North Fork Float Trip & Rockbridge 2-10-16

Dan and I had an enjoyable trip down to the North Fork River and also nearby Rockbridge in southern Missouri.  The river trip was with a guide, Shelby, who we both really liked. We caught a number of relatively small to medium fish, but it was nice that each of us caught a very nice sized fish as well, all were rainbow trout except one small brown. Best flies were the wolly bugger, rubber legged prince nymph, and I experimented with a chartroose glo ball for a while and caught 4 or 5 on that.  We went from Rainbow Springs to Blair bridge, which has some really nice water, and beautiful scenery, about 6 miles.   I was really impressed with how many cabins that Myron has finished there at River of Life. Shelby had a ClackaCraft boat with anchor spots on front and back to stand and cast; very nice. Even the lunch was very nice. A very enjoyable day trip all around. We decided to take a few big fish home from Rockbridge trout park. The water was running just a little high, and also impacted by a recent flood which put a lot of small rainbows in the park. And some areas had a muddy coating which made some areas EXTREMELY slippery to walk.  Each of us caught 10 – 12 nice sized ones, all in the 1 – 3 pound range, averaging a little over 2 pounds.  Their restaurant food was also very good as usual. The spring creek that runs through their park runs into the Bryant Creek, which eventually runs into the North Fork above the lake. While fishing the first day, one of my boot soles came half off, so I’m very glad I brought a backup pair with me. Weather was a little cold, but warmed up decently during the day with some sun (teens & 20's in the morning, then mostly 40’s). The best flies I think overall were the woolly buggers and then especially the rubber legged princes that Dan brought. I even caught a couple of fish on a small purple fly that Shelby’s son made, and caught several in the river on a chartreuse glo ball.

For more pictures, click here.

Lake Fishing 10-07-15

I enjoyed an hour of bank fly fishing out at a local private lake yesterday. Caught about 17 fish, mostly green sunfish and blue gill and one Largemouth Bass. Weather was great, lake had some algae making it more difficult. My foot didn't bother me too much.

Big Piney & Montauk Fishing Trip - 9/28/2015

Dan, Jim & I enjoyed a trip this week down to Montauk State trout Park south of Rolla, and also a day float / fishing trip on the Big Piney River. Dan & Jim also enjoyed an extra day of fishing on the Spring River in Arkansas. It was absolutely perfect weather the whole time. Fishing was a little slow but we caught multiple fish every day. Montauk (which is where we stayed) had water level that was down a little and most of the time not crowded, and we caught a mix of stocker size and a number of keepers (I kept a couple to bring home). It's interesting that there's absolutely no phone service down there except for some AT&T service; everyone else is up the creek. Food down there was a little better than in the past. Then going over to the Big Piney River was a really fun adventure. We rented a canoe for Jim and I and Dan used his kickboat. We caught a wide variety of fish, including a couple of largemouth bass (around 13 - 14 inch), some goggle eye (up to 9 inches), longear sunfish, suckers, and of course some smallmouth bass (our main target, up to about 15 inches). I only caught 2 of those but one was a nice one a little over 15 inches. Several others were caught  that were close to that size. We floated from 6X to Ross Bridge, about 7 miles. I managed to lose my fly rod over the side of the canoe in some rapids, but was lucky and retrieved it with no damage down stream a little bit. We were tired by the time it was over. And even my Plantar Fasciitis on my foot got better the more I fished and didn't hurt much (honest!).

Here are a couple of pictures below, and the rest are on this web site:

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=B39C3ED8614A9863!944&authkey=!AA9iAzxY2Drq-lA&ithint=folder%2c

Terry

Bennett Spring Trout Season Opener 3-01-2015

Ron and I had an enjoyable Trout Season opener down at Bennett Spring State Park
on Sunday. I'm guessing it's been about 17 years or so that I've been doing this,
always on March 1st. It was a tad cool this year, but certainly not the worst
I've seen. This year was a much smaller crowd, I'm assuming based on a
combination cold weather and bad roads around the area (I heard about 1,178 tags sold, compared to expected 3,000) . Much of the roads were
snow covered, and I-44 was even shut down for a while. We saw several vehicles
off the road, and a pickup completely turned over close to the park. The governor
was supposed to come but didn't make it. The person doing the honorary horn
blowing at the start was someone that Ron used to work with at Enterprise. We
stayed at the usual Sand Spring resort, right outside the park. Always a good
place to stay, even though we had a temporary "1st day of the season" water leak
in the bathroom. Just like my real estate experience tells me, a vacant
house/cabin tends to have some problems over time. We don't fish at the opening
whistle on the 1st, as it's too crowed, but go out later in the day after it
thins out some. Fishing seemed a little slower than some years, but we caught
fish, and both brought a couple home. The high temperature was about 34 on Sunday
and it started out 10 on Monday. Ron fished at the opening whistle on that second
day, and did good, although the eyelets on the rod started freezing over. The
park was really beautiful with all the snow, including an eagle that we saw. Of
course it's always fun to run into the Liberty fly fishing gang for breakfast and
a few lies (I mean stories).  Roads on the way home were just fine and dried out.
And the snow was almost totally melted when we got back home.

All the pictures are here:
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=B39C3ED8614A9863!352&authkey=!AMipN87z3-eR6y4&ithint=folder%2cJPG

Video of siren (low quality):
http://youtu.be/4BX3QMR13nE

Rockbridge/Montauk Fishing Trip 2/08/15

Dan and I had an enjoyable fly fishing trip to south central Missouri last week to Montauk State Park, the Current River, and Rockbridge Trout Ranch. The water was a little low but we caught some fish in each place, all rainbows except we both caught a brown trout in the Current. Best flies seemed to be the wooly bugger, hares ear, prince nymph, midges, and glo balls. We got lucky and found good food each day, which is not normal. Since Rockbridge cleans and freezes the fish, we both brought some home this time. Weather was strange with the highs in the 70's, 50's, and 30's. Only one day was a little uncomfortable.
And here are some additional pictures:

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=B39C3ED8614A9863!246&authkey=!ALvvleyU6LZCIJU&ithint=folder%2cjpg 

Q4 2014 KC Real Estate Summary Video

Here's a short video describing the high level real estate statistics in the overall Kansas City market. As always, I'd be glad to provide a free detailed report of your particular neighborhood; just let me know.

http://youtu.be/FyaZTZPR4d4

Fly Fishing Winter Outing - Bennett Spring 12-2014

Dan and I went to the Heart of America Fly Fishers annual winter outing December 6^th through the 8^th. Enjoyed a nice lunch on the spring branch Saturday with the club and then banquet that night. Weather really wasn’t bad at all for that time of year. We stayed up at Sand Spring Resort. We caught quite a few rainbows in the park, although maybe not as many as usual. Best flies seemed to be the Wooly, copper john, soft hackle, crackle back, egg pattern, and a few on an Adams. Twice we went out to the river at Barclay, the first time fished above the canoe takeout and the second time at the Winchester Gap area. Caught about a half dozen browns and rainbows there, which was good for us. A very nice trip overall. I haven’t really been able to fish  much this year.

More pictures at:

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=B39C3ED8614A9863!192&authkey=!ABurXmfl7h_aQRE&ithint=folder%2cJPG