Chartered Waters Trout Shop, Inc.



The Chartered Waters Fishing Report

A comprehensive and informative fishing report for the Lake Taneycomo Tailwater and other Ozark trout streams. Often imitated, never duplicated... your source of knowledge for Missouri fly fishing.



    June 26th (pm) - Bruce and his wife Gail joined us again but this time they brought daughters Laci and Jodi along for their first time ever fly fishing. What a fun bunch of folks. Bruce and Gail (though very new themselves) have become pretty solid with the stick and the young ladies showed some great potential as well.

Here's Jodi (foreground) with Laci behind doubled up...then tripled up with Dad...and we even had a couple "quads" during the day.





The last time we fished with these guys the weirdest thing happened. We were fishing up top and from across the stream comes a groundhog. It not only swam (swimmed??) across but right towards Bruce. When Bruce moved one way or the other the groundhog followed him. Now a groundhog isn't the most fierce animal in the Ozarks but the thought of one crawling up my waders carries a fairly high creep factor. Not to mention what it might grab on to.

No problems with rodents today. Bruce was sticking them with regularity and caught several really nice ones.



Bit Scud Shells continue their dominance on these trout. It's always been a good bug here though I've rarely broke it out in the past. I have a regular customer who swears by them and has fished them over any other bug for many years. I recently came up with a new version of it and I gave that guy a few to try out. He said it was even better than the original so I started using them more myself this year. That's one advantage of having some die hard fly customers who are out there almost as much as me. I use them as my testing ground giving them new patterns to try then getting their feedback. Its a great way to get an unbiased opinion on things plus I get reports on where they do well and how they're being fished. Another REALLY good bug today was the dark gray/plum G2-Bug in a #20. That's another one where a customer has been telling me he's been killing them on that so I tied a few extras up. It would have been a toss up on which one was best today but the Shell was the lead and the G2 was the trailer most of the day.

One more shot of Gail and one more triple hookup to wrap things up. ***6/26pm-2,3***



I've been so behind on posting reports I'm able to throw in a nice note or two from people like the Bradshaws here on the same report. Thanks guys!


Good morning!

My family and I (Bradshaws - Bruce, Gail, Jodi, and Laci) had a wonderful time Friday afternoon! Thanks for all your help and patience with us! The girls can't wait to visit again next year. Bruce and I may be back this fall.

Thanks so much! Gail



June 27th - The shop was hopping today. I'll bet I sold over 40 ginger/olive Baitfihs Jigs and over 50 Bit Scud Shells. All I did was tie those two flies all day long ...two more orders for early am pick up and I still need to do more...MAN! Those puppies are catching fish. The BaitFish from the boat (water off) and the Scud Shells wading. Some great stories came in from out on the water including two groups that came in twice (morning and afternoon) for the same flies. I told them about the benefits of the reels drag system and if properly adjusted...they might not need to buy quite so many flies.



    June 26th (am) - A couple more new fly fisherman were my guests this morning and as nice as they come on top of that. Mike and his son Parker rang the bell early with me and hit it for half a day after a little lesson in the yard. These guys picked it up real well on what I would consider a tough day. In spite of the less than stellar bite they shined through and had a great time learning the how to's and catching quite a few of these beautiful trout.

Not a bunch of dinks today either though we cranked a few of those in too but these guys caught some really nice ones . Dad said Parkers screen saver has been a picture of him with a little 10" trout he caught out west. We gave him some more options today.













The fish are getting "edgy" ! One constant I have always found on this tailwater is when the bite gets tough the fish all move in to very shallow water and the best way to catch them is to follow them there. I'll take off all weight...set the flies sometimes10-12" deep under half a white Palsa....put those flies over fish in areas that they NEVER see a fly and you'll do pretty well. Hard to believe there is a square inch on Taneycomo that hasn't seen a fly but if you see where we pluck these guys from sometimes you'd see what I mean.

Look for rises (rock piles) near the surface, any little humps adjacent to deeper water..basically avoid the deeper faster runs we get accustomed to fishing sometimes and go just the opposite. They're a little trickier and your casts have to be a little better but it is where the best takes are happening right now.

I had fun with these guys. Mom and dad have done a fine job with young Parker. We got cut short by a half an hour when the CORPS turned on 3 units in a row. Figuring that was the ball game I pro-rated his trip cost and we hit the shop. Upon crossing the dam it looked like it was dropping out already. I called and sure enough...it was. They couldn't have turned it on for more than 15 minutes then back off. You gotta love that CORPS...you do...really!...no, really!



    June 24th - Another hot, hot hot one today. We are in a stretch that has virtually no let up in site. Mid 90's every day for the next week out. As goes the weather then so goes the fishing. Very good right now even though we are having very mild winds. Usually a hot, calm day can be tough but they continue to hit well providing you're set up right and the presentation is ...presentable.

Booth and Tim come from New Mexico where it's the San Juan that is their river of choice. First time Taneycomo fisherman and they were more than impressed with their results. Bit Scud Shells. That's all you need to know. While the recent past has found those bugs good early but fading later...they are IT all day long right now so delve in to a few and see what we're talking about.

Mend it once...mend it right! Such a simple thing that gets overlooked by the masses who nymph fish. Most people do dome sort of mend but the right mend may be the single most important thing you can do to catch more fish. I shared how we do it with Tim and Booth and both, I believe found out something new. Whether you're mending upstream (which is probably 90% of the time) or downstream (in a few unique current seams) you want to be mending all of your fly line above (or below) your float. That will give you the longest, most drag free drift you can get and that will catch you more fish.

A couple of fun guys who hooked them pretty well today. I'd say not quite as hot as it has been in recent days but pretty solid non-the less. We took a pretty wide swath and managed 7 solid hours of wading time. Once again it was pretty good all over for us. Here are a few shots of the boys starting with Booth.









On that last shot Booth suddenly remembered he was in the witness protection program. I think in his 20's there was something about a hobo and a hammer???...just kidding of course.

Off the subject of todays trip, lets talk about SLOBS!

OK, of ALL the things I've mentioned on fishing reports in the past I never thought the word SLOBS would be the one to get the panties in a bunch. Paris Hilton will be happy to hear that one. A few friends of mine told me about how I was being chastised on a local fishing chat room about my use of the word SLOBS in a recent fishing report so I checked it out.

After reading some comments, apparently some people thought my use of the words SLOBS was referring to anyone who doesn't get up and fish before 6:00am. No...that would include me as I USUALLY don't get up and fish before 6:00am. The word SLOBS was referring to the people who wade up right next to you, close enough to snag your line when they cast. I mentioned that specifically later in the same report.

On that day when I mentioned the word SLOBS I had a first time, father and son fly fishing team with me. We wade out around The Island with nobody within about 100 yards on either side of us. After catching a few we have people move in so close to us that we have to literally move to keep from getting our lines tangled with theirs. Still 100 yards of open water on either side of us but no...they like fishing there right next to us Bennett Springs style. For the record it happened to us twice that day and like always...we just move on.

THOSE are the people I refer to as SLOBS. Not even the innocent who don't really know any better but the ones with the gear and the clown suit who ought to know better. Truth be known I've called them a lot worse in the past . Rude bastards, ethically challenged, 3rd dude from the left if you're looking at that high school, evolutionary chart. It all fits well and I'll probably come up with some new ones in the future so stay tuned.

But for all you late risers out there who were offended please don't be. I can see how it could have been read like that but no...it was just another day in the life of a job that will have days like that and I shared it with our readers. I'm just here to inform and entertain and I try to have a little fun with it. Life is short folks and it's just a fishing report... don't take it too seriously.



    June 23rd - We're in a dual name guest mode lately. Dave squared was with us today. It was Dave Merrifield who took the full JC tour with us this winter having a great time leaving us amazed at what this area had to offer in terms of fly fishing. Today he wanted the traditional tail water experience and education and starting at 6 gave us a full 8 hours of wading time before the horns blew.

We hit a ton of spots today with every one of them catching fish. Some were good...some were great...one had Dave looking over at me just laughing and shaking his head saying..."it shouldn't be this easy". I told him I could put something on so he wouldn't catch so many if he was looking for more of a challenge. Truth be known...when it got TOO easy I showed him how we swing G-Bugs in certain areas for a change of pace. That too got hit most drifts but the hookups percentage is lower.

I tell you...Bit Scud Shells was IT!... all day long today and not just early. #20's specifically and right now ...it's just a pinch of gold in my fly box. For me...when things get real predictable I put what's REALLY hot in a little 1 & 1/2" x 1" Mustad hook box and keep it in my wader pouch. When there's no need for a lot of experimentation I just go to that box. Right now it's radiates an off white, molted/coral glow that reflects the one bug I have more of stuffed in that little box than anything else...the coral/molt Bit Scud Shell in #20's. Olive and black Bit Scuds are good...purple/wine SG-Bugs in the morning...ginger/olive of olive/brown for the afternoons. In that same wader pouch today rests A couple spools of 7x Flouroflex Plus...a pack of white Palsas and some #8 Dinsmores. Those few things will give me a 100 fish day without a lot of effort. Now I know things can change so that's why I wear the incredibly hot and unnecessarily heavy fly vest loaded with about 95% of stuff I'll probably never use...but I might so that's why I have it. I love these early morning shots.





More screen savers maybe.Both of these Dave's were great guys. The kind of guys who can take and give out a little jab now and then just to keep everyone honest and humble. A fun day even in a heat that reached 100 degrees. Hey...if you;re going to be somewhere on a day that reaches 100, I cant think of a better place than a 40 degree trout stream...and why not make it just one of the best in the country.



    June 22nd - Well I had this day off scheduled for a while to specifically hit the links with Marlin and (Paul) my father in law. Hit them we did and we all had a great time. Golf is one of those games where for me, if I play well I'll carry that positive buzz around for a few days. If I play bad...well...I'll try to do something else that will give me that positive buzz. When someone asks me what kind of a golfer I am my favorite response is..."Lets just say I'm a scratch fly fisherman". I actually played fairly well today. Shot a 76 at Holiday Hills which for me at 2-3 rounds a year... not too bad. If I shot a 96 then I probably wouldn't have mentioned it here so you can figure that one out. I wish that I had the temperament then that I have today. I might have been decent at it.

While that was fun the real fun came later with the little Mrs. My girl has been begging to go fish and play in the water below the dam. It's been tough to find the time with two a days going on but we made time today and had a great day doing it. While she played I asked her if she wanted to catch a fish and she was all over that. At first WANTING to walk through the moss to get to a nice big rock that she could stand on. Once the slime ran across her ankles she wanted a ferry in the name of dad to bring her there. That was arranged and she was soon the center of attention turning the heads of a few old men who had their faces buried in their fly boxes. No secret on bugs today either . BIT SCUD SHELLS!!!...get some! They are catching fish BIG TIME right now while I hear stories of how bad the fishing is from others. Don't you believe it...just get the right set up. Here's the little princess now on her fly fishing pedestal , 2 wt in hand and rainbow in tow.





She landed 2, broke a big one off at the net. She does understand the drag thing and letting them go when they run but at 4 years old...7x tippet and more concern about posing for the camera...things happen. We weren't there too long when the horn blew and we packed it up for other things. A fun time for sure and you'll be seeing us back down there real soon. She's going to make sure of that.



    June 20th - Night fishing with the Guru! And that Guru is Dave Hollmann. Dave's a Branson resident and good friend of ours. He's a part time fly tier for and one time emloyee...he's been fishing these waters for quite a while. We'll it's been a lifetime since I went night fishing and Dave finally talked me in to it. He's down there at least a couple of times a week in the dark doing it better than anyone else I know who does it in the PM. Why the hype??..more on that later.

Our evening started with a talk about where to go and what to use. I must admit..I didn't come with much of a night arsenal but I brought along a few things I thought might work. Here's one that took a Cham-Wow early on.



They worked OK but it was Dave's Mohair Leech that turned a slow evening in to a pretty good one. A dark green one specifically worked best. We started right at dark and only fished a couple of hours. Probably the worst time to do it but that's what we had at our disposal so we took advantage. Here's Dave with a nice rainbow that took that dark green leech.



Another thing Dave showed me was a stripping rhythm that definitely picked up the pace with. A double pop with about a 5 second wait in between. After that slowed I tried a single pop with even more of a wait between strips and it got really good late.



In all I'd say we each caught about 7-10 fish in those two hours with most of them coming in the last half hour or so. We just started too early. Dave said that was a slow night but I had a great time and plan to hit it with him again. He definitely knows his stuff. We're working out a deal for him to become our exclusive Chartered Waters Night Fishing Guide. We'll have details on that soon. If you're looking to try night fishing let us know. I'll hook you up with Dave and he'll show you how to do it right. It's a blast!

June 21st - Eric took out Eddie and his dad Eddie. Tough to get those names straight eh? A couple more first timers chosing to give this sport a try perhaps a little bit later in life.They had a great time and caught a bunch. Eric promised a report w/pictures soon so I'll wait for those details. Hot, HOT days are here and in the distant future. The good news is that they are keeping water off for the better part of each day in spite of the weather and weekends are staying off almost 24/7 with a little one unit burp each evening. Great stuff to see and fishing is great.



    June 19th - An early morning wade trip! What Taneycomo is all about as far as I'm concerned. The fog, the birds...the slobs haven't got out of bed yet so you have the place to yourselves...textbook! Tom and his son Scott were with me to enjoy this wonderful Ozarks morning. A couple more first time fly fisherman that I must say, picked it up as well as anyone I've ever taken out.

When we head out at dawn like we have been lately there is one set up that I'm starting out with on Every rod EVERY day. The Bit Scud Shell #20 above a purple/wine SG-Bug also in a #20. It's the Low Light Special. We have the sun just coming up and usually a thick fog. These guys hammered fish ALL DAY LONG and just couldn't believe how much fun and how productive this fly fishing could be. Just to kick things off I got a nice pic of SCott in what might be his new screen saver.



From there on it was just fish after fish, double after double...just ridiculous catching for these guys.









We started our day at the Island and for 3 hours it was non stop for us. Eventually the aforementioned slobs started swarming us. Not before the fog cleared and we transitioned over to the "sunny" fare. Olive, black, gray Bit Scuds...Gray X-Series...then trail the more natural colored G and SG-Bugs like olive, ginger/olive, wine...all in #20's. Doesn't seem to matter too much when it gets sunny out and especially if we get wind. We got some wind today and we were even using "big" #16 Soft Shelled Scuds and not skipping a beat.

In the morning 7x fluorocarbon is a MUST if you want to have a good bite and if it stays calm (no wind) then you'll need to stick with that even later in the day. We switched over to 6x when the chop came on the water and stayed hooked up pretty well. Some people NEVER fish 7x...thats a mistake! That reminds me of a story my buddy Rudy told me a year or two ago. He had wanted a last minute trip with us and I was booked so he went with another service. I know the guide he took. A great guide, good fisherman, good teacher and good person in general. It was one of those tougher than average bites so we switched over to 7x pretty early and had a good day. Rudy's fished with me long enough to know how I think out there so when their day was going pretty slow he suggested maybe they should try 7x tippet? The response was something like..."no. we just need to find the right fly." Well, there's no denying that the right fly makes a difference too but I've done tests myself proving the difference between 7x and 6x. I've fished little runs before where it's a fish a drift (at least a hit a drift) that make a great proving ground. Getting hit every drift with 7x fluorocarbon tippet, I'll then take the exact same flies, weight , float etc and change it all over to 6x. I'll go from a fish a drift to a fish every 4-5 drifts. I've done the same with fluorocarbon tippet and change over to regular monofilament tippet. Same results though usually worse for the mono tippet than just up sizing flouro.

There's no denying it...size matters. And if I was Michael Scott I'd say "that's what she said"...but I'm more mature than that. I hope my wife's not reading this. She would laugh at me using my name and the word "mature" in the same sentence. But she's just a big poppy pants anyway.

Well just another couple of rock solid individuals these two were. Nice as can be and a pleasure to spend a morning with. Worth a note to say we finished our day at The Rock where only one other person was there (briefly). It was pure, catching solitude.



More interesting than the solitude was the fly of choice. Let me put on my funny nose and glasses so I wont be recognized here first...OK...there you go...are you ready??...the ginger/olive BaitFish Jig set about 1 foot and a half below a float. Not only was Tom hooking up most every cast but when it hit the water you could see fish forms SWARMING it from all sides. Scott was getting hit most every drift on the small stuff...Tom was getting HAMMERED every drift on that Baitfish. Just the greatest little sculpin pattern ever regardless of what it's tied on. At $3.95 each they're expensive as HELL and I STILL cant tie them fast enough to keep them in the shop. And with that big hook your hookup percentage is much better too. Purists look away...go fish that #26 CDC midge emerger and practice your casting all day...we're over here catching fish...I know, it's not sexy...I'm just saying.



    June 18th - We rang the bell early again with Tom and Brenda.



What a couple of characters and just great folks to spend a couple of days with. Well, we got more of that 2 unit flow all day long. Starting at 6:00am again we stayed away from the Big 4 and kept the casual two with another tremendous bite for us.

That purple/wine SG-Bug was good ALL DAY LONG today. The usual fare of grey and coral Soft Shelled Scuds were also good but without a doubt that SG caught the majority of our fish. My camera crapped out early on so I missed some nice fish pics but I managed this bad shot later after a quick battery charge at lunch time.



I threw on a purple/wine PMSG-Bug just to see how that would fly since the original SG-Bug was so good. It was OK...not great. Probably a tad too big. If you're wondering, it's the same fly shown on the home page on the "Fly of the Week" link. The "PM" is for a night time version of the SG-Bug. It's a great night fly.

So we caught a whole bunch today too with several in the 18" range and above. Wondering how many fish they were catching each day I gave an estimate to them (over 100) to which they were a bit surprised. I'm pretty good at guessing those things just based on "about" how many we'll catch on any particular drift, then just multiply by the # drifts that day. SO we picked a drift to count every fish actually netted/boated drifting from the cable to Fall Creek. It was an even 25 fish caught on that one drift. On a full day trip (with 2 units) you'll get in 5-6 drifts...I'm no Steven Hawking but I think that breaks a Benjamin.

I know a lot of people think we're BS when we talk about the number of fish we catch. That's OK...let me take a second to get over my feelings being hurt...Ok I'm over it. Our customers know the truth and that's all that matters. And that might be why we have about a 80% repeat customer base who fish with us. That's a number I'm very proud of. It's not something I expected starting out in this business but I'm extremely grateful and appreciative for it and we've made some great friends over the years.

Another fun day with the Kings and just a bunch of fish caught. Lots and lots of 16 - 18" fish to be had and every now and then you'll turn one over 20". With these 2 mild units flowing we've been fishing more 9' 4wt rods from the boat. Those make every fish a great battle and when you hook those 16" plus fish then just hold on.



    June 17th - Tom and Brenda King return to us from FLA to try their second time at fly fishing. Last year was their first just after our flood gates episode. It was THE WORST stretch of fishing that I have EVER experienced here on Taneycomo. They said it was the most fish they've ever caught in their lives. Well, you can imagine how their day was in just a couple of mild units putting along for us. That's pretty good boat water and the bite was what I expected it to be...really good.

For the better half of the day the only thing that I could find that was HOT was a #16 purple/wine SG-Bug. That was kind of weird to me. Yes it was foggy but that bug has never been too hot from the boat. Boy it was today and it was pretty good through the latter part of the day in full sunlight too. You just never know about this place. It can be quirky water at times. Glad I had a few around to keep things hopping and it certainly was that. I'm not sure I've ever seen anyone enjoy a trout on the end our their line as much as these two. They just LOVE the fly fishing and they come to Taneycomo...from Florida exclusively to fish with us for these trout. They also come for Billy Bobs Hotdog Stand so I cant say it's all about us. Healthy living??...screw that!...give me a hot dog!

Here they are with a couple of fish from the day.







Around 1:00 we had another weird water episode...it shut off! Motoring up things were looking slow. I finally got through to the dam to hear ZERO! If it was good before... it was GREAT then. I put on the old ginger/olive Baitfish Jig and it turned ridiculous. That lasted about an hour then it (the water) was back on again. Fun, fun stuff with some nice 18" class fish making the net.

It's a hot one out there these days folks. Starting at 6:00 not only gets us the best water but it beats that heat pretty well too. Mid 90's are the temps for a stretch here but at least no rain. We'll be hitting it early with these guys again tomorrow. I'm really hoping for some wading time. That's the one thing they haven't done yet and I'm sure they'd really enjoy it. We'll see what they give us. If nothing else I'll have a fresh batch of toilet paper to print out right?



    June 16th - Kevin and his friends Bob and son Jeff were trying real hard to get a wade trip in. We've done the boat...good time there but it was wading that was our goal today. It was a little hectic in the approach but we managed and it turned out to be a decent day of doing it.

Generation was scheduled to be off until 2:00pm I believe. By the way, if you can manage to get a print out of that generation schedule I suggest you do it...then you could wipe your a** with it...piss on it...then file it in the "what a worthless piece of crap / information" folder. Too harsh??...I was debating on whether to "asterisk" piss or ass....I went with ass...I think I made the right call.

Well I'm sure Kevin doesn't want to see his fishing report riddled with profanities so I'll get right to the point. Since it was scheduled to be off we suited up and did our casting lessons at 6:00am. While that was going on we hear the horn. It was only 1 horn so I thought we could find some good water to wade. We barely got our feet wet when a storm blew in and blew us off the water. Back at the shop I told Kevin we could let that pass and we could meet back at the shop for a boat trip since they would probably run all day now. Come time to meet up and the water had shut off. To make a long story...just a little longer...we got in about 3 - 4 more hours of wading and on came the generators again. It was an extended 1/2 day trip but its always fun with Kevin and his pot pour ri of guests he brings our way.

They got in to fish pretty well around the Island. NOt crazy good but around the 25 - 30 fish caught mark in their semi brief, early afternoon jaunt. The two newcomers Jeff and Bob really had a blast in the waders. They loved the boat...caught a lot of fish in the boat but they really liked the traditional approach that they did today. Here's Jeff then Bob enjoying their time on the water today. *****





Great guys. If you read this report at all you've probably seen Kevin on several occasions. He takes quite a few trips with us every year always bringing along new buddies and family members to share the experience with. He just loves the sport and enjoys being out here as much as anyone I know. He probably hasn't even been fly fishing a year yet but his first was with us and he's pretty solid with it all these days. I also like him because he always has a good stockpile of junk food he shares with me. Last time he gave me a PayDay candy bar. Man, I cant remember t he last time I had one of those. This time was a Twinkie. I loved the PayDay...Twinkie??....not so much.

   

June 15th - Here's a great report from our good friend and local Taneycomo fly boy guru Dave Hollmann. In fact Dave was the winner of the first annual, Chartered Waters Catch Fish Classic Fly Fishing Tournament and is a night fishing specialist. Great to see us old men like Dave and I getting our daughters out there doing this wonderful sport and it looks like Dave had himself a great time. Now THIS is the kind of occupation that a "Bring your Daughter to Work Day" would be kind of fun. I'll look forward to that one too.


Brett,

Friday night we drove down to Mountain Home, We started out at a great little deep hole that held a lot of fish and the action was a fish a drift, starting with her favorite.... a Pink W-2 egg. We saw some big fish, and she wanted to catch a big one, so we switched to a #14 X-Gray Bit Scud, and first cast she had on a nice rainbow, probably about 22 inches or so. The problem with Dry Run Creek is the stream is very narrow and the water runs fast, and when you hook a big fish they only have one place to go and that is downstream and fast. As you teach all your clients to follow the big fish so they don't lose them, the thought came to my mind, but then I was leery of letting my 6 year old for the first time in oversized waders go down a roaring creek chasing a fish. So she did not get the fish that time. We moved downstream a bit to some slower water and Kailey was practicing her cast and hook set. She did pretty good and she caught quite a few fish all on her own, meaning she cast by herself, completed the mend and set the hook and unhooked the fish. She was very excited and did very well that day. She caught and landed about 30 fish the 3 hours we were there. There was a lot of people there later on and we only saw maybe 3 people catching fish and maybe one every half hour. I felt a little guilty with Kailey catching so many. My wife was there and provided some great pictures for us. She told me she was talking to a guide from St. Louis FeatherCraft Shop and the had only caught about 5 that morning. He was asking Andrea if I was a guide down here, and she replies, "No he has never been here before in his life". That made me feel good, and it just goes to show your flies are amazing and they work everywhere. I have only taken 2 trips with you, but I learned so much in those 2 trips, and I am so appreciative of your knowledge and teaching abilities. Kailey did want to try for some bigger fish which we found and she learned how to cast to them. She hooked 2 nice rainbows and again lost them because dad would not let her chase them. I'm a little bit of a worry wart, and my wife was watching so that didn't help. After 3 hours Kailey was done and started walking up to mom. I had just put on a #16 Ginger Soft Shelled and was just letting out some line when the biggest fish of the day, easily pushing 5 pounds grabbed that thing and started jumping like crazy. I yelled for Kailey to get back her asap. She walked the fish downstream a little and got it in some still water. Just as I thought she was about to get the fish under control it gave one more huge leap and then it was gone. She did not want to try again for it. It was so hard to leave the stream, but hey you can't fish there by yourself, unless your 16 or younger. I may look young, but not that young. Surprisingly we went the entire day w/o using a G-Bug. I had some pictures to go with this but I couldn't figure out how to size them correctly so they would send.

Dave Hollmann




    June 14th (pm) - What a weird day of water today. I must admit it wasn't conducive to a great day of fishing. The bite was good providing you could get a drift over a minute w/o gathering a virtual Caesars salad of moss. Sometimes I thought we were actually snagging Kate Moss judging by the size of some of the clumps. Actually Kate Moss wouldn't be that big would it..more like Randy Moss...without the attitude. Am I drifting off point?

Our part time neighbor Larry brought his son Bill out for a 1/2 day of catching with the long sticks. The bite was pretty good early in spite of an ever increasing flow of water. That brings a fresh supply of moss every time the generation gets upped. We stayed up top to keep it cleaner. The bite's a little slower up top but moss was much more manageable there and that was important. We were managing that OK until they decided to open all 10 flood gates. Yes you heard me correctly.



I had no idea what was happening truth be known. Table Rock was a little high but not by much. So I asked Bill to hold the boat in place while I changed up a couple of rigs to sport some big Shad flies. Simple Minnows, REA's etc. Shad HAD to be coming over with that mess. Our first drift down proved that theory correct as they hit them pretty well down to the boat ramp.





By the time we made it back up top for a second drift we found this.



They had already shut them down. Rumors on the bank was they were doing it to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Table Rock Dam. Made about as much sense as anything else I heard. Even in that brief opening I saw a mammoth Paddlefish fanning on the bottom and just off the bank between outlet #2 and #3 plus about a 7 pd flathead catfish rolling along the bottom.. Well, if you thought we had moss before you could only imagine what we had after that. It was a mess. The best option I could find was to go down to the Lower North Flats where the fish are thick...get a drift of about 1 minute long...hope for a fish in that time frame then pull up and clean off the moss. Repeat process. Yeah...a pain in the ass for sure. We caught fish. Every 2 - 3 cleanings we would hook up but...not the best way to experience Taneycomo.

These are some great guys and caught a pretty good number offish in spite of the conditions thrown at us. Never a dull moment on this big river. If you want to keep catching you need to adapt.



    June 14th (am) - Eric and I had a big group this morning. John, Andy, Steve and Chad were our guests. A really fun bunch of guys who probably knocked on the door of a 100 fish day in just a half day trip. All these guys were first time fly fisherman except for Chad.

The boys rented a boat from Trout Hollow yesterday and did OK out by themselves but I guess Steve pulled the goose egg from the bunch. Well, he made up for it big time today probably netting close to 30 fish. Chad just kind of stalked around plucking out fish after fish showing the talent of a guy who's done it a time or two. John, who kind of spearheaded this trip was probably going fish for fish with Steve. Andy showed a little self effacing humor claiming he had "technique issues" but we ironed those out soon enough and he still probably caughta dozen or so

With overcast skies it was the Low Light Special once again...Bit Scud Shells above purple/wine SG-BUgs. Several other bugs caught fish as well but it's tough to start any early morning trip with anything but those two flies right now. Luckily we started at 6:00am as the horn blew shortly after 10:00am. Worked out just about right even though Eric has been known to have been pulled from the river after hours still clinging to that one last cast. Here's a collage of the boys having a blast and catching a BUNCH of fish.







A great group of guys who really enjoyed their first fly fishing experience. I look forward to seeing these guys again.



    June 13th - As bad as the weather was yesterday, it was that good today. Fantastic as we started our day in the afternoon with what was now, a pair of second time fly fishing veterans. They did fantastic. Fishing 7x all day and today these guys may have had two break offs tops? Show me a veteran who says they can do that in a couple days fishing and I'll show you a good story teller.

It's hard to guess how many fish these two landed but there really wasn't a spot we tried or a stretch we fished where they just absolutely weren't wearing them out. I even had several of our own customers come up and ask what those two were using. Since it was sunny the classic olive Bit Scud in a #20 and a ginger/olive SG-Bug trailer was all that was needed. I cleaned out the box a little today too as we had spots where the bite was so good you just couldn't miss.

Anyone who wasn't catching wasn't catching today wasn't using 7x fluorocarbon. I'm a big fan of Rio Fluoroflex Plus. I've used them all...I find Rio the most supple, consistently gauged at the rated size and the strongest of all of them.

Hard to beat the day in virtually every aspect of what makes a fishing day a good one. Weather, numbers of fish, the company you keep and why not throw in a 20"er for good measure. Guess who caught that one?











As advertised we got one unit of water around 5:00pm...up for an hour then back down. We found a slot above the South Bank Island where it may have even been better than it was when the water was off? Fun, fun stuff. Great people and what a day to be outside doing anything. Boating or wading...fishing is lights out either way down here right now.



    June 13th - Our good friend and rock solid individual Michael Wishy sent this report from a recent trip to Taneycomo plus one from his annual trip to Canada. The rag tag crew of him, George, Andrew and Chuck were on the loose in the woods of Canada and I can only imagine how and why they are let back in to that country each year. Here you go

Brett,

Hey Brett, what a treat it was to run into you and Marlin on Saturday. Fishing was sick the rest of the night as I began to notice what you were seeing (pointing out to me), i.e. a huge patch of active (big) fish rolling in front of me. I remained hooked up and I did manage to hook a tank, and w/7X before you could say, fluorocarbon ­ it was a “thanks for playin’” ­ which is a fancy way to say, “re-tie”. It was fun to see you relaxing w/cigar and shorts. It was also great to announce, “This double brought to you by our friends at Chartered Waters” as we both hooked up, if I only had a good cigar going ­ we would have made a double to make the papers. I enjoyed my visit also w/Marlin, he just keeps on getting more grown, sure, still a teen, yet, growing into a fine young man. It was also funny to get your “bad girl” report on McKenna, not that she’s a bad girl at all, just nice to know that little ones still test their borders and that she has that edge going on inside her mind to keep you hopping. I did manage to meet up w/David Stilley finally, as we were packing up to leave in fact. I realized we were fishing within a couple of hundred yards when I fished rebar. I did see him down stream on the other end of the gauntlet, but, didn’t recognize him from the back side. He was hooked up most of the day, and didn’t move around too much ­ “why leave fish to find fish on such a perfect day”, hard to argue with that logic. We both had a great time and recounted our day, techniques and locations. Exchanged a few laughs that we drove down to fish together and took all day to find each other. Turned out to be all good, we were both glad we made the drive and began scheming on the next trip. Nothing over 20”, but most over 14”, I managed a couple in the 18-19” range that gave me plenty to handle on 7X. It was also good running into Eric, he had his crew on the move, and hooked up having fun. Finally, as promised, here are the big fish of the Canadian week for Team Moosecock. George w/23” Walleye. Chuck 38”, Andrew w/38.5”Northern and my foot w/ 39.5” Northern ­ my fish was pushing 40+” and since I didn’t have a witness, didn’t place it in the 40” club, however, you can see, the fish has been eating good, maybe a small duck, or walleye or several something filling up the stomach. If I can squeeze two more into this note, I’ll send you the loon nest w/eggs we came across going through the swamp to Lost Lake, Momma Loon didn’t let them or us out of her sight. We had a great time, and hopefully, this will inspire Michigan Dan to send up a monster fish or two to keep us all honest. If nothing else, I am a couple of reports behind Jeff, so, it’s good to catch up w/Team Chartered Waters. I’ll be in touch, and until then, tell all your friends to fish the Muskie @ Pomme de Terre, them is big ass fish.

Chartered Waters boys, Chartered Waters Yatahey -

Michael















    June 12th (pm) - OK Ladies...Lisa set the bar REALLY high for all you fly fishing widows out there. Get this...Lisa planned her and Jared's entire week down here without him knowing about any of it. When they stepped in to the shop this afternoon he STILL had no idea what was going on.

Lisa knew that he had always wanted to try fly fishing but had never pulled the trigger. She took the initiative and the result was these two first time fly fisherman tore it up as long as the weather allowed us. Flat out nasty weather started and ended our day. It rained...got really heavy then a wind came in that blew the water on taneycomo as hard as I've EVER seen it blow down there. Ultimately it was the lightning strikes that drove us off the water. With the radar saying it wouldn't be letting up anytime soon we opted to take our two hours today and finish up on Saturday. Before the very worst hit us though we had a bunch of fun and the fishing was lights out.







It was pretty much a fish a drift and then some. Doubles, even single doubles (two fish hooked on both flies). Our biggest challenge was seeing the white Palsas between the rain drops. When the lightning came we bugged out and the wind before that front was just brutal. Better weather and more wading water is what is promised for us tomorrow so our expectations are high. Let me throw in that these folks were just wonderful people and GREAT students. Jared's got himself a fishing buddy with Lisa. She too had a great feel for this game.

  

  June 12th (am) -Gary and Eddie joined me for a half day of wading today. Gary's a regular customer of our and his buddy Eddie was joining us for the first time. Oklahoma boys and as nice and laid back as they come. Always fun fishing with Gary and Eddie was just as much of a character.

Well, with water scheduled to be off we rung the bell early. 6:00am to be exact. Gary really wanted Eddie to get in to some fish while learning some new wading water and even a few little tricks while we were at it. With a wide open Rebar and a request to get in to a lot of fish our first stop was an easy one. So ridiculous are the numbers of fish in Rebar I sometimes call it outlet #5. That being said...I also told the boys that once our bent rods were seen by others we would soon have the ethically challenged rubbing our elbows. I told them what I tell everyone when we fish there. As soon as it gets more crowded than you're comfortable with...we'll move on. I think Eddie could have stayed there all day as he was constantly hooked up. I showed him how to set the hook off the reel after a couple of early break offs plus a couple other little diddys that makes your day go easier. He was lights out after that. Pretty much every drift through his area using a #18 coral Soft Shelled Scud with a purple/wine SG-Bug trailer #20. That's a tough morning combo to beat in the faster water.

When describing a #20 purple/wine SG-Bug I should change the "#" sign to a "$" sign because MAN... that little bug is money! I would call it my ultimate tough bite/early morning/stormy/overcast/nasty kind of day fly. Pretty good when it's nice out too. All around us even Rebar was slow this am. Not for these guys though as they rocked that little purple wonder and the fish attached to it. Here's a shot of Eddie then Gary (Eddie doubled up in the background) after the vultures had swooped in and cracked our comfort zone.





Can you believe we were the only ones there when we started?...an hour or so later.....there you go.

We left for The Island, the Rock, then The Stretch. Pretty good action all around for us. Wading...in the early am it's the following combo. The #20 purple/wine SG-Bug trailing a #20 Bit Scud Shell. If it's sunny then switch those out to olive,black,gray or brown Bit Scuds and olive/brown, ginger/olive, ginger/wine SG-Bugs or straight G-Bugs of the same colors. As soon as that sun comes out the fish get back on the natural colors.

We wrapped up our day at The Stretch where it was really good for Eddie on the south side but slower for Gary on the north side. A few bug changes picked it up for Gary though and those guys ended up staying there after we parted ways for the day. Great folks.

Eddie blasted me a note after our trip as well. Thanks for that Eddie and thanks to everyone who sends us notes and reports. They all go very much appreciated.

Brett,Marlin…
My brother in-law Gary fished with Brett Friday morning and it was a great trip. Our goal was to catch fish of course but our main goal was to learn more about our sport. Brett taught us both a lot in a short time. Thanks for the trip and tips …. Eddie Jones.



    June 11th - Ken Wyattt brought his in laws Biddie and Dan out for their 50th wedding anniversary present. How cool is THAT! I just hope I'm still upright at my 50th let alone cranking in fish on a fly rod. Ken was the grizzled veteran of the group (in fly fishing terms) while Dan and Biddie were pretty new to it all. You certainly couldn't tell by the way all three handled things out there in what turned out to be a boat trip in some running water.

Well you just couldn't find any nicer three people. Great fun to fish with and they all just did fantastic. STILL...a great bite out there. Doubles all day long with a handful of TRIPLE hookups thrown in. 2 units or less and the top bite is just about equally good as the bottom but that bottom is always good for numbers. Here's Ken then a triple Ken had to sacrifice for camera duty.





Just a half day adventure for us but these youngsters just smoked em the whole time out there. I'm keeping things in the #16 even #18 size with 2 or less units running or when the tail water is in the 706' range or lower. More than that, then I'm upping to #14's and occasionally #12's. Soft Shelled, C-Shelled and Bit Scuds in purple (low light) gray, coral and molt then Low Sows in gray or purple. The Simple Minnow and NO4 Minnow are still good but only in the biggest water. They'll catch fish in less but not as well as the aforementioned. Fishing the seams, behind islands...cuts in the bank etc (fishing stationary) ...unless you just like to fish that way...is kind of a waste of time. You'll catch a few that way but usually smaller and a fraction of the numbers that you'll get Deep Drifting.

Like I tell everyone who asks..the majority of these fish go STRAIGHT DOWN to the bottom when the water turns on. You have to drift with the current and get down there with them if you want to have a great day. When they're cranking 4 units and a tail water at 710' or more that means really deep with a lot of weight to make sure you're ticking the bottom. It's our casting technique that lets you do it. That's FlatLining. Only from a boat in running water...and only if you want to catch a LOT of fish.

Ken sent us a quick note after his trip with us. We certainly appreciate the kind words. That whole crew was a lot of fun to fish with.


Brett -

just a quick note to say thanks for a great morning on Taneycomo on Thursday. The fly-fishing was definitely a highlight of Dan and Biddie's 50th anniversary trip and I appreciate you making it so special for them. I have had the opportunity to chase trout and game fish with a fly rod all over the US and have had many guides along the way - you are by far the most experienced, patient and knowledgeable and I look forward to casting again with you soon. Kenny Wyatt, Overland Park, Kansas



    June 10th - Sarah and her dad Bob joined me for a half day morning excursion. More new fly fihsreman gracing our shop and having a great day on the water. What a nice father/daughter team joining me today with young Sarah just 9 years old. Here they are sharing a few moments of fishing.









Even though the forecasters keep calling for bad weather we're getting some pretty good days. We all certainly enjoyed it today and these were some very nice folks to share it with. Coral Soft Shelled Scuds, XG and C-Shelled Scuds are crawling ahead of the stalwart grays we've been doing so well with lately. Olive seems to be the kiss of death for me in running water. I know some people do well with olive. I LOVE olive when the water is off but when it runs it might as well be cryptonite at the end of my line. I really haven't given pink or flamingo much of a try lately so maybe I'll tie up some SS's and throw them out there tomorrow. I'll let you know. Our heroes today had a good time even though Sarah spent more time sharing stories with me than she did fishing. That's ok though. It's all about enjoying the day and she had a good time on the boat doing just that. She probably caught around dozen fish too so yeah, she had a good one. Dad was a little more intent on puttin the hurt on the fish so he cranked in quite a few. Not a bad day out there at all.

Here is another nice note from local guy (and my buddy) Chuck who came in to the shop for flies and supplies this Monday. He called ahead and I opened up for him at 5:00am so he could hit the water early. Told him I had a trip at 6:00am and I'd see him out there. Well, my trip called and cancelled as they were afraid of the weather that day. It actually never got bad at all but when we spoke about the day he asked where I was and told him that they had cancelled. Here was his response.

That was a mistake! It was great out there! I used the (gray) purple/wine SG-Bug with the Bit Scud Shell in the morning and did real well. I just stayed between above outlet 2 and Rebar back and forth a few times and then later in the day used the purple XG Soft Shelled Scud with the purple/wine SG-Bug and did pretty well also. I tried some tan scuds and some gray, but they didn't produce much for me. I also slayed them in the fast water at Rebar on your "hot pink" (Flamingo) colored W2-Egg. Every cast almost and then I gave it up to someone else. I was feeling guilty knockin' the crap out of them ! :) They blew the horn at 2 and I packed it up. It was a great day. I don't know where your guests were coming from, but they sure missed it.

See ya Brett

Brett, I wanted to tell you how much we enjoyed the 2 days of fishing with you. We learned alot and caught a lot of fish. Thank You and keep in touch.

Rick Killion




    June 9th - More baby sitting duties today. I took the girls out on a boat ride and a little fishing. Actually just Mckenna was the fisherman as she has been bugging me forever to take her out. Our original plan was to hit the dam and play around in the shallow water but we got started too late for that so it was a casual boat ride up and one even more casual drift back down. No need for a real fishing report here.

It was just fun to get the kid out and give her a little taste of what daddy does. She caught 3 fish tonight. I did the casting for her on these big rigs but she set and reeled them in all by herself.





Not afraid of a fish this one is. She definitely has some tom boy qualities but I'd probably have her leaning on the girly side just a skoosh right now...as evidence by those cool red nails I recently painted for her. Yes, she has done my nails too. I have her use my replica paints that are "water base" so I don't have to answer too many questions from my customers. What??...a man cant wear bright red fingernail polish???

And here are the girls kickin it on the drift back down.



Not a bad looking crew eh?. I took in a cigar and we just drifted until the fog rolled in.

Table Rock hovers around the 916' mark. We have been in a mild but constant flow during the week. Great boat fishing water. Seems like weekends are getting water off with a little regularity and everyone is enjoying those days. Beaver is still 8-9' high but for now they're holding that back. Maybe they'll keep that in to summer and not influence Table Rock and ultimately our Taneycomo. Fishing is very good right now. Some moss issues to deal with as the water levels fluctuate during the day but it's a minor irritant. The top bite is a little slower than it has been but I do at least one drift down every trip as it will turn back on one day and I want to be there when it does. The lower end (Lower North Flat) is sick with fish. Some nice ones too but just so many it's almost embarrassing. Fun to play out there right now.



    June 8th - Here are a few reports and some nice notes from some of our friends. Thanks to all who send us these wonderful notes and expressions of appreciation. It's a great feeling knowing we have such great friends and customers out there. The first is from Greg and Travis, yesterdays trip. The second report was from John Langcuster. Some of his pictures didn't transfer through email but when we work that out we'll add them in later. Sounds like he had a great fishing vacation. Lastly is Doug who came in the shop and we got him set up with the right bugs, set up and even pointed him to a few areas where he could catch some fish. Thanks again guys.

Brett,
Another great day on the water, Travis and I had a great time and we did continue to hook up after I dropped you off. We fished till around 7 and caught fish almost the entire time using the set up you put us on. I actually got 2 nice rainbows into the net that would have gone close to 18 inches and Travis caught a really nice rainbow to finish the day.

I want to also thank you for your patience and instruction during the trip, not only are you one of the best guides I have used but you take time to show us the set ups and teach the techniques that will make us better fisherman.

I have had duck, goose and fishing guides all over the country and I put you right at the very top, your knowledge of Taneycomo is almost scary, you always have a way to find and catch fish, and your willingness to teach us your secrets and help us gain more experience and knowledge as fly fisherman is why I will never use anyone else at Taneycomo.

Thanks again for a great day, Travis and I consider you a good friend and look forward to the next trip..................in the mean time we will tell everyone we know Chartered Waters is the only guide service to use at Taney.

Talk to you soon

Gregory A. Kirkman


Brett,
my gang loaded up and drove 13 hours to West Virginia for a little R&R and fishing. It turned out to be an amazing trip. Jackson and I started our first day at Howard’s Creek. These fish were hammering the dry flies. Stimulators, Royal Wulfs and Blue Wing olives were the flies of choice. Jackson became frustrated with top water and could not hook up. Found out, he was using a salt water strip strike. I gave him a few pointers and he landed this nice fish.

Every rainbow or rock bass caught were “footballs”. Extremely healthy and nice fighters. I really enjoyed using Chartered Waters flies during the week. Check out this fly in the mouth of the bow. Brett, look familiar? Size 16 Milt Ball with a soft shell scud tied to the bottom.

Also, this fish was caught on a ginger G-Bug with a XG-Soft Shelled Scud (purple) trailer. I used the PMSG Bug size 10 and nailed them with my stripping rod with Rio sinking line…CWTS flies were performing well and catching fish!

I left West Virginia and traveled to Virginia and hit an amazing spot. Known as Dunlap Creek, it was one of the most beautiful settings ever witnessed by my eyes. Several natural underwater and above ground springs converge to form this beautiful place. Absolutely no fishing pressure, privately owned and barbless hooks only. I started my day fishing with a March Brown dry fly and hooked several including a nice 20” native fish which broke off thanks to the limestone rock below the eater. Brett, you have taught me to use RIO Fluoroflex and it’s strong, but these rocks were tough! I did land this beautiful native trout. Check out its fins. They are so perfect! Nice and round a trademark of a native.

I ended up hooking 68 fish that day...They were all healthy and rather chunky...Most averaged 12-19”. Easily. Ended up the day fishing the water fall which was breath taking. Check it out… Brett, you have taught me many things on our fly fishing trips. . Every time I fish with you, I have a new tool to add to my tool box. One thing you have taught me; use a 4 weight, make sure the drag is set right, (light) and when setting the hook on big fish, let the drag do the work. It all came together..You taught me well, Coach. I fought this 26” rainbow! After 15 minutes of a tough fight through rocks, currents and deep holes finally got it in my hands.


It was fun releasing the fish back into the beautiful water fall… Our last day, I had to pack up and lost my son. Walked down to the creek and snapped some cool pictures. He ended up landing several nice fish before we made the drive back...

Thanks for all that you taught me and keep tying those amazing flies!

See you soon!
John



Brett, Thanks again for the help and recommendations you and Marlin provided on Friday and Saturday - especially with getting my rod/fly combination setup correctly. Had a great morning on Sunday, with 8-9 hookups and 6 fish netted, including two 16" beauties that gave me great fights on that 7x tippet (both on the purple/wine SG-Bug #20 trailer.) A picture of the second one is attached.



I'll stop by the shop next time I'm in Branson.



Doug



    June 7th - Greg and his buddy Travis made the crash and burn trip from KC this morning for an all day affair. NO WATER AGAIN! I know they say they don't pattern the water for the fisherman but more often than not, it's off on the weekends.

It was kind of a day of ups and downs all day long. It was good early for about 3 hours. It faded for a couple of hours where the bites were much tougher then it turned on pretty well to VERY well to end our day. If it aint 7x fluorocarbon then it aint happening right now. That and finding the magic bug combo was the key. And that combo was...a #20 Bit Scud Shell (molted scud shell) as the lead with a #20 purple/wine SG-Bug #20 trailer.



Those flies got hit equally well and at times it was a hit a drift. You could classify it as a tough bite and without the adjustments we did it would have been a slow day. But we stayed on top of things and ahead of the game and stayed hooked up pretty consistently. Not much catching going on around us. I even heard one fisherman from far away yell..."has ANYONE caught a fish yet!" Definitely not a clean out the box kind of fly selection day. You certainly had to have the right bugs on to get bit sans the shufflers and of course they don't count. I see some boat shuffling going on by one person down here. That doesn't count either jackass! It's frankly despicable but I'll save that for another day.

We jumped around a lot looking for the most active fish. We never had a run at a spot for more than a couple of hours. It would be good for that time then just kind of dry up. Even some of the reliable spots had little quirky characteristics today making us approach everything from a slightly different angle. A good learning day today. The mends had to be a little better, the sets a little faster...your approach to finding fish a little more open minded than usual. It was fun and we all had a great time. Again, fantastic guys to spend a day with. We got in to them so well in the end that after settling up, Greg armed himself with a few more Bit Scud Shells and SG-Bugs and went right back to where we finished, meeting up with our buddy Travis again. I'm sure they did great by themselves!



    June 6th - Here's a report from Eric and his trip today. A trio of first timers who got water off all day long and an upper section wading experience second to non.

Jim, Randy and Rick made the drive down to the river from Southeast Iowa for a full day Saturday wade trip. All first time fly fisherman and a fun group to spend a day on the river with. The river seemed like good therapy for some hard working characters who relished being in the water and splashed around like school boys on summer vacation. Water was off all day and a bit crowded as it was Missouri's free fishing day but all got impressive numbers with size being the big factor with many fish coming to the net in the 14 to 17 inch range and a few exceeding that. We spent the lion's share of the day between the rock area just above outlet two and then down below rebar, with impressive numbers of fish crowding every section. With rebar clearing out after our 1:30 lunch, the three amigos spent the last couple hours tripling up and wearing their arms out casting around size 16 pearl flash back gray bit scuds with little size 20 olive bit scuds trailers. Randy even fit a power nap in on the shoal next to rebar snoring to wake the dead. Hopefully we'll see these guys back on the river again soon - Eric








    June 5th - Newlywed's and first time fly fisherfolks Michael and Christy joined me for a full day on the water. Generation was scheduled to be off and wouldn't you know it...we had water all day long. Much to the delight of Christy I might add. Donning the waders and doing all that walking for a day didn't seem like her bag but they would have done fine given tha chance. They shined from the boat non-the less and had a wonderful day. Great students I must say and perhaps the Mrs outfished the Mr??? Hard to say. She definitely kept her own on a pretty good day of catching on the water. The top bite was slower than a 2 unit bite usually is. We caught fish there but clearly the Lower North Flat was just lights out on numbers. Here are their first trout/fish/creature caught on a fly rod.





Pretty good stuff. What a couple fo charactors too especially that Christy girl. At lunch I saw my little McKenna open up to her like she will to few others which told me Michale had himself a good one. Kids have the best instincts about people. Here are a few more moments from the day.







Super nice foks to spend a day with and it was a beautiful one at that. More doubles than I can even begin to count and just a bunch of fish caught. Only one tangle all day (I wont say who got that one but it rymes with My Girl) and not a single beak off. First time fly fisherman! I love em. I can almost guarantee that a first time fly fisherman will get less tangles and break off less fish than the veterans will. Those old dogs habits are hard to break sometimes but we still like them and learn from them too.



    June 4th - Wrapping up a couple of replicas for our good friend John Langcuster who is picking them up this weekend. I like doing new things with every replica I do. Most people just trust me to make it look cool so I get to exercise some of my creative freedom that I get so much enjoyment out of. These things aren't a big money maker for me. The time spent on each of these is intense but I just really enjoy doing them. I really become a part of each one and when it leaves the shop it's like a kid leaving home for college or something (tear). This first one is a 24" brown John caught in 07.





A great fish. I used a really cool piece of driftwood I found on the Jr.Circuit. It had river rock in the wood where the tree, when alive had grown around it. I added river rock from the same water that matched that same rock as the name plate. I usually include the fly that actually caught the fish, in this case a Soft Shelled Scud #16. Well, in 08 John upped that fish several times over with the biggest one caught with us that year being this massive 30" fish that estimated in the lower 20 pound range. I guess he just had to get another one done. Here's John with the actual fish and here is what I came up with.









I like to work in angles from the background it's mounted on to the name plate and the fish itself. I had found this really cool rock a long time ago and knew it would make a good name plate some day. I just needed the right fish with the right pc of driftwood and this 30"er of John's fit perfectly.



I'll play around with several color schemes on the name plates until I find one I like.



McKenna likes to help me out with that job as well.



I've got about a dozen more to do and I'll be knocking them out over the next couple of months. I'll share them with you as I go. For more info about our replicas go to the C&R Taxidermy page on our web site. It's never too late to get a replica done.


    June 3rd - Here's a couple of pics of some east coast brown trout that one of our customers Shawn caught. We have customers all across the US and abroad. These fish fell at the end of a new Scott S4 6wt he got from us this year. Nice fish Shawn.




    June 2nd - Our old buddy Scott Daldrup joined me for a 3/4 day of wading. That was his ultimate goal today... wading and as much as he could possibly get in. I like those kind of guys and he was willing to ring the bell early. We started at 6:00am and got in 6 good hours before the water came on and had a real nice day out there. Our days have been very calm lately. GREAT weather and water has been off so I'm not going to bitch about anything too much here but when it's a glass smooth surface the bite is more tricky. I like fishing 6x fluoro when I can but when the surface gets that slick you really need to go to 7x to get a good bite going. Not many people out all day today. What a pleasant surprise. We started at a wide open Rebar where it was usually a hit a drift with a #18 XG Soft Shelled Scud (gray) above a purple/wine SG-Bug. Most came on the SG. We eventually started swinging Occams Sculpins with olive/brown SG-Bug trailers just because it was so good in there. Most of those fish came on the SG. See a pattern here? The river...in my opinion has definitely swung back to what it has been for so many years before the flooding hit...it's a Bit Scud/G-Bug world right now. The fish are "scuddy" in other words. Yes you'll catch some on midges but it's a fish a drift (in the right spot) vs a fish every 4 - 5 drifts on midges. I always keep an open mind though as things do (and probably will) change again one day. Before making our first cast, this is what we saw walking down to the river this morning.



Scott said.."you need a picture with a fisherman in the background with a bent rod." To that I replied..."so what are you going to do about that?" A cast or two later and we had our moment.



With a spare rod propped up in the back ground and the faint image of a heron down by The Stump...that was it! Not another soul around. I warned Scott that eventually we'll start drawing a crowd there in Rebar. We did. Two guys came up within casting distance and fished the same little stretch of water Scott was in.



We moved down 50 yards,,,kept on catching...here comes the followers thinking it's the arrow and not the indian. We eventually left that scene to find more solitude. That wasn't hard today. Even after hitting some new areas Rebar was wide open in the middle of the day. We passed on that option but it was refreshing to see. We finished at The Island and it was pretty solid in there. Nothing too huge today. 17" was probably tops but a great day to be out and wading. Scott's a great guy and I'm always impressed with how good of a fly fisherman he has become in a short time. We stocked him up with some bugs and supplies so he can sneak away one day by himself this week.



    June 1st - Dare I say it?....we're in what could be considered our "typical" summer time water generation pattern. Off for the first part of the day then slowly coming on around the noon hour. Local guy Larry Poos was my guest today and Larry fishes primarily from his boat. That being said he wanted all the K he could gather on fishing from a boat. Water on...water off and everything in between. That's what we got and we had a pretty good one out there. Beautiful weather has been greeting us every morning lately and it's been a joy just to be upright and alive let alone spending the day on Americas best trout stream. From the Rip Rap (old KOA) down through the rest of Taneycomo I haven't found a better "fly" than the ginger/olive Baitfish Jig when the water is off. Occassionally you'll get little Bit Scuds, G-Bugs or even a midge pattern that will out fish that bug but it's rare. Larry was smokin em on that this morning while everyone around us was silent, giving the death stare to their float and accompanying hardware. It's a great little sculpin imitation and I dont know?...it doesnt always make a lot of sense but I can tell you I always have about a dozen of them kicking around the boat. We even did pretty well on the stockers up there using a pure white one. Sometimes I feel a little dirty fishing with one...right up until the time it hits the water, hooks a fish...then another...then another. Suddenly...not dirty. When water came on we took a lunch break hoping the moss would clear up for us by the time we went back out. For some reason the moss never really cleared and made fishing very difficult. You really couldn't drift more than a couple of minutes before our flies were covered with moss. We eventually went down to the Lower North Flats where the fish are thick and our moss shortened drifts would be more likely to come up with something. That worked out pretty well and the usual fare of late (Low Sows, Soft Shelled Scuds and NO4 Minnows) did well. I like to think Larry got a pretty good education on how to catch fish from a boat in the trophy area in just about every condition that can be thrown at you. I ejoyed fishing with him. He's going to bring his 18 year old fly rod in to the shop to get set up and give it a try out there by himself next time.



    May 31st - Brian and Sierra were my guests again for another textbook Ozark day. Maybe a tad too hot truth be known but I wont be complaining. Sierra only wanted to do a half day and she specifically wanted a boat ride...I mean "trip" this time. What we did was wade with Brian in the am then at lunch...pick up Sierra and finish our day in the boat.

Not the bite we had yesterday as we were dealing with dead calm skies and low, clear water with a high sun. It was the first time in a longtime that I had to go to 7x tippet to keep a good bite going. A plethora of weird stuff kept them interested including orange/red/coral W2-Eggs but it was the little Bit Scuds and specifically G-Bugs that did best. A wine G-Bug was probably #1 and it was the bug that stuck this 20" class fish that Brian sight casted to.



That was a classic stalk, stick and catch. Really solid fish were at our beckoning and we stuck MANY 16" class fish amongst the many caught overall. Looking around you just didn't see others catching fish like they were yesterday so it was a tougher day overall. Fun though and some great targets to pick and choose from.

We hit several spots before calling it a morning and picking up Sierra. Everywhere was ok...some were better than others but we still caught quite a few. Sierra is just 8 years old did I mention that? She caught a 20" plus fish with us this winter. It was her second fly fishing trip at the time and she just keeps getting better and better.

First off let ne tell you that there are thousands and thousands and THOUSANDS of fish throughout the Lower North Flat . I'm not sure that I've EVER seen higher concentrations of fish on Taney in my life. The odd thing was that those fish weren't real active. One would break off from the crowd every now and then to take our bugs but they mostly just held there in the current being very passive. They look like fresh stockers for the most part with many resident fish thrown in. It was the resident fish that we had the most success with and it was the loud, obnoxious yet highly effective ginger/olive Baitfish Jig that took most of them. I don't know??...dont ask me why. From around the KOA rip rap on down, there is something about that fly that is just sick. Sierra was counting and her tally of fish in the net was 15. Not bad for an 8 year old in 3 hours of fishing. Hooked and lost was probably 5x that many so our boat action wasn't horrible. Dad caught another hoss about the same time Sierra hooked one so we took a little double picture before they jumped out of our hands.



We had several doubles today but the fish of the day was the one that got away. An absolute stud of a rainbow took Sierras ginger/olive and she was quick on the set. She battled him for a long time dealing with several long, long runs and we were finally getting her close enough to think about getting the net ready. One more powerful surge found the reel handle getting caught on her life jacket and the fish pulled off. It was over 20" pretty easy and we were all hoping for a nice picture.Not to be today but she gave us a good time before saying good bye.

A really nice father/daughter team that I always enjoy fishing with. Sierra came back to the shop after the trip and played with McKenna for about half an hour. She's a good kid and dad's going to have a hard time keeping up with her.



    May 30th - As advertised! Yes, the water came off at 7:00am this morning. I had Rick and Page again today but I didn't mention that we might be getting the water off as I wasn't convinced it was going to happen. When I showed up and told them Page was about as apprehensive about wading as she was about fly fishing before starting yesterdays trip. But...she is a trooper and was willing to give it a shot as yesterday she just loved fly fishing from a boat. Well they were both awesome doing the traditional wading thing too and just had a blast doing it.

Absolutely OBSCENE numbers of fish today! Ridiculous in fact. I mean it was a hit a drift up top pretty much all day. We started our morning down by The Rock. That was much slower but not so bad that Page couldn't catch this gorgeous rainbow.



Probably a hit every 3 - 4 drifts down there which wasn't all that bad, after all...we were WADING! But it wasn't what we were looking for so we went up to The Island and that is where it was happening BIG time.

That same "boat fly" (#14 gray Low Sow) was getting hammered in the slow, shallow and clear water, Go figure.



Best though were the standard Chartered Waters wading fare. Bit Scud's and G-Bugs in #18's to #20s and color didn't seem to matter too much. Were using 6x but probably could have done it with 5x. It was windy and sunny which gave it a nice chop and honsetly...aybe a little too easy. We hit the Upper SOuth Pool which wasn't that great. Saw Rebar open and it might have been better than The Island if that's even possible.

Page and Rick liked the wading better than the boating even after catching those big fish yesterday. Most people do. There were some serious numbers of fish up top and some really nice ones too. There were just so many smaller ones that it was tough to get down to the bigger fish. So many doubles that I couldn't even begin to count let alone keep up with netting duties. They picked up my slack like true professionals. Great folks who have really fallen for this sport over the last two days. They both have a real good feel for it too so watch out trout. There's a couple of new sheriffs in town!



    May 29th - Rick and Paige were back after that nasty rainstorm washed us out a few days ago. Much, MUCH better weather greeted us today. Drop dead gorgeous to be exact and our perfect day was made even more perfect with a fantastic bite and some big, BIG fish dropping for us.

Here's the down low...the Low Sow!!! A #14 gray to be exact and that with a #14 gray C-Shelled Scud was absolute killer. We had a real nice 1 then 2 units flowing so mild for us it was just as sweet as it could be. Our M.O. played out perfect today. We made two drifts down the entire trophy section catching a ton of fish the whole way down. That was fun for sure as they were new and brand new (Page) fly fisherman but I gave them the option to maybe catch a few less fish for a better chance to catch a trophy. They opted for BIG so we stayed up top and did three short drifts from the cable to the MDC ramp to finish out our 1/2 day. Good call!

First Page struck it big with a stunning 19" class pig of a rainbow. Big enough that Rick is doing a replica of it for her.



I'm not sure what was nicer...her nails or the fish? We are catching loads of 16-18" fish in this running water with 20" plus fish at least hooked if not caught every trip. Good stuff. Well, Rick had to out do her just a bit as he hooks up with a big, slow head shaker early in our trophy hunting. We knew it was big but wasn't sure how big. A lengthy battle ensued and eventually we got a good look at her. Wow!!!...it was a stunner and Rick was up for the task. Our little #14 Low Sow held up and eventually we were able to slip a net around this flawless 25" female rainbow.



What a fish and what a job by both folks out on their second fly fishing trip ever and their first successful one. Ricks getting a replica done of that one too.
A couple of great folks on top of that made it a real fun day all around. I cant believe I'm saying this but...I kind of hope they keep this water going for a while. The fishing is just too good. The schedule is actually calling for water to be OFF for the next 3 days. How long has it been...6 years?? It seems like it. Well, if it happens I will be wading with bells on. I might even bring my Sham-Wow to celebrate the event.



Yes, that's what I'm using for a fish rag these days. "It's from Germany!...you know the germans make good stuff." Actually it's a gag gift from the family since I'm so mesmerized by Vince every time he comes on the TV.



    May 25th (pm) - Rick and Paige were my guests this afternoon for a half day in the boat. Rick had done a little fly fishing before but Paige was a newbie. Well, I'll cut to the chase. It was getting stormy out and we got dumped on about 15 minutes in to our trip. Long enough to pick up a few fish but it (the rain) started slow then just absolutely opened up on us. Since I have the next few days scheduled off for replicas we decided to move our day to Friday morning where it's forecast to be much better weather. I'm sure these guys will have a lot more fun catching their fish in sunshine than in a torrential downpour. We'll keep you posted.

May 27th - Eric took out Dale and Tim from here and Texas for an early morning excursion. Good customers of ours who are about 1 year in to this fly fishing thing and they have it bad. I was telling them about how this early am water is plucking some lunkers out for us so they hit it around 6:00am with Eric and had a real good day. Coral C-Shelled Scuds was their best out there with the Low Sows in gray a solid second place. They never caught a fish on the Simple Minnow or the new NO4 Minnow so go figure that one. They said they caught some real "footballs" and man that is a sight I'm seeing on a regular basis. It looks like these fish have swallowed racket balls sometimes with stomachs just busting at the seams. Running water always keeps our fish well fed and healthy so there are good points to this water.

I'm going to go out on a limb and saying that I have big expectations for the brown run this year. We basically went a whole year where these fish went unmolested (last year). Lots of water this spring (though not too much) to keep them fat and sassy. We saw them come up real early last year like late August before that late season flood gate episode pretty much drove them back downstream. We had some great "big fish" action in late August / early September last year so I expect the same kind of timeline this year and an even better run. Lets keep our fingers crossed.

May 28th - Tim and Dale from yesterday hit it early this morning and actually got in a few minutes of water off wading before 2 units came on. He said he was "slaying them" before and for about 2 hours after the water came on. He was doing best with the #14 gray Low Sows with a couple 20" rainbows that fell for those bugs. That's AWESOME to just hear a wading report on Upper Taneycomo. He'll be trying it again tomorrow and I hope he gets the same conditions if not better.

Here's a nice report from our buddy Jeff House doing a tour of some Ozark trout fishing spots. Some are part of our super secret locations so we had to edit the report at our own secretion. Some of you know where he's talking about.


Brett - Appreciate the tip on (edited - A place that cant be detailed w/o rights to a first born chi ld...) this weekend. I hit it twice over the holiday and caught fish both times. Stripping Baitfish Jigs (both olive and white caught fish equally well) was the ticket, tried other methods but those fish liked that jig moving. Caught good numbers of fish in the faster riffle water above some of the slower pools this trip. Nothing of any size for me (again....edited for security reasons) but still plenty of fish around and the chance to have a piece of water all to yourself is the real kicker. Spent several hours each morning on Taney fishing the water rise until it hit 4 units. Had some awesome fishing on 1 and 2 units, I love to fish that 705-706 level as there are several wadeable spots that just stack the fish up in that water. I caught several nice rainbows each day with some healthy girths to them, those fish are definitely eating well! Most productive flies for me were a #18 olive/ginger SG-Bug and a #18 purple/wine SG-Bug. Caught a few fish on wine sj worms as well but they don't count right? I only wish they would have kept it below 2 units for a little longer but my time was limited every day. Some great fishing none the less and it got me hoping for at least a little low water fishing in the near future. Sorry I missed you at the shop but I figured you had a full schedule over the holiday weekend. Probably be back down in a couple weeks to do a little diving / fishing, I'll swing by and try to catch you then. Talk to you later........Jeff

PS- check out this little trout park rainbow. Chartered Waters fly of course!!





    May 25th (am) - Just when you think it cant get any better...man! Big Fish!...Lots of Fish!!! More toads dropped today and I got to share it with a couple of really nice folks. It was a couple of years ago when I first met Kyle and this year he brought his wife Sam. First time fly fisher woman and overall...she might have schooled the old man today. I don't know...it was probably a toss up. Kyle caught the biggest but Sam definitely caught the next two biggest and she wasn't too far off from hubby's biggest.

We caught a 19, a 20 and a 22" rainbow in our short half day adventure. More of that nice, 2 unit flow greeted us in the am..they upped it to 3 units around 10:00 or so but it was a very mild 3 units. In fact I don't think it got over the 707' mark in the tailwater. Just a really nice flow and Kyle started his day off with this stunning 22" rainbow caught on the S2 Minnow (Simple Minnow #2).



That thing looks like a fresh steelhead doesn't it? What a specimen. It was just about as thick as it was deep. We did one drift down the entire trophy area and caught a lot of numbers down low. Our M. O. here lately is making a choice early on...do you want numbers or do you want a chance to land a trophy? The upper section is definitely where your best chance is for size and with a couple 3 units to play in....the numbers are really good up top too. We chose trophies and spent the balance of the day drifting from the cable to just past the MDC ramp.

How good was it? Check out these two "back to back" fish (consecutive casts) that our rookie Sam stuck.





I wonder if I could sell those pictures to the GAP? Now THAT would be a cool gap commercial! Not some swarmy little nerd in a sweater vest waiting for the clue bus. Guess that's why I'm a fisherman and not an ad guru. Well, we caught many fish in that 16-18" range and who knows how many smaller. We were talking about getting a "double" picture of the two of them but that was dropped when they both realized that time out of the water could mean one less fish like the ones they were catching. They were some very nice folks and not a single tangle or break off on a fish. An 18 and 20" fish for Sam...pretty good for anyone let alone a rookie. And even though Kyle is pretty new to fly fishing I assured him that a 22" rainbow doesn't happen too often. It was a great fish and one he should be proud of for a long time. Hopefully we'll hook up with these nice folks again.



    May 24th - Our new friends Greg Sevier and his young son Connor joined me for another half day of fly fishing. New customers as of about a year ago and new fly fisherman as well but they have become very good at it and are great folks to fish with. They first fished with us last year about this time with 10 flood gates going. THAT fishing kind of blew compared to what we have going on now and today they enjoyed some great action and some great fish.

Two mild units is the pattern we're seeing first thing in the morning then 3 starts going around 10:00am...then #4 around 12:00 noon. We're trying to start our trips around day break to get in as much of this 2 unit water as we can and man oh man it is some seriously good fishing. I'm pretty confident in saying that in this water pattern, you'll have a real good chance at a 20" fish in a days fishing. There are just some real thumpers up top right now and they're loving what I'll call the Big 3. Low Sow's, C-Shelled Scuds and Simple Minnows. The Minnows are best when it hits 3 or 4 units but the scuds and sow bugs are always good. 1 - 2 units fish best with a #16 to #14 while #12's are best when the water gets bigger. And numbers of fish??!!...well it's just sick out there.

Our trip was a half day this morning. We caught a smidge of rain but for what was forecasted, It was pretty nice out. Well, Connor was the top dog this morning catching this beautiful rainbow in the 19" range.



Just a toad of a fish too that gave Connor a GREAT battle. He handled him like a champ. Dad was so impressed with it he's getting a replica done. Of course Greg got in on the action too and while a few fish over 20" were turned...a handful of 18" plus fish are nothing to sneeze at. This fish was so pretty we had to take a picture.



Another late season spawner and just a perfect specimen of a rainbow. All these big fish we're catching are near perfection. Every fin is sharp and clear with white tips. They're thick like a football and so full of life. Our fish are in great shape! Connor was counting his fish brought to net and it was somewhere in the mid 20's. He was counting for Dad too but somehow Greg's numbers kept shrinking as Connor's got bigger? Funny how that happens eh? Safe to say they broke the 50 fish mark in their half day outing and that was staying up top looking for bigger fish while they could have caught a lot more staying in the lower section.

Definitely bigger fish up top on average. The first mile and a half is where you'll find those but probably more fish are in the lower 1/2 of the trophy area so it just depends on what you're in to. After one drift down these guys wanted to stay up top looking for bigger fish and that's what we did. A real nice day out there with some nice guys. Some great fish were obviously caught as well so hey, things are good on Taneycomo in Hollister MO.



    May 23rd - One of our best customers who has become a good friend. Bob Koogler fishes with us up to half a dozen times a year and I always look forward to my day with him. Another guy who just cant get enough of this trout fishing and we had a pretty good one again today. We caught 2 or 3 units during our morning excursion and it was just rock solid with some great fish making the net. Bob's one of those guys who has caught some really big fish with us so we need a pretty good one to break the camera out. While 18" plus fish are very good he was fine getting them and our line back in the water for more fishing. We did catch this really beautiful spawning rainbow that was worth a picture.



That fish was a solid 16" fish. I've caught spawning fish as late as early June up here and we're still running in to a few here and there. It's certainly on the tail end of it though.

Bob has tried fly fishing once but prefers the conventional gear so we did our Deep Drifting via the 9' spinning rods using the same flies we've been using with the fly boys. It's really just as effective under these conditions and Bob is as good as anyone I've ever fished with using it. We're going to see our good friend again in June and hopefully, I'll have his big 28" rainbow replica done for him by then. It's looking cool Bob!...you're going to love it!

  

  May 22nd (pm) - We caught the BIG water this afternoon. Ken, Barb and Mike were my guests today on the boat. All fly fishing veterans though Barb was probably the newest of the group. I'll have to admit it wasn't as hot this afternoon as it was this am but it was OK.

Ken was one of those "rainman-esque" kind of guys that could count everyones fish brought to net while still keeping one eye on his float. I believe his final tally was 47. Now, 47 fish to net in half a days fishing isn't bad but there are two things I should have done better. One was concentrate more in one or two of the hotter areas. We had one really slow drift that probably only netted 6-8 fish because I tried a little different line down the river. The other would have been to switch EVERYONE to a #12 gray C-Shelled Scud earlier as Ken was busting them all day long on that bug while Barb probably got the short end of my poor decision making. I Switched Mike over to that bug about half way through the afternoon but honestly...I didn't think it would have made that big of a difference at the time. It hadn't been lately but today they were definitely keying on that one.

Our last drift down Barb got the good set up and probably caught more than the boys so that was my bad. Here they are with a few of the nicer fish from the day starting with Barb, Ken then Mike.







Great folks to spend a half day with and they did great with the sticks. Ken and I did the Jr. Circuit this winter and we had a great day then too. There's still a whole lot more of this Ozark area trout fishing to explore and I hope we get to see these nice folks again so we can share it with them.

   

May 22nd (am) - It couldn't have been much better today! John Lane was a first timer with us a year ago. He enjoys the boat fishing but admittedly struggles a bit when it gets up to 4 units. He wanted to figure that one out so he could enjoy it a little more when he was out there himself. Well, there's good news and bad news to this story. The bad news is we never got the 4 hard units we were looking for. (I cant believe I just said that). We got 1 then a quick two for the better part of our morning. Simply unbelievable is all I can say. I enjoy a nice 1 - 2 unit flow from the boat almost as much as wading. With sunshine you can see EVERYTHING going on below the water, You can see almost every fish take your bug...even see them chase it down from 10' away and anticipate nearly every take. The bite was just insane all day long throughout the entire trophy area. Honestly, John rarely had his line in the water more than a minute or two before getting hit and probably came close to 100 fish in just a half day trip. That was Taneycomo at its best and I have to say...after a stretch of below average fishing a couple of months ago I have to say things are securely back to normal here.

Didn't matter too much what we had on the line. I think we still had #12 C-Shelled Scuds and a #14 gray Low Sow trailer from the big water yesterday and we never changed anything. I think we got a 3rd unit at the end of our day but that never changed the bite at all. I showed him and had him cast what we typically use in 4 hard units of water just so he can see how it worked. He did fine. His whole issue with fishing 4 units was his set up and casting technique. He has that down now and I expect some good reports from him in the future. I had a great time with John and he caught I don't know how many 16-18" rainbows.



The weather couldn't have been any better as well and I'm glad John chose me to spend the day with him. He's a great guy. I go out with him and his son once or twice a year and we always have a good time.


Here are a few more nice notes from recent trips of ours starting with Scott and Richard from the 17th.


Brett
Thanks for a great day on Tanney. My cousin had a great time and I learned a few things as always. Please send the photos when you can.
Thanks again.
Scott

Hi Brett,
I wanted to thank you for the GREAT experience when you took Scott and I out on Sunday (May 17th). I still am smiling from thinking about the all the quality fish we caught. We had a great time and I know we will be back again.
Thanks for everything.
Richard Tolle

Afternoon Brett,
Finally made it back to Wisconsin. Just wanted to say again what a wonderful time I had and how much I appreciated fishing with someone who seemed more like a fishing buddy than just another guide.
You did make the day special.
Don Murray

Thanks for the great time fishing earlier today.
Blessings,
Kordel Lentine

Hi
I just wanted to let you know what a great time my wife and I had fishing with you last Tuesday. I think we pulled in more fish this time than we did with you 2 years ago. I know we did not catch such big ones as we did this year. When we come down next, you can be sure that we will be using your service again.
Thanks
Bob & Cynthia




    May 21st - A whole day to play around with a lot of fly fishing. Kevin joined me again this time bringing his buddies Jason and Kordel. Brand new fly fisherman graced our presence again today with Jason and Kordel. Water was scheduled to be off until 9:00am today. With that in mind we started the day at the crack of dawn (6:00am) hoping to get in as much wading time as possible. Only one unit was running at Taney so after our casting lessons first thing we went to Upper South Pool area and waded on the south shore. Almost as soon as we hit the water two more horns blew so without pushing our luck we decided to hit the Jr Circuit for some traditional fly fishing and some wading.

The JC in the right place is still producing some decent numbers. Keep in mind our boys were first timers today stripping Baitfish Jigs and sculpin REA Minnows. In a half a day of fishing they netted about 20 fish in there. Certainly not what the JC has been know to produce but near June in a river and a day that just couldn't be beat...it was fly fishing in it's purest form.







The CORPS has not been too accurate lately and we were victims of those bogus predictions. They weren't going to keep us down though and we had a great time in there even though it was less than usual. How do we get there??? Here's a little teaser...a shot of the boys walking there.



Good things don't come easy and as all us fly fisherman know...if it exists and it's a good thing...then a river runs through it!

So after our stint in there we broke for lunch at the shop then finished out our day in the boat. The big water continued to give us some stellar moments with more triples and doubles than I could possibly remember.





Yes...triple hook ups fly fishing from a boat in 4 units of water. It's pretty common. And how about that sucker! A redhorse I think but I'm not the sharpest sucker ID'er on the block. That thing was a pig! Well, another great day with Kevin ad the boys. A couple more brand new fly fisherman complete what could be the first step on a path towards memories to last a lifetime. OK, so I'm not Hemingway BUT!...they'll love this game if they decide to pursue it.



    May 20th (pm) - Warren and Kirk were new fly fisherman with us last year about this time. Last year with flood gates and 4 strong turbines...I try to forget about that time in our history. They had a good time then and even caught fish but conditions are much better these days and they caught a whole lot more today. By the time we got on the water today we had our typical, late day 4 generators going so we were Deep Drifting how it was originally created. It seems like the shad NO4 Minnows are better with 4 or more generators with a #12 gray C-Shelled Scud chaser for good measure. 50+ fish half day trips are the norm with 4 units going and it's even better when we have less water than that. Doubles (even triples when we have 3) are common place and what can I say...it's just a whole lot of fun out there right now.






These guys were a lot of fun to fish with and really had a great feel for the long stick. Often I've found that new or rookie fly fisherman are better at the deep water fishing than the veterans. They're more open to learning new ideas I think and they aren't creatures of bad habits yet. There are exceptions to every rule of course but all things being equal...I'll take a fresh out of the box rookie over the grizzly veteran most days.

These guys were solid all day long and never had any problems at all. When we started this business 6 or so years ago we developed our Deep Drifting technique just for days like this. I wanted a good way to catch a LOT of fish even in heavy generation. It's the casting that's truly unique...what I call Flat Lining and it's my own little twist on water hauling. Of course the flies and the set up is critical for optimum performance as well and we will gladly do that for you if you stop by the shop. I continue to tweak that set up every year if not every day and I think it just keeps getting better and better.

I've tried fishing the seams in the heaviest of water (behind islands..cuts in the bank etc) and you'll catch fish there but the size and numbers just don't compare to what Deep Drifting will get you. If you've never tried it you should. You'll get a kick out of it.



    May 20th (am) - Kevin and his dad Arlen were with me today when the water was down in the morning. I've been telling you how good this 4 unit fly fishing has been. Let me tell you how good it is when we have 3 units or less! I cant really because it cant be described in words. Usually when the water is at 2 units or so I'll downsize significantly in fly sizes. Go from #12's to #16;s or even #18's. I just started with the big boys we had on from yesterday and it was on. You cant really say going smaller would have been better when we were getting a fish within a minute or two of getting our line wet. No 20"ers today but many, many solid fish and numbers??...just ridiculous!





Dad wasn't too in to pictures but Kevin insisted on getting one in at the end of our trip. Today it was the gray Low Sow in a #14 but only because that's what was on it from yesterday. The gray C-Shelled Scud in a #12...the NO4 Minnow. No breaks off or tangles so no reason to change anything. A couple of the nicest guys in the world and NOBODY enjoys a day a fly fishing as much as Kevin does. We see him about half a dozen times a year and I enjoy every one of them.



    May 19th - Did I mention there are some big fish up top right now? Bob and Cynthia were my guests for a full day on the boat today. We are in a stretch of FANTASTIC weather these days to go along with some stellar fishing. Bluebird skies, upper 70's...a little wind now and then but other than that some great weather to be out catching trout on a fly rod. Even if the water hits 4 units by days end it continues to have a good bite and our guests are having a great time with it. These folks had fly fished one time before...with us about 2 years ago. They were good then and they were good today catching a couple fish over the 20" mark. Once a trout hits that 16" mark they become a very formidable foe. Yes, the 20" mark for trout is kind of the holy grail in fly fishing but show me someone who doesn't enjoy catching a 16" trout and I'll show you someone fishing for the wrong reasons. Well these super nice folks were all about having fun and catching some fish and they did a lot of both. Doubles all day long and these two sophomore fly fisherman were knocking on the 100 fish door by days end. Here's a few of the more memorable moments.







So what is it that's catching all these fish these days? The Taneycomo 3 major food groups... NO4 Minnows #10 in Shad Gray (my name for the new 4th version of the Simple Minnow), C-Shelled Scuds #12 (shad gray is my best color lately) and the Low Sow in a #12 (quickly rising above the rest). The Low Sow is happening in the basic sow/scud gray plus a gray/olive 2 color version. I make sure I have at least a dozen of each of these with me every day. "It's like cat nip for clooOOOooones!"...to quote Dr.Evil. Purple versions of all have been Ok especially when overcast but plain old boring gray seems to be the best. I have a new all gray NO4 Minnow I'll be trying soon. Before recently I could easily say that for me...gray was one of my least used colors. That and tan hardly ever see the inside of my fly box. Now, I know that flies in the face of many of you out there in fact many scuds and sow bugs are sold ONLY in those colors. Straight up gray has just never been a big producer for me but it is at the moment so I'll ride her for all she's worth. It's been a while since I've done a Paris Hilton joke hasn't it?
Well it was a very nice day today with some great action and some great folks. If you know me you know I don't thrown the words "good" or "great" around to much around when referring to fishing. It's all of that right now even with this running water.




    May 18th - I am loving the boat action these days. I cant tell you why but there are a TON of big, river fish up top both browns and rainbows. Certainly more rainbows but with water looking more clear than it has in a long time we're seeing some big fish on the bottom as we drift by as well as landing quite a few. They are aggressive takers too and I have to say...some where in the last week a switch came on for these fish and there are big ones stacking up all over the place. Table Rocks just a couple of feet high. Beaver runs sporadically even though they are much higher than Table Rock is. I wouldn't mind seeing a few days of water off like some of the Arkansas tailwaters are getting just for the hell of it. Part of me thinks, Man!...maybe we'll just hang in this big water for a while if the big ones stay up there for us like they are now!

 

 

  Here's a few recent notes from some of our friends fishing here and elsewhere.

  Brett, I killed them again yesterday on the Current with your brown soft hackle and ended up losing my last two of them. I got into a pocket of about 10 in a row, sometimes hitting it almost like a dry fly the second it hit the water. We’ll see you Friday, hopefully on the Jr. Circuit.

David McGowan


Brett, thanks again for the help with the G2 and the S4. Had a chance to fish the S4 on opening day and landed two nice browns after 30 minutes on the water.

Shawn Combs


Brett - Just wanted to drop you a line and give you a couple of fishing reports. Three trips, three different locations in three weeks and Chartered Waters flies performed great as usual. The first trip was a short 2 day down to Bennett Springs for some R&R after my six day work stretch. It was a weekday trip so crowds were minimal both in the park and on the Niangua. The first day I put the pontoon on the Niangua and floated from BSSP access down to NRO. This is a fairly short float and it gave me lots of time to fish all my favorite spots. I'm trying to improve my streamer fishing skills so I spent most the day hitting the banks and pocket water with streamers as opposed to my usual nymph fishing routine. It was probably one of my better days on the river, no huge quantities of fish but enough consistent action to make it a great day (and I never saw another person on the river all day which you have to love!). I had my best luck with an olive Occams sculpin pattern in a size 10. I tried several different streamer patterns but the movement and look of that fly seemed to be what they wanted (the ice-dub in that fly really makes it stand out from a standard sculpin pattern in my opinion). With no crowds in the park I decided to do some sight fishing on the second day and just make my way around the park looking for big fish to tease. Although I didn't see very many large fish I caught lots of trout on the old standby bit-scud and SG-Bug setup. A couple of fish over 18' and a fat rainbow that would have went 4+ pounds that took an olive/brown SG-Bug were the largest fish of the trip. I had my hands full as I was fishing my 2-weight and 7x tippet when I hooked up with the biggest fish. The 6th through the 10th I was in Columbus Ohio for some training and after doing some research online I discovered there were actually some trout in the state. A company supplied rental car with unlimited miles and a travel fly rod at my disposal occupied my spare time in the afternoons when class was over. I fished the only two streams I could get good information on which were the Mad River and the Clear Fork of the Mohican. Both were about an two hour drive from my hotel so I spent about 4 hours in the car every day for about 2 or three hours of fishing. The weather was cold and snowy most of the time but there were still good hatches occurring every afternoon (mostly caddis mixed in with a few large hendrickson's). I tried several local fly variations suggested by the local fly shop to no avail. The word was that the cold weather had put the fish off recently and fishing was tough. Although not wild trout these fish are only stocked once a year as fingerlings so I didn't expect it to be easy for sure and it wasn't. I did end up catching some fish, all small browns, and most of them came on an SG-Bug (several different color variations).The only other fly that produced was a generic BWO dry pattern that I tie which the fish seemed to like even though it looked nothing like the caddis or Hendrickson's which were hatching. I had to show the guys in the fly shop what a G-Bug was after telling them of my success with it in their streams so you might be getting an internet order from Ohio. Beautiful scenery but some tough fishing for sure. Just got back from Montauk State Park and the Current River for 3 days of fishing and had a great time. Blanket hatches of caddis on the river every day that were quite a sight to see. We found a spot on the Current where we spent every evening tossing drys to rising fish (mostly small browns) and caught decent numbers. I don't mind sacrificing numbers of fish for good dry fly fishing anymore like I used to. I'm definitely not a dry fly purist but I do find myself fishing them more often these days if there's even a few fish looking up in the water column. Fishing was good both in the park and on the river and we had most spots to ourselves. Spent one day walking the park and sight fishing hoping to see a nice one or two. We each landed several over 18" and I hooked up with this nice little brown after putting a #18 black soft-shelled scud on his nose.



An enjoyable trip with some great fishing. Starting Thursday I'm off for 12 days, heading to Mexico for a dive trip and then leaving for the Little Red in Arkansas when I return. I'm packing the travel rod on my dive trip just in case I find the time between dives for a little flats fishing (I always take it and seldom use it as we dive 3 times a day every day we're there). I've never been to the Little Red so I'm excited about trying it out and I'll send you a report and a pic or two if I'm lucky enough to catch anything. I just now looked and realized I was writing a book (you've probably already fell asleep twice reading this!) so I'll stop now. What can I say, half the fun of fishing is having buddies to tell your fish stories to and unfortunately for you I have more fish stories than I have buddies!! Hope all is well with you and the family and I hope to be down that way before too long. If you can get all that excess water out of the lake in the next couple weeks while I'm gone I'd appreciate it. I'm looking forward to some of that wonderful wade fishing on Taney sometime soon.

Talk to you later............................Jeff

I attached a pic of the nice brown from Montauk but couldn't get the one of my BSSP rainbow to attach unfortunately and a shot of a neat covered bridge in Ohio on the Clear Fork that we were fishing around. I'm not much at this attaching pics thing so hopefully you receive them alright.


Thank you for making our fishing trip particularly great. Your guide service was excellent. We will return and of course will contact you. If you still have the picture of the 22 inch rainbow I caught I would appreciate it if you would email it to me. John C. Frieden, P.A
.



    May 17th - Man...it was like fishing in the fall today! Not just a cool, crisp day but the big fish were dropping for us like they do late in the year. There are some serious thumpers up top right now. We hooked some nice ones in our short, half day adventure and our heroes Scott and Rich handled them like champs. Quality was great and the quantity just got better and better as the day went on so yeah...it was a real good one out there for us. Scott and Rich did real well with Eric yesterday doing best with the coral C-Shelled Scud. Today...Gray and purple C-Shelled Scuds (#12) were good but not nearly as good as "Minnow #4". I have to admit...I put it on against all theories I hold near and dear. I would consider that fly (see previous report) a "lead" fly on a two fly rig. It's bigger and brighter than the average scud and I like putting on the attractor if you will as the lead fly. BUT!...Scott had a break off on his trailer so with one spare rod already down I quickly threw Minnow #4 on as the trailer on his original set up to get him in the water. By days end we were all ready to put that fly in to the Chartered Waters Fly Hall of Fame as it was seemly the ONLY thing those fish wanted. And durable, as Scott probably caught over 25 fish on that fly alone in just about 2 hours of fishing with it. Incredible! Overall...3 fish over 20" made the net today with the biggest about 22". All rainbows and add about 4-5 fish in the 18" range made for a real fun time battling these fat, FAT rainbows. Here's a little collage.











I've fished with these guys before in fact Scott caught a big 28" rainbow with us a couple of years ago sight casting. Great guys to spend a day with. I know Eric had a good time too and I always look forward to fishing with them. Until next time guys.



    May 16th - Just to give you a look at the evolution of the Simple Minnow. You can see the original in the catalog. Here is version #2...then #3...#4 and finally...the ultimate Beta version prior to full production.







Actually...I haven't even fished #4 yet but I just know it will smoke em and I think I'll test it out tomorrow. My tomorrow trip is with Scott and and Richard who are going out with Eric this afternoon so they'll be tag teamed by the entire Chartered Waters crew.



    May 15th - Tom Jones (the original as he likes to say) was my guest for a day of fly fishing. It's not unusual to have guests, with famous names. I have to admit...I couldn't get that tune out of my head but I digress. It's a cool tune anyway. Tom is a veteran in every sense of the word especially in terms of fly fishing. He's done a lot in his 80 plus years of living and I was very impressed with his skill set. We contemplated the Jr Circuit for a spell but he thought the walking might be more than he wanted to tackle so we stayed in the boat all day. The bite is pretty good for us out there in this heavy water. Simple Minnows!! The new C-Shelled Scuds are very good but I see a turn going in the direction of the Simple Minnow. Like all good flies I've created...I start tweaking to make it even better and I think I have a good one. I'll test it a few more times before I turn it loose to the masses but yeah...it's pretty cool!. Still 4 units going hard and Table Rock stays around the 918' mark (three feet high). Deep Drifting is pretty solid the whole stretch down and very solid in a few key places. We turned some big boys today and some solid (though not quite as big) fish made the net. We had to get at least one fish pic of this young man today.



It wasn't his biggest but like all of them...it was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed my time with Tom. He was a great guy with some great fishing stories from around the globe.



    May 13th - All this week I'm doing replicas. I have about a dozen people who have been waiting to hear those words I know. The labor intensive part of those jobs has already been done. Now it's the fun part and where the majority of the artistic side of things come in to play. Brown trout are the toughest as you need to create a diffused lighter colored spot around a diffused black spot. Each color takes 2 or 3 coats to get it opaque enough at the same time applying the colors light enough to keep them from bleeding.



I'm doing 9 brown tout and 3 rainbows ranging from 22" to 31". All caught on trips with us over the last year or so, not that that is a pre-requisite. I've done quite a few fish caught at other locals across the country..some caught years ago where the angler just decided to finally have a replica done. All you need is a picture or even a good memory. I've even had people have a replica done of a fish they had caught many years ago but had no picture of it. They knew the approximate length but nothing else. What I've done is have them look through our archives of photos (or send one in) of another fish that looked like the one they caught and I've matched that one up in the form of a replica. Part of the beauty of the replica mount vs the traditional skin mount. That and many other bonus' that the fish especially appreciate.



    May 10th - Some times...a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do! My stints on the JC have been awesome for the most part but every day the dynamics there change quite a bit so I wanted to show Eric all the likely places you can find fish there for his trips. What that means is a little "me time" fishing with Eric. We called our buddy Dave along the way and he was able to join us for a few as well. Water was definitely manageable though a new dynamic was added to the mix that I had never experienced before. I cant get in to details without revealing too much information about this particular area but it's safe to say we ran in to something new that upon leaving...left us wanting more. When I sit down to tie new streamers and sculpins I always come up with a few new ones to try out there. They look great...sexy....detailed if not a bit complicated to tie. I think "YEAH!!...this is the one that will finally out fish that ginger/olive Baitfish Jig!" And while I always catch fish with all of them...it's the Baitfish Jig that STILL out fishes them all. What are you gonna do? I guess I'll continue to catch fish in shame with an emphasis on catching fish! I showed Eric where I typically start a trip as it's always pretty hot in there. He hooked about 7-8 in a row while Dave just above him was doing about the same on a green and white Clouser. Interesting thing was Dave couldn't keep a fish hooked while Eric caught all of his on the BaitFish. My assessment?...they were looking for something more like the sculpiny looking Baitfish so they held on longer. I did create one new one that was a pretty close second. A new minnow pattern that I tied up for the boat but brought a few along in the sculpin colors just to see. They liked it!



We found two big concentrations of fish with scattered fish in between the two. We had the first set dialed in pretty well but the other fish pretty much had our number. Eric and I caught half a dozen between us in about an hour of fishing for them but to see how many we had in front of us??....half a dozen was not so hot. My best solution was a shad REA minnow with that new sculpin minnow pattern as a trailer. Get it deep and just pop it along the bottom really slow. Eric was dead drifting a few things picking up one here and there with Micro Juans, Soft Shelled Scuds and even W2-Eggs. We'd get a lot of chasers but not a lot of takers. I did catch a nice buck white bass in there. I had hoped to hook in to a few more for maybe a nice little meal but no luck. It was fun for sure and the challenge of new water always intrigues me. I'll be hitting it again to figure those guys out. It's just so hard to walk away from that water sometimes. Regrettably...we pulled ourselves away.



    May 6th - Cant we all just get along?...of course we can as evidence by our mix of two fishing worlds today . Good stuff happening out there in this big water right now. 4 units can intimidate some people especially fly fisherman but you just need the right set up and you'll catch as many as you do under any other condition. Travis, Phil and John work at a golf course together in the KC area. They all do a little fishing but it was Travis who arranged the trip and was the only fly fisherman of the three. He asked if that was a problem...of course not. I've said it before but it's worth repeating. I'm not one of those blue blood, uppity fly fisherman who thinks his shinola doesn't stink. Yes I love it and I'll ALWAYS think it's the best way to catch a trout but I wont push it on anyone to the point of being obnoxious and we can accommodate both worlds on a trip. It doesn't come up too much but when it does everyone has a great time and everyone catches a lot of fish. I always bring enough of the magic stick for everyone but today, John and Phil were content to drag the same flies Travis was using behind spinning rods while Travis took the brunt of their jokes and maybe caught a couple more than they did? They all did very well and they had a pretty good bite going too. Very nice folks to spend a morning with. Same big water and same big flies. #12 C-Shelled Scuds behind Simple Minnows in a #10 usually. Early it was a coral C-Shelled but after one drift it was definitely the purple doing the work. Here's John the Travis with a few including a really nice brown we caught out of the Trophy area.

 





We talked a little golf out there...probably more than fishing truth be known. They had just played Branson Creek and Murder Rock. Branson Creek is my personal, all time favorite golf course and I don't get anything for saying that. I haven't played Murder Rock yet but these guys liked it a lot and it sounds like they play a lot. It also sounds like you wouldn't want to bring too much cash with you if you ever play a round with them either. Not without getting a lot of strokes. They were a lot of fun to fish with to be sure and hopefully we'll cross paths again. Maybe schedule a round of golf with them next time and learn a thing or two.



    May 5th - A brand new fly fisherman from Nebraska (Nathan Jackson) was my guest today. Had never caught a fish on a fly rod and really wanted to give it a show while he was down here on his HONEYMOON!!!...if you can believe that. SHow of hands from everyone who went fishing w/o the mrs on their honeymoon!?!? Yeah...I didn't think so! I can just imagine how that conversation would go over at my house. Lets just say you'd hear the crack of a whip...the whimpering sounds of a dog and just take a guess at which end of it all I was on. So anyway..Nathans my hero. SO how was our fishing? Well...The JC was nearing fish able again after the heavy rains we've been having so we checked that out first thing. Upon arriving it was a little too serious for us to take a chance so we opted for the boat. Nathan was GREAT at casting AND catching trout with a fly rod. He really had a very nice feel for it all. Here's his first.



Not the biggest fish in the sea but neither was mine. In fact I think my first trout was from one of those "trout pools" you see at the sportsman shows when I was about 8 so to catch your first on a river like Taneycomo is a much more prestigious moment. He caught bigger fish later on and quite a few more as well before we wrapped up our day. He was a fine young man and seems to have a good handle on the fly fishing thing. Seems to have the whole marriage thing down pretty well too . I enjoyed fishing with him. He was a good guy.



    May 4th - Our new friend Don Murray came down from Wisconsin for an afternoon of catching on the big river. Still 4 hard units running from TRD while the big lakes level is around 918' (3 ' above power pool). We're getting hit every other day it seems with a pretty good soaker which keeps Beaver then Table Rock a few feet high. That of course means generation for Taneycomo which isn't what the wade fisherman want to see but it has created a real nice bite out from the boat for us. Don was a real nice guy and he picked up the Deep Drifting really well. In no time at all he was flinging our set up around like a pro pulling in fish consistently our entire half day outing. Coral backed and the traditional shad colored Simple Minnows are growing every day in their effectiveness and the new C-Shelled Scud (especially the purple) is clearly the #1 bug to have on. I put that on as the trailer above the Simple Minnow (usually a #8 - #10) and it's been really good in the heavy water. Here's Don with a few from his days workout with the extra long stick.







Fish number 2 was just starting to jump out of his hands but I managed to get a quick one in. Kind of an overcasty day but overall not too bad. The variables of this watershed are truly fantastic. From water off to our full bore conditions we have now...of course our own little wading oasis that is the Jr. Circuit. Every one of them catches a LOT of fish and every one of them is completely different from the bugs to the techniques and obviously the locations. While I spent a little more time in a boat than I wanted to LAST year, I still get a kick out of fly fishing from the boat in the big running water. I think Don got a kick out of it too.



    May 2nd - "Some of you may be reading us for the first time". I'll borrow from a modern day commentator for a moment to put that phrase in context. I'll usually reference what kind of bite we had on the day of any given trip. Great, awesome, fantastic...SICK!!!...all kind of the same and that' a good day. Then there's a simple "good" which I would personally classify as average for Taneycomo but is usually considered a "world class" day on most every other trout stream. Yes, I'm a homer for my river. Average, decent...sub par are terms I'll use when it isn't up to my standards. Often when we experience those days our customers will comment... "I've never caught so many fish in my life". That's GREAT to hear but it also lets you know we have very high standards and expectations here at Chartered Waters on Taneycomo. The bottom line is this. I don't pull punches and I wont sugar coat reports (like you've probably seen elsewhere) just to suck in the uneducated and to pimp a couple more trips. Occasionally I'll try to count the number caught on any given drift down just to get a ball park on what kind of bite we had that day. I did that once today. Craig and Cindy were my guests who joined me for a full day of trout catching today. The fore cast was ugly and I watched river levels the previous 24 hours to see what kind of options we had that morning. These fine folks wanted an education and experience here in Ozark trout country and we gave them a pretty good scope of things. Starting on the Jr Circuit...we hit a spot I debated would be fish able. We've had a lot of rain lately but I kept an eye on a particular flow chart and I felt we would be safe and productive at one locale. I was half right. It was easier getting in than getting out but we stayed until the hard rains hit (about 3 hours of fishing) then felt we should leave before pressing our luck. The bite there?? ...sub par. Probably only about 20 fish made the net in there but the comments were very positive about the locale and the education on how to hook them. Here's Cindy then Craig doing battle on the JC.



Beautiful water isn't it? I could tell ya...but then I'd have to kill ya. Both these folks far underestimated their own casting and catching skills as they were both very solid with the stick. A real good feel for everything and we practiced a few different techniques to catch these tougher than average trout. Coral backed REA (Shad) Minnows in a #8 was good but the blue collar special (ginger/olive BaitFish Jig) still reigns supreme in there. The rains came hard and we headed out drenched and back to the shop for lunch and a drying out. From there it was just Craig who joined me for some Deep Drifting and something completely new to him. Now how was the bite out there? My son Marlin might say that Craig was in "beast-mode" on those fish. Our "practice" session that went about 1/4 mile and 10 minutes TOPS!... netted 7-8 fish. Hot enough that I thought that maybe I'll try counting one drift. The exact same set up Dick was using the day before (coral backed Simple Minnow with the C-Shelled Scud trailer #14) was the weapon and by the end of drift #1 I had counted 33 fish in the net. ABout 1/4 of them came on the minnow and the rest on the C-Shelled Scud. Now THAT is the kind of bite I'm used to having here on Taneycomo. That was a good bite. We managed one and a 1/2 more drifts before we ended our day. I tried a couple of other set ups on that second drift just to see if it was the day or the chosen flies. Not nearly as much going on with the other bugs so I'd say it had to be the flies. The second drift down was solid as well though a touch off that first one. Good stuff for sure. We even had the rain stop for us and ended the day on a dry note. Very nice folks to spend a day with even though the weather gave us less than desirable conditions. Table Rock came up a bit and will come up some more as the big rivers feeding it bring some significant flood waters in. We were almost at power pool before this weekend but we'll probably have to wait a while longer before we get back down there again. Stay tuned.



    May 1st - Our friends from Wednesday joined Eric and I for another 1/2 day of Deep Drifting. Not a bad bite out there for us again. Today I had Eric's Wednesday crew Dick and Gloria while Eric took Karen and Doug. Weather was...well...kind of crappy. We escaped the worst of it early but just a tad after 4 hours in it got hard and cold enough for our group to call it a day. Gloria fished about half the time on each drift opting to watch and coach hubby for the balance but she picked up on that new method very well and caught quite a few fish. Eric coached both of them pretty well a couple of days ago so I had it easy with these guys. The best combo for me today was the coral backed Simple Minnow in about a #10 with the new C-Shelled Scud in a #14 purple. "C" is for crystalline which is the shell casing tucked neatly underneath all the goodies that are, our trade secret recipe. 11 herbs and spices...you know, that whole chestnut. Here's Dick with a nice 18" class fish that took the C-Shelled.



Dick has traveled the world in pursuit of fish on the fly and got a kick out of how we were catching these fish in such heavy water. The bite??...not bad compared to what we've been getting lately. 12-20 fish a drift or so depending on much Gloria wanted to fish. That's around a 50 fish half day which is a little closer to what we expect here. There are reliably good spots all the way down through the trophy area. There are also reliably slow spots all the way down too so I'm probably doing some more bouncing (from bank to bank) these days to maximize the best bite. The trolling motor's getting a work out for sure. I can see why Eric had such a good time with these guys Wednesday. Super nice folks as seems to be the rule of thumb around here. Good fisherman which is always a plus but hardly necessary to have a good time and to catch a lot of fish.



   April 29th - Doug and Karen have been some great new customers of ours and they're here to fish with us for a couple of days. They also brought a couple friends along who Eric took out Deep Drifting today. Friday we're going to switch the teams so Eric will get Doug and Karen and I'll get Dick and Gloria. My plan today was to show these fine fly fisherman the crown jewel of the Jr. Circuit. It has been fishing so hot lately that my anticipation was very high. Wouldn't you just know what happened next. Everything looked good for water and weather even though we're in the midst of a wave of fronts coming through. What we got was about 15-20 fish caught in our half day trip which was NOTHING compared to what we've been seeing there. Eric on the other hand (out in the boat) had a 50 plus fish day so unfortunately...I made the wrong choice today. They loved the area and we caught some tough fish in some tight little spots. They are definitely the type who like that kind of challenge. Here's Karen hooked up on one.



The best solution today though was Deep Drifting on Taney (only running 2 units today) but unfortunately we weren't out there. That will be the plan for Friday so I'll have to make amends. Nicest people in the world and they do some serious traveling in pursuit of fish on a fly rod. Great stories to share and I understand their friend Dick will share some more with me on Friday. Some days you get the bear, the next day...well, that was today.



   April 28th - Kelly Otis and his buddy Gary were my guests today. Gary had done it a time or two but Kelly was another brand new fly boy. They wanted some wading so some wading was what we delivered in the form of our Junior Circuit and it was awesome! We spent our morning there and our action never really slowed down for us. Ginger/olive REA Minnows on the swing and strip plus dead drifting #14 and #16 Soft Shelled Scuds, Low Sows and SG-Bugs. All were equally effective though the boys found stripping the REA's a little more straight forward. Here's a little of today's action.







I've been tweaking our Soft Shelled Scud and Low Sows to see how they work in the murkier than normal water we're dealing with right. The results have been really good. The big water bite has been a lot better and they're even doing great on the JC.



That fish took the NEW gray Low Sow in a #14. What a pain in the ass they are to tie but honestly, just a superb sow bug imitation. You can see how that puppy would move in water by the wet legs. Good stuff. I found another Jurassic era sow bug there today without even trying so the fish are definitely seeing them in their daily forays. Lots of good food activity going on there.

These guys guessed they each caught over 30 - 40 fish this morning so things couldn't have been much better. That being said...They wanted to give the boat thing a try so after lunch at the shop we hit the big river for some Deep Drifting. Years ago I developed this system specifically for 4 unit fly fishing. It may swerve to the left of traditional fly fishing just a skosh but everyone really seems to enjoy the unique twist and it's the best way to catch fish consistently in heavy water. Kelly wrapped up his day catching 3 quality fish in a row including this little pig of a rainbow.



That thing was just about as round as it was long. A real nice day with some real folks. We got to do kind of the classic Chartered Waters day when water is generating hard. Some fantastic wading in virgin fly water followed up with a casual drift in the boat Deep Drifting. I think the boys liked that whole fly fishing thing.



   April 27th - Bill and Sandy Brister from the great state of Texas joined me for a half day outing in what was forecasted to be a nasty day. We had several contingency plans in place had we got what they called for. Long story short was we got our half day in mostly dry with a little bit of rain at the very end.

Boat fishing was the request specifically from these first time, fresh off the bait casters fly fishermen. I'm going to sound like a broken record here but Sandy wanted me to bring some spinning gear as she had only used the old Zebco, push button rod and reel before and didn't think she could do the whole fly fishing chestnut. Bill too was a little sketchy about it all so what eventually became hood ornaments on my boat...I brought some spinning rods for both. We did our little 5 minute casting lesson on the Lower North Flat and about 3 minutes in to that lesson Bill had his first fish on a fly rod. Spinning rods were never even mentioned again as they just became an eyesore on the deck, staring back at us like the bunion on grandmas toe after she falls asleep on the barker lounger watching Springer. They eventually made storage below.

Now these two weren't much in to pictures but they became very comfortable with the long stick and were soon pulling them in like the budding pros that they are. Several double hookups made the net today as we had a much improved bite going on for us. Still 4 units running hard but Beaver has stopped generating for the most part and Table Rock has slid on down to about 1' above power pool. Table Rock is lessening its night generation too and that seemed to have improve the bite overall too. Super nice folks who toughed out the last hour or so in the rain just because it was so much fun. They had never tasted trout before so we kept a couple of sub-twelve inchers for the pan. Upon cleaning them I found the usual fare of scuds but it was sow bugs that made up the majority of the take. I had been fishing some Low Sows today and they were getting hit as much as anything. Some orangey/olive scuds were in there but for the life of me, I have never done well on orange scud imitations regardless of the pattern. I may try one here just to say I did it but honestly...our purple Soft Shelled, Razorback, Low Sows and Bit Scuds are doing top honors. Gray and slate gray of the same have made a nice surge here lately too. Eric's still doing best with the claret Juan Beadro and purple/wine SG-Bugs so there's a nice selection for you to choose from.



    April 26th - Somewhere out on the JC we lost a net recently so with some rain in the forecast and my day off at hand I thought I'd retrace our steps in hopes of finding it prior to any major flooding. And hey...while I'm out there I may as well try a couple of spots that have always looked fishy. I don't really explore with trips too much as I don't want to be treading in unproductive water for any amount of time. The good news is I found the net. It took a while and it wasn't exactly where I thought it might be but within 30 yards or so.

Every time I drop a line or step in new water out here I get giddy. I continue to be amazed and surprised at what I find. A little spot I've never put people in before was just looking too good. I hadn't done it before as it is pretty tight and conducive for a few tangles. That plus every other area we've fished is wide open with back casting room and fish thick enough to keep you there until you get tired of catching them. So I snuck up there to find the bottom blanketed in olives and steel gray. Could it be?? I watched intently...satisfied at the scene unfolding not needing a catching fix...for now. Then, the tell tale vibrating flashes of spawning rainbows had me logging another unbelievable and unforgettable memory in my trout fishing mental hard drive. Well, at that you know I had to throw a few things through there. Truth be known...I brought one rod with one fly attached and brought one spare Jiggy Bugger just in case. This water was fast and deep and a heavy dead drift would have been the best plan of attack. Not having those tools I took off a couple of feet of my tippet...re-attached the lead fly and added the Jiggy Bugger as a trailer just for the weight. I then proceeded to nymph old school flipping and dropping that set up through that hole watching the line for a stop. It wasn't easy and you learn to appreciate the pioneers of the sport who didn't have "strike indicators" to make that job easier. Fortunately the fish were so packed in there it made that task easier and every 2 - 3 drifts I was able to see the pause and stick a gorgeous river fish.



Spawning rainbows!!! ...WADING!!!....(have you seen the generation lately?)...you can see why I get giddy. I left after 3 fish or so. I didn't want to spoil it and the next customer who gets to drop a line in there...well, you'll read about it here.

There was something oddly serene about walking streamside without the clown suit on. I just put on waders...I brought the rod just for something like the above but not for a day of fishing. Usually my mind is swimming with the days possibilities for fishing. Where they'll be and what they'll be taking based on the water that I'm seeing. Forming a game plan as we walk to the predetermined playground for the moment. Today was just a walk in the woods and water with nothing to worry about other than keeping my cigar lit.



Mission accomplished.





Click for Hollister, Missouri Forecast

 

1326 Acacia Club rd • Hollister, MO 65672 • 417-334-1005 • 866-362-1928 (toll free)