A Few Hours On The Road....and A Few More Fishing...

[Morgan F.]

Hit the water at Tan Vat at 7am after a 4am STL departure this past Sunday morning.

Stocker browns actively feeding and taking right from the gitgo. Headed downstream after a few of the stocker browns and was quickly into healthy rainbows just about anywhere you would want to cast. I was pleasantly surprised with the fight in the fish and how healthy they looked. Nothing big but these fish had spunk! Every fish brought in was thick and full of fight. Makes me think that the 4wt might need to get a big brother!

I'm not entirely sure how far down I made it as this was my first time on this stretch of water. As I recall though, I passed an island and a couple of other riffles before taking the path back to the truck at about 11:30am. Thoroughly impressed with this piece of water...why did it take me so long to drive the extra mile or so?! Didn't count but would guess somewhere around 25 fish. Again, nothing big, but I had an absolute blast! Perfect overcast morning with low temps (for June/July) that broke into partly cloudy later...then back to rain on the way home.

Laced up the go-to zebra midge and never switched...as there was no need. Probably could have done well with a hopper-dropper setup but wasn't sure on depth when I started...and didn't take the time to switch once I had a few fish take the indicator...next time.

Had the pleasure of meeting another guy that visits / posts here on the forum. Good conversation on our days activities for a few minutes before neither of us could take not fishing any longer. I'm not real vocal on the water, but every time I run into someone from this forum, it's an enjoyable experience.

Back home by 3pm and working on the Honey-do list...keeping my butt out of trouble...day couldn't have been much better!

Morgan

...One last mention. I am certainly no expert caster, but I had been having difficulties roll-casting with the BVK 4wt that I have been fishing lately. I recently purchased a braided (mono) leader and used it on this trip for the first time...certainly a big difference...for me at least. My setup is over weighted with throwing a 5wt line (shamefully don't remember whether SA or RIO WF) that back-casts like a dream...just not so much on the roll. Probably the user and not the instrument...thought I would just see if anyone else has had this issue on same/similar setup.

[jgentile]

nice report.... i had fun fishing the trico hatch/spinner fall this past tuesday. those bvk's are stiff and i believe perform better when overlining them. this said, SA mastery and rio gold are 1/2 size heavier than marked.

since u live in ballwin, may i suggest heading out to lake chesterfield to practice your roll casting. you can do double duty here. practice casting while catching a mess of blue gills and bass.

also, you don't need a heavier rig unless u start to throw larger flies on a regular basis. i had my 2 wt with me, but then again i was only presenting size 26 spinners all morning.