Rain!  This is becoming the bad four letter word in my vocabulary.  We had rain today but are expecting a reprieve for tomorrow with only a 20% chance of stray showers or thunderstorms during the day.  Thursday and Friday are both looking like 100% chances for rain.  At one time I heard we could get from 4-6 inches

Around 2:00 p.m. today Table Rock opened 8 of the flood gates about one foot.  That, along with the two generators, they are releasing approximately 14,400 cfs .  Depending on the amounts of rain, especially that affecting Beaver Lake, they might increase the release flow to 20,000 cfs later this week.

Saturday, Stan took Paul from Kansas out for half a day.  Pretty good day for Paul on the big ruby with the ruby 2 dropper.

Yesterday, Dana had Terry from Defiance, MO on the water for half a day.  Terry has been fishing with us since 2002.   Not a bad day for them on the red San Juan worm or the ruby 2.  Finny from Texas spent the morning with Carolyn.  He was really hoping for a big fish, but best I could drum up with a pretty 16″ rainbow.  Big ruby, ruby 2 and red San Juan worm were our patterns.  Stan had Tom, also from Texas, out all day.  They had a good day on the big ruby, ruby 2 and holographic green crackleback.   Darrell spent Monday and half of Tuesday on the river with

Malcolms pretty rainbow – 6/16/15

Malcolm and Ed from St. Louis area.  Good fishing for these guys on the big ruby and ruby 2.  I think the highlight of everyone’s day was spotting two young eagles.  At one time they were sitting on a downed tree near the river.  Earlier in the day, one of them was actually sitting on the roof of one of Windham’s condos and the other in a tree a little ways downstream.

Young Eagles – 6/15/15

Hot is the theme today.  At noon it is 88 degrees and climbing.  After today, we are looking at 80s through the week and back into the 90s for the weekend.  The other equation is 50% chances of rain almost every day through Wednesday.  Look at the bright side…..50% chances for no rain!  Rain, if we get it tomorrow, should wait until the afternoon.

Making the adjustments to no flood gates.  Water has been off each morning since the gates shut down.  The first full day it was off, they turned on two units around 8:00 a.m.   Yesterday it was 8:00 a.m. and today it was 10:00 a.m.

Jim out with Dave and his son Dave from Louisiana on Tuesday.  Both are pretty new to fly fishing, but learned a lot and caught some fish on the ruby 2 under the big ruby and

Aaron – 6/9/15

stripping the JQ streamer.  Darrell’s guy, Aaron is from Colorado and looks like he fishes a lot.  Very good day for him on the JQ streamer and ruby 2 midge.

Gina’s Wednesday regular, Jim, wanted to do something different for a change, so they went to a lake in Arkansas and fished all day on a 3 weight rod for bluegill and green sunfish.  How about this nice one?

Jim with green sunfish – 6/10/15

Yes, the flood gates were shut down this morning just a little before 8:00 a.m.  Still have two generators running.  They said they would use the two generators to get Table Rock back to power pool of 917. The generation schedule for tomorrow is off until 7:00 a.m. then two units on until 9:00 p.m.

Hot is the word for temperatures right now.  90 is predicted for today and the rest of the week looks like 80s to 90s all the way through the weekend.  Our rain chances for Monday have backed off a little…only 40% chance now with possibility of scattered showers in the a.m.  Next weekend is looking like 50-60% chance of showers.

Flood gates are still open, but rumor has it that once Table Rock gets to around 917 feet, they might shut off the flood gates.  Since 917 is power pool this time of the year, we might also see no generators unless there is a demand for power.  And, with the temperatures the way they are right now, we will probably have some power demands somewhere.

Fishing continues to be good.  Darrell on the water for half a day yesterday with Greg and Dennis from Texas.  Very good day for these guys on the rusty midge under the big ruby.  Scott and “Rizzo” were on the water with Jim again.  They had fished with him Friday.  Another good day on the hot hare’s ear or copperhead black zebra midges under the ruby.  Stan had an afternoon half day trip with Lance and his son, Matthew.  They are from Texas but Matthew is attending college in Columbia. MO.  Good day for these new fly fishers on the ruby 2 under the big ruby.

Love this dry spell.  Looks like nothing of major concern until this coming Monday when there is an 80% chance of showers and thunderstorms.  We can always hope they disappear.  Next week looks like a little more chance for rain scatter throughout the week.

And the flood gates and two generators saga continue.  No change in sight right now.

Fishing continues to be good.  Roger and Gary from Colorado were on the water for half a day with Stan on Wednesday.  Good day for these two on the usual big ruby and ruby 2 or P&P dropper.  The fish are really starting to lay up in their normal high-water spots.  Jim had John from Arizona out all day.  They had a very good day on his regular patterns, ruby with hot hare’s ear or ruby 2 dropper.  John brought a nice 21 incher to the boat.

Gary – 6/4/15

Gary was surprised when he got on the river with Stan Thursday to find this good of fishing in Missouri!   Good day for him on the big ruby with the ruby 2 or P&P dropper.  Darrell had Lee and Steve from Oklahoma out for half a day.  They thought they would mix up

Steve – 6/4/15

their golfing with a little bit of fishing.  Good day for these guys too.   If I remember correctly, Steve is pretty new, if not brand new to fly fishing.  Carolyn had

Jim – 6/4/15

Jim from Arkansas out all day.  Very good day for Jim.  Some hookups but lots of misses stripping the JQ streamer on the 3.9 ips sinking leader.  Most of the fish were on the ruby 2 dropper in most cases either from the big ruby or a peach egg pattern.  We actually caught one fat female full of eggs!  Jim pulled this nice 17 inch bow almost off he bank.  Sorry the picture really doesn’t do him (the fish) justice.  He was beautiful!

Looks like we might have two or three sunny days in store for us.  Saturday’s forecast is for morning showers with temperatures in the upper 80s.  Ugh.  Sounds hot and humid to me.  Next week is looking “ify” with 60% chances of rain for Monday through Thursday.

We continue to see ten flood gates and the two generators.  No major changes in the water flows.  Table Rock Lake is holding at 919 feet.

Rod – 5/31/15

Jim and Stan on the water Sunday with a group from here in Missouri.  Stan took Rod and Barry.  Barry has fished with him before and could hardly wait and see what we did with ten flood gates open.  Ha! Good day for the guys on the big ruby and ruby 2 dropper

Barry – 5/31/15

Jim’s guys, Gene and Aaron are fairly new to fly fishing, and they had a whole lot of instruction while catching fish on the ruby, hot hare’s ear, and bug eye bugger.

Tuesday, Jim and Paul from Kansas spent the morning on the water with Jim  Very good day for these guys on the big ruby with the little ruby

Mike – 6/2/15

dropper or the hot hare’s ear.  Darrell’s guys, Mike and Jeff had a great day with the big ruby, ruby 2 and copperhead black zebra midge.  Can you tell these two guys are brothers?

Jeff- 6/2/15

Ken and Tom fished with Stan most of the day.  Yep, the usual patterns, big ruby and ruby 2 dropper.  If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.  They are working!  Tom even pulled out a nice brown.

Tom – 6/2/15

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!