Last week, I was part of a group that went down to Roaring River State Park to do some trout fishing. The group consisted of Wendy (no longer my girlfriend, and now my fiancé), her son Collin, her mom Sharon, my sons Mason and Cody, my parents, and I. We also met up with some other friends down there and I got to fish with April and her daughter while we were there. You can see April's smiling face and nice fish (bigger than my fish, that's for sure) at bottom of this post. She is a passionate angler that is picking up our fine sport pretty fast!
The conditions were less than ideal but we still managed a catch some fish. The water was high and stained which made it hard to find and target fish, but with some dedication and changes in tactics, I ended up catching about 25 fish for the weekend. Looking back, I probably should have fished the "flies only" section more and avoided the bait crowds more but that was also the section of the river that was dropping and clearing the fastest. There were however MANY highlights from the trip that I will share over the course of the week. One of these was a fish that I caught on a dry fly.
I ended up catching about 5-6 fish on dries and should have caught more. My go-to fly in a Missouri trout park is a Griffith's gnat. I rarely throw anything else to be honest. This fly worked well on trout that were rising to each what appeared to be cream-colored midges that were hatching. It is my understanding that a Griffith's gnat is actually meant to simulate a cluster of midges on the surface of the water. I am left to infer that this is the reason this fly worked fairly well...or these fish were just pellet-headed stockers that didn't know any better. Either way it was fun. Now on to my memorable dry fly eater.
I found a little pool towards the head of the spring that as low, clear, and with a healthy amount of fish. Some were being territorial and/or in pre spawn mode but others seemed to be feeding. They weren't interested in the nymph rig I was throwing so I switched to a Griffith's gnat. On the first cast, I hooked into a little guy. After that, I had a lot of lookers but not a lot of takers. Then, as it often happens with fishing, my fortune changed. I made a cast to a group of three fish and none of them seemed interested. As I started to look for other fish to cast to, I saw a fish move away from the bank and it started to take a direct path to my fly. It was probably 10 feet away when I first noticed it. That fish never hesitated or changed course and was closing the distance quickly between it and my fly. My pulse raced and I tried to remind myself to let him take it before setting the hook.
I often set the hook on dry flies too fast and miss the fish solely due to excitement. I also prepared myself for the fish to refuse the fly at the last minute. He didn't. Instead, he simply took it down with a sip and turned to swim back home. I set the hook and the short struggle insued. It wasn't a big fish. It might not have been a particularly smart fish. What is WAS however, was a memorable moment which became one of the highlights of the trip. As I heard a fisherman once say, the point of fishing isn't to catch the fish, it is to fool the fish! Well in this case, I fooled the fish and that felt pretty good!
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