One reason for the abundance of gear was the weather. Weather.com was forecasting a 60% chance of heavy thunderstorms Friday night and, having learned from experience, it's always nice to have extra gear when you're camping in heavy storms. Fortunately, the storms stayed to the South of Missouri Friday and, despite a pretty good chance of rain each day that weekend, we managed to avoid any inclement weather.
The fish also decided to cooperate, especially considering the high-water conditions. The river was up, 1.8 - 1.9 on the gauge below Montauk (200 - 220 CFS), which made floating absolutely fabulous, but the heavy stain, depth, and speed of the water had me concerned that we would not be able to get down to the fish. Each of us was prepared with 300 grain sinking lines but we ended up not using them.
Friday evening, Eddie and I both got on the board via the streamer. After floating and setting up camp, we only had about an hour to fish but the fact that we were successful excited us for Saturday's float.
Saturday, streamers and large nymphs were the ticket. The fish seemed to be charged up and were more than willing to rise in the water column for our flies. In fact, one really large brown (in a spot that will remain anonymous), jumped about 2 feet out of the water taking an emerger or some other bug on or near the surface. Despite several attempts to coax this 20+ inch fish to re-surface, he out smarted the three of us and was not seen a second time.
Despite not sticking the pig, we did nail quite a few average sized browns and bows and moved a couple really large fish. Streamer fishing is really one of my favorite ways to chase trout. There's nothing cooler in my opinion than watching a brown just explode on a streamer, especially when that streamer is a bright color and riding just below the surface. Everything is so visual. It's a similar feeling to tarpon fishing watching the whole attack take place.
On Saturday, my man Doug stuck his first Missouri trout and managed to pull in at least two entirely on his own (i.e. he chose the fly, tied the knot, picked the spot, and sealed the deal). Here's a shot of one of Doug's first Missouri trout:
Eddie, who was fishing like a veteran, was also having no trouble putting fish in hand:
We finished the float on Saturday at Parker around 5 PM and planned to quickly head into the park to re-load our ice supply. The plan was a quick stop followed by fishing until dark. One cool side note, while loading the boats on the car, I found a really cool bird point (or arrowhead) that was in perfect condition. This is the second one I have found on the Current. I guess the heavy rains and high water moved enough gravel and dirt to expose some new stones. It's somewhat humbling to think that American Indians were living in and around the Current River hundreds of years ago. If they only had trout back then....
Anyway, we loaded the gear and headed toward the park in a hurry to get back out on the water. Perhaps we were in a little too much of a hurry on those gravel roads because after buying our supplies, Doug's tire was almost completely flat:
Enter the "pit crew," Eddie and I. The following exchange was quite humorous:
Ryan: "Damn, this is going to cut into our fishing time. We need to change this sucker as quickly as possible. Doug, do you have a spare?"
Doug: "No."
[Eddie looks under the rear bumper].
Eddie: "You definitely have a spare."
Ryan: "Doug, where's your jack?"
Doug: "No idea. I don't think I have one."
Ryan: "You definitely do."
[Ryan locates the jack and tire iron in rear compartment].
Doug: "I'm gonna head into the lodge. Little bear, you're in charge."
After struggling with the tire for about 30 minutes, Eddie and I had the truck back on four full tubes and we were ready to hit the road. At that moment, almost perfectly timed, Doug walks out of the lodge with a six pack of cold Bud Light.
Doug: "What can I do to help?"
You'll notice the shit eating grin on Doug's face as he posed for the picture above. Eddie and I grabbed beers and we hit the road. Doug's penance was to carry the back pack for the remainder of the evening.
We ended up fishing for an hour or so until dark. Doug stuck a decent brown on a streamer as he was giving me casting pointers and various other fly fishing instruction.
The three of us fished our way down to camp on foot and called it an evening.
On Sunday, we broke camp and fished a mile or so upstream. Again, streamers were very effective as were large nymphs. Being that we were upstream where the river was running slightly clearer, I decided to try the "go to" method that I prefer on the Current: the dry-dropper combo. Fishing fast, shallow riffles I tore it up landing five fish in 30 minutes. Unfortunately, right when I cracked the code, the boys wanted to head for the hills. I was on board with this idea as our two nights on the river with Anheuser Busch were starting to catch up with me.
We pulled out of Montauk around 1:30 and pulled into the driveway in STL around 4. Great weekend. Thanks for joining me fellas.
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