Weather over the weekend was great!  50s Friday, 60s Saturday and 50s again today.  Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and we are taking a nose dive tomorrow.  Artic cool down coming our way which will cool Monday down into the low to maybe mid 30s.  Tuesday will be a little warmer….low 40s; Wednesday mid 50s, and a slight chance of rain by Thursday with the high approaching 50.  Next weekend is looking cool again, low to mid 30s. 

Generation was also great this weekend.  A little spike Friday morning then no generation the rest of Friday, all day Saturday and so far, all day today.  Projection for tomorrow is one generator for seven hours starting at 5:00 a.m.  Should be off in the afternoon. 

The two guys from Texas, Dean and his son, Todd, who spent a 29 degree day on the water with Stan last Tuesday fished again with him on Thursday.  What a difference!  Temperature in mid 40s.  They were ready to start shedding layers.  Very good day fishing for them also.  Doubled their number from the first trip, much better weather and they got to pull the CQ streamer.  Also caught some early in the trip on the copper dun midge.

Jim on the water yesterday with Rudy from the St. Louis area.  They had a  good day stripping the size 10 CQ streamer.  

Talked to several folks who fished this weekend and it sounds like it was a very good catching weekend.  Lots of different patterns were working which include the holographic green crackleback both stripping under an intermediate sinking leader or line, the size 12 olive filoplume (also on the sinking leader), P&P midge, olive midge, black scud, tan scuds, olive soft hackle, gray or black WD40.  Quite a list.  I did talk to some fishers who felt the upper area around the hatchery was not fishing as well as the area from just above the boat ramp on down.  The Kerrs from Louisiana were here yesterday and fished all day.  They had a great day on the olive or P&P midges, the olive filoplume and the holographic crackleback.  You should have been here this weekend!

Weather earlier this week was COLD.  But, we are seeing a warming trend into the weekend, then back to the mid 30s by Monday!  Today should be in the mid 40s and tomorrow into the low 50s, with Saturday in the mid to upper 50s with sunshine every day.     

Spastic generation schedule over the past three days.  Some no generation  time yesterday, but they ran generation all day Tuesday.  It was low enough Tuesday in the afternoon, however, that you could wade in some places and definitely catch fish.    Today was projected to be off all day, but I see we have some generation going this morning, holding it at 704 average.

Stan on the water Tuesday afternoon (think the high was 32 degrees!) with two fly fishers from Texas, Dean and his son Todd.  Fished and caught on the copper dun midge steadily all afternoon.  We’ll see what they catch on today as they are going out again this afternoon.

Gary, from the shop, and several other folks out fishing yesterday and having a wonderful day.  Gsary was catching on the holographic green crackleback trailing behind the CQ streamer.  Hit the crackleback for a while then focused in mainly on the CQ.  Dave and his friend from the Kansas City area did well on the CQ as well as an olive mohair leech he ties.

COLD is the word to describe today.  It bounced between 15 and 17 degrees on my car temperature reader this morning on my way to work.  BUT, the forecast says we will warm up.  Today’s high will be low 30s, but tomorrow upper 30s, Wednesday and Thursday, mid to upper 40s.  by Friday and Saturday we will probably see 50s again!  Yeah! 

Lots of no generation days.  Last Wednesday and Thursday they ran all bay both days.  Other than that, the only generation we have seen for a week is one generator on this morning for a few hours…..at least that is the projection.

Last trip we had out was last week and Stan had Doc and his friend Les, from Oklahoma out for the day.  They caught several fish, but felt it was not the normal grrreat day they usually get.  However, a good time (as they always do) was had by all.  Red midge, ruby midge and primrose & pearl midge seemed to be the patterns for them. 

Talked Have been talking to several brave souls who have been fishing the past few days and they are seeing quite a few nice rainbows.  Think the McCloud strain is showing up in our rainbows right now and they are in or going into their spawn as several of the males caught have been “milking”.  The rainbows they are catching are nice, 19-20 inches, and beautifully colored.  Heard of two or three fishers who have hooked some even larger.  Bundle up and get out there.  It might be worth it.  Red seems to be the magic color right now, red midges and red soft hackles.  One fisher did do well the other day stripping the CQ streamer.  Stan had a trip today, but they mutually agreed that it would be nicer tomorrow afternoon and Thursday afternoon!  Good move!

What a beautiful New Year’s Day.  Some time after 1:00 p.m. we had soft, white (of course) snow falling onto the river.  How pretty!  Did get a little cold, but it was worth it.  Today the sun is shining and we expect to hit the upper 30s.  The same predictions for Thursday and Friday.  By this weekend, looks like we might be in the mid 40s Saturday and lower 40s Sunday.  Next week looks like lower to mid 50s!  Sunshine into Wednesday and by Thursday there is a slight chance of moisture. 

Generation has pretty nice to us since the day after Christmas. No generation Sunday, but a little generation late Monday afternoon.  Tuesday we had a low one for about 3-4 hours in the morning then nothhing the balance of the day.  Today we had about a 1-2 hour shot of water and now it is off…as projected until this afternoon. 

Jay from Ashland, spent a 1/2 day on the water with Stan Monday.  What a lovely it was…overcast and raining and temperatures in the lower 30s.  Fortunately, the fish didn’t care.  They had a good day first on the rusty midge.  Once the fish got tired of this pattern, he switched to the black midge with the copper head.  When this one wore out it’s welcome, they finished up the midging with the copper dun.  Fish were emerger feeding and they also brought in a few on the dark olive soft hackle. 

RRWFFC Crazy women - 1/1/13

New Year’s Day, a few of the hard-core ladies from the River Runners Women’s Fly Fishing Club hit the water around 11:00 a.m.  (we wanted the heat of the day!)  What a fun day!  These fish love soft hackles in the snow.  Trout Mum was fishing a black zebra soft hackle, and Joker had caught some on the black copper head midge.  She then changed out to a soft hackle and caught several more.  Pyro and Happy Hooker were fishing the rusty soft hackle after trying other patterns that didn’t work so well.  Not sure what Let’s Go was fishing!  But what a great start to the New Year.

Happy New Year - 1/1/13

Pretty nice day today, with temperatures forecast for the low 40s.  At this time, I think we will make it.  Tomorrow looks like mid 30s with pretty good chances for some type of moisture in the form of rain and or snow.  After we get through that, a colder New Year’s day in the low 30s and then we will creep back up to the upper 30s and 40s by the coming weekend. 

Great generation schedule the past two days.  No generation.  However, they did fire up one generator yesterday morning for a short period of time then shut it off.  So far today, they are following the published schedule.  According to the schedule, it should be off all day tomorrow. 

Weather has been cold, but fishing has been good.  I think it should really be classified as very good.  Everyone who has been brave enough to venture out has been catching fish.   The nice thing is that they are catching several fish in a couple hours so it’s not such a bad deal to quit after just a couple hours in the water.  Go warm up and hit it again.

Carolyn was out for a half day Friday with Jay and his son, Tucker.  Both are brand new, so we started with the roll cast, a little work on the pick up and lay down cast, line handling and playing a fish.  Tucker’s first or second drift resulted in a fish.  Good start for these two guys.  We never changed patterns from the size 18 copper dun midge.  It was pretty overcast Friday.  Tucker may have caught the slightly largest fish, but Jay passed him in number of fish. 

Saturday, Stan helped Scott, from Illinois celebrate his 58th birthday.  They had a great day catching fish and finished up drinking hot coffee and eating Scott’s birthday cake.

Looked like we were in for some snow, but as it turned out, not a flake in the area.  It is, however, cold!   Especially compared to what it was just 3-4 days ago.  High today is predicted to be 35.  With the sunshine we are seeing, we’ll probably hit that.  Tomorrow and Friday should be in the low 40.  Slight chance for some moisture, either rain or snow Friday.  chances, at this time, are no more than 30%.  Saturday looks sunny with a high in the mid 30s and Sunday might hit the mid 40s and partly sunny.  New Year’s eve day and New Years day both look like low 40s, again with slight chances for precipitation.   Okay, I’m ready for Spring!

Now, what can we say about the generation?  Have seen no generation since Sunday at midnight.  It was off all day Monday, Tuesday and the projection for today is no generation until 5:00 p.m today for four hours.  Then, off again. 

Brad - 12/23/12

No reports on fishing for the past two days, but Sunday was very good.  Gina had Dale and his friend  Brad on the water for half a day.  They had a very good day on the red midge, a size 18 Primrose & Pearl midge and the CQ streamer and filoplume.  The later two were being stripped on a sinking leader.  Other folks I talked to that day and some who had been fishing on Saturday also said fishing was very good on almost anything they wanted to throw. 

Dale - 12/23/12

 Some of the guys fishing below the fish ladder had a great day pulling olive wooly buggers.  Indications are that the lake has turned.  Oxygen levels in the tailwater are very good.

Weather looks pretty good until next week.  Christmas day will be in the 40s and there is even a chance of snow….just in time for Christmas.  Otherwise, we are looking at 50s and 60s and very little chance of moisture.

Generation was off most of Saturday.  Sunday they ran something all day.  First low in the early a.m. then ramped it up for a while and up and down, etc..etc.  Today they did pretty much what they projected.  Some (3 hours) generation this morning and now it is off.  Should be off most of the day. 

Jim and Stan on the water Saturday with Jim, and his son, Brandon, and their friends, Tom and Connie.  Awesome day.  Lots of fish and lots of fun.  Both boats pretty much caught everything on the holographic green crackleback (early in the day) and finished off the afternoon strippipng the CQ streamer.  Everything was stripped on a sinking fly line or leader.  Also caught a few on the Primrose & Pearl midge.  The only downside of the day was the wind.  35 mph at times, but didn’t hurt…probably helped the fishing.   Several customers came into the shop that day complaining of aching arms from catching too many fish!

Stan on the water the next day with Nathan and Jeff from Texas.  Low generation in the early morning, then they cranked it up to two just about the time they hit the water.  Needless to say, it was not fishing like the day before, but they did catch fish.  Best patterns were the CQ, and the big ruby with the red midge dropper.  Jeff was new to fly fishing, but certainly caught fish.  Nate has been fishing for a while.

Although it has been overcast the past two days, the weather was great, especially for this time of the year.  Very nice yesterday with temperatures comfortably in the upper 50s and very little wind.  About the same this morning, but it is after noon and it seems to be cooling down a little.  We had rain early this morning with thunder and lightening.  Prediction for tomorrow is mid to upper 30s for the high and low 20s for the low.  Shiver!  Tuesday, mid 40s and back into the 50s Wednesday with mid to upper 50s Thursday and Friday and low 60s for Saturday.  No rain in the forecast. 

Lots of wading time Friday.  They ran the equivalent of one generator for about an hour last in the day.  Saturday, we had one generator then two generators and then off some time after noon.  Today it has been a low one generator most of the day, with a low two mixed in for good measure for a short period of time around 1:00 p.m. 

Kevin and his friend Steve, from Sullivan, MO. were on the water all day Saturday with Jim.  Both of them have fished with him several times before, like once a year.  They had a fun filled fishing day catching on the CQ streamer, red San Juan corm and the copper headed black midge.  Jim says they “set a record for missed and lost fish!”  But they definitely did their fair share of bringing in some fish.  Darrell and Carolyn had the Kerrs from Louisiana on the water for a full half day.  We all did well on the copper headed black zebra, the mouse gray sculpin, a white midge , and the white grub.  A good time was had by all!

Okay, we have a couple more nice December days and then the cold snap moves in.  Today and Saturday will be in the 60s and Sunday in the upper 50s.  Yuk moves in Monday when the high will be mid 30s.  40s on Tuesday, moving into the upper 40s Wednesday and back into the 50s by Thursday.  Better get out and enjoy this weekend!

With the spastic generation we had Wednesday and Thursday, there is a slight possibility the water will be off for the weekend.  they ran one to two, even three generators all day for the past two days and half a day on Tuesday.  Today, the projection is for a very low one generator for three hours this morning then off until 6:00 p.m. when we might get one generator for a couple hours.

Jim on the water yesterday with Jim and Jack from Springfield area.  Jack is new to fly fishing, so Jim took him under his wing and has him casting and catching now.  Says he still needs to work on his false cast.  They had a good day on the creek (Taneycomo) catching on the CQ streamer, a copperhead black zebra midge and a red San Juan worm. 

Had folks coming into the shop during the week who were doing very well on the P&P midge.  Of course, most of this week has been nice and sunny.  Sending fishers out today with the rusty and copperhead black midges.

What beautiful weather!  Even last week was nice, but the first two days of December are great.  Yesterday was in the upper 60s, and today and tomorrow will be in the lower 70s.  It was partly cloudy yesterday and again today.  We did have some wind yesterday!  Light winds predicted for today and a slight chance of scattered thunderstorms for tomorrow.  Tuesday through Thursday is predicted in the low 60s, with upper 50s by Friday through the weekend.  Right now there looks like a chance of showers by next Friday.

Generation has continued to be kind to the waders during this past week….even yesterday (Saturday).  Today is another story.  They are running the equivalent of one generator today, as projected.  However, they projected one generator all day yesterday and it was off most of the day.  Projection for tomorrow is one generator for a couple hours in early morning, then off the rest of the day until about 5:00 p.m.  Cross your fingers.

Stan on the water half a day with George from Bennett Springs.  They had a very good day on the P&P and ruby midges.  Just a little cool that day, so the thermos of hot soup hit the spot!

Charlie and Pete spent half a day with Jim Friday.  Another very good day.  Their patterns were the size 10 CQ streamer, an 18 rusty midge and the blood midge.  This was Pete’s first time fly fishing, so it was more instructional for him.  Shannon and Carolyn ventured out for a couple hours Friday afternoon.  He did well on his “hot hare’s ear” nymph.  Carolyn was pulling a mouse grey sculpin.  Probably missed more than I brought in!  Too nice a day not to go out for a little while.