Tri lakes expo in Clinton

[BilletHead]

        Pat and I attended the tri lakes fly-fishers expo in Clinton Mo. Today. Super turnout. Lots of vendors and tyers. Seen lots of old friends and some new ones. OAF had a good turnout. We had the pleasure to meet @tjm. Great visit with him. Then @kjackson brought me some lead for making anchors. Also some tiny hooks. Fun times ahead 😀. Got to trade fun insults with a leprechaun @fshndougPiper. Then there was the New tyer/vendor @Ryan Miloshewski. 

Had a good lunch from the vendor provided and attended a seminar on the driftless area. Been to the Wisconsin part and wanted to do Iowa and Minnesota. This wanted to make Pat and I go back even worse.  

  Many neat things in the silent auction and the bucket raffle. Lost a bid on a nice assortment of dyed bucktails. 

   Young people friendly. Good to see the young ones talking to tyers and paying attention. Ryan got hit up from one young man that was wanting to trade streamers with him and Ryan agreed. 

[jdmidwest]

I saw that advertised and thought it looked good.  My buddy is at Warsaw this week, but I was cleaning up flood damage at the farm.

I thought a fly fishing expo in that area kinda of odd, normally you see that in the heart of trout country.  Most associate fly fishing with cold waters.

[Ryan Miloshewski]

Great story from this trip. Thanks to Marty and Pat for coming. They’re my favorites. 

But yes that kid traded me a streamer for a streamer. I helped him and his 10 (10!!) year old friend tie some flies. And let me tell ya, they were both talented. I had about two hours of me helping them along. I had my Great Uncle Jack Neporadny teach me when I was their age. So I was all about it. Jack would be proud. And I loved it! Never asked their names. 
 

End of the show comes and the one kid comes up “hey Milo, would you trade a fly for a fly?” I said sure thing buddy. He took my most expensive fly and I got his great deceiver pattern. I said “hey what’s your name?” “My name is Jack.”
 

I had chills run up me like I’ve never had before. Jack Neporadny was telling me something. What a great event. 

[Ryan Miloshewski]

12 hours ago, jdmidwest said:

I thought a fly fishing expo in that area kinda of odd, normally you see that in the heart of trout country.  Most associate fly fishing with cold waters.

People don’t just fly fish for trout. Any folks on here would’ve liked it for sure. It was a great time. We even named @fshndoug Missouri’s state fossil moving forward. 

[BilletHead]

28 minutes ago, Ryan Miloshewski said:

People don’t just fly fish for trout. Any folks on here would’ve liked it for sure. It was a great time.

                  Yep, I would say 80 percent of what Pat and I flyfish for are warm water species. I don't care what you say the warm water fish fight harder and get bigger and taste better. 

[tjm]

It was a good show, better than others I've been to there in the past. New vendors, more tyers, more warm water flies than trout flies, I think. In addition to the @BilletHeads,  I accidentally met two fellows from the fiberglass fly fishing forum, one I had met previously and one I hadn't. I didn't come home with anything new but I  was tempted by some vintage rods  and my son did acquire a number of the silent auction things including a new fly rod. We came back home by way of Bennett Springs and got skunked there. And we didn't see any one else catch a trout either. That together with the Sowbug makes twice I've been outside my five county zone   in less than a month.
I'm sure I saw those other OAF members that Marty mentioned, but I had no idea who they were. I guess none of us was wearing OAF hats or patches?

[tjm]

On 4/12/2025 at 7:31 PM, jdmidwest said:

I saw that advertised and thought it looked good.  My buddy is at Warsaw this week, but I was cleaning up flood damage at the farm.

I thought a fly fishing expo in that area kinda of odd, normally you see that in the heart of trout country.  Most associate fly fishing with cold waters.

The fly tyers from Kansas that I talked to all said they fly fish for multiple species of warm water fish. Catfish, carp, suckers among others. I'm about equally divided between warm and cold. When I was back East the chain pickerel and LMB took up more of my time than the trout did, and there were hundreds of miles of trout waters within driving distance of my home. 

A fly is an artificial lure, probably the oldest of all artificial lures,  and any fish that can be caught on any artificial lure can be caught just as easily (and more cheaply) on a fly.  I noticed at both the Sowbug Roundups that we attended there were more warm water flies on display than there were trout flies. I had never seen a Walleye or Muskie fly before and there were lots of them there. So while I'll agree that most people do think of trout/salmon first when fly fishing is mentioned, trout are of least concern to many flyfishers. On other forums I've interacted with fly fishers that only fly fished for carp, and many that only fly fished for "panfish".

[BilletHead]

23 minutes ago, tjm said:

The fly tyers from Kansas that I talked to all said they fly fish for multiple species of warm water fish. Catfish, carp, suckers among others. I'm about equally divided between warm and cold. When I was back East the chain pickerel and LMB took up more of my time than the trout did, and there were hundreds of miles of trout waters within driving distance of my home. 

A fly is an artificial lure, probably the oldest of all artificial lures,  and any fish than can be caught on any artificial lure can be caught just as easily (and more cheaply) on a fly.  I noticed at both the Sowbug Roundups that we attended there were more warm water flies on display than there were trout flies. I had never seen a Walleye fly before and there were lots of them there. So while I'll agree that most people do think of trout/salmon first when fly fishing is mentioned, trout are of least concern to many flyfishers. On other forums I've interacted with fly fishers that only fly fished for carp, and many that only fly fished for "panfish".

There is a pretty good Facebook forum panfish on the fly. I read it every few days. Interesting stuff. 

[fishinwrench]

3 hours ago, tjm said:

I had never seen a Walleye or Muskie fly before

I initially whipped these up, thinking that they'd be White Bass slayers..... but as it turned out, the Walleye liked them more. 

 

Practically every time I tied one on..... WALLEYE!  

[Lancer09]

I was planning to make it up but a 2 hour drive with a 2 year old makes things tough.

Had to finally get my beans, peas and corn in the ground too. 

I've caught plenty of good fish in those lakes up there, but I WONDER if bolivar might pull a few more springfield people up. I know it would have been a lot easier for me.