A Day At The Crane

[jefly77]

It's only hypocritical if I'm also posting fishing reports...

And if you want to go ahead and post up your good fishing reports, that's fine... I just hope you enjoy seeing four other cars in the parking lot when you get there.

I've been fishing Crane about every two weeks for the past few months and I've never seen more than two cars in any of the parking lots. It's in the Missouri fishing handbook and it has been publicized by several national magazines and fishing shows. It's not a secret spot.

[Chief Grey Bear]

I hope next time I am down there, one of those four cars is yours.

[Greg]

Which probably has something to do with the number of fishing reports posted on the internet for all the world to see...

Crane is pretty well known to most all of the fly fisherman in this part of the country. I seriously doubt these posts are causing an increase in fishing pressure at all. Crane is also a VERY difficult little stream to fish. I don't see it ever becoming overrun by fly fisherman.

Droughts in past years have caused Crane creek a lot more trouble than fishing pressure.

I see nothing wrong with posting these reports at all. Nice report Chief.

Greg

[Flysmallie]

I hope next time I am down there, one of those four cars is yours.

Good job Poke 'Em. Now you've got Chief all fired up. Don't tell him what you drive.

[Chief Grey Bear]

Thanks for the compliment Greg. Much appreciated.

Flysmallie, Circle the wagons! I'm on the warpath!!

[Poke 'Em]

Internet scouting is very, very real. Just for an example...

Over in Oklahoma there's a little lake called Sahoma. There are a few ducks that frequent Sahoma, but not many. It doesn't get much pressure though, as it's not widely considered a duck hunting hot spot. Well, last year, some guys held a little "experiment." They posted up a fake hunting report, complete with pictures, of great limits being killed at Sahoma. Of course, none of those birds in the pictures were actually killed at Sahoma. The next week, this lake that before rarely had more than 1-3 groups on it at a time was over-run with hunters.

While Crane may not get a ton of pressure right now, it won't stay that way forever...

[strangercreek]

This bings something else to mind. I saw Tim post a report that included some water above town. I have wondered how the creek fishes between town and the old wire road access (upstream) and then between the old wire road access and the access on round house road (further upstream). The map includes the entire creek in these stretches. I know I have driven up there in the past and it looked kind of dry, but last time I went all the way up to roundhouse road and the creek looked very healthy.

http://mdc.mo.gov/documents/area_brochures/8307map.pdf

[timsfly]

I fished that section today or part of it, very cold made my hands hurt after a few hrs, the water is low above town right now and getting lower, in real dry spells it will dry up in a few places, but the water

runs thru the gravel out of our sight, but I guess or so I've been told, it always flows, it is just below the creek gravel, so I guess it never really goes dry it just goes underground.

No cars in any of the parking areas today, at least not when I was fishing.

I only caught 3 today, and the were all 10" or smaller, still great fun and it was nice to be all alone on the water.

[trout_bum]

I fished that section today or part of it, very cold made my hands hurt after a few hrs, the water is low above town right now and getting lower, in real dry spells it will dry up in a few places, but the water

runs thru the gravel out of our sight, but I guess or so I've been told, it always flows, it is just below the creek gravel, so I guess it never really goes dry it just goes underground.

No cars in any of the parking areas today, at least not when I was fishing.

I only caught 3 today, and the were all 10" or smaller, still great fun and it was nice to be all alone on the water.

Tim,

Did you happen to notice any spawning activity when you were out yesterday?

[jefly77]

I caught a very nice 21" male a week and a half ago that was in full spawn colors and as I lifted him out of the water he was leaking semen out so the spawn is on at Crane. If you check the thread just down called "the spawn has started" you will se apicture of the beauty. I also caught a smaller 12" fish from the same spot that looked to be in spawn color as well.