Trout Park Etiquette

[Old plug]

On October 2, 2017 at 6:52 PM, fishinwrench said:

Trout parks are a superb place to practice honing your skills in strike detection and hook setting techniques, because stocker fish bite the same way that wild fish do.   

You'll never learn or get better at the game though unless you take your stupid bobber off, step away from the hatchery outlets, and actually try to learn and practice.  It is where I experiment with different hooks, leaders, casting angles and stuff.  It pays off big because you can learn there in a day what might take 3 months or more to learn on a stream where you're only gonna get a fraction of the bites.  

There's no quicker way to learn how to be good at swinging soft hackles, stripping buggers, fishing drys, ect.   So if you use your trout park trips as sparring matches instead of just standing at the outlets trying to catch 200 fish as quickly as you can you'll get alot more out of it. 

Talking about this has inspired me actually.  My daughter and I will be on the Niangua this weekend and I think I'll coach her through a walk down Bennett.  I'll tell her that between the spring hole and the whistle bridge  I want her to catch 3 fish on drys, 3 fish swinging a soft hackle or a bugger/leech, 3 fish nymphing a fast riffle/run, 3 fish by sight fishing, 3 fish stripping a streamer, and 3 fish drifting a Midge under a bobber.    That'll be a good excersize.  

I do not doubt for a ,minute she will do it. That young lady is more of fisher peson than many I see posting on here.  I hope she out fishes you to this weekend. I do not want to hear about your not catxhing fish becaise you have to untangle her from trees.