Trout Fishing Report for Bennett Spring
Brought to you by
Weaver's Tackle Store
September 27, 2016

How's Fishing?

This is such a perfect time of year to fish. The water is clear and not as 'pushy'. The crowds have, for the most part, headed home for their fall pursuits of organizing kids in school and sports and getting their homes ready for the colder weather.

So, if your life allows it, taking a day for yourself to go fishing could be a perfect tonic. The heavy feeding that has been going on since the Spring has slowed and it becomes a game of tempt and trick. Landing the lure in the middle of all the leaves and fall debris, choosing the one that will tempt this trout, this time, all takes a focus that makes the rest of the world melt away. The tiniest fly you can manage is usually recommended for these conditions, but, if a few casts don't bring the results you want, do the unexpected and drop a nymph on sinking line. It's all good.

Fishing Times

Water Conditions

For Bennett Spring
9-26-16
Gage house level is 2.02 feet
Daily Discharge levels:
All numbers are in Cubic Feet per Second minimum was 70 in 1937
25th percentile is 94
Median is 108
Mean is 139
75th percentile is 138
current level is 143
Max was 970 in 1993


Niangua River - Back to a very middle-of-the-road type of level
9-26-16
Gage House reading (water level) is 2.05 feet
Discharge levels in
cubic feet per second:
Minimum was 30 in 1995
25th percentile is 37
Median is 51
Today's reading is 163
Mean is 691
75th percentile is 219
record high max was 4850 in 1996

What's Working?

From the Fly Case:

white San Juan worm
white mega worm
olive or gray scud

Zone 1 & 2

gray deere
Marabou: black & yellow, white
Glo Balls: easter egg
Brown Woolie

Zone 3

Brown power bait worm
Power Bait: Salmon Peach, White, or Brown
night crawler

Lunker Club

9-18-16

Jason Dane from Park Hills, MO
2-1/4 pounds on white san Juan worm in zone 2


9-20-16

Dottie Dorais from Wentzville, MO
2-1/4 pounds on Salmon Peach Power bait in zone 3


9-24-16

Keith Kesler from Herman, MO
2 pounds on a white marabou in zone 1


9-25-16

Joan Mitchell from Cottage Hills IL
2 pounds on a brown woolie in zone 1

Ken Mitchell from Cottage Hills, IL
2 pounds on a brown woolie in zone 1

Jim Navert from Quincy IL
2 pounds on a night crawler in zone 3

Jim Navert from Quincy, IL
2 pounds on a black & yellow marabou in zone 2

Of Interest

As we head into the later part of the season, taking care of our equipment for storage is an important step. The following is an excerpt from the web site deneki.com. Kyle Shea is the author.



A dependable pair of waders is one of the most important pieces of gear to the cold water angler. Make no mistake however, waders aren’t cheap. At upwards of 800 dollars these days for premium waders, it makes sense to take good care of them.

Inevitably all waders will wear out at some point, but properly caring for them can help you get the most out of your investment. Consider the following tips to prolong the life of your waders.

1. Get the best fit. Right from the start, one of the best things you can do to make sure your waders will last as long as possible is buy waders that fit. Ill fitting waders allow fabrics to fold excessively over time causing them to break down along stress points. Sort of like bending a paper clip back and forth until it breaks. Don’t settle for a pair that ‘pretty much’ fits, buy the right body AND stocking foot size.

2. Dry ’em out. The inside that is. Most of us hang our waders up to dry after a day on the water, but the inside of the waders are often neglected. Remember, while you’re waders might be ‘breathable,’ they don’t ‘breathe’ while they’re submersed in water. Moisture builds up quickly on the inside of your waders which leads to mildew. Sure, mildew stinks, but it can also break down the breathable membrane of your waders, and that’s what we’re most concerned about. Turn your waders inside out to allow the inside dry out completely as well.

3. Roll, don’t fold. When traveling with waders, make sure to roll them up from the feet up as opposed to folding them. Folding waders causes stress along the same crease-points that can break down over time.

4. Store flat or hanging. If at all possible, storing waders by hanging upright or lying flat on the ground (such as under a bed) is the best way to store waders when not in use.

5. Keep out of sunlight. No, we don’t mean while you’re fishing, but when you’re hanging your waders to dry for example, keep them out of direct sunlight. UV rays break down DWR and other waterproof finishes and can greatly reduce the life of your waders.

6. Wash by hand. Regular washing can greatly extend the life of your waders. However, waders should be washed by hand and allowed to air dry, with a mild detergent such as powdered detergent of even hand soap. We really like Nikwax Tech Wash. Conventional detergents can break down waterproof materials.

7. Rinse off saltwater. Saltwater is extremely corrosive on just about anything. If you use your waders in salty or brackish environments, make sure to rinse your waders off with fresh water after use, particular areas containing zippers.

8. Cut your toe nails. In his previous life, your humble editor use to work at a number of fly shops that sold waders. What did he see? A reoccurring complaint that waders were wearing out in the toes from the inside. The cause? Untrimmed toe nails and ill fitting waders. So, trim ’em up, you’re waders and your significant other will thank you.

Weather Forecast

Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 68. North wind 6-9 mph.

Friday: Sunny, with a high near 71.

Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 71.

Sunday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 75.

Monday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 77.

Calendar of Events

October Programs at the Nature Center - 417-532-3925 - in Bennett Spring are on Saturdays (Exception-No programs on October 22nd)

9 a.m. – Guided Hike on the Spring Trail (2/3 mile). The hike will start at the nature center. Bring Water! Directly afterward we will participate in the cultural tradition of raising the American and Missouri flags. Symbols on the Missouri flag will be discussed. Once inside the nature center, watch the indoor aquarium fish being fed.

11 a.m. – Ms. Patty Storytime with Activity near the picnic and playground area diagonally across from the park store.

2 p.m. – Family Program and Movie in the Nature Center Classroom followed by games to be played outdoors!

•      Owls-The Night Shift (October 1st)
•      Why Bats Matter (October 8th,15th, 29th)

October 4th & 5th : Moss Cutting

Saturday, October 8, 2016:
Holland Trout Derby, help raise some money for cancer society.
Time: 7:30 AM to 6:30 PM

October 31st: End of Regular Season

November 11, 2016: Start of Catch and Release for 2016 - 2017

Quote of the Week

It was a great grin worth a thousand words, a shrug every guide should master, a grin explaining why in the same feeding lane some trout will take a nymph, some a pupae, and others only a #23 spent-wing midge tied on a hook hand forged in Kenya just after sunrise on a winter solstice.

Author: Dave Ames
Published: Ju Ju Travel

Thanks for reading! Lucy

Contact Information for Bennett Spring Area

https://mostateparks.com/content/trout-cam  - trout camera
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?06923500  - real time water levels and cubic feet per second as well as historical data
http://mostateparks.com/park/bennett-spring-state-park  - official Spring site
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Weavers-Tackle-Store/371940309303 - Weaver's Tackle Store Facebook Page


Bennett Spring Hatchery Manager Ben Havens: phone (417) 532-4418, e-mail  ben.havens@mdc.mo.gov


Phone numbers for Conservation Agents:

Dallas County: Matt Hitchings 417-733-3876 or Jarrad Jewell 417-733-0286
Laclede County: Walt Hutton 417-718-1111 or Jared Milligan 417-288-8744

OUR PREVIOUS REPORT:

Trout Fishing Report for Bennett Spring
Brought to you by
Weaver's Tackle Store
September 20, 2016

How's Fishing?

The rain came, the water rose, fishing was great! The Niangua rose a great deal more than the Spring, both were up and running fast. The Spring branch stayed surprisingly clear and there were even reports of top water action this weekend. Dave's Hopper, Madam x, and even Renegades were all working at certain times. In general, fishing deeper and with heavier lures worked more consistently. You could put almost anything brown on the end of your line and have success. Brown marabou, brown woolies with or without spinners, brown RGN's, and if it had just a bit of flash to it, it worked even better. Even the brown PowerBait was good for zone three.

Fishing Times

Water Conditions

For Bennett Spring
9-11-16
Gage house level is 1.95 feet
Daily Discharge levels:
All numbers are in Cubic Feet per Second minimum was 68 in 1937 25th percentile is 97 Median is 111 Mean is 131 75th percentile is 143 current level is 279 Max was 389 in 2008


Niangua River - The river rose, briefly, to eight feet on September 17th.
9-18-16
Gage House reading (water level) is 2.52 feet Discharge levels in cubic feet per second:
Minimum was 25 in 1995
25th percentile is 38
Median is 51
Mean is 118
75th percentile is 158
Previous record high max was 700 in 1993 Today's reading is 530

What's Working?

From the Fly Case:

Adams - dry fly
RGN dark brown
white mega worm
zebra midge, red or black
black zonker
Chamois worm

Zone 1 & 2

Red brassie
Marabou: Shell & brown, yellow
Possum Hair Roach
Glo Balls: yellow, jimi hendrix, easter egg, original tricolor, salmon with red dot, hatchery brown john deere mini jig peach fur bugs wooly worm, brown wooly bugger, sculpin olive

Zone 3
Brown power bait worm
Power Bait: Salmon Peach, White, or Brown

Lunker Club

9-16-16

Don Denner from Hannibal, MO
2-1/8 pounds on salmon peach power bait in zone 3



9-17-16

George Clark from Wentzville, MO
2-1/2 pounds on a black & yellow marabou in zone 1

John Greer from Sweet Springs, Mo
2-1/2 pounds on a chamois worm

Of Interest

A bit about Fly Fishing, With permission, I am reprinting a blog written by Walt Fulps of MissouriTroutHunter.com.





All fishing is enjoyable, but catching a trout on an artificial fly is one of the most rewarding and exciting experiences one can imagine.

Those that appreciate fly fishing in its purest sense are the same sort of folks that prefer bowhunting to rifle hunting, backpacking to pay-site camping, and wilderness areas to state parks. This doesn't mean that a fly fisherman never rifle hunts, camps at a pay site, or visits a state park. It's just that their hearts usually lie elsewhere. If you are one of those people that enjoy the journey more than the destination, then you should give fly fishing a try.

For the fly fishing purist, the act is more of a religious experience than a hobby. And while we're fly fishing, there is a sense of following in some great historical person's footsteps, reliving someone else's notable experience, a feeling of being tied into something more significant than just trying to catch a fish. And these nondescript feelings are actually amplified when we fish in utter isolation. It's the sense that we're actually doing something truly breathtaking. However, if you define a successful day of fishing as a day when you can fill your freezer, then perhaps fly fishing is not for you. There's no right or wrong in it, it's just a matter of preference. Fly fishing is not for everyone.

Many people don't realize that fly fishing in some form has existed for thousands of years. An ancient Roman historian by the name of Claudius Aelianus, who made his reputation as a military writer (think "war correspondent" for the Roman army), documented fly fishing by the Macedonians more than 1800 years ago in the following manner:

"They do not use flies for bait, for if a man's hand touch them they lose their natural color, their wings wither, and they become unfit food for the fish. Instead, they fasten crimson wool around a hook and fix on to the wool two feathers that grow under a cock's wattles and which in color are like wax. Their rods are six feet long, and their line is the same length. Then they throw their snare, and the fish, attracted and maddened by the color, comes straight at it, thinking from the lovely sight to gain a dainty mouthful. However, when it opens its jaws, it is caught by the hook and enjoys a bitter repast as a captive."

Is that cool, or what? Of course, no can be certain, but it also appears as if they were actually trout fishermen. Claudius Aelianus described the fish as having a "spotted exterior", and he identified the river in question as the Astracus River, which holds brown trout to this day.

Fast forward 1890 years or so. Fly fishing is somewhat popular, but not yet considered terribly romantic. And then... THE MOVIE is released, and all hell breaks loose. Once the "girlfriends" started swooning over Norman and Paul Maclean and their Montana fly fishing adventures, the "boyfriends" started buying new equipment, running out to the rivers to slap the water with their El Cheapo brand plastic flyline. Of course, it didn't help that Brad Pitt was in the movie.

For all we know, the real Norman and Paul could have been butt ugly, but noooo, they had to cast Brad Pitt!

A River Runs Through It (the movie more so than the book), did a spectacular job of explaining the allure of fly fishing to those who knew nothing about it. Without clouding the action with words, the movie made it very clear what the fisherman was seeing, thinking and feeling, and the rationale behind the problem-solving and decision-making was all communicated by facial expressions and pause.

It somehow managed to explain to many exactly why folks like us are obsessed. Many thousands of non-fishing spouses exclaimed, "Oh! Now I get it!" And to us obsessed fly-fishermen, this was a beautiful sound.

The movie really helped the sport. Our trout streams are now more likely than ever to be protected by our legislatures, because there are now many more voices screaming for just that very thing. And, it forces us old-timer fly fishermen to seek out more secluded, wild and challenging waters to avoid the crowds of newbies. And our wives now think we're just a little bit more like Brad Pitt. All in all, it's a win-win situation. Thank you Robert Redford.

Want to try your hand at fly fishing? Other than enrolling in one of my fly fishing classes or booking some private lessons, here's what you need to get started. Start with an inexpensive graphite fly rod and a simple fly reel. If you look around, you can probably find a painfully cheap fiberglass flyrod combo hanging on a peg in a big box store for less than $75, and that's not a bad idea if you're buying a rod just out of curiosity. If you are seriously interested, though, you should try something a bit higher in the quality department.

Regardless of where you purchase your first outfit, expect most combos to have nylon backing and some ordinary fly line included -- the backing is tied to the reel, and the fly line is tied to the backing.

You'll also need to buy some leader material, which can actually be pretty confusing. Your fly line is big, bulky and easily seen by fish.

The leader, which is simply specialized fishing line, attaches to the end of the fly line by way of a prefabricated loop, an inserted metal eyelet, or a simple nail knot (not that a nail knot is simple). Your leader should taper down in down size with the thickest portion (the butt end) attaching to the fly line and the thinnest portion attaching to the fly.

If you're fishing most Missouri waters, you can get by with a 7-1/2 foot tapered leader in size 4x. For more challenging waters or more difficult fish, you'll want to use a longer leader -- it's your first weapon against edgier fish. Onto the end of the leader, you'll attach an additional length of line in 5x using a triple surgeon's knot, a blood knot, or nested clinch knots. This additional line you add to your leader is called your "tippet."

The purpose of tapering your leader is three-fold. First, it allows for the fly to roll over properly when you cast. Second, it helps your fly tumble naturally in the current like a real bug. Third, if a fish (or tree) breaks your line, it will break at the weakest point, meaning it will break closer to your fly, thus saving most of your leader. The smaller the fly you're using, the smaller your tippet should be. A 5x tippet will work fine casting flies size 8 through 16, but with a 7x tippet, you can fish flies down to a size 24 or so. If you're fishing a fly smaller than a #24 in Missouri waters, you're just making your life too difficult.

This brings us to the fly, of course. There's a favorite debate that fly fishermen apparently enjoy. If you could only have "x" number of flies, what would you keep in your box? Well, if I didn't know where I was going to fish in Missouri, and I could only carry 10 fly patterns, here is what I'd take:


     Adams dry fly #12-22
     Elk Hair Caddis dry fly #14-20
     Pheasant Tail nymph #14-18
     Gold Ribbed Hare's Ear nymph #10-16
     Stonefly nymphs 8-16 (various colors)
     Wooly Bugger #6-12 (various colors)
     Scud #12-18 (various colors)
     Dave's Hopper #8-12
     Glo-bug wet flies #10-14 (various colors)
     Soft Hackle wets #12-18 (various colors)


If you're an avid fly-fisher, some of your favorite patterns are certainly not listed here, but a box stocked with this menu of flies will catch you fish on pretty much any Missouri trout stream.

Aside from these basic requirements, you'll, of course, need some additional equipment and accessories. You'll need a decent pair of waders, a vest, some fly boxes, some polarized sunglasses, and perhaps a landing net. Big box stores in trout country should have these items in stock, but if you seek out an actual fly shop, you'll get some extra perks for giving them your business. Aside from free tips and advice, many offer fly tying lessons and casting lessons free or cheap. Not to mention, they need your support! There's an old fly shop joke: If you want to be a millionaire fly shop owner, start with two million dollars.

Weather Forecast

Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 88.


Friday: Sunny, with a high near 87. South wind 5 to 7 mph.


Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 86.


Sunday: A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 80.


Monday: A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 74..


Tuesday: A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 74.

Calendar of Events

October Programs at the Nature Center - 417-532-3925 - in Bennett Spring are on Saturdays (Exception-No programs on October 22nd)

9 a.m. – Guided Hike on the Spring Trail (2/3 mile). The hike will start at the nature center. Bring Water! Directly afterward we will participate in the cultural tradition of raising the American and Missouri flags. Symbols on the Missouri flag will be discussed. Once inside the nature center, watch the indoor aquarium fish being fed.

11 a.m. – Ms. Patty Storytime with Activity near the picnic and
playground area diagonally across from the park store.

2 p.m. – Family Program and Movie in the Nature Center Classroom
followed by games to be played outdoors!

•   Owls-The Night Shift (October 1st)
•   Why Bats Matter (October 8th,15th, 29th)



October 4th & 5th : Moss Cutting


Saturday, October 8, 2016:
Holland Trout Derby, help raise some money for cancer society.
Time: 7:30 AM to 6:30 PM


October 31st: End of Regular Season


November 11, 2016: Start of Catch and Release for 2016 - 2017

Quote of the Week

I make it a rule never to weigh or measure a fish I've caught, but simply to estimate its dimensions as accurately as possible, and then, when telling about it, to improve these figures by roughly a fifth, or twenty percent. I do this mainly because most people believe all fishermen exaggerate by at least twenty percent, and so I allow for the discounting my audience is almost certain to apply.

Author: Ed Zern

Published: Are Fishermen really Liars? (1977)

Thanks for reading.
Lucy

Contact Information for Bennett Spring Area

https://mostateparks.com/content/trout-cam  - trout camera
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?06923500  - real time water levels and cubic feet per second as well as historical data
http://mostateparks.com/park/bennett-spring-state-park  - official Spring site
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Weavers-Tackle-Store/371940309303 - Weaver's Tackle Store Facebook Page


Bennett Spring Hatchery Manager Ben Havens: phone (417) 532-4418, e-mail  ben.havens@mdc.mo.gov


Phone numbers for Conservation Agents:

Dallas County: Matt Hitchings 417-733-3876 or Jarrad Jewell 417-733-0286
Laclede County: Walt Hutton 417-718-1111 or Jared Milligan 417-288-8744