Chartered Waters Fishing Report -updated daily. A comprehensive fishing report from Chartered Waters, fishing and guiding on Lake Taneycomo.


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   May 8th - Our good buddy Dale was needing the fly fishing fix. Half day ventures are his favorite most days and we hit it around 9:00am this morning. Before heading out I had this customer waiting for me on the steps of the shop looking for some flies.




Only 2 units running this morning and that was enough to do a little wading. The problem was...by the time we put on waders and were ready to hit it...they upped it to 3 units then 4. Our wading dreams were dashed in a instant. It still didn't stop our fishing and catching though. We did a drift down deep. The coral backed shad Snack was the fly de jour' for the Deep Drifting. I tried a bunch of goofy stuff today and most of it worked. I did a beaded double San Juan worm in red and a twist to an old chew toy...a red Ultra Worm (my name) similar to a chamois leech. They both caught fish, in fact, the Ultra Worm was inhaled more than once.

Weird. You shouldn't be able to catch a trout on such an atrocious piece of fabric. Just some of the stuff we caught fish on today were a red (white gill) Crown Midge, a white/yellow G2-Bug and stripping a brown REA Minnow and ginger/olive BaitFish Jigs.

That's the short list. White G-Bugs #16, white, shad and coral Baitfish Jigs... Stripping a #14 yellow Crackle Back plus #16 Bleeding Griffith's Gnats... I can't even remember them all to be honest. If I were to pick a couple of best ones it might be that white/yellow G2-Bug in a #16 with the red/white Crown Midge trailer also a #16. The seams were the best for us. Once the water got cranking the Deep Drifting slowed a bit. We only made one pass down deep and when I saw so many fish working the seams we jumped in there for most of the rest of the time. We explored some new seams with limited success at all of them. There are a couple I've been leaning on just because they've been so successful. I promised Dale a freebie next week just because he does so much business with us plus he's a fun guy to fish with. I plan to do some more exploring with him that day. There are a few I keep meaning to hit but I'd hate to waste someones time there until I get it wired so I'll do it on a more casual day. One more trip on Friday then it's tree time. I can't wait....

Mike Hall sent in an ID of that weird bottom dweller we boated a while back. I thought it was an odd looking carp. He thought (without actually seeing the fish) that it was a golden redhorse sucker though a big one. The faces were definitely the same though yes this one was over what they call the max length. Thanks Mike. And the winner of the "Name The Fly" is...

Winner of the name the fly contest is.....Tom Arens. His name was the 710. Named for using it when the tailwater is 710' or higher. He'll be receiving half a dozen free in the mail in the near future. Thanks to everyone for playing. Stay tuned....there will be more.

    May 7th - Tom and Christina from the great white north of Michigan joined me for what was planned to be a full day trip. It got kind of nasty on us out there in spite of a pretty good bite going on. 3 units starting at 707' and rising to 4 as the day went ending around 710'. Starting with Deep Drifting in the a.m. we picked up fish about how we have been the last 2 - 3 days. Slower than I've come to expect with that method. The coral backed shad Snack was the only fly catching fish for us going deep. I'd say the water may be clearing a tad but barely noticeable. When it clears more I'm thinking the white (shad) bite will dissipate. When fishing the seams we're getting smaller on white all the time. The Baitfish Jigs are still doing well but I'm probably doing better the last couple of days with white G-Bugs and purple/wine SG-Bugs in a #16. M-Bugs!!...from the groove yard of forgotten classics in white and coral have been really good too. W2-Eggs...red and white...it's generally still a white bite but getting smaller from what I've found.

One drift down today going deep netted us a few fish and a couple of nice ones but...a couple of seams were very active with fish as we drifted by so I changed the game plan and we started hitting those after drifting past Andy Williams house the first time. By the way. I don't know about anyone else, but for me...from Andy's house down to Fall Creek??...very dead! You'll pick a few up here and there especially if you hug the banks but it has not been worth the time spent vs. the return so we motor back up after passing the seam in front of Andy's. With 2 or less units it has been worth the drift but with 3 or more going...no. Someone who reads the report called me from Oklahoma today asking me about where the "seams" were that we fish. What is a seam was the general question. A seam is the point where faster and slower water meet. There are many seams in any body of moving water and there are several here worth fishing. They are created by islands or land masses in the main channel...any defined points or bends in the river and cuts or recessed banks along an otherwise straight river bank. The slack water that is created by those aforementioned locations are resting and feeding areas for our trout and you can usually find some willing takers. They'll typically stay in the slack water right on the edge of the faster water waiting for food to be washed by. The seam is that "edge". We try to anchor back in the slack water and drift our bugs right through those seams. Not in the fastest water but not in the dead still water either. Some are better than others and each of them fish differently depending on the tailwater level. I check them all fairly often and I have favorites for 2, 3 and 4 units of water and this year...I have some favorites for floodgate water. You can strip things in the seams, under an indicator is always productive and when it's clear you can have some pretty good dry fly action too. Today both Christina and Tom caught quite a few on the aforementioned white stuff and hammered some nice ones too. Here's a classic shot from Christina plus one of many from Tom too.







I can't begin to tell you how many pictures like that I've collected over the years. I keep talking about making a photo album of those things.

So you can see the rain gear and general nasty looking appearance to the day. A couple hours in I gave them the option to finish this trip up Friday. I didn't have any trips booked and what was planned can be rescheduled. They were free Friday so that constituted a plan. We'll finish this up on Friday hopefully under sunny skies. If it's not sunny then we'll just punch the man card at the dock and get busy. These folks are northern Michiganians. Nasty weather is still going on up there so this is a picnic. Nice as they can be too and even in the downpour they were having a blast. Friday will be even more fun. Still lots of fish and maybe even sunglasses.

    May 6th - John and Ward from Michigan were our guests today. A couple of great guys and real characters. They've been fishing Taneycomo for 30 years, most of that with spinning gear and they wanted to learn how we catch them with fly rods in heavy generation. More than anything else though, they just wanted to have fun. We definitely had a good time today. A forecast of rain last night and today never materialized for the most part. We got light rain for a stretch but it went away after an hour and it was actually a decent day in the end. We started Deep Drifting with a various assortment of shad patterns plus a new XG-Scud. I tied them in white, pink and chartreuse last night and we caught fish on all of them today. 3 units running at 707' even is a manageable tailwater and the white XG Scud was the best bug early. It then turned over to the coral backed Snack as a trailer and that was all they wanted after 4 units came on. The deep bite was slower than average. We felt blasts of warm and cold air early and I could only guess that the front coming through put them down a bit. Late morning we switched to fishing the seams and once we found where they were holding we hit them pretty well. Several doubles happened for us and they hit a variety of things. The pure white Baitfish Jig was good but I trailed red or chartreuse #16 Zebra Midges behind the jigs and that picked up a few. They turned off on the Baitfish and started hitting white G-Bugs and purple/coral SG-Bugs in #16 better than anything. It seemed like they were looking for something a little bit smaller as the day went on. Here's Ward with a couple of solid fish, one from Deep Drifting and another from a seam.





After lunch we tried Deep Drifting for a couple of drifts and it was about the same. Just a few fish a drift so we went back to the seams. We hit some new ones after lunch and they were not as hot as the early stops but still enough to keep it interesting. We guessed about a 50 fish day in the end. Not a great day by Taneycomo standards but I've had worse and the company was great. These guys are hard core fishermen. They invited me to have lunch with them in their cabin at Trout Hollow and they brought two rod racks and they were both filled to the gills with about 30 set ups. These guys stay for a couple of weeks here. They have a nice SmokerCraft boat. They hit Table Rock, Bull Shoals and Taneycomo in no particular order and just fish, fish fish!. The way it ought to be eh guys? They had enough fun that they took one of our open dates next week for another go at it. I think they just like someone else dealing with John's tangles to be honest. Actually these guys only had a couple all day long thrown in with their fish, their fish stories and a joke or two that may not be ready for our PG 13 audience. Just really fun guys to hang out with and I look forward to seeing them next week.

A couple of nice notes below from some very nice people . Thanks folks. We sincerely appreciate the nice words and are honored and humbled that you think of us when you want to fish Taneycomo.

Hi, Brett,
I just want to say thanks again for a very enjoyable experience. I was quite impressed with the numbers of fish we saw and caught. I'm really looking forward to try to plan some time to get with you in the Nov. - Jan. time frame to go after some really big ones.

If you still publish testimonials, feel free to use this. I'm a life member of the North American Fishing Club and have had the pleasure of going after many kinds of fish in many places with lots of different guides. I can say without reservation that Lake Taneycomo has the fish and Brett really knows how to find them. I'm by no means an expert with the fly rod but Brett can set you up in so many different ways that anyone can catch fish. I'm looking forward to fishing with him again as soon as I can arrange it.

Brian Jenkins
                 _______________________________________________________

Brett,
Thank you for being your typical stellar self in guiding for Marrien and Steve last Friday. They had a wonderful time and learned a great deal about fishing with fly rods. We have gone on several trips where they have never caught any trout and were at the brink of giving up on fly fishing altogether until I suggested they hire you for a trip and your knowledge of Taneycomo and fishing once again were exceptional – something that I personally have come to expect from you!

I think we have a new couple for the second annual tournament you will host this October in the rookie class!! Julieta and I rave about you to everyone we come in contact with and love seeing their reactions when they finally do take a trip with you. I would like to sometime take a trip where we can do some sculpin patterns to expand my experience. I am also anxious for the water to diminish as I am sure are many other fishermen. Now I need to get really active and tie some flies!!!!!

Thank you again for your patience and skills with Marrien and Steve and I know it will make our camping and fishing trips MUCH more enjoyable where they will be catching fish now too. You ARE the man!

Please say hi to Shelley for us and we are both looking forward to seeing you again soon.

Keith & Julieta

    May 5th - Well, the hits just keep on coming here. A couple of nights ago we had straight line winds hitting 70 mph here. I believe it. We had the biggest tree in the yard (and I'm talking about a 4 - 5' wide trunk) blown over. It just missed our dogs and our dock. If anyone wants a lifetime supply of oak firewood, you can cut it and remove free of charge. You can even leave the small limbs for us and just take the good stuff. Otherwise I have a giant pain in the ass waiting for me my next day (or two or three or four) off. I had an off day today. The little women scheduled this one off for me a while ago. I've been splitting my fishing days in the seams and Deep Drifting. The seams are fun and productive. Deep Drifting is still netting the bigger fish on average and sometimes even getting the numbers advantage. I've always found that the bigger fish go straight down when the water runs hard and the smaller fish (on average) go to cuts on the banks and in the seams and eddies. There are always exceptions but that theory rings true for me 95% of the time. Tomorrow we'll probably do both and I don't think I'll be hitting the creeks again until this fall or winter. They just kind of turned off once the water temps reached low 60's.

    May 4th - I'm blessed with getting to know some great people in this line of work. Teresa and Kevin are just the next two in a long line of great folks who we are greatly appreciative that they choose to fish with us. Teresa was the designated rookie and of course...she schooled the old man today. Wanting an education as much as anything we started in the seams and slack water with Crown Zebras above BaitFish Jigs and as always ( at least lately) the BaitFish Jigs were IT!!! The mighty whitey (pure white BaitFish Jig) was the hands down favorite. Yesterday these guys came in the shop and wanted to know if there was any wading to be had on Saturday. I set them up with flies and pointed them towards Roaring River where Teresa caught her first fish on a fly rod. White and ginger G-Bugs in #18's were the flies of choice there using our typical (water off) wading set up. Today Teresa caught her second trout with us and countless more (actually she was counting...and she beat Kevin) and she was having a blast doing it.

This was one of the nicest days of the year so far. Upper 60's and for change, very little wind. Great stuff to be fishing in. We hit several little seams. Most caught fish and some better than others. Here's Kevin with a nice rainbow plus...yes, another sucker.





This one took a flamingo backed Simple Minnow #10. So many suckers caught this year tells me one positive thing...we're getting down on the bottom and that's where these fish (including the trout) are right now. Since it was only a half day outing today I asked them if they wanted to try some Deep Drifting for a change of pace and they were all over it. Great students of the sport! Both in the traditional sense when we were fishing small and in the unconventional Deep Drifting under an indicator. Teresa landed the fish of the day.



It was the FIRST TIME she had ever touched a fish. You can kind of tell by her face can't you? A split second later a loud scream could be heard all the way back at Trout Hollow as the fish (as advertised) flipped out of her hands. She was a trooper and hey, that's why we bring fish towels. Kevin wrestled with a pig late in the day bringing it right up to the boat. A 20" plus fish was holding the chartreuse shad Snack and it simply pulled out when it neared the boat. He wasn't too upset about it and it was a great battle. Deep Drifting!...it's still shad patterns. In fact we had a run of customers in the shop on Friday buying a few of these shad I've been reporting on. Friday afternoon they all came back for more and again on Saturday reporting great action on everything. I set a few rods up for Deep Drifting showing folks how to do it themselves and the results were very positive.

And for you spin fishermen...I had a gentleman from Trout Hollow come in to ask about getting a replica done of a 22" brown he caught above Cooper Creek pounding the banks with a white marabou Jig. That would be imitating a shad by the way too. Everyone had a great time out there. Teresa and Kevin are planning their next trip already. I'd certainly enjoy fishing with them again.

    May 2nd - Steve and Marien are friends of Keith and Julieta (friends and customers of ours). New to fly fishing both of them we started from scratch today with casting lessons in the yard then stops in the slack water up top to work on traditional casting and catching fish. Steve caught his first trout on a fly rod today along with quite a few others after that and here's Marien working on one that gave her quite a battle.



We had a fairly decent bite going up top with lots of hits on the pure white BaitFish Jig followed by a coral version of the same. White still rules though and it seems the whiter the better. I'm even coating them with my normal replica paint (white) then with pearl white which gives it a touch more flash. It's a simply beautiful little jig that is representing the threadfin shad. We spent the better part of our half day in the seams and slack water then I made the call to motor downstream to the creeks to beat the wind and find another good bite. Bad call on may part I must admit. We had hits and fish on but never landed a trout in our brief time there. We did have our first official double on bluegills with both of them but that's a small consolation. The creeks may be on their last gasp for trout. Water temps are rising in there. There are still fish in there but the masses seem to have split. I may give it a shot on my next full day trip but if it's not happening then it will probably be my last time for a while.

These two really had a passion for the sport and they really improved all day long. The biggest challenge was detecting strikes but I know veterans who have just as much trouble with it. That's a learned reaction acquired through time on the water but they did pretty well as newbies. Never tangled or broke off all day. Their casting strokes were very solid and improved all day long. That plus they were really nice folks so my day was a breeze. I felt bad for making the creek call later in the day when we could have stayed up top catching fish. I apologized but they were having such a good time it wasn't even an issue. Hopefully we can do it again soon as I certainly see a true love of the sport with these two.

    May 1st - Tony and Dan took advantage of our Special with Trout Hollow and did a little half day adventure with us today. These guys have fished these waters for a while now and really wanted to learn our Deep Water Fly Fishing techniques. Easy enough as we certainly have our quota of deep water these days. The floodgates remain off with Table Rock hovering around the 930' mark. Beaver continues to generate fairly regularly (although not as much as Taneycomo) but that constant flow in to Table Rock keeps the big lake fairly steady and barely dropping much at all. Today we had a decent bite. A fairly high tailwater of around 708' plus most of the day but we maintained pretty good action in all the spots that continue to shine in this highest water. Both these fine young men broke personal records today in the size of their biggest trout ever. Tony with this 18" plus brown and Dan with this rainbow around the 17" mark.





These were some great guys to hang out with. Some good self effacing humor amongst us all on a pretty nice day to be on the river. If it's possible, I think the generation water is muddier than the floodgate water. This is a shot of the head of Lookout Island with the biggest trees having been washed out and over.



A lot of different bugs will catch some fish but without question, the best bite we're getting is still on a shad pattern and The Snack, Simple Minnow and (yet to be named) shad in sizes #8 to #10 is reigning supreme. Water clarity is poor. Visibility is about 2' deep and that's looking at a white and chartreuse shad fly the size of Europe. Well, compared to what we normally fish...it's at least Uzbekistan. (That's Borat's country right?).

So people are asking me..."are these shad flies pretty good all the time?"...."nope". I can recall 3 times in my Taneycomo fly fishing career (which has been about 15 years plus) where a shad pattern has had any shelf life whatsoever. Usually after the run through the turbines or over the floodgates the bite will dry up after a few weeks. I think the water clarity has kept this going as you need to swing your bug pretty close to a fish before they see it. And if you're using big ass bugs they're going to see it sooner and easier. That plus they had such a run of shad earlier in this same cloudy water that they must assume that more are coming and they take it when they can.

I'm making the "backs" of these shad patterns in varying colors. Cloudy days they love chartreuse but coral, flamingo and olive are a tad better in the afternoon. Even the long forgotten shad gray color will inspire the best bite at times. Toxic Scuds, Natty Balls, big #6 Soft Shelled Scuds are all catching but ...more often than not, at the end of the day and on the end of every rod and every back up rod I'm carrying...there will be two shad patterns dangling on the end.

I really enjoyed my day with these guys. Lots of fun...no tangles of breakoffs that I recall and lots of nice fish. Good stuff.

    April 30th - Brian and Larry joined me again today. We started with, would you belive...only 2 units of water and a tailwater level of about 706'. Great bite going, especially early! Check out these bad boys!

Ok, Brian's brown wasn't a "thumper" but he wanted one picture of a brown before he left us. We're catching half a dozen browns most every trip these day. Every one of them have come on a shad pattern. They're up looking for a meal and we're trying to oblige. I tried something a little different today with that lower tailwater level. With Baitfish jigs being so hot everywhere we've tried them I had to put one on as a dropper up top. UNBELIEVABLE!! It was the hottest "fly" for most of the day. I've tried them as a dropper during the heaviest generation with minimal success. The level has to be just right. Today we fished them up to 707.5' and they were very good. In fact..a new "pure white" one was the best of all.



This thing is as white as white can be. Whiter than an NHL awards show at a Bingo hall...Whiter than Bryant Gumble at a klan rally...whiter than line dancing in the stands at a monster truck rally. I had some better ones but Shelley wouldn't let me post them.

This is the head of Lookout Island with numerous trees washed out and over from the current.



Lookout is nice and clean swept now. Some very interesting little new seams and wash outs should make that a whole new place to fish. Here are a few fish the boys really liked the color of so we took some shots.







Larry settled on fly fishing all day while Brian preferred the 9' spinning set up. With the lower flows the bite was very manageable and we stayed up top all day long. Another fun day with these guys. They're already scheming about how they can make a trip back in October/November for some even BIGGER browns.

    April 29th - Muddy water still pours over the dam and through the floodgates. The tailwater level has stayed a consistent 715.4 through this latest stint. Michael and Linda Rock from Wisconsin joined us again today. It has been a couple years since we've seen Michael and it was good to see them both. Great folks, very friendly and I always enjoy fishing with them. I've often said I never want to be associated with the blue blood, fly fishing sect. The uppity, holier than thou type who are so insanely purist that you could hear their sphincter squeak every time you say bobber instead of "strike indicator". Why do I mention this? Michael is a fine fly fisherman. Good tier and just your basic fanatic about it all in a good way. Linda loves to fish but prefers spin fishing. We get a lot of folks like that, whether it's mom, the kids or grandma and grandpa who wants to join the fly fishermen of the family on a fishing trip but are happy just doing that spin fishing thing. We not only accommodate that but I like to think we have some spin fishing tactics that are unequalled anywhere. They're good because we are delivering flies (the best way to catch a trout) from our spinning outfits instead of hardware and rubber bait. So I wanted to give Michael and Linda a taste of everything again today so we started up top with Michael Sink Tipping with the long stick and Linda dredging the depths both sporting shad flies mostly. "The Snack" is quickly becoming the go to fly out there. The "yet to be named" shad fly is very good, Simple Minnows...it's all good but The Snack is awesome!. On our way up to the dam we see something thrashing on the surface. Something BIG. I motor over and it's another huge paddlefish belly up and still kicking. Another floodgate victim. I tried netting it a couple of times but it literally wouldn't fit in my very big net. I was thinking I'd stick a #20 ginger G-Bug in the corner of his mouth and post it on the report next April 1st. Next time maybe. Some nice fish were landed up top but it was slower than normal. Numb nuts here blew a net job on a nice brown for Linda. Probably an 18" plus fish. She caught it...I just didn't net it. Caught on the chartreuse backed Snack. Since it was slow we fished the seams below Lookout and had great action there. Windy as all get out but both Michael and Linda caught nice fish there mostly on Baitfish Jigs.

We spent a good amount of time there and I started noticing the knot at the tree that I tied on to was getting higher and higher. A look at the water line told me the floodgates were shutting down. The bite stayed hot but they also wanted to hit the creeks so we went down and had lunch at their resort then went all the way down to Turkey and Roark. Turkey was slow...we caught a few...Roark was HOT once we located the fish. Michael was stripping REA Minnows and Baitfish Jigs on the Loomis GL3 while Linda hammered them with the 9' spinning rods and white G-Bugs and coral, white or pink BaitFish Jigs. really good action and lots of doubles all day long. Fun stuff. We called it a day and said our good byes. Great folks to hang out with. We're going to try and squeeze in a half day for Michael later in the week if possible.

    April 28th - Brian Jenkins and father-in-law Larry are in town from Ohio, my old stomping grounds. They're here to fish with us a couple of days and today was the first. Some more "cross over" guys if you will. They've spin fished all their lives just dabbling in fly fishing now and then but wanted to learn how to catch some trout doing it. Another day of doing more techniques that you can squeeze in on a day but we gave it shot. We hit them all today and then they could pick their favorite for day two. Floodgates still rolling. Rumors of shutting them down doesn't have me holding my breath. Honestly...while fishing may be a bit easier and better without floodgates...I'd just assume they run it till we get that Table Rock level down to 920' or so. If they keep shutting off just below flood stage then every big storm we get will have them opening back up again. I'm sure the people downstream from us are sick of moving back in and out of their homes too.

There are lots of misinformed local reports about this tailwater that is reaching out across the country. Our local news even ended one report saying..."until the trout come back....". PEOPLE!!..the trout haven't left!! They've never left and they are being caught, sometimes by the hundreds on our trips. Fishing is great with or without floodgates. Our customers know it as we are staying very busy on guided trips. Our first available date for a guided trip is May 11th. Fly fishing, spin fishing..whatever you like to do...Taneycomo is giving up some fantastic fish and fantastic numbers so don't believe the assumptions and absolute statements being made by people who don't live on this tailwater like we do or non-fishermen in general. Most of our regular customers are really getting a kick out of seeing Taneycomo like it is now and experiencing these different techniques and locations. Ok, that's my rant. Back to Brian and Larry.

Brian wanted to catch a brown and a 20" fish on our trips. He managed both today though the biggest rainbow slipped away during the photo shoot. Here are a couple of nice fish from first Brian then Larry caught either bumping the bottom with spinning gear or Sink Tipping with the fly rods.





We started our day doing that then we tried fishing a seam below Lookout with fly rods. THAT was a lot of fun for everyone. The "seams" that exist with the floodgate water are there...but they're narrow. You have to position the boat just right so your drift hits the fish in those narrow little bands. Once you find it!...fun stuff. These guys hammered them with several different things including Mr.Nasty...the Toxic Scud.



While standing still you start seeing all kinds of different fish floating/swimming by. I'll admit...this looks like a carp but I can't say I've ever seen a carp that looks quite like this.

You can see the damage behind his head where the tumble over the dam knocked him senseless. It was just an odd looking carp. There's a fisheries guy who will email us now and then giving us a fish ID on something I'm not familiar with. Maybe we'll hear from him on this one?

We took a late lunch then hit the creeks for yet another fly fishing option. In fact we anchored out of the wind way, way up one creek where it was T-shirt weather and just as beautiful as it could be. The creeks were pretty good but the fish were scattered. We probably only caught 20 - 30 in there and there were only a couple of areas where we had some doubles and lots of fast action. We went everywhere and caught fish at all the places (Except Coon Creek) but it was a fish or two here and there ..just nothing wild and crazy like usual. Still a nice place to be out of heavy current and catching fish.



We spied this little family of mallards. The first young ones I've seen this year. We also saw one baby goose. I've seen many submerged goose eggs this year. I'm guessing there will be a lot of second nesters as normal nesting locations got washed out by the floodgates.

These guys were a lot of fun and Wednesday we'll see if they have a favorite tactic out of all these things we tried today.

    April 27th - Bill and Michelle from the Lenexa, Kansas area were my guests for a day of fishing. Great folks who I met for the first time. We did a bunch of different stuff today and had success with all of them. These guys were spin fishermen first but wanted to learn some fly fishing today. With that in mind I took them up top to dredge the rocks with spin and baitcasting rigs dragging 3/4 to 1oz weights in front of some big water flies. While I've yet to see a threadfin shad in weeks, these fish are still keying on them heavily. I'll try every kind of scud, egg fly, etc. but as long as one type of shad pattern is attached they almost always take that one. One new egg fly I'm trying is hooking a few. It's a cross between our Natural Egg and the Milt Balls. I call them Natty Balls. I think I had case of that in high school now that I think about about it. Here's a Natty Ball attached to a fish.



Kind of cold and blustery early. It warmed a tad but the dredging did bring up some nice fish. Here's our dynamic duo with a couple of nice ones with Michelle's pushing the 20" mark.





Bill caught another one better than that which escaped the photo shoot. So how high do those flood gates make it?? Does this sign look familiar to anybody?



It's a tad closer to the water these days. The tailwater has stayed steady at 715.5 give or take a click. Fishing has been pretty solid and there are still many ways to catch them. Here's a collection of fish caught either bumping the bottom with the spinning rods or Sink Tipping with fly rods. These fish took a coral backed Simple Minnow #10, a chartreuse Backed Simple Minnow #10 and a chartreuse Shad Snack in a #10.







While drifting up top I noticed this condo (I believe part of the Fall Creek complex) hanging over the edge of a washed out bank.



This banking is washing away, the BIG trees are sliding down then back in to the condos. They had a crew out there dismantling all the big trees at the waters edge in anticipation of the next slide. That condo will have to be saved soon or she'll start falling apart. The banks of Taneycomo will be wider after all this. I'm anxious to see how it all shakes out.

After lunch we decided to learn a little fly fishing and the kids did great. We found a decent bite in the creeks. Farther up where it's clear that ginger/olive Baitfish Jig is hard to beat. Still...where it's muddy the coral, shad, pink or pure white still reigns supreme. Here's Bill hooked up with the long stick.



Most days it's fairly quiet out here. Just all these fish to ourselves. Today there was a group of several guides (Bill, Tony, Tracy and Vince) guiding the same group of guys I believe. Bill asked what we were catching them on and I gave him a chartreuse shad Snack. Tough to beat that little sucker these days.

Don't be intimidated by this water. It's very fishable even for fly fishermen and you can hook up with some very solid fish. It's about 5' higher (in the upper end) than it is when 4 units are running. Don't sweat it. Stop by the shop and we'll tell you where and how to catch them either with spinning gear or the long stick. It's actually pretty fun. I'm not crazy about having to put my boat in the water every day (just until our dock's walkway gets fixed) but I am improving by trailering skills. Glass half full right??

    April 25-26th - Here's Jeff House with a weekend report from the 25th-26th. Jeff's been dying to fish somewhere in his pontoon boat and with all the crazy water happening virtually everywhere in the Ozarks he was losing a little hope. I suggested he come down and fish some of the creeks feeding Taneycomo that we've been fishing. Here's his report.

Brett - Wanted to send you a report on my weekend fishing down on Taney. First of all I want to thank you for putting me on the fish. Like most everyone else I'm having a difficult time finding fishable waters with all of the high water conditions around the Ozarks this spring. When you told me that you thought I could put my pontoon on the creeks down there and catch fish I couldn't resist giving it a try. After stopping by the shop on Friday morning and picking up the directions you left me and some of those Baitfish jigs that have been the go to fly here recently I headed off to Turkey Creek. After launching my boat I began fishing my way down to the mouth of Taneycomo just to check the whole creek out. On the guides advice I started off with a Coral Baitfish jig and a white G-Bug trailer. Before I had even gone 10 yards I already had my first hook-up on the baitfish jig, a healthy little 15 inch rainbow. After picking up several fish from around the bridge (one of the spots you clued me in on) I headed downstream. The water from the bridge down to the mouth of Taney seemed to get dirtier as I went and I only picked up a couple of fish along the way. Once down at the mouth of the creek I picked up several fish on each shoreline as it emptied into the main river. After fishing all of the likely holding spots I headed back upstream to the area around the bridge where I had seen you at earlier. Once back upstream in the cleaner water I began picking up fish pretty regularly on the Coral baitfish jig. No matter what kind of dropper I tried nothing was outfishing that coral Baitfish jig, this is why it pays to stop by the shop and pick up some advice and a few flies, I never would have been fishing brightly colored specialty jigs if you hadn't given me the tip. After lunch and a trip to the dam to check out the water (watched the outlet crowd doing their thing for a little entertainment) I headed back to Turkey and finished off the afternoon catching fish pretty regularly up above the bridge. I quit about 4:30 as I wanted to try and catch you at the shop and visit for a while (ie. Pick your brain for some more fishing information!!). A good days fishing with probably 30 trout caught and many more missed. As always I really enjoyed visiting with you and Tim at the shop. Good conversation and I always seem to learn a thing or two every time I'm in.

The next morning I met Tim at the shop and we headed off to Roark Creek to throw the boats on the water and see if we couldn't catch a few fish down there. Just a beautiful day to be on the water and the fish seemed to be cooperating nicely as well. The first thing that we noticed was the water clarity was much better than in Turkey the day before. The coral Baitfish Jig was king on Friday but was a little too bright for that clearer water. Tim and I switched up to more natural colored Baitfish jigs such as the wine or the grey and this was the ticket. I had tried numerous droppers the day before with little success but I just can't get away from fishing 2 flies even when the fish only want one thing. I hadn't tried a midge the day before so I tied on a #16 Super Midge dropper (this fly was created by Davy Wotton on the White River). Tim and I started fishing the bridge area and got into fish right away. Today they were keying on the midge dropper more than the Baitfish Jig for me, although Tim was still hitting them pretty good on natural color Baitfish Jigs. As usual the spots you recommended produced the best. A couple of the better spots were a fish every drift at times and we pretty much had the whole area to ourselves except for a couple of older gentlemen fishing from the bank. I fished all the way up to the 65 Bridge but didn't have much success once within sight of the bridge. The water looked good still but just didn't see any trout up that far. Took a picture of one area of the creek, I had my boat anchored up and was wading around sight fishing to a few stragglers, the water was crystal clear and no one in sight either direction, just like spring creek fishing in Montana (without the cost of driving up there!!). I don't know how many fish we caught on Saturday but I know it was too many to count. A great couple days of fishing that can be attributed to you pointing me in the right direction. I really enjoyed fishing with Tim as well, I'm sure it won't be too long and we'll be hooking up to do it again. I threw in a couple of pics from our trip on Saturday, they may not be worthy of posting as my photography skills are even worse than my fishing skills!! Thanks again for all the great info and I look forward to heading down that way again soon, talk to you later

Jeff








April 25th - Our good friend and part time neighbor Kevin Dulin took a half day venture with us to show his buddy all about this fly fishing thing. Learning the sport right now is done best fishing smaller in the creeks. It's easier than throwing around the heavy stuff up top or drifting bugs by your boat in a seam scraping the decals off your boat with your indicator. So... we headed down there to find a few fish swimming around. After yesterday's bust in the creeks I was a little nervous about what we'd find BUT...like I tell our customers...it only takes about a day to have them clear out enough to where they're fishing pretty well. You start with brighter colors fresh off a muddy rise. Stuff like white, coral, pink and chartreuse Bait Fish Jigs specifically and as it clears you move to naturals like olives, browns and my personal favorite..the ginger/olive. It was still muddy today and the coral was king. It wasn't the best day I've ever had but I've also had worse. I'd guess the boys caught 25-30 fish in their half day venture. It was actually a tad under a half day as they promised the bosses to be home for a shopping trip. So all in all...not too bad for a rookie plus Kevin's only done it a couple of times before that. Fly fishing small and teaching the basics while reeling a few in on top of that. Not a bad half day in 4 units and 10 flood gates.

    April 24th - They're back!!!



The floodgates that is. 10 of them cranked back up early this a.m. after another round of heavy rain last night. Today our old buddy Mark Hannah brought brother Joe along on what was an adventure. The tailwater sat at 715.6 most of the day. We started up at the cable with Mark Deep Drifting below an indicator and Joe dredging the bottom with our sink tip sections. We quickly realized the indicator wasn't sniffing the bottom at all as Joe started cranking them in fairly quickly. I switched Mark over to the same as the bite was OK on that sink tip...about 4 - 6 fish every short drift. The fly of choice...BY FAR was the new chartreuse backed shad Snack!... in a #10.



We caught them on chartreuse backed Simple Minnows and the new (yet to be named) shad fly in standard shad gray but that chartreuse color was a good ingredient. We did 2 - 3 drifts with similar success each time and I offered up the creeks as another option. Bad move on my part. I wasn't convinced the creeks would be blown out by the rains last night. They weren't blown out but they were high and muddy and we never caught a fish. A couple of takes but in between rain storms it was pretty much just a casting practice session. I gave the boys the option of going back up top but with the shaky weather and occasional downpours we opted to make it a half day trip.

The bite up top was about the same as it has been with the floodgates. You may get a dozen fish a drift or you may only get 2 or 3. The drifts are cut short due to the best bite being higher up and with this flow they are pretty quick to be over with so in retrospect the action is fairly close to 4 unit fishing. It's catching fish fly fishing and it's definitely nothing you've probably ever experienced before. Pretty good action too.

The creeks calm down in a days time and I'll probably hit them again tomorrow and barring more rain... I expect them to be better. Mark is a great customer of ours. We fish with him and his sons every year at least once. Joe was a great guy to meet. He knows and inspired another friend and customer of ours in to fly fishing (Mike Fritz) both in the dental profession. All proud Jayhawk fans as you can tell by Mark's hat. I won't tell you what his T-shirt said.

I hope we can hook up again. I know I'll see them at least one more time this fall. Looking for a wading fix I sent them down to Roaring River for tomorrow and they promised us a report. By the way guys...you left your bag of goodies in the boat and McKenna sniffed them out. Her new favorite "food" now is a PayDay bar. Nice work guys. I'll be sending your grandkids a drum set some day.


    April 23rd - I've been promising photos of some of my newest shad patterns so I thought I'd have a little contest for everyone to take part in as well. Name the Fly! This one right here.



This shad has been one of my best ones since the high water. It has been great dead drifted but we've also had superb action with it stripping in the creeks and slower seams up top. It's weighted with tight wraps of (lead free) lead up the shank of the streamer hook. A #10 has been a good one for me but I've fished them in #6's and down to #14's. It has a very elegant profile...soft and very flowing utilizing rabbit and marabou for the movement. Custom CWTS "shad" colored blend of dubbing for the subtle flash only seen when wet. So that's what it's all about. Name the fly and the winner gets a half dozen of them free of charge plus a Chartered Waters visor. Deadline to submit your name for that fly will be the end of the business day on May 2nd. Send as many names as you like and the judge will be yours truly. Good luck.

Now for one of my other shad patterns.

I call this The Snack. Why snack?? Well, the grizzly rooster saddle wings give the impression of bones...a lean and anorexic minnow... very weak and malnourished. A nice, easy meal to be had by any fish who sees it. So it's not an entire meal like a healthy minnow would be...it's a Snack! Now you look at that fly and say...that doesn't look like a shad or any other kind of minnow or fish. If you follow this fishing report at all you've heard me say that I judge all flies by how they look (and perform) when they're wet. A dry fly in the vise doesn't really mean jack to me with a few exceptions like dry flies or eggs...something whose shape doesn't change when they're wet. Even those "static" flies at the very least change colors when they become wet. A red thread (dry) becomes a very dark red thread when wet. I always tie with the end game in mind and the end game is that fly, saturated and under water under some kind of movement. So you've seen "The Snack" dry...here it is a little wet then saturated wet.

Looking a little more "fishy" now don't you think? Threadfin shad have a wider upper body tapering down to being thin at the tail. That fluffy collar on the The Snack helps create that deeper chest the Threadfin shad carry. The yet to be named shad has the same effect going on under the marabou that you see on the outside. When creating your own new patterns remember the end game...how is that fly going to look under water and ultimately, wet. Now here's that Snack fly using a chartreuse back instead of the shad gray color.



You know how those tournament bass pros are always using chartreuse backed Shad Raps and Rouges??...no there are no chartreuse shad swimming around but fish seem to key on different colors in the same profile on different days. I'll probably end up tying these with coral, purple, olive and brown backs too just to name a few. Maybe even some other funky color schemes I haven't even thought of yet. A lot of my best color schemes have come from just playing around with different stuff and trying them out. Don't be afraid to experiment. I've had friends and guests show me some pretty funky stuff that they absolutely swear by. It doesn't hurt to try something different. The worst that can happen is that it doesn't catch fish. And that's not a bad thing...you've eliminated one more choice in your box the next time you're trying to figure something out. Glass half full right?

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