Two Nice Browns

[Nortrad]

Got to a certain part of the river downstream and walked down to a nice riffle/hole where I have had success in the past. Started off well with two stockers, 'bow and brown. Then the nice 'bow in the pic hit my new attractor nymph. It's a variation of a czech nymph and has worked every time since I've been tying it. I wanted to go small most of the time today, midges and small attractor nymphs.

Interesting, or maybe not, but the next two big browns came from the same place as the 'bow, in the slack water on the edge of the main riffle. Guess they were taking it easy, not working too hard. Both browns ran short upstream then down. Got the first on a regular #18 zebra midge and the second on a variation of a Rojo midge, #20. Great morning with three beauties and a few stockers. If I got skunked the rest of the day that was OK.

Moved up to Baptist at lunch and headed down. No real luck in the nice deep run above the turn. Got the fightin' little bow on a Jumbo John variation w. pink bead. Walked down below the turn and caught two more smallish 'bows. Saw two nice browns but could not entice them. Made my way back, tired, happy and thirsty (see pic.)

On a negative note, when I got back to Baptist to head home a guy and his wife were heading to their pickup with a stringer of 10-12 browns and 'bows, looked like mostly stockers. I forgot my phone, but called it in a few minutes ago. Don't know what will come of it, but I'm tired of people harvesting below reg. size trout in the Blue Ribbon stretch.

Thanks to all who post and give advice. On to the NFOW in less than two weeks.

[Kyle]

Nortrad,

I was the guy you talked to right after you caught the small bow in the picture just below Baptist. Turned out to be a beautiful weekend on the river and the bugs hatching were unreal.

Kyle

Here is a fish story for everybody:

Fished below Baptist on Saturday. I was throwing streamers with my 8wt looking for the big browns, but to no avail. There were massive amounts of tricos coming off the water and some actively feeding fish in a pool. I knew I shouldn't do it, but I put on a 7x tippit and a small mayfly I had. About 2 casts later a fish hit it and I preceded to set the hook too hard (because there is very little give to an 8wt) and snapped the tippit. I wanted to be prepared to for this hatch again today so I went to Reeds Cabin and got some 24 black and white tricos. Fast forward to today. Same hole and fish feeding the same way. I have my 3 wt and put on the trico dry and target a fish that was feeding in exactly the same spot as the one the day before (because it was an easy presentation, not because I planned what happens next). The fish takes on the 2nd or 3rd cast. Once he tires I go to remove the hook and what do I see? My trico and the mayfly from yesterday! I remove both hooks, thank him and send him on his way. Crazy that I hooked the exact same fish in the exact same spot 2 days in a row. (P.S. pulled a 15 1/2 inch rainbow out of the same whole on the trico as well. Wish we had more dry fly action in Missouri. It is great.)

[Nortrad]

It's cool to run into another person from the forum. It was beautiful day. That's a good story, wish I would catch one with a fly I lost when my knot gave out. That was quite a while ago and hopefully the fly dropped out.

Here's one, last May downstream f. Tan Vat, Jedi and I are fishing 'The Wall' as we call it. I hook and land a nice big brown with a rubber leg stone. 15 minutes later, Jedi hooks the same fish. We matched it to the pic I took. The fish went back to his lie and kept feeding. It was crazy fishing that run with off-color water.

[stlfisher]

Nice fish Nortrad....great colors!

[Nortrad]

Nice fish Nortrad....great colors!

Thanks man, they are coloring up. Fished a stretch down from Baptist that I had neglected for awhile, looks very promising. The browns were landed on a fave stretch of mine.

[moguy1973]

Be careful around water with that ska brewing beer...it doesn't float as we found out on LOTO this summer...wasted about a 6 pack of them because people couldn't catch!!

[Nortrad]

I will, we're going to take some sort of canned brews next weekend. I admit it, I'm a beer snob, only the quality stuff, that's on sale of course. Had some Leinie's last summer, they were OK. I like the Tallgrass products. I heard in trout nirvana, MT, that Big Sky comes in cans. That would nice, Trout Slayer, Pronghorn, Mt. Goat, Moose Drool, mmmm...

[ozark trout fisher]

I very much enjoyed the pictures and report. I'm planning to be down there this weekend and you can bet that seeing those fish got me excited! Beautiful colors on those fish, especially the rainbow.

It's a sad thing about the fellow who kept the sub-legal fish, but you did the right thing calling it in, and maybe something will come of it. If more folks would make the call when they saw someone so abusing the resource, the Current would be a better trout stream.

[Flysmallie]

I heard in trout nirvana, MT, that Big Sky comes in cans. That would nice, Trout Slayer, Pronghorn, Mt. Goat, Moose Drool, mmmm...

It does. But you can also get some of these in cans at the Derby Wine Center on Glenstone at times.

[Nortrad]

They have told me that, and the Brown Derby on National near my place said the same thing. I'll have to pester them...