Overcoming The Great Technical Challenges Of Upper Wire Rd. Access Payed Off Today

[duckydoty]

Crane Creek provides some excellent fishing challenges and options other than outlet fishing on Taney during high water. Crane has been getting alot of publicity on the forum over the last couple of weeks, which I think is great news. The state of Missouri has publicized the creek for many years now and we are lucky that the Conservation Department through publically owned land gives us an oportunity to be able to fish for trout that have not been stocked since the late 1800's. Everyone should have the chance to be able to enjoy the beauty of fishing Crane Creek for McCloud rainbows and I am happy to be able to enlighten outdoor enthusiasts to what Crane Creek might have to offer them if they are interested.

With that said, DD'sMC and I again fished Crane today. I spent the morning tying up some size 20 BWO's hoping to hit a good hatch at the Upper Wire Rd. Access today. Well, there was a hatch and I did catch one on the BWO, but the McClouds were not as active on the top as I had hoped. DD'sMC picked one up on an elk hair caddis then we decided to change over to nyphing. Picked up one on a tan sowbug but could not get down deep enough quick enough in the deeper holes. All the deep holes had lots of wood around them sow we again switched over to heavily weighted sculping jigs. I managed to land two other very nice McClouds and hooked up with several more. Keeping them out of the wood proved to be a great challenge. DD'sMC hooked up with one giant McCloud that was pushing at least 20 inches if not 22. It was a monster and it took her to school on Crane Creek Wood. What a rush!

First one of the day took the BWO

Size 16 tan sowbug

Puttin the "Neak" on em!

DD'sMC checking one out

My larges McCloud so far

Another nice one

Picked up a huge sculpin on a sculpin jig

DD'sMC putting the "Neak" on em!

Caught one on these today. Taking them to R.R. tomorrow

Saw 2 snakes today. They weren't moving too fast.

[eric1978]

Saw 2 snakes today.

That's the best news I've heard in a long time. Nice pics.

[trout_bum]

Every time I fish Crane Creek, I find myself wishing I were only three feet tall.

[fishgypsy]

Cool pics, thanks for sharing.

I guess I'll never understand why, after all the stealth and hard work you put into catching the things, you'd just throw 'em up in the grass and weeds and leaves to take a picture.