Roaring River State Park, Cassville, MO - January 2-3
Jan 4, 2016 19:27:34 GMT -6
Fenwick, slim, and 3 more like this
Post by dainw on Jan 4, 2016 19:27:34 GMT -6
Ok guys so with the LMF closed and all of my other Oklahoma trout spots blown out, I had to find somewhere new to get my wintertime trout fix. Roaring River State Park is one of 4 Missouri trout parks that stock trout daily during the warmer months, and implement a catch and release, flies only policy from November-February. I had never fished a trout park before and wasn't really sure what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised.
The state park reminded me a little bit of the old LMF. We fished mostly in zone 1, which was similar to the way the old spillway creek used to look, with the stream being divided into conservation pools from the hatchery to dry hollow creek, the boundary line for zone I, with easy access for pretty much the entire stretch. Even though the flow was up a little bit, and the river still murky in a lot of areas, it fished really well. There are lots of fish so it's a good place to practice. The few areas that we could find with clear water were great for sight fishing. Oh and the fish here like to eat JUNK. This is one of those egg/worm type of places, or worm/egg if you're really trying to experiment. The hot fly at this river is a mega-worm. It's basically a super thick piece of yarn tied onto a jig hook. It looks like a windsock when it's dry and a cheeto puff when it gets wet. I'm ashamed to admit that I threw this thing honestly, but it works. This fly outfished everything else in the box 3 to 1. I can't understand why either. My guess is that it either reminds them of hatchery food, or fish guts from all the cleaning that goes on during catch and keep season. Might be a good one to throw next time you're fishing downstream of Steve Branson.
Saturday afternoon, after visiting the fly shop, I tie on a mega worm and wait patiently for the hole right by the parking lot to clear. I see a gentleman pull 2 fish from the run I want to fish and then he moves on upstream. I get into position and on the second cast with the mega worm, the indicator dips kind of lazily and I come tight to a fish. I see the fish surface and it's a monster male bow. He never really made any hard downstream runs like I was afraid he'd do, he just kind of bull dogged me in the run that I hooked him in. The fight lasted about 10 min or so. The hole was right by the parking lot so this naturally attracted a bit of a crowd, so the pressure was on to land this thing. Eventually my dad netted him for. No idea how big the fish is but I would guess in the 8-10 lb range, I don't know though you guys might disagree. The cassville pizza hut has approached me about putting a replica of the fish on their wall with a plaque that reads "local record holder. "
Anyways Roaring River was a cool spot. The fly shop owner was really nice, his shop (Tim's fly shop) even reminded me of BBFS a little bit. Cassville wasn't a bad little fishing town. Heck, even the hotel that we ended up at was pretty nice, which usually isn't the case on fishing trips, if you know what I mean. I'll let the pics take it from here
Mega worm
The state park reminded me a little bit of the old LMF. We fished mostly in zone 1, which was similar to the way the old spillway creek used to look, with the stream being divided into conservation pools from the hatchery to dry hollow creek, the boundary line for zone I, with easy access for pretty much the entire stretch. Even though the flow was up a little bit, and the river still murky in a lot of areas, it fished really well. There are lots of fish so it's a good place to practice. The few areas that we could find with clear water were great for sight fishing. Oh and the fish here like to eat JUNK. This is one of those egg/worm type of places, or worm/egg if you're really trying to experiment. The hot fly at this river is a mega-worm. It's basically a super thick piece of yarn tied onto a jig hook. It looks like a windsock when it's dry and a cheeto puff when it gets wet. I'm ashamed to admit that I threw this thing honestly, but it works. This fly outfished everything else in the box 3 to 1. I can't understand why either. My guess is that it either reminds them of hatchery food, or fish guts from all the cleaning that goes on during catch and keep season. Might be a good one to throw next time you're fishing downstream of Steve Branson.
Saturday afternoon, after visiting the fly shop, I tie on a mega worm and wait patiently for the hole right by the parking lot to clear. I see a gentleman pull 2 fish from the run I want to fish and then he moves on upstream. I get into position and on the second cast with the mega worm, the indicator dips kind of lazily and I come tight to a fish. I see the fish surface and it's a monster male bow. He never really made any hard downstream runs like I was afraid he'd do, he just kind of bull dogged me in the run that I hooked him in. The fight lasted about 10 min or so. The hole was right by the parking lot so this naturally attracted a bit of a crowd, so the pressure was on to land this thing. Eventually my dad netted him for. No idea how big the fish is but I would guess in the 8-10 lb range, I don't know though you guys might disagree. The cassville pizza hut has approached me about putting a replica of the fish on their wall with a plaque that reads "local record holder. "
Anyways Roaring River was a cool spot. The fly shop owner was really nice, his shop (Tim's fly shop) even reminded me of BBFS a little bit. Cassville wasn't a bad little fishing town. Heck, even the hotel that we ended up at was pretty nice, which usually isn't the case on fishing trips, if you know what I mean. I'll let the pics take it from here
Mega worm
