jdmidwest

I have always found that when one is too big for the net it is too big for the frying pan also. Saves on taxidermy fees too. Catch and Release on streams, trout taste like fish, yuk! Don't touch the fish either they give you cooties. Use barbless hooks and let them go!

It looks like a nice Kentucky by the spots. Where is the Sugar or the Elk River at?

I actually had the opposite happen this weekend at Montauk. I was fishing a good hole with one other guy above me and doing very well. A family of 4 cheese baiters waded in below me and started slinging. The youngest was closest to me and kept getting closer. Mom saw what he was doing and told him to quit crowding me. Wow, usually they use the little guys to clear out a hole. I tend to let the little guys have a free run of the place and he was not bothering me at all. I was just fishing for fun and had taught most of the fish in the hole a lesson already. The guy on my upper side however had cast his worm over my fly line several times and has horned in my way since I had moved in. It was good to see some stream ethics being taught to the younger generation. By the way, a .357 gives better penetration, just don't hit the motor or they will never leave.

Thats a good idea Terry, some of the responses have shown a stigma regarding dry flies in the White River area. I was not starting this post to pick on any one area of the state or a fishery. Most of my trout fishing occurs in the Upper Current, Montauk, Bennett Springs, Eleven Point, and of course Spring River. The latter 2 are slim pickens for dry fly action, but trout will feed during a hatch there. Hoppers, beetles, and ants produce well during the summer months any where in Mo. or Ark.

Those would be caddis larva and I have a post in fly tying for a latex caddis nymph called the Trojanator. A pretty good imitation for a good source of trout food. That shows that stream has a healthy caddis population like alot of OZark Streams. An assortment of caddis flies should be in the box next time.

My first lessons on fly fishing in Missouri came from books that were available to me at the time. My instructors were Ed Story, Helen Shaw, Chuck Tryon, Lee Wulff, Dave Whitlock, Dick Stewart, and Paul Jorgensen to name a few. I started fly fishing and tying without a mentor, just books. I used all of the techniques to catch fish, dry flies, wet flies, nymphs, and streamers. The only scuds I tied at the time was an orange shrimp pattern that still resides in my fly box today. The best books at the time was Chuck Tryon's "Fly Fishing for Trout in Missouri" and a softback publication by Ed Story of Feather-Craft called "Missouri Trout Flys, How to Tye and Fish Them". Ed's book contains hand drawings of the patterns and how to tye them. It has the original crackleback pattern in it. Chucks book has a wonderful hatch chart and a section on the streamside entymology of the insects of our streams. Modern fly fishers have so much more to offer now, Guides, internet, flyshops, Dvd's, TV programs, and alot more fellow fly fishers then when I started. Some trout streams are a little different, Eleven Point and Spring River. I have seen great hatches but no rises. If you look at the stomach contents of 11 pt. trout you will probably see minnows or crayfish. If you look at Spring River trout you will find snails and moss. But, this still goes back to one of the fundamentals of fly fishing, observe and match the hatch(food source). Taney is different as it is really a lake not a stream below the tailwater except in low water times, so its hatches are probably dispersed over a wider area. And midges have to have an adult part of the life cycle, so who uses Griffiths Gnats anymore? How many people walk up to a stream, reach down, and pick up a few rocks before they fish?

3 1/2 hours one way to any trout waters and I did it yesterday as a day trip. 4-5 hours to any White River location for trout for me. 6 hours to Sauger at Pickwick. 20 minutes to 2 hours for most local smallmouth trips. Alot of miles and this darn gas is going up again. When are we going to conquer an Arab country so we can have a free tapper of oil?

A topic of discussion yesterday on the long drive to the fishing waters was about dry flies. My younger fishing partner for the day was asking about the fixations everyone has on midges and nymphs lately on forums and in print, and there has been no talk of dry flies. I have been doing some tying sessions lately and have been teaching him to tye some dry fly patterns. He was trying to justify spending an chunk of change on some genetic hackles. My response, while tout feed for the most part subsurface, my best trout and my best experiences have been while trout are actively feeding on insects lighting or floating on the surface of the water. I have noticed that alot of fly fisherman lately ignore this while fishing and will continue to fish subsurface even if the trout are actively rising to the top and sipping insects. Dry fly fishing is a very important part of the fly fishing experience but it seems to have gone to the wayside along with classic wet flies. My best fish on the Norfork tail water was a 29" brown on a size 18 RS2 Pale Morning Dun. When I fished the Taneycomo tail water this fall, nobody was doing much subsurface, so I switched to an attractor dry fly and started catching fish like crazy. I am sure that there were several size 12 Royal Coachmans sold that day at the local flyshops. Yesterday, I watched a trout rise to a snowflake, proving the point that trout are always keeping a watchful eye to the top for food. It is instinct for them and most have had there food in floating pellet form for most of their lives. My questions are, why don't I see more people dry fly fishing? Is it too technical for most fly fisherman? Is it too expensive to tye dry flies? Too many steps or techniques in tying dry flies? Is the whole thing about entymology and life cycles and hatch charts too confusing? I am going to sit back and enjoy the discussion on this one. I am curious to see the responses.

Fished upper Current River and Montauk on Saturday. Had a pretty good snow flurry that morning as we fished below Baptist access. The ground was white for a while and we had to stop fishing for about 20 minutes and lean against a tree it was coming down so hard. River was in excellent shape and we had it to ourselves during the morning. Caught a few fish, nothing to brag about. Left out at 10 and drove back to the park as the herd from the park started migrating down river. Bought a tag and fished the park in the afternoon. Caught 30 to 40 fish with the best around 4 lbs. I bought tag 3475 so the crowds have been low for an opener. Even a few campsites in the park when we left out.

Don't forget the upper and lower parts of the Eleven Point river for prime smallies.

I don't know about a trap, but I know several people that like to hunt them. The MDC wants them dead any way you do it. They have been causing problems in many locations.

You can't go wrong with Canon, we use the 20D in our action sports shoots with a high speed Ultra sonic zoom lens. We can take 5 pics of a hardball as it goes into bat with high detail. Canon has been the leader in digital SLR. Pentax and Sony are great too. Minolta was doing good and they dropped the ball, they sold out to Sony. As far as software, Photoshop Elements will give you more editing for the money than you will ever need and will save you some bucks too.

Patricks, with gas you must sit and watch the grill while it cooks your food. It gives ample time to savor some cold brews and relax. Although, I never could figure out what the higher burner settings were for other than to burn off the last time you used it. I always cook on low unless blackening something. Gas is better in winter because of the extra heat. I always use some wood chips for flavor.

They should perform well with limited use on those rivers. I bought one several years back at Wally world for $25 on clearance. It has been on several floats and duck hunts. It served the purpose of a lightweight boat that could be packed in or an extra backup boat on a float trip. Still, I used extra caution with hooks and always watched out for beaver sticks. Same thing goes with inflatables of any type, I only floated with them when I had a backup boat that I could crawl into in case of trouble or deflation. You would be better off with a rigid plastic kayak, spend a little more money and get something more durable for all around use.

If the state of Missouri stocks your pond according to their policies, the fish are still state property and subject to state limits of the species. You control access to the pond and the public has no rights to them. This prevents state fish from being used in a commercial application. Here is a link to the MDC website. http://www.mdc.mo.gov/fish/improve.htm

Don't forget the Longears either, better known as redbellies. I have been targeting them on my favorite smallie streams for years. They eat tons of bass eggs. Normally its a wash, the bass eat them too. Just too many people fish the small streams around here and keep the smallies as soon as they get to 12" so there are less predators to keep the redears in check. A brown San Juan worm dropped on a Redear bed gets them every time.

I pay $52 for a out of state fishing license in Ark when an instate license cost about $18 with equal or better fishing. Alot of people pay for the privilege of doing something other than what they do every day just to experience something different. I know of several people that pay for a prime duck lease each year, go to the local conservation area first and draw a pill, then hunt the lease if they don't like what they have drawn. Myself, if I draw a bad pill and don't get out, I fall back to other public options. If I had a lease, I would probably sleep later and hunt the afternoons more.

I use a pair of squizzers I bought back in the 90's for the fine work. Surgical steel and a loop design that keeps the blades open till you squeeze them. They are serrated on one side and have served me well. I also have a pair in my travel kit. For hair cutting I use a pair from Kershaw that I cant remember what they were called at the time. Standard design with comfort grips. For all around cutting of big materials, I have a pair of blue Fiskars by Gerber Co. I use them for foam, paper, etc.

Interesting Watcher, I did not know that it was really floatable in that stretch. How long has it been since you have been thru there? We used to spend alot of time in that area during the summer. We fished the Warm Fork, the South Fork, the Strawberry, Fourche, and several others that I can't remember the names. We have kayaks and are always willing to bust brush for a good smallie.

I was given a few custom stickbaits made by a friend of mine that were painted with a crackle paint. It was a special paint that makes cracks that looked like scale when it dried. They turned out pretty good. I think the paint is sold in hardware stores.

Parker Hollow has parking by the river, and the camping is like anything else in the Scenic Riverways. Gravel bars, river banks are fair game. It is a non improved site, primitive camping except for a few interpretive signs. Long gravel road that can be rough at times.

I have always tied scuds with orange in them to imitate the egg carrying females. I have always used a tan hairs ear/antron mix with an orange thread, when wet, the orange thread base shows through the center of the fly. I always tie that style in a fur bug pattern, simply dubbing and thread. Otherwise. I use tan thread. I have also tied a trout crack style pattern with tan dubbing, pheasant back, and mono rib.

2 jars here also starting with the product code 2111. Funny though, the expiration dates are Jan 2008 and April 2007. How long has this been going on? The Peter Pan was almost gone, and someone had opened the GV too. Walmart must have gotten a good deal on it! http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070215/ap_on_...r_salmonella_20

The only downside to the boxes would be with drys and soft hackles. I have noticed the hackles get stuck in the hinges. Plus, it is a little hard to see down in the compartments, maybe lining them with white foam would help. I like the little boxes for the nymphs, but I think I am going to do something different for the hackled flies. Never ending search for the perfect fly box!

Dano, I just bought a bunch of Okuma boxes on Ebay last summer. 2 of the 20 compartment/foam and 2 of the 6 compartment/foam. Not quite sure of the performance. I had been using clear plastic till then, just thought I would try something different. Okuma is nice, not quite the quality of the Wheatly's though. By the way, that Tom Hargrove guy is a fly fisher and he drinks Little Yeoman beer, and you can tell him I said that if you see him. Great shop on Manchester in STL. Tom Hargrove and Charlie Reading at Bennett Springs run two of the greatest fly shops I have been to. Each one is worth the trip and plan to stay a while. Very unique in the ways of customer service and attention. They have a passion for the art of flyfishing that you won't see in alot of other shops.