Bennet Spring State Park – Spring Break 2017

You might be thinking…another video from Bennet Spring State Park, yep you’re right. Can’t help it or better yet, can’t help myself as I truly love this place. Not just the fishing, although it is great…but the people here, the wildlife and maybe most important…the fact that while I am here I can relax, re-wind and re-charge before going back to school.

Vickie and I have been coming here now over ten years. A long time ago we made our maiden pilgrimage here to Bennet along with our two boys; Harrison and Jonas. We didn’t know at the time that we would be ‘lifers’ and would return each year to sink in some of the natural goodness offered up by the Ozarks.

On this trip it was just the two of us…as boys and girls (Vickie’s two daughters) have all grown up and moved on into their own lives. That’s OK. That is what I believe is God’s plan…and you know, V and I like each other just fine!

The weather was the fickle finger of fate on this trip as the previous weeks had been a blessing with above average temperatures. Odd however that at about the moment we left Indiana all went afoul. The temps plummeted downward and made for some very cold fishing. I truly don’t mind it that much as the cold and nasty weather keeps the gentler fishermen away from the stream and opens it up for me.

As you will quickly see…the fishing was nothing short of awesome. This video was shot over the course of two days and most was done on the afternoon of the second day as I wound up at the right place, with the right fly and was privileged to be a part of catching several nice rainbows in one section of water.

Let me also address the casting that you will see on this video. I have had a number of questions and even a few ‘holier-than-thou’ comments from folks along the way about my ‘water-loading’ while casting. I am going to quickly address this…but also want to make a short quip; if it aint broken-then don’t fix it. As you can see I do quite well and it is obvious that this style doesn’t bother the fish or I wouldn’t catch as many as I do.

Onto the casting…when using sinking or sink-tip line (that is heavy) along with a weighted fly…and on a tippet that is pretty light (4X)…the only way to not snap off a bunch of flies is to water-load the line as you can see…and keep an open loop on the back cast. If you were to use a regular tight loop created by false casting…the loop would battle against the weight of the fly and line and create a whipping motion. This is no good. Please trust me on this one. This whipping motion creates all kind of havoc; lost flies, wind knots…and most importantly…in tight spaces with little room to back-casts…you can’t make the long cast that is needed (once again you can see the distance I am covering to place my fly accurately across the stream).

Bennet is an incredible place. Yes, I also know that there are a good number of folks out there that think a ‘trout-park’ is or must be like ‘shooting-fish-in-a-barrel’. If you are one of those folks then there is very little that I can do to change your mind. Maybe you just need to give Bennet a try and on one of those days when the trout decide to button up their lips…you too will see that this isn’t quite as easy as it seems. Over the years I have developed a set of go-to flies that usually work…and when it doesn’t, I experiment with new flies, a different retrieve or another angle of casting; that is how you get better at anything…you plug away at it. Even on the worse fishing day…the nature and beauty of Bennet leaves me with a smile and a yearning to once again make it back to this little spot in the Ozarks. I hope you enjoy the video…if you do, please leave me a kind note…it is appreciated.