River Therapy:
Thursday, August 11th, 2022, Montauk State Park. Wow, the weather was outstanding. Low humidity, nice summer breeze, air temps in the eighties. It was a great day to be on the water fly fishing and enjoying the fellowship. But, with the nice weather the park and river were crowded. The majority of the FATC brothers decided to wet wade. The water conditions were a little low, clear with water temperatures around 55-60 degrees through out the fly fishing only area. The trout were stacked up in this area. Some flyfishers had better success than others but, overall it was challenging to bring fish into the net. Some had better success catching fish in the morning others did better after lunch. The fishing crowds thin out some in the afternoon. Fish were caught on a variety of flies but the House of Payne fly (wooly bugger fly company now carries the house of payne fly, if interested) and dry flies like caddis, ants, grasshopper & beetles, plus midges were some of the top flies. I can’t forget the reliable cerise worm. We had a large tricos hatch in the morning which made for some fun dry fly action. All techniques worked, euro nymphing, tightlining, stripping, indicator, single & double flies setups. A quick side note, some of us met Chrissy the new Montauk Naturalist while gearing up at the Staggenborg’s table. I recommend visiting the naturalist cabin to say hi to Chrissy and tell her you’re a FATC member. She is a wealth of knowledge on Montauk, conservation and Missouri outdoors. 

We had a great group of FATC brothers deciding they needed some water therapy for the day. We gave a FATC welcome to new member Don McCain. It was his first time fishing Montauk. Don was extremely generous and surprised everyone with breakfast burritos. Thank you Don, the burritos were delicious! Jim Craig and Scott Payne decided to show Don the logistics of Montauk. The other FATC brothers in attendance were Bill Baker, Harold Bates, Bill Byington with his newly built net from the FATC fly fishing net building class, Barry Dunnegan, Glenn Haake, Martin Jones, Mike Oldani, Vernon Preston. We had a surprised visit from two other FATC brothers Sid Aslin & Tim Klotz. Steve Baker made fellowship dinner reservations for the group at Rich’s Famous Burgers in St. James. It is in the same place where Missouri Pizza was located. We had a fun and glorious day for some FATC brotherhood fellowship and fly fishing.

I recommend if you haven’t had any water therapy in awhile. Think about joining a trip or adding a trip to the FATC calendar. You will feel reenergized.
Kind regards & tightlines!

Mike Oldani