Skeeter ZX190

That's what the wife and I just did. We went up I-29 to Sioux Falls and then I-90 to Buffalo Wyoming. Drove up into the Bighorns and was able to fish 3 different streams. Rock Creek, Clear Creek, and Crazy Woman Canyon Creek. Caught fish everywhere I tried. All small, but the scenery was breathtaking. Caught the trifecta, rainbows, browns, and brook. On our way home we went to Ft. Laramie and then to Scottsbluff Nebraska. The bluffs at Scottsbluff are worth the time and effort to see.

It's not just the Stockton forum that is void of reports. The Table Rock forum hasn't had a post since September 2, and that was from our very own Dutch!

Catching brown trout is fun, but it's nowhere near the challenge of catching a cuttyrainbrown. https://youtu.be/Y9tlysB1Myg?si=CYpcMazi6I4FBy1X

I don't know why, but I really prefer to catch brown trout. That's why I like the Current River. I'm the same way with bass. I would rather catch smallmouth.

To complete the Slam, I still have Barren Fork, and the North Fork of the White River. Been to both once and got skunked. So I vote for those being the toughest! 😁. My trip to Barren Fork was a cluster. I will try it again this fall or winter and see if I fair better. I'm a wade fisherman and found the NFWR to be tricky to find viable spots on public access. If I can get Barren Fork checked off, then maybe I'll try the NFWR again.

Several years ago I was over around Crabtree and the whites were surfacing. Acres of them. And it wasn't a blitz here and there, they were up and feeding for a very long time. It was a cloudy day. The pop-r bite was insane.

I used to be one of the regular posters. I've gotten into fly fishing for trout and hardly ever get my boat out. I've been to Stockton once this year back in May. Summertime was always the worst for me. I don't know where the bass go. I'm of the belief that they are out cruising the lake following the shad balls. They don't relate to anything, just suspended.

Here's the video. I don't follow his material list. I use UTC in 70 denier in tan, wood duck, or hopper yellow with peacock black ice dub. Very close to his pattern.

It's a very drab nymph. I tie it in size 16 with a tungsten bead. Tan in color with black ribbing and CDC. The guy with the YouTube video says it a good fly for pressured water and sunny conditions. It's worked well for me.

First of all, if you're going to fish the blue ribbon section of the Current River, I would suggest you take lots of Jack Daniels. I mean A LOT! Not the beverage, the fly! 😃. Old Dominion Troutbum has a YouTube video that shows how to tie it. On Monday afternoon I fished at Tan Vat and caught 6. All rainbows and all on the Jack Daniels . On Tuesday morning I went to Baptist Camp and went downstream. I fished till 12:30 and caught 20. Most of them came on the Jack Daniels but a pat's rubber legs also did well. Mostly browns with a couple of rainbows mixed in. Four of the browns were over 15 inches and another one that went 16 1/2. Water is low and clear.

My son and I have a running joke. Seems like every time we fish Stockton Lake, we catch at least one drum. We were up fishing in Montana and my son caught a whitefish. I told him that I think it is the equivalent of a drum! We got a good laugh out of that one.

Fished Tuesday afternoon around the Parker Access. Ended up catching 9 browns. Biggest was 15 inches. I was euro nymphing. Water is pretty low and clear. I was surprised at how much the water had changed since I was there back in February. Trees and laydowns that were there before are gone, and new uprooted trees are all over the place. I know they had a pretty good flood thru there a month or so ago and it sure changed the landscape. On Wednesday morning I went to Baptist Camp and headed downstream. Same story as far as what the flood did. I started out with a pink squirrel as my point fly and it was game on. For the amount of time I was on the water, that was probably the best day I've had on the Current. I started around 7:30 a.m. and fished till noon. I ended up with 25 browns and 5 rainbow. Biggest was 16 inches. Most were 12 to 14. I saw a sculpin go airborne about 15 feet in front of me. It then made a beeline for me and then circled back toward deep water. There was a pretty good sized brown in hot pursuit! I had read about dry dropper fishing with a euro rig so I gave it a try to close out my day. Much harder to cast but I was using a micro leader. 8 lb Cortland Camo with 7 lb sighter material. Then about 7 feet of 5x tippet. A heavier leader would probably improve castability. But I did catch 5. One on the dry and the others on the dropper. The picture is a brown that went 16 inches. Poor picture because he didn't want to cooperate. Quite a bit of activity on the water. Biggest canoe and kayak hatch I've seen. I think 10 total. Not sure how they faired navigating downstream with all of the trees in the water.

It has been a LONG time since I've been on Stockton. Got on the water sometime after 8:00 am. Put in at Orleans Trail and found water temps from 72 to 76. Water was clear with visibility around 7 feet. The farther we went south, the more we saw moss, algae or whatever it was floating on the surface. There wasn't much wind so we primarily went with the ned rig. Most of the fish we caught suffered from eye tail disease. However we did manage to catch 5 keepers (barely). We were fishing from 3 feet to 13 feet of water. I think maybe they are starting to transition to their summer haunts. Someone had posted in an earlier thread about vegetation growing in the lake. I saw at least 3 different spots where there was some type of aquatic plants growing. They were in at least 5 feet of water and topped out close to the surface. These 3 areas were miles from each other. So it appears that this is becoming more common lake wide. We were off the water by 3:00. Caught between 30 to 35 bass, 1 drum and a rock bass.

Bill Davenport was really a good stickbait and jig fisherman. Even had a particular jig named after him. I don't remember the name of the jig company that made it. He used to team up with Marcus Sykora and fish tournaments together. I don't know if Davenport is still alive or if he fishes tournaments anymore.

With the beautiful weather I figured I'd give it a go and see if anything was biting, especially the crappie. I put in at Long Shoals and headed up the Grand. After I went under the Long Shoals bridge I veered off to the left and went back into one of the bigger creek arms. The water temps were 58 to 60 every where I went so I figured the crappie wouldn't be on the bank. I started out throwing a white & chartreuse spinner bait and started working my way back into the creek arm. Started picking up some bass on the chunk rock banks. Nothing over 16 inches with most of them being in that 13 to 15 inch range. I probably caught 15 to 20. I came to a secondary point and I grabbed my crappie rod. The boat was in 12 feet of water but it was a short cast to the bank. I was throwing a 1/16th oz. white and chartreuse grub. I caught a crappie. Then another. Then another. At one point I caught 5 crappie on 5 casts. They were all in 3 to 5 feet of water, maybe a little shallower. I ended up catching at least 15 to 20 crappie. All but one were between 10 and 12 inches long. The males were just starting to turn black. A few of the one's I caught were females. I also caught one decent sized white bass. I was also surprised by the number of Kentucky bass I caught, 6 or 7. The forecast for the rest of the week is for wind, and more wind. I hope it dies down this weekend so I can take me son and grandson and we can do some catching, not just fishing.

76 to 81 mph is WAY too fast for me. I'm a slow poke. You may beat me to the spot, and out fish me, but I'll still have fun! 😃

A couple more comments on Montana and then I'll shut up. The downside is that it's a LONG way up there. But....., there are options along the way. I know there are trout streams along northern Nebraska. I've never fished them but it is an option. If you go up to I-90 and head west there are the Badlands if you haven't seen them. Definitely a bucket list item. Then the Black Hills, Mount Rushmore and Custer State Park. Also bucket list destinations. Several good trout streams there also. I fished a couple of them last September and did okay. Devil's Tower sits to the north of I-90 in Wyoming. Pretty cool destination. After that you come to Buffalo Wyoming which sits at the base of the Bighorn Mountains. If you're in Buffalo you need to walk into the lobby of the Occidental Hotel. It's like walking into the 1880's. Clear Creek runs right thru town. It has public access because a lot of it is on park land. Tight quarters and trees that like to grab your flies 😀. Or you could venture into the Bighorns and fish the National forest. No experience there but I hope to do it sometime soon. Sheridan Wyoming is also worth the drive thru. Very picturesque downtown. Heading on up I-90 into Montana you drive by the Little Bighorn National Battlefield. Worth the stop. Okay, I think I'm done. Well....... maybe! 😁

You da man!

Here's a picture of Belt Creek in the Sluice Boxes. This is a little over a half mile hike from the parking lot on a fairly level trail.

If you've never been to Montana, then I would highly suggest it. The beauty is unbelievable. One of the unique aspects of Montana is their Constitution. If you can legally get into the water, then you can traverse up and down the stream as long as you stay within the high water mark. So if there is a road crossing the stream, you can access the stream there since it is right-of-way. Even though the property that the stream travels thru is private, as long as you stay in the stream, you're good to go. My favorite stream to fish is Belt Creek which is about 30 miles southeast of Great Falls. There is the Sluice Boxes State Park which provides plenty of public land, but anywhere from Armington Junction to Neihart, has some good fishing. The stream itself is probably comparable in size to the Current River. Very wadable. There is a good trail system in the Sluice Boxes and if you park at the main gate, it's an easy walk. If you happen to go up there, make sure you check out the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center in Great Falls. It's an outstanding museum. The Missouri River runs through Great Falls and it's famous for the fishing, especially south of Great Falls, but it's just too big for me. I know there are also streams in the Highwoods which is also southeast of Great Falls but I never got up there. But the scenery in western Montana is something to behold. They call it the Big Sky Country and it really is. I don't know how it's possible, because it's the same sky as here, but it's just bigger.

Here is the size 12 in rust. My formula is: Wood duck flank feathers for the tail. Rubbing is small copper wire. The body is rust colored antron yarn made by Hairline. I put some flashback on and ice dub in peacock black for the thorax. Tungsten bead in copper. I'm euro nymphing so I tie on a dropper tag above my anchor fly (the size 12 rust nymph) and that's where I put on the blue wing olive nymph. Sometimes I put on a ruby midge.

I'll try to take a close up picture of them.

Went to Baptist Camp and headed downstream so I could work my way back. Kind of a tough day for me. I caught 6 total, 4 browns and 2 rainbows. Hit a lot of good looking water but bites were few and far between. The rainbows came on a size 20 blue wing olive nymph while the browns came on size 12 rust colored nymph. One of the browns was 15 1/2 while another one was my personal best for Missouri, a 19 incher. It put up quite a battle. I thought several times it was going to wrap me up in a downed tree.

I have Korkers Devils Canyon boots. They have the BOA system and I love them. They have the removable soles so you can have felt (where it's allowed) rubber, or studs. I only use them 20 to 30 times a year. I've heard that the BOA system can fail, or the removable soles can come off, but I've had no problems.

That fish is probably thinking "you got me this time. Next time I break your rod"!