Mid-Missouri Trout Unlimited

February 2007

President’s Message

Its February once again, which of course means its time to answer the letters, emails and threats sent in using letters cut out from magazines and stuffed under my door in the middle of the night.  Before we jump right in I want to thank the hard working banquet committee members for making all the arrangements for our much anticipated soiree on February 23.  It’s not true that we are going to the Marriott due to the incident following last years banquet that involved several bottles of champagne, a commandeered hotel room and several of Columbia’s finest that were most cordial and evenhanded in their call to duty.  Rather, the Marriott has made a very attractive deal that allows once again having the banquet on Friday night thereby affecting any needed recovery to a Saturday morning.  Now, let’s answer the mail:

“The participation in the Mill Creek conservancy project was pretty cool.  Why don’t we do one of those every year?”  Hank, Lupus, MO

Good question Hank.  We have been looking for a project like this to support for the last several years; however, these types of properties do not come available with any kind of regular frequency.  Sometimes they are available in clots and we think we only have to pick the best ones, then, the whole thing dries up and it seems we raise money only for the fun of it.  I assure you, when they come around we pursue conservancy projects with all of our zeal and keep our ears open when they are scarce.  So if you ever get the chance, give good Dr. Bohigian a slap on the back for offering up his wonderful little farm to the Department of Conservation.

“I’ve been hearing a lot about the noodling regulations.  Does Mid Mo TU have a stance on noodling?”  Dave, Wyaconda, MO

Fusilli.

“I didn’t have the chance to attend the bug sampling on Little Piney.  Are there any results and are we going to do that again?”  Bob, Columbia, MO

We should have some taxonomy results back this spring.  I think everyone agrees it was an interesting project and worth continuing.  Bill Lamberson headed up last year’s effort and we’ll try to talk him into organizing it again this year.  I hear the folks who attended in September were surprised by the concentrations of several different bugs and Michael Riley’s pictures sure made it look fun.  I hope to be able to go this year, myself.

“If you told someone you’re going fishing for half a day, what is the acceptable time to be home?”  Jeff, Columbia, MO

Well that depends but for arguments sake lets assume it’s a trout fishing trip and you are in Central Missouri and N = noon, DT =drive time, Ry = years in the relationship and Ff= fudge factor. I won’t print the exact formula (copyright and all that sort of thing) but the appropriate time comes out to 3:00 pm, and again, this makes certain assumptions including that this is a Daylight Savings Time trip.  For Standard time, deduct 37 minutes.

“I miss the chapter fishing trips.  Lets try to do one this year, OK?”  Mike, Columbia, MO

Agreed!  Those are wonderful trips although personal schedules get awfully crowded with mundane things like jobs, children, and court appearances.  I’m all for it.  I think a good trip to the Current in July would be the ticket but maybe there are better ideas.  And everyone bring a camera and we’ll do the slide show at our Christmas dinner again.

- Curt Morgret   

2007 Conservation Banquet Friday, February 23

Marriott Courtyard - Columbia

3301 LeMone Industrial Blvd

The 2007 Conservation Banquet will be held at the Marriott Courtyard Friday, February 23.  The Marriott Courtyard is just north and east of the AC exit of Highway 63 in southeast Columbia.  Tickets are $35 per person, or a table of eight can be reserved in advance for $250.  Tickets are available from members of the TU Board, at Clearwater Outfitters, or at the door.  Please come to the banquet and bring your friends.  The banquet is lots of fun – many raffle and auction items will be available including graphite and bamboo fly rods, fly reels, other equipment, trips, art, and much, much more.  A special auction item is a three-day guided trip in Michigan for brook trout (Robert Traver comes to mind). For us to raise the money needed for a major contribution to the purchase of the Bohigian Conservation Area on Mill Creek, the Little Piney Research Project, habitat improvement on the Barren Fork, teaching kids to fish, and our donation to Casting for Recovery (retreat scholarships for women recovering from breast cancer), we need people at the banquet.  Please come, please help us sell tickets.  If you can volunteer to help with the banquet, call Lynn Kleopfer at 573-447-1168.

Turk’s Tarantula

This past summer I spent an evening fishing the Ruby near Twin Bridges, Montana.  It was the first of many creeks, rivers and lakes that I fished on the trip.  The Ruby wasn’t the prettiest or most productive, but it was comfortable.  Not so big as to be intimidating, yet there was plenty of casting room.  The Ruby would be a good river to have running through your back pasture.

It wasn’t too hard to figure out where fish would be, and while they weren’t pushovers, a few were willing to cooperate.  One spot that looked like a sure bet was where the water dropped off a quick riffle, deepened, and swept under a leaning juniper at the outside of a bend.  The bank had eroded away under the tree and its lower branches were dragging in the water.  I cast my stimulator to the bottom of the riffle and let it carry under the tree.  Sure enough a splash and resistance.  It quickly became apparent that the resistance wasn’t a fish, but rather a limb of the tree. 

With memories of Pinky Gillum taking away a customer’s new bamboo rod when he saw the fisherman using the rod to yank a hung-up fly, I dutifully pointed my rod at the fly and pulled.  As usually happens, the fly popped out, but this time with a bonus, a Turk’s Tarantula trailing a foot or so of tippet was tangled with the fly.  I was aware of this pattern, but had never tied or fished one.  I took this to be a sign and tied the fly to my tippet.  It was a real producer in any freestone stream that I fished.  I was sorry to give it up to a tree in Red Lodge Creek near the end of my trip.  But, maybe that was fitting. 

Since I fish similar patterns (Madame X and Stimulator for examples) often on Missouri streams, the Turk’s Tarantula in smaller sizes seems like a good candidate for an effective fly here at home. 

TYING INSTRUCTIONS

HOOK: Mustad 2302, Size 8-14 (although out west you will see them up to size 2)
THREAD: light colored, 3/0 tan or yellow TAIL: golden pheasant tippets
BODY: hare’s mask, dry fly dubbing, or my favorite Rainy’s 1 mm olive sheet foam
WING: Underwing: pearl Crystal Flash Wing: white calf tail or calf body hair                            

HEAD: spun deer hair
LEGS: brown, yellow or striped rubber legs

 

It is critical when tying this fly to leave plenty of room for the deer hair head, approximately 40% of the hook shank.  Start by tying in the tail, and then dubbing or wrapping a strip of foam for the body.  The body should end about half way down the hook shank.  Tie in the underwing using two strands of pearl Crystal Flash (or equivalent) doubled over and trimmed midway down the tail. Stack the calf tail, (in smaller sizes calf body hair) and tie in at the same length as the underwing.  On small sizes you should now tie in two strands of rubber legs, don’t separate them until the deer hear is trimmed in the next step.  Tie them on the hook shank with a half hitch and secure them straight out with figure-eights of tying thread.  Then spin a bunch of deer hair for the head and trim.  In larger sizes, spin a bunch of deer hair, tie in the legs, and finish with a second spin of deer hair.