Trips: FATC Raids Montauk – Charge!!
On a forecast beautiful day – sunny and in the low 50s – FATC members decided it would be an awesome day to go fishing. 20 FATC members jumped into six FATC vehicles and headed to Montauk State Park to welcome and help graduate Mark Camerer and Breck Washam into the FATC.
In case you wanted to know who joined Kenny Klimes and Jim Craig to take Mark and Breck through their graduation Class VI here is the list – Jim Franke, Jeff Blevins, Steve Baker, Don McCain, Don Varner, Will Black, Ken Welter, Bob Hassett, Bill Grelle, Pete Drochelman, Dan Staggenborg, Vernon Preston, Matt McClure, Tony Kalinowski, Al Harper (and friend) and Bill Lowry. Boy, I hope I didn’t leave anyone out!!
Everyone met up at around 8:30am at the “Stag Tables.” The park was empty except for a few fly fishers and twenty FATC members. The parking lot was buzzing with old friends meeting up again. As Kenny and Jim worked with getting Mark and Breck ready for their “graduation class”, the rest of the guys were figuring out where they wanted to fish before lunch. With lunchtime established (11:45) everyone took off to parts unknown to fish.
As Kenny, Jim, Mark and Breck reach the river, after a few “graduation” questions of course, they found the trout rising throughout the river – an exceptionally good sign. They decided to start with soft hackles to take advantage of the rises and started catching right away. Switching to woolybuggers to practice a little “stripping streamers” the guys found the catching was just as good. Mark pulled in a big 18-20” rainbow with a bugger. Then just before lunch Kenny and Jim had the guys go to dead drifting nymphs/larva patterns and AGAIN they caught fish! Kenny remarked that it was one of the best mornings a graduation class had in a long while.
At lunch everyone met up with stories of fish caught AND missed. Some flies that did well were soft hackles, cracklebacks, wooly buggers, blow torches, San Juan worms, midge larva, Barr’s emergers, glo-bug patterns, the big hurt, and more. The fish were very cooperative! At lunch, the “Stag” tables were full and there were smiles and introductions all around. It was great to see some guys that have not been out in a while!!
The ”students” went to the top of the Current River near the spring and worked downstream in the afternoon and still did well. The others spread out throughout the park. This was an incredibly good day of fishing. With the fish in the river for about three weeks now they are getting use to eating aquatic insects. No more pellets so they have to get use to eating more and often!
We ended at 4pm as always in the winter season and decided to eat at Missouri Hicks BBQ in Cuba since they would be the only place to manage Twenty FATC members. Did I say Twenty guys – then how come we only had seventeen at Hicks BBQ? Oh, Steve Baker, Matt McClure and Don Varner missed the Cuba exit and had to eat in Sullivan. Too bad because they missed watching Mark and Breck eat the Ory’s Spud – the traditional graduation meal.
The weather so far this winter has been forecast to be mild (so far) so don’t let this season pass you by. It is the best time to fly fish in Missouri. Remember it will end the second Monday in February.
