Looking at the weather for Monday 11-28, and knowing I wasn’t going to be able to make the Graduation trip for Friday 12-2, I decided I would post a trip to Bennett Spring and see how many other FATC brothers were interested in a change of scenery. We ended up with a group of 6 FATC guys. Don Varner, Bob Palisch, Vernon Preston, Jim Franke, Matt McClure and myself, Steve Baker. After making the drive to Bennett we all got geared up and were fishing by 8:30 to 9 am. With blue skies and temperatures in the low 40’s we knew we would have a great day.
It didn’t take long for us to spread out along the upper portion from the spring and down past the upper restrooms before we all started netting fish. The catch was on with Crackle Backs, Hop’s, Midges, Y2K, s eggs, and of course the good ole Crane fly larva along with a few other fly’s The fish were coming to the surface but most of the takes were along the bottom.
We met up for lunch just before noon and the fish count BS was on. Everyone was able to claim a half a dozen or more fish in the net in the morning and we shared what fly’s were working. Not wanting to waste too much of a beautiful day talking, we all ate a quick lunch and headed back out for more catching.
We switched up our fishing locations and some guys fished down below the spillway with good success. The stream was a little more crowded around midday but not as crowded as it was under the water. Everyone commented about the numbers of fish in the stream that day. We even saw a truck pull up and toss nets-full of fish in the stream.
The afternoon was even more exciting when a hatch broke out and the fish were rising all around. I tried a couple of different dry fly’s and got a number of hits but was never able to bring one to the net. The activity seemed to slow down around 3 pm. and with the breeze picking up and the temps dropping, I started heading back to the car. By the time I got back and made a nature call, the horn blew and the others were calling it quits.
As we were changing out of our gear and talking about how the fishing went in the afternoon, we all realized it was a very productive day. Everyone was in double digits in fish count with some guys netting 30-40 fish. The overall count had to be 80 or 90 fish. The best part of it all was that Vernon Preston was able to net 15 or so fish. Hats off to Vernon. The trip home was a slow ride and we stopped in Rolla at the American Taco for dinner. Good spot for a quick meal and you won’t go away hungry. I ended up back home about 8:30pm, which is a long day but well worth it for the fellowship value. The winter fishing season is on, so get out and fish.
