Current trip

[stlfisher]

Finally, made it down to the Current on Saturday.  Boy was it crowded. Tan Vat was full of what I assume was a family reunion. Rarely, do I see floaters between Tan Vat and Baptist, but I bet we saw 30 boats.   Many doing the same float over and over again.  Their river too, but kinda hard not be a bit annoyed in a stretch usually dominated by wading. It was an all day thing too, not just a passing group.

Fishing was pretty solid.  Caught a bunch on topwater.  Lost a giant Brown on a stone fly that snapped me off.  That fish was hot.  It will be along time before I hook into another one that big.  Still have the image of that giant's jump burned into my brain.  It was a holy crap that thing is huge type moment. Seriously, that fish was huge.

Fished upstream from Parker a bit in evening.  It has been awhile since I have fished that stretch. I don't remember it being that deep upstream.  We probably should have walked the trails further, but we were running out of daylight.  Managed a few small Rainbows and Brown's but needed to find better water to wade.  

River has changed, but not as much as I would have thought in the spots we usually fish.  Baptist Access looked fine after the cleanup, but since I didn't see it before the flood not sure if it did any damage. I don't know why we thought we could bushwhack upstream from Baptist....that was a bad move in summer time.  Need to explore Parker a bit more, but it seemed tough to wade.  We had a great time, but as usual would have liked to stay another day or two.  

[bkbying89]

I went down today and fished below the cable at Montauk. This is my first year fishing that area so I can't compare it to other years but there are some really deep stretches down from the cable. I fished some of it and have to check everything in my vest to see that they stayed dry, I caught a lot of fish on a beetle. I had to get the beetle close to the bank for the trout to show consistent interest. The largest was just under 16 with a few in the 14-15 inch range. The rest ran small including one that looked like a wild trout with the Par marks and all. It was a fun day with all of the top water action.

[stlfisher]

Yeah, the cable is much deeper than it used to be and a more challenging wade.  There were about 5-6 angler's fishing it Saturday so we moved on.  I did good on terrestials/hopper along the bank as well.

[bkbying89]

There were a few other fishermen on the water Monday. Obviously, the fishing didn't seem to slow down much with all of the small trout. At one log I pulled two fish and missed one and then on the way back upstream pulled two more off the same log. If you could get the fly close to the bank you could catch trout. I started out with a dropper tied to the fly but took it off, I got tired of the dropper snagging my shorts while trying to unhook the fish. I didn't need it to catch fish anyway. I may try to get back down next Monday. Probably Tan Vat or Baptist Camp just for a change.

[Gavin]

Thanks for the report! Sounds like a good time in spite of the crowds.

 

[bkbying89]

.Definately going back Monday. I may hit Baptist Camp for a change. Stocked up on some hopper and beetle imitations today. I also have some Chernoble Ants in case I get tired of the smaller fish. 

[ozark trout fisher]

Not surprised to hear that you didn't tear it up around Parker. That's where I've been doing most of my Current River fishing this summer, to avoid the wading crowds at Baptist and Tan Vat (of course, having to time it right to avoid the floating crowd). It's been anywhere from reasonably okay to "are we sure there are actually any trout left here?" A lot of my accumulated knowledge over the years on the stretch has gone out the window now, some pools look similar but a lot not so much.

Needless to say the best (only????) results are coming at dawn and dusk in the midst of this heat wave. But when I've had success it's been just as likely to come on dries as egg patterns/nymphs, so that part is okay.

[bkbying89]

Made it back down with a friend on the 24th went back below the cable as he wanted to fish that area. I started with the beetle since it had worked so well last time and picked up a few but my buddy was doing well with a soft hackle. As the day warmed up the fish started to get more active and it was on. I switched to a hopper and they liked that better. The fish were also bigger. I guess because the hopper was larger than the beetle. After they tore the hopper to shreds I tied on a Chernoble Ant with huge white sighters. They looked like sails on a schooner they were so large. And this thing had a sparkly purple vest like glitter on it. I was calling it the purple Chernoble Prince fly. but the trout liked it well enough to keep it on. We caught loads of fish despite people wading right past us to fish the water we were working and a couple of kids that were bow-fishing suckers. I don't know the season for this but it sounded like they were chucking boulders in the water. and the one without the bow was throwing rocks in near where we were fishing. I kept it together and we still caught fish but that kind of rudeness is beyond the pale. It was still a great day despite everything else.