Idylwilde

It a little off color and Just at the right level for fishing and the fishing has been great the last two day's. The out look for this week looks great. For movies and information up to date reports got to reeds fly shop on Facebook.

Thank you!!!!!

I did not get back down till Monday afternoon when I missed it and there were a bunch of swimmers there. Did not find anyone that had seen it. It should have been on the left side of the parking lot. I was in to big of hurry to shed waders and get out of the rain when I packed up and left Friday night. Thank you for looking again for me, that rod has been countless miles and fish with me. LOL

Lost a 8'6" 5# Hardy Stream Flex rod with a Helious reel. The rod has a size 20 zebra midge on the blank just above the cork. It was lost Friday evening in the parking lot. Please contact me at 417-331-9045 or 573-548-2222,

Subtract about 20,000 from that # and you will be in the ball park! 30,000 for a year on a good year.

We have a fly box that was found yesterday above the rock hole at Montauk that someone is crying because they lost it. To get it back call 573-548-2222 and describe the box and content to get it back.

Cutthroat Leaders are a great way to go if you don't want the memory coal all the time.

Started as a kid about 8 years old fishing with a 15 foot bamboo rod and black nylon line with a three hooked beaded red worm with spinner, dragging it around Lilly pads for bass. Then wanted to be able to get further out in the water and found a old bamboo fly rod and auto reel. I was hooked! Now as I get older I seem to be reverting back and trying the Tenkara rigs and loving it. (Same as the bamboo rods) I have to say the High Tech is better.

This is a size 18 Marabou leach or woolly unweighted that is extremely effective on the Current River. All it is is twisted palmered marabou.

I have heard $72,000,00 but the bad part of this is the location due to the Hwy YY is not compatible to camper RV traffic . And over the years all plans to improve the road have been shot down by the Federal Government because of impact to the Current River.

Pine Crest is a great place to camp they do cater to the equestrian campers but they are located close to the lower sections of the blue ribbon area. The people who own it are great folks and have been known to have whole hog Bar-B-Q's for all the campers free of charge on big weekends. I believe that the Trout Busters have held some of their events there.

I counted 14 brown trout on the Montauk Lodge lunker board over 3# yesterday that was from March 1 till yesterday. 65 last year and 160 year before last. Seems like the brown trout of trophy size is having trouble getting out of the park without being on a stringer. NOTE: year before last they were 25 of them that were over 8#.

Pinecrest Campground is the only campground East Of Montauk Now. Ozark Mountain and Eagle Park have both closed theirs. If in camper there is Happy Pappy's Right near the park entrance.

http://youtu.be/EZFlFSlM1t4 Fishing Is good & water conditions are great.

I fished for about 2 1/2 hours this morning at Montauk and I played around with the Tenkara rod. Now I am hooked big time on that type of fishing. I started in the Catch & Release area, and quickly learned how to wind skip a dry fly to have the fish leap out of the water and take the fly in mid air. Now that was fun. I was fishing a scud with only a few nips and tugs but nothing hooked up, I saw the fish start working a caddis hatch & tied on a # 18 tan elk hair caddis. On the first drift the wind picked up the tippet and lifted the fly off the surface and skipped it up stream. The third time the fly lifted off the water a trout leaped up and took it. I have never had the ability to do this with a western style rod. With the 11' Tenkara I was able to set the fly on the surface then lift it so the wind would skip it along and almost every time I was able to do this I hooked up with fish. All the fish were good size fish and it was so easy to land them on 5X Tippet. I moved over to the river below the Jetty hole and started fishing the riffles had to change from the Elk Hair Caddis to a size 16 gray bead head scud. I had about 6 spin cast anglers ahead of me throwing spinners and jigs. So I let them yank and splash their way further on down the river while I took a step and fished took a step and fished my way down. I was able to hook up with 9 fish before I had a crew of guy's come wading right up the center of the drift so I decided to call it a day. I plan on going back Monday when I will have it to myself LOL. I saw some fish being caught on Glo-Ball and Egg Patterns. The wind was just a little to high for dry fly action on the section above the dam. If you have never tried the Tenkara fishing at your favorite small stream your missing out on a great relaxing type of fishing. I would not recommend it for the bigger streams or deep waters but the Upper Current River is Ideal for this sport.

http://youtu.be/lcQyuTx6yPU

Smallmouth!

I started fishing at the Mammoth Spring Campground around 8:30 A.M. The river was flowing at full bank and very off color. The water was a lite Tan and visibility at about 1 foot. This made wading a thrill because you could not see the large rocks that cover the bottom. I fished the first Edie at the falls and caught 4 rainbows on a orange/Char Y2K. Then after having to go to the bank to find a way up to the big hole above the falls and about 15 min trying to not break my neck and downed I got to the big boulders above the falls. I fished the Y2K with no strikes. The fish were deep in the holes and the flow to fast to be able to get down fast enough to get the fly in view of them. I changed to a 1/64 oz Flow Orange /Char Trout Magnet with a split shot about 16" above and a float set at 6'. This was just the thing and I caught 5 Rainbows in a 9 cast. The roll cast with this set up was just about all a 5W rod could do but with a tinny bit of slop it was working. I mover down to the shallower water just above the fall's and I hooked up with 3 Smallmouth and one 18" Rainbow. It was looking like another great day. At about 10:00 A.M. the wind started and in 20 min it became apparent that that section of the river was going to be almost imposable to fish. 35 to 40 mph wind coming straight up the river and fishing the type of set up is just to much work for me.And it was like someone threw a switch and turned the fish off also. So I moved up to just below the dam, I had not fished this section and a few years. This area was out of the wind but just a little to shallow and not many resting areas for the fish to hold in the swift water. I was able to hook up with a small rainbow one perch and a grass pickerel. Desperate to find water without the wind I mover down river to the Bayou Access. This was the best water I had seen all day. Nice gravel bottom and water flow fast but just right for Czech Rigging. I went to an anchor fly of a #10 stone-fly nymph and up about 18" tagged lined a #16 orange sowbug. I wadded out into about waste deep and started letting the rig tumble down the gravel below me. I was very pleased at the out come. In the next 2 hours I was able to loose 8 flies about 20" of tippet and land 9 rainbows and two smallmouth. All the smallmouth were hooked on the #10 Stone-Fly, And all the rainbows on the Sowbug. The stone-Fly was the only anchor fly i had that was heavy enough for this flow of water I would rather has a heavy #12 weighted scud, but it worked! At 4:30 it was time for me to go north but not before a stop at Fred's Fish House for catfish supper. If you have never been there your missing out on a special meal. For better fishing the river needs to settle in a bit more. I did see one young man fishing orange power bait just above the falls at Mammoth Spring campground and it appeared he was catching fish. ( He had two stringers with 5 rainbows on each and still fishing! That seemed strange to me LOL. But I was in a strange area and didn't know if I should say anything. I would have hated to fight a young man on slick rocks over a few trout. LOL And his (I guessed father was setting on the bank with his stringer of 5 trout waiting on him. Two against on in swift Rockie water is not what I wanted. NOTE: I did see 5 other anglers at the bend just below the Bayou Access catching fish.

Yep

My favorite little midge is the winter midge #24.

After a wonderful day of fishing yesterday we awoke to snow today. We have received about 1.5" but the roads were clear when I came in this morning. The temp is going to be in the upper 30's today with a 40 MPH wind from the north. I saw only one angler fishing the park at 7:45 a.m. But on the bright side we have great weather on the way for this weekend. In the upper 60's and no wind. Now that s...pring time weather. Yesterday I was able to hook up with about 35 fish on three different flies and jigs. Here is a rundown. The 4 color egg pattern (Glo Ball) was working early, then I went to a #16 gray and olive scud fished under a float just above the grass. Then we had a Caddis hatch and I switched to a Olive and yellow crackle back and stripped it back over the grass. I took a break form the fly rod about 12 noon and did something I don't do very often, I went to the bait area and fished a Chartreuse / orange Trout Magnet under a float. To tell the truth I had forgot how much fun it was catching trout on UL tackle. The fish was eating the trout magnet so hard it was almost like a bass bite. The Magnet was fished just bumping the bottom under a float, you had no guessing if you had a bite. but if you are planing to get out this weekend this will be the time to do it. I'm heading to Spring River and Mammoth Spring Campground Saturday to try for some Walleye. So the trout is all you folks LOL. The photo below is of Les Newell with a 4.5# Rainbow he took on a spinner bait in the area behind the campground.

This area has changed a lot in the last month with the high water. The fish that are there have moved around to better water than they have had in the last year. the hole at tan-vat is not wad-able from the parking lot side now. The shoot leading to the next hole has fish on the shallow west side that move in and out of the shoot to feed. as you move further down you have to cross over the the east bank and fish the swift water next to the under cut west bank. The best chance of staying hooked up will be on and egg color Y2K under a float. If you would rather try a scud or sow bug in dark gray might be the choice. It may be a little to soon after the high water to expect a huge hatch for dry flying, but a caddis or a cdc midge will be a good choice. Be careful wading because the high water has washed away the bed sand around them and they will roll when stepped on. We have som of the new UV2 flies at Reeds that are begging for a test run on that area. Good Luck!

Al you owe her a portrait to share with the world for all the memories she gave your family.

A little insight about governor Nixon, Outside the office and political crap he deals with he is a outdoors man that loves the rivers and lakes of the state. Fiy Fishing is not just a act for the voters it's a joy for him. He supports all the rights and needs of all the outdoor activities like hunting and fishing. I have no opinion of the political republican or democrat side of the man but I do respect the outdoors man he is. As a note about his abilities as a fly angler, He not only is a great caster and can land a fly in inches of a target he can choose the fly, tippet, and line weight to do the job. During this movie he could have put on his waders and walked into the stream and pushed other anglers to the side and had better fishing, but chose to fish basically behind them in less fish-able water. I have seen other officials come to the park and have special holes stocked for them alone and the public was shoved to the side while they fished. I was impressed of the educate he showed yesterday. By the way he was using a TFO 5W 8'6" Special addition rod that only 5 were made. and a 5W sinking line with 5X tippet, and #10 black woolly bugger. Didn't see the reel to say what it was but it had a loud clicker drag. This is not a political endorsement of a party or governor, but an insight of a outdoors man who happens to be governor.

ColdWaterFser the only problem I see with that is that 90% of these guys think this is trout fishing at it's best! LOL