Three men braved the below freezing temperatures in the morning to take a trip to Bennett Spring and take advantage of the upper 50’s in the afternoon – and it truly turned into a beautiful day on the river.  Recent fall fly fishing class graduates Bob Palisch and Bill Grelle were joined by Jim Craig, obviously the most experienced one in the group.  The obvious reason for the lower attendance was the fact that the most recent graduation trip had 19 men joining and was only 2 days before this trip.  At least we got one member from that trip (thanks Jim).

We parked by the restrooms (heated by the way!) and started out below the 1^st “waterfall” below the spring.   By the time we got to the river, the sun was out and the weather started to warm up but we found that most of the fish were sleeping in and the bite was slow.  We ended the morning with a few fish, getting bites on the house of Payne, and various midges but Jim broke the code before lunch with the cerise worm, which proved itself as one of the top fish producers in the afternoon. 

Trading our secrets at lunch proved to be a blessing as Bob put on an olive midge with a red bead and caught 3 quickly as we all fished by the car below the waterfall.  Bill and Jim headed downstream after fishing by the car and catching a few, while Bob headed up to the spring.  Bill and Jim had good luck by the bridge while Bob had good luck by the spring, and then by the upper handicapped ramp  The other top producer was the San Juan worm, the close cousin to the Cerise, along with fish caught on olive wooly buggers, crackelback, olive midges and a couple on the crane fly larva.

After the horn blew, the vote was to go to dinner in Rolla so once again, we found ourselves at American Taco.  Jim opted for the burger from Scruffs Grill next door while Bill and Bob chose from the Mexican menu.  Being Bill’s first time he opted for the Wet burrito, a favorite of many of the FATC brothers, and Bob took a chance on the double burn Quesadilla.  Asked how it was, at least he can say that he actually got one and ate it, but not recommended for those that are spicy food adverse!  All in all, it was a great day on the river, in the car and at the fellowship dinner for this small, but mighty group of fly fishers.  We even got home in time to check the score in the college championship game only to decide that a score of Georgia 38 to TCU 7 just wasn’t worth watching.