First Time To Mill

[stlfisher]

Fished Mill creek for the first time yesterday and had a blast. This is certainly the smallest stream that I have ever fished and there is not any casting room in some stretches. It certainly felt more like stalking than actual fishing. If you don't spook them they aren't too difficult to catch...at least the little guys. I fished a small adams and caddis and caught plenty of fish in 6-10 inch range. I fed the trees a dozen or so flies in the process. The coloring on these fish were beautiful. There are a lot of fish in the stream, but you won't spot many...they are very good at going undetected.

I have heard some rumors of a few big fish at Mill and I can confirm they are absolutely true. I spotted a 20 inch fish and spooked 2 pod's of 3 fish each that were in the 16-18 inch range. I covered a lot of water so there are not many that size, but there are certainly a few large fish to be had. The 20 incher was the easiest to spot with no way to cast to her. Try as i might I simply couldn't get my fly near her. She was a real beauty.

I will admit I was shocked the creek held fish of that size, and it makes me wonder what is lurking in the little piney.

I will certainly be back to try for the bigger fish.

[mic]

Fished Mill creek for the first time yesterday and had a blast. This is certainly the smallest stream that I have ever fished and there is not any casting room in some stretches. It certainly felt more like stalking than actual fishing. If you don't spook them they aren't too difficult to catch...at least the little guys. I fished a small adams and caddis and caught plenty of fish in 6-10 inch range. I fed the trees a dozen or so flies in the process. The coloring on these fish were beautiful. There are a lot of fish in the stream, but you won't spot many...they are very good at going undetected.

I have heard some rumors of a few big fish at Mill and I can confirm they are absolutely true. I spotted a 20 inch fish and spooked 2 pod's of 3 fish each that were in the 16-18 inch range. I covered a lot of water so there are not many that size, but there are certainly a few large fish to be had. The 20 incher was the easiest to spot with no way to cast to her. Try as i might I simply couldn't get my fly near her. She was a real beauty.

I will admit I was shocked the creek held fish of that size, and it makes me wonder what is lurking in the little piney.

I will certainly be back to try for the bigger fish.

Did you fish the upper end by the spring or down in the park (starts with a ?

[stlfisher]

Did you fish the upper end by the spring or down in the park (starts with a ?

I fished both sections actually starting by the park and upstream in the morning and then fished the springs on down in the afternoon.

[Andrew324]

The biggest fish I've caught from Mill was around 12-13' although I have seen some pigs that Walt Fulps (The Missouri Trout Hunter) has pulled out of there. Probably would need to go deep for larger ones with nymphs or something. Mill is awesome.. Have any photos? Does the water look low?

[stlfisher]

I didn't take any pics....My camera took a dunking earlier this year. The water did look pretty low in most spots, but hard to judge since it was my first time. The biggest I caught yesterday was probably 10-11 inches, and I would agree nymph's fished on the bottom are probably the best bet for the large fish. I was surpirsed to see fish that size in the that creek, but they are there. Need to do a better job sneaking up on them.

[ChadO]

Great report. Mill is actually one of my favorites. I find that the little ones are hungry and the big ones are very spooky. My fishing buddy and I do REALLY well fishing side by side if he fishes dries and I fish small nymphs through the same pools. Our numbers are about the same at the end of the day. It fishes more like a Western trout stream than most others that I've fished here in MO.

Tight lines to all

ChadO

[ozark trout fisher]

Fished Mill creek for the first time yesterday and had a blast. This is certainly the smallest stream that I have ever fished and there is not any casting room in some stretches. It certainly felt more like stalking than actual fishing. If you don't spook them they aren't too difficult to catch...at least the little guys. I fished a small adams and caddis and caught plenty of fish in 6-10 inch range. I fed the trees a dozen or so flies in the process. The coloring on these fish were beautiful. There are a lot of fish in the stream, but you won't spot many...they are very good at going undetected.

I have heard some rumors of a few big fish at Mill and I can confirm they are absolutely true. I spotted a 20 inch fish and spooked 2 pod's of 3 fish each that were in the 16-18 inch range. I covered a lot of water so there are not many that size, but there are certainly a few large fish to be had. The 20 incher was the easiest to spot with no way to cast to her. Try as i might I simply couldn't get my fly near her. She was a real beauty.

I will admit I was shocked the creek held fish of that size, and it makes me wonder what is lurking in the little piney.

I will certainly be back to try for the bigger fish.

People always talk about how hard it is to fool the big browns on rivers like the Current or the North Fork of the White. That's certainly true, but I think that the few 20" plus fish on our little wild trout creeks offer a more difficult challenge...If only because there are only maybe 3 or 4 of them for every mile of stream and everything is in such close quarters. I've hooked into those lunkers several times, usually when I'm tossing streamers or larger nymphs in the deep holes, but I've not been able to land any over the 20" mark yet from any of those streams. As well as I think I'm playing them, they always figure out how to wrap me around a log or a submerged rock or something and break me off.Which means I've got to keep trying.

[Geoff]

Cool, I still need to try that creek one of these days. I guess it'll be better to take a day off durning the week then hit it on the weekend

[stlfisher]

People always talk about how hard it is to fool the big browns on rivers like the Current or the North Fork of the White. That's certainly true, but I think that the few 20" plus fish on our little wild trout creeks offer a more difficult challenge...If only because there are only maybe 3 or 4 of them for every mile of stream and everything is in such close quarters. I've hooked into those lunkers several times, usually when I'm tossing streamers or larger nymphs in the deep holes, but I've not been able to land any over the 20" mark yet from any of those streams. As well as I think I'm playing them, they always figure out how to wrap me around a log or a submerged rock or something and break me off.Which means I've got to keep trying.

I would tend to agree. On the little streams the fish take of like torpedo's if there is any disturbance. If you are not very careful they are long gone before you ever even see them. I suppose this is probablty true when comparing most big streams to the little ones.

Don't get me wrong though on both the Current and the little streams it can be difficult to catch the trophies...maybe just a different kind of difficult.