Mid-Missouri Trout Unlimited
June 2006
From Cap’n Curt:
As everyone knows, June is Mid Mo TU History Month and a time we take to reflect back on the beginnings of our chapter and some of our accomplishments from the past. Lately I’ve received several emails asking about the beginnings of the Annual Hot Dog Burn and I thought this was a great chance to explore the archives and narrate the story of one of my favorite meetings.
With considerable help from our librarian, T. E. Partridge, I traced the nascent moment back to a fishing trip in June 1974 by Jeff “Wonder” Bread and Ollie Mayer. Using Wonder’s fishing journals and corroborating newspaper accounts, T. E. and I were able to piece together the events that changed the future of Mid MO TU and apparently some of the county regulations regarding open fires.
It was a bright, warm weekend in late June on the heels of a dry spring. Wonder had hatched a plan to fish the length of Clear Creek in search of a new state brook trout record and invited Ollie to accompany him on the weekend adventure. Wonder figured it would take the better part of a whole Saturday to fish from the confluence with Gans Creek up past Highway 63 (now Old 63.) They anticipated great success. The state record (unofficial) brook trout had been taken from the Gans Creek / Clear Creek drainage. Quixotically, the creek was not known to have any kind of brook trout population before or since and the record fish was the only one known to have been caught there.
Wonder had recently read a “Tap’s Tips” article that suggested a portable fire source could be made by stuffing most of a roll of toilet paper into an empty one-pound coffee can and soaking it with rubbing alcohol. Put the lid on and the contraption was portable and, when lit, only the rim got hot. Wonder asked Ollie to bring lunch for Saturday and Wonder would bring Twinkies for dessert. When Ollie got ready to leave the house that morning, the only thing he could find in the fridge was a package of hot dogs with three remaining dogs. He stuck those in his knapsack along with a can of pork and beans and a single can of Miller High Life and took off with his brand new fly rod made from the then exotic graphite material.
The morning fishing was slow with a few chubs taken on nymphs here and there. The conversation turned lively when Ollie hooked a larger, feistier fish that took a small dry fly and seemed to have record book potential from its determined fight, but it turned out to be a seven-inch sun fish. The two stopped for lunch and Wonder got the coffee can started as Ollie hung up his knapsack and retrieved the lunch items. Then Wonder stuck the dogs on a forked stick and heated up the open can of beans over the fire and Ollie told Wonder he would check to see if he had any eating utensils (apparently overlooked in the packing process.) When he got up, Ollie abruptly and quite accidentally kicked the coffee can, tripped over a log and landed on Wonder who dropped the hot dogs.
What happened next is unclear and some details differ between Wonder’s journal and the Fire Department report. Most likely, the dry ground litter of leaves and twigs caught fire and spread quickly in the summer breeze. Wonder said he tried to contain the fire but Ollie, concerned for his expensive, new fly rod took flight to safer ground. Whether he screamed like a little girl is debatable.
The fire spread to a pasture with a stack of hay bales leftover from the previous summer and the resulting smoke attracted the neighbor’s attention who called the Boone County Fire Department. Between the farmers and the fire department, the conflagration was limited to about ten or twenty acres and a couple dozen hay bales.
When the fire captain surveyed the burned area he found three charred and shriveled hot dogs a couple of yards from a burned up coffee can and two melted fly boxes dropped in hasty departure.
See you at the Burn, bring something to drink, a side dish and a fire extinguisher.
Next month: No meeting but don’t miss Spencer Turner at Cherry Street Artisan reading his collection of poetry dealing with Missouri’s evolving trout regulations.
June Meeting
Tuesday, June 6 will be our annual picnic (hot dog burn) at Bethel Park. Our guest will be Patti Hummert, from Casting for Recovery. She will talk about the Missouri retreat to be held this fall. MMTU has donated money to sponsor women for the Casting for Recovery retreats for the past several years. Bring a side dish to share and something to drink, we’ll provide the rest. We’ll begin to gather about 5:30 and sometime thereafter. Bethel Park is just west of Rock Bridge High School, or two blocks west and one south of the intersection of Providence and Nifong.
May Meeting
Tim Rielly, Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring Coordinator, Missouri Department of Conservation will presented a program entitled "Aquatic Monitoring in Missouri, What We Do and How You Can Help". Tim described monitoring programs of various state agencies and described “citizen” monitoring through the Stream Team program. Contact Tim at the MDC for additional information and opportunities for training in water quality monitoring.
A Google Earth image of the Horton River as it flows into the Artic Ocean
Google Earth is a great resource for studying terrain for trips. It is possible to view aerial photos of your destinations (or back yard) at frighteningly close range.
UNDERSTANDING STREAM FLOW TO IMPROVING YOUR NYMPHING SUCCESS (part two)
These tips from Norm Crisp will help you improve your nymphing success.
1. DON’T USE A TAPERED LEADER: The first time most fly fishers here this suggestion they think it is heresy. You need that tapered leader to get a smooth turn-over and delicate presentation. How far do you cast when you are nymph fishing? Not very far. And, generally it is with a weighted nymph. It is flipping or chucking, not artful casting. Since the most successful locations for nymphing are riffles, pockets and shoals, a delicate presentation isn’t needed. You have to get your nymph all the way down to the trout’s holding position near the stream bottom. While it may not seem to be important, the thickness of the upper portions of a tapered leader causes significant drag and resistance to the sinking of your nymph. Since you don’t need the tapered leader for presentation, why use one at all? Try just using 8 to 10 feet of whatever sized terminal tippet material you would use as your leader. Drag and resistance will be greatly reduced and your sink rate increased.
2. START WITH THE INDICATOR 1.5X THE WATER DEPTH: Unless you are fishing an extremely heavily weighted nymph in shallow water, it is not very likely that you nymph will hang straight below your indicator. Almost always there will be a bow in the leader. The faster and deeper the water, the greater the bow will be. Placing your indicator on the leader at 1.5 X the water depth is a good place to start, but make adjustments to the distance between the indicator and the nymph until the fly is at the depth you need. It is better to have more distance than needed between the indicator and the nymph than not enough distance between the indicator and the nymph.
3. CAST UPSTREAM OF WHERE THE TROUT WILL BE: Even with a heavily weighted nymph and a straight leader, it will take some time for the nymph to sink down to the trout’s depth. Cast far enough upstream to make sure that your nymph has plenty of time to sink and gets down to where the trout is holding. It is far better to have your nymph bouncing along the bottom upstream of the fish, than to have your nymph float by over his head!
4. MAKE AN IMMEDIATE UPSTREAM MEND OF THE INDICATOR: This can’t be stressed enough! Remember that the water velocity or speed is so much greater on the top than it is on the bottom. Without getting the indicator upstream of the nymph, the indicator, floating in that high velocity water at the surface, will pull the nymph along and not give it an opportunity to sink. As soon as the indicator hits the water make a quick mend to move the indicator upstream of where the nymph landed in the water. This gives the nymph a few seconds to start to sink before being pulled along by the indicator. As the indicator starts to overtake the nymph, make a second upstream mend of the indicator. Make additional upstream mends as necessary.
You will find that just this basic understanding of how stream flow effects the movement and location of your nymph will have a significant impact on your nymph fishing success. The more trout that see your nymph in their feeding lane, the more trout you can catch.
Norm Crisp is owner and head guide for STREAM SIDE ADVENTURES (www.StreamSideAdventures.com). STREAM SIDE ADVENTURES offers guided fly fishing trips in Missouri and Wyoming. STREAM SIDE ADVENTURES is permitted by the Ozark National Scenic Riverways, the Medicine Bow National Forest and the Rawlins, Wyoming District of the Bureau of Land Management. STREAM SIDE ADVENTURES is an equal opportunity provider.