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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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
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.
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
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
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
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!
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
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.
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.
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.
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!
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 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!!
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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