Fishing Report 20 July

[Wheatenheimer]

Today was a fantastic day, my friends!

I took the rare opportunity to fish with an old friend that I hadn't fished with in many years on our "home water" that each of us cut our flyfishing teeth on umpteen years ago, so to speak!

My good buddy, Ed, was in town this weekend and we decided that neither one of us had a legitimate excuse not to fish Crane on Sunday. The stars must have been aligned, because not only were we going to get to finally fish together, but our favorite Springfield band was playing in town Saturday night at Cartoons.............none other than Big Smith! Ed and I have been going to Big Smith shows since they started playing downtown at Harlow's and the Bar Next Door over a decade ago, so we had a feeling that it was going to be a good day! Big Smith did not disappoint, great show.....as always!

After a quick power nap, we got up, sucked down some coffee and headed to Crane. We arrived at the Dairy Farm a little after daylight, walked down the old railroad bed, trying to be as courtious as possible to the hard night's work of spiders weaving webs across the trail (They must have pulled an overtime shift last night!) When we hit the water, it was up a bit from how I remember it and slightly off color, but in a green way. It was still wadable and quite chilly, I was questioning wether wet wading was a good idea after all.

Within the first run we both had fish on. Ed hooked the first fish of the day, but did not land him. Out of the same run I landed a nice 8 inch McCloud. This fish was very healthy, very fat and fought like Mike Tyson on meth!

We took turns fishing our way back to the car and between the two of us, we landed 15 or so fish, only two of which were fingerlings, the rest were 8 to 14 inches. Ironically the 14 incher was landed by Ed and was the last fish of the day! What a way to end a day! We also had at least that many fish on, that we did not land. It was a great day!

Close to the bridge we ran into a couple of guys carrying buckets of cottonmouths......no joke!!!!! They said they were do a snake study on Crane today! I didn't ask any questions, they seemed like nice enough fellows. I mean really.......who wants to stand around and chit chat with a couple of guys that have buckets of cottonmouths in their hands?

So aside from the unionized spiders and the buckets of cottonmouths..........it was.......well.......it was friggin awesome!!!!!!

I love this stream!

Kevin

[flyfishmaster]

Wheat...

Sounds like a great day with a good friend. Here is quick one, were the snakes alive or dead? And what were they going to do with them?

later,

FFM

[Wheatenheimer]

FFM,

I think that they were from MSU.......pretty sure I noticed some movement going on in the buckets, so I would say they were alive. Both gents were well equiped with grabbers and other devices. They said they were doing a study on cottonmouths. I am not terribly frightened by snakes, but I look at snakes in the same light as STD's.......I know they exsist, but I want nothing to do with them. So I didn't ask too many questions, sorry.

Thanks for the reply!

Kevin

[timsfly]

I see snake catchers down there sometimes, the snakes they have are always alive.

there is one guy down there who told me he was milking the venom out of the snakes to

make anti-venom, told me there was a good money in snakes.

they have a lot of them to choose from down there.

[drew03cmc]

How thick is the cottonmouth population around Crane?

[jefly77]

I saw one last Wednesday and two yesterday. They didn't bother me. I also saw two big snappers and had to catch one and mess with him a little. He was not happy when I lifted him out of the water. I let him go back into the creek and he took off for a deep hole.

Jefly

[catman]

How thick is the cottonmouth population around Crane?

Lots of snakes, lots..

[Danoinark]

Great report! One I have yet to fish, but its on the short list.

Gives new meaning to "snake handlers". How does it fish after the snakes go to be in the Winter?

Dano

[zsmith62]

I plan on fishing crane for the first time sunday (needin a change of pace from the constant four units at taney)

A few quick questions:

Where should I start fishing at?

What flies should I be using?

Leader length, tippet size?

[Wheatenheimer]

Crane is a place that is very near and dear to my heart. It still amazes me that there is a stream in Missouri that has a self-sustaining population of wild trout for more than a hundred years!

Dano- fishing in the winter is physically easier due to the fact that you are not dealing with the jungle like conditions, snakes, spiders and such. But, on the other hand, the fish seem to be a little more spooky, we don't have that jungle like canopy to blend in to. You really have to watch your profile any time you fish Crane, but especially when there are no leaves on the trees.

Zach- you can find a fantastic map of Crane here on the forum. Fishing can be good just about anywhere on this stream. Upstream from town the creek is very small, there are places that you can stradle the stream. Downstream, more water. It doesn't matter were you fish as long as you follow some basic tips that have worked for me over the years.

1. Always fish in an upstream manner. Either start by wading upstream from where you park or hike a ways downstream and fish your way back to the car. This way you are not kicking up a conveyor of muck that will shut down good runs that you wanted to fish.

2. Always consider your profile. Wear earth-toned clothes, even camo if you want. These fish are very weary of anything out of the ordinary and if you decide to wear your flourescent Spud's MacKenzie shirt and a neon hat, they are going to run and hide!

3. Stop watch and listen. When you aproach a run that you want to fish, stay low off to the side and watch it for a good 10 to 15 minutes. This not only gives you time to read the water, look for bugs, look and listen for rises, but it also gives you time to blend in to the environment.

4. Presentation is everything. Practice short accurate casts that don't crash hard on the water.

Flies of choice. Beadheads in 12 to 18 have been successful. Dry's.....Trico's size 18 or 20, Elkhair Caddis size 16. Even woolies in higher water work. The main thing I believe in is how you present it to them.

I use a 9 foot 5x leader and I add another 2 foot of 6x tippet. There are many times that I am not casting very much flyline.

Crane is a very technical stream to fish, it is not for the light of heart. You are going to get frustrated, you are going to get your feelings hurt. But keep in mind after you have lost your 32nd fly in the canopy above. You are on their turf. This is truely a wild trout stream.

Good luck, I hope this helps! Sorry to be so long winded guys, but I definately appreciate your input and comments!

Cheers,

Kevin