Great Weekend Of Trout Fishing

[ozark trout fisher]

Well, I left the house at 2:30 on Friday to head down to Montauk for some trout fishing. At the last moment, I decided I didn't want to deal with the crowded park campground on free fishing weekend, so I decided to camp at Lane Spring and commute to Montauk for the buzzer Saturday and Sunday (Its about 30 or 45 minutes). Well, for those who don't realize, Lane Spring is right in the heart of the Blue Ribbon trout area of Little Piney Creek, and I had about an hour and a half of daylight left after setting up camp. I waded for about 1/4 mile downstream from Lane spring branch, and managed to pick up two wild rainbow (both about 9 or 10 inches), both on a 1/32 Panther Martin spinner. They had good colors, and appeared to be in pretty good shape. Kinda slow fishing for the Little Piney, but we'll take it LOL.

One thing I saw that was not cool at all. I found a bobber alongside the stream that someone had left, and I looked to find that it had a rubber trout worm on it. Thats a big no no in a Blue Ribbon Trout area. It amazes me that it would occur for someone to break the rules in a rather sensitive wild trout creek. I love bait fishing, but it has its place, and the Little Piney ain't it.

Got up and headed to Montauk for the buzzer Saturday morning. Headed to the last hole of the spring branch, and joined the crowds to dunk Powerbait a little. Only got one rainbow there before a guy cut me off, so I left and headed to the fly area. Had a few hookups there, but never brought any to net.

About 10:00 A.M, I headed to the C&R Area up near the hatchery. Couldn't fool any of the trout in the glassy spring creek, but I landed one rainbow in Montauk Lake that measured 17", caught on a 1/32 White Marabou on my ultralight.

Couldn't get anymore in the catch and release area, and headed to the bait area on the main river, and landed a three pounder, and a 9 incher on Powerbait. Headed back to the C&R, and hooked and lost a nice brown trout in the creek. He hit a brown/olive marabou.

Next morning, I headed to the first plunge pool of the bait area to catch a couple trout for lunch. Got that accomplished in the first 10 minutes using orange Powerbait. Cooked those up back at camp, and then went back on the Little Piney. Caught one 8" wild bow just below the mouth of Lane Spring Branch, and also a sunfish.

One interesting note is that I only saw two other fisherman the entire time I fished Little Piney, which is sure a nice adjustment from Montauk. I'll tell you, there may be better places to fish in the Ozarks than Little Piney, but I haven't found it yet. There are lots of places to catch more and bigger trout, but the combination of beautiful wild trout, great scenery, and few people make it about perfect. The fishing is generally pretty decent too, if you know what to do. But that's not really the important thing on a creek like Piney.

All in all, a great trip. Fishing was a bit tough at times, but there was plenty of action to keep things interesting. Next trip on line is the Eleven Point.