jgentile

The alarm goes off at 0200 and it is time to head out. I packed up the night before so the only thing I have to do is let the dogs out, brew up some coffee, pack the cooler and let the dogs back in. I hit the reset on the trip odometer and it is off my favorite river. 130 miles with a pit stop in Rolla later I pull into the parking lot at Tan Vat. It is just after 0500. Plenty of time to rig up and decide whether or not to wet wade. The rains we had a few nights earlier didn’t seem to raise the river any, but it is a chilly 63 degrees this morning. I know it will be steamy by the time I come off the river but I decide to don waders today. I started the morning with a size 6 rubber leg stonefly imitation hoping to grab a large brown. My intentions were to head downstream today and throw the big nymph until the trico hatch hit. I was rewarded by a 13-14” brown on my third drift right at the beach followed by a slightly larger rainbow. I headed downstream and hooked up again a few casts later only to have my tippet (4x) get snapped. Mea Culpa. I did not check the condition of the tippet after netting the second fish. No worries as I go to tie on another “Jimmy Rubber Legs” only to have missed threading the eye. The darn fly heads on down the river and I’m out of those particular baits for the day. Getting older, even at the ripe old age of 49 is tough. Again, this is on me as I do pack reading glasses. Oh well, I manage to tie on an olive Wooly Bugger and keep making my way down stream. The sun is finally starting to change the lighting conditions and I manage to net one more bow before I get to the first big hole. The trico hatch is on and I change my leader and tippet. This time I tie on a small size 26 bug that is white thread, a few fibers for a tail and a couple of winds of white hackle. I bought the fly from Darryl up at Reed’s. No luck at what should be a good spot. I go for various drifting patterns, upstream, cross and down, still with no luck. Mind you, I am only one year into fly-fishing so I do not have a ton of confidence in fishing small. Yet I still see fish after fish, sipping bugs. Frustrated I tie on a small 1/100 olive marabou jig and quickly hook up on a small rainbow. This however, is not what I wanted to do. I came out this morning with the intent of fishing the hatch. I head downstream with the jig still tied on. Dead drifting the jig has produced well the last two Tuesday’s so I keep it tied on. A few yards downstream in a nice depression I spot more trico sipping fish. This is it I tell myself. I am going to do this if it kills me. I take my portable insect net also known as a baseball cap and start swinging. I manage to catch a few of the bugs and notice that they are not white as seen while flying but a black insect with white wings and a really beefy thorax. A quick check of the fly box and I find my bait. It is nothing more than black thread and a bit of grizzly hackle. A few drifts later I hook up and the trout throws the fly as quick as it took it. Full of confidence I go again and I hear that wonderful, swooshing sound of a trout inhaling your fly. The fish isn’t huge, but I get it on the reel and into the net as soon as I can. I know most of you have done this over and over again, but the feeling of targeting specific fish with a specific fly, then actually landing one is incredible. The only thing that would have made it better was if I had tied that particular fly. Either way, it made my day. I was able to land one more on the trico before the hatch was over. The fish however where still feeding on the surface. I wonder what they were feeding on. Dead or spent residual bugs perhaps? I decided to tie on foam ant pattern and landed two more out of that hole before heading back upstream. Along the way I was able to land a couple of more bows on the ant before the late morning heat start to steam things up. All in all it was a great morning. Next Tuesday I am going to try the same thing hoping for an even better day. I am out on the Current every Tuesday. Just look for the silver Dodge Durango with the TU and Feathercraft/Crackleback stickers on the back window. Headed off to the bench tie a few tricos, tight lines for now.

I too hit Baptist last Thursday 6/28/12. Got there at 0515 just in time to get rigged up and hit the water at sunrise. The fish are/were stacked up in every deep hole run and happy to bite in the early morn. I used a size 6 Vladi worm on point with a size 16 un-weighted scud early then switched to 16/14 biot nymphs in either olive or brown. The fishing was better than decent with one rainbow probably close to 20". It was taken with the Vladi. Funny thing that fish was part of my first double hook up. The second fish, taken on the nymph was a large minnow (2")of some sorts. A legit, albeit cheap, really cheap double nonetheless. No pic as the fish was pretty beat up and it took quite a bit to revive him/her. I need a better system for my i-phone so I can snap pics quicker. Any ideas here?

I am posting a note that I sent to Walt Fulps aka Missouri Trout Hunter following a trip I made with a buddy to the Meramec in early May of this year. "Walt, A couple of questions re: Meramec Brown Trout My buddy and I went down to the Meramec yesterday, Thursday, May 03, 2012. Water was low and clear. Walked in from the park across the bridge and took the path/trail to the beach access that has a building for our walk in point. We turned over a couple of stones and found molting crawfish. Tied on streamer patterns and before you know it we were into one brown trout after another after another. In all we must have caught at least 30 browns between us. Nothing large, 14" maybe was the largest. All were well fed with fat, bulging, lumpy stomachs from what I am guessing were either molting crawfish or other forage. All of the fish were pretty much caught over the patches of large gravel. Almost all of the fish were also lip hooked. Aggressive behavior, light strikes. Here is the weird part. Most of the browns were not colored well. My guess is that these fish were recently stocked by the MDC as most had a grayish hue instead of that spectacular gold color. But, this said. Some of these fish seemed to me at least to be too big to be recent stockers. We did catch more than a few brightly colored browns but they were the exception, not the rule. All in all I have never caught as many browns in one day on the Meramec as yesterday. Could these fish have been in some sort of pre-spawn mode? We did also notice some really beat up tail fins on these fish." It should be noted that we did not fish below the Dry Creek confluence. I returned to the Meramec one week later to only hook into a number of rainbows without any brown trout at all. I tend to stay away from the Meramec once the aluminum hatch occurs.

Definitely and desperately need some rain.... soooo low and clear. I wound up fishing the park and having a blast introducing my wife to fly fishing. She had never dropped a line in her life. Thanks to a few of the other troutbusters there I got her a pair of waders and 5wt. I spent the majority of Saturday watching her drift and strip a crackleback. She caught two and I hope that she is now hooked. Honestly it was more fun watching her trying to set a hook, loose a couple and then finally get two in than fishing myself. All in all a GREAT weekend with some really nice folks. If any of you readers haven't been to a Troutbust, you need to get in on some good times. I believe the next one will be held at Bennett in May.

The wife and I are headed down to the bust this weekend as well. As far as what they are hitting... I'm throwing large streamers early and late, perhaps some dry fly action on bwo patterns and as always an assortment of soft hackles as well as a few nymphs. It should be a blast.

My Son in law is headed in tonight and I would like to walk in from Tan Vat up towards the park and down stream a bit towards Baptist. I read the post beneath mine and just wanted to get some other folks input on the rivers condition. Thank you.

Dixon/Nortrad, Small world indeed. Nice to run into you guys here. Hope to see you on the river soon. You know the funny thing about that day was that there were a few spots were you could see trout stacked up like fire wood. One was at the dead fall just upstream from the beach at TV. Another was just downstream from the waste processing plant. Both relatively deeper holes. I thought we were rather stealthy in our approach but nothing doing here. These spots have always been productive in the spring and early summer. Fish were rising on whatever bugs came around but had no interest in 1/32 marabous or the raps. Tight lines, Joe

Nortrad, Funny to see your response about the two spin anglers. That was my friend and I who came up stream to you. It was Monday, Labor day. We hit Tan Vat at sunrise that morning and went upstream and then worked our way back. The water was really low with a little tinge to it. We started pretty hot with marabou jigs and then switched to rapalas. The fishing was good pretty much all day. All of our fish were caught in less than 2" of water except that last brownie that Andy caught just upstream of you. I personally thought he was encroaching on your spot somewhat. I was the guy dragging butt a little who came up behind him. Funny to see your post as it was exactly how it happened. Small world. Joe

I'll be wearing the 2006 STL Cardinals Championship hat. If you see me, make sure to say hello. Joe

Nice to hear this information. As of a few minutes ago the USGS charts showed the discharge rate at just under 900 CFS and falling fast. I'm headed to the park tomorrow and will wade on down towards the piles. Don't shoot me, I'll be the guy with the spinning rig. Joe

Thanks for the tip. I'd never thought about the Big. I quickly Googled the subject and found only one canoe outfitter. Cherokee, I think. Does this sound right? Nice and close to home. I'm stoked. Tight lines, Joe

Hi gang, I want to take my son out for a smallie trip this weekend before I have to take him to college. We hit the Current river last week and nailed more than a few rainbows and browns. I'd like to share a trip with him that included a few bronze back beauties. I'd appreciate any suggestions. I was thinking the Huzzah or Cortouis but I'd liked to avoid the aluminium hatch if at all possible. Maybe the Gasconade? Any suggestions for a float or wade trip would be appreciated. I live in far west STL county so I'd like to keep the trip to within 150 miles one way. Thanks in advance and tight lines to all. Joe

I waded the Meramec today from the park down to Dry Fork. The river is slightly dingy and even though the numbers look good it is still a bit high. I'm only 5' 9" and I had to tip toe a litlle but I managed. The current is fine, no problem crossing. I hit the river right before the siren rang and entered the river with two other anglers. Caught fish all the way down and back up. Soft hitting fish and quite few short hitters. All fish caught on white marabou jigs. Some on 1/16, most on a 1/32. Upstream casts with a good drift was the ticket. Fish were holding as deep as they could/ 12 Rainbow, 4 Brown, 4 Smallies and 2 Sunfish. Biggest fish was 18". Nice to hit the Meramec again after a horrific Spring. One thing... If you are taking a boat down, prepare to portage a bit as the storms have wrecked havoc on the landscape. Tight lines, Joe

I've been on the current at Tan Vat the past three weekends. Last week saw my first floaters. I am not a fly fisherman, as I prefer the spin rig, but I have been tearing it up on 1/32 marabous, Mepps and small Raps. If the Meramec gets dirty and high again, I'll be there this weekend as well. The only thing I hate about the floaters is carrying out their trash, though one did leave me an unopened can of Mt. Dew and that was a nice surprise since last Sat was blistering. Time to start wet wading. I just hate the poison ivy! Joe

Kyle, I'm headed to Van Tat tomorrow morning. I'll let you know how it went. Joe

Thank you. I had a great time at Tan Vat last weekend and was hoping for an encore performance. Joe

Do you all think that the current will be wadeable this weekend? I'd be coming from St. Louis so I'd want the trip to be worthwhile. Thanks, Joe