Spring River and Noblet Lake 5/21 and 5/22/2005

Where: Spring River and Noblet Lake Met up with FiveWeight from the OzarkChronicles board at 6am. From there we had a good 2 hour drive to the Spring River in Northern Missouri. The Spring River starts at the Mamoth Springs. We got on the river about 9am at Dam 3 Access, just has the canoe companies were unloading dozens of canoes. We floated to the first island were we ditched the boat and wet waded. It took a while to find out what the fish wanted. Not suprisingly it was olive mohair leeches. We fished leeches the rest of the entire day, picking up a couple of fish here and there. Overall together we landed at least 30 trout and lost some nice ones along the way. We also managed a remarkable 5 doubles. We arrived at the Riverside campground around 7pm to catch a shuttle back to the car. All in all it was a great day. Sunday we woke early and headed north to Noblet lake, which is near West Plains. We fished near the lilley pads and cover for chain pickerel. FiveWeight had caught a couple of 20 inchers on previous trips. Unfortunately we only landed on 10 incher a piece and missed some others little guys. Good all around trip and I hope to do it again.

Current River and Montauk SP 4/30/05

Got down to Tan Vat and was geared up by 7am. I fished quickly down stream, casting a black mohair leech. I picked up a couple here and there. I made it down to just above Baptist by 9am and had not seen any bug activity. I was headed up stream and going to go to another access. Along the way I stoped at a nice bluff hole and noticed some small mayflies coming off. I tried to match the hatch a little, but could not. Then I tied on a small soft hackel and caught a fish on the very first cast. I continued catching fish untill noon. I think I ended with about 15 fish to hand and three nice ones over 12 inches. The largest went about 15 inches. I headed back to the car for a quick lunch and then went into Montauk SP to catch some dinner. I started fishing in the park about 2pm and fished till 5pm. I started with the usual scuds and what not, but nothing produced. Then I put the same soft hackel on that I had been using outside the park. Wouldn't you know it but I caught a fish on the first cast. I continued fishing the soft hackel as I made my way down stream. I ended with about 12 fish to hand and a stringer of nice ones for dinner. One great day of fishing. Almost 30 fish to hand and some for dinner. The soft hackel was the fly of the day. The weather was perfect and I didn't see a single other person when I was fishing on the river.

Meramec SP 4/25/05

Fished with a good friend, that was home from the Airforce. We hit up Meramec around 2pm. We started up at the top of the park throwing all of the usual flies and getting shut down. After the first big hole we found a small pod of risers under some overhanging trees. They were rising to some small mayflies. I tied on a griffs gnat and picked one up on the first cast. We fished to the small pod for about 30 mins and each landed a couple. After the fish had shut down we walked the rest of the park looking for some rising fish, but found none. It was about 5pm at this point and we decided to call it a day and head home for some dinner.