We don’t have many Saturday, one day trips and I’m not sure why not, especially in the winter.  This Saturday trip was set up to graduate Chris Pham, who attended the Tower Grove fly fishing fall class. And because of Chris’ popularity or just because it was a Saturday, we had a nice big group fish on this day. Ten FATC members made the trip and we had a blast.  I love when we have big groups go together because the fellowship is always awesome.  So Chris Pham, along with Kenny Klimes, Mike Oldani, Patrick Gallagher, Rick Doerr (new guy too), Bill Byington, Paul Schneider, Lou Forbringer, Connor Peters and Bob Beckett made the trip to Montauk State park.

The weather was perfect and the guys even removed their jackets to fish in the afternoon. Chris graduated right away using a black woolybugger and got to use all the “other” fly fishing techniques throughout the day. And yes, sounds of “mend,mend” were heard down the river. Chris did an awesome job and caught several more fish during the day. The other guys all caught fish too!  As always it seemed that the park was a little crowded in the morning and emptied by the afternoon. We mostly fished in the fly fishing only area. There were a wide range of top flies for this day from midges, soft hackles, wollybuggers, tiger tails, cracklebacks, and pheasant tails. The trout ranged from 15″ and smaller.

After fishing we all ate in Rolla at the Tater Patch, a new place for us. It was busy because of being Saturday evening but their menu was extensive. Several guys couldn’t finish their meals and had to take some home for Sunday morning breakfast.  There is a good chance we will be back as a group.  Remember the catch and release season ends February 12th and with the warmer weather you need to get out there soon.