jah

I am a high school history teacher in St. Louis and all of my classes will be reading the poem "In Flanders Field" today. I also encourage all of them to make a phone call to a vet, or to take 20 minutes alone (on a walk/in their room/etc) and think about what it means to offer your life for someone else. They really enjoy the poem, and I think they actually DO call/sit silently when they get home. Thanks to all who serve.

Awesome report! I'll never stop being amazed at how pretty that stretch of water is. Glad you had a great time, now stay the hell off MY river! HA! Can't wait to see the pics!

That's exactly right. I read in online at Midcurrent. It is inifinitely better than what I did before, and my wife will attest to that. I always rig up her fly rod as well as mine, and I used to avoid tying droppers on for me after spending an hour cussing while tying her dropper on. It just wasn't worth the extra time, especially because, by the time I tied my dropper on, she was snagged! With this new method, it is beyond easy, and I would have never thought of it myself.

Hey Jim, I read about really quick and EASY way to tie on a dropper. I actually use my index finger, make a loop with the tippet, and start twisting my finger inside that loop (i.e. I act as if my finger is the fly, turning it 6 or 7 times just like you would turn a fly or wrap the line for a clinch knot). Then I put the end through the bottom loop that I made with my index finger, pull my finger out and attach the loop to the bend of my first fly and pull tight. Hope that makes sense. For me, it saves me a LOT of time and a LOT of swearing.

Horny head chub, eh?I tried that with my wife last night. She was none too happy. Seriously, though, looks like you had a lot of fun. I've heard great things about that creek and it is on my 'to-do' list.

The sucker snagging is EXCELLENT downstream of Montauk.

This is a question that my wife asked me to post after we fished the Current yesterday. Her second favorite thing to do on the Current, other than fish, is to put her lawn chair next to the stream that flows into the river just above the swimming hole at Tan Vat. Well, it's been dried up for quite some time. I always thought it was spring fed, but it looks like I'm wrong. Anyone know the origin of that creek and if its disappearance is normal this this time of year.

I think it is a pretty old school practice as I remember my grandpa doing it a long time ago in the St. Genevieve area. Personally, I think they're the ugliest fish I've ever seen, and I hate when one of them takes my fly. But, to each his own as the saying goes. I think catfish are ugly, too, but people love to fish for them. If it's legal, then who really cares if I think those fish are ugly?

Awesome! Let me guess....scud?????

If you're nymphing, fish deep with copper johns, any nymph with lots of flash, pink or orange eggs, princes, scuds, and the usual. I always try to fish as deep as I can with a dropper rig with weight. For dries I usually use a stimulator, elk hair caddis or a parachute adams. However, I'd make sure you have some October caddis. Tore them up this time last year on this fly. The best idea is to scroll through all the Montauk posts from the last few years for the time frame you're going down to see what people had success on. As far as places, I like the fly fish only section above the dam (waterfall). There is a deep pool just above the fall, and then a longer stretch of slower water before you get to the "boulder hole". This hole has loads of fish as well as loads of fishermen. Keep moving upstream after you fish this hole and you'll find good water. Jim

My wife and I are coming dowm next Saturday to fish Sat evening to Sunday in the Tan Vat or Baptist area. My question is this: can we camp on the gravel bar at either place (i.e. the swimming hole at Tan Vat or the Bluff hole at the parking lot of Baptist?) Or do we have to wade downstream and find a different gravel bar while leaving our car in the parking lot? We aren't renting a canoe. I was also thinking the sharp bend of the river below the cable crossing below Montauk. Are any of these spots okay to camp at?

I don't really think it is about how people are raised honestly. I think it is about ignorance, pure and simple. I love fishing, camping and floating, and I had no idea it was bad etiquette to leave a fire ring. I am a very courtious fisherman and environmentalist, but never did I think for one second that leaving rocks in a ring formation in a site where many people camp was a bad thing. If it is frowned upon, then I have learned something new today and will never do it.

Awesome!! Can I ask what you caught him/her on?

Now that you two broke up, I must confess something. I was seeing her too. Sure, they were just quickies to wet my line because of her proximity, but I too always left feeling shortchanged. She was a Siren calling---c'mon, I'm only an hour away--but I always left feeling dirty. Perhaps because I knew she was yours all along. But either way, I found someone new, and I hope you forgive me.

I actually walked into Feathercraft about 2 years ago and asked some guy who was stocking shelves, "Can you help me? I'd like to fish Cardiac Hill and have some questions." He never stopped stocking the shelf and looked at my wife and I and said, "There are no trout in Missouri. You have to go to Colorado." I obviously had quite the confused look on my face, then he grumbled, "That's what most people think anyway." I was still as confused as ever, but I still asked him about flies to use. I asked if egg patterns would be effective and he said, "Looks like you're after the little guys." Seriously, I was just learning, had money to spend, and this joker was popping off to me like I was some annoyance to him. I shall now spend zero dollars and zero cents at Feathercraft. I bought my Sage rod, Sage reel, Fishpond guide pack, all flies, etc from Hargroves. A couple of thousand dollars for sure so far. Those guys in there are great. My wife and I have been treated so well when we go there. They have offered to take us on their boats, patiently answered all of our questions, and always give our daughter a sucker. My daughter, shy as she is, always says, "Can we go to the fly shop?" Yes we can, my dear!

It's really hard to go wrong with Simms, in my opinion. I'll never buy anything different.

I've always been curious as to how there are 2 fly shops within one mile of each other on the same road (Feathercraft and Hargroves). I was wondering which one is more frequented, and why you choose to go to one over the other? Proximity to where you live, it seems, cannot be the answer because they are so close to each other. So what makes you choose one over the other? I personally like Hargroves simply because they were far more helpful to me when I was first starting out. They never made me feel like an ametuer, even though I was one. I cannot say the same for Feathercraft, but that's just my experience, and therefore Hargoves gets my business.

Drive past the park on the dirt road. Don't turn into the campground loop...stay on the main road. In about 1/2 mile you'll get to Eagle Park Campgrounds on your left. It's never filled. It's not as nice as Montauk, but it works when Montauk is filled.

Cool. Thanks Gavin. If you saw a hatch like that, what would you throw to entice them? No fish were rising, and I didn't see any slurping below the surface, but the swarm was THICK! I just threw stones mostly, though that's not really matching the hatch. Emergers, you think, would have been best?

That was me. I should have asked you if you were on the forum! And yes, that otter scared the beejesus out of me. I wish I had the topwater success you did....I got nothing to even look at my hopper or October caddis.

My friend and I went down to fish the Current on Saturday morning. We left St. Louis at 6 am and were on the water by 8:30. We were greeted with the largest hatch of mayflies that I have ever seen (picture attached). Is my assumption that these are pale morning duns correct? I claim very little knowledge of bugs, so if I'm wrong please enlighten me. They were white in color and tiny. Their movement was more vertical than horizontal (i.e. they were dancing up and down). There were at least 3 other groups fishing at Baptist Camp, so we made our way downstream in order to get out of their way. We spent most of the day fishing around the sharp bend below Baptist. I posted a question on here one time about how to get around this bend (the one with the chainsawed log in the middle of the river). I figured it out today---we bushwacked around the corner and it worked out great. As many times as I fished the Current, this was my first time this far below Baptist. There is some interesting water, though a bit stagnant at times for my taste. However, in this "stagnant" water, i caught my 3 biggest fish. I had 2 browns that must have measured over 20 inches, though I didn't have a way to measure them. 1 must have been just shy of 20. All were caught on stonefly imitations---2 on the Kaufman black stone and 1 on Pat's rubber legs. The rest of our fish were caught on eggs, psycho princes, and cerise san juans. Some of the rainbows were gorgeous, and we each caught what I assume is a wild trout. They were about 6 inches long and gorgeous...they looked like the trout I have seen on the Wild Trout threads on this site. The water was slightly off color, and it was a little higher than the last few times I was there. The guys in the canoe behind me paddled upstream to see my fish after they heard me shout "Holy $%#@!" when I hooked the big fella. All in all a great day. Okay, so after a long time of trying to figure out how to attach photos, I realized that I have no idea how. My files are all too big. Any help would be appreciated.

Did you catch a lot on the hopper? What were you dropping off of it? The pictures are awesome! Nice work. I'll be down there Saturday hunting that big brownie in the first pic!

You're right, the swimming hole is loaded with fish. My first cast I had one on that had massive shoulders. He started stripping line before I realized he was even on. Being far smarter than me, he was off before I blinked. Then I caught a bunch aof dinkers. He wouldn't bite again!

He was using a black beadhead pattern. It wasn't a Pat's, but I did catch one on a Pats. If you fish just below the "waterfall" below the swimming hole, tie on a big stonefly pattern (Pats or others). I catch loads of fish there, and mostly on stones fish along the bottom. He's so excited that he just ordered a dozen more from Big Y Fly. Just be careful. I think there's a shipwreck in that deep hole! Something is down there that I kept getting snagged on. I lost 8 flies in 10 minutes. No joke.