Table Rock Lake now at 916.2.  They increased the generation quite a bit this morning and are releasing water from Beaver.  Only time now will tell what is going to happen with the generation.  Last I heard, we still have chances of rain Sunday.  Hope for very, very light showers! 

Stan out yesterday with Phil and his daughter, Dana.  They are from Kansas.  Phil had been out with us earlier this 

Dana’s first on fly rod – 11/12/09

year and had a good time.  His daughter said he likes to go various places and fish and that she loves to travel.  She thought that traveling places to fly fish together would be great!  I agree, what a way to spend quality time with your Father.  Anyway, this was Dana’s first time with a fly rod and she did quite well.  Their best patterns were the ruby midge and pink San Juan worm. 

Be sure to check under Fly Fishing Schools/Fly Tying Classes.  We have our Winter/Spring schedule of fly tying classes and fly fishing clinics listed.

Table Rock Lake is now at 916.4 feet.  Since Tuesday it has dropped five tenths of a foot.  We might just see it at or below 916 by Saturday or Sunday.  Remainds to be seen what the generation pattern will be, but I hope we see them drop to one or two generators during the afternoon hours of the day and eventually see it off for the weekends.  What a wonderful thought!  Nice sunny day today with a little breeze.  Cool this morning…think it was in the upper 30s.  Believe it will get into the 60s before the day is over.  We are supposed to start getting some windy conditions tonight but rain is still out of the forecast until late this week or early next week, and, we hope, nothing too significant. 

Bob – 11/10/09

 Bob, from Michigan, decided he wanted to go out again, so he and Stan were out Wednesday.  They had a pretty good day on the pink San Juan worms, red midge and olive bugger.

Jim had Steve and Jodee, from Kansas out for a half day trip.  They fish Bennett Springs a lot and since it is closed right now, they needed to go fly fishing.  Boated fish on the red midge, orange San Juan worm and peach bug. 

Yesterday Stan and Shannon decided to take our Orvis rep. Mike, who lives in Colorado, out for a while.  They caught some fish on the ruby midge, pink San Juan and the bug-eyed bugger.  Had a fun day and now Mike can get back on the road and start thinking about work!

Table Rock Lake had reached 916.9!  I am cautiously optimistic that we will see some wading water  within a week.  Looking at the graphs, Table Rock dropped one foot in five days.  If that trend continues, we should be at 916 or less in five to six more days.  Weather continues to look good with no significant rain, if any, in the forecast.

Stan finished up the three days with Scott from Kansas with a "perfect day".  Scott’s son, Joey,  joined them yesterday and started right off with 16", 17" and 18" Rainbows.  Weather was overcast but warm.  No wind and very little boat traffic on the river.  Scott fishes out West a lot and was happy to learn he could get into similar fishing conditions as out West only four hours away!   Such as the quiet conditions of the drift boat, good fishing and not crowded (we told him this didn’t always happen).  They caught many of their fish on the pink San Juan worm, but the best fly and most fun was stripping the olive wooly bugger in the seams.  They were using the intermediate sink tip line with 4X tippet. 

Yes, the level of Table Rock Lake continues to fall.  It is at 917.1 this morning.  The tailwater level of Taneycomo has held fairly steady at 707.8 feet.  The past 3-4 days were beautiful!  Too bad all the leaves have blown off the trees.  Temperatures were in the 70s with lots of sunshine.  Today is going to be overcast, but no rain!  Temperatures should be in the lower 70s.  Forecast through the weekend looks like a slight chance of ran tomorrow (20%) and again a slight chance of rain over the weekend.  Otherwise, sunshine and moderate temperatures. 

Wendy’s first fish on fly rod

Couple of busy days on the water.  Saturday, Jim and Dana had a group of guys from Arkansas on the water; Samuel, Jake, David and Frank.  Pretty good day for everyone.  Red midge, orange or red San Juan worms, and peach colored egg.  Eric was out all day with John and Kim from Texas.  Kim had fished with us in June this year and decided to try it again.  They caught fish on the red tungsten beadhead midge and a cerise San Juan worm.   Darrell was also out with a couple ladies from Texas, Lisa and Wendy.  They decided now was the time to try something they wanted to do……try fly fishing.  Stan was also on the water Saturday with Scott from Kansas.  They spent half a day fishing yesterday and are on the water again today.  

Jake – 11/07/09	Samuel – 11/07/09

Sunday was family day.  Bud from Lee’s Summit, MO. has been going out with Jim for quite a while learning all the ins and outs of fly fishing.  For his birthday, which was November 7, he wanted his entire family to fish with him…..and they did!  What a great outting and fun family.  The guides Jim, Darrell, Dana and Carolyn, with all the family members in the boats, formed a circle so we could give Bud a birthday cupcake and sing happy birthday to him.  After all our singing, only one more fish was caught in this area.  Guess they did not like our singing.  For those in the group new to fly fishing, there was lots of learning, lots of missing and quite a bit of catching.  Derek and his wife, Amanda, were wade fishing at one time with Dana.  After Amanda spent a little time in the water, the baby who is due in March, decided to do a little kicking.  So, back into the drift boat for Amanda!  We decided the baby didn’t like the cold water.  They were catching fish on the Orange San Juan worm dropped from the Ruby midge.  Carolyn had Shannon and her boy friend Chad in her boat.  Both are brand new so we worked on the roll cast, line management, and once we got down recognizing the hit, hooked and brought in some fish.  Best patterns were the pink or red San Juan worm.  Think Bud may have a new fishing buddy with Shannon.  Jim had Darrin and Vanessa with him.  This couple are also brand new so Jim spent lots of time working with them.  They brought in fish on the red midge and an orange San Juan worm.  Darrell had the birthday guy, Bud.  Beth, his wife, rode along to spend the day with the family and enjoy the beautiful day.  Their best patterns were also the red or pink San Juan worms.  Hopefully, after this day, Bud will have lots of fishing buddys.

Bud’s birthday party – 11/08/09	Derek & Amanda
Shannon’s first fish on fly rod

Sun is shining, the birds are singing and the flood gates are off.  Turned the gates off this morning around 9:00 a.m.  Flow rate dropped from over 11,500 cfs to about 8000 cfs, and the tailwater level dropped from 711.2 to 708.0.  Now, no more rain for a while!

Table Rock Lake level this morning is 918.2.  That is down about 4/10s of a foot from yesterday morning.  Ten flood gates are still running as well as the four generators.  Hope the projection of turning off the flood gates holds as that will probably happen late today or sometime tomorrow.  Four generators are a lot easier to deal with without the ten flood gates!  Hate wasting all this beautiful weather on ten flood gates! 

Catching some fish from the boats and they are catching fish up around the outlets areas even with the high water.  Had one of our customers from Texas come in Monday as he had landed a 26 inch Rainbow up around outlet 1 on a tan size 16 scud.  A young man was catching several fish yesterday on a brown size 16 scud.  Brown seemed to be the color yesterday. 

Looks like Table Rock Lake is holding at 919 feet.  According to one of the biologist at the Hatchery, they plan to keep the flood gates open until Table Rock reaches 918.  We all know that is subject to change!  Anyway, even it they turn the gates off, we will still be faced with at least a couple of weeks with four generators going 24/7.  At least the weather forecast for this coming week is sunshine.  Hope we continue that trend for several weeks!

Darrell, Jim and Stan on the water yesterday with a group of guys from Columbia, MO.  It was a tough half day for all involved but at least everyone caught a few fish.  Hope for better conditions next time they visit us.  Water definitely dingy so they were fishing the bright colored San Juan worms, dropped below tungsten beadhead red midges.  Anything to attract some attention.  One of our customers who came into the shop yesterday said anything white was working up at the outlets.  We either had or have some shad coming over or through the dam.  They are catching some fish up there on white streamers, gray scuds, and San Juan worms.

Yes, they turned on the ten flood gates again this morning.  We had considerable rain last night and Table Rock had come up a foot by 7:30 this morning.  Expect we will see the flood gates for a few days while they try to get back to 916.  The rain appears to be gone.  It is actually sunny today!  Forecast for the next five days looks sunny too. 

Jim on the water Monday with Ralph, from Texas.  He has been with Jim since 2005.  The past three years, he has booked three days in a row.  Unfortunately, this year, he was a little under the weather Tuesday, but he was back on the fly rod Wednesday.  Just as well as Tuesday was a pretty soggy day. They had a couple of good days on the red midge with either an orange or pink San Juan worm dropper.  Tried throwing streamers on Wednesday, but the fish were not too interested in this pattern.  Caught a few, but not enough to stay with it.  Stan had Frank out of Michigan and Dean, I think from Texas, out for half a day.  Good fly fishers who wanted to get into some of the big browns, but the high water did not offer good conditions for finding these guys.  At least they had a fun day catching rainbows!

Carolyn started Vick and Priscila from Indiana out Tuesday for their first day of the two-day fly fishing school.  After spending the morning learning about equipment, bugs, and tying knots, they went to the water to learn how to cast.   Fortunately, Wednesday was a nice day to introduce them to techniques.  Vick has the casting down and is throwing a good loop with good distance.  Priscila is also throwing a good loop but needs a little more practice to get Vick’s distance.  However, when it comes to getting a good drift, Priscila has a natural "nack" for this.  We mainly worked on nymphing because of the water conditions, but they did get to throw some line and experience stripping, both with sinking line and in the film.  They are on their way to South Padre with their new gear where I hope they are practicing! 

Four generators continue to flow steadily at 8500 cfs with the tailwater level right at 707.8 feet.   Table Rock Lake is now at 917.4 feet and dropping.  We don’t need any more rain!  Yesterday it rained off and on all day with some bouts of total downpour.  One of those "feel like a drowned rat" days if you were on the water.  Today has had light periods of showers….nothing like yesterday yet, and, of coursse, overcast.  Expect more rain tonight and into tomorrow.  Hope we see the clearing and sunshine forecasted for Wednesday. 

Saturday did give us some sunshine and they shut down the flood gates!  Jim was out for a full day with Bob and his friend Rick.  Once the water settled down from the flood gates going off, it fished pretty steady.  They were boating fish on the red midge with a pink or orange San Juan worm, and a brown/black bug-eyed bugger.  Carolyn had Scott from Oklahoma out for an afternoon trip.  By the time they hit the water, it had really settled down and Scott had a real good day on the pink San Juan dropped below a ruby midge.  Water is still pretty dingy.

Sunday, Gina took a couple guys from Arkansas, Rob and Brad, out for a drift in the rain.  She said they had a little bit of everything, wind, sun, rain, and home made apple pie.  They caught fish on the ruby and burgundy midges, and the pink San Juan.  Darrell’s folks, Bruce and Sara, from the Lee’s Summit, MO. area caught  their fish on the pink San Juan dropped from the red midge.

Flood gates continue to run and we are now down to 918.0 feet this morning.  Yesterday was a rainy, cool day.  Today is overcast and drizzling.  Not going to get out of the 40s!  Hopefully, we will see sunshine tomorrow and Sunday. 

Stan had Jeff, from Oklahoma on the water Wednesday.  Trip yesterday decided they wanted to stay dry!  Jeff and Stan had a good day on the red San Juan worm and the red midge.  Jeff does a lot of bass fishing and his hook set reflected this.  Think he might be going after trout a little more.  He did have a good one on but lost it (that ‘s what they said!). 

Talking to several people the past few days who have been fishing up around the outlets.  It has been a mixed bag.  One day they are catching pretty good numbers of smaller fish, next time it is larger ones, but not as many.  Red San Juan worms, wine colored San Juan worms, size 12 and larger gray sow bugs, and brown scuds are some of the patterns people are using to catch fish up there.