fly action. Seth usually does well on top. Sat and Sun I fished alot with the midges and finally started to get the knack of the midge drift picking up several in the seam right below the riffles on Sun. Overall a wonderful father/son camping trip and can't wait till the next one. I'm going to try to get back down on the 28th for the day if all goes well. Hope to see you Rich and hopefully other OA anglers then too.

You guys crap me up! I too noticed the mulberry hatch on our trees. Last year I tied some hooks on our mulberry tree and got some nice looking mulberry flies this year. We didn't have the big rains around Hillsdale this year and the flats never flooded into the weeds so left the mb trees high and dry. Need to hit the flats though and get after them in the canoe.

Way to go Jeff. Those goofy eyed carp look like a blast. That is one huge fish. We'll have to hook up in late April and hit the flats at Hillsdale. The commons are alot of fun too. Troy

Steve, Glad we ran into you. Nice meeting you. It sure was a beautiful day to be on the stream. No wind on Saturday and temps in the mid 50's made for some nice times. Dad enjoyed the trip and his second chance to fly fish. We landed several on a variety of patterns including SJW, marabou midges, griffiths gnat, zebra midges and a few on egg patterns. My dad is still recovering from his second knee replacement and didn't want to move alot. Each time I got a pool or two away from him he had a fish on and a big smile! He caught the biggest, a kyped jawed 16" rainbow. I caught the smallest a 6" bow with par markings. The stream is in perfect condition and has a touch of color after last weeks rain. There is a TON of fish in the stream above the C&R area to the hatchery. If one knows how to hook up on the fish riding high in the pool tail-outs, you'll have an awesome day. We made it home with only minutes to spare and caught the OU-OSU game. Dad's an Okie from Bowlegs! Thanks for the leader comments. Glad you were able to try out our leaders. Give the mono and thread leaders a try and see which you prefer. Troy

Hey guys glad to hear you all like our leaders. With RCguy's recent order, Emma has now saved up $100 which she plans to donate to the Friends of the Norfork Hatchery to help support the awesome improvements at Dry Run Creek. Thanks so much for your business and support! Troy and Em.

ffm, Are you using a mono fl? I have no firm data but the thread type should be easier on the rod tip. I fish almost all the time with a 7' 4wt and went to the 4' fl leader with 3' of tippet so 7' total length. Works well for me and my kids. When landing a fish I stop reeling when the leader butt hits the top guide, raise the rod and bring the fish to hand. I rarely if ever have to bring the loop in the tip top guide. Let me know if you think this would work for you. I'll send you one to try out. I could make you a 4 or 4 1\2' to try out. Thread or mono your choice. Troy

To clarify we make furled leaders with thread, mono, flouro, and spiderwire. Each has its own benefit and use. We make them in lengths of 3, 4, 5, 5 1/2, 6, and 7 ft in weights from 2-8 wts. We use the tiny 2mm and 3mm ss tippet rings as well as tiny brass swivels for our leaders. All of our leaders are pretreated to either sink or float based on purpose and material type. We can make the thread based leaders in just about any color combo you would want. We've found the hot pink and fl orange colors to be popular for indicator leaders. All of our leaders are made by myself and my 10 yr old daughter. Emma is earning money from the leader sales for her college fund, spending money and to donate to her favorite wildlife cause. She has already donated several hundred dollars to the WWF and adopted several animals. Right now she is planning to donate $100 to the Dry Run Creek stream restoration project. She has $76 in this account so is almost to her goal. Give us a try. We think you will be pleased and you will be helping a good cause. Thanks, Troy and Em

My son and i floated the niangua today and my ears were ringing. Now i know why. I'm on a 'smartphone' in the camper so will keep it short. Rcguy- take a look i a previous post on furled leaders. I put alot of info on what i think works fl wise. Fished Bennett couple hrs Sun evening, Monday and one hr rhis evening. Fish are smaller and fewer between. Did well up below dam on white marabou midge. Seven in one hr on it this evening. Using thread leader in Bennett tinge. Will fish in the am till noon then headed to norfork so Seth can fish drc for his birthday wish.