Opening Day Report

[Stephen]

I decided on a last moment whim to head down to Bennett Springs for the Opener. I had never been there for the opener. It was way to late to try and find a room, so I planned on sleeping in the car. When I woke up in Saturday, here in NW Missouri, it was pretty much a white out blizzard. After I packed up, I made the decision to go ahead and see what the roads were like. I figured, it had to get better the further south I went. Not so much. Eventually I made it to the park and thought I'd try a couple motels out to see if there were any cancellations. Luckily, Vogels was able to accomodate me. I woke up at 4:00 am and got all my gear on, and headed to the area just above the spill way. There were probably about 10 people there when I got there, so I was able to get a decent fishing spot. I had decent luck there with 12 rainbows. I spent the first 15 minute re-tying my line after getting hung up a couple times. After the crowd thinned out, The guy just to the right of me pulled in an awsome 6 1/2 lb rainbow. Beautiful fish. A little later I moved up to the rock darn in zone 1, stepped in and immediatly caught 12 rainbows in the backwater swirls below the darn, in about 15 minutes. Every thing was working great, unit an old bastard(pardon my french) just stepped right into where I was fishing. Litterally less then 2 foot from my float. I couldn't believe the audacity of this old guy, as he proceeds to tell me that I should lengthen the distance from my float to the glow ball. Unbelievable!!! If that wasn't bad enought this guys son, who stepped in just to the right of me proceeds to pull out about a 4 lb rainbow. Good for him I guess, I just wish people had a little more curtosy and fished with good sportsmanship. The good news it that I didn't have any other experiences like that the rest of the day. All totaly I caught 30 rainbows, and I could have cought plenty more had I stayed out there all after noon, but I came in to watch the MU/KU Game. Should have stayed out fishing!!!!

[brownieman]

Glad you had a good trip...think the weather caught several people off guard.

We had around 8 " in the Montauk area...most I heard of was 13" at Edgar Springs.

Little episodes like you had with the older fellow...all the more reason I've always enjoyed just watching the circus from the comfort of my truck, lol.

[redbird]

I use those little episodes as examples for my kids as how not to behave, Some people really do have no clue, they are extremely hard to tolerate, but that is our burden. Take pitty on the unenlightened, and give them plenty of distance.

[flyfishmaster]

Stephan,

You are right about 60% of the people fishing in the trout parks have no clue about fishing equite (spelling?). But when some does that to me I usually make their casting a bit rough for about 2 minutes just as a bit of payback.

Also I am jeolous becasue this is the first opener I have missed in 14 years at BSSP and I really missed it.

Thanks for the report.

later,

FFM