Looks like we might see several days of no rain!  Yeah!  By the weekend, there is an increased chance for rain on Saturday, with slight chances for next Sunday and through the early part of next week.  Cross your fingers.

Lots of water moving down the river.  Beaver is making very little headway in dropping.  They are just barely a half foot under flood pool.  Table Rock is now at 919 feet and still flowing ten flood gates and two generators.  Bull Shoals is about ten feel above power pool but they still have room to go.  We need a long spell of no rain so all the lakes can get drained and back to normal.

Gary and Bob from Oklahoma spent last Thursday on the water with Stan.  Worked hard but they caught fish on the big ruby with the ruby 2 dropper.  Sam, Vickie and John spent a second day on the water.  This time Sam was with Darrell and Vickie and John fished again with Carolyn.  Pretty much the same combination of big ruby & ruby 2

Stephen – 5/28/15

dropper.  Dana had Stephen and his son, Gyer out for morning.  Dana had them on the red d-ribbed midge with a ruby 2 dropper.  I’m not certain if they fished or Dana was getting all the information he could from Gyer after Dana discovered Gyer was a sushi chef in the Kansas City area. 

Ten Gates – 5/27/15

Opened up the other two flood gates this past Wednesday.  Not a major increase in flow, but we definitely know it is a little heavier than it was with just the eight.   We will see a continuation of water flow, whether it just be from the generators or a combination of generators and flood gates for some time.

Rain chances again today and tomorrow and then I think we have three days that look dry!  That would certainly be nice so we could get caught up on dumping the lakes!  With all the rain it hard to get ahead of the game.

Another great day for Jim who was out with Gina this past Wednesday.  Beautiful 17 inch rainbow.  Black copperhead midge in the morning and then the

Jim – 5/27/15

ruby 2 in the afternoon.  They were on the water when all ten gates opened up.  Didn’t hurt Jim’s fishing any and it turned out to be a beautiful day.  Stan had one of his regular regulars out too.  Gene, from Kansas, made his annual visit to fish Taneycomo.  I think this is the most water he has seen as I don’t think he missed the year of the flood in 2011.  They had a good day on the ruby 2 dropped from a peach egg pattern.  Don and Tim from Virginia spent the morning with Jim.  First time for Tim so he spent part of his time learning the “how’s”.  Good day for these guys on the ruby/ruby combination or the hot hare’s ear dropper.

Flood Gates – 5/25/15

Getting rain off and on this week, but so far, we have still been able to get onto the river as the rain has been very early or late at night.  Looking at 60% chances for rain Thursday through the weekend.  We’ll just have to wait and see.

Since Beaver Lake is very close to flood pool, Beaver has opened up their two generators which dump into Table Rock.  This, along with all the rain we have been having warrants all four generators going at Table Rock.  Unfortunately, the two units which were down a couple weeks ago are still off line.  Thus the eight flood gates.  Probably will see them open for a while to compensate for the off two units.  If you call the information number on the amount of generators going and the cfs flow, they only give you information on the generators.  They do not report on the amount of water is flowing through the flood gates.   You can always give us a call if you have a question.

Stan on the river the first day they opened the flood gates, Monday, with Tom from Nebraska.  Not a great day, but they had a good day on the big ruby with the ruby 2 dropper.  With all this water moving, Tom had a good day of exercising his skill in mending.

Yesterday, we had Sam, from the St. Louis area, and his friends Vickie and Tom who recently moved to Springfield out for half a day.  Stan kept Sam busy catching fish on the big ruby with the ruby 2 dropper or a peach egg pattern with the ruby 2 dropper.  They also caught a few on the holographic green crackleback.  Vickie and Tom were with Carolyn.  This is Vickie’s second time with a fly rod and all this current was challenging.  But she persevered and caught here first and several other fish on a fly rod yesterday.

Tom – 5/26/15

Vickie’s patterns were the big ruby and a cerise San Juan worm dropper.  Same rig was also working for Tom.

A light sprinkle yesterday morning, but pretty nice the rest of the day.  This morning we had some rain.  Looks like it has areas of clearing right now, but I think we will see more rain latter and maybe a good amount of it.  Cross your fingers…..we don’t need any more rain!

Two units yesterday and again today.  Looks like again on Monday.  We are close to power pool.  Depending on the rain, we might see a light at the end of the tunnel by next weekend.

Jim & 20″ rainbow – 5/20/15

How about this nice 20 inch rainbow Jim caught while out with Gina on Wednesday?  Yuckie day, but fishing was good.  Ruby 2, black copperhead midge and egg pattern were their flies for the day.  They had it all, rain in the a.m. and wind in the afternoon, but fishing made it worth it!

Bill and Genet spent the afternoon with Stan yesterday.  Nice brown and several rainbows made it two their boat.  Big ruby with the ruby 2

Genet – 5/22/15

dropper.  Of course!

Cool and wet so far today.  Supposed to clear up this afternoon. Tomorrow looks like a nice day with temperatures in the upper 60s and sunshine!  Slight chance for showers on Friday; increasing for the weekend.  60% on Saturday and 50% on Sunday.  Next week temperatures go from upper 70s into the 80s but up and down chances for showers all week.

Still running a solid two generators every day.  Nice thing is that the fish are where they should be.  Bad thing is it makes for difficult wading.

Gary – 5/18/15

Darrell on the river Monday with Gary from Oklahoma.  Very good day for Gary on the ruby 2 and P&P midges. Good quality as well as quantity of fish to the boat.  Ed, from Arkansas, spent half a day with Stan.  They too had very good day.  Ruby 2 under the big ruby most of the trip were their patterns.  Kept threating storms all day, but both trips pulled it off

Will – 5/19/15

Awesome grandsons, and wonderful grandparents were Gina and Carolyn’s treats to take out on Tuesday.  Kathi and Bill took Will and Ryan out for a day of fly fishing.  The young men had both done a little fly fishing several years ago, but with all their other activities, you know how that

Ryan – 5/19/15

goes….so this was a day of dusting off the cobwebs for them.  Bill and Will were with Gina and they fished a big ruby with a ruby 2 dropper most of the day.  Carolyn had Kathi and

Ryan.  It was the copperhead black zebra under the big ruby most of our day.  Obviously, it didn’t take the

Kathi – 5/19/15

guys very long to get with it.  It was a catching day for everyone.  And again, nice quality fish.  Several 16 inchers as well as a few 17 to 17+ inchers.

Bill – 5/19/15

Thunder boomers early this morning and sounded like lots of rain.  So far, it is looking pretty good for the rest of the day.  Slight chances for rain tomorrow and Tuesday looks like a dry day!  Yeah!  60% chance Wednesday, then slight chances Thursday and Friday.  Back to 50% by the weekend.

Two units all weekend and projected again tomorrow.  Although we are slightly below power pool right now, with the rain we received this morning, we will probably be above power pool tomorrow.  We’ll just have to see what they do with the water this coming week.

Trips out the past couple days.  Darrell took Dave and Jeff, from

Lee – 5/15/15

Kansas out Friday.  Very good day for these guys on the ruby 2 and JQ streamer.  Stan and his guy, Lee, also have a very good day on the ruby 2 under the big ruby.

Saturday was a drenching day.  We not only had one downpour, but a couple more.  Thank goodness the fish don’t care.  Several of us did however.   Stan had Bill and Jason out for the morning.  Another good day on the big ruby with the ruby 2 dropper.  Ed from Kansas, spent the morning on the river with Darrell.  Ruby 2 again and

Ed – 5/16/15

the JQ streamer.   Dana and Carolyn had a group from here in Missouri.  Dana took Nick and Gary and Carolyn had Tyler and Jim.  Good day and good time had by all on the ruby 2, red midge, peach egg and red San Juan worm.

Little damp this morning.  Light rain which should be gone later this morning.  However, slight chances all day.  Tomorrow we again have chances of rain….best chances are early afternoon.  More of the same for Sunday.   By Monday we are looking at very little chance for rain and Tuesday looks perfect.  Sunshine and mid 70s.  Back to 60% chances for Wednesday and Thursday, and possibly into the weekend.

Well, they turned the eight flood gates off around 3:00 p.m. yesterday.  Table Rock is at 917.0  What they ran with the flood gates was equivalent to a good, healthy four generators!  Today they have a full two generators going.

Stan and Jim both on the water yesterday.  Good day for everyone.  Jim had Billy, from Illinois out for half a day.  Good day for them on the big ruby, hot hare’s ear in a size 14, and the copperhead black

J – 5/15/15

midge.  Stan had “J” from North Carolina.  J is pretty new at fly fishing so this was a baptism by fire. J was catching on the big ruby, the ruby 2, and a peach egg pattern.

Beautiful day today and we expect to see another nice one tomorrow.  Unfortunately, the forecast is showing a 60-70% chance of showers through Sunday.  We don’t need any more rain!

Until this past Saturday, we saw one unit come on in the afternoon and a few days one in the morning for an hour and then off all day.  Good wading time.  Sunday they turned on two units around 9:00 a.m. and they never went off.  Today they opened up 8 flood gates.  During the storms this weekend, they lost a transformer differential and can’t generate power with two units.  Since the lake is predicted to crest at 918 msl, they are required to release 15,000 cfs.  Since they can only pass about 7000 through units 1 & 2, they will be spilling approximately 8000 cfs through the spillway.  It will probably be several days before we get back to some form of normal.

Jim on the water last Thursday with David & Gary from Oklahoma.  Good day for these guys on the ruby and P&P midges, and the hot hare’s ear nymph.

Thursday they spent half a day on the water with Darrell.  Another good day.  This time on the rusty and ruby 2 midges.  Jim had Tom from the Kansas City area out for half a day.  They worked the JQ streamer, the ruby midge and the hot hare’s ear nymph.

Pam – 5/10/15

Saturday was the first day of a two-day school for Glenn and Pam from Kansas.  Looked like rain Saturday afternoon, so we started the day at a pond learning the roll cast and pick up and lay down casts.  We beat out the rain which came while we were inside doing the classroom learning of gear, knots and bugs.

As we launched the boat on Sunday to do the second day of school, the

Glenn – 5/10/15

horn went off so we knew we were going to see a little water.  No problem, they have only been running it for an hour in the morning then shutting it down.  NOT!  Sunday was the beginning of non-stop generation for a while.  We rigged up quickly to fish the rise with some red San Juan worms and drifted to the Lookout Island.  Let’s learn something while we are out here in all this water, so we got out of the boat and did some streamer fishing.  JQ streamer on the 2.6 ips sinking leader gave both of them an opportunity to catch fish stripping.  Looked at radar around noon and decided it was time to get on down the river.  Too late.  By 12:30 I think the sky opened up!  Anyway, school will reconvene on another, hopefully, sunny and dry day.

Danielle – 5/11/15

Stan on the water Monday with Danielle and Jesse from Texas.  These fairly new fly fishers had a very good day on the big ruby with a ruby 2 dropper.  Two units on at 6500 cfs made for a good drift.  They loved it.

Jesse – 5/11/15

Lorelei – 5/12/15

Tom and Lorelei from Wisconsin decided they wanted to try fly fishing.  What a day to pick to do that!  Little did we know the flood gates would open up on Tuesday.  Despite the adverse conditions, they both managed to bring several fish to the boat.  Plus, they had a great time.

Tom – 5/12/15

Not on the water today.  We are sitting a day out so the water can stabilize.  We fished the water successfully during the 2011 flood and know that it does fish, but gets better after it stabilizes and the fish move into their comfort zones.

We have seen no generation every day this week.  Only one unit on for about an hour any time from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.  Not sure what this weekend will bring, but expect to see little, if any, generation.

Rain forecast yesterday, and we did receive a little, yesterday late morning.  We have rain forecast again today.  There was a chance this morning, but so far, nothing.  They sky keeps looking nasty then changing its mind.  The prediction was for rain this morning, then clearing.  Best chances for more today are right around sunset.  Friday and Saturday have an 80% chance of rain.  Sunday and Monday look like 60% with Tuesday dry.  Slight chances Wednesday, but Thursday has a 70% chance.  As always, this has been a moving target.

Scheryl – 5/2/15

Fishing has been a moving target too.  Some days are better than others, but overall, folks are catching fish.  Last Saturday, Stan took Matt & Scheryl, from Lee’s Summit out for half a day.  This was their first time fly fishing and they had a great time.  Ruby 2 and copperhead black zebra midges.

Matt – 5/2/15

Bill, from Protem, spent Sunday morning on the water with Carolyn,.  He wanted to get a better feel for places to fish and what works best where.  Best patterns were the holographic green crackleback and/or JQ streamer with the 2.6 ips sinking leader.  Also did well on the ruby 2 dropped below a black zebra midge.  Mission accomplished.  He got a better feel for the

Bill – 5/3/15

various places he can try.  Darrell had Jack, from Indiana, out Sunday and again on Tuesday.  They did well on the holographic green crackleback trailing the JQ streamer.  Jack has fished for steelhead over the years and this was fun for him.

Wednesday it was a group from Texas.  Dana had Ray and Richard out for the morning.  Their patterns

Ray – 5/6/15

were the ruby 2, copperhead black midge and white grub.   The other two guys from Texas were Lester and Mike.  They fished with Stan and had a great day on the black copperhead midge and white grub.  With no water running, everyone opted to stay high and it certainly was a good decision.

Richard – 5/6/15