The weather forecast for mid-December was just too good not to go fishing.  So, Monday December 14, Dave Wilton, Al Harper, Al Blair, Kenny Klimes, Vernon Preston, Larry Farrar and Jim Craig met up at Maramec Spring Park.  Because of COVID or personal schedules, everyone drove separately and arrived at the park between 7:30 AM and 8:30 AM.    

Jim and Dave headed for the river.  Everyone else started in the park.  As the day started, the temperature was cold, but we had the park to ourselves.  For something different, Jim talked Dave into walking down the trail to Dry Creek and fishing their way upstream to the park.  After all, that is how our favorite fly fisherman do it in their videos, right?  This approach is supposed to help hind you from the fishes’ sight and prevent surface water disturbance, as me move, from spooking the fish.  Well, all that may be true, but it is also true that walking up stream is REALLY hard work.  Also, that theory really didn’t play out well in our fish count.  That morning Dave had one on that pulled loose, and Jim had no action.  

By lunch, the temperature had risen nicely, but that also brought out a lot more fishermen.  Over a socially-distant lunch in the pavilion, guys reported that the fishing was slow that morning.  Most everyone caught a couple fish.  No one fly seemed to be the best, except the pheasant tail nymph for Larry.  He did well.  Dave fished through lunch and ended up doing well dead drifting a wooly bugger in the park and at the bend.  

Several guys had to leave mid-afternoon while the rest of us netted a few more fish on nymphs and soft hackles.    

Kenny, Vernon and Jim enjoyed a Mexican dinner at El Nopal, home of the world-famous margarita.  Well maybe not “world-famous”, at least not yet, but maybe some day.  Why else would we keep ordering them?    

This mild December weather is giving us the chance for a few more nice days on the river.  Guys that have been going know this.  If you haven’t been out for a while, know that you can do it safely.  So, plan a trip or jump or on of the upcoming trips and seize the day!