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I saw there is another thread on tying soft hackles, so I didn't want to hijack that thread with my question. I was wondering how you guys fish soft hackles? I always hear about how effective they are, but what is the best way to fish them? I typically fish a 2 fly rig, so how should I rig this with a soft hackle? Add weight? Lead fly or trailing fly? Cast upstream? Lastly, what constitutes a "soft hackle". Is it any fly that uses "soft hackle" or is it a very specific fly. Forgive my ignorance as I do not tie my own flies. Thanks for your help.

I agree with Justin that "catching" is a bonus for newbies (and me). I've only fished it once, and I stayed at Justin's campground. He drove us up to just below the springs and we floated back down to Sunburst. I caught one fish. The water was very high (so high that we never saw "the falls"), so that made wade fishing almost impossible. The cabins at ROLF are beautiful, and no matter what you may or may not catch, you'll have a blast. Go with the expectation that catching a fish is a huge bonus, and you won't be disappointed. If there's any chance you can afford it at all, I'd hire a guide---maybe just a half day and concentrate around ROLF so that the next day you've picked their brain about how to catch them on your own from outside your cabin. I'm a rookie at this river, though, but I thought I'd chime in. Jim

I'm happy to share what I know. If you want to fish inside the park, I always park at the first lot over the first bridge. The parking lot is on your left immediately as you cross over the river. Then, I head up above the waterfall you'll see and start fishing. Above the fall is a deep pool. Then, as you go upstream, you'll hit a longish run where you can fish the far bank. Above that run is what some people call the boulder hole. It's a great spot. Then just keep working upstream. Lots of fish everywhere. The standard nymphs, eggs, midges will all work. I always have a dropper on to double my chances. Lightening bug nymphs are always my go to fly at Montauk and the Current. If you tie on a lightening bug and drop an egg off, or vice versa, you'll get into a lot of fish. Primrose and pear midges are a winter-time favorite of mine, too. Hope this helps some. It's my favorite place to fish, though I ususally fish below the park.

My very pregnant wife and I decided to spend the day fishing at Tan Vat before we start back at school tomorrow (we're both teachers) and have our baby in February. It was beautiful, temps in the upper 40s, bluebird sky, and gin clear water. Too bad these conditions made the catching tough. We brought zero to hand...yes, zero. It was amazing, though, the number of fish leaping out of the water today. As much as I fish the Current, this is only the second time I have seen so many fish rising. It was the mayflies that turned them on, so I had on a tiny Adams all day. Lots of hits, but I was paying more attention to helping my wife than to my fly, so I missed every one. She had one almost to the net on an egg, and missed two more on an Adams. Nothing else worked, and I mean nothing. No midges, emergers, nymphs, eggs, stones, dynamite, etc. The only thing they wanted were the Adams. Weird. Maybe should have tried a soft hackle, but I really don't know how to fish them. Add weight? Can I use a dropper? We did see something amazing, though. Just below the chute at Tan Vat, we saw dirt falling off this high bank by the overhanging tree and into the water. We kept staring at the bank, trying to see what it was. It was a massive snake with most of his head in a hole on the side of this dirt bluff. He emerged once or twice, and he was BIG and slow moving. The color was light brown (exactly dirt colored), and it was unbelievably camoflauged (sp). Does anyone have any idea what kind of snake this may have been? It sure didn't look like the typical snake I have seen down there. Sorry for no pics, but there was nothing to take a picture of....aside from the well hidden snake. Jim

How do you fish those Lucky Crafts? Reel them straight back in? Twitch them?

That first fish is a beast for that creek! Well done. I fished it last week for the first time, and it won't be my last. Thanks for the report....

I saw a few threads on Blue Springs Creek lately, so I wanted to see what I was missing. Instead of driving to Meremac Springs for the 3 spare hours I had today, I went to BSC instead. I swore off Meremac anyway, and now I am so glad I did. I started at the access just above the Blue Springs Ranch. My goal was to just catch one. I creeped as much as I could, and I tried to be as quiet as possible. I had on an orange egg and a scud dropper. Immediately caught 2 minnows on the scud. Then a tree limb took the combo from me. Next I tied on a crackleback with a midge dropper (primrose and pearl). I caught my first one on the crackleback in a narrow little chute. Anything after this one was gravy in my mind. Turns out I caught about a dozen more. I was thrilled because I have read about how difficult it is to fish here. I bet these fish would be so much more fun on a 1 or 2 weight. My 5 weight was too much for them. About 3/4 of the fish were on the crackleback and the rest on the midge or scud. The second the crackleback hit the water, there was an immediate hit in most places. The longer it was on the water, the less likely it was I was going to get a fish. I fished to about 200 yards above Highway N. I didn't see much water deeper than 3 feet. Is there water further up that is deeper (ie closer to that camp)?

Thanks for the tip with the leader. That's something I was doing wrong for sure, as I only had about 3 feet of 5x coming off my furled leader. Thus, I had a lot of flyline on the water as I was trying to reach the far bank, so mabye that was the problem. As far as numbers of fish I catch, it is in large part thanks to egg patterns. My logic is that I drive over 2 hours to fish, so I am looking for quantity first, because to me it is fun to catch a bunch. If I have success early, then I go to more traditional flies. But yesterday they had no interest in the egg, so I went to nymphs. Not to mention that, if it wasn't for this forum, I would not have nearly the success that I have had.

The Adams didnt produce for me, but I think a lot of it is technique . The problem is that i mostly fish by myself and I should spend time fishing with those who know more than me. So here is an open invite to anyone who wishes to teach me their tactics on the Current.

I wanted to fish one last time before the bitter cold sets in tonight, so I left St. Louis at 4:30 a.m. this morning and got to Tan Vat at 6:45. There was some cool lightning and it was sprinkling. I had the place to myself all day pretty much, which is getting increasingly rare at Tan Vat. But I started at the swimming hole with an egg and a primrose and pearl midge. Immediately got a stocker rainbow on the egg, and then nothing for about 15 minutes. Then this brown in the picture destroyed the P&P like I have never had a fish destroy a fly before. Before I realized anything he was stripping line and doing backflips. Glad I got him in. Immediately got another rainbow on the P&P and started moving upstream. My normal fun hole about 100 yards up from the swimming hole produced nothing. I was shocked. Kept moving up t the rock garden and saw my only other person all day. I clumsily spooked a monster as I tripped over a log...he was right under it at the bend. I had no luck at these holes, but it was likely because of my technique. I went back to big flies like stones and woolies, and they just were not interested. Went back downstream and saw a massive hatch of small white mayflies, so I tied on an Adams with a soft hackle dropper. First cast I was concentrating on the adams, noticed a fish just below it, thought to myself "I hope he takes the adams". Little did I realize he had my soft hackle in his mouth. By the time I figured it out and set the hook, he was gone. Worked back down to the swimming home with that same rig and got nothing. 3 hours of nothing after a red hot start. After a comedy of errors below the "waterfall" at Tan Vat (trees, rocks, hooking my waders, birdsnesting my last furled leader from Troy and Emma) I moved downstream and had to tie 4x directly to my flyline. Found a nice small pool below a riffle. I tied on a Y2K and a lightning bug dropper. I caught 7 in a row...in literally 7 casts. I couldn't believe it. 6 on the lightening bug. I have to say, that fly is now my new favorite down there. It always seems to work. I fished down to the hole below the first island and I realized that it is MUCH shallower now. Anyone know what I am talking about? Grass bank on one side and a log to your back as you cast towards the bank. It used to be deep behind you by the log and deep in front of you to the bank and you'd have to negotiate the middle. Now it was super shallow. Maybe just low water...anyway, it was a great day. The rainbow was the smallest I have ever caught there, so you can decide if it was streamborn or not. And I saw a bald eagle flying right above me and then saw this bird in a tree (not sure if it is a eagle or not, and the picture sucks, but thought I'd include it.

I went to school at Truman State in Kirksville, MO and graduated in 1996. We used to play ice hockey on the ponds up there every winter, and they were frozen solid. I would never do that in St Louis at the same time---it was darn cold up there.

I have never met you, but I decided I greatly dislike you now. I'm sitting here at work and you're going fishing, probably with the river all to yourself! Have a great trip, and please post a report!!

Thanks Laker! That sounds right! Jim

Oncee during Fall I was fishing Crane Creek. I snuck my way up to this riffle and notice a massive rainbow hovering over what looked like white gravel. The surrounding rock was dark, but this one fish was sitting right over this bright area. I piched on my orange power bait to see if she was hungry. I delicately drifted the bait right in front of her nose, and she tore into it. Turns out she was about 24 inches and dripped a lot of eggs into my net. Of course I released her.

Awesome!

I love the quote from the article....they're "just passing through to other states". How do they know that???

Sounds like a great time Gavin. I also noticed that the campground was empty and I wished I was staying there rather than driving back home Friday. If you don't mind sharing, what did you catch the larger fish on? Jim

Thanks for the report! Glad the water came down for you. Aren't you glad you didn't go to Meremac Springs?? Jim

I fished it the day before Thanksgiving and it was extremely low---the lowest I have ever seen it. It was also mossy, and when I got home, I begged my wife to never allow me to go there again. Make the drive to the Current! i am so finished with the Meramec. But since it was so low, I cannot imagine that it is "unfishable".

I just checked the guage...it says it's over 600 cfs, not 200. Am I reading it wrong?

I've fished the river a lot of the last two years, and no doubt it was the worst visibility I have seen. It was so bad that we stopped wading about 200 yards down from the sharp bend (along the bluffs) because we couldn't see where we were stepping and it was getting deep and swift. And it was muddy...just wasn't really a pretty day water-wise. I may be back tomorrow, though. Hope I didn't spoil your Saturday! We still caught fish, but it was tougher than usual.

A buddy of mine and I fished today below Baptist Camp. We were surprised at how muddy the water was and how much debris was floating everywhere. Visibility was no more than a couple of inches at the most and the water was MOVING. We fished from about 10 until 3 and I managed about ten fish. I caught 3 nice browns (one about 17 inches) and the rest rainbows. He caught 5, all rainbows. It was funny because nothing was consistantly getting fish for us. Eggs produced the best, but my browns came on an olive wooly that was my lead fly. He caught his on eggs, princes and an olive wooly. The fish had zero interest in a scud or stonefly. How do you guys fish that river when it is moving the way it was today? Obviously you have to get your flies down deep, but would you ever use midges in dark, fast moving water? I love midge fishing in winter, but have never tried it in muddy water. Instead, I went with big, meaty, bright flies today. Do you think my approach was right, or was I out of my mind for trying to catch fish on big stones this time of year? Thanks for any tips.... Jim

My wife and I bought a Big Agnes 3 person backpacking tent. It has 2 vestibules, which is amazing in terms of getting in and out without disturbing each other and storing gear. With the number of beers I consume on camping trips, it is important to have immediate access to the outdoors in the middle of the night. My wife doesn't have to deal with me stumbling all over her 5 times a night now. It is expensive, but worth every penny. She can set it up by herself in 5 minutes while I start the fire and crack open my first cold one....only has 2 poles. Good luck in your search. Jim

Hargroves sells them individually.