This was the annual first trip of the new year for Craig Peterson and I. This was the 3rd annual New Year’s trip that we have taken, and hopefully it will continue well in to the future. Craig doesn’t get out as much as he used to, due to some job promotions and climbing the corporate ladder, so I let him choose the water. He chose Montauk based upon its close proximately to St. Louis (i said, tongue in cheek). We both needed to be back in St. Louis by about 3pm due to some New Year’s Eve festivities that we had previously planned.

I have fallen a little behind on fishing reports as of now (I have a couple more to write still), so this one will be short. We fished mainly the C&R area and the area around Hatchery Office. We picked up fish on a variety of flies, including some midges and mohairs. But the park was crowded, as that is what a 70 degree day in December would give you. It was very packed and it was tough to find some water to fish. Finally at about 11:00am we found a pod of fish and had a complete blast. We each caught about 25 fish in 2 hours or so and had at least 15 doubles. It was one of those times that we could do no wrong. We were laughing so hard, because the water we were fishing was completely overlooked by the hordes of other anglers. It was a good day and a great way to ring out the year. Hopefully 2005 is as chalk full of fly fishing stuff as 2004 was. Tight lines and fish hard.