Montauk State Park 11/20/2004

Where: Montauk State Park Fished with Matt Tucker from the Ozark Chronicles website along with another member Brent Hinde (Tiny1351). We met at the Hatchery Office around 7:30am. It really pays to get there early because we were the only ones on the stream. Matt and I started fishing just behind the Hatchery Office while Tiny went to the C&R area. I started with a scud under a white stick on indicator. I managed to catch a few on the scud, but was annoyed when the trout started trying to eat my indicator. I promptly swithed to a PMD and began catching fish right off the bat. In the mean time Matt went to see how Tiny was fairing. A little while longer I followed suit and all three of us were fishing in the C&R area. Nice Rainbow from Montauk C&R 
Not long after I caught my largest fish of the day. A four pound rainbow. Tiny helped me land the fish and took a couple of pics. After a couple more casts we walked over to the other spring branch and fished a while. I had a monster brown come from no where and smack my mohair leech. Unfortunately he stole it as well. We fished above the big rock up to the next big riffle catching fish fairly consistently on mohairs. After a brief break we headed back to the cars and went down to the beginning of the bait area (main bridge you cross when heading into the park). We all began catching fish and were able to sight fish to some nice rainbows in the riffles just below the bridge. I walked the bank and pointed out nice fish for both Matt and Brent. The rest of the day we all consistently caught fish. It was a great day and I fished a mohair more than any other day on the water. The mohair might be my new favorite fly. I just need to start tying them.
Montauk State Park 

Current River 10/30/2004

Where: Current River Fished from Parker hollow today. I got down there around 10:00 am. There were olives above the riffle just down from the parker access. I crossed the stream and headed up to the first big bluff hole. There were three small trout rising to what I assubed to be olive spinners. The riffle above the bluff hole was all so coved in olives. I caught two of the risers on a #20 griffs gnat. The wind was really blowing and was starting to blow the small olives around quite a bit. I also saw quite a few Caddis in the bushes. So after the the spinner fall was over I switched to a EHC and caught a couple more. I continued up stream fishing the EHC, catching a few here and there. Nothing great and I passed up a lot of fish that I may have been able to get if I would have tried something else. Found a big wide open flat with browns holding. I proceeded to sight fish and picked up three. One nice 15 incher almost left the water trying to get my caddis. He missed and luckily I didn't set the hook. A small twitch brought him back for round two and I was able to stick him. He put up a really good fight. A little later I found a big brown holding and was able to drift a mohair leech to him. He took on the third drift and turned out to be the largest fish I have ever caught. 22 to 24 inches. What a monster. I wish I could have gotten him in for a pic. After that fish it was a great day. I continued fishing up stream. I stopped at another flat area and sat down to eat lunch. While I was eating a nice eight point buck crossed the stream 20 yards up from me. It was a great site. All in all it turned out to be a great day of fishing.
Current River Trophy Trout Area 

Current River 8/21/2004

Where: Current River, Tan Vat Access I was a little tired after fishing/hiking Friday night, so I slept in a little Saturday morning. After waking and eating some breakfast I headed down to the Current River and Tan Vat access. I arrived at Tan Vat around 12:30 am. There were quite a few cars at the parking area, but I suited up anyways. I could see two anglers just up from the big Tan Vat hole on there way down. I proceeded upstream from and passed them with some friendly hello's. After the first riffle and in the first big hole I could see plenty of browns and a couple nice rainbows. I had two strikes on a humphy dry and that was the end of it. I proceeded upstream and picked up two rainbows on a mohair leech. Once again moving upstream I put on a size 18 elk hair caddis and fished up under the over hanging trees on the left side of the stream. I had a couple of hits and some good looks but no fish came to hand. Finally A little feisty brown took my dry and the fight was on. During the short struggle I must of excited a larger brown because he came out of his hiding place to inspect what was going on. After releasing the fish and resting the spot for a bit I began casting again. I was hoping for the larger fish. After three more drifts the big guy showed his head. The was a small eddie maybe a 18 inches out from the bank and under an overhanging tree. My cast landed right at the edge of the eddie line and I put a small upstream mend in my line to keep it there as long as possible. Then I watched as the take played out in slow moting. The big bruiser slowly came up and inspected the fly, carefully poking his snot from the water and sucking in the tiny caddis. After his nose dipped down below the surface I struck with a firm hook set. Instantly he knew something was not right and shot down stream. It was all I could do with my little three weight to turn him. After a short fight in the middle of the stream he slowly came to hand. He was a good 18 inches and as fat as could be. That was my largest fish to come from the Current River. I finished the day off with a couple more little browns but would have been happy to end the day after that catch.