March was a good month for me. Including the weekend discussed below with Joe, I was able to fish every weekend of the month! My wife is pretty damn cool. Each trip was a little different. I had sunny days and rainy days; warm days and cold days; low water and highwater. I floated and waded; I fished the Current and the Meramec; and I caught fish on dries, droppers, streamers and nymphs. All were great trips.
The second weekend of March (13th-14th), I floated the Current with Eddie. The weather was beautiful. Sunny skies, mid to upper 50s, BUT, we decided to throw streamers anyway. We fished hard and put some decent fish in the boat. In my new favorite spot, Eddie moved two real nice browns--one on a streamer and one on a caddis dry. We each ended up in the double digits after the float.
At the end of the day after the float, we drove upstream to see if we could catch an evening caddis hatch. We did. We fished for about 30 or 40 more minutes and dominated fish on dries. Nothing super big but we had excellent numbers. Probably a dozen fish each in that short stent.
March 20th the weather was supposed to be nasty. Highs in the upper forties and an 80% chance of rain. Joe and I decided to try streamers on the Meramec. The river looked great. It's changed quite a bit over the last few years and there appears to be a lot more good trout habitat. All MDC needs to do now is change this to a Blue Ribbon stream so there are a greater number of fish. Joe and I fished hard, sticking several fish on streamers. For example:
As always with streamers, you find yourself trying to make the perfect cast--under logs, over rocks, and on to the bank. These risks do not always pay off. Don't try this at home. This is a good way to end your day quickly:
When the rain quit, we switched over to nymphs and the bite picked up signficicantly. Joe stuck this beautiful bow in a familiar spot:
All in all, it was a good afternoon on the Mac.
The last weekend in March, my boy Doug and I hit the Current to wade fish. This was the worst weather yet, or at least it was supposed to be. The forecast called for heavy rain and storms Saturday night into Sunday morning. We were risking a blown out river by going but I figured rising, chalky water would be good for streamers. We decided to leave a little later in the morning (6:45) to see how much the USGS gauge at Montauk would rise over night. At first glance in the morning, the river looked like it didn't come up at all. Maybe it didn't rain there? It was pouring at my house. Doug and I went for it anyway. The guage never lies right? About an hour and a half down highway 44, I realized that the USGS website was down and it hadn't been updated since 10 pm the previous evening. Considering it had rained all night, I thought we were fucked.
When we arrived, the river was up probably 6 or 8 inches higher than it had been when I was with Eddie. The water was also slightly stained which was perfect. The risk paid off. We absolutley dominated fish on streamers. It took about a half hour to find out what was hot. Once we did, each of us fished the same fly all day. We caugh fish steadily and managed to land a few that pushed the 18 inch mark.
At about 4 in the afternoon the sun came out and Doug and I switched over to dries. We stuck a few on top to close out the day and hit the road. What an awesome day! What an awesome month!!
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