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Lateral view of a Female Hexagenia limbata (Ephemeridae) (Hex) Mayfly Dun from the Namekagon River in Wisconsin
Hex Mayflies
Hexagenia limbata

The famous nocturnal Hex hatch of the Midwest (and a few other lucky locations) stirs to the surface mythically large brown trout that only touch streamers for the rest of the year.

Dorsal view of a Kogotus (Perlodidae) Stonefly Nymph from Mystery Creek #199 in Washington
This one pretty clearly keys to Kogotus, but it also looks fairly different from specimens I caught in the same creek about a month later in the year. With only one species of the genus known in Washington, I'm not sure about the answer to this ID.
27" brown trout, my largest ever. It was the sub-dominant fish in its pool. After this, I hooked the bigger one, but I couldn't land it.
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Gt2003
Broken Arrow, Ok

Posts: 25
Gt2003 on Mar 7, 2019March 7th, 2019, 2:52 am EST
I'm headed to Bennett Spring in Missouri to fish the stream stocked with hatchery trout. This is a place a Veteran friend of mine likes to go each year. I love to fish so have gone with him the last few years and fished with ultralight spinning gear. I've used different colored jigs as well as wooly boogers. This year I'm taking my Cabela's Big Horn 5w rod/reel combo as I see this setting as a good one for fly fishing practice. I've only pond fished with fly gear previously so this should be an interesting experience.

Any suggestions for fly types for the trip (4/23-25)? We are staying at Weavers resort near the stream. They have a decent tackle shop so I can pick up any extra's there before we fish.

I've got a few wooly boogers in olive and brown along with a small fly box with smaller flies: from recent pics I've looked at these are some Copper Johns, Midges in different colors and some Gray Hare's ear nymphs. I've got a few Power Bait Trout worms left from fishing lake Taneycomo so I might fish those in zone 3 on a 1/100th oz head. I also picked up some strike indicators.

Any other "go to" flies or baits you might suggest for the trip? Thanks in advance
Jmd123
Jmd123's profile picture
Oscoda, MI

Posts: 2474
Jmd123 on Mar 7, 2019March 7th, 2019, 6:16 am EST
I've done the MO trout parks before. Beware - those danged fish see almost everything known to man! I once had some MO trout turn their noses up at nice #16 sulfurs that matched the hatch pretty well. On the other hand, a brown about 18" or so came up and snapped at a hot-pink WB in size 10...go figure, they don't want the real stuff, they want flies that look like candy...?

Best of luck and no judgement here. Go for the bigger holdovers, they will prove quite a challenge to you. BTW, Woollies work in all colors, experiment and you might just get them going. Ever try them in yellow, hot orange, blue and silver, chartreuse? Skip the spinning fear entirely and show off your fly fishing skills to your buddies! Make them envious and ask what you are dong to catch all of those fish. Trust me, it's a lot of fun to show up the bait and hardware fishers on a fly rod!

Tight lines and say hi to MO for me, lived and fished there many years ago.

Jonathon
No matter how big the one you just caught is, there's always a bigger one out there somewhere...

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