Road Trip through the Ozarks.

[Kicknbass]

The family figured out late Friday, that we didn't have a kids soccer or basketball game after 7:00 pm Friday evening and decided to take a road trip to Branson.

We left STL friday evening after my daughter's BB game and headed for Lebanon. We arrived about midnight, and went straight to bed. I got up in the morning and fished a few hours at bennett springs, and caught several nice fish on various baits. The best being a #16 nymph about 18" under a big dry. I left Bennett about 10:00am, got back to the hotel, cleaned up and headed south.

We arrived in Springfield and met for lunch w/ an old college buddy and family. After eating and visiting a while, the wife wanted to visit Fantastic Caverns, so we pointed the rig north, and mashed on the gas. Fantastic Caverns was very interesting. Lots of history of the area, and geology of the formation. At about 4:00, we headed south for Branson.

In Branson, we went down to the landing to walk around and find a place for some grub. Bad idea. Too many shops, and not enough dining all the sit down places had a two hour wait....The Charlies steak sandwich was not bad. We did see the fire and water show at 7:00. It was quite impressive. After the landing we headed back to the hotel to take the kids swimming.

Sunday morning, at about 7:00 am I went down to Taney, and fished at outlet #2 w/ 3-4 others in high fast water at 4 generators. I did manage to catch 4-5 fish ov various flys. At 9:30, I headed back to the hotel to clean up and head out.

The kids whated to catch some fish, so we decided to take the scenic route home and headed across HWY 60 to fish montauk state park. We arrived about 3:00 bought tags for all and headed for the stream. I hooked a fish in the fished few minutes, and handed the rod to my nine year old to fight. He fought the fish for a while and lost it before I could net the fish. He was upset that the fish got away, but had fun w/ the fight. The kids lost interest after a while and after having a snake fall into the water about 10 feet away. They were don't and whated Ice cream. We left about 6:30 and had icecream on the road headed home arriving about 9:00 pm.

How's that for a road trip. In less that 48 hours, we fished Bennett Springs, Taney, and Montauk St. Park catching about 30 +/- fish. I told my wife, that next time, we were going to fish all the trout parks and taney in a weekend. Do ya think it can be done?

I'm going to bed, I'm pooped.

[damselfly]

WOW you had a FULL weekend! but i have found that sometimes the best trips are the ones that are done on the spur of the moment!

[Phil Lilley]

There were a TON of people in town over the weekend. Even last night when we boated by the fountain at the Landing, the area was full of people watching the water show. Lots of spring break people. SDC broke all kinds of records Saturday and Sunday. Not usually this bad this early.

[Flysmallie]

Kicknbass I will agree that there are not enough places to eat at the Landing. We were there saturday as well and had a hard time getting any lunch. It seemed that all the places that the kids wanted to eat were at least an hour wait you couldn't even get into the door at Subway. Ended up eating at the mexican place to the right of the fountains. It was good and the kids got to watch the fountain from their patio.