Ted Calcaterra

The water was in great shape. I'd definitely go if you have the channce. Not sure how the dry fly fishing will be. It seems like its here one day and gone the next. Don't make the same mistake I did. Put the dry fly box in your pocket. I had to walk back to the car for it.....but worth it.

In my experience I have found that I completely switch my flies when fishing the park and fishing the river. In the park I use the small stuff in #16 through #24. I start in the beginning of catch and realease season with the #16 and #18s and find myself getting smaller as the catch and release season goes on and the fish see more pressure. In the river it is the exact opposite. I have most of my success fishing larger flies such as a #10 fox squirell nymph, mohair leech, etc. Many times I put a smaller dropper on and most fish come on the bigger fly. I have a small 25hp jet boat so I put in at Scotts Ford and can fish all the good spots up to the park. Their is good fishing to be had through out the red ribbon stretch but your right that its a tough river. One day you swear its awesome and your coming back every weekend. The next weekend could be skunk city. That's fishing I guess.

then you missed a great caddis hatch. With the sun shinning on a cold winter day, the caddis were popping off the water like mad. For a moment I closed my eyes and thought I was fishing the Mothers Day caddis out West. All one needed was a #16 tan elk hair caddis and a nice long 6x tippet. It was one of those days that don't come around very often in Missouri. I started the day fishing articulated dungeons looking for a good brown but never had any lookers. I was determined to fish streamers because I brought my Nikon D90 and wanted to get some good pics with a streamer hanging out a browns mouth. All morning I was watching fish rise and didn't have my dry fly box. So around 11am I high tailed it back to the car and rigged the 4wt up after eating a giant lunker burger of course. Caught small to medium sized rainbows all afternoon in the trout park on top. What a great way to spend a Sunday.

Ted here

If you were going to Alaska, I would definitely have them in my box. I hear they are less effective when the rainbows are on eggs. I must me hard to get them to look up with all that food floating by.

Has anyone had success using a mouse pattern on our Ozark streams or tailwaters? They were all over it in Alaska but I am anxious to try it on our home waters. All you need is one to make your evening.

I returned last week from Naknek River Camp. The scenery and fishing was great. Saw well over a hundred bears and numerous eagles, wolves, and other wildlife. Most of the bears were concentrated in Brooks at Katami National Park. The rangers estimated over 70 bears per mile below the falls. The reason I don't have many pictures of big rainbows is because the bears would get all excited if we held the fish out of water too long for a quick picture. I had to break off more big rainbows than I care to admit. Probably didn't half too but a rookie like me would get weak in the knees. The way to describe it would be fishing the brood stock pool at Meramec springs and it being guarded by bears. What an awesome experience. Their is a reason why Brooks is world famous. Caught grayling in Idavain Creek. Nailed them on any big bushy dry fly including mice. They are a beautiful fish and if flyfishers could design a fish to pursue, many traits of the grayling would be included. They rise easily to dry flies. Caught the tail end of the sockeye run. These fish were fresh out of the ocean and are unbelievable fighters. An eight pound fish would consistanly take us into our backing and I had many breakoffs on 2X tippet. Fishing moving fish is better than holding fish because you get more fair hookups. You do accidently full hook a few of these brutes. Ended up bring home about 22 pounds of sockeye for the freezer. All you really need to catch these fish are wolly buggers and teeny nymphs. I learned you don't have to over complicated things. King fished really only one day. Caught a 30lb fished on about my fifth cast in Big Creek. My first fish for my new 10wt Sage Xi2. Not too shabby. Proceed to catch other smaller kings and my partner Brian caught and released a 30lb fish as well. He actually hooked about a 45lb fish later in the week on this 8wt but couldn't turn it. Powerful fish. Finally the rainbows. The Naknek was voted one of Alaska's best rainbow fisheries. This river is big water. The fish were on smolts and spread out. They were hard to catch with a fly rod but we did catch some. You would see them busting the surface like white bass. Spin fisherman would have better luck because they can cast farther and quicker. In about 2 weeks when they are concentrated below sockeyes, I think they would be easier to target on this river. The next time I go back will be later on in the year when the rainbows are on eggs. In the creeks and tributaries that feed the Naknek, I threw mice. If you ever saw a +20" fish choke a mouse down, you know what I mean. Unbelivably cool. I am willing to put some hard time on our home waters to see if I can't get this to work. In summary, Alaska is big, wild, and awesome. I would say it is North America's answer to Africa. I recommend Naknek River Camp to anyone. It allows people to experience Alaska and not break the bank. Our hosts were very nice and helpful. The accomodations were everything you would expect from a fish camp. A clean, nice warm place to sleep and store your gear. The food was good and plentiful. I never went hungry the whole trip and people who know me, know I like to eat. If you are passionate about flyfishing, spend a week at Naknek River Camp. I will be back soon.

John - please send me a private email to tcalca@hotmail.com with your number. I would like to call you if that is ok.

What about what shoes to bring? Low cut hiking boots. Will these work?

I fished last Saturday from Scotts Ford to Indian Springs. Caught some nice fish on sculpins and crayfish on a sink tip line. You should be able to get by with a floating line as long as the flies are weighted. Concentrate on where there are rocks and eddies. That is where I seem to catch the most fish. Just my 2 cents. Good Luck.

Thanks for the info. I did buy a bug suit and plenty of deet. Hope its not like hummingbirds swarming ones face. I am tying a smolt pattern like a double bunny. White on the bottom and barred olive strip on top. I then put a big gold eye and epoxy'd the head. I think that should pass. Do you have a good pattern?? My dad will do some spin fishing. Any recommendations on tackle there? We bought some mepps spinners, rooster tails, and floating rapalas to look like smelt. How many wolly buggers would you bring. I am worried I don't have enough?

I leave Friday the 13th for Naknek River Camp. What have been the hot flies for this time of year? I have been tying like a mad man trying to cover all the bases. Will the rainbows be on eggs yet?

Welcome back Sam. It has been quite some time since you've last posted. I fished the upper Current on Sunday. Put in at Tan Vat and fished downstream. With the weather being so nice, it was super crowed. Seemed like fisherman around every bend. Started out throwing a small sculpin in the morning with no strikes. Switch over to a #14 elk hair caddis with a pupa dropper. With all the tan caddis hatching, I thought for sure I would get into fish. I was wrong. Only saw a few rises all day. Mid morning switched over to a 2 nymph rig. Proceeded to catch 8 fish in the faster deeper water. Most hit the prince dropper. I agree with you that being outdoors on the Current is worth the price of admission regardles of the fish caught.

The river has been tough lately. It was hot this summer but has seemed to really cool off. Fish are tough to come by. I would love to hear from people who are having success and see what they are doing???

Gavin / Sam - How do you tie your caddis. I hear many people using a CDC caddis for the smaller sizes. Do you just dub a sparse body and then put CDC on the wing? Is it that simple or do you put in a wire rub and maybe a few turns of hackle? Some of my best caddis days were on sunny days during the winter.

Do you have some good smelt patterns to start tying or know where I can find patterns? What size tippet would you fish them on? I plan on rainbow fishing with my 6wt.

I am fishing the Naknek River in Mid July. I was wondering if it was too early for egg patterns on rainbows?

I finally pulled the trigger and have my Alaskan trip booked. I don't get out to fish with my father much so this should be the trip of a lifetime! As many of you know on this board, preparing for a trip like this is almost half the fun. I will be spending many a winter nights tying flies and reading books in preparation of the trip. I plan to ask alot of questions and advice so please be patient and prepared. We are going in mid July. What types of flies should I start tying for sockeye, kings, and rainbows? I plan on being over prepared in that department.

I would recommend a place called Deerhorn Lodge. This place was great. The fishing was excellent for Northern, walleye, and lakers. You have a real shot every day of landing a northern over 42" on a fly. We caught too many to count in the 35" range. Accomadation were adequate. Nothing fancy. Food was good and the staff was awesome. My dad and I are going to Alaska this summer otherwise we would go back this year. It is a good deal especially for a fly in lake. You are way up there. About 300 miles north of Winnipeg. Check out the website. Ted http://www.deerhorn-lodge.com/index.php

Al-I am thinking about getting a 16ft Blazer with a 40hp jet. Do you think you could use it on the White or Norfork during generation? Would you get many funny looks.

It has been a few years since many of our trout streams were given blue, red, or white ribbon status. The upper Current river has always been a fantastic trout fishery. How much has the blue ribbon status made an impact on this river? Do you think it is better with more and quality fish? I was reflecting on this while fishing this past weekend. I think the Current has improved while other fisheries, such as the Meremac, have remained the same. It would be interesting to see how others comment???

Got to the river around 8:30 Sunday morning and suprisingly had it almost to myself. I only saw and talked with one other fisherman. The fall colors appeared to be in peak season and the weather was great. I started the day throwing some deer hair sculpin patterns that a good friend taught me how to tye. I wanted to do some experimenting and try and catch a larger fish. I thought with the recent rains, the river might be up a bit with some color. Perfect for throwing streamers. However, the river appeared close to normal for this time of year. I caught one small brown on the streamer. I then noticed how many big browns I saw in skinny water exibiting spawning behavior. I counted 5 fish well over 20" and many in the 17-20" slot. Switched over to a small peach colored egg pattern and did very well. I couldn't get those big boys in the skinny water to take the fly but did catch some brusiers in the deeper riffles and runs. I think those fish had other things on their mind other than eating and I wasn't going to harrass them for to long. The fish I caught were very healthy and colorful. I only fish egg paterns in the fall when trying to match the hatch. For whatever reason, they worked well.

Catman - I fished below TanVat this Sunday and had turkeys fly over me while fishing. And yes egg patterns were on!! I can do one better. I was driving back to St. Louis and had two buffalo cross west bound 44 jump the median and then cross east bound 44. This happened about 100 yards in front of me while doing 75mph. Talk about crazy!

Where are all the posts about big browns in upper Taneycomo? It should be about that time. Am I just missing it somewhere on this board? I am waiting to hear reports of the second outlet looking like Bennet on opening day.

It has been awhile since I have fished the upper Meramec river. I have spent the last few months exploring smallmouth waters close to my home and haven't made it out much for trout fishing other than the famous tailwaters in the White River system. I have been told by friends that it has been fishing well the past few months so I decided to give it a try. I arrived around 7am accessing the water from cardiac hill and fishing upstream. For the first 2 hours I threw all the old favorites including the wolly bugger, mohair leech, soft hackle, etc. It wasn't until I had a trout hit my small white indicator that I decided to try something on top. I figured it was mid August and about time to fish hoppers. I am sure glad that I tried them. I proceeded to catch about a dozen trout over the next 3 hours before calling it quits around noon. That seems to be when the canoe hatch starts to make its way down. I would definitley recommend throwing some hoppers in your fly box before heading down to the upper Meramec anytime now until the end of September. I also want to stress that I had a long leader (10ft) with 6x tippet. The water is low and clear. In summary, I thought I was going to have to work long and hard for just a few fish. It turned out the bite was on and hoppers were the ticket.