09/08/2022

It’s really easy to post a trip on the FATC Teamup calendar, and guess what, when you do you, will usually find guys who want to go fishing.

Allan Blair, Bill Byington, Don Varner and myself [Steve Baker] did just that on Thursday 9/8. I picked Al and Don up at Don’s house and we drove out MO. 100 to I44 in order to pick up Bill at the St. Clair commuter lot.

The trip to the Montauk lodge went quickly and it appeared that we would have a great day of fishing. As we pulled into the park we noticed that the park was a little busier than it has been the last couple of trips. We bought our tags at the lodge and went to the naturalist cabin to gear up for fishing. Wet wading was still in order due to the pleasant temperatures.

We all headed up stream with plans to meet up for lunch about 11:45. The fishing in the morning was somewhat slow, I believe due to the fishing pressure. It was difficult to find one of our favorite spots. Don’t these people know that week day trout fishing is for old retired guys? Some of us were able to net a couple of fish by resorting to trash flies. The fish count for the morning was barely in the double digits. We broke for lunch with the hopes that the park would clear out a bit.

As we went back to the stream after lunch we realized that it was still hard to horn into your favorite spot. We spread out up and down the stream and we all managed to net a few. Don was able to find a honey hole and managed to catch a couple a dozen fish in no time. The rest of us were pleased with our catch but Don earned the bragging rights for the trip.

We ended the day at 4:30 and headed back to the car to get ready for the ride home. Everyone agreed on Rich’s Famous Burgers for dinner, the food there is always good but the service was a little slow this time.[strike one] The rest of the ride home was easy and after dropping the other guys off I was able to once again reflect on a great day of fellowship and fishing.

Please get out and fish.  We owe it to ourselves.

Steve Baker