Fly Fish KC

Kill Creek 7-07-13

2013-07-07T21:19:00.002-05:00

I ran over to Kill Creek Lake this morning. Overcast and decent temperature at first; then sunny and a little hot. Didn't do too good with Woolleys (although one 16 inch largemouth). Switched to poppers and caught a fair number of smaller fish. Not very crowded. Had a good time. On the way, home, stopped by Mize Lake. Caught about a dozen fish there but all small (5 inch or less) sunfish.

Terry

Lake of the Forest 6-15-13

2013-06-16T21:56:00.002-05:00

Trip report from this weekend.

http://terrysellskc.blogspot.com/2013/06/fly-club-outing-lake-of-forest-6-15-2013.html

Terry

Latest Fly Fishing Trip

2013-04-10T10:25:00.003-05:00

Link to the latest fly fishing blog:

http://terrysellskc.blogspot.com/2013/04/fly-fishing-arkansas-4-03-2013.html

North Fork & Rockbridge Trip 2-2013

2013-02-14T09:45:00.002-06:00

Here's the link to the post on my general blog:

http://terrysellskc.blogspot.com/2013/02/fly-fishing-north-fork-rockbridge-2-2013.html?spref=fb

Terry

Bennett Winter Outing

2012-12-23T20:30:00.002-06:00

Here's a link to my HOAFF club winter outing trip report, which I posted on my general blog. It's at:

http://terrysellskc.blogspot.com/2012/12/winter-fly-fishing-outing-dec-2012.html

Ozark Fishing Trip

2012-11-16T07:35:00.003-06:00

I thought I'd post a crossover link to my Ozark fly fishing trip, which I posted on my general blog. It's at:

http://terrysellskc.blogspot.com/2012/10/ozark-fly-fishing-10-22-2012.html

Mildale Farm Fall Fest & Fly Fishing

2012-10-27T17:50:00.001-05:00

We had a very enjoyable morning down that the Mildale Farm Fall Fest event. This is one of only two times a year they open the park to the public. And we can fish all the ponds (of which I fished 6 today). I went out with Ron and Bill, and we caught quite a few fish (not near as many as in the Spring time though). It was chilly at 32 degrees! Here are a couple of pictures below, or to view all the pictures, click here:

http://s1189.beta.photobucket.com/user/flyfishkc/library/Mildale%20Farm%2010-27-2012

Event info: http://jcprd.com/special_events/mildalefarm_fallfest.cfm

Bennett Spring 9-13-2012

2012-09-15T23:40:00.001-05:00

We had a nice but short trip down to Bennett Spring this week. The temperature coldn't have been any better. Friday it did sprinkle all day, but that didn't stop the fishing. It was a little crowded at times but quite often it thinned out and we had plenty of room. I was down there with Ray and Ron, along with a new fly fishing friend, Charlie. We stayed over at Sand Spring Resort as usual. Fishing was a little slower than some trips but we caught a number of fish, all rainbow trout. Nothing of any special size, but a few were very colorful. The main flies that we used were wolleys and crackle backs, with a few others thrown in. We fished mostly above the whistle bridge and below the CCC bridge. Also a little up by the spring, island, and gage house. Here are a few pictures.

Terry

(also see more pictures at:

http://s1189.photobucket.com/albums/z438/flyfishkc/Bennett%209-13-2012/?albumview=slideshow

Used Sara's underwater camera - cool!

Kill Creek Lake 8-24-2012

2012-08-25T10:28:00.002-05:00

Tried out Kill Creek Lake again Friday morning and the weather wasn't too bad. First hour of fishing was very slow; only caught 1 sunfish using a black Woolly. Decided to switch to topwater and had better luck (different poppers). Caught about a half dozen largemouth up to 12 inches and some pretty decent blue gill and sunfish (8 - 9 inches). Had some very good luck on the south side where you can now walk about 20 feet in front of the cattails due to the dry conditions. The lake was down a lot but water temperature wasn't bad and water fairly clear. Saw about half dozen other fisherman.

Terry

Overflow Drain looked lonely

Black Swan Lake 8-17-2012

2012-08-19T15:21:00.001-05:00

My friend Charlie and I enjoyed a morning of fishing Friday with tremendous weather. We used our kick boats and caught quite a few fish (I used Ray's Water Otter). Typical largemouth, blue gill and sunfish, maybe a little smaller than sometimes but not bad. I fished mostly shore and only used my black woolley since it worked so well. Charlie fished the east side of the lake and I think used mostly topwater. The lake was down what appeared to be 1 - 2 feet and was very murky for some reason. A great time overall.

Terry

Lake Lenexa Kickboat 7-22-2012

2012-07-22T13:23:00.000-05:00

Enjoyed several hours on Lake Lenexa this morning on Ray's Water Otter kick boat. It's a perfect boat for that sized lake, being lightweight but oars to move around quickly. I fished mostly the south bank, much of the time in the shade and perfect temperature. Later in the sun it started getting a little hot. I caught a ton of blue gill and sunfish, and only landed one Largemouth Bass. My small white popper seemed to be the most productive, but also caught a few on a Woolley and even my Chernobyl Ant. This particular white popper has caught hundreds of fish, but as you can see by the picture, is finally getting chewed up enough I'll probably have to ditch it (this size is small enough for the bigger blue gill to swallow and sometimes hard to get out). As the day warmed up, the fishing seemed to slow down, but it was a great day. I happened to run into Zack and his dad fishing by the dam today, where I had helped him fish Friday to get his Scouting badge. Here are a few photos:

Terry

Sunfish

Beat up popper

Blue gill

Largemouth Bass

Roaring River Family Re-Union 6-29-2012

2012-07-04T15:38:00.001-05:00

Our trip last weekend down to Roaring River State Park in the Missouri Ozarks was a family re-union, but I was also able to get in a little fishing while I was there. It was pretty hot, but the humidity was down as well as a lot of shade and cool stream, so it really wasn't too bad. We enjoyed a lot of family and game time as well as catching up with everyone. The spring and stream were very low as it has really been dry down there. That really affected the fishing, as there weren't many deep pools. Even the catch and release area so low it was hard to fish. So I fished mostly dry flies, and probably caught about a dozen trout during three stints of about an hour each. The Chernobyl Ant was my favorite, as it always stirred up activity and occasionally caught a trout off guard. I also fished a bed spread part time and caught several on that. I especially enjoyed being able to have my wife and parents watch me fish, as they don't often get that opportunity. We stayed in those duplex cabins with the door in between, which was really convenient. And we had a couple of cute rug rats down this year, which made it even more fun. One night we got to laughing so hard, we were hurting. Also, on the way back, we drove through Joplin for the first time since the storm. Still a lot of damage visible, and lots of new stuff. Also, gas prices down there were below $3. Here are some pictures.

Terry

The Spring Pool leading to the spring

The Spring

The hatchery

Fishing Time

Rainbow Trout

Family Time

Joplin

Lake of the Forest - One Fly Outing 6-23-2012

2012-06-24T18:28:00.000-05:00

We had a very enjoyable time at the fly fishing club outing on Saturday at Lake of the Forest in Edwardsville. Most people fished from about 8:00 until noon, when we shared a picnic lunch on the shore. A few folks went back for some more fishing after lunch (not me). That place is just loaded with largemouth bass, blue gill and sunfish (good sized of each). The weather looked like it was going to be iffy but the storms stayed away and it was cloudy and a nice temperature too. Fishing seemed best along the shoreline but not bad in the middle either. The lake level was down a couple of feet as they decided to drain some to clean up all the heavy growth (which appeared to help). This outing is officially called the "one fly" outing, so you try to use one fly the whole time. I decided to go with a woolly bugger this year (size 8 olive) instead of my typical poppers. I was very happy with the choice. I caught tons of blue gill (most 7 to 10 inches), about 15 bass (most 10 - 16 inches) and about 10 sunfish (up to about 9 inches). Very fun on a fly rod. Many others used poppers and had pretty good luck too. I believe one person caught about 44 fish on 1 physical fly and won a prize. I broke off several times and had to replace mine. The water was a little murky but not bad. I think there were about 12 people or so from the club (Heart of America Fly Fishers that is). About half the group was on one person kick boats/float tubes and the rest fished from shore.

Terry

White / Norfolk River Ark 6-02-2012

2012-06-08T14:30:00.001-05:00

Here's a trip report from Dan from last weekend:

------------------------------------

Fishing Report June 2-5 2012 White/Norfork

Rick and I met at Mountain Home around noon on Saturday . We headed up to the Bull Shoals dam for some thin water trout. Fishing was pretty decent, but not easy. The first fish I landed was one of the fattest I have ever landed and was my best for the trip. Here is a photo.

This was the first time I made it up there since the habitat project a few years ago. Here is a shot of Rick fishing near some of the big rocks and tree stumps. It has caused some washouts and is a pretty good improvement overall. All the fish were caught on a sow bug pattern.

We fished further down later on but they started generating before we could really get going.

The next day we did an all day float on Norfork with kickboats. The bite was real good mostly on zebra midges, some of globalls and a few on the scud. Interestingly the toughest place to catch fish was McClellens. Toward the end of the day a major storm was brewing and I was real concerned we were going to be caught on the river in a bad situation. We were lucky to make it off the river in time and drove back to our motel in a major deluge.

Rick has a rough first couple of days. He caught no fish, fell in the river and ruined his phone. I spent quite a bit of time working with him and figured out his cast was messed up, he wasn't mending right and his strike detection was nonexistent. Despite all this he fished his guts out and never seemed discouraged.

On the third day they were running a some water on the White. We stopped in at Blue Ribbon Flies for a few items and a little advice. We found out that the last three years of high water has really hurt the fishing industry and has put quite a few outfitters out of business. There were only about 30 some days with wadable water last year.

We decide to fish below the Norfork dam. It seemed the storm had slowed the fishing down a bit, but we still caught some on sow bugs and glo balls. Rick improved quite a bit and finally broke through the curse.

We quit fishing a bit before generation started on Norfork in the early afternoon. We ended up heading at Rim Shoals but the water was a bit too high. We caught a boat ride up to Jenkins creek which is a little ways up from Rim. It had some wadable fishable water but the bite was a little off. A few fish were caught on woolies. I also found an old .56er that Ray tied up a while back for me and I caught a fish on that. We walked back from there to the Rim Shoals fly shop.

While we were at the shop we found out that the state had obtained an access to The Narrows. Historically, there always seemed to be some doubt whether you could legally access the river at that spot. We drove there to take a look and found out there is a real nice public access there with a small parking lot and trail down to the river. The water was too high to fish and we called it a day. I will definitely plan to come back to that spot.

We got a little adventurous going back and decided to take the Monkey Road back to Mountain Home because it was a much shorter route. I had heard it was a bad road to be on. It turned out not to be bad at all but I don't recommend driving it in wet or slick conditions.

I had to return home first thing the next day, but Rick decided to fish the morning at the Handicap Access on Norfork. By that time he had improved a great deal and I felt there was a good chance he would really break through. When he called me after I was home that evening I had a feeling the news would be good. Sure enough he said he had a good number of strikes on sowbugs and globalls and landed quite a few.

Overall a number of rainbows were caught and a few browns and cutthroats. The Norfork fish were really nice as were the fish caught on the White below the dam. I definitely recommend getting down there when you can.

Dan

Fly Fishing Class 6-01-2012 Sh Mis Park

2012-06-02T19:58:00.000-05:00

I had another sucessful beginner fly fishing class today out at Shawnee Mission Park. We had 4 participants and perfect weather. It also turned out to be free fishing day in Kansas and no license was required. They all seemed to pick it up pretty well, so look out fish!!! They even caught a few today. The first couple were small, but after that, I didn't have a wide angle camera in order to get the whole fish in one picture ;) Here's a couple of photos during the morning, followed by a few photos of my family picnic we did afterwards (and 3 grandkids).

Terry

Tim

Marty

Russell

Gene

First fish on fly rod. Woo Hoo!!!

Number 2

PICNIC

Pond Fishing 5-04-2012

2012-05-04T23:08:00.000-05:00

Jim and I had a very enjoyable morning of fishing today at a small private pond I get to visit occasionally. The largemouth population has gotten bigger and more plentiful. We did very well with poppers, and even more so with woollys. The bigger ones were mostly in the 14 - 16 inch range, with the largest about 20 inches. Also grabbed a few sunfish and blue gill up to 9 inches. It was a little warm but the water was pretty clear and not too bad on moss, like some places are now.

Terry

Mildale Farm - Open House & Fishing 4-28-2012

2012-04-29T14:00:00.001-05:00

Bill & Ron & I had a great morning checking out the Mildale Farm Open House and fishing day. The park is somewhat hard to find, down between Gardner and Edgerton. It's a Johnson County property but not a public park, and I think about 700 acres. And you normally can't get in since it's by reservation only. It's used for big events, and things like weddings. But they open the various ponds for catch-and-release fishing on this open house day, and because of this, there's not much fishing pressure at all. The 3 of us ended up fishing 4 ponds primarily. The first one was a bust, but an employee there turned us on to a remote pond that ended up being a gold mine. I don't remember ever having such a great day of fishing on a pond. Once we got into them, we were catching many decent sized blue gill, largemouth bass, sunfish, and lots and lots of crappie. We were able to catch quite a few blue gill in the 8 - 11" range, largemouth in the 10 - 14" range, and crappie in the 10 - 13" range. And what a beautiful day too. We saw perhaps a dozen other fisherman, but with so much water there was no competition. This park also connects up to the future Little Bull Creek park, which will add several thousand acres. My camera I keep with me finally ran out of space (after almost 3 years of taking lots and lots of pictures). But I got some photos before that happened; see below.

Terry

One of the main houses at Mildale

Main party barn

Bill & Ron

Ron

Bill

Terry

TimberRidge Adventure Center - Open House & Fishing

2012-04-21T23:06:00.000-05:00

Ray and I decided to check out the Open House at the TimberRidge Adventure Center today, which is located South of DeSoto and K-10 next to Kill Creek Park. It's only open for reservations, so we had not been there before. We were pretty impressed with the secluded park, which includes a nice fishing lake, climbing tower, challenge couse, archery range, big shelter, canoes & kayaks, etc. It's a great place for corporate events, scouting or children events, or even weddings. We enjoyed some fly fishing, as the water was pretty clear and there were quite a few fish (it's all catch-and-release fishing). We managed to catch quite a few fish - largemouth bass, blue gill, and sunfish. We saw some very large catfish as well. Here are some pictures.

Terry.

Climbing Wall

Sunfish

Blue Gill

Ray

Largemouth Bass

Yours Truly

Canoes & Kayaks

Spring River Ark 4-11-12 & Montauk

2012-04-18T16:02:00.000-05:00

We had a very enjoyable 4 day fly fishing trip to the Ozarks last week, primarily fishing the Spring River in Arkansas. We also spent 2 half days at Montauk State Park in Missouri on the way home. Attending the trip were Dan, Jim, Ron, Rocky (coming back from S. Carolina), myself, and a friend of Dan's from Nashville, Rick. The weather cooperated for the most part, with a little interruption on Friday morning; most of that bad weather missed us. We stayed at the Riverview Motel in Mammoth Springs Ark., which has a nice view of the river. We fished a couple of campgrounds, as well as the Bayou and Lassiters. Dan & Rick stayed a little longer and fished the island area below Dam 3. We caught quite a few fish, with many being nice sized, although no real big monsters. Mostly rainbow trout with a few browns thrown in (and I caught an unusual Longear sunfish the first afternoon). The best flies seemed to be wooleys, prince nymphs, bedspreads, glo balls, and a few others here and there. Dries didn't seem to work well, even though lots of surface activity, and that seems to be the case on this river for us. It was fun to watch Rick make his first try at fly fishing, with an extreme amount of enthusiasm and curiosity (see his separate comments at the end of this report). I was lucky enough to be there when he caught his first fish and got a couple of pictures. Dan really put the pressure on him mid day when he told Rick that he was going to sit on the bank and watch him fish and not eat lunch until Rick caught his first fish. Sure enough, about 5 minutes later, we had "fish on". There were hardly any other fishermen on the stream, so that was very nice.

Friday we drove up to Montauk (after realizing we couldn't fish the White River due to heavy water as we had hoped) and stayed in the small town of Licking Mo at Scenic Rivers Inn. The park was a little crowded but we got some good fishing time in, although it was pretty slow in catching for the most part. After being skunked for a while with Jim and Rocky, I told Rocky I needed to try a small weightless midge, and he whips out his box and gave me one of his home tied flies. Sure enough, that was the trick. He had a productive fly there. The fish were feeding close to the surface in the mossy areas. Ron and I also fished the Current River just below the park and landed several very nice fish. Dan and Rick spent all their time fishing the river farther down (mostly around Tan Vat) and had a lot of fun walking down the stream and catching a few nice ones (on a variety of stuff). There were fewer fish down there but very few other fisherman and very pretty areas. A few of us decided to try the catch and release area in the park. I was lucky and caught a rainbow in the little stream on a caddis and 4 rainbows up in the bigger pond (which was full of moss and gunk this year, really bad).

See some pictures below or for the complete album, go to:
http://s1189.photobucket.com/albums/z438/flyfishkc/Spring%20River%20Trip%204-11-2012/?albumview=slideshow

Terry

Ron, Terry, Dan, Jim, Rick, Rocky

Spring River

Pretty Rainbow fish

Rick's first fish on a fly rod!!!

Spring River

Nice sized rainbow trout

Here's how you do it . . .

Nice brown trout

Dam on Mountauk State Park

Nice catch

Current River below Montauk State Park

Sometimes one rod is not enough!

Here are a few comments from Rick:

When I embarked on this journey a few months ago to learn the art of fly-fishing, I had no idea what a fascinating trip it would be. My great guide and friend, Dan Zimmerman, immediately started flooding my brain with knowledge - fly rods, waders, lug boots, vests, fly-lines, leaders, tippets, Cabela's, Bass Pro, Wooly Buggers, Nymphs, Caddis, Glow Balls, dry flies, streamers, what flies work and where, strike indicators, knots for securing lines, knots for securing flies, bug patterns, stream patterns, tail waters, spring waters, generator flows from the Dam, trout streams, trout stream maps, MO waters, spotting trout, how trout think, casting, forward cast, back cast, roll cast, shooting line, mending, casting into different flowing water, why trout strike a fly, fly presentation, water temperature, Rainbow's, Brown's, upstream, downstream, setting the hook, landing the fish, full details of the one's that got away, and so on...

I set out last Wednesday to see if I could incorporate all of this knowledge into my first fly fishing experience. Along the way I discovered the marvelous whole world of fly fishing. Sure, in many ways it's a solitary sport...but the solitude a interspersed with great moments of adrenaline, satisfaction and camaraderie. Rocky, Ron, Jim, Terry and Dan were the best teachers a novice could hope for...careful not to give too much advise but also more than willing to give up some of their own experience to enrich mine even more! They had all the techniques down - from casting to telling stories - which really showed me the essence of the sport; the connection with others and the outdoors.

Oh sure, it can be frustrating at times, but for every "skunk" I experienced, the rush of landing a beautiful Rainbow trout is beyond description. Those few moments of immortality is what drives you to fish for another 8 hours with minimal bumps - oh to live another day to out-smart a fish.

To my new friends, thank you for making my inaugural experience as an angler truly memorable and exhilarating. I have only one question: where and how soon is the next trip??

Thanks guys!

RICK

Lake Lenexa 3-25-2012

2012-03-25T19:55:00.000-05:00

Ray and I ran out to Lake Lenexa this morning. What a beautiful day!!! The lake was pretty murky, and we didn't catch any fish on the main lake, mainly using wolley buggers, poppers, and clousers. We went down to the pool below the dam and caught a few small blue gill / sun fish on little poppers. Very pretty lake.

Terry

James A. Reed 3/16/12

2012-03-17T23:04:00.000-05:00

Jim and I decided to head out to James A. Reed Friday morning as Jim heard they recently stocked some trout. We fished Coot Lake down on the Southwest side. Weather was perfect. Jim found a place along the East side among the trees and set about catching 4 rainbows on glo balls during the morning. I decided to walk around the complete lake, and didn't catch any trout. Did catch quite a few small blue gill and a Crappie on a Jacomo and black Woolley. I even caught about a half dozen on the dam on a popper. Wasn't sure if it was too early for that.

Terry

Bennett Spring Opener 3-01-2012

2012-03-03T16:23:00.000-06:00

It was another fun opening day at Bennett Spring State Park on March 1st, for Jim and I. It was pretty cold in the morning, but warmed up to the 70's by afternoon. Crowd was down a little bit at 1,619 tags sold. Jim decided to fish at the opening whistle (I didn't) and his rod eyelets started freezing over. Fishing was definitely tough this year with the large crowd, changing weather, wind, etc. Later Thursday and Friday were also fairly crowded but we could usually find places to fish. Several times, the wind was bad enough to make it was hard to cast. We both decided to bring some fish home. I'd say we caught about the typical number of fish for an opener. The water was about average flow, although a little murky and lots of moss and gunk in the stream, which is usual for the opener.

The second morning was a little warmer, although it sprinkled several times for a few minutes each. I managed to find a very hot spot Friday morning at the whistle and probably caught at least 25 in the first hour by the island. Once I counted 30 casts and 30 strikes (didn't land all of those of course). They seemed to be in a frenzy there. Lots of "dumb fish" released that morning. Flies included black woolley, soft hackle, glo ball, and bedspread (which landed the most fish for sure). It was fun to visit with the regular Liberty fly tying gang who always come down for the opener, as well as Mike Rueck and some others. Jim cooked us a big breakfast the second morning, which was very nice.

We also witnessed some storm damage from earlier Wednesday morning. A camping / trailer park just up the hill from the spring got hit by a tornado (Castaway Campground). I heard that all but 3 trailers were destroyed, but no one was hurt. There weren't many folks there during the storm, like there would have been the next night, since most of get down there the night before the opener. They suggested it was very lucky it was leap year and therefore hardly anyone present, or probably would have been very bad. There was also a death in a trailer park in nearby Buffalo.

Terry

The Dam at the Opening Whistle

The CCC Bridge

Ray Thomas (Quincy Ill) sounding opening whistle

Jim

Castaway Campground after tornado

Bennett & RockBridge 2/13/2012

2012-02-18T22:03:00.000-06:00

Here is a report from Dan on his recent trip with Jim:

Bevan and I had quite a trip to say the least. Our original plan was to leave on Monday, February 13. We planned to fish Bennett a half day then move on to Rockbridge for a day of fishing on Tuesday. We decided to leave on Sunday instead due to a snowstorm coming in the early hours Monday. It was snowing pretty good when we woke up on Monday morning. We did pretty well that morning on globalls and soft hackles. It was a lot of fun to fish in the snow and actually pretty comfortable. Here are some photos:

We decided to quit around noon and head to Rockbridge since it was coming in pretty heavy. That turned out to be a good choice. It took us about 4 1/2 hours to make a 2 hour trip.

We fished Rockbridge a full day on Tuesday and the weather cooperated fully. The river did not seem to have nearly as many fish in it as I've seen in the past, but the quality more than made up for lack of quanity. I landed the biggest rainbow of my fish life at 25 inches and Jim landed a 23 incher. Jim's fish was pretty much the most perfect rainbow I'd ever seen.

We had to work quite a bit for our fish. We used globalls, y2ks, midges, woolies, and prince nymphs. The bedspread was shut out.

We decided not to fish on the last day, but came on home.

Dan

Rockbridge and Norfork 1-24-2012

2012-01-28T21:14:00.000-06:00

Jim and I had a outstanding and productive fly fishing trip last Tuesday through Thursday. We hit up Rockbridge the first day, which is a private, middle of nowhere South Missouri trout stream where they charge more to fish but stock much bigger fish. We both caught some fat monsters, both of us catching 2 over 20 inches. I managed to catch my biggest rainbow trout ever down by the bluffs in the upper area; I'm guessing 21 inches and about 6 - 7 pounds. Definitely the fattest fish I've ever caught; couldn't grab the side of the fish in one hand. These fish are more in the shape of footballs. We caught tons of fish in several areas, one above the upper bluffs and the other at the start of the lower bluffs. The best flies tended to be black wooleys, glo balls, and bedspreads. The weather was perfect, at 60 degrees and sunny; water was pretty clear and a little low. 4X tippet was still the size of the day (still broke a few off). Evening meal at the restaurant was awesome as usual.

Then the next day we drove down to the Norfork River in Arkansas, fishing the Handicap access until late afternoon (they had shut off the generators around 9:00, although the water never seemed to go all the way down while we were there). Fishing was really good up by the island, and we slayed them again. Besides a multitude of rainbows, we caught 5 browns and 3 cut-throats between us (I caught the biggest cut I’ve ever caught). Same flies worked well here. No luck in either stream with dries or sow bugs / scuds. Weather here was a little cooler and we fought sprinkles for a few hours, and it seemed to get cooler as the day went on (mostly in the 40s). We stayed at the Comfort Inn in Mountain Home, which has always been nice.

Well after those 2 great days, it didn't bother us too much that the third day was a bust. We decided to risk fishing Taneycomo on Thursday on the way home, as they had been shutting off the water around 10:00 a.m. for several days and the web site predicted the same for this day. After getting there though, they never did shut off generation, so we didn’t fish. We hung around for a while visiting the hatchery, saw the newer fish ladder, watched construction on the new visitor center just above the dam, hit the fly shop, and had a nice meal at Danna's BBQ. Then we headed home.

Terry

Here are a few photos below, or for the complete slide show, go to:

http://s1189.photobucket.com/albums/z438/flyfishkc/Rockbridge%20and%20Norfork%201-24-2012/?albumview=slideshow

Mill at Rockbridge

Jim & rainbow trout

New structure at Handicap, Norfork

Brown at Norfork

Bennett Spring Banquet/Winter Outing 12/03/2011

2011-12-08T22:09:00.000-06:00

We sure enjoyed another fly fishing trip last weekend (Fri - Sun). This was our club's yearly winter outing and banquet, sponsored by our Heart Of America Fly Fishers (HOAFF), at Bennett Spring State Park. It turns out that the weather was pretty decent, even hitting mid 50's on Saturday. Only caught a couple hours of spinkles the whole weekend at the end of Saturday. And the fish were cooperating very well, certainly better than average. Our group consisted of myself, my friend Bill, Kyle, Rocky, and his friend Al. We stayed at Sand Spring Resort just north of the park. The best flies for us seemed to be the Woolly (black and olive), soft hackle, caddis dry, chernobyl ant, midges, glo balls, and Scud. None of us caught any monsters, as many were stocker size and a few decent in the 12 - 16 inch range. We enjoyed a nice lunch consisting mainly of chili and hot dogs, which really hit the spot, and then the annual banquet down at Ollie's. There was a raffle for a 5 weight rod that went to Bill Brant.Overall, the park wasn't very crowded so we got to fish mostly where we wanted in the park.The most productive locations for us were both sides of the Whistle Bridge and the Island. The winer season is all catch-and-release.

Here are a few pictures below, or for the complete album, go to:
http://s1189.photobucket.com/albums/z438/flyfishkc/Bennett%20Banquet%20Trip%2012%2003%202011/?albumview=slideshow

Terry

Kyle & Rocky

Whistle Bridge

Lunch

Banquet

Bill

Dam

Terry

Rainbow Trout