gwh

Fished May 10-14 in zone 1 & 2, caught quite a few fish every day, Sat was a little slower as the clouds and little shower came through. Picked back up on Sunday. Size was about what we have seen this spring, larger than last year. I had 11 fish that were over a pound, the largest being 1#-7oz, weighed him as we wanted a big one to grill. Had to keep the fly clean, as more folks fished on Sat and then Sun a lot of moss was kicked up and was floating down stream. Sign says they are going to cut on 5-22. Most fish were caught on olive (bead head size 14-18 & mini jig size 12), had some luck with white thread mini jig. The week end was fairly light, had the place to our self on Thur/Fri/Mon, fished several times where there was nobody around.

Water is up a few inches and slowly falling, droped a few inches while we were there. Water out of spring has quite a bit of color. On Wed you could see 6" - 12" deep, today you could see at most 20" down. A lot of debris comming down, both on surface and deep. Had to keep cleaning your fly. It might be a week or two before you can see your feet when wading in +3' water. Had to fish on the bottom to catch fish. Not out in the middle but on both edges in the slack water. White eggs (size 10 to 16) worked best. Bright eggs (orange, flame or orange/red) worked when they quite hitting white. Stripped at the dam, had some luck on bright collored flys (orange, red and blue holographic). There must be a big treen above the dam, lost a lot of flys. Fish were good sized, caught 10+ fish 1.5 lb and larger. Weather great and crowd not to large.

Midges were size 16 & 18.

Midges were very good for me the past three days. Olive & black the best. Fish midging everywhere. Fished the midge from 6" to 24" below the indicator, caught them at both ends. Caught fish on scuds (gray & olive), white thread jigs and floating wooly worms(had a 1.5 lb one take the rod out of my hand he hit it so hard). Good size, had several above 1.25 lbs, largest was 1.75 lbs, have eight nice fish for the grill. Did not catch any of the <10" dinks that they have been talking about. Stream could use a flush. A lot of moss on the edges of the stream that was kicked up when you were walking around. Moss beds in the stream were not that bad. By Sunday afternoon the water in zone 2 was colored up a little. Could be the reason that they were feasting on midges. Radio said quite a bid of rain on the way this week might be what is needed. Good sized crowd, spring breaks have started. Lots of young kids fishing and catching fish.

Reported on Springfield TV today. http://www.ky3.com/news/story-enforcement-of-old-law-preventing-outfitters-going-into-bennett-spring-20120208,0,5894912.story Does anyone know why this is being enforced now?

Weather was great this weekend, a little cool at 8 am, but warmed up by 10 am each day, just tried to keep finger dry. Caught a lot of fish each day, several over 14". Did see a few fish in zone 2 that would go 5+. The ticket for me was gray and tan scuds, size 14 to 18 and olive woolybugger. Had to cut down the tail, they were hitting the tail and not hooking up. Had several fish take the woolybugger when it hit the water. A lot of fish rising to a morning and afternoon hatch. Not very many folks there this weekend.

Fished for three days this weekend. Wind blew hard on Fri and Sat, rained on us today. There were a few folks fishing on Friday, more on Saturday and few today in the AM, only saw three in the water today. Caught quite a few fish on midges(black & olive) and bright glo balls. Only one over 16". Hard to see a indicator when fishing in the open with the wind. If you did not see the indicator after two waves went over it you had a strike yesterday. Tried some of Troy & Em's furled leaders they worked great. gwh

Went down this weekend for three days, they have not cut since mid Sept. Up in zone 1 the moss looks brown as compared to what I saw the third week of Oct when I was down. The wind was blowing did see some of the of the moss on the edges break free and float down in the early afternoon on Sat. gwh

Did anyone notice if the moss was cut before catch & release opened?

I bought a pair of Cabela's Premium Dry-Plus® Breathable Stockingfoot waders four years ago. I fish in them at least 60 days a year at Bennett and Tanneycomo. Had a leak in a seam two years ago and they replaced them for free. I see now that they are prices at $159 now, but have got my money out of them. Fish year round and have kept comfortable in them. Two layers in the winter and shorts in the middle of the summer. Have worn out two pairs of felt boots during that time. Sole came loose on one last week at Bennett, will not be replacing with felt.

Saw him writing four young lads tickets on Saturday. I do not know why, but did not see tags on them. They were in Zone 3 with rod in hand. They did not look happy. My son is a county deputy and he catches poachers all of the time.

Fished Fri PM to Wed AM in zone 1 & 2. Did well with a olive midge(size 16 & 18) and skipping wooly worms(black & olive worked best). Weather was great, the rain started as we were leaving Wed at 1PM. The cutting slowed us down as we had to clean line and hooks more often. They did a good job in zone 2, did not fish in zone 1 after the cutting. Looked like they were running the cutter down as low as they could. There are a ton of fish in the stream. Looking at my tag numbers from this trip and comparing back to a visit last year, it looks like the numbers are about 15,000 lower this year. Might be why there are more fish in the stream. Caught fish from 4" up to two at 14-15" range. Weekend was a little busy, but most went home on Sun afternoon.

Don't know the facts about this shooting, have not been able to find any details. Would like to see the MCD to post a report with the details, don't think that will happen. These animals are meat eaters looking for there next meal. There are a lot of fall calves on the ground now that will sell for +$1,000 next fall. Cattle men have to protect them. Once a wild amimal get a easly meal he comes back for more. 200 pound calves are easlier to catch than a deer. Someone posted that guns are not carried in the fields or pastures, they don't know me or my neighbors. Cannot tell you how many dogs that have been shot after they got a taste of beef.

Interview with Mike Mitchell in Lebanon paper. http://www.trouttalk.net/publish/article_689.shtml

The hatchery project was announced in 2005, here is the article that Mike Kruse had in the Conservation Magazine, Feb 2005. http://mdc.mo.gov/conmag/2005/02/-new-plan-missouri-trout-fishing?page=0,0 Hear him talk about the project, the goal was increasing trout production by 20%. There have been issue over the past few years at Bennett, low water, floods and one time they had a few inches of rain during a very hot period of time, the water temp jumped due to the run off, killed a lot of fish. This will happen in the future also. The current hatchery facility they have is old, it needs to be replaced. I looked at the drawings that were in the bid package, could not find them tonight on the MO Conservation web site. From memory they were replacing the hatchery building to give them more capacity. Though they were going to work on the races also. Look at the concrete in the races, it has some age. There is a greater demand for fish now, trout parks, blue & white streams, Urban program. If you don't upgrade you will have problems in the future. gwh

Here is a link to Lebanon paper article from meeting at park this past week. http://lebanondailyrecord.com/publish/article_11340.shtml - 2.3 fish to be stocked this year based on number of tag sold in 2009, size a little smaller - water level and temps look good - hatchery upgrades could start this spring and will double trout production - some gravel removed from stream - park budget reduced about two full time positions

Conservation Dept has a posting on construction contract opportunities section requesting bids to build a new hatchery building, make raceway improvements and do site work. Bids are due Feb 18, 2010 and cost estimate from dept is $1,400,000 to $2,100,000. In bid specs the work must be done in 305 days after bid award. Hope there some contractors out there looking at the work and are hungry. If the dept does the work it will be like the campground upgrade at Bennett, two years to complete about 6 months of work, it was very painfull to watch. Will be a interesting to see how they coordinate the construction, holding trout to stock and the park being open.

Jerry and Brenda announce on there web site that they have sold the store and campground. They will be moving to Marshall, MO in early Jan. Jerry and Brenda will be missed by all of us.

X

Heard on the St Louis news that the conservation dept has change regulation on traping of river otters to no limit. Last fall wife and I were fishing in Zone 1 at the bottom of the island and saw three otters swim up stream not 25' in front of us. It had rained on and off most of the day, it was mid week and very few folks fishing that day. We were catching fish and a few minutes before we saw them it just shut down. We watched the otters go up stream maybe 50 yards and start diving. We told one of the hatchery workers about seeing them, he did not really respond. Has anyone else seen otter in the park? They had to climb out to get past the dam. Are there any folks traping in the river below the park? I hear they are great fishermen.