Vacation of a lifetime: Bennett Spring - the Trilogy: Part 1 - Discovery of the ages

Part 1 – Discovery of the ages

Bennett Spring State Park in Missouri is 

a premier Trout Park.  

If you’re not from Missouri or nearby states, you've probably never heard of a Trout Park.  

While I heard about Bennett Spring and a couple other spring fed trout streams in Missouri, I never heard the term “Trout Park.”   I imagined little swings and slides and teeter-totters under water with tiny rainbow trout playing fishy games.

My sister and her family lived in St. Louis, MO for a time and told me about how great the fishing was (never mentioned "Trout Park") and I thought that if there was an opportunity to go one day it would be a nice trip, albeit a very long drive. 

My nephew John at Bennett Spring

My Brother-in-law Larry at Bennett Spring

My very best favorite sister Cherie at
Bennett Spring

There are many fine trout streams in New York so why drive halfway across the country for a few fish.  Well,  the photos above gave me some motivation. 

But the motivation to actually plan a trip only came about a year ago. My sister was looking through some of the old family photo albums and discovered a bunch of my Dad’s fishing photos.

 I had seen them many times over the years, but when my sister came across them this time, my brother-in-law, Larry, scanned the pages and sent them to me. 

 

Bottom right - My Mom photo-bombs the fishermen - Dad on the left and fishing buddy, Chick Chesney on the right - a Rose between two thorns!

While my beautiful Mom never did much fishing, she cleaned the fish I caught and brought home when we lived at Saugany Lake - until she taught me how to clean fish.  And, while I have pretty good knife skills - catch and release is now my modus operandi.

As I looked through the photos again, I remembered the stories my Dad would tell me about the fishing and lures and strategy he used, and what a great time he had.   

Here's my Dad!

And, when I was about 5 years old, we vacationed at a small community in Indiana near a beautiful spring fed lake – Saugany Lake, named after a Potawatomi chief, per local lore.  

A pure, precious jewel in the Indiana countryside - Saugany Lake

We all loved it so much that my family moved there soon after spending a couple summers there.  

Second road from the bottom left, two houses up on the left side of the road - our house.  Many of the other houses were my paper route customers (South Bend Tribune) and/or lawn and shrub care customers.  I even sold fish to one elderly couple who loved fresh Bluegills, but didn't fish.  I actually didn't sell them - I gave them away, but they always gave me 50 cents so I could buy bait - 50 cents bought 100 red worms back then.

That’s where I was finally able to go fishing with my Dad and began my passion for all things fishing.

About the same time that my sister and brother-in-law sent me the photos, my wife, Joyce, and I started talking about going on a family vacation – a fishing vacation – something we've never done before.  

We started thinking about where we would go that not only had great fishing, but enough activities, places to go and things to do for my wife and daughters once they got bored with fishing – which I figured would take about an hour.

The first place that came to mind that fit the bill was where my wife and I met and fell in love – at a summer house in the Hamptons on Long Island, NY.  

Joyce and Dave in the Hamptons.
Yes - that is a "selfie" before "selfies" were invented - I was a photographic pioneer and didn't know it!

We each owned a share in the house for the summer along with 8 other people. We didn't do much fishing that first summer – just a couple of times fishing for snapper blues off the break wall and pier at Captree State park. 

Snapper Blues are baby bluefish - they roam the shallows like little packs of water wolves tearing up schools of baitfish. Tasty little critters for people (filleted, dipped in flour, then egg, then bread crumbs and Parmesan and fried in a little oil -  baked if you're a health-nut) and a variety of game fish.  People often catch them to use as bait for fluke and stripped bass.  Adult blues have the potential to reach 30 pounds, but I never caught or saw any over 12 pounds.

Captree State Park with the Robert Moses bridge leading to Fire Island.

However, after we were married, I was able to frequently fish for trout, flounder, blues, stripers, tautog and other species that are available on the island – fresh and salt water.  

Fluke caught at Far Rockaway, NY

Fluke caught at Captree State Park, NY

Taugog (Blackfish) caught near the Robert Moses Bridge by Mike and me.

Mike and me again - this time fluke and one big Black Sea Bass.  We were fishing for winter flounder in late March, the end of the season.  I did my research and learned that summer flounder (fluke) were starting to come into the inlet early and winter flounder were heading to their summer haunts in deep water.

 There is a big difference between winter and summer flounder.  Both taste great and are flat fish with both eyes on the same side of their bodies, but winter flounder are smaller than summer flounder, or fluke, and have a small mouth suited for sand and blood worms and fluke are predators with large sharp-toothed mouths suited for spearing, sand eels, squid and snapper blues.

I brought a package of squid for bait just in case the winter flounder were gone - they were!

After a couple of hours of no winter flounder bites, I cut some squid strips and we started to drift under the Robert Moses bridge and out towards Fire Island Inlet.

On the first drift we started to hook fluke.  We wound up with about 18 keeper fluke and Mike landed a 6 pound Black Sea Bass.

Mike and Black Sea Bass

I even had a close encounter with a beluga whale and her calf while trolling for bluefish out of Fire Island Inlet on Long Island, NY.  

So, the Hamptons, featuring Captree State Park, was at the top of a short list.  

We’d always wanted to go back with our two daughters, but never had the time, so this was the perfect opportunity.

Then, remembering my Dad’s fishing photos, it hit me that it would be fun to fish some of the same water that my dad fished before I was old enough to go – to discover what my Dad had discovered, ages ago.  

Most of the locations were in Illinois, Indiana and Iowa, and seemed more like a day trip than a vacation destination.

Bennett Spring on the other hand jumped up like a trout picking off a damsel fly hovering 2 feet above the water. (I have actually witnessed that twice!)

Here are some of Dad's Bennett Spring photos, and a couple of postcards.

Bennett Spring had it all – great accommodations, dining lodge, Wi-Fi connections, lots of attractions nearby, and shopping and restaurants, and...

BEST OF ALL...

a spring fed stream filled with trout eager to play!

Photo compliments of Larry's Cedar Resort

And so the adventure begins!

See you on the Water!

Dave