Spring Break in Mizzou – Part 1

It’s probably no surprise to many of you but I spent my spring break fishing. Vickie and I loaded up our ‘Little Roo’ camper and headed to Missouri on Saturday the 10^th of March. Truth is that I had been looking forward to this trip for quite some time; the closer these trips get the more I tend to watch the Weather Channel and focus in on what we might just get in the world of weather. A couple days short we started to get a clear picture that the weather might just be record breaking?

Bennet Spring is about 400 miles on the nose from our home to the campground. We turned onto highway 64 Spur…which if you know leads you down the steep incline into Bennet Spring State Park, cruised aside the spring and all of its fisherman and found our way into campground #1 and our spot. There are five campgrounds but the only one on the same level as the stream is campground one and frankly it is the nicest and newest of the campgrounds. The only issue is that until April 15^th there is no water turned on at each site…so fill your tanks up before setting up your spot and if at all possible camp as close as possible to the two water stations (bring all the hose along you have). I have spoken often of Bennet Spring but each time we return I find even more beauty and if you are a camper, fisherman or outdoorsman…you will as well.

I had our camper and area set up with about 4 hours of legal fishing left. Within the park there are legal fishing hours and both the beginning and end of fishing is denoted with a very loud series of three sirens that can be heard for many miles. I hadn’t yet purchased this year (2012) fishing license and thus my first stop was the park store. I have to add that in all my years coming here I have never been treated anyway but very politely by those that work at the park…in fact I have been here enough that a few actually remember me and I think that is also pretty special. Judy, who is one of the nicest gals anywhere, was there to help ring up my new license, trout stamp and a one day stamp. Missouri has a year nonresident fishing license for $40 and along with a $9 dollar trout stamp gives me hundreds of hours of great enjoyment. To fish within the park you must have a valid license, trout stamp and purchase a daily trout tag ($3) which allows you to keep four fish daily; when you stringer your 4th and final fish you are done…up to that point you can fish all day if you choose to…as long as you don’t stringer that final fish.

Saturday the 10^th left me with a few hours and I parked in my usual spot, grabbed my 6-weight fly rod and full sinking type 2 line…along with a couple of fly patches full of the usual wooly buggers, bitch creeks and a few others that usually work and dropped down into one of my favorite spots, just above the long island in zone 1. It was a slow start as the sun was still high overhead and I was searching for the right combo of fly, speed and depth within the water column. What seemed like hours was actually only 20 minutes when I felt my first strike of the trip…I strip set and had hooked and released my first rainbow of the trip; all was now right with my world and as they say the rest was all downhill.

As night came I watched the local weather channel out of Springfield and it was plain to see that Sunday the 11^th was going to be a wet one. 100% chance of rain was the forecast and while that might bum some folks…it was what I wanted to hear knowing that the lack of sun would bring the trout up in the water column and from years of experience it also told me that maybe they just might be in an aggressive mood. For one who fishes predominately streamers…wet weather is not frowned upon and Sunday turned out to be exactly as I thought…the trout were up in the column and quite aggressive and for me I was able to fish black and brown woolies most of the day. At 5pm (with now two hours of legal fishing time left…thanks to DST) I put on all of my gear and journeyed back to my same spot; I tied on a size 6 black bitch creek nymph with white rubbers legs and caught a fish on my first cast. The next 50 minutes were the wildest I have ever experienced while fishing at Bennet as I landed 10 trout and had hits on all but a few casts. I fished for exactly one hour and netted 12 nice rainbows; the largest was 16  inches and the smallest was 13 and I will admit that the rain, cold and numbers of fish had all taken their toll on me and with an hour left I sloshed my way back to the truck and a warm supper.

As nightfall came near I could still hear the rain pummeling the camper…ah, but the weatherman just told us that the next few days were calling for sun and near record temperatures of 80 degrees. Quite a change from the rain of today and for sure this would mean a different strategy for fishing, but this is exactly why I love to fly-fish…each day is different from the previous one; each day is yet another chance to do battle with wind, water and a fish that for all purposes is and often can be smarter than many pursuing it…all in search of an experience while we Enjoy the Great Outdoors.