Most Recent Trip Reports and Pictures
This page was last updated: May 18, 2013
PAST FLYFISHERS AT THE CROSSING FLY FISHING TRIPS ARE BELOW!
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Even More Trip Reports Below
Two Friends have a Good Day on the Water (Nov 30th) On November 30th, Mike Bisaga and Bob Chott headed down to Montauk to get in a little off-season fishing. The weather was perfect, in the mid 60s, and the park was empty. It was a great day for fishing. It turns out, it was the catching that was the more difficult part. Since it is now catch and release, and the PowerBait and Bubba crowds are gone, we decided to try a part of the river that neither one of us had tried. We parked at the first parking lot just as you cross the bridge going into the campground, and fished from just above that bridge down to the ADA pier by loop 3. By the way, the river below that pier is closed until you get out of the park.. We both had lots of strikes, and a lot of "lookers", but, for whatever reason, failed to convert on a good number of them. Although, if you are wondering, we did catch more fish than we have pictures. Using the information from previous trip reports, we had an idea of what to expect. We both came armed with the proper flys, although, in many cases I believe, probably not in the correct size. As others have said, think small. There were a couple hatches throughout the day. One in the morning maybe about 10, and the other about 2pm. Bob said they were brown caddis. I will go with him on that, however, all I know is they were really small.
We had luck on small red San Juan worms, Green and red cracklebacks, white midge, red midge and a red soft hackle. Not sure if the key was the color red or not, but since it seemed to work, we stuck with it. Overall it was a great day. Get out soon if you can. It's a great time of year to go out fishing.
Freezing Temps - Be Ready to Fish (Dec10th) - Five flyfishers tried to brave the cold this past Monday. Kenny Klimes, Tim McCoy, Sid Aslin, Nate Gross, and Dave Beerbower headed to Montauk during what was predicted to be freezing temperatures for the entire day. The reels froze up and ice formed on the guides but they stayed and fished until closing. Small flies in light colors did the best. White larva size 20, Dry flys size 22 seemed to work well. Soft hackles (size 18) did well also, along with Wooly Buggers. Hopefully many of you have received the email on being properly dressed for winter fishing. Please get good clothing for these winter trips - it will pay dividneds. Even though the temps were colder than cold with the wind, all the guys enjoyed their time on the water. More trips every week so get out and fish - but make sure you are prepared for the cold.
Two More Graduates and Record Set? (Dec15th) : Two more Flyfishers were welcome into the group this day and a new record was set. No, don't worry Mike Bisaga no one broke your first time out record of 19 trout but the class of Oct/Nov 2012 have graduated the most flyfishers ever from one class and they still have a few more to go! (They have seven so far) Dave Beerbower, Tom Kelly, Kenny Klimes, and newcomers Jaime Correa and Johan Gerber traveled in rain to get to Montauk on a Saturday but were rewarded with a beautiful day on the water. The fishing started out slow but picked up as the day went on. Of course Jaime and Johan knew about Kenny's undefeated streak and were determined not to be the ones to blemish Kenny's 100% graduation rate. Of course Kenny wasn't worried about it but the two decided to test his patience slightly. Jaime tagged into his first trout just before lunch and Johan decided to catch his first after the meal. Once they graduated they started catching more fish to make it a complete day. The crowds were light for a Saturday and the fish were not eager to attack just any fly. Best flies of the day were the P&P midge, Crackleback, and small dry flies. It was a great day on the water for all of us. Even though Kenny butchered their names by pronouncing them with the J sound (Jaime is pronounced "Hi-me" and Johan is pronounced "Yo-Han") it seemed like all had a fun day. We all learned a lot. Hopefully we can get a few more guys out on the water this winter - overall the weather has been pretty good! Congrats to Jaime and Johan!!!
Winter Fishing is ON!! (Dec 22nd): Larry Farrar sends us this report on a very cold day!! Mike Walton, Joe Walker, Larry Farrar or better know as the WWF (Walton, Walker, Farrar) crew hit the stream at Montauk for a day of Fly Fishing this past Saturday. The weather shaped up nicely (high of 54F) however it was a mere 16F when the whistle blew at 8AM. Catching fish was slow early in the morning and improved throughout the day. The stream was very clear and the flow was slow so 6x tippet was in order. The best flies of the day were the San Juan worm, olive soft hackle, and miracle fly. FYI the WWF will return to Montauk this Friday December 28th, don't miss the show.
WWF Means Something Different??!! Montauk Dec. 28th: As you can read below the WWF boys did make their promise good and returned to fish Montauk on Friday, Dec. 28th. But I decided to go with them to see what was really going on with these three Amigos. Mike Walton, Joe Walker, Larry Farrar, or WWF and I (Kenny Klimes) headed down to Montauk to catch the wily Rainbow trout. Although a cold day, it was rather pleasant as the wind was minimal but by late morning the snow came down in HUGE snowflakes. . We tried to start the day up at the spring but it was pretty well taken by other anglers that had the same idea as we did. So we started the day just upstream from the "Honey Hole" and worked our way down to the dam for lunch. Caught lots of fish mainly on the steroid worm (Cerise and Peachy colors) and the P&P midge. NOW I know what WWF stands for "Worm Wacky Larry". Larry had the trout eating out of the palm of his hand or should I say chomping on his worm all day (that doesn't sound right). Just prior to getting out at lunch we ran into Al Blair who was fishing with his brother, who was in from Minnesota. After a nice lunch we decided to split up with Joe and Larry heading for camp ground 3 to fish the bridge down to the handicap area. Kenny showed Mike below the cable since he had never been outside of the park before. Kenny had a nice big rainbow on in the 90 degree bend below the cable that broke off two flies and indicator. But Mike and Kenny didn't give up on the fish as they chased it for 20 minutes following the orange indicator wherever it went....no, they gave up and let the fish win. Larry and Joe did well in their section and even got a visit from the warden who was checking their license. We quit by 4pm and had a great day. Had dinner in Cuba at the Hick BBQ restaurant -- awesome BBQ. You should give it a try on the way home next trip.
Meramec Spring Fishing Well! (Jan 7): Dave Beerbower and Kenny Klimes traveled to Meramec Spring park to check out the catching there. Many have been avoiding the park because as of late it hasn't fished well, but the guys found different. The park was relatively empty and the guys had it pretty much to themselves. They started at the Island in the beginning of the park and worked their way down to the first "waterfall". Flies that worked well were midges, soft hackles, wooly buggers and cerise worms. 16 inches was the big fish of the day - one caught by Dave and one by Kenny. many of the rainbows had beautiful deep green backs that produced some beautiful colors. Fish in the riffles and deep holes in the beginning of the park and upstream 50 yards - up to the first waterfall. Being one hour closer to STL gives one the advantage of more time on the water.
More Check Out Meramec Spring (Jan 13th) - Three hardy and determined fishermen set out to stalk the wily trout on Sunday, despite the cold temperatures (24 degrees all day!). John Walker, Dave Beerbower and Johan Gerber went to Meramec Springs and started fishing just below the island. Dave had two in the net early on an orange crackleback, fishing the seam where the two currents join. There was a young boy and his father fishing just a little below us, and the boy caught the biggest trout I have seen in any of our local spring creeks. We did not measure it, but it was in the 22” range and barely fit in his net! Well, that inspired us. John landed the biggest fish of our day (about 17”) on the cerise worm and Johan caught one below the first set of falls with a P&P, but the cerise worm was the fly of the day. After lunch, we headed down to the Meramec River to check it out. Due to the recent rains, the level was very high and the water was muddy, so we decided not to try to cross. As the day wore on, the wind kicked up and around 3pm we decided we had had enough. Because the temperature never got above 24 degrees, we fought iced guides and reels all day long. I had used a worm and then placed it in my vest mounted day box. When I went to get it later, it was frozen stiff! All in all, it was a day of fun and frozen fingers, but we all caught fish and have a story to tell. Man up and get out there. There are lunkers to be had at Meramec Springs. Thanks for the report, Dave!!
New Friends Fish Together (Jan 11th) Here is a trip report from Stan Patton A group of us went to Montauk on Friday Jan 11. It is so nice to have a group of men we can put an email out and get together for a great day of fishing. The group included Sid Aslin, Jim Franke, Mike Mikulin, Larry Linnemann and Stan Patton. We arrived and the cows were spread out mostly as we drove there. The fishing was slow but we caught several, I know that I caught on a Primrose and pearl, a Griffins gnat and a guy I met gave me a little green fly that looked a lot like a Woolly bugger. So I was successful with all 3. I am not sure what the other guys caught theirs with. We fished until the whistle blew and changed and stood and talked to our new friends for quite a while and decided to go to Panera's in Rolla to continue. We are all planning to go again really soon. And we look forward to seeing and meeting new people at the Dinner on Monday.
New Area at Montauk (Jan28th) : Lew Smith and I (Kenny) went to Montauk to fish on Monday. Lew hadn't fished since October and we decided to rectify that situation. We decided to fish an area that Larry Farrar fishes from time to time. We headed to the bridge that leads to the camping area 3 & 4. Just over the bridge we made an immediate left turn and pulled in the small parking area near the river. We started fishing upstream from the bridge and continued downstream until the handicap ramp (below the ramp is closed to fishing). In the summer this is a bait fishing area and I usually always avoid it. But with fly fishing only during the winter and Larry's advice, we decided that this was the area of choice for the day. There are many nice holes and stretches of deep water that held many fish. Many were caught using the P&P midge and a few with a wooly bugger. But I really want to talk about how and what to fish in the winter months. Several fisherman were using dry flys and mayfly nymphs - with no luck. That's because there are very few hatches in the winter except for midges - check the Hatch charts. So if you want to be successful this winter be prepared to fish the midge. I have written about this many times before so here it goes one more time. 1. Fish the midge deep and use a split shot to get it down in the zone quickly, 2. Use an indicator that is small enough to be sensitive to the strike but large enough to just sit on top of the water. 3. This is important - set the hook when the indicator does anything other than flow with the drift. i.e if the indicator stops, twitches, slows down slightly, or goes under - SET the HOOK straight up. 90% of your hook ups will be in the upper lip. 4. Use a midge with a wider gap hook. (If you tie I use the Tiemco 2499 SP-BL which is a barbless super point wide gap hook) Fly fishing ends in the park on February 11th . Then the park is closed until opening day on March 1st. Remember you can fish outside the park anytime! Get out there. With the wacky weather we are having keep an eye on the temps before you decide to go. It was 75 degrees on Monday - Crazy!
Meramec Spring Park Still Fishing Well! (Feb 8th): Dave Beerbower sends us this report as some FATC guys had a pretty awesome day of fishing. This is one of the main reasons for FATC. One guy wants to go fishing, the call goes out to the group and three brothers join him for a great day on the water. This past Friday, Dave Beerbower, Tom Kelly, Bob Chott and Mark Johnson headed to MS. The rain from the previous night had the water a bit murky and the sky was overcast. Perfect weather for good fishing on the last weekend of winter catch and release season. As has been reported in earlier trips, the fish seem to be larger at MS and this was really the case today. We started out fishing the riffles and the area just below the island. Dave had three quick nets on the red crackleback. Bob got in on the action in the current seam and the day was on! Mark hooked several trout and bass in the pool above the intersection. Tom also did very well in the pool on a soft hackle, but the day belonged to the Cerise Worm. The pool above the intersection proved to be a gold mine of big trout when fished at about 4' down from the indicator. There were at least three rainbows caught over 18" and you will notice in the pictures, this group did not have to hold the fish closer to the camera lens to make them look bigger. The fish were long and heavy. All in all, a great way to finish the winter season.
Cold, Damp, Windy But Caught Fish and Graduated (Mar 5th) : Five Flyfishers went to Montauk to fish AFTER the opening day rush. Lew Smith, Dave Beerbower, Sid Aslin, Kenny Klimes, and new graduate, Bob Aslin, fished Montauk during what turned out to be a cold and windy day on the river. The park wasn't crowded but did have a few fishermen still hanging around from the opening day weekend. A first for our group and Dave Beerbower, as he was the first to use a Tenkara rod. A Tenkara rod doesn't use a reel and extends to around 10 -11 feet long - no fly line either just a leader tied to the end of the rod. It is great for small streams. He did christen it by catching the first fish. Of course Dave says Tenkara means "From heaven" I think it means "Too cheap to buy reel". Another accomplishment this day was the graduation of another flyfisher, Bob Aslin. Bob took the class a year ago and finally got the chance to catch his first fish with the group. Congratulations, Bob!! The water at Montauk is very high right now and cloudy. We started the day with a searching pattern using woolly buggers and caught several fish. Switched to midges and the cerise worm in the late morning and afternoon and did well with those. The wind was bothersome but didn't stop us from catching. Although cold it was an enjoyable day for all. And, yes, Sid did fall in again. He is trying very hard to earn a nickname - too bad Dry Fly is already taken!
Lake Taneycomo Trip - March 15th - 17th : The first big trip of 2013 had finally arrived. Five FATC members headed to Lake Taneycomo down in Branson, MO hoping the water will be off or low generation so they could wade fish this beautiful fishery. Kenny Klimes, Brian Yost, Nate Gross, and Dave Beerbower left St. Louis on Friday morning. Dave was more excited than a kid on Christmas morning for he, Brian and Nate had never fished LT at Pointe Royale. John Walker was in KC on business and was planning to meet us there by Friday noon. On the trip down the "boys" couldn't stop calling the Table Rock generation number only to be told that 2 then 3 generators were running. This can't be! The generation was basically zero for two weeks and NOW they had to run water! But when we arrived they cut the generators down to one and the boys were able to fish as soon as John showed up (he had all our gear!!!). I knew we were in trouble on this trip when John called and said he was running late with the gear and the first question Nate asked as we set up our stuff in the condo was "Does this place have a plunger?". As soon as John arrived the gang suited up and were fishing by 2pm.
Friday the fishing was good. Everyone was getting use to the new fishing spot as Kenny went through the introduction to LT with a perfectly hand drawn map. Even though they ran one generator the flow dropped to a very nice 1000cfs. The flies of the evening were the P&P midge, cerise worm, wooly buggers, scuds, and soft hackles. We fished for about 4 hours and headed up to the condo to plan for the next day. We had a GREAT Mexican chicken/BEAN soup dish that everyone loved - well, almost everyone. The night was filled with college basketball and laughter.
Saturday morning the crew was on the water by sunrise. We fished the entire area. The flow was perfect , anywhere from 1000 - 2000 cfs. There was a great run of water (2-4 feet deep behind Lookout Island southside) that had some nice fish stacked in there. We fished the "barrel" with little luck but most other areas produced fish. Again the P&P, soft hackles, wooly buggers, and cerise worm seemed to work the best. The gang fished all day with a short 2 hour lunch and snooze break. The weather was beautiful in the high 60's both Friday and Saturday. Stories and basketball on TV filled the evening (and the greatest Lasagna ever made).
Sunday morning brought a different look and feel as the temperatures dropped in the high 30's and a light rain would turn off and on. It turned darn right COLD. The fishing was a little tougher as the weather changed. Fish were still caught but the guys had to work a little harder for them - that's why it's called fishing and not catching. The last flyfisher quit by noon and with packing and condo clean up we were on the road back home by 2pm. Well, no one fell in and we had a fantastic time. We even saw fellow FATC flyfishers Mike Bisaga and Dave Komor who were camping near LT for the weekend. You never know what you will get at LT but we hit it at a good time. LT is one of my favorite trips each year.
The Professor and the Mystery Man take Last Minute Trip (Mar 27th) : Terry Seaton and a Mystery man went on a last minute fishing trip to Meramac Springs. The trip was decided at 10:15pm the night before. Fishng was good and the park was crowded but they had no problem with room to fish. Terry had a great day fishing (so did mystery man) as he introduced a new fly that could be illegal here in Missouri and with the FATC; the propeller woolly bugger. Yes, you read that correctly. The Mystery man wanted no part of this revelation. The consensus is to avoid the park now that summer is here unless you have little time and want to fish close to home.
Montauk - Awesome Fishing (Apr 3rd): Sid Aslin, Tim McCoy, Dave Beerbower and Kenny Klimes made a midweek trek to Montauk. In a word, the fishing was awesome - especially in the afternoon. Most trout caught were fat and in the 13 -14 inch range with several pushing 15 -16 inches. They also had beautiful colors. Everyone had a great day of catching - even Sid, who caught more on this trip than he had on his last three trips combined. Sid was on fire - of course until he fell in again which put out that fire. Craklebacks, P&P midges were the hottest flies, while olive leech, soft hackles, and various dry flies (elk hair caddis and white adult midges) did the trick. The park was not crowded with fly fishers (the bait guys were there but stayed out of our area). A few nicknames may be coming from this trip! We finished up the evening with dinner at Panera Bread - hey, they have very tasty pasta dishes now.
Montauk - Fishing Well (Apr 8th):
Steve and Phil Mahan, Mike Walton and Larry Farrar hit Montauk this past Sunday and Monday. The park was pretty crowded on Sunday but cleared out Monday. The water is deeper than we saw during the winter season and is flowing well. Fish were caught from the top of the park all the way to the Blue Ribbon area. Most fish fell to the San Juan worm, light colored midges or the Renegade. All had a great time and enjoyed the warm weather.
Lake Taneycomo is Hot!! April 13/14): Here is a Trip report from flyfisher Bob Aslin. We fished the area just above the Pointe Royale Condos. There is an island there and they did not run any water all weekend so besides a little wind on Sunday it was just perfect. Caught over 40 on Saturday and another 12 on Sunday morning between 10:00 and 11:30. I caught a couple by drifting a red midge and grey scud under an indicator, but they loved the gold bead head, wooly bugger. I missed over 100 strikes during the two days, as they were really tapping it lightly. It was a great weekend and the most people I saw in the ¼ mile area we were fishing was 8 on Saturday evening between 4-6 p.m.
Tan Vat - Fish Are Spread Out: (Apr 15): Mike Chambers, Tim McCoy, and Kenny Klimes fished Tan Vat and Baptist camp on Monday. It was a picture perfect day for fly fishing; cool, cloudy and at times misty. Fish were caught in both locations. The best flies were Cerise Worm, wooly buggers, and soft hackles. A couple caddis and mayfly hatches ocurred in the morning and late afternoon. Tan Vat seems to have fewer fish than in years past - gotta be on your game to bring in the trout.
Montauk Fishing is Still Very Good! (Apr 11th) Here is a Report from Jake Welty who planned on hunting but instead had a fantastic fishing day! Hey Kenny, I wanted to shoot ya a quick email about my fishing day yesterday. I went down to the ozark scenic riverways area near the baptist access on the current, for what was supposed to be a three day(Tuesday-Thursday) solo trip to be with God and do some turkey hunting and fishing. It got cut a day short because of the weather, but after the fishing day I had yesterday, losing a day is no big deal. I did not get a turkey. I heard some gobbling, but all a pretty good distance from where I was every time. But.... The fishing, was incredible! I hadn't cast my fly rod since June of last year, so I wasn't feeling real confident in the first place. I threw a wooly bugger about three casts, which to me, looked remarkably better than I anticipated, didn't catch any trees or tangle severely. I saw some fish holding in a hole and then I saw a couple rises, so I attempted something I had never tried and feared attempting for fear of tangled mess, which for you pros I know is common practice, but I decided to tie on a tandem rig of a size 20 P&P midge with a 16 elk hair floating above it. As soon as I got to the point of tying on the p and p, It was extremely windy and my rod slipped and set the tiny 20 in my finger, barb and all. The process of losing heart set in quickly. After a 20 minute struggle to get the hook out if my finger waist deep in water, a guy came up and said I've been down this road before and said here let me see, he started small talk to remove my mind from the discomfort and yanked it out of my finger. He told me he was a doctor after the fact. Comical, but the presence of Jesus in flesh nonetheless. I decided to continue forward with my plan of the tandem rig, with the Added element of about 20 mile an hour sustained winds with even bigger gusts. I threw it just where I wanted it on the first cast and bam! This continued for about three hours of nonstop poundin of both of these flies. I caught as many on the elk hair as I did on the p an p! After about 3 hours on the water I had caught 20+ fish! Best day I've ever had on a fly rod! Just thought you would enjoy hearing about the experience. And Jesus was more than present in a multitude of ways! Jake Jake was fishing about 100 yards upstream from the dam for those of you that are interested.
Montauk - Getting Back to Normal - Apr 28th - 29th - Larry Farrar send this report from Montauk during his two day trip. (Apr 28th) Steve Mahan and Larry Farrar went to Montauk for a little fishing after the recent rain we had. The stream was high and flowing very fast. Wading was challenging as well as the fishing. Several fish were caught on San Juan Worms as well as the green and rootbeer soft hackles. The day turned out to be beautiful once the sun came out around 3PM. Stay tuned, more trip info coming. (Apr 29th) Steve Mahan and Larry Farrar paid another visit to Montauk to see if the water conditions had changed. The water flow and depth of the stream improved since Sunday the 28th. Fish were taken prodigiously on Renegades, the Green Meanie, and the notorious San Juan Worm. Most of the fish fought a fierce battle and were released to fight another day. The weather is great, get out and fish, tight lines.
Lake Taneycomo Fishing Well - (May 5 - 7) Tim Renwick, John Antonacci, Rich Burrus and Larry Farrar fished Taneycomo Sunday thru Tuesday. The water level fluctuated from 701 to 702 over the three days fished. Table Rock Dam ran 2 generators all three days so the flow was very strong. We stayed at Trout Hollow Lodge and rented boats to fish from since wade fishing was limited by the water conditions. The fishing progressed from good to SICK (on the Fish-O-Meter that means better than great) over the three days we were there. We had the most success on white marabou jigs, cerise san juan worms, jaun bombs and chocolate (brown) midges. We found that getting a good drift was critical to getting bit. It was tough to pull ourselves off the stream when the bite was so good but we managed. I hope each of you get out this late spring/summer and go fishing. Tight lines.
