Fishing Report

[jah]

My friend and I went down to fish the Current on Saturday morning. We left St. Louis at 6 am and were on the water by 8:30. We were greeted with the largest hatch of mayflies that I have ever seen (picture attached). Is my assumption that these are pale morning duns correct? I claim very little knowledge of bugs, so if I'm wrong please enlighten me. They were white in color and tiny. Their movement was more vertical than horizontal (i.e. they were dancing up and down).

There were at least 3 other groups fishing at Baptist Camp, so we made our way downstream in order to get out of their way. We spent most of the day fishing around the sharp bend below Baptist. I posted a question on here one time about how to get around this bend (the one with the chainsawed log in the middle of the river). I figured it out today---we bushwacked around the corner and it worked out great. As many times as I fished the Current, this was my first time this far below Baptist. There is some interesting water, though a bit stagnant at times for my taste. However, in this "stagnant" water, i caught my 3 biggest fish. I had 2 browns that must have measured over 20 inches, though I didn't have a way to measure them. 1 must have been just shy of 20. All were caught on stonefly imitations---2 on the Kaufman black stone and 1 on Pat's rubber legs.

The rest of our fish were caught on eggs, psycho princes, and cerise san juans. Some of the rainbows were gorgeous, and we each caught what I assume is a wild trout. They were about 6 inches long and gorgeous...they looked like the trout I have seen on the Wild Trout threads on this site.

The water was slightly off color, and it was a little higher than the last few times I was there. The guys in the canoe behind me paddled upstream to see my fish after they heard me shout "Holy $%#@!" when I hooked the big fella. All in all a great day.

Okay, so after a long time of trying to figure out how to attach photos, I realized that I have no idea how. My files are all too big. Any help would be appreciated.

[jah]

[stlfisher]

Those are some nice fish. :goodjob

If my memory serves me correct I think I saw you just below Baptist on Saturday morning. You were heading downstream as I was re-rigging in a riffle. You stopped to ask if i was heading downstream and said you didn't want to "low hole me." Thanks for that BTW. I think you saw an otter in the weeds as you were passing by. I ended up heading back upstream as I had to meet the rest of the gang for lunch. Anyway, I think that was you.

All in all I spent Friday through Sunday messing around and hooked into some really nice fish. Sunday night I caught a bunch on huge Stimulator's and Caddisyflies. That was one of the best fishing nights I have ever had. It was so much fun I was 4 hours late leaving and getting home. After 3 full days on the water I am sore, very tired, and very depressed to be back at work.

Anyway, thanks for sharing your report.

[jah]

Those are some nice fish. :goodjob

If my memory serves me correct I think I saw you just below Baptist on Saturday morning. You were heading downstream as I was re-rigging in a riffle. You stopped to ask if i was heading downstream and said you didn't want to "low hole me." Thanks for that BTW. I think you saw an otter in the weeds as you were passing by. I ended up heading back upstream as I had to meet the rest of the gang for lunch. Anyway, I think that was you.

All in all I spent Friday through Sunday messing around and hooked into some really nice fish. Sunday night I caught a bunch on huge Stimulator's and Caddisyflies. That was one of the best fishing nights I have ever had. It was so much fun I was 4 hours late leaving and getting home. After 3 full days on the water I am sore, very tired, and very depressed to be back at work.

Anyway, thanks for sharing your report.

That was me. I should have asked you if you were on the forum! And yes, that otter scared the beejesus out of me. I wish I had the topwater success you did....I got nothing to even look at my hopper or October caddis.

[stlfisher]

Yeah it wasn't until Sunday afternoon and evening when I started to get into a little topwater action. The first couple days for me was mostly down and dirty to get the fish.

I couldn't believe that hatch on Saturday morning didn't bring up more fish...it was massive.

[Gavin]

Thanks for the reports...Heading down Friday....just a guess...but those were probably blue winged olives or trico's....BWO's are usually in the 22-24 range this time of year...Trico's are allot smaller, 28 or so.

[jah]

Thanks for the reports...Heading down Friday....just a guess...but those were probably blue winged olives or trico's....BWO's are usually in the 22-24 range this time of year...Trico's are allot smaller, 28 or so.

Cool. Thanks Gavin. If you saw a hatch like that, what would you throw to entice them? No fish were rising, and I didn't see any slurping below the surface, but the swarm was THICK! I just threw stones mostly, though that's not really matching the hatch. Emergers, you think, would have been best?

[stlfisher]

Thanks for the reports...Heading down Friday....just a guess...but those were probably blue winged olives or trico's....BWO's are usually in the 22-24 range this time of year...Trico's are allot smaller, 28 or so.

BWO's is what I actually thought they were. They seemed to be too big for Tricos.

[Guest]

Cool. Thanks Gavin. If you saw a hatch like that, what would you throw to entice them? No fish were rising, and I didn't see any slurping below the surface, but the swarm was THICK! I just threw stones mostly, though that's not really matching the hatch. Emergers, you think, would have been best?

I would probaly try to swing a wet fly, but I don't think that current fish follow the rules--I get most fish on a bugger and dropper.

[trout_bum]

I was there on the 18th and 19th. Those were most definitely tricos. I fished mainly above Tan Vat the whole weekend. There were runs up there where the trout were literally boiling.