Fishing Report Upper River

[Sam Potter]

Fishing Report upper Current River July 10

It was a great day to be fishing, except for the continuous rain all morning. It isn't often during the Month of July that we get continuous rain for hours. We will get occasional storms that blow in, but the rain is usually over in an hour or less. Today it rained for about 5 hours continuously, and it was raining when we left a little after noon. At times it was heavy, but mostly a good soaker. As you can tell by the rain jacket that Travis has on, it was indeed a soaker. He caught fish all morning, mostly on the good ole gold ribbed hare's ear. A tried and proven nymph for years, at least as long as I can remember. His largest fish of the day was a 16" rainbow. We would have used a dry fly for an indicator, but with all the rain it made it difficult to keep a dry fly floating long enough to be useful. Fishing was very good, the river is clear, but we did get some debris that started floating down when the river came up. It didn't come up much, but I could tell that the flow was increasing. If the ground would have been soaked the river would have had a good rise, but in July the ground is never soaked enough to bring the river up very much. Today should be an excellent day to be on the water.

We did experience a once in a life time event yesterday. We found a Wood Duck hen that had eaten a fly that someone lost in a tree. The hook on the fly was rusted, indicating that the fly had been in the tree for a long time. The tree was leaning over the water with the top branches touching the surface. It had dropped during the heavy water we had a couple of months ago, when the bank washed away from the roots. The fly line was wrapped around a branch and the fly was close to or on the surface of the water when the Wood Duck ate it, apparently taking it for a bug. The poor duck was thrashing around trying to get lose when I saw it. As we approached she dove under the water trying to hide from us. When I caught her, we found the hook had penetrated the end of her upper bill. I cut the line, pinched the barb down and let her go. It was a great feeling watching her swim off. The only regret I have is not taking a picture... I will never see it again in my life, I'm sure.

"A bad day fishing is still a Great Day"

www.TightLine.Biz

[shawncat]

Nice job! Great story!Do you have any tips for the upper Meremac trout waters? I have'nt seen any here lately or your web site.

[Snow Fly]

Sam what part of the upper Current were you fishing? I started at Tan Vat and worked down stream fishing was good numerous small browns and one nice one and the rainbows were nice, have been since the flash flood. Could be wrong but I think most of them might have come out of the park with the high water. I saw a small pickup at Tan Vat when I got there around 830am and it was still there when I left at around 1230pm. Went to Tanney from there and it poured all the way.

[Gene K]

I was down there on 7/12. Only had a few hours to fish, but I saw many more fish than I'm acustom to seeing. If any of you guys get down to Parker Ford access, I hope to meet you.

[Sam Potter]

I'm Sorry I have not been answering questions. It has been a very busy time for me lately.

Shawncat

I have not been writing reports for the Meramec, because I have not been there recently. The upper Meramec River had a lot of rainbows in it last month. There were a ton of fish washed out of the park during the last flood. The information I get is from friends that fish there. They have been catching them with bead head nymphs below an indicator adjusted to the water depth.

Work the shade during the day with hoppers and droppers. There are some small numbers of Tricos on the Meramec in the mornings but the pods feeding on them are scattered. There are usually caddis hatches in the evenings, with more numbers coming in the fall. Early and late are almost always your best bet during the summer, or at night.

[Sam Potter]

Snowcat

I fish in a lot of locations on the upper Current. From the park boundary to Cedar. It kind of depends on where I feel like going, how long I have to fish, the day of the week and if I am by myself, with a friend or with a client.

There are numerous rainbows below TanVat because the high water washed several out of the park. Almost all the rainbows wash down out of the park. Some are stockers that swim up from below Cedar and a few are streamborn. You will know immediately, if it is a wild rainbow. The fish that have been in the stream a long time have brilliant colors. The washed out color fish are from the park.