After the rains left, we have had some beautiful days.  Warm, but not too warm, and sunny days with just a little breeze.  Water, however, has been spastic!  Thursday, it was off until 5:00 p.m.; came on for a couple hours then off the rest of the day.  Friday, it came on at 5:00 a.m.  They ramped it up to the equivalent of three generators and turned it off around 7:00 p.m.  Saturday, it came on at 5:00 a.m. again and stayed on until around 1:00 p.m.  Similar pattern again on Sunday.  Projection is for it to be off most of today. 

Stan on the water Friday with Jim from North Carolina.  Once he got the hook set down, he had a good day on the red midge, holographic green crackleback and the 76er (don’t ask). 

Saturday, Carolyn out with a couple young folks from Arkansas, Cierra and Alex.  Cierra’s father, Brian, came along to help corral the young folks…..thank you Brian.  Slow day for us.  We had a few hits and fish drifting down to the Lookout Island on the  bug ruby and hot pink San Juan worm.  Didn’t even see many people catching fish as we were drifting down.  Caught a few more at the Island on the Primrose & Pearl midge with a size 20 primrose dropper.  Darrell had Malcomb and Scott, from the St. Louis area on the water all day.  They caught some in the upper area of the river, but did best at the bend above Fall Creek where the Primrose & Pearl midge was hot.  Earlier they picked some around the Island onthe holographic green crackleback and big/small ruby midges.

Beautiful day today.  Sun is shinning, pleasant temperatures, light breeze.  Possibility of more rain tomorrow, but right now it looks like it might be north of us.  Hope it is.  Had the generators off this morning until 6:00 a.m.  Turned on two, running at the equivalent of one.  They will ramped up to the equivalent of three by 2:00 or 3:00 p.m. today.  As expected, Table Rock Lake came up a foot from the recent rains.  We will see a little more increase due to the run off from all the rivers and streams running into Table Rock. 

Have to let you know that everyone who braved the rain yesterday with the water off, had a wonderful day on the water.  They said the fish were chasing and taking everything.  Red, copper dun, black midges; gray scuds as well as tan; olive wooly buggers, cracklebacks.  It was just a great day.  One guy even caught a nice bass while stripping his olive wooly bugger!

Rain started here last last night and it is still raining.  Supposed to rain most of today, but tomorrow looks like it will be a lovely day.  Chance of some scattered showers Saturday, but after that the weather looks wonderful again.  At least for a while.  Generators are off today, as projected.  It will be interesting to see what tomorrow will bring as Table Rock Lake has come up 4/10s of a foot since midnight.   At 11:40 a.m. Table Rock is 915.0.  Break time in between finishing this and they did turn on two generators this afternoon.

Stan on the water Wednesday morning with Chuck from northern Missouri and his friend Sarah.  Sarah is originally from Washington and has been flying a helicopter locally.  Thanks to Chuck she found a bigger and better job in Oregon, so she will soon be moving closer to home.  She said she could see all the people fishing on the river when she would fly over in the helicopter, so Chuck brought her along to try it.   Think she liked it.  their best patterns were the big ruby with the size 18 ruby dropper.  Gina also on the water for half a day.  She took Ricky and Lisa from Tennessee out to teach them how to fly fish and catch a few fish.  They hope to fish in some of their waters at home.  They worked on all the basics and hooked, missed and brought in some fish.  Best patterns were the big ruby, size 18 ruby and the red tungsten beadhead midge.   Looks like they got off to a good start with their fly fishing!

Lisa – 9/8/10	Ricky – 9/8/10

Darrell and Dana had a group of guys from Tennessee and here in the Missouri out all day.  They barely made it in before the rain hit.  Darrell had Todd and Jim.  Believe they have fly fished before.  Their best patterns were the pink San Juan worm and the holographic green crackleback.  Dana’s guys, Phil and Junior caught fish on a red San Juan worm and the red midge.  A fun and fishy day was had by all.

Junior – 9/8/10	Phil – 9/8/10

For those who were brave enough to be fishing in the rain today, I heard from several of our customers that fishing was great.  Ruby midge, olive wooly bugger, gray scuds, San Juan worms, just to name a few of the patterns they were catching on.  One of the guys even caught a nice bass on an olive wooly bugger. 

Other than Monday, they have been pretty nice with the generation schedule for the past five days.  Friday saw low one generator on for a couple hours, as well as Saturday and Sunday.  Monday they turned it on early and left it on all day.  Tuesday irt was off until 2:00 pm. and has not been off since.  Table Rock is at 914.6, less than a half a foot below power pool.  The rain we received Thursday night took the levek up about 1-1/2 feet.  Heavy rain is in the forecast for tonight and showers most of tomorrow.  Cross your fingers that we don’t get too much rain as we could see the generators running more to keep the lake at the desired level.   Right now, fishing is still fair to good.  You just have to find the fish and get the right pattern to them.  Past three days, the ruby midge has done very well. 

Fishing good on Sunday.  Stan had Pat, from Kentuky out again.  Pat fished with us the first time in 2008.  He and his wife fished four generators and five flood gates.  They couldn’t believe they were catching fish.  They came back in 2009 and saw a completely different river.  No generators when they started but they started up a couple before they got off the water.  Marge could not make it this time….sorry Marge.  Hope we see you and Pat next year, or before.  Pat had some very good days on the river by himself.  He had to buy a drift boat after he had been out with Stan.  They float their rivers in Kentucky.  Had another good day with Stan Friday on the red midge and really enjoyed the new experience of stripping the holographic green crackleback. 

Monday we saw two generators running.  Jim had a half day with Gary and Shari from Kansas.  Gary had fly fished some before, but it was Shari’s first experience.  They had a good day on the red midge, gray scud, orange and pink San Juan worms, and a brown bug eye bugger.  Darrell, Carolyn and Stan had a group from Arkansas.  Jeff and his son, Nathaniel have fished several times in the past with Darrell.  They brought their friends, Chris and his sons, Caleb and Nathan.  Everyone had a good day.  Darrell had two of the boys, Nathan and Nathaniel.  Of course, they were in a race to see who could catch the most.  Not certain who won that one.  They caught fish on the red and burgundy midges.  We felt sorry for the old man, so we sent him out with only one person, Jeff.  Their best patterns were the red midge and the holographic green crackleback.  Carolyn drew Chris and his son, Caleb.  Chris is a good fly fisher, and Caleb is coming along.  We boated, and missed lots of fish on the olive floozie, big ruby and #18 ruby and burgundy midge droppers.  Not going to say much about the one that got away!

Rex – 9/7/10

Tuesday, Dana took Rex and Patty from Kansas out for half a day.  Rex managed to boat all hits and a few on, but they just kept on going.  She said next time she comes to fish she is going to leave Rex on the bank so she can catch the fish!

Weather has been almost perfect.  Temperatures in the 80s during the day, maybe low 90s.  Couple mornings it was actually in the upper 50s.  The only thing one could complain about was the wind.  It has been a bit windy the past three days.  The generation has even been agreeable.  Friday we just had one generator come on at 4:00 p.m. for a couple hours; Saturday it did not come on until 9:00 p.m. and today one came on at 2:00 p.m.  Don’t have a clue what it will be tomorrow as we cannot get the projection on the web site and the phone number does not answer.  So…..we will just have to wait and see.  

Friday Jim has Dean and Bev from Arkansas on the water for a half day in the morning.   As I mentioned, it was a bit windy, so that made casting a little difficult.  Fish were spotty, but they found some on the size 18 rusty midge, blood worm dropper and the size 18 black midge.  Darrell and Carolyn had the Louisiana family on the water all day Friday.  Dawn was in the boat with Carolyn and the guys, Albert and James Albert, went with Darrell.  Don’t think the guys wanted to be in the "Cacklecraft".  If course, it lived up to its name.  Dawn and Carolyn has a great day on the size 18 black midge, primrose & pearl midge, black wooly bugger, filoplume, size 12 holographic green crackleback, but especially the olive floozie on the sinking leader.  The floozie strikes again!  She caught three nice 17 inch rainbows among her many fish for the day.  Darrell and his guys also had a great day on the primrose & pearl midge and a large olive wooly bugger on which James Albert pulled out a nice 19 inch rainbow.  Gina was out with Dale and Glenn from Oklahoma.    They had a wonderful day too on the primrose & pearl and burgundy midges. 

Dawn – 9/3/10	James Albert – 9/3/10

Dale 9/3/2010

Saturday, Carolyn had Pricilla and Vic, from Indiana out again.  They took the two-day school last year, and came back for a refresher.  We put Vic on a sinking leader and had him catching fish on a black wooly bugger, and the olive size 12 filoplume.  Pricilla did best on the size 18 black midge.  Jim had John from Oak Grove out on a 1/2 day wade trip.  John wanted to learn how fish Taneycomo a little better.  Said he accomplished this and more.  They did well on the black midge with the blood worm dropper, a size 18 gray scud and a size 16 miracle scud. 

Sunday, Jim on the water for a half day instructional wade trip with Mike from Arkansas.  Mike worked on all his skills and Jim said he was a good student.  They even caught fish!  Best pattern was a size 16 gray scud and a size 20 gray scud.  Darrell and Carolyn had a new family on the river from Louisiana.  Darrell had the father, Clay and their daughter Elizabeth in his boat.  Carolyn had the mother, Allison, and Clayton in her boat.  both Clay and Elizabeth were a bit under the weather, but they stuck with it until both of them had caught some fish.  Their best fly was the size 18 ruby midge.  Allison and Clayton were not under the weather, and feeling fine.  Carolyn had them out wading as they are both brand new to fly fishing.  Worked on roll cast, pick up and lay down cast, and a little on line management.  Had to hook some fish so they could work on hooking, playing and landing a fish.  Little 10 year old Clayton did great casting, setting the hook and bring in at least three fish all on his own.  Allison fell in love with fly fishing the minute she felt her first fish on the fly rod.  Fun morning on the water.  The size 18 ruby midge, a size 16 gray scud, and the holographic green crackleback stripped on the sinking leader were our best patterns. 

Clayton’s first – 9/5/10	Allison’s first -09/5/10

Yes, we received lots of rain yesterday and the forecast said we are going to get some more tonight.

What a wonderful sound…..rain.  We had a little rain Monday, some scattered showers Tuesday and another shower again today.  Expect to see more today and into tomorrow.  Temperatures has been in the upper 80s and mid 90s.  With the rain, of course, it is a bit humid.  Generation pattern was off Friday until 2:00 p.m.; off Saturday and Sunday except for a couple hours around 2:00-3:00 in the afternoon.  Monday they did runn a low two generators all day, yesterday it was off until 1:00  and today the projection is for it to be off until 3:00 p.m. or so.  Getting lots of wading time in the mornings and for those night owls, late at night or very early in the a.m.  Think we will continue to see the pattern similar to this unless we get a lot of rain.

Darrell had Malcom and one of his friends, Larry on the water Saturday.  They are both members of the  Fly fishing Club in the St. Louis area.  They had a good day on the water with the size 18 black zebra and primrose & pearl midges.  Also caught several on the peach egg pattern.   Nice fish guys!

Malcolm – 8/28/10	Larry – 8/28/10

Evelyn – 18" rainbow

Monday brought an overcast sky, a bit of wind, and two generators running low.  Jim, Stan and Carolyn were on the water for half a day with a group, most of whom were here for a meeting.  Stan had Andy and Chris.  Andy is from Branson and Chris is from Tennessee.  Both these guys are fly fishers.  Jim had two brand new to fly fishing guys, David from Texas and Ed, who is also from Tennessee.  Carolyn had Pat and Evelyn, both from Branson area.  Pat has been fly fishing for a while, but had not touched her fly rod for over a year and Evelyn was new to the sport.  Lots of hits, catching, missing, and tangles.  Flies of the day were the black zebra with either a blood worm or copper dun midge dropper, the purple and red midges, and a black wooly bugger.   Evelyn’s first time with a fly rod was rewarded with a nice 18 inch rainbow that she nailed on a size 14 black wooly bugger. 

Certainly has been nice getting up in the morning and heading to work in 50 degree temperatures.  Warming up a bit during the day into the low to mid 90s, but absolutely refreshing early in the mornings on the water!  Expect to see temperatures a little warmer than 50s for the low this week, but upper temperatures appear to be in the mid 90s or lower.  Have had some wind the past three days, but we can handle that!   Last Sunday we have off water until 2:00p.m. when they ran the equivalent of two generators for less than two hours.  Off the balance of the day into Monday where they turned on four generators and kept them running six hours or better.  Once they turned down the generation, they kept pretty much a low flow all week.  Thursday at midnight they turned them until around 2:00 p.m. Friday, they turned on the equivalent of three until 9:00 p.m. Friday.  For the wade fishers Saturday, we did not get generatiaon until around 3:00 p.m. and it was scheduled for only a couple hours and should be off tonight.  Pretty much the same pattern for Sunday, but we expect to see at least the equivalent of one generator all day Monday.

Last Sunday, Jim had Cooper from here in Branson and Tom out for a half day float.  Cooper has been out with Jim several time so Jim works on different techniques each time they go out.  This time it was streamers and dries.  They had a good day on the black wooly bugger and a black ant. 

Wednesday Carolyn had Richard from Kansas in the shop for his first day of a two-day fly fishing school.  He worked on book learning in the morning; bugs, equipment, water reaching, knots, and stream etiquete.  After lunch, we went to the water to learn the basic casts; roll cast, pick up and lay down and started working on false casting and shooting line.  Thursday, he spent all day on the water with Stan where he applied the information he learned on Wednesday; tying his own knots, rigging for various presentation methods, recognizing hits, hooking and playing fish.  Richard had a good day on the water catching fish on the black zebra soft hackle, Primrose & Pearl midge, red midge.  Did do some streamer work with the filoplume, crackleback and olive wooly bugger.  Hits, misses……to be continued. 

Jennifer – 8/26/10

Friday, Carolyn on the water with Blake and Jennifer from Texas.  they had just finished the two-day school at Dogwood Canyon and wanted to apply their skills.   Sorry about the picture Jennifer.  Looks like there was a water drop on the camera lense.  Worked a little on casting, but mostly on catching.  Good day on the red midge, black wooly bugger and floozie.  Now they are going to practice a lot, right guys? and get ready for catching red fish on the fly rod. 

Saturday, Carolyn had Mary Ann and her cousin, Mary, aka "turkey" on the water for a long half day.  Good day on black zebra midge, Primrose & Pearl midge, black wooly bugger, floozie, and even the holoraphic green crackleback.  Mary Ann is a seasoned fly fisher.  Her cousin Mary has not picked up a fly rod for a couple years.  We worked on her casting a little, but  mostly, she worked on catching.  

Mary Ann – 8/27/10

Wow!  Did it feel great walking out of the house this morning.  Mid-sixty degree temperature.  High today will be in the upper 80s or lower 90s.  More to come.  Had the generators off yesterday morning, but sorry to day, they have two running this morning and the level at 7:30 a.m. was 704.5.  They will probably keep it here until early afternoon, which is sort of what they had projected…..not quite so high this morning, but we know how that goes.

Sunday was a pretty good fishing day.  Jim had Tom and Cooper out for a half day float.  They work on techniques, especially dries and streamers, so their primary patterns were the black wooly bugger and a black ant.  Had a fun day and did well.  Carolyn had Rick and Krirtsi, from the St. Louis area out, also for a half day float.  They are getting ready to go to Alaska, so Kristi wanted some work on her casting as well as catching fish.  We pulled a few fish on the natural, size 8 sculpin pattern and the olive floozie.  Kristi caught a nice 17-18 inch rainbow.  Beautiful colors.  She had the picture on her camera, and we will post it when she sends it to us.  Action not fast and furious on these patterns so we changed out to a size 20 black midge.  Don’t know how many fish we pulled out of the skinny water on the north bank below the Rockin Chair entrance.  Set the depth between 16 and 18 inches and wondered what was wrong if we had a drift and no hit. 

Weather forecast shows some relief from the heat.  Monday and Tuesday should be in the low 90s with Wednesday and Thursday in the upper 80s.  Forecast for humidity is also lower.  Most of the week, we had generators off most of the morning; coming on in the early afternoons.  Today it was off and they blew one horn at 3:00 p.m.  they are scheduled to run one for three hours today then back off.  Sunday looks pretty much like a duplicate pattern of today. 

Thursday, Stan took Diana from Independence out for a half day drift.  Diana is another lady who fell in love with fly fishing after a full day instructional/catching day on the water in April of this year.  Her best pattern was the Primrose & Pearl midge. 

Lucy – 8/20/10

Friday, Jim and Carolyn had a fun family from Texas out for an instructional/catching trip.  Carolyn took the ladies, Lucy and Olga and Jim took the guys, Jerry and Aaron.  Once everyone got the basic roll cast and pick up and lay down cast, we worked with them on rigging and presentation techniques.  They have a couple nice ponds on their place in Texas that have bass in them.  They wanted some methods for catching them with a fly rod.  We worked on dries so they could use poppers, as well as buggers so they could do some streamer work.  Everyone finished the outting with a pretty good cast, definitely learned a couple knots and caught some fish on the black bugger, black ant, black midge, holographic green crackleback and the floozie.  Stan had Mark and Fran out, also for half a day.  Too hot to sit in the sun all day, even if you are catching fish.  These two took our two-day school earlier this year and, glad to say, still at it and having fun.  They had a good day on the black zebra and a red/black midge.