Changing of the Guard...Last Streamer Trout Trip of the Season??

I had some plans fall together this past weekend that allowed me to spend a couple of days floating one of my favorite waters with a couple of good friends. I originally signed up for a spey casting class on one of the local tailwaters that required me to be in the Springfield area on Saturday morning for the better part of the day and wasn't sure what I was going to do with the rest of my weekend after that. After trading texts and discussing current water levels with a good friend ,the decision was made to head a little further South when I got done and meet up with a couple of buddies and get in one last streamer trout trip of the season.

I headed South early Saturday morning so I could be at River Run Outfitters flyshop in Branson by 8:30.

Since acquiring an 11'6" switch rod earlier this year I've played around with it a few times but decided that I really needed some expert instruction to get the most out of my casting. When I saw that River Run was offering a half day casting class for a reasonable price I couldn't pass on the opportunity.

We started off with a liitle bit of education on the history of spey casting and then jumped right into the equipment itself and proper line set-up. This was one of the things I really wanted to learn more about , line selection for a switch or spey rod is much more difficult than just picking up a 5 weight floating line for your standard single hander. After about an hour of classroom we headed down to the river for some on the water casting lessons.

We learned four different spey casts which we were told would cover most any situation we encountered on the river when actually fishing. Once I was shown the basic casting movements and began practicing on my own it all came to me pretty easily. I'm not saying it was pretty by any means , but at least I was able to perform all of the casts relatively well in a short time. As with everything else , the only way to get better is practice. The instructor , Jim Haeck , is a great guy and knowledgeable in all aspects of spey fishing. He was from Michigan where he used spey rods a good part of the year while chasing steelhead , salmon and brown trout on his home waters. What impressed me most about the class was that Jim based it on what he thought would give us the most benefit when actually fishing. It wasn't so much about perfect loops and pretty casts , but instead more focused on the basics needed to utilize the spey cast to your advantage while pursuing your favorite quarry on the river. All in all it was a great learning experience and well worth what it cost me to attend.

We finished up about 2:00 that afternoon and after grabbing a quick bite to eat in town I headed on South to my final destination. The guys were still on the river when I arrived at camp so I set up my tent and played around with some gear while I waited on them to finish their float. Just as I was sitting down to pop the top on my first beer of the afternoon I saw Chance and Cory coming around the river bend up above camp ,perfect timing. After beaching the drifter we talked about how the days fishing had went and quickly came to the conclusion that we still had enough daylight left to run a shuttle and get in another short float before dinner. Needless to say , after a morning of casting practice I was ready for some actual fishing.

With the higher than average water levels and slightly milky coloration of the river, streamer fishing was the name of the game on this trip. Big uglies were tied on and we proceeded to pound the banks on the couple miles of river below camp for the next hour or so. The big boys eluded us but we were able to stick a couple of hungry fish that made the float well worth the effort.




We spent the rest of the evening throwing together a quick dinner and then hanging out around a campfire discussing the fishing plans for the next day.

Sunday morning we opted to float a different section of river than what the guys had done the day before , not that they hadn't had a great day , but you know...the grass is always greener. After running a quick shuttle the four of us were headed downstream once again , three fishermen and one happy god.

It didn't take us long to break the ice and hook up with the first fish of the float and from there things just got better as the day wore on.


The water was almost perfect for hucking streamers and the cloud cover made for even more conducive conditions. We ended up sticking a few more quality fish before pulling over on an island for a hearty lunch.




Lunch today was one of the highlights of the float for sure. If you havn't eaten a steak grilled in a cast iron pan on a gravel bar while fishing your way downstream on a beautiful Ozark river...you havn't eaten!


After lunch we pushed off to finish up the second half of the float, hoping for more of the same action we encountered earlier. For once we weren't disappointed and the streamer fishing continued to be better than average.


Between the three of us we missed several opportunities to put fish in the net but still managed to land enough to ensure everyone had a big smile by the time we reached the takeout.




After loading up the boat and stashing gear we headed back to camp once more. Corey was headed back home for work Monday morning but Chance and I still had another day of fishing to go. We started off the evening with another hearty dinner and then spent the remainder of the night sitting around a campfire staring up at a sky full of stars.

Monday we woke up to sunny skies and a little bit of frost on the surrounding hills , one of those mornings where you have to talk yourself into crawling out of that warm sleeping bag. We got around and started packing up camp while we waited on our fishing partner to arrive. Just after 8:00 Nathan pulled into camp as planned and after deciding on a float for the day we were headed out again.

With the bright, sunny conditions we opted to do a little bobber fishing as well as chunking the streamers that had been the order of the previous days.

The fishing was a little tougher for us but we all still managed to put a few fish in the boat.



The abundant sunshine and temperatures pushing 80 degrees made up for the small drop off in fishing and we all enjoyed about as nice a day on the water as you can ask for.



I think it was right around 2:30 when we pulled the boat up onto the gravel bar at the takeout. As we unloaded gear and talked about the last three days of fishing I couldn't help but think to myself that if this was my last streamer trout trip for awhile it was a damn fine way to end the season!