Fished Maramec Springs today 1/28/16

[Haris122]

Jackdizo, I haven't hooked into any moster smallies yet, but the small ones have been some nice fighters no doubt. Equal length wise it's pretty close between the two so far, even though my sample size is restricted to smaller fish. But I have only caught a few smallies in comparison to trout, and with the trout there's definitely some that just give up and others that just fight you every inch of the way, whereas both the smallies I got recently weren't going down without a fight. I got a 15" rainbow below dry fork monday that just would not give up. Also had a little smaller brown that just fought me real good. But lately the bigger Rainbows I hook into, have just been acting like beasts. One of the funniest things I remember was a small 8-9" rainbow at Meramec Springs once just launching out of the water like 3-4 feet to get the hook out. And it got it done.

[bkbying89]

   Most of my fishing in the past has been for smallmouth on the Current and Black river. All on spinning and baitcasting equipment. And now I'm looking forward to fishing for smallies with the fly rod. 

[Fishingmill]

Great post and comments.  Thanks for sharing.

Smallmouth on a fly rod is a wonderful thing.  I was fortunate enough to fish in Northern Michigan and caught a 20 inch smallie on the fly.  It was a tug of war match until the very end.  One of the hardest fighting fish I've ever caught.  I was using very thick tippet (probably 15-20lbs) and put a lot of pressure on the fish during the fight, so it is difficult to compare it to the large trout I've caught.  I've caught lots of trout over 20 inches, but I am usually using the small tippet possible, usually 4x or 5x.  I would never fight a large trout like I would a large smallmouth.  Maybe that's what makes smallmouth on the fly so much fun.

[bkbying89]

Back down to Maramec springs on Thursday. Fishing was fair I caught six including my first brown, he was about 15 to 16 inches and a real beauty and a nice bow that was an acrobat and took a while to land. I tried to take a picture with my phone, it really is a good phone but a very poor camera. I am trying to decide if i want the new phone or some badly needed gear. Anyway, I had planned on staying till the siren at quitting time but took a swim around 3:00 and called it a day. This is why I fish the park in the winter, if I am on the river I would probably be a lot farther from my car and freezing. I am kind of sad to see the C&R season over. I've learned a lot, thanks to many members of this board.

Jackdizo, Try some of the small stuff in the film but we had a stiff breeze and didn't get any takers.

[Haris122]

Where in the park did you go for a swim? Anyone know if we are still able to enter the red ribbon area just downstream from the park, through the park, while the park is closed to trout fishing? 

[bkbying89]

Just below the first dam below the big hole. Started to turn around and stumbled on one of those stones scattered around the steam bed, started to right myself when the other foot found another stone. It was more embarrassing than anything. The weather was cool but not too bad and I only got a little water down the waders but totally soaked my upper right side. I've floated my hat before. One time duck hunting in freezing weather, I mean so cold the water on the Carhartt jacket froze so fast I barely got wet.

[Haris122]

Last firearm deer season I had a spot picked out that was on the opposite side of a creek. Well, by the 2nd day of my hunt it had rained so much that I couldn't cross the creek without getting my feet wet. Well genius I was I decided to try to cross over it by walking over a fallen tree. Didn't end up good. Luckily I had spare clothes in the car, so after changing them I decided not to try it again. Anyways, didn't see anything, but on the way back I managed to dunk in a 2nd time in a ditch only 6 feet across, that had started flowing too while I was sitting to ambush the deer. I tried to cross it the exact same way, right before getting to my car. After 5 days I got a deer, and I felt like I definitely earned it after stuff like that.

[jackdizo]

Made it out on Sunday. Fished below the park as usual. The fishing was on fire from early morning until around noon, then the bites were slow and harder to come by. Netted more than 20 and lost count after that. Spotted one fish that was looking to go around 4-5lbs and was holding in a general area of shallow water, however fished it on and off throughout the day without it wanting to feed.. Or I just suck, and never figured out what it wanted, one of the two...  Either way, weather was great, fishing was better than good, and it was a enjoyable sunday to say the least. Snapped a few pics of the more colorful ones. Cheers! Tight-Lines!