Welcome to the Ozark Fly Fishers
Founded 1971
A Missouri 501(c)3 not-for-profit corporation
SAVE THE DATE !!
All-Day Meeting on Feb 15
George Daniel has been chasing anything that swims with his fly rod since age 6 and still has the same passion 37 years later. George has competed at a high level for Fly Fishing Team USA, earning individual back to back US National Fly Fishing Championship titles and ranked as high as 5th in the World. George has also served as captain for Fly Fishing Team USA and Coach for the US Youth Fly Fishing Team. He has competed and won other regional and national fly fishing competitions over the years. At age 30, George decided to give up competitive fly fishing and focus on what he enjoys most - teaching.
George considers himself a teacher first and a fly fisher second. He has authored four best selling fly fishing books and has authored dozens of articles for national fly fishing publications, including Fly Fisherman and Fly Fusion Magazine. He continues to travel the country conducting lessons and workshops for private groups, corporations, and conservation organizations. He’s a brand ambassador for a number of fly fishing companies and is currently the Director of the Joe Humphreys Fly Fishing Program at the Pennsylvania State University...
This is free for members, and $10 for non-members.
As a bonus, George will tie flies the night before, Friday, February 14 from 6-8pm at Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Creve Couer. He will bring materials for 25 flies. There will be a sign-up sheet for this free event at the banquet.
Upcoming Member Meetings:
Jan 18, Annual Banquet
Feb 7-9, FYAO. Montauk cancelled, gathering at Bennet Springs individually
Feb 15, All-Day meeting. George Daniels will be our speaker.
Mar 20, Mark Van Patten will be our speaker.
Thanks,
Paul
BANQUET REMINDER
Dear Members
The time has come to mark your calendars, saving the date for our annual fundraising banquet.
As you know, our annual fundraising banquet is our clubs largest fundraising event of the year, providing us the opportunity to sponsor our many events throughout the entire year.
This year’s banquet and silent auction is on Saturday, January 18th, 2025.
This year’s cost will remain the same as last year, $40.00 per person which includes a nice meal, desert, and open bar.
The event will include raffles, silent auction as well as a live auction.
We encourage all of you to bring your spouse, guest and even friends, who might not be club members, to join us for a great night out.
Please mark your calendars, make plans to attend and support your club.
Reservation forms will be made available in the near future.
Thank you and hope to see you there.
Intel on Meramec Escapees
The favorite Christmas present of 2024 for me — Al Harper — was a chance to join my buddy, Steve Darr and guide and trout biologist Mike Kruse on another floating and fishing adventure on the Meramec River. It was my third trip down a river that offers phenomenal fishing since historic flooding occurred there 11/5/24.
Mike Kruse, who lives in Columbia, MO, retired after a long and interesting career with the Missouri Department of Conservation and began guiding on the Meramec, the Niangua and Westover Farms but continues to fish for his own fun and recreation in many places including far flung and exotic locations (including New Zealand). Mike has developed and taught college level courses on aquatic biology & fish management so he is a walking (floating?) encyclopedia on many species of fish and angling in general .
For this excursion we met Mike on an overcast almost rainy morning. Mike painted a verbal picture of how the thousands of trout that escaped the hatchery in high floodwaters must have explored the several square miles of a new temporary lake formed by the swollen Meramec as it reached as far out of its banks as it has been in many, many years.
Mike said he understood as many as 40,000 trout were lost but that number would have been even higher if hatchery workers hadn’t affixed mesh covers over some of the holding/raising vats as the heavy rains approached. It is anyone’s guess how many of the escapee trout sensed when the water started to recede after a few days and made their way to the main channel of the river. But judging from the terrific fishing since the fateful deluge, it seems a safe bet there has never been so many fish swimming freely in both the park and the river.
Those escapees have since spread out both up and down river for miles. Mike speculated it may be well into the late spring before naturally warming river water forces the trout to move back up toward the confluence with the cool spring water outside the park or to gather around one of the natural springs entering the river downstream. He added it is very difficult to know just how many trout a river like the Meramec can actually support long term but he seemed to agree that larger and more aggressive trout could be feeding on smaller ones along with other baitfish. Our success casting larger articulated streamers during our day on the water seemed to validate this observation. Another scientific fact from Mike was that a hungry trout can devour a fish up to 40% of its size.
I had also fished inside the park itself previously on Christmas Eve and while I did well on jigs and emergers I was surprised that I didn’t get more strikes on streamers. Mike and explained that fish that are more “captive” in trout parks or stocked lakes often quickly tire of chasing streamers. I guess they see too many of them or similar fast moving spin fishing lures.
Mike pointed out special “tattoos” just behind the eyes of some of the brown trout we caught. They had been injected there with syringes by MDC hatchery personnel to help track the trout later on.
In addition to the streamers we caught fish — a lot of fish actually — on leech patterns, marabou jigs and crayfish flies. Most productive was an egg pattern Steve had tied and brought along. Steve got the biggest fish of the day on that fly.
Try to get down to the Meramac soon and you’ll be rewarded with an excellent day of fishing, either inside or below the park.
-Originally Written by AL Harper
(Condensed & submitted by Dan Staggenborg Jan 3, 2025)
A Day with Missouri Fly Life Guide – Augie Knickmeyer
Lorie and I finally got to spend a day on the Meramec River with Missouri Fly Life Guide, Augie Knickmeyer. It’s no news to anyone that the Meramec River’s Red Ribbon section has seen its share of challenges in recent years. As us old guys know, it was once THE go-to river for browns and rainbows. Back in the 80’s, I caught my personal best brown – a fat 22” hen on a #16 Caddis Dry – until I beat that in Arkansas a couple of year ago. We had not fished it for years until Augie told us it has been fishing really well this fall and early winter – especially after the floods.
We met at Adventure Outdoors (what’s left of it after the devastating flooding) at Scott’s Ford, wadered up, and shuttled up to our put-in at the boat ramp inside Meramec Springs Park just upstream of the confluence. We immediately started catching rainbows as we floated down stream. Once we rounded the corner across from the confluence, we started picking up a few browns and a couple of smallmouth bass too. It got almost ridiculous with the sheer number of hook-ups and doubles we had.
Between Dry Fork Creek and Cardiac Hill, Lorie landed a 16” brown and we both started catching some bigger rainbows mixed in. Even though it was a Saturday, we were the only boat on the water, and we only saw 5 or 6 wading fishermen all day – mostly around Cardiac Hill access. The eagles we saw outnumbered the fishermen we saw that day.
Augie did a great job piloting his Fly Craft raft, keeping us in the right drifts, and expertly untangling and rerigging our gear. We used nymph rigs with an egg on top and a marabou jig under that – something he learned from Brian Sloss guiding on the Eleven Point. I decided to start throwing small streamers trying for bigger fish once we passed below Suicide Bluff. My numbers dropped, but I caught a few more browns than rainbows. We took out just at dark after catching countless rainbows, half a dozen browns, and 5 or 6 smallmouth bass. The best day we have had on the Meramec in 20 years.
Next year, we’re going to book earlier and take a smallmouth trip with him wherever he wants to take us. I think the highest complement you can give a fishing guide is that they are a “fishy guy”. Augie is a “fishy guy” with a great attitude, great personality, and very skilled at putting us on fish.
Sizing chart
I attached a sizing chart I have mounted at my tying desk. I thought I would share with the group.
Dean 573-268-5050
Fly of the Month: Twenty-Pounder Stonefly Nymph
I have been tying and fishing the Twenty Incher Stonefly pattern for quite a while now, but sometimes it seems too big and/or heavy for some of the waters I fish. This fly pattern – the Twenty Pounder Stonefly – is it’s smaller, lighter, cousin. No tungsten bead, no lead wire, and no long shank hook makes this a more approachable stone fly nymph. It really originated with the steelhead community, but it works very well for our local streams.
Recipe
Hook: TMC 2457 #6 – #8 Thread: Uni 6/0 – Olive Dun Tail: Brown Goose Biots Tail Splitter: Arizona Synthetic Peacock Dubbing Body: Peacock Herle Thorax: Hare’s Ear Dubbing Rib: Copper Wire, Medium Wing Case: Treated Turkey Tail Hackle: Grouse or Hungarian Partridge
Secure hook in vise and start thread behind the hook eye. Advance to hook bend adjacent to the barb with touching turns.
Make a small bump of dubbing at the hook bend. Tie on two biots concave side out about the length of the body, one on each side of the dubbing bump, splayed outward to form a V tail.
Tie in a section of copper wire at the thorax (2/3rd point on hook shank) and bind down back to the base of the tail.
Tie on 5-7 strands of peacock herl by the tips at the thorax and bind down to the base of the tail.
Wrap the herl around the thread and wrap forward to the thorax. Tie off and trim excess.
Spiral-wrap the wire rib the thorax making 5 or 6 wraps. Tie off and trim excess.
Separate out a section of turkey tail feather and tie in by the tip on top of the thorax. Prepare the grouse or partridge feather as if you were going to tie it in for a soft hackle by the tip. Tie in curved side up at the thorax.
Dub a full thorax of the hare’s ear dubbing to just behind the hook eye.
Fold the partridge/grouse feather over the thorax to form legs out both sides and tie off on top behind the hook eye. Trim excess.
Fold the wing case turkey tail section over the thorax and tie in neatly. Trim excess.
Make a nice, neat head and whip finish the thread. Trim excess.
I fish this under a heavier nymph as a dropper on a conventional rig, or as s dropper above an anchor fly on a EuroNymph rig. Stoneflies are not good swimmers, so dead-drifting these is the best way to present them.
Mike Ott
Yancy Springs
Dave Haas and I attempted to fish at Lane Springs, which is on Hwy 63 south of Rolla, on the way to Baptist Camp. It turns out the road to Lane Springs is closed during the winter. It was going to be a good hike to walk down the closed road, so instead we drove across the Little Piney, and took the first road to the right looking for Yancy Spring, which is on Google Maps. It quickly turns into a driveway, and winds past a shed and up the hill to a house at the top. We drove up and talked to the owner, and he said we were free to walk past the shed on the bottom land area and see the spring, old raceways, and an old mill pond beyond that. He mows some paths near the old shed including a path along the spring creek down to the Little Piney. Dave and I hiked down the river, only about a couple hundred yards. It is a good spot for fishing, with a couple of riffles and root wads. We caught about 10 small wild trout there, about 3 to 5 inches long. It was fun and different.
Next we drove to Baptist Camp, boy is it different now. The flood washed some trees away, and deepened the river in some areas. Above the bathroom (still standing) is deeper now, with some good root wads. Below the bathroom area, it is much deeper near the bottom of the run along the bluff. The stream was loaded with small 8-9 inch trout. We caught some in the 12 inch range, but nothing big. Almost anything worked fly-wise. It was a bit crowded, probably because the park is closed.
Tight-Lines,
Paul Jackson
Your most useful fly tying tool
For Flytying to be a useful & fun hobby there is one tool which is a MUST HAVE for any fly tyer. That tool is a razor blade !
As a person ties more and more flies over the years, there is a tendency to keep those flies and just add more (and more and more…)
Often the first few flies in a bunch will turn out a little wonky, uneven or mis-proportioned. That’s just the way it goes.
Sometimes you think, “ that’s good enough. It’ll catch fish” and maybe it does …rarely .
So you put ‘em in your box. Then you get out on the stream and pass right over it/them for your “favorites” aka confidence flies.
After a few years of this you have so many flies, your box is full and you buy another box (and another and another …) After a while you don’t even look in those other boxes; you haul them around year after year until you get tired of the extra weight.
So you cull them down, put them aside, buy more hooks, tie new flies (that sometimes don’t work out and you don’t use ) and the cycle continues. Still you are stuck with a bunch of extra flies, maybe even dozens. What to do with them ?
To make matters worse, people will give you flies which aggravates the situation
I suppose you can give them to your brother-in-law who may think he knows how to fly fish but doesn’t.
Yet to me it seems ethically wrong to give flies you wouldn’t fish, to your good fishing buddies. Sure, there are cases where there are just a couple, and you clearly state they are experimental flies. But that’s different.
So what do you do ? Well, here’s how I handled it:
First off, it’s a good idea to tie your best, most used flies at least a dozen at a time. Avoid tying only the 2-3 fly grouping. After tying a bunch in a row the flies get much better and you build muscle memory on how to tie them. Pick out the best ones.
Cull out and put any flies you won’t use in an open tray on your tying table. The more you look at them, the more you’ll convince yourself you won’t fish them.
Every so often, get out your trusty razor blade, cut off the materials and save the beads and hooks.
The hooks and beads are the major cost and tying materials last practically forever. [I still have crystal flash which I use, which was bought over 30 years ago. ]
Put those hooks and beads aside for either new/experimental flies OR tie a proven winner/confidence fly on them.
It’s a little cool to deconstruct a fly, and you get a great “purging” feeling doing so.
Out of the deal you get a freebie hook/bead, clean out those boxes, get rid of loser flies AND the chance those “orphan” flies just might end up getting a new home as a proven winner.
Make sure to keep that razor blade nearby your tying station.
And don’t hesitate to USE IT !
DanStag 14 Dec 2024
Ozark Flyfishers Return to Taneycomo - Fall of 2025
This has always been an enjoyable outing with the chance to catch some really large fish. We have reserved four cabins for Thursday, Friday and Saturday night October 9-11, 2025.
Cabin #17 4-bedroom lakefront upstairs. One bedroom in loft. Deck overlooking lake.
Cabins #19 and #20 2-bedroom lakefront downstairs. Shared patio overlooking lake.
Cabin #23 – 3-bedroom lakefront above office. Deck overlooking lake.
The Two-bedroom cabins sleep 2-3 people, the 3- and 4-bedroom cabins have options for one or two beds in each bedroom. You can reserve your spot by calling or emailing Ed Heist (edheist@siu.edu, (618) 201-7195). Rates for the cabins have not yet been determined but will be set by Lilley’s in January. We plan to arrange a dinner/speaker Saturday night. Lilley’s has boats to rent, and you can arrange your own guides (we recommend River Run Outfitters, (877) 699-3474
Intro to Fly Tying 2025
Welcome to the captivating world of fly tying, where artistry and angling entwine to create something truly remarkable. Imagine crafting intricate patterns that mimic nature's finest insects, enticing elusive fish to strike with abandon. Whether you're a novice seeking the thrill of creation or a seasoned angler looking to elevate your game, the journey of fly tying promises a symphony of creativity, precision, and the thrill of seeing your imagination take flight underwater.
Ozark FlyFishers offer a 2 night class in the fundamentals of fly tying for men and women. All equipment, tools, and materials will be provided at no cost. Instructors will use several fly patterns to teach fundamental techniques resulting in flies you will take home ready to use.
March 6 – Intro to Fly Tying, part #1
March 11- Intro to Fly Tying, part #2
Classes will be held at Queeny Park,
Greenfelder Rec. Center
550 Weidman Rd.
Ballwin, MO
All classes 7:00 pm till 9:00 pm
No cost, but registration is required. (Call the center and let them know)
314-615-8480
