*** Marlin Rader bowls a 300 and an 814 series ***

Last tuesday in our bowling league my best friend and son bowled his first 800 series ever. A feat accomplished by very few in their bowling careers. That series included a perfect 300 game and a near perfect 299 game. It was so cool and I was so proud of him. It's been his passion since he's been about 8 years old. Now 20, he's reached a couple of major bowling accomplishments at a pretty young age. Trust me when I say, it couldn't happen to a nicer young man. That plus he's carried our team to the Championship match this Tuesday.


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May 3rd - My buddy Mike from out east joined me yesterday for a little pot pour ri of fishing styles and targets. Mike hooks up with me a couple of times a year so I always try to show him something different than what he's done before. Last year he caught his biggest rainbow ever with us. A 25" plus fish if I recall. With two units flowing today we had an opportunity to do the Island Hopping that fits in well with a 1 or 2 unit flow.

Our first (and only) stop did not disappoint. Fish after fish after fish. For a couple three hours it was a hit a drift most of the time with most of those hits turning in to fish in the net. Technically...to the Ketchum Release as that little tool makes life SOOOO much easier and fun.

Mike's a big fan of The Jr Circuit and there are places he hasn't hit with us yet so we finished the balance of the day doing that. Starting with Swan and Beaver Creek and looking for whites....yes, they're still there but Bull Shoals is high and backing up in to our fishing areas which has the fish scattered in deeper and slower water. When Taneycomo starts slowing down the creeks will get down to their normal flow. I'm still optimistic about the whites with everything being so late and cold this year.

We had a few hooked and lost but never got any in. The trout circuit had us landing one trout plus quite a few warm water species. I told Mike it hadn't been too hot this year but he wanted to see the new water. A great guy and fisherman. He usually hits Crane Creek a time or two when he's in town so you know he likes the finer things in life.

Boy we could have made some noise on some HUGE spawning gar...but we passed on those. Only for now. When it gets warm out...I'm going to try and find them again.

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April 29th - Brand new fly fishermen Bob and the boys had a great day on the water today. First time fly fishermen and for all you youngsters out there who think your dog's too old to learn anything new...proof positive that it's not the case.





You have to get a picture of your first fly rod fish right?



We even had a few doubles in our 3/4 day excursion.



We started wading (Island Hopping) while our all day flow was fairly mild. But that ship sailed after a hard 3 drove us out of waders and back in the boat. We stayed with the little M-Scuds and Soft Shelled Scuds (gray) when wading but when we hit the boat it was the Bug Hurt above the Micro Juan Bomb in claret. A real nice bite if you stay in that upper 1/2 mile of the river. There are a few small hot spots downstream from that but when it's running hard those spots are fleeting so lately we've been staying up top.

Our biggest fish came in the boat and our bite was probably consistently better in the boat too.



The harder it runs the more concentrated the fish get so the hot spots are relatively small. The best bite is from the cable down just past the boat ramp. That's an often told story when the water runs hard but that stretch is really good.

The Juan Bomb is definitely the fly right now. I'm still rockin the Big Hurt as a lead fly most of the time but Juan Beadros are making a big come back and the claret Juan Bomb with a gold head is smokin hot too.

More great guys to spend a day with. No tangles all day for these first timers as a testament to their quick learning ability. Nice guys and a real nice day out there too.

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April 28th - My old friend Dwan (with Robert) from the Flat Landers Fly Fishers Club joined me today for a little time on the Taneycomo as well as the Jr Circuit. I told him the circuit wasn't doing too hot (sans some white bass streams) but he wanted to learn the spots to bank some secret trout locals for future reference.

Half our day drifting and wading from the boat was pretty solid but the JC was the focus so after lunch we spent the last few hours hitting some of that new water. It looks like it should be holding fish (and there are a few) but it's just not happening in there right now. Great guys to hang with and we had a great day to enjoy it too.

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April 25th - My new friend Grover and I finally got to hook up around all this rainy weather we've been in. Just a half day jaunt in the boat but it turned out to be a pretty nice day after all. Water running mildly to hard and the Big Hurt above the Juan Bomb was it.

The claret Juan Bomb with an orange head is awfully good from the boat right now. It has surpassed the gray Soft Shelled Scud as THE FLY when fishing in generating water from the boat..

There is a definite pattern I have found over the years when there's a lot of unbroken generation and that is that the fish seem to prefer some sort of worm pattern. Blood red and claret have always been my favs. When flood gates open, worms will dominate (from the boat) sometimes for over a year. We've had some fairly hard gen lately and is hasn't completely stopped for a while. A good recipe for the Juan Bomb and yes indeed..it is the bomb.

Another fine young man to spend a day with. He's flung it around before so his learning curve was pretty short. Good time.

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April 24th - So I was telling my buddy Bob about all these white bass we've been catching. Yesterday was the scheduled day for us. It was much warmer but raining...we decided to reschedule for today when it was nicer out. Much sunnier today....but much colder and the fish were scant. We ran in to a guy who said they were as thick as cordwood in there yesterday...same places we were standing in today of course. Long story short was we ended up hitting the boat on Taney for a nice "fish catching" wrap up to our day.

That was good with the claret Micro Juan Bomb being the damage maker.

    April 23rd - Mick and his son Jason were my guests this morning on the first day of calmer water... after about 4 days of 4 hard units. I have to say that the CORPS seemed to be fairly proactive this time. They started water soon...ran it hard and stayed ahead of the rising water. Now its near normal lake levels and we're back to normal here on Taneycomo too. There's hope for anyone I guess.

We had a beautiful day with a less than average bite but the boys had a great time and Mick caught his biggest rainbow ever and his biggest brown ever. Not bad for your first time out on your new home waters.



Mick just moved back to the area and Jason is visiting from Colorado where he does a lot of fly fishing. It was just one of those days where the good bite was fairly isolated so after one drift down through the whole Trophy Section we focused on the upper section from the cable down just past Trophy Run. That kept us in to fish pretty consistently with the wine Micro Juan Bomb being...well...the bomb!



Not too proud to get a picture with a sucker. One of 2 he caught today!



Not a bad double here eh? That brown went a tad over 18" for Mick. His biggest brown ever too!

A couple of great guys to meet and fish with. They had a great time and they thought that our Taneycomo "bad day" was a pretty good day of fishing. Their wives were up on Table Rock today at the same time doing some crappie fishing. Through texts and photos they kept each other updated on their days success. I don't think they did too well on the big lake. I'm not sure about that but at days end they asked me how many more can fit on my boat for their next trip? Great guys ...we had a great time.

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April 19th - We had a big rain around here two days ago and all the streams got pretty flooded. They are all going down now so Jeff and I thought we'd chase some whites around and maybe do a little time on the Jr Circuit. Our first few casts had us pretty optimistic on Swan Creek.



We lost a nice white bass at the net...caught this nice little walleye and had a few more fish on.,,then it went blank. We tried every fishy looking spot in this big, muddy water and going over some reliable spots as well and it just wasn't happening. We probably pushed the boundaries of fishable water more than anything. We need a few more days for the streams to get closer to normal and the fish back in their regular spots. I'm hoping the rain and cooler weather will restart the spawning run for these fish and we get a second faux season.

Always a fun time with Jeff regardless even though I felt bad about the results. I gave him a bunch of my white bass flies and promised to add a few new ones to his pending online order. The least I can do for one of the good guys in the world.

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April 17th - Back to the scene of the crime today and guess what?...not a freakin white bass to be found in. I even said that to Greg walking down to the stream..."you know... there's a chance there wont even be a single fish down there"...(even with it being so hot not even 18 hrs ago)...I was just hoping I was wrong. Never has a prophecy been met with such disdain.

No...they were definitely NOT there. We played around a while on the edges and we found one group of them but that hole was occupied by a few too many fishermen so we decided to hit Beaver Creek instead.

That was doing much better with a LOT of fish over a pretty wide area. These fish weren't taking quite as well as the Swan fish were but they were there and in spots pretty thick.











We even plucked a rainbow out of one area throwing one of the big ole honkin white bass artillery. Later in the day I saw a lot of rises in one pool that HAD to be trout but without a major equipment change and little time , left I never gave them an effort. Beaver's part of the Jr Circuit...but that's our little secret.

It was a lot of fun for sure and we probably plucked out a dozen whites there during the worst part of the day. Same kind of leady eyed, jiggy, heavy chartreusey kind of stuff. All a bunch of stuff I've made over the last few weeks that have no names at the moment but are catching fish pretty well.

A pretty good day in the end. No, not like yesterday but there probably wont be many of those days left for either of us. Enjoy it when we get the opportunity.

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April 16th - "The Best Day EVER?" ...you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who would disagree with that statement if they traveled in our shoes today. Over the next two days our plan (Greg and me) were to hit Taneycomo one day and hit the Little Sac up north for some white bass. Taney was today's plan and it started rather unspectacularly.

2 units running on Taney had us do a drift down from the boat (pretty good action there... certainly not bad) then we got out and waded around a couple of islands and that was a little bit slower than the boat.

Overcast...sluggish trout...crappy weather kind of day...sounded like a good white bass kind of day.

I suggested we bag the trout trip and hit Swan or Beaver creek for a chance at some whites. Greg is always up for a an adventure so we jumped out of the boat, packed up the bass gear and headed over to Shadowrock Park.

A little scouting around saw a few spin folks fishing and a couple of them with fish on stringers so we knew they were there. I suggested a couple of spots not frequented by the bass people so we drove there and hiked back in.

When we arrived the water was roiling with life. Fish EVERWHERE!!!! My fist thought was suckers or carp from a distance. A lot of commotion with good sized fish. As we got closer I saw the familiar gray masses of fish you see with either massive schools of shad ...or massive schools of white bass. Guess which one we found?











We had about a half a mile of water that nobody even came within eyesight of us (expect once briefly) that had so many white bass in it that it became a choice of not "where do I go to catch them" but rather..."where do I WANT to catch them". In most places...a decent cast would catch you a fish. In some places...it was every cast (even the bad ones) that was catching fish. Nice, fat 2 - 3 pd fish swinging and stripping sink tip line loaded with a variety of minnow patterns and jigs flies I've been tying up this spring. Didn't really matter too much in most places but probably something chartreuse was best for us.





I've had trips that have caught bigger fish...probably even more fish given that we ended up only having about half of a half day trip. BUT!...I don't think I've ever come upon a slice of water more beautiful and more full of our "target" fish than what we we found today. The fish were big and strong...the bite was great...no outside people to harsh our mellow.

We both had places to be at the end of our "regular" time but ...a couple of phone calls later and we missed those appointments by about 4 hours. Yes, when I got off the clock I too enjoyed that wonderful almost indescribable experience with Greg.



Cool shot right? Yeah, so many doubles that when you looked up and DIDN'T see your buddy catching fish then something must have been wrong.

Greg is a great guy to experience something like that too. New to fly fishing and this is one that will stay with him (and me) to the end. Before we even wet a line in that spot today I told him that he was experiencing something that may be a once in a life time thing. That being said...we're going to bag the LIttle Sac trip and try this again tomorrow. I mean...you have to try it again right? They may be gone by then but hey, if you go to the corner McDonalds planning to get a value meal and walk out with Halle Barry??...you'll probably hit that McDonalds again right? We're going to McDonalds tomorrow.

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April 13th - Brand new friends and fly fishermen Mike and Beth were my guests today on an all day, water off kind of day. We like those kind of days. These kids were great students and picked it up about as fast as you can pick it up catching way too many fish to even think about counting.





Saturday at Rebar and nary a soul until about 10:00am. A wide range from the arsenal served us nicely today. Coral M-Scuds #24 above the regular gray varieties were hard to beat with a new little gray thingy I've been playing with that is catching just about as fast as anything these days. Here's the M-Scud.





We found a lot of fish in one spot but not as many takers. Then we put on an olive Soft Crackle trailer and let it swing. THAT was just crushing them with doubles virtually every time one or the other hooked up.

Great folks who really enjoyed the day. Great weather...more fish than you could hope for....what's not to like?

    April 8th - My friend John and I took the road less traveled today and went to a super secret white bass stream and man!!!...one of the most fun times I've ever had fly fishing!





New water is always cool but just a perfect storm of events that makes the kind of day we're always looking for as fly fishermen.

New water in a secluded place and we fished alone. That's always a good start right? The fish were there plus different species...we had easy stretches with them and we had to work for them now and then. We (I) caught something I've never caught on a fly rod (a walleye)...I had a little fly that caught them when they got tough so we had to figure some things out...weather was great...company was great...I could go on but yeah!...hard to find anything wrong with today.

John's son (John David) met up with us later in the morning and we all enjoyed a wonderful morning catching whites, walleye, largemouth, smallmouth and one big old drum by John David.



John's a fly tyer and he has developed and tweaked a bunch of jig flies that work really well on these fish. They definitely did work great!





And after I comfortably caught a few on his bugs, and being a fly tyer myslef...you know I had to try some of my own stuff, because I'm hard headed that way.

The REA Minnow was pretty good and chartreuse seemed to be the color for everything we used. This is something (below) I tried a year or two ago for whites...of course there weren't any actual "fish" in the rivers I was fishing back then so who knew.



They worked well for the whites (in this case on a largemouth) in chartreuse but the ones I had were a tad too big for our flow. It's my attempt at tying something that looked like a Gitzit grub.

Something a little smaller than a 1/16th oz seemed about the right size for me so that was a match I was looking for in my mish mash of flies that I brought.

I got the skinny from John Sunday night on what kind of water we'll be fishing...depth (3' - 5') and speed. What kind of equipment he uses (5 wts) ...what kind of stuff he usually catches them on. That gave me a great starting point.

I didn't have a lot of time to tie anything new so I gathered up some of my trout stuff that fit that bill. I made a couple of sink tip sections out of 400 grain sinking/shooting heads with braided loops on each end. One about 2' long and one about 4'.

The things I use for trout here on Taneycomo when the flood gates are going worked pretty well for these fish and one in particular surprised everyone including me....the chartreuse Simple Minnow in about a size #14 - #10.



The 2' sink tip I made last night was what I started and ended with. It seemed just about perfect for the flow and depth we were working with. It got my swing and strip down on the bottom towards the end of my drifts. I was working it pretty slow with virtually no retrieve during each drift. Just a pull and release...pull and release motion throughout the whole swing until it straightened up below me. If I were going to put a faster strip on the presentation I would have to go up to the 4' section to keep it down I think.



When in Rome, do as the romans so yeah, I kept those fish and we'll be having (some of) them tonight.

As I'm holding that up for John to take a picture I tell him that I was probably 12 years old the last time I've held up a stringer of fish for a photo like that. I have pictures of my dad (now 80) holding stringers like that and of my grandfather too. I'm going to have to give this picture to Kailin (Marlin's son) so he'll always remember grandpa.

What a great day of fishing! Thanks John. So much fun. I definitely plan to hit it again before they're all gone.


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April 6th (am) - My friends Jeff and Doug came back to play around with us today this time bringing a new first time fly fisherman, Corey. Really good today! Fish, fish and more fish...and when we went somewhere else...it was more fish again.

While they've only fly fished a couple of times before they quickly recalled past glory days and started plucking them out with regularity including several triple hookups.

Here's Corey battling his first fish on a fly rod.



He ended up doing great today and having a blast like the rest of us.

Textbook weather today! Maybe the nicest day of the year so far.

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April 6th (pm) - What a day!...WHAT a day!!! Chamber of Commerce stuff kids as it hit 70...sunny...just enough wind to keep the bite hot. We ran in to Rudy down on the water and finished our day fishing near him. Always a character to be around. (just don't let him pick the restaurants).

My buddy Bob was on his way to Cave Run KY to chase the musky for a few days so he honored us with a quick 1/2 day afternoon of chasing these little (by comparison) trout around. That plus he has to balance out the yin and yang of "catching" that is...fly fishing for trout fishing here on Taneycomo vs...fishing for musky ANYWHERE.

Bob knows the deal. You don't catch a LOT of musky anywhere but he's figured out where to go and who to go with to increase his odds every time out. He's caught several already (several more than I've ever caught) and frequently questions the old saying... fish of 10,000 casts.

"I think they really meant fish of 10,000 dollars". (Bob O)

So Rudy's down there catching fish on a san juan worm, No seriously!...he was.

So like riding a moped (fun until your friends see you doing it)...and at Rudy's urging...I fished a san juan worm today. He insisted he was killing them on it so he insisted we try it. We did and yes, I'm ashamed to say that we caught fish on a red San Juan worm today. Thank god it was only a brief hot streak as they went back to "real food" like M-Scuds and G-Bugs.

I feel like I'm at an AA Meeting..."my name is Brett...and I caught trout on a san juan worm"..."we love you Brett!"

what a weird way to end a fishing report.

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April 5th - My new friend Pete and I finally got together for a trip he's been planning for a while now. A little water flowing for us today had us starting (and ultimately finishing) in the boat and the bite was very solid for us especially in a handful of key areas.

The boys (both new to fly fishing) picked it up like champs and quickly caught more than they could remember. It slowed down for us at the very end being hot only in a select few spots. No problem...we just hung out in those spots.

A couple of really nice guys on another great day out. Great job by these guys.

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April 4th - My good friends Gary and Sue hook up with us a couple of times a year. Great folks and man how far they have come with their fly fishing skills. As humble and decent as they come so they would down play those skills if asked but they'll usually hang with me for a day then go out by themselves for a couple more. They're usually the ones catching fish out there ...with or without me. Hopefully I helped them get there a little bit.

They also seem to be one of those folks who are always blessed with no generation when they're in town. Blessed again today as I figured they would be and we took full advantage.

The Micro Baitfish made a comeback when we had a slow stretch. It goes against rational thought but when it gets tough I've found that going to the deeper, slower water (stuff I usually avoid) does great with the Micro Baitfish (ginger/olive) below a float. Sucks in current...sucks where it's shallow but yeah, that deep water bite is really good with that bug.

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April 3rd - My new friend Pete from just a few days ago came back to play around in my back yard (this time wading) which was his primary goal today. New to the area just north of here we gave him the edu on our boating and catching method the first go around. Today (after watching the generation patterns) we did the classic wading experience and had ourselves a really good one.

Either a #18 Soft Shelled Scud (usually gray) or a coral W2-Egg as the lead fly then a #24 gray M-Scud or M-Bug as a a trailer. You can go up a size or two on the trailer if you're fishing the faster water like Rebar but the smaller stuff will get you more hits.

The "catching" part?...well, that depends on how fast you are. Spoiler alert!...none of us are fast enough BUT...the faster you are (on the hookset) the more you will catch.

Pete was very fast today but like everyone...you catch about 25% of your hits on average. The good news is you get HUNDREDS of hits in a day so the action is usually pretty hot and your chances very good.

    April 1st - Great weather today!...no foolin. Water off today but we've had a mixed bag the last week or so with generation. Saturday I went out with my new friends Pete and Sean (Shawn...Shaun...not sure of the spelling there buddy) with Sean doing it for the first time ever. A couple of great guys who were in the Marines together back in the day and this was kind of their first reunion in a long time.

Water was running all day today but harder in the am so we hit the boat for our first half day adventure. It was real good in spots and real slow in others. We went back over the hot spots a few times and in those areas it was doubles and and a lot of fish caught. Having said that...those hot pots were small...like a couple hundred yards to 1/4 mile long and once you got out of those spots it was slow.

The boys were hardy (hey, they're Marines!) and we withstood a couple hour rain early before it literally got so nice out that we fished in T's for the first time this year. THAT was nice to experience.

Things are changing a little bit with these fish. More educated for sure and with a lot of the spin fishing guides keeping more fish in the Trophy Area (not complaining...just saying) there are less "hot spots" to play with.

Our best set up (Wading or boating) was The Big Hurt above a #18 Gray Soft Shelled Scud with 70% coming on the scud. A few things caught a few fish (and I tried a bunch of stuff) but the SSScud was king again.



Here's my little goose friend this time with a full nest of eggs. I like to think she protects my secret little fishing hole right there but today, she can have it!...kind of sucked there today for the first time ever! Rule number whatever...don't stay too long at a bad spot!

These guys had some great stories and Pete and I treaded the same paths back in our days spent in Ohio. I'm always fascinated by "small world" encounters. Sean's dad was a big PBA player in his day and Sean bowls in a league now too. I bragged on my boy a little bit with him.

A real nice day with some great guys. Sean said he did far better than he ever imagined today. They caught a lot of fish...We could have caught a bunch in the boat staying in the hot spots but they wanted to wade today so we wrapped it up doing that in the afternoon. Definitely slower there but everyone agreed...more fun!

I told these guys on the Taneycomo Scale of 1 to 10...they caught about a "2" today so he's anxious to try it again under normal conditions.


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March 28th - My new friends Kendall and his son Robby (13) were my guests for an all day outing of wading today. Great guys and again I'm blessed with great students as they picked it up real well and real early. Both these guys were hard to drag off the water at days end and they all caught a ton having a great time doing it.







We got pictures of their first fish/trout and both on a fly rod. You always remember your first right? But they got progressively bigger.



You can have my #24 gray M-Scuds when you can pry them from my cold, dead hands. Without that particular fly...well...I just don't want to think about it!



We started down low and ended up top looking to catch some bigger ones. The day turned out pretty much as planned as we caught a lot early (caught a lot late too) and caught some nicer fish up top including this 19" rainbow (above) for Kendall on the #18 coral W2-Egg.

Wading up top I really like the W2 as a lead bug. There will be fish spawning up top in to early June and if there are fish spawning then a W2 -Egg needs to be part of the answer. Kendall caught a LOT on that fly today while Robby was catching most of his on the M-Scud. Not a bad problem to have.

A couple of great folks and we had a wonderful time today.

    March 25th - Meet the newest member of the Rader Family -



Kailin Brett Rader (I was so honored by the middle name...it was definitely worth the $100...kidding) came in to the world on March 14th as a solid 9 pounder and he just breaks my heart every time I see him. Mom and Dad (Kailea and Marlin) are doing great and are as happy as can be. We love them both so much and now this little guy!...are you kidding me??...way too cool!

Isn't he beautiful?....and of course the baby is really cute too! (My wife hates that joke).

Hey, I'm just happy to be a grandpa while still in my very late 30's. (She hates that one too).

Hey wait a minute!...I'm seeing a trend here?

Some day sooner than you think you'll see me here on this fishing report taking that little guy fly fishing for the first time.

And I'll STILL probably be in my very late 30's.

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March 23rd - Brand new fly fishermen Lisa and Chris were my buddies on a cold and raw day today. We had a couple people back out this week with the weather but these guys hung tough and we had a great time. This one was about a 16" specimen and a whole lot of fun for Lisa.



Not a great bite I'll be honest. 25 - 30 fish on a half day boat trip isn't too hot but compared to what we were seeing around us they did pretty solid. We had a comparable bite with the little stuff (#24 M-Scuds, M-Bugs, K-Midges etc) as we did with the Micro Baitfish but I wouldn't say better.

I even tried the old knuckle dragging standard you see around here a lot with an egg fly the size of Rhode Island trailing a little scud. It caught fish but less than our normal fare so I cut those off before anybody saw me.

If you fish here much then you know our fish are always pretty quick takers. When it's tough, that quick gets even quicker so we had a whole lot of fish hooked and lost but again...for first timers on a tough day...they did great!

They had a great time with it and we all enjoyed the day in spite of the weather.


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March 22nd - "It's like dejavu all over again!"

Not to be deterred, our heroes Scott, Mitch and Sam were back at it this afternoon hopefully to experience a little better action than we had yesterday. I tied up a few new things last night and this am in an attempt to get things to start happening for us.

I'd say we did about 50/50 on the typical wading set up vs the Micro Baitfish today and we threw a few new, little things at them. Long story short...about the same success as we had yesterday. Less rain and snow for us but it seemed colder. These guys were tough and real nice folks doing very well in one of the toughest stretches we've had on Taney for a while.

I really admire and appreciate these guys sticking it out on a cold day. We had fun and we had some hot streaks where we had several double hookups...(never got the triple though). But ...they were very nice guys a great students of the game. Never broke off a fish and they plucked out a few 16" class fish and one topped 17". Not bad at all and again, while we'd all like to have a great day every time out I always try to have the best day possible. I think we did that today.

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March 21st - Scott. Mitch and Sam hung out with me this afternoon on what was another kind of nasty day with a tough bite. All new fly fishermen though Steve has done the boat thing with us before.

Water was off but Sam had himself a brand new broken ankle so we did the boat thing. I'm guessing wading wasn't much better than boating judging by the way the fish were acting. After a little time learning the roll cast we started after it until the rain/snow/wind drove us off a bit early.

I threw the whole fly box at these fish today. Started with and ended with the Micro Baitfish in ginger/olive and tried everything I could think of in between. The little wading flies (M-Scuds, G-Bugs etc) did ok. Caught a few on some weird stuff but consistently it was that Baitfish.

(Larry, I even tried the Big Hurt and NOTHING!!!....probably not fishing it right)

Mitch had the hot hand and he probably caught 15 or so but I'd guess these guys barely broke 30 overall. Not great for here as you probably know but from what we were seeing....we were doing pretty well.

A flotilla of bait fisherman were hanging around the mouth of Fall Creek. Each had half a dozen lines in the water while all the fishermen themselves were sitting back on their hands like nothing has happened in a while.

Body language can tell you so much about how the bite is before you even wet a line. Another tougher than average day. I'll be happy when this weather system works its way out of here.

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March 19th - My buddy Don joined me again today for a full day of chasing the trout around. Don's done just about everything with us (there's a few things yet to see) in regards to where and how we catch them. Today however, we had that mild unit of water flowing and he had never Island Hopped with us before, where we boat to wadable areas accessed only by boat.

We started with a drift down from the cable and that was so good we decided to do that one again. That's an awfully solid bite (Deep Drifting with one unit)...so solid we even did one more after that.

But...what was new to Don was the Island Hopping so we did that to finish up our day. Overall....a less than average bite. We caught plenty of fish but there wasn't that ridiculous bite (in several areas) that has been the gold standard as of late. Having said that, we had some great hookups with some real nice fish as Don and I discussed and practiced some of the subtleties of a perfect dead drift.







The little M-Scuds and M-Bugs (#24's were a must) for the best bite with olive Soft Crackles doing OK in a couple of spots. The gray #18 Soft Shelled Scud was a good lead fly that caught fish as well.



This gal was finishing up her nest already with 3 eggs in it. She started hissing when I got too close.

When the bite gets tougher then every less than perfect presentation you make gets amplified. The best possible drift (dead or otherwise) will make a HUGE difference in your catch rate during those times. Those were some of the things Don and I talked about when trying to pick off those fish we saw that were being SOOOO subtle on their takes. It was a lot of fun.

I always say that you learn a lot more on a tough day than you ever do when it's easy. I probably just sound like a guide trying to make a crappy day sound good. Fair enough I guess but it is a fact. Honestly...if you can just throw your line out there with a bad drift or a big ugly fly or the wrong set up and still catch them??... (a good day) ...then what are you learning really.

Now don't get me wrong...those are most of our days and I LOVE those days!!!...but when you can see fish move away from your fly when you drift it wrong...then see them move over to take your fly when you do it right... the light goes on a little faster. Just something I've noticed since doing this gig.

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March 18th - My friends John And Tracee were my guests this afternoon this time sans any kids or boyfriends and all that other stuff that goes with being a good parent. A big snow is supposedly coming our way in a couple of days.

It was cold today but overall fairly nice out. Tracee was so excited to try out her new pink fly rod and reel today. Her only goal was to catch "just ONE FISH" with it and she'd be happy. Well, we know she's going to catch more than one. She did of course...and the biggest ...and (not that anyone was counting) but probably the most too.





I took these guys to some new places today that overall turned out to be pretty good. The Quiet Hole!...haven't hit that one for a while and it was pretty solid. Great for swinging the Soft Crackles in there.



Yeah, we even caught them on that god awful thing Rudy gave me (above). Don't tell him though or I'll never hear the end of it.

This (below) was some sort of shameless promotion John was doing for someone. The way I look at it, I should now get some sort of commission for every dollar they make from now on right? I mean, come on!...I have to have millions if not dozens of followers here generating them untold amounts of $$$. (worth a try right?)



Lots of doubles and I commented that this one (below) looked like their rods formed a heart.....ahh! Love, life and fly fishing...not necessarily in that order.



A couple of the more solid people you'll ever meet in this world. They been great friends and customers of mine and we always have a lot of laughs and catch a lot of fish.


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March 16th - We had a great time at Hargroves this Saturday. We met lots of great folks and had some good times tying and talking Taneycomo among others. We'll be doing that again one day. I have to let Craig know that I mixed in some of that dubbing you gave me with our M-Scuds and yes!...it worked real nicely! Thanks!


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March 15th - Bob's a fan of Roaring River plus it's close to his weekend home so we met there today for a little fun time. A tough bite there with fish acting similar to how they were acting on Taneycomo. Must be a PSI thing for our area. We caught them steadily and at times it got pretty fast for us.





We caught a couple of little fish below some riffles in the C&R area that looked every bit like wild fish (above). They took a white M-Bug and they acted wild even after landing.

Outside of the C&R we still did best with the #24 gray M-Scud. Something that usually doesn't do that great down there but it did today. In the afternoon (and it may have been the location... JUST below the bait area) we did real well with the Big Hurt above a #24 white M-Bug.








Seems to me we heard a dude tell us about white G-Bugs and M-Bugs in trout parks recently?


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March 14th - The Notorious BOB hung out with me today on the big river. A pretty good day overall...not great but solid and of course Bob who always sells his talents short (as a fly fisherman) was making quick work of any fish that was within casting distance.







That green pile of..."fly" coming out of that fishes mouth has been a pretty decent bug lately. Something my buddy Rudy gave mea sample of. It's streaky...hot and cold but pretty fun when it's hot.

With a 27" brown and 30" rainbow to his credit (2 plus years in to the sport) the "picture bar" is set pretty high for ole Bob so I'm usually just doing candid or fish shots with him.

Next time you see his pretty face on the web site it will probably be accompanied by something special.

    March 13th - Brand new fly fishermen Cooper (9) brought his grandpa Mike along (not 9) for an afternoon of fly fishing today. Mike was also new to the game and these two youngsters did a GREAT job learning this game a catching a whole bunch of fish!











It was a great day with these guys. Lots of doubles all day long. We started down below where they were catching as many fish as they could handle. They were ready to upgrade the experience though and start looking for bigger fish by the end of our time so we went up around the Rebar area to see what we could find. Definitely some nicer fish up there and they caught them in the 18" range up there losing a few bigger than that.



What a couple of great guys! We had a great time together and we may have even converted a couple of souls from the dark side (spin fishing).


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Here's my buddy Jackson with a toad he caught out east on the ginger/olive Baitfish.



Dad sent me a voice mail about the experience and by the end of it... I think he may have left his wife for a dozen ginger/olive Baitfish Jigs. He just placed an order instead. Probably a better family decision. Besides, I'm sure mom had a little something to do with raising that fine young man. Awesome fish Jackson!!!


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March 12th - My friend Larry joined me this am with his only daughter (he has 3) who was tough enough to hang in a trout stream with us this morning... and that was the 10 year old Meagan.

This is a great family. Mom and dad are doing great with her and her sisters and if it's possible...Meagan might be a better fly fisherman than she is cute? That's a tough call though...I'm sure Dad would like to vote on that one.



While I've said we've had water off for a LONG time now...we got a quick little blast this am that was ending right about the time we started. We fished something that I haven't fished in years and that's been the "bounce back".

What happens with a short, random blast of water is that the water cranks up.....stops...the flow travels downstream...hits the proverbial wall at the end of the river then literally bounces back where you have a noticeable flow that (believe it or not) flows back up stream.

Not a great bite when that happens I'll be honest! The fish will do a 180 where they normally hang and start getting scattered and uncomfortable with that flow. Once it bounces back downstream the fish start immediately picking back up.

There is a solution to that phenomena. What I do (and what we did today) is start moving upstream until you find the area where the bounce back can't "bounce past" where the flow stays flowing downstream. There is one or two reliable spots that are too fast and too shallow for that to take effect.

We found that spot and we found much better fishing up there.



If you're bound in a boat you cant get to those places. Just another little thing that we're flexible enough to do to keep us in to fish.

That initial bounce back was less than stellar but about an hour after it stopped it started getting back to it's normal, pretty hot self. The spot we fished (to beat the bounce) had a very slow down stream flow during the bounce but once the bounce started back down (normal flow) our spot got really hot!

We had a great time on a fantastic day. The kids took a feet warming break on a nearby log. Thought it made a cool picture.




I'm seeing a lot of fat, spawning females (fish of course) out there which is lending itself to a great W2-Egg bite. Nothing ever beats the coral color in my opinion with peach a solid second. It's just the closest match to the naturals that I've found.


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Here's a couple nice notes/reports from our friends around the country. Don...I know your pics are from last summer but I told you I'd get them in...just didn't say when.

He is a big buyer of our minnow patterns (Simple Minnow and NO4 Minnow specifically) to catch some of those big Texas bass and panfish. If I'm correct it looks like he has a standard bluegill, green sunfish and shellcracker there. I LOVE those shellcrackers on the fly. They're tough fish.

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Hey, Brett,

We went straight to the spot you told us about and I don't think I moved 10 feet in 4 hours. Absolutely slayed em on the same scud all day long!!!! (#18 black Soft Shelled Scud). I did tie on that #24 (gray M-Scud) I believe, and on my first cast, a fish hit it as soon as it hit the water.

Thanks again. Stinking rain forced us to head home early on Sunday. We need it though.

We'll see you in July. My buddy Brad is probably going to come see you Sat. at Hargroves. He was fishing with me this weekend.

Tony





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Brett,

Caught that fish (21") on purple/grey Smidge #18 about 2:30 at the point.



Fished a Smidge below a blk/silver zebra & caught fish consistently. Greg caught a lot on purple/wine SG-Bug I bought thursday! Also did well on white midges!

Thanks, fish on.

Duane


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And we haven't heard from Michigan Dan for a while. This guy fly fishes Michigan through the winter so it's safe to say that he's punched the Man Card a few times. He sent this in January.



Hi Brett.

I hope all is well with you and your family.

It is winter steelheading time up here in Michigan. I have attached a picture of a typical (for Michigan) hen steelhead (7 pounds or so) I got yesterday on the Pere Marquette River. The picture has the fish and my fly rod laying on the shelf ice along the river bank.

I fished for a couple of hours and had the river to myself, thanks to air temps in the 20s, ice in the river and wintery roads.
The fish did not seem to mind the conditions.

We are thinking of heading down your way in late March or early April. Nothing definite yet. If/when we get some dates set, I will be in touch to see if we can get a date on the calendar.

Dan

    March 11th - Does this 6' 2" skinny kid look familiar to anyone? It's that little 10 year old boy I started this gig with about 10 years ago. We haven't been fishing together for a while and along with promising our bowling buddy Gene how to do this thing....well, we finally found an excuse to get after it.



Gene had never tried fly fishing but he's fished Taneycomo for many years with his dad doing it the old meat and potatoes way.

Before starting our day this morning he's kind of wondering out loud..."so can I actually expect to catch anything today?" I assured him that yes, he'll catch plenty.

As we're heading towards the water Gene says..."OK Marlin....$1 bet on who ever catches the first fish of the day and a dollar on who ever catches the most?"

If you've hung with us before (and of course Marlin has) then you know how many and how often you'll be catching on any given day. So when Gene asks who I thought would catch the first one, I chuckled a little and (maybe with just a hint of confidence) said..."whoever makes the first cast."

Marlin got his line out first and hence...won himself a $1! Whoever catches the most?...well, if you can remember how many you caught at the end of the day then you'd be one of the few.

My whole Chartered Waters bowling team (minus Sue) hanging out for a few hours today. A GREAT time even though it was a bit chilly early.

I told Gene I was going to take a picture of him so he can prove to his wife he was out fishing today. His big moment in the sun and as I snap the pic....

...fish OFF!!! Something he wasn't used to in the bite and swallow world of spin fishing but that whole ..."a hit (or two or three) a drift"... thing kind of made up for it. He had a great time.

Marlin? I love that young man more than he can imagine but I know that he knows that. The couple 3 nights a week I spend with him are some of the most fun times I have in my life.

Gene?...when bowling I usually refer to him as a douche bag or a dick head so anything less than that should be considered a compliment. Kidding of course! Gene is actually a great guy too and a hell of a bowler. I'm sure they wonder why I'm even on the team.

My strength as a bowler is my recruiting ability. My scores reflect that fact.

    March 8th - A quick 1/2 day adventure with my new friend Brandon who was down here for the NAIA Basketball Tournament.

How about this for a small world scenario. Brandon grew up in, played for and starred for Northwestern in Orange City, Iowa. At the same time I was working in KCMO and had a plant in Orange City Iowa (which is about 12 miles past the middle of nowhere) that I visited about once a month. We ate at the same restaurants there and even know a few of the same local folks.

Brandon's a player! He played with Kirk Hinrich (and against Nick Collison...both NBA stars now) on an Iowa High School State Championship team. We talked a lot of hoops.

We also talked a lot of fly fishing as this was Brandon's first attempt at it. Like most athletes, he picked it up quickly and just a couple of hours in to his 1/2 day trip he had NO IDEA how many fish he had caught.









Not a single soul where we started as far as we could see upstream and down. That was beautiful and virtually a fish (at least a hit) every cast.

I gave Brandon the option of going up below the dam to potentially find some bigger ones the last hour or so. It was more crowded up there but not bad and we got in to one of the areas I was hoping for. The action was just as good as it was below and we popped a couple of 20" plus fish that just came up short of the net. So it goes some times but we had a great day and Brandon was a pleasure to fish with.

Down below it really didn't matter too much what we were throwing. We caught them on all of our patterns but up top it was specifically a #20 coral W2-Egg above a #24 gray M-Scud. Tried a few different things up there but they were much more selective on what they really wanted. Again, our bite was just as hot but we had to have the right flies to get that hot bite.

Another great day down here. Brandon sent a nice note shortly afterwards.

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Hi Brett-

Just sending an email so you can forward on the photos you took yesterday while fishing. Thanks again for a great day of fishing!

Brandon

    March 6th - Our fruit trees are blooming,,,daffodils and some other flowery things I
don't know the name of... are blooming. I always say I like fall best but I'm always most happy when spring rolls around. It wasn't a tough winter by any stretch but ...it's still winter.

This monday my buddy Robert O and I spent the day wading (and boating/wading) hitting a few of the hot spots in the area. Much more crowded than I expected up top. We hung out there a while but we opted for less crowds while still very solid fishing.

The fish were biting well just about everywhere but we're not big on crowds so we left those cozy confines and found the solitude that helps makes this sport so special.



We caught this nice little 17" surprise across and above from outlet #2 on the south side. #18 black Soft Shelled Scud of course. We caught one nice rainbow pushing 20" today and lost one bigger than that.

We were playing around around with a 1 wt rod today. I always have it available if anyone ever wants to try it. It's the proverbial "knife at a gunfight" though when you hook one over 20" which is what happened today. When the big boy took a run towards one of the "habitat boulders" ...well....he's probably done that before with much bigger hardware holding him back than what we were working with so you know the rest of the story.



Around the spawning beds it's a #20 coral W2-Egg. Away from the beds though it's mostly the little M-Scuds and M-Bugs and mostly gray although...the #22 ginger/olive SG-Bug was as hot as ANYTHING today so we may be dusting that bad boy off here real soon.



And just to make sure it's STILL one of the best trout catchers this water has ever tasted...the Micro (ginger/olive) Baitfish killed them where it always kills them and that's in the slower, deeper water.

At the end of the day the best bug was a #18 olive Soft Crackle when most everything else had slowed down considerably. We had a gray one of the same above the olive but the olive was out catching the gray 20 - 1 probably.



I'm a firm believer in that you can always find something that will give you a hot bite. I'm not looking for just a good bite, I want the BEST bite out there so I change flies a lot looking for that magic button. Sometimes it comes from odd places. I've had enough odd days in my life out there to have gathered a few "tough bite" patterns that, for different reasons seem to work when the regular stuff doesn't. Today, most everything was working so it wasn't an issue. Another great day out with a great guy.


A few more nice notes from some recent trips of ours plus a couple of fishing reports (some long over due on my part...sorry) from our good friends as well.

Thanks everyone!


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Brett,

just wanted to thank you for taking Greg and I out and showing us your tips and sharing your fly fishing knowledge. We had a great time and excellent fishing experience !

Ready to do it again!

Have an awesome day and fish on!

Duane (February 14th)


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Brett.

Fishing on the Little Red in Heber Springs, we have a deep run butted up against a bank on one side and shallow shoal on the other. I'm fishing a #18 Razorback scud (coral) and have landed literally 8 rainbows in about 10 casts, when I see the indicator dip and I pull up. Nothing moves, I think I'm hung up for a second when this shadow comes up. The 5 minute fight is on and I finally land this nice brown.



Fishing on the Red is pretty good right now. Browns are spawning and the browns are real shallow around cow shoals and swinging bridge. Can't go wrong with a scud or sow bug in #16-20.

David H


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Hi Brett,

Bruce Garren and I had great fishing for Browns in downtown Steamboat Springs. Caught 14 in a little over 2 hours that averaged 20". This is Bruce with a 22" female.





Roger Gilger (the bottom picture is Roger with a nice one too).


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Brett,

Received the order (#20 rootbeer G-Bugs). Hit the water on Sunday and had an absolute blast. Everyone wanted to know what I was using. (Rose River Farm, Madison County Virginia) #20 G-Bug root beer. Olives were hot too.

Ordering more.

Thanks, Jake Addair

    March 1st - Can you believe it??? Once we hit March my glass half full mentality tells me it's spring time! The crazies are packing it in tight at the trout parks right now and here on Taneycomo we're in 4 straight days of NO GENERATION!!!... and you'd be hard pressed to even find a fly fisherman wading in the Trophy Area.

I'm not knocking the parks at all. Great folks at the MDC who run and manage those places...just not my cup of tea "today" if you know what I mean...and with miles of open water available here (that just happens to be one of THE BEST trout streams in America) ...well, you see where I'm going with this.

But, since this is the official Trout Park opener then let me announce what I believe to be the BEST trout park fly that I know of and that is the white G-Bug. A #20 - #22 and if they're especially tough do the #24 white M-Bug.

It's the best "match the hatch" fly that's happening there in the parks on any given day. Thousands and thousands of starving fish in those streams and the first bit of food they get to see in the stream are fish guts. Gangs of trout start tearing in to those gut piles and shredded skins ripping off little, white-ish chunks that are quickly devoured.

Anything white in a trout park is usually good but pretty soon the big jigs and woollies and rooster tails flying around out there put the fish down. Then along comes this tiny, harmless little fleck of trout guts gently drifting down with the current.... clearly not part of that dragging, cranking, flashing bunch of white stuff ripping through the water.

It gets especially effective in the afternoon when the fish have wised up to the heavy hardware and are only eating the actual guts laying and floating around. Along comes your soft, subtle, non threatening and probably tasty pc of fish gut ( white G-Bug ). Next thing you know you're putting on a clinic.

Add a ginger/olive SG-Bug (or M-Bug) trailer of the same and if there's any better fish catcher (in a trout park) out there?...well I haven't seen it. Just trying to help a brother out.

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One more piece of shameless self promotion here and I'll shut up. Many of you have asked about when the new flies I mention on my Fishing Report will be available online...well...

The NEW Chartered Waters Fly Patterns are available NOW!!!

You just have to know how to beat the system. The "system" takes a while to get new flies added to the catalog but you can order anything you hear me mention on the Fishing Report by adding a note in the "Comments" section on your online order form. You can be specific or just ask for my suggestions on what's the hottest thing right now and tell me how much you want to spend.

M-Scuds
M-Bugs
K-Midges
Soft Crackles
Micro BaitFish Jigs

Big Hurts
W2-Eggs (#20)....off the top of my head.

Our regular customers have kind of figured this out but I thought I'd mention it and make that available to everyone...while the "system" gets around to putting them online.

- Thanks, Brett

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So if the trout park crowds start getting too much for you then come on down to our neck of the woods. It's a lot of fun ... and much less stressful.

    February 22nd - My new friend David made the trek out of KC in the midst of a heavy snowstorm. Way above and beyond the bar that officially makes you a hard core. These guys had fished Taneycomo two times before and were skunked each time. They were looking for some info on how to improve on that record.

With water running (and they wanted to see all our different ways to catch them...or as many as we could in a day)...we started in the boat Deep Drifting through the Trophy Area. That was as hot as it always is and from there they were pretty much catching fish all day long. The Big Hurt and #18 gray Soft Shelled Scud trailer was it again.

Yeah it was blustery to say the least but they stuck with it the whole day long and we stayed hooked up real well. Every place we hit was real solid sans one. What has been the hottest spot on the river for us was the slowest by a long shot. Kind of weird but our other options stayed solid so don't cry for us too hard.



In the end they were swinging Soft Crackles out in the main current or swinging #24 M-Scuds (and a new little thing I'm testing) in shallow, little side channels. Both were very different flies and techniques but both were very effective.



Another couple of great young guys caught up in this game right now. We fished a lot of different techniques and places today and hopefully the boys are better prepared to take it on the next time they venture out themselves.


Here's a nice note from our friend Larry who took a recent trip with us. Always great to hear stories like that! Thanks Larry!



Hey Brett,

I got to fish Norfork River in AR this weekend on low water and had a big time! I was able to use some of the skinny water techniques that you showed me. Best part was I tied up some carbon copy Soft Shelled Scuds in 18s in gray and hammered them. Beat the other scud patterns 3 to 1 even in the same sizes!

You said they would work on other ozark tailwaters and they sure did. I also tied some Soft Crackles in size 18s that worked well one evening.. But the scuds were simply amazing... Can't wait to tie some of the other patterns.

I was really able to use techniques and flies to improve my success.

Thank you!

Larry (February 10th)


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And happy birthday to my little sweetheart, Mckenna. She turns 8 on the 24th!



She gave me that... "Don't take my picture dad"...look...but I did it anyway. We share that birthday and our son Marlin is expecting his first (a boy) on the 24th as well!

A lot going on around here right now. I'm just happy that I spend more time with my kids than I do with anyone else in my life and the older I get...the more important that is.

They seem to like it too so I can't ask for much more than that right?


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February 19th - My friend from the north, Mike visits us a time or two a year and it's always about now for the first one.....fishing is so good here right now it's hard to have a bad day and with weather near perfect again...what more do you want?





We had that mild 1 - 2 units going all day today and Mike is the perfect guy for those conditions. Our island/shoal hopping/wading tour has been really good and with a lot of character to the spots we fish.

Mike is a very good fisherman and fly tyer and really appreciated the diversity we had to play with. From #24 K-Midges, coral W2-Eggs and M-Scuds below a float to swinging Soft Crackles and G-Bugs to stripping big shad colored REA Minoows...it all worked at different times with most of it working just about every place we wanted to try it. For our last hour of the day they turned off the water for us. (Great timing guys). That being said, It went from really good to WOW when that happened.



We played around in some crazy hot action as long as daylight prevailed.

Mike is a great guy and I always have fun fishing with him. One of those guys who could "out tough" just about any kind of weather to go fishing. My kind of guy!





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February 18th - It's been awhile since we hit Crane and with the weather predicted to be beautiful It sounded like a logical plan. The fish unfortunately weren't in to that plan as much as we were.



Caddis Sticks (a new Crane pattern) and the venerable Micro Baitfish caught the few fish we actually caught. I talked to a local guy who was having the same kind of luck we were.



We didn't see a lot of fish today either. Even in some of the big deep pools where they are hard to catch but there are usually a lot of them.



We didn't hike too far away today though so that had a factor in our results. And unfortunately, we did see a couple of what appeared to be bait fishermen walking the bank looking for fish.

When you ask bait fishermen the typical questions you ask them (when you think they're not supposed to be using bait) to get an "honest" response from them you either get the genuine..."Oh, I didn't know" response and they go home...OR...you get the FU response. Our's today leaned towards the latter.

It pisses you off and I'll typically call our local agent when people are belligerent about it. You get them every once in a while but never enough of course.


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February 17th - My buddy Bob and I did a little battle in the shallows today with some great Taneycomo rainbows today. Water off...kind of blustery but for a holiday weekend it wasn't that crowded. Probably the less then stellar weather conditions allowed for that.



Above was a photo that Phil Lilley took and was nice enough to send me the other day. That's me standing and Bob hooked up. Kind of a cool shot eh. Every time I see a picture of myself I always think of that line by Mel Brooks in Spaceballs (I know...that says a lot about what I watch right?)...after he gets beamed aboard with his head on backwards he looks down and says..."why didn't anyone tell me my ass was so fat?" I guess you had to see it.


Here's a nice note from our friend John. He went out on his own after a trip with us recently and here's his report. Thanks John.


Brett-

Thanks for the use of the waders.
Friday afternoon the fishing was insane out front. I actually wore out one of the Soft Crackles you gave me...thread everywhere.

Saturday we started up top catching, but too many people for me. That afternoon back out front with similar results from the previous day. Only downside was a guy keep shuffling towards me until he was maybe 15 feet from me. He wasn't catching, my only thought is he was trying to get close enough to see what I was throwing.

Sunday we jumped in the boat with enough time for one drift from the island down before my guests had to leave. Not great, I'm guessing 12 fish to the net.

Monday I had a couple hours to fish out front before having to leave. I thought I'd take the 2 wt and have some fun...bad choice. With the wind it was a challenge but I managed. As you know there are several nests in that area. I couldn't see them with the chop on the water, but had a good idea where they were. I hooked into big one that peeled me down to the backing before I gave chase downstream. I only got that fish turned once and saw the tail come out of the water twice before the hook pulled out. It was an enjoyable 2-3 minutes to say the least, awesome fish.

Depending on my work schedule next month, we hope to get back down and book a trip with you.

John


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February 16th - Scott and the boys joined me again today on another pretty nice winter one out and yeah!....we caught a ton of them. Starting downstream and away from the crowds we had doubles and triples and just way too many fish to even start counting catching them on the usual suspects and techniques.



At the end of the day the crowd up top usually starts thinning out so we went up top to look for bigger fish and finish things out .





The bite on the M-Bugs, M-Scuds, K-Midges...coral W2-Eggs, black and gray Soft Shelled Scuds...really good! We even caught one over 20" up top and hooked and lost a real toad in the 25" range. Good stuff up there...a little crowded up top early but it gets better ...and it was a Saturday.


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February 14th - Our friends Duane and Greg were my guests today on another pretty nice sunny winter afternoon. Duane's been a good fly customer of ours for a while and he wanted to see how we apply those flies in different situations.

We had a great time out there and while our bite was "not s hot as lately"...it was still pretty damn good. These guys are kind of new to fly scene but you wouldn't know it by how they handled things. No pictures today for no particular reason. Just a couple of guys more interested in catching than posing I guess.

Good stuff and great guys to hang out with.

    February 10th - My new friend Larry has been a fly customer of ours in the past and today we hooked up for a little K on Taneycomo trout catching. We had that one mild, all day unit today and actually that isn't bothering me at all these days. We've scouted and found quite a few real nice places to get out and wade and we hit a couple of them this afternoon with some real nice results.

Even with a bite that I called "less than what it has been lately"...Larry guessed he brought around 50 to the net in our 1/2 day outing so yeah, I guess it was still a pretty good day. Our new Soft Crackle is doing well in grays and olives but even Larry was impressed with a Big Hurt above a gray #18 Soft Shelled Scud. That set up has been #1 for 3 - 4 days now.

At the end of the day we found a nice little side channel off the main where we were drifting the little stuff (M-Scuds and M-Bugs in #24's) and getting hit on the 2wt nearly every drift. Larry got a kick out of hooking up on that little stick.

He was a great guy to get to know and we had a 60 degree day in mid February to enjoy it. Hard to beat that kids!


Here's Larry's take on the day and I certainly appreciate his nice words.


Brett,

What a wonderful day on the River today. You are not only one of the best guides I've fished with but a wonderful teacher... Why we are fishing a spot and why we are using a specific fly pattern. We had a tremendous day with action from start to the last cast.

I would like a "sampler" of some of the patterns we used today and some that has worked for you. I tried to take some mental notes of materials but if you have any of your dubbing or specific materials I would like to purchase them in addition.

Thanks again for your hospitality and looking forward to our next trip!

Larry


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February 9th - Tim, Paul, Steven and Rick were my new buddies today. A big crew out with me on a cold and raw one at that. It didn't deter our heroes though and they stuck with it for the whole day and then some. Our bite was slower today with an eastern wind and cold front coming through but there was one set up that was very solid. A Big Hurt above a #18 gray Soft Shelled Scud.







These guys were all a lot of fun and all great students. We had a pretty wide range of skill levels and on this "off day" regarding the bite, the boys ranged from about 30 to net to probably over 50 for Rick. We have to keep things in perspective of course. How many oft written about high price trout streams would consider that an "off day"? It's a great place to play here no doubt.


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February 5th & 6th - My friend Bob came down for a couple of days of fishing in some pretty nice late winter weather. We did a quick little tour of a couple of Jr Circuit areas. We saw fish but not too many and they weren't too hot to take anything. It hasn't quite cooked up the way it needs to be yet so we finished up drifting a few times in the boat and wading by an island. Still crazy good on the big river and we caught them as fast as you can catch them for the most part.







How about that little collage of fish caught on the REA Minnow (shad/blue)? With water running both days we did a lot of scouting around on some new areas to wade via the boat and we have some honeys going on right now. A couple spots in particular had fish going nuts over shad patterns swung in the current then stripped back. That was some serious fun!







The fish are still loving a swinging bug. The basic Crackleback type pattern is pretty good (as was the purple/wine SG-Bug two pictures up) but our new Soft Crackle is doing a little better with gray #18 #1 and an olive #2. I'm tying some of these things up with glow in the dark materials (shown above) and those seem to be even better some days?

If you do NOTHING else when fishing Taney right now do this...let your fly swing down below you and let it hang there for a good 20 seconds before casting again. 95% of you won't have the patience to do it long enough...(I'm just sayin)..so slow down and prove me wrong. No matter what you're throwing... if you let it swing down below you and let it hang...you'll increase your catch rate by a LOT!

Just ask Mr Bob here.


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February 2nd - Our new friend Steve brought the crew along for a full day of wading today. It was ccccCCOLD!!! Last night (and our am start) was a brisk one but!....the fish didn't mind.







Water off for us all day long and this mix of talents including first timers were hammering fish all day long. When the sun comes out even a cold day starts feeling pretty nice. Here's a little "how to...and how NOT to"...get your picture taken with a fish.





I told him it always makes for better pictures over the "standard" fish shot anyway.



These guys were a lot of fun and great students as well. It was a little more of a typical February day down here but over 100 fish without even trying makes the cold just kind of disappear for a few hours.

    January 28th - Water off again all day for Bob and I. We started late and got in about 6-7 hours today. Only the very top around Rebar was slow and that was early. It usually fishes better late up top anyway but we thought we'd look for some big ones. We came up blank there today (17" tops) but we caught fish until we got tired of catching fish and doing it in a lot of different ways. Crazy, CRAZY good action right now.

And how about this for January 28th?



I guess January is the new March?

Well it did hit 72 this late January day so...I guess I could worry about that and the impact of my carbon footprint and what I can do to stop suv's and cow farts?....

OR... I could go fishing in my T-shirt! ...guess which one we did?

(and we're just having some fun here folks...dont send emails)



Classic Bob in classic pose. We decided to be lazy in the afternoon so we boated around to some wadable areas and hopped out to continue or fantastic action. Great stuff with my buddy Bob and another great day on the water.


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January 26th - My new friends Cassidy and Lindsay were my guests for a full day of chasing the trout around. Water off all day long for us....sunny and low 60's....fish were hitting early and often and it never slowed up for us all day.

What a great time to learn the game or to take a kid fly fishing...anyone you want to introduce the sport to.

Great weather and insane amounts of aggressive fish. Lindsay had tried fly fishing once before out west but came up blank. We were excited for her to experience fly fishing in a positive way. Our river didn't disappoint and she was catching them early and often starting with her very first fish on a fly rod.



Pretty good stuff! Lindsay was an excellent student of the game as well and she had a solid handle on everything early on. Both of them were surprised at the number of brief hookups they had. Virtually every drift would get you a hit or two in most places but they were taking very light so many battles were brief. Not the worst thing to have happen when you're winter fishing. Catch 1 out of 4 but the other 3 are nice little battles that keep the fish happy and your hands warm.







There's a lot of little fish out there. Too many you might say but...I wont. There has been more than one day in my life as a guide where you'd love to have that problem so we'll just wade through the little guys for now. We'll look forward in a few more months when all these little guys will be 3" - 4 " bigger, smarter and stronger and a lot of fun to catch!...just like now.

There are several places where it doesn't matter "too much" what you're throwing as long as you're putting it through them the right way. Every kind of G-Bug, Bit Scud, Soft Shelled Scud (#18 or smaller) W2-Egg, Krystal Backs and our new "SoftKrackle"...have been very effective making the fish very aggressive in those spots.



These two were a lot of fun. Cassidy's uncle is my buddy Mike McCrite from GA and was as solid with the stick as Mike is. A great couple of folks and hopefully Cassidy has himself a new fishing buddy too.

    January 21st - Brand new fly fishermen/women Robert. Kathy and their daughter Cody (14) tried their hand at fly fishing today for the first time. Pretty hardy folks as this am was pretty damn nippy. It didn't slow our troop down at all though (sans a brief cold finger or two early) but that soon subsided and the day turned out fantastic.









Starting at Rebar we found the bite pretty decent up there for a couple of hours. They each probably caught about a dozen in that time and it was coral W2-Eggs above the little gray M-Scuds with most of the fish coming on the scuds.





We took a little warm up break and hit 3 more spots before the day wrapped up. Farther downstream we had better luck swinging the gray K-Midges behind the M-Scuds with both being very solid later on. I put a Micro Baitfish on Cody's just to try something different and she was hooked up constantly with that thing including more triple hookups for the crew than I can remember.

Collectively I'd guess these 3 broke the century mark today. As crazy as this sounds, it wasn't as good as it has been of late. When we were in the key spots it was just as good but the "overall" bite was a little tougher than normal. A northeast wind and incoming cold front was probably as much to blame as anything. A great group of folks though and we had a real fun time out there. Not many folks out at all today which is always nice too.


Here's Robert's take on the day plus a nice note from Randy from a couple of months ago. Thanks guys!


Hi Brett.

Thanks again for your help on Monday. The entire family really enjoyed the day and look forward to doing it again.

Thanks again

Robert (today)


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Brett,

Think I saw you out yesterday in your boat. We did not wind up doing the night-time trip on Taneycomo due to the thunderstorm on Monday night so the guide agreed to take us out for an early half-day so we could still make the airport.

We really enjoyed our two days with you and learning some new techniques and something about a fishery that I had not ever experienced before. So thanks for helping us have a great first time experience on light, small tackle. It really was a great experience and gave me a whole new approach I want to try here in Connecticut where the Farmington especially has some heavy pressure and very selective fish.

If you still have the pics you took of my fish on Sunday afternoon, I would really appreciate having them to show my son and others as to what skinny water can produce.

Hope that you have a good remainder of the year and all goes well with you and your family.

Lord willing I hope we can get on your calendar again.

Best regards,

Randy Walker (October 22nd)


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January 20th - My friend Greg has been wanting to dabble in fly tying for a while now. He's done the Bass Pro classes and had a basic understanding on how to start out. This morning we tied up some M-Scuds and and some new Cracklebacks we've been fishing as a couple of flies easy to tie and pretty productive here. After 2 - 3 attempts his M-Scuds were looking pretty good and in the end...caught fish for Greg very well this late morning when we finally got out. That's always a cool and rewarding feeling.




A little wind makes these fish wake up big time especially if there's some sunshine mixing in. It was a GREAT day out!...but pretty calm so we didn't have the crazy good bite of late...just good. But again...a Taneycomo "good" is a "greatest day ever" on most trout streams.


Here are my buddies Chris and Chad shooting me a report and how they did on their own the next day out. My goal is to always have my guests leave us better fishermen. These guys are pretty salty as is but a new place or two to try and a new technique had these guys having a real good time out there going solo. The guide story??...it happens now and then unfortunately. I'll usually just move on but I've found that you can also just stay there and catch a bunch of fish. Most will move on not wanting to get shown up by a couple of "regular guys".


Brett,

thanks again for a great trip. The next
morning Chad and I went back to the scene of the
crime! We got down there early and started in the
same area as those two big beds that we finished at
the day before. Apparently we had just missed the
horn because within about ten minutes the water had
significantly rose to the point that we had to get
out for fear of not being able to cross back over.

We moved down the bank across from the old KOA
campground and did fairly well swinging midges to
multiple rising fish. The water dropped back down
within a couple of hours so we moved back up to the
original spot.

The action was hot as it was the evening before, using
the same flies. We probably landed 30 fish each in the
half day.

I do want to share a funny story that took place. I guess we drew
the attention of some on looking anglers because very
shortly we had 4-5 people start moving our way. The
funny thing was that another guide, parked his (boat)
literally 15 yards from me in the middle of the stream
and I heard him tell his client to "cast right where that guy is
catching them"!

After switching his flies multiple times with little success,
they "politely" moved on. I couldn't even get upset, I
actually felt sorry for his client!

Thanks again for the amazing trip and
taking the time to share some of your river education
with me.

Already looking for a reason to get back
down there.

Thanks

Chris


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January 19th (am) - My buddy Rudy and I hooked up this am looking around for a few big boys. The top area around Rebar was slower than normal for numbers. We did catch one just under 20" and landed one around 25" (a beautiful fish) but it turned out to be foul hooked when we got it in. Yes, it was probably going for (or caught on) the top fly when it popped out and got fouled on the second one. Nice fish but...can't count those.

Later I showed him a new spot where we're catching a ton of fish with a few big ones hanging around too. We were sight casting to a couple of thumpers...hooked one briefly but didn't disturb them so we were good for another chance. Just about then though a jet boat came screaming up and over our spot and we never saw those fish again. We ended up catching a WHOLE bunch of fish this morning but our biggest targets got the best of us. Rudy is a great guy and we always enjoy our days regardless of whether our highest goals are achieved.



Here's our friend Dan sending us a nice note from a little while ago. Thanks as always Dan. It was a great time.



Brett,

Just wanted to send you a quick email and thank you for the awesome trip we had. None of us had ever fly fished or even held a fly rod before we went, and you made it easy for us to pick it up quickly.

You were very knowledgeable and it seemed that even though it was a slow day on the water, we were the only ones catching fish. I am getting married in June 2013 and my fiance and I will definitely be giving you a call to book her first ever fly fishing experience.


Thanks again, and I look forward to fishing with you again soon!!

Respectfully,

Dan Sr., Mike and Dan Jr. Sowonik


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January 19th (pm) - My new friends Dan and his son in law Dee were my guests on the water today. More brand new fly fishermen trying out this wonderful game for the first time. They did fantastic and and in a short, half day trip these guys knocking on the 100 fish caught door.





Dee was ALWAYS hooked up! He guessed he netted about 40 in his half day outing. Dan and I thought he was underestimating that number by quite a bit and Dan was right there with him in terms of fish caught. Great action and another fantastic day on the water in sunshine and low 60's maybe?

Good stuff and these guys were a lot of fun. Great students by the way too. Dee never tangled or changed flies all day long using a #24 gray M-Scud above a #18 gray (new) Crackleback trailer. It was almost too easy for him but he wasn't complaining.



Another nice note from our friend and a great fly customer of ours, Mike. I have a feeling that his fly box looks better than mine does and it seems to be working for him. Thanks Mike.



Brett:

I finally made it out to Taneycomo last week. I tried to get myself as secluded as possible. I didn't catch anything over 20" this time but I caught some nice browns 15-16" range and many rainbows. Maybe 75 per day.

I used the #18, W2-Egg Coral as a lead above #18 Black, Gray, or Coral Soft Shelled Scuds. Did not have much luck with SG-Bugs this time and did not have to use the #24 M-scuds I bought.

Thanks for making great products.

Doubt if I want to use any other flies. Please see the attached picture.

Mike Price





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January 18th - Fun with Bob!!!...and fun with the camera ...a little bit.



As has been the case more often than not lately....today was one of those days where you would be hard pressed to physically catch more fish than we caught today. Insanely good action though nothing too big...16" - 17" or so and we caught a few of them.



Lots of these babies dotting the stream bed these days. Big fish abound but it seems like you need to hit them before the crowds start walking through their space. After that happens they tend to dissipate and not show up again until the people activity dies down.



Didn't matter too much what we were throwing. This was a olive Crackleback type of pattern tied with green, glow in the dark tinsel body. We didn't need to be that specific today though, trust me.



More fun with photos. That's the moon being framed by the bent rod. Another great day with the man we know and love as... Big Fish Bob!

    January 16th - We are just crawling out of a cold snap around here but the weekend and the next 10 days are looking sunny and above normal. We still have a couple of slots available for this upcoming (MLK Day) weekend if anyone is looking to have some fun and catch a bunch of trout. Big fish abound as well (as you can see by our last report) so we hope you get the chance to experience this fishery in one of it's best time to be here, winter time.



The colors on these spawning fish are just amazing right? This one felt the sting of a #22 olive/brown SG-Bug but only for a couple of minutes. Now, like all our fish he's back to life as usual but just a little more educated about what's real and what's not than he was before.

    January 11th - My good friend Jeff brought his friend and boss Greg out for his first ever try at fly fishing today. Just an afternoon is what we had to play with but wow!...what a day!.

The weather was near 60 and sunny and the water was CLEAR! That's not been the norm lately. It's been very murky as TBR has been turning over but the clarity we saw today was a BIG change from late. The bite overall was not as crazy hot as it has been and I'm wondering if the turnover is stabilizing now or just a clear stretch of water during the turn. I'm guessing the incoming cold front had more to do with the slower bite than the water but we'll get a better idea of that going forward. Be that as it may, we had a great time today...still caught lots of fish and wrapped up or day with some dazzling stuff.

Jeff's a big fish magnet and nearly every time we go out he winds up plucking out a few 20" fish. Today he only managed one 20"er so we'll need to work on that. My new friend Greg was as nice as they come (as is Jeff of course) and he was very quick to pick up the concept of casting and catching maybe even out catching our veteran early on. He was pulling in fish within minutes of hitting the water and having a blast.

My first choice of spots was crowded enough to not want to make that Greg's first fly fishing experience so we went down below The Rock and hit them pretty solid down there.

Our best bite early (we started around 1:00pm) was in the deeper, still water and we were rockin the Micro Baitfish (ginger/olive) there. Probably a fish every 2 - 3 drifts was what we were experiencing. Pretty good but not great! We got Greg comfortable with things then went looking for bigger fish.

Spot number 2 was less fish and NO big fish. We wrapped it up there quickly going to our original area where it had completely cleared of people. The bite there early was about what it was at our first area. Pretty good...not great but we were seeing some wakes in the area that told us we had some big boys playing around.

Our best bugs in there were the gray M-Scud and K-Midge both in #24's. Without those and in that size we weren't getting hit too often so we kept those on our lines.

Jeff hooks up with his 20" fish when Greg and I were out of camera range but while Greg was trying a 2 wt rod (just for fun) he hooks in to one of those BIG wakes. A quick "on the job" crash course on battling big fish was thrown at Greg which he soaked in quite nicely and we were off to the races.

I know there's this misconception about not being able to catch big fish on light rods. Pretty much ALL my customers will refute that myth with evidence. But let me tell you with absolute confidence that a lighter rod will better protect a light tippet, a small hook and a heavy hand better than ANYTHING!

We chased that fish about 100 yards (which isn't that far compared to many) enjoying the sing of the drag and avoiding some well intentioned anglers trying to help us net it.

So... what was so impressive about this? Well...how about a first time fly fisherman using a 2 wt rod...6x tippet and a #24 gray M-Scud...catches this fat, FAT 25" female rainbow. You've heard of the 20/20 club right?...a 20" fish caught on a #20 fly? Greg here is the Charter Member of the 24/24 (25 but who's counting) Club. That's the biggest fish we've caught so far on a #24 fly.





Before we even wet a line, this long time bass fisherman was seriously questioning if ANY fish would actually take a fly so small. I think he's a believer now and he's already talking about his next trip.

A couple of great guys to hang out with and a great way to wrap up our evening. FUN, fun stuff!!!