No-Name Creek

[ozark trout fisher]

I spent the last couple days along a nice little wild trout creek in southern Missouri- and other than that I can't say more about the location.

I got to the stream last night around 7:30 P.M, just in time for the evening rise. There were some caddis coming off, and some fish rising in the slower water. I tied on a #14 Elks Hair Caddis and got to work- I got three that evening, two 5 inchers and a 9 incher-small but still fun on a fly rod.

This morning I woke about 5 AM. I tied on a Hares Ear Nymph a few feet under a strike indicator. I immediately hooked a decent rainbow, about 11 inches if I had to guess. He jumped up, giving me a chance to see how pretty he was while simultaneously throwing the hook. I fished the same riffle for another two hours and landed four rainbows, all between 4 inches and 8 inches.

Finally I worked down to the pool below the riffle. The pool was the whole package- it had fast, oxygenated, food filled riffle water coming in at its head, a fallen tree for cover, and several boulders to slow the current. I knew it would hold large fish. The only problem was getting a clean drift with many conflicting currents. Finally I devised a way to drift a fly down from the riffle down into the pool, and with several correcting mends on each cast it did the job adequately. On the second cast my indicator went down and I was fast to a good fish, which I landed. He was 11" long, colorful, and very wild. Exactly what a rainbow trout should be.

A few casts later, my strike indicator took another dive. This time the fish was much larger, and I knew I wouldn't have much control over the fight. He headed for the downed tree, but I managed to hold him off for about 5 minutes. Then he made one more desperate run. I tried to keep him out of the tree, but I tried too hard. Just before he got me tangled up in there, the 6x tippet broke. I don't know how large the fish was, but I can definitively say he was the largest Missouri wild rainbow I have seen in person. It was a privledge just to have a chance to see such a fish in a Missouri stream, but I blew it. That'll happen though.

Anyway, after that I'd had it for the day, and headed home. Despite the lost fish, it was still a very nice day of fishing on a very nice creek.