February 2022 Ozark Anglers Crane Creek trip

[tjm]

I'd never make a 6AM meet, I haven't gotten up at 3am since I quit working; but I might  make it up there later in the day. Brian, I was at four bridges the day I scouted the creek, but I can't place that one. 

[Jthawks]

this sounds fun. have fun on the trip. not sure if i can swing a Wednesday trip...I hope you share pics. Crane Creek is awesome. I caught one little rainbow there on my spinning reel. I hope to catch one there on a fly rod this year. good luck ya'll...I'd like to challenge those that go to try to catch one on a dry fly lol...I love catching fish on dry flies in the winter.

[dpitt]

What kind of bugs would you all throw this time of year? 

[fishinwrench]

35 minutes ago, dpitt said:

What kind of bugs would you all throw this time of year? 

[Jthawks]

36 minutes ago, dpitt said:

What kind of bugs would you all throw this time of year? 

From Taneycomo to a couple small creeks I had luck catching them on #20 #22 Griffith's knat b/c there are always midges in Missouri and the same size for BWO and adams fly. I remember at the trophy area at Taneycomo (2020) I caught a trout on a mosquito during early January lol it must of thought it was a midge or may fly. A crackleback worked once....but I'm new to this and only winter fished this year and a little last winter. Folks tell me BWO and midge dry fly patterns work best....but probably could fool a hungry fish on anything close to a bug. I'm still learning so I check out One Cast-lilley's Landing, Orvis podcast, mad river outfitters youtube, tightlinevideo youtube, etc which I'm pretty sure you're familiar with Lilley's lol

[dpitt]

33 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

Nice, what size would you recommend looks like about  a 10 or 12? Dead drift or strip? sorry for all the questions,

[Nick Adams]

It's worth the bushwhacking just for the beauty of the stream. The last fish. caught there was on a black foam beetle in the park downtown. It came up from the bottom about 4 feet deep to hit it and I saw it the whole way. It was incredible. About a 10 inch fish. So cool. 

[fishinwrench]

4 minutes ago, dpitt said:

Nice, what size would you recommend looks like about  a 10 or 12? Dead drift or strip? sorry for all the questions,

It's a good "search fly".   I carry it in a #14 but everyone I know that tries to pound Crane to death says that bigger stuff seems to work better.  So your 12-10 guess would probably be better.

[Dutch]

A friend of mine used to catch trout from there that you guys wouldn’t believe.  He used live craws on a 3/0 hook with 20# mono and floated them down under root wads.  He said that was where the big ones tended to hang out.  I’ve seen several in his freezer so I don’t doubt his word.

[bassman1308]

I had a bud who lived near Crane and fished Crane Cr a lot maybe 40 yrs ago. He said there were big trout in the creek and occasionally he'd catch one.