Roaring River State Park

by Jeff D
(Overland Park, KS)

While I originally had planned to attend the Sowbug Roundup, as it approached I found my budget didn't have enough flexibility to afford a stay in a decent hotel. I did have enough money to camp at Roaring River State Park, though, as long as I lived on a diet of oatmeal, power bars, and ramen noodles. Just like college, including cheap beer for the end of the day!

On Friday, I encountered the same winds that Chris et al experienced down in Arkansas. Like Chris, I had to use multiple BB shot to keep the line from blowing all over the place while using the Seiryu-X 64. I did catch some fish on my trusty micro egg fly.

In the very late evening on Friday, the wind died down a little and I broke out the Seiryu-X 45 with a size 3.5 line and did a bit a tenkara fishing and caught a few fish on size 20 Stewart Black Spiders. I was looking for a barbless replacement for the Daiichi 1640 size 14 2XS hooks, and I found it in the Firehole Sticks 413 in size 20. It's almost exactly the same shank length but with a much wider gape.

On Saturday morning I drove to a lower access point in the bait zone to try out the Seiryu-X 45 and 64 and red wigglers. What I didn't expect was the sheer number of micros in the area! As soon as the worm hit the water, the worm was swarmed by various cyprinids and the worm was stolen! I should have switched to micro fishing gear, but again the wind kicked up a bit so I went back to my campsite for lunch.

As I sat in my camp chair looking at the river directly behind my campsite, I noticed a whole pod of rainbows lined up and rising in an area where a shallow run dropped quickly off into deeper water. I jumped back into my waders and went down to the river with the X-45 and 3.5 line and the Stewart Spider. I had to contend with the wind, but luckily it was blowing quartering downstream, so I was able to get some decent drifts and caught enough fish with that combo that I decided to just try another line and fly combo.

I ran back up to my campsite and switched out the orange 3.5 level line for the 4m Fujino Ice Blue line and a size 20 kebari tied with a starling hackle and an olive hare's ear dubbed body. This actually worked very well, as I used the very end of the Fujino line in the water to keep the line from blowing around. I stopped counting the fish I caught from this one hole. Then whatever was hatching (I suspect midge pupae) stopped and I took a break.

I went back for the evening fishing the X-64 and using one of the Nakazima ball floats to anchor the line and caught a few more fish on the micro egg. Right at the very end of the day, I tried using the Flying Dragon carp rod and a gnarly sculpin bugger just for kicks but no takers.

Sunday I got to fish with Chris and Alan, which is a real treat. I caught a few trout on both the X-64 keiryu style and the TBum 36 tenkara style. Then I decided to join in on the micro fishing. It's just too fun! I caught a southern redbelly dace on a size 30 killer bug, and several sculpins on a size 16 Frenchie jig. People might think you're nuts for fishing for micros in a trout park, but they're the ones missing out on the fun!

“The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten” - Benjamin Franklin

"Be sure in casting, that your fly fall first into the water, for if the line fall first, it scares or frightens the fish..." -
Col. Robert Venables 1662

As age slows my pace, I will become more like the heron.