Three Day Report

[ozark trout fisher]

I managed to steal three days to stay at Montauk this week- I headed down Monday and was there until today. I arrived about 2:30 P.M on on Monday and after setting up camp, I headed up to the where the headwaters springs flow into Pigeon Creek on the fly only area. I have only previously fished the area for a quarter mile or so above the mill dam, so this was new water to me. I found my way to a long flat that had excellent numbers of fish, but also plenty of fisherman. I finally found a pod that wasn't being fished and got to work. I tied on an orange egg pattern to start with-sort of my default trout park fly. They wouldn't have anything to do with it. I switched to an Olive Woolly, a Mohair Leech, and then a Copper John. Same story. I finally came to the conclusion that the fish were being put off by the heat, but before giving up, I tied on a #16 Gray Scud. That worked. I caught 8 fish by 6:30. I released all but one that I kept for dinner.

After dinner, I headed down to Baptist Camp. I kept the Gray Scud tied on and it worked down there too. No big fish, just some nice rainbows and a couple small browns. Still a nice evening on the river.

Tuesday morning I got up for the buzzer and headed back to the headwaters. I caught two fish right away on the scud, and then it shut off for me. I fished until noon, but I never caught another fish. Then I didn't fish anymore until the evening. Then I headed to the catch and release area, and the fishing was good. Once again no really big fish, but several solid 15 and 16 inch fish. The gray scud was best there too, although I took a couple on an orange egg pattern as well.

This morning I got up early and took down camp. I was thinking I was going to head straight home without any fishing, but about the time I got to Salem I changed my mind. I decided to head up to an access point on the far upper reaches of the Meramec, where it is more of a creek really. I decided to start off with a #10 brown woolly and stuck with it the whole time. The areas where riffles dumped into the pools were good. I caught a pretty decent number of fish, and mixture of smallmouth bass, sunfish, and goggle-eye. And the stream was very nice up there, a pleasant and lonely area that I know I'll return to soon.

[Trout Commander]

Nice trip!

After dinner, I headed down to Baptist Camp.

Baptist Camp South of Houston MO?

[Gavin]

The other Baptist camp its right by Mill Creek

[Trout Commander]

LOL My next question was going to be: And you caught TROUT?!?!?!?!!!!

That explains a lot though.

[ozark trout fisher]

LOL My next question was going to be: And you caught TROUT?!?!?!?!!!!

That explains a lot though.

I was talking about the Baptist Camp on the Current, a couple miles below Montauk State Park. Sorry about the confusion there.