It is so gorgeous in the Ozarks right now!  Drifting down the river, you can see the red buds, dogwood, cherry blossom trees in full bloom dotting the hill sides.  Sunny, still windy, but warm days.  All we need is some low water and it would be perfection!  Table Rock is now down to 915.7 and they have cut back the generation flow slightly.  Instead of fishing in 710 feet, we are now in 707 to 708 feet.  Makes a difference! 

Stan on the water yesterday afternoon with a couple guys from up north, Ken and Bob.  They had a very good day on the big Ruby with the pink San Juan dropper, but especially on the holographic green crackleback.  Can’t believe it but both of them were complaining about being worn out from catching fish!?!  One of them even called back today to let us know his arm was sore.  Oh well!

This is a recording.  Four generators running 24/7.  Taneycomo tailwater staying slightly above the 710.2 foot level with Table Rock slowly dropping.  It is now at 916.0.  However, Beaver continues to climb and is ow at 1124.2 feet (4.2 feet above their power pool).  This water has to go somewhere, sometime.  Weather, other than the wind, it nice!  Sunny and warm.  Expecting some rain tonight which may continue into early tomorrow and a little cool off.  Weekend is looking good.

Jim out all day yesterday with Carl from Alaska.  They had a good day midging with the red midge and orange San Juan, but the best fly of the day was a size 16 red ass. 

No flood gates, but 24/7 on four generators.  So far, we have not seen an impact from the rain we had Friday night.  Table Rock now sits at 916.6 feet and the four generators are keeping Taneycomo a little above 710.0 feet.  At least the weather is nice.  Friday was overcast, but warm and a bit of a breeze.  Saturday was sunny and fairly calm most of the day.  For Easter Sunday, we have a bright sunny day with just a little wind.  They are forecasting some rain later on today into tomorrow then back to the nice weather. 

Diana – 4/2/10

We have another fly fisher on the loose.  Friday, Carolyn took Diana out for almost a full day float.  We bailed out early due to the rain coming through.  Diana has been reading, watching and listening to everything she can find on fly fishing.  Friday was "baptism by fire".  Not only did she learn to manage her fly line, she learned how to do it in fast, water with some mean wind gust.  We worked on roll casting, regular casting, line management, rigging, mending, and "set" all day.  She landed several fish and really enjoyed the day, plus I saw some pretty nice casts before the day was over.  Best flies were the big ruby with the pink San Juan dropper and, yes, we added her to our "stripper" club.  She caught some strippipng the holographic green crackleback and the olive filoplume.  Next day she said she could hear "set" in her dreams all night.  Bob from Louisiana, took one more full day with us and spent his last day with Jim.  They had another good day on the red midge. 

Saturday, Stan took Kevin from Oklahoma out for a 1/2 day of learning.  Kevin decided it was time to learn how to fly fish.  He spent a good morning on the river catching and learning.  His father, Jim, went along to take pictures.  Jim even decided he might like to learn how to fly fish after spending time on the water watching Kevin.  Although they caught several on the red midge, Kevin really liked fishing and catching on the holographic green crackleback on the sink tip.  Jim had Jim, from Arkansas out in the morning.  Jim has been fishing for a while and they had a very good day on the red midge with either a #18 black midge or orange San Juan dropper. 

Almost forgot to mention that some of our customers have advised that the white bass are running well in the James River near Galena.  What fun on a fly rod!

Yes, they turned off the flood gates on April 1.  They got the fourth generator repaired, up and running, so now they are just running the four generators.  Projection is four all day.  Imagine they will run something constantly until Table Rock gets back to at least power pool, 915.0 feet.  Expecting rain this afternoon into tonight, but the forecasters say it will be out of here by midnight and we will have sunny days until another chance for rain on Wednesday.

Fishing has been good.  Jim was on the water Wednesday with Bob from Louisiana.  Bob is a salt water fly fisher and throws some line.  They caught fish on the red midge with the orange San Juan dropper, and the light olive bug-eyed bugger.  Bob had a little problem when he first start, with the softer takes of a trout compared to the fish he is used to fishing for. 

By Thursday, when Bob went out with Stan for a full day, he recognized the trout take.  They had great day on the holographic green crackleback and a size 18 black midge.  Jim, had his regular, regular, Bud, out for half a day.  They pulled some nice fish on the red midge, size 18 black midge and the bugger.

Four flood gates still going as well as three generators.  Table Rock is now at 917.8 and the tailwater is in the 710. plus range.  Have heard various scenarios on when the flood gates will be shut down.  One is that they will shut down when Table Rock reached 917.0 feet.  Another was the date of April 1 (April Fool’s Day?)  We shall see.

Let’s get caught up.  Friday, Jim was out with Mike and Larry from Arkansas.  Of course they were fishing high water with the 2-fly setup, red ruby midge on top with a pink San Juan dropper.  Boated several fish in their half day outting. 

Sam – 3/27/10

Saturday, Dana had a repeat from last summer, Ben from here in Missouri.  His wife, Melissa, fished with him last time but is expecting a baby boy in June so she could not join him.  So, he brought his friend, Sam, to give him a first experience at fly fishing.  Tough day with the high water for a new fly fisher, but Sam did it.  Caught his first fish on a fly rod using a pink midge.

Sunday was a wild day on the water.  A whole bunch of guys from various Orvis locations decided they needed to test the Taneycomo floodwater (aka tailwater) fishery.  Jim, Stan and Carolyn loaded them up in the drift boats and off we went.  Lots of catching, missing and badgering back and forth.  We threw everything.  Holographic green crackleback on the sinking leader, big Ruby with the pink San Juan dropper, black zebra midge, are a few or the regulars that come to mind. 

Monday, Gina helped John and Barbara, from Wisconsin, celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary.  Not only did he give her a beautiful new ring, he booked a cruise on Taneycomo for the two of them!  What a guy!  This was Barbara’s first time fly fishing.  Quick learner.  Had the roll cast under control in no time and quickly got the hang of casting the sinking leader.  Barbara’s cap read "get er done" and she did just that.  Hooked and landed her first trout on a fly rod.  Fished the pink San Juan and an olive wooly bugger.  Congratulations guys!  Stan was out half a day with Scott and his friend, Fred.  These guys are from Illinois and it was Fred’s first time fly fishing.  They had a wonderful sunny day, along with a good day on the water.  Best flies were the size 18 black midge under the big Ruby. 

 

Brandy – 3/30/10

Carolyn helped Dad, Jerry, introduce his daughter, Brandy, to combat fly fishing (high water and lots of gusty wind).   Quick learner.  Had the roll cast down in nothing flat, as well as mending.  And best of all, hook setting and playing in the fish.   Brandy caught fish on both a size 18 black zebra midge dropped below the big Ruby and the holographic green crackleback on a sinkling leader.  She is off to a great start and even out fished Dad.  Oops!   Jim had Chris, from his home state, Michigan out for 1/2 a day float.  His wife, Marsha, went along to enjoy our river and the nice day.  They had a good day on the red midge, with the orange San Juan worm dropper, and the olive bug-eyed bugger working the long seams.

 

 

 

 

 

Hate to tell you folks, but they turned on three flood gates Wednesday morning around 11:00.  They had been running 2-3 generators most of the time, but with the rain we received last Friday and Saturday, Table Rock Lake rose three feet (918.1), so they want to get it back down to 915 feet as quickly as they can plus one of the generators is down.  They are working on this.  Talked to the Corps Wednesday and they said probably three gates until the 1st of April depending on how much more rain we get. 

Stan out for half a day Wednesday with Robert and Patsy from Arkansas.  Even with the three flood gates, which they had not anticipated, they managed to catch some fish on the big Ruby with a small ruby dropper or black midge.   Jim hit the water with John and Ron from Minnesota.  They had been over to Roaring River Tuesday and it was blown out because of the rain.  We got them on the river here and they caught a few fish before the gates opened and trashed the river.  Jim looked for some clearings, but decided to come off early and not fight the conditions. 

So far we have not come up too much after the rains we had Friday and Saturday.  However, there is still some runnoff, so not certain where Table Rock level will settle.  Presently it is at 916.6 feet at 5:00 p.m. today.   Forecast for tomorrow is sunny with temperatures in the 70s.  Thursday, there is a chance of showers with temps in the upper 50s.  Looks like cloudy Friday and 50s with possibility of showers again Saturday and temps in the upper 50s.  Let’s hope we don’t get too much more rain, but we are coming into the rainy season!  Two to three generators running all day with the tailwater level steady, very unusual, at 707 feet.  Projection for tomorrow is 150 mwh, which will probably keep it in the 708 feet range. 

Had three boats on the water today.  Stan was out with Gary from the Branson area.  Caught his first fish of the day within 30′ after putting in the boat.  This continued throughout the 1/2 day they were on the water.  Started out using the big ruby midge with a black size 20 midge dropper.  Also caught some on the the cerise worm as a dropper, but did best on the holographic green crackleback using an intermediate sinking line and stripping the seams.  Jim had Jerry from Kansas out again.  They had a good 1/2 day on the red midge with an orange San Juan dropper.  Working and catching a lot on the olive bug-eyed bugger in long seams.  Darrell had Houston and Raymond from Florida out part of the day,.  These two guys did well on the big red holographic midge with a white marabou tail and a red midge dropper. 

Sorry to say, generation has been constant since Thursday morning.  For the most part, they are only running two generators, but the levels are ranging from 706 down to 703.5.  If you find a place to wade, remember this as they don’t necessarily sound the horn if they already have two generators going and want to raise the level from 704 to 706.  Beautiful sunny days both Thursday and Friday.  Of course we have to save the worst weather for the weekend!  Rain predicted for most of today and at least the early part of tomorrow.  We’ll probably see sunny skies for the first of the week.

Darrell on the water yesterday with Olen and his seven year old son, "Olie" from Oklahoma.  They were out for half a day and Olie stuck with it and even caught a fish on his fly rod.  They did have a good day on the holographic green crackleback and a size 10 pattern tied with red thread at the butt, then black thread forward for the body and thorax with a couple wraps of black hackle at the head.  They stripped both these patterns in the seams.

Water generation has been erratic this week.  Monday, we had no generation all day.  Tuesday, despite the projection of water on for a while in the a.m. and off all day until 7:00 p.m., they ran water from 7:00 a.nm. until 5:00 p.m.  Water again off on Wednesday, with only one hour of generation at 6:00 a.m.  Off Thursday morning until 5:00 a.m. and then on the rest of the day into today.  It is still on and the projection is for generation all day.  By noon, they show a low one generator for most of the balance of the day. 

As I said, catching continues to be great, but the generation schedule is a little limiting as far as places to wade fish.  Darrell took Clint and his son, Cole, from Kansas out for a half day Wednesday.  Cole got cold in a hurry and Mother came to the rescue.  Clint and Darrell continued the half day with an abundance of fish on a black midge, a brown midge and the holographic green cackleback.  This was the treat of the day…catching them on the crackleback. 

Yesterday, Gina and a friend, Valley, were on the river yesterday.  They just had to give me a call at the shop, where I was stuck all day! to let me know that they caught a whole bunch on the holographic green crackleback.

Well, they finally did it!  Turned the water off all day yesterday.  Projected that it would be off today after running two generators for an hour this morning but that did not happen.  So far they have run two generators all day with the levels going up to 705.8 and down to 703.9 as of 5:00 p.m. today.  Projection for tomorrow is the equivalent of one generator at 8:00 a.m. for one hour, then off the rest of the day.  Again…..we’ll see.  Hope so.  Weather should also be nice. 

Right now, fishing is absolutely great.  Darrell had Malcomb from the St. Louis area out for 1/2 a day on Saturday.  Two generators going Saturday until 4:00 p.m.  They caught a bunch of fish on the ruby midge, bug-eyed bugger and red midge. 

Sunday, we had two generators going all day and Stan had Jeff from Kansas out for 1/2 a day and wore him out catching fish on the high-water red midge, olive wooly bugger and, drifting out from the Lookout Island, the peach fur bug.  He also caught some on the holographic crackleback.  Really enjoyed stripping this and the wooly bugger.  Carolyn had Bill from Nebraska out most of the day for his second day of the two-day fly fishing school.  He was in overload from all the information on the first day of class, so the second day of fishing was a good way to clear his mind as he caught by hooking lots of fish on the ruby midge, and the olive filoplume on a sinking leader.  Good student and loves Hazelnut coffee!

Monday had no water flow.  I think the trout were even celebrating!  Carolyn spent 1/2 day on the river with Tim and his son, Austin from Harrisonville.  They are brand new fly fishers and were absolutely spoiled by the quality of the fishing on Monday!  They could not keep the fish off their size 18 rusty midge or the size 18 ruby midge.  We lost count of the number of doubles they had.   Must mentioned that as we were rowing by several people standing in the water fishing, almost every rod was bent.  It was just one of those days where everyone who could get a fly into the water was catching fish.  One of our customers called Tuesday afternoon and said he was wading a little ways above us at the Rockin Chair and he hooked a fish almost every cast on his olive wooly bugger.  Meanwhile, Stan had Alan and his son Robert, from Texas,  out for a full day float.  Alan and Robert took our two-day school in 2005.  Both have come a long way but still enjoy the great fishery we have here.  LOTS of fish on the size 18 burgundy , rusty and olive midges.  

Despite what the projection was for today….no generation most of the day….they ran two generators.  Jim was out with Kyle from Nebraska.  Kyle fishes a lot and throws a good line.  He spent the day with Jim and they had a wonderful day with the red midge and orange San Juan dropper, but most fun on the size 16 red ass soft hackle (what we believe to be an old White River classic pattern) in the seams where fish were coming up. 

Wish you were here! ! !