Heads Up On Things Happening!
A couple cool, windy days yesterday and today. Today was a bit warmer and the sun was out. Yesterday was a bit miserable. Temperature looking up for the weekend and most of next week. Looks like 70s most of the week. Don’t see any rain in the forecast right now.
Generation has been a bit spastic the past few days. Over the weekend, we had off water almost all morning both Saturday and Sunday. Water came on Saturday around 2:00 p.m. for four hours. Sunday it came on at 1:00 p.m. for 8 hours. Monday we had water from 7:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m.. Tuesday it came on at 2:00 p.m. and stayed on all night. Wednesday water was on almost all day and shut down at 11:00 p.m. Today it was on at 6:00 a.m., stayed on for six hours, then off and back on at 7:00 p.m. Looks like tomorrow will be an off, on, then off and back on day again.
As far as things to be heads of about. October 23, 2011, they will start drawing down Taneycomo so they can put a more permanent solution for holding and releasing water at Powersite Dam. It could take as long as three weeks to get the new system into place. In the meantime, we will see little, if any generation, through Table Rock. We expect to see some type of minimal flow to maintain the fishery during these three weeks. The Missouri Department of Conservation developed plans over a year ago to place structure on the upper part of Taneycomo in the Special Mangement Area. Looks like they plan to place some of this structure during the shut down. Big bolders have been placed in various places along the river, probably waiting for the draw down.
Last, but not least, March 1, 2011, the new fishing regulations will ban porous sole shoes in cold streams in Missouri. This means that if your have felt sole shoes, you must either replace them, or treat them so they are no longer porous. There is a u-tube video on the Missouri Department of Conservation site which shows one method of making your felt soles non-porour by treating them with several layers of rubber cement. Although it is an inconvenience for many, including us….we have several felt sole bootfoot waders in stock for rental, whcih we will either have to replace or treat, BUT MDC is being proactive in trying to prevent DITTMO and other harmful algae from getting into our Missouri waters.
Now, on to fun stuff. Jim out with Mark, from Grain Valley, MO. Monday. Pretty good day, especially before the four generators came on. Size 12 gray scud, size 14 red midge, a peach egg pattern, and a size 6 bug-eyed scuplin were their flies for the day. Rick and Mary, from Tulsa, OK. spend the morning with Carolyn. They were scheduled for a 1/2 day wade trip as they wanted an instructional/fishing trip. We did work on the roll cast and catch some fish on the ruby midge with the red San Juan dropper. Got down to Lookout Island, where we worked on the pick up and lay down cast, and stripping. Nice couple looking for something to do together for their retirement years. Mary likes to golf and I hope we can get her as intersted in fly fishing. Think she will be good at it. Best flies were the ruby midge, and the red San Juan dropper.
Yesterday, Stan was on the water all day with Jim Rodman. They had a fun day on the ruby midge, red San Juan worm, stripping a filoplume, and a partridge and orange soft hackle. Darrell and Carolyn had the Louisiana Kerrs on the water. Carolyn and Dawn were out with Carolyn and Albert and James Albert were with Darrell. Carolyn was on fire in the morning, with 17″ and 16″ rainbows almost back to back. She was getting hits right and left and Dawn saw very little action. However, the afternoon was another story. Dawn was fishing her Big Ugly with a midge dropper against the bank drifting down from Look Out Island. Fun day as she watch the fish chase and take either her Big Ugly or midge. She thinks this might be her favorite way for catching fish now! We pulled some really nice rainbows out this way. Darrell and his guys did well on the ruby, red San Juan and pulling streamers. James Albert caught a nich 19 inch rainbow on one of his streamers.
Today, Stan had Robert Hellman, from Chicago. He had a good day on the red San Juan worm and finished off the day with the Big Ugly with a P&P midge dropper. He loved this! He thinks it might be one of his favorite ways to catch fish too.