Current River (Licking, Missouri) — February 22, 2004

This was almost the fishing trip that never happened. It had been some time since I had hit the water and I had the fever real bad. I had made tentative plans to fish the Current River with Brent McClane, but he had to cancel due to an invite to bird hunt — he definitely needs to get his priorities straight (although he didn’t make that trip either due to work,so it serves him right). A quick follow-up call to Mark Kotcher found me set to meet him at 3:30am at Denny’s at Bowles and I-44 and I was set, or so I thought. Saturday night I was filling my fly boxes with some flies when I got an instant message from Mark’s wife informing me that he had to cancel due to the stomach flu. Now I was pretty pissed and almost gave up on the fishing trip to the Current River (it is too long of a drive to drive those hours by yourself) when I posted a desperation message to the message board at OzarkChronicles.com. Enter Waterloo, Illinois bamboo rodmaker Ron Caimi to the rescue; “Matt I will meet you at Denny’s by 4am” his message read. Like a true fishing partner he was 5 minutes early (perhaps McClane should take lessons).

We arrived at the Tan Vat access around 6:30am and were suited up and walking up the field by about 6:45am. Fishing was slow, but the weather was awesome. In the first hole I hooked up with a little brown trout of about 13″ and as early as it was I thought the day would be alright — I caught this fish on a newly tied mini rag sculpin. It was some time before I picked up my second and last fish of the trip, a little 11″ rainbow on a black wooly bugger. I had two other legitimate hookups but couldn’t get either fish to hand. Ron decimated the shiner population of the river by giving them free air tickets with every strike. I must say that Ron’s hook setting is definitely on as I have never seen a person hook that many shiners on dry flies. I spent almost as much time shooting photos as I did fishing — and was rewarded with some great shots including a deer walking down the stream in the morning fog. Ron is a great fly fisherman and it shows in his casting ability. Ron wasn’t rewarded with a trout this trip, but to his defense he was fishing dry flies with one of his beautiful hand made split cane bamboo rods while most of the fish were hibernating on the bottom.

We witnessed some caddis coming off about 10:30 am with some random fish rising to them — but nothing that I would consider a hatch. We ran in to two other fisherman while on stream. The first gentleman was courteous enough to get out of stream when he saw us fishing down (observing the “upstream fisherman has the right of way” stream side etiquette rule) and came down to chat as this was his first trip to the Current. Just as we were fishing the last hole, we ran into two other gentlemen on a scouting trip to check out the river. It was a great day on the river and I definitely got my fix. The weather was perfect — high temp near 50 with morning temps in the 30’s, partly sunny skies, and little wind — and so was the river (although I will say that the river was definitely lower than on my last visit). I didn’t catch the number of fish that I quite honestly expected, but I didn’t get stood up at the dance and had a wonderful day on the stream. Looking forward to the next hookup……..

Montauk State Park & Current River (Licking, MO) — November 30, 2003

On the way home Friday (November 28), I got a voice mail from Brent McClane asking me if I had seen the email from Teak Phillips (a staff photographer / journalist with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch) wanting to do a story on winter trout fishing and wanting to tag along on a trip this weekend. Brent was kind enough to leave me Teak’s number so I called and set up to meet Teak at 6:30am on Sunday morning at the Denny’s in Eureka. Originally, Brent was not interested in going but given the opportunity to fish with a journalist he didn’t pass it up and quickly called me back while I was on the phone with Teak. We were both pretty pumped about the opportunity to fish with a journalist, and were really looking forward to this trip — although Teak assured me it wasn’t that big of a deal and he was going to fish a little too.

In talking with Brent on Friday night, we had decided to forgo the Maramec Springs Trout Park and Meramec River and fish Montauk and the Current instead — based mainly upon increased water flows and some recent good fishing reports. I got to Denny’s at 6:00am and still considered it a late start (normally I am at Denny’s by 4:30am waiting on Craig’s hung over ass to show up) and read the paper waiting on the others to arrive. Teak showed up promptly like a new fishing partner should, followed by Todd Butzlaff and then Brent (apparently Brent was supposed to ride with Todd, but due to his uncanny ability to not show up to anything without a camera on time he had to drive himself to Denny’s). After a good breakfast and conversation we split into two cars and were on our way to Montauk by 7am.

Teak and I rode down together, and chatted about fishing and hunting on the ride down. It wasn’t an interview but simply just two guys talking about fishing and hunting and getting to know each other — with Teak taking a couple pages of notes. Being an avid fisherman, he was just looking for some photos and some “filler” for his story. Teak and I were in the midst of solving all of Missouri’s trout fishing troubles when Todd’s Explorer pulls along side us and out the back window hung Brent’s bare naked ass. It has been some time since I have seen a full moon at 7:30am on I-44. I secretly wonder if Brent and Todd weren’t putting on a little show for the truckers and were just trying to hide it by pulling a prank as such. In all seriousness, I haven’t busted a gut that hard in a long time. Poor Teak probably didn’t know what to think — having just met us about an hour earlier. He definitely won’t forget this trip.

We got down to Montauk State Park around 9:30am and were suited up and fishing shortly there after. We started off fishing a shallow run of water and were sight fishing small soft hackles (#16 and #18 Partridge & Orange) and scuds (#16 Tan Scud) taking turns fishing the run in a rotation. Once you hooked a fish, foul hooked a fish, got hung up, or lost your fly you were out of the hole and the next guy in the rotation took a shot at the fish. Brent caught the first fish in the hole, then Todd, then me all while Teak was taking photos (trying to get the “work” out of the way). It was a fun way to fish, sight fishing to larger than average trout in shallow water. After we turned those fish off, after an hour or two, we hiked up to the Catch & Release area.

In the C&R area, we each caught fish. Why is it that while casting to a feeding 25″ fish I can find the only tree along that bank within 100 yards (those that fish there no the exact tree I am talking about) and lose 3 flies in a matter of 20 minutes — yelling curse words like a drunk sailor after each cast. I moved up to the outlet pipe and fished along with Brent and Todd for those monster fish hanging in there. This was true combat fishing among friends — and we would not have had it any other way. We each caught a few, Brent foul-hooked more than his fair share (I guess that is what happens when you fish 2 and 3 fly rigs — when will he learn it is streamer or bust), and Todd ended up with the most colorful (and biggest?) fish of the day. In an effort for Teak to avoid the tail water combat, he stayed back in the slower water fishing to rising / feeding fish with no one else around. He may have been the smart one.

We then headed back to check out the shallow run of water and see if the fish were back — they were not; so we each fished our own water for a bit. I went to the big pool just below the C&R area / road bridge and fished a leech in the pool. On the second cast I hook up with a nice rainbow and call Brent over to get some photos. Since he had just purchased an underwater housing for the camera, we decided to give it a try and take some underwater photos of me fighting the fish (see the photo gallery). We even got a close-up of the fish with my tan/ginger mohair in its mouth. It ended up being a nice fish (around 19″+ by Brent’s estimate) and we got some decent photos. Which leads me to my next epiphany while fishing with Brent — I don’t smile in photos, and even a decent fish doesn’t look that decent in photos of me and the fish (thanks to the term “husky”). I will need to work on both of them if I am ever to compete with Brent in the photo pimping contests. After landing the fish we met up with Teak and Todd and headed to the lodge to pick up drinks and crackers………and vienna sausages for Teak.

We ended up at the Blue Hole next in the fly fishing only area of Montauk. That was my first time fishing that section of water and man is it a neat little stretch of water. Craig and I will definitely be fishing there on the next trip. I ended up catching a few fish out of the hole on the tan/ginger mohair, including a real nice and fat fish (see photo of the fish next to my rod in the photo gallery) but I also noticed something. It appears that I may need to tie up some smaller mohairs as I get allot of short strikes — so I am going to tie up some #12 and #14 leeches and see what happens. Everyone but Teak took fish out of this hole, it was a fun spot to fish. On the way out, I spotted some large fish holding against a bank but the problem was that I was up on the road and Brent was down in the water. So we spotted for him while he fished to these fish (several nice fish) and it was then that Brent transformed into the true camera whore he is. Between all the photos Teak was shooting (actually the back lighting, scenery, and stream made it look really really cool) and Brent’s pimping for the camera, one would have thought that there was a GQ Fly Fishing photo shoot going on. Brent ended up taking one or two fish out of that hole, and by then it was 3:30 and I wanted to check out the water above Tan Vat.

Brent and Todd had never ventured very far above Tan Vat, and I wanted to show them the two nice runs that have been good to me in the past. We start walking through the field and get about half way there and then the bellyaching comes — Brent asks “Dude, are we going to have time to fish?” I didn’t want to comment, because I know secretly our new “camera whore” was only thinking of camera light and the chance for more photos — I wonder if Teak knows he created a monster. So Todd and I went up and fished the hole near the boulders while Brent and Teak stayed and fished the run near Tan Vat. Todd and I saw lots of fish, but couldn’t bring any to hand (I had one hook up and LDR) and opted to start wading down stream around 4:30 or so and checking on the other guys. Brent had landed one, and pumped its stomach and found an orange body caddis larva in its stomach (about a size 16 orange soft hackle with dark hackle), but didn’t have anything that looked like it. In a last ditch effort I fished the big pool above Tan Vat until about 5:15 and caught one largemouth bass on a mohair.

This was a great trip. Any time you get Brent, Todd, and I on the same trip it is going to be fun — but if you can’t take the trash talking you might as well stay home. Teak fit right in. It wasn’t at all like fishing with a journalist, but merely like fishing with another fishing buddy; hopefully we didn’t freak him out too much and he will join us again. For a day to do a story on winter trout fishing in Missouri, it wasn’t much of a winter day — the high was near 70 with sun most of the day and only periods of wind. But the type of weather we had today, is actually pretty common when fishing the winter months. The river changed from last year. The low water and then the recent high water changed the river a little, some of the holes have silted in a little and others have gotten a little bigger — much to be expected over the course of a year. Total stats for the trip ended up as follows — Brent landed 9 or 10 trout (only one Brown trout) all on soft hackles or scuds; Todd landed 10 or 12 trout (no Brown trout) mostly on soft hackles; Teak did not land a fish; and I landed 7 trout (no Browns) and 1 largemouth bass mostly on tan/ginger mohair leeches (and one trout on a partridge and orange soft hackle). We are already making plans for the next trip down to Montauk and the Current River to test out my new camper and fish for the weekend. I am already looking forward to the next hook-up.

Current River — May 31, 2003

Mark Kotcher and I headed down to the Current River on Saturday (May 31, 2003) for a very quick trip — approximately 250 miles roundtrip for 4 hours of fishing. Was it worth it? Yes. We left Denny’s at Bowles & I-44 at about 3:15am, hit QT for some coffee and bottled water and were on the road by 3:30am headed for the Current River. We arrived at the TanVat Access at 5:30am on the nose. We were suited up and started the walk upstream to the park — we had planned on fishing from the park down to TanVat access.

The first hole we stopped at there were fish rising everywhere. This was the most prolific sight of rising fish I have ever seen in Missouri. Mark got first shot at this hole, and I went downstream a ways to fish some faster water. The insects coming off were unreal — since I am no entomologist I have no idea what they were called, but they had black bodies and split tails and were tiny — like #24’S. My guess is that they were tricos, but I am probably way off. There were some caddis coming off as well, but not in the numbers like the other bugs. Mark fished a couple of different dries, and finally started getting hits on a #22 griffith’s gnat. He must have had easily 15 fish rising at anyone time in this pool — there rise forms made it look like it was raining on the water; very cool. Mark hooked up with his first fish on the griffith’s gnat, and I was still fishless. I put on my tan/ginger mohair leech and quickly hooked up with a rainbow. I then spotted a big fish (at least an 18″ fish) hanging on the bottom of the hole I was fishing. It was a big brown. It was sitting in a feeding lane and every once in a while it would dart out and grab something, then it would settle back on the bottom and just open its mouth as stuff drifted by. Very cool to watch. I fished for this one fish for about 30 minutes (throwing almost every subsurface fly I had in my boxes at it) and never got a look. I gave up and fished the hole, like I would any other hole and quickly hooked up with 3 more rainbows.

Mark wasn’t having any luck with the rising fish, missing some and what not. Then the temperature started to drop and the rising stopped. We fished our way downstream to the next big hole and I quickly hooked up with 2 fish in some deeper water. I then switched to a new color brown wooly bugger I had tied up (grizzly brown in color and nothing earth shattering — it looks cooler dry but looks like any other brown wooly when wet). I moved downstream a little bit and caught another rainbow. Continued fishing my way downstream, and hooked up with a nice brown trout of about 14″ or 15″ (my biggest fish of the day) with beautiful colors. Brown Trout are by far my favorite trout. We had reached the slower water, so I had reeled up and started the long trek back to the Blazer. We walked the stream back to the access and only ran into two other people (a man / wife couple fly fishing near the TanVat Access) the whole morning we were fishing. We spotted 5 snakes — not sure what kind they were, some were a little too close but most were sitting up on rocks sunning. We also had two deer cross the stream in front of us while we were fishing. Talk about a sight!

We were back at the access by 11am and driving back to STL by 11:30 or so (yeah we fished a little longer than expected). We we got to the access in the morning, the air temperature was above 70 but by 11:00am the temp had fallen to 63 and it was considerably cooler (I had wished I brought a jacket with me instead of the long sleeve shirt I was fishing in). The fishing really seemed to slow once the temperature started to drop. I ended this trip with 8 fish landed in about 4.5 hours of fishing (Mark caught one and avoided the “skunking” in his first trip to the Current River). The trip should have easily been a 15 fish morning for me — having lost many fish (I did have a hookup with another big fish that came up and boiled on top of the water, but that was it — i think it was just trying to tell me it was still there) and missing a ton of other fish with the streamers. Mark as well should have had a decent day, missing many fish on top and with streamers. We did notice the fish count seemed way up. My last two trips to the Current have been half day trips (leaving STL around 3am and getting back to STL around 2pm) and the river has not let me down — it has made each trip worth the drive (maybe the next trip Craig or Mark will drive and I can sleep…..LOL). All in all it was a great trip, and probably the last trout trip for me until late October. — Matt Tucker

Current River — April 26, 2003

Last week someone someone emailed me regarding one of my posts on an email list, about heading down to the Current River for 5 hours of fishing as “Hard Core,” I don’t know about that, but Craig and I met up at Denny’s on Saturday at about 3:45am and were at the TanVat access on the Current by 5:45am. We were a little skeptical about being able to fish the river, given all the recent rains (the usgs gauge took a huge spike on thursday/friday and was at 2.4 on friday night when I went to bed, but had fallen to 2.3 by saturday morning when i woke at 2:30am). We pulled into the TanVat access and there were 4 vehicles in the lot already (2 of whom looked to be camping), and a group of 3 guys fishing the big pool at the access — i thought for sure we were in for a crowd upstream. We quickly suited up and rigged our rods and took off for the walk upstream. After Craig pointed out several deer in the big field, and we checked the water level occasionally (with all the fog, the water looked up considerably — but it wasn’t up that much).

We stopped at a big deep pool upstream from TanVat and began to fish. I hooked up with a 14″ rainbow on a tan/ginger mohair leech on my second cast — i thought to myself “at least i won’t get skunked.” About 10 minutes later I hooked up and landed a solid 17″ rainbow on the same mohair! Definitely not a bad trip. The rainbow had beautiful colors, and was landed quickly and still had lots of fight in him, as when we were trying to take a photo I lost her back in the water (although the photo wouldn’t have taken anyway, because I forgot to put a flash card in my digital camera!). I had landed 2 fish before the whistle in the park — not bad. Craig was still o- fer on the stream. We continued to fish the same run for about an hour, and didn’t see or hear another soul on the stream. The highlight of this run, was the fish that got away (what fishing story would be complete without one). I hooked into a seriously large fish in this run. Although I never saw the fish, as it held deep in the water and never came up close enough for craig or I to get a look at it. I knew the fish was a bigger fish, and was trying to get my line to the reel and fight the fish at the same time — it made a run down towards Craig in some faster water, and I almost had my line all up (thanks to the run by the fish) and then it turned and swam back towards me and the fish got enough slack and that was all she wrote. I don’t have a clue how big the fish was, all i know is that she was on my mohair for about a minute or so and I never got a look at her but my rod was bent over pretty good and Craig was ready with the net. We finished up at this hole, and decided to walk upstream.

On the walk there, we didn’t see or hear anyone else on the stream — and the weather was absolutely beautiful. Craig still hadn’t landed a fish, and wasn’t getting near the hookups i was. I was on fire at the deeper water in this hole — quickly landing 6 fish in a little more than an hour in this run. Still no one in sight. Craig moved down below me and fished the tail of the real deep water there. He missed a couple of fish, and then missed a very large fish TWICE. Then two guys came down from the park (or at least upstream of us) — one of them was fishing, and the other was shooting photos (complete with backpack, rod tube, and tripod) of the guy fishing. I wondered if they were doing an article on fishing the Current River. After quick hellos and the obligatory “having any luck” they quickly went on their way downstream about 150 yards and proceeded to fish and take photos. We went back to the task at hand — catching Current River trout. Craig and I traded spots in the run we were fishing, and I went down to see if I could get a look at that big fish that had Craig shaking. Craig finally landed a fish in the run i had just been fishing on a chili pepper mohair. I tied on a brown mohair and proceeded to fish, when it happened. A very large fish came straight up off the bottom and hammered my fly in mid-strip — missed opportunity. I threw back up in the same run and he hammered it again, only this time i stuck him albeit too hard and snapped my fly off. Talk about an adrenalin rush — watching a large trout take your fly less than 15 feet away! So if anyone catches this fish, i would like my mohair back please.

About 9:30 a large hatch was coming off — we believe there were 2 kinds of bugs, as some of them had about 1/2″ split tails and the others did not. They were landing on the water and crawling all over everything. The fish began to key in on them and start rising occasionally, but I was having too many hookups to switch. About 10:30 or so, we decided to start the walk back to the the access, quickly stopping to fish the first deep hole we fished in the morning right behind the photographer and angler. I picked up my last fish of the day — a 12″ brown.

This was by far my best day on the Current River — 9 trout landed (2 rainbows, the biggest 17″; and 7 browns, the biggest 15″ and skinny), 4 LDR’s, and many more missed opportunities all in about 4 hours of fishing. Craig didn’t get skunked and ended up with one for the day (a nice brown trout). We were not once crowded on the river at all. We did talk to another angler in a black ford expedition that had fished the Baptist Camp access this morning only catching a couple, but had dealt with some canoe traffic — i quickly gave him some tan/ginger leeches and we were on our way back to St. Louis (if the angler that I gave the leeches to reads this — shoot me an email and let me know how you did). 4.5 hours of drive time, 4.5 hours of fish time, 10 fish landed and many more missed, makes for a very long day of fishing — but what a day. — Matt Tucker