R.r. Report 3/21/10

[timsfly]

The river has come up a few inches, not much and I figure it will rise a bit more when all the ice and snow melt this week, but unless we get a bunch of rain, and it doesn't look like we will, the river will rise a bit more, probably not more than a foot total.

This shouldn't hurt the river a bit, it should remain clear and still be in the normal range.

The colder water from the ice melt might take the hatches down a notch or two, but there will still be midge hatches and probably the caddis will continue to hatch.

This week was really good, friday and thursday the weather was perfect, caught all kinds of trout on dry flies, caddis, B.W.O.'s, griffiths gnats, lt. cahills, and cracklebacks(light colored ones worked best) dries in the #16 and smaller size worked best.

The water is still clear, so use 7X when fishing dries and 6X is fine when fishing nymphs, I still use a lot of 5X when fishing streamers(woolybuggers) and flies larger than a #10.

San juan worms, glo-balls, pheasant tails, burlaps, copper johns and zebra midges were all working well this week, red san juans were best, and in the zebra midges black and red seemed to be the best.

Water is clear so use 2lb line if possible, 3 is about as heavy and I will use, 4lb will work early in the morning and will not work as well later in the day, especially if the sun comes out.

Jigs worked all week, black/yellow, white, olive, dk. brown and chartreuse worked all week.

Power bait was the key for a lot of folks this week, the eggs in hatch brown, white, flo. yellow and orange were all good.

If you were fishing worms, power bait, lucky lady, or the lucky strike worms, then white, cheese yellow, orange and pink were all good choices this week.

A lot of fisherman were fishing spoons this week, and a lot of nice fish were caught this way, a spoon 1/6th of an ounce or smaller works well right now, gold is my favorite color for a spoon, but red, and black seemed to be working well this week also.

Roostertails as always caught their share of fish this week, black, skunk, metallic gold and the metallic red were all working well.

Zone 3 fished very good this week, night crawlers and power bait paste in white or yellow was working best.

[Fly_Guy]

I have yet to see a RR report in which the powerbait eggs and the plastic worms were doing poorly. Thanks for the reports - I need to get down there w/ the fly rod soon...

[timsfly]

I have to write the truth, not everybody fly fishes

Powerbait products seldomly fail, if they are fished

correctly, funny how I'll see people fishing in zone

2 with powerbait and they aren't catching any fish, and

then you notice the 10lb blue stren

[Fly_Guy]

How do you advise people to fish powerbait? I'm just curious - my favorite method is using six pound line, with a 4 pound leader. I like a worm weight up in the six lb line, with a tiny split shot underneath it, and the 4 lb leader under that. Then an Owner Mosquito hook and a couple of white gulp eggs. I always trim the barbs - it makes releasing super easy, and with the worm weight, it's very easy to detect bites.

I see some people with just a few split shots above a hook - I would think strike detection would be more difficult...

I know it's probably not that complex, but if you do it right, you can c&r with powerbait doing minimal damage to the fish. I always hate to see folks rip a hook out of a bloody fish, and toss it back in the river.

With the water up, this feeling strikes instead of sight fishing is actually pretty fun.

[FishinCricket]

Those RR fish must be picky!

When I powerbait fish the Niangua or Bennett it's for a quick limit.. I use my bass rod with spincaster and 8 lb test.. #6 hooks, a bullet sinker above a splitshot that is 3 feet from the hook..

Never seems to take more than an hour to limit out.

Thanks for the report!

[timsfly]

I get a lot of people show up at the park with their bass rods and 10lb line.

I suggest they put a worm weight on, 1/16th is a good size on their heavy line

attach a small barrel swivel on the 10lb line, add 30" of 2,3, or 4lb line to

the other end of the barrel swivel, when the water is clear and low, I like a

#16 or a #18 short shank hook, and I like to be able to hide the hook completly

in the egg, the small hook will come out quickly and you can do a little C&R fishing,

if you are quick when you feel the bite, you'll hook a lot of the trout in the mouth

and not deep in their stomach. When the water is high like it is now a #10 or #8 hook

will work fine, just add a few more eggs to the hook to cover the point, sometimes

we'll use 3 eggs when the water is high and off colored. The lower the water the

lighter the line I will use, I think right now 4lb will work just fine.

Most people just want a limit, and I advise them to just wait untill the trout is

pulling on the line and wait a second or two and set the hook. I always advise the

fisherman that if a trout is bleeding or appears injured it should be kept.

The worm weight will add plenty of weight, the barrel swivel keeps the sinker away

from the bait and you'll catch plenty of fish, fishing this way, or we do at least

here at Roaring River.