Well the fishing was not very good.  Got one nice size bow, 3 shiners and one little sun fish with local guide Sam Potter.

We fished cardiac hill.  Walked about a half mile up stream then fished down.  Hard fishing.  Water was low and we did not see many fish at all.

The good news is that I learned a lot about getting a good long, straight drift.

We were using a hopper / dropper combo.  The hopper was a big hopper with legs  which was easy to see.  The hopper got hit a lot but the fish were small.  Not easy to tell of they were trout or shiners.  I am sure that if we had gone to an Elk Hare Caddis for the hopper we probably would have caught a few more somethings.

Droppers were a couple of different nymphs and a soft hackle.  The soft hackle is what I got the bow on. He really hit it hard!   Guess I need to tie up some of my own, now that I know how to tie them.

It was only a half day with Sam so afterwards I went to Maramec Springs.  They released only 175 fish Thursday and 150 the day before.  Did not see many fish in the park either.  This goes with what Sam said that there are just not a lot of fish in the Meramec lately.

I was walking around the park with my rod, no waiters or vest and after losing the wet fly Sam gave me to a tree I decided to call it a day.  Then around 5:30 I could see a hatch starting and fish rising to it.  I had already put my rod away but I grabbed it, restrung it, added some 7X tippet and a small white dry mayfly.  Got one to take it.  But as I pulled him up on to the bank my tippet broke.  He rolled back into the water and I lost my fly.  Done for the day for sure this time.

I feel good that I saw what was happening, I knew what it would take to catch a fish.  And I did it.

So all-in-all a great day on the river.

Al Angiocchi