As the Beatles song goes, “Listen. Do you want to know a secret. Do you promise not to tell…”.  Four FATC members and a friend (Kenny Klimes, Glenn Haake, Scott Dougherty, Jim Caig and Jim’s friend, Scott Payne) heard from a little birdy that the MDC had started their annual brown trout stocking early this year – in October. So, the five of us headed out on Tuesday to find out if this was true, And here is the secret – it is!!  Notice that the brown trout “tattoo” for October is red (see picture below).  It was a very crisp and cold morning that warmed slightly towards the afternoon. Of course, the guys started at the “bend” and the fishing was “hot” right from the beginning. We thought “this” is going to be an awesome day of fishing.  The bend immediately produced some big rainbows and several browns with the red tattoo. The best color fly seemed to be anything red. Midges, rubberlegged stoneflies, copper johns seemed to work the best.

The catching at the bend turned off around 10am so the gang headed downstream. A few more fish were caught as they worked their way down stream, had lunch then finished up at the Dry Creek entrance.  The rest of the afternoon they fished at the bend again with just a few fish caught and then called it quits around 4:30pm. In review, the fishing was great early and slowed after noon. The first of the winter browns have been stocked – check for red tattoos behind the left eye. The stocked browns are small 10-13 inches but fun to catch.  After a hard day of fishing we ate pizza in St James at the Missouri Pizza place. Great conversation and fellowship – as always.