What a wonderful sound…..rain.  We had a little rain Monday, some scattered showers Tuesday and another shower again today.  Expect to see more today and into tomorrow.  Temperatures has been in the upper 80s and mid 90s.  With the rain, of course, it is a bit humid.  Generation pattern was off Friday until 2:00 p.m.; off Saturday and Sunday except for a couple hours around 2:00-3:00 in the afternoon.  Monday they did runn a low two generators all day, yesterday it was off until 1:00  and today the projection is for it to be off until 3:00 p.m. or so.  Getting lots of wading time in the mornings and for those night owls, late at night or very early in the a.m.  Think we will continue to see the pattern similar to this unless we get a lot of rain.

Darrell had Malcom and one of his friends, Larry on the water Saturday.  They are both members of the  Fly fishing Club in the St. Louis area.  They had a good day on the water with the size 18 black zebra and primrose & pearl midges.  Also caught several on the peach egg pattern.   Nice fish guys!

Malcolm – 8/28/10	Larry – 8/28/10

Evelyn – 18" rainbow

Monday brought an overcast sky, a bit of wind, and two generators running low.  Jim, Stan and Carolyn were on the water for half a day with a group, most of whom were here for a meeting.  Stan had Andy and Chris.  Andy is from Branson and Chris is from Tennessee.  Both these guys are fly fishers.  Jim had two brand new to fly fishing guys, David from Texas and Ed, who is also from Tennessee.  Carolyn had Pat and Evelyn, both from Branson area.  Pat has been fly fishing for a while, but had not touched her fly rod for over a year and Evelyn was new to the sport.  Lots of hits, catching, missing, and tangles.  Flies of the day were the black zebra with either a blood worm or copper dun midge dropper, the purple and red midges, and a black wooly bugger.   Evelyn’s first time with a fly rod was rewarded with a nice 18 inch rainbow that she nailed on a size 14 black wooly bugger. 

Certainly has been nice getting up in the morning and heading to work in 50 degree temperatures.  Warming up a bit during the day into the low to mid 90s, but absolutely refreshing early in the mornings on the water!  Expect to see temperatures a little warmer than 50s for the low this week, but upper temperatures appear to be in the mid 90s or lower.  Have had some wind the past three days, but we can handle that!   Last Sunday we have off water until 2:00p.m. when they ran the equivalent of two generators for less than two hours.  Off the balance of the day into Monday where they turned on four generators and kept them running six hours or better.  Once they turned down the generation, they kept pretty much a low flow all week.  Thursday at midnight they turned them until around 2:00 p.m. Friday, they turned on the equivalent of three until 9:00 p.m. Friday.  For the wade fishers Saturday, we did not get generatiaon until around 3:00 p.m. and it was scheduled for only a couple hours and should be off tonight.  Pretty much the same pattern for Sunday, but we expect to see at least the equivalent of one generator all day Monday.

Last Sunday, Jim had Cooper from here in Branson and Tom out for a half day float.  Cooper has been out with Jim several time so Jim works on different techniques each time they go out.  This time it was streamers and dries.  They had a good day on the black wooly bugger and a black ant. 

Wednesday Carolyn had Richard from Kansas in the shop for his first day of a two-day fly fishing school.  He worked on book learning in the morning; bugs, equipment, water reaching, knots, and stream etiquete.  After lunch, we went to the water to learn the basic casts; roll cast, pick up and lay down and started working on false casting and shooting line.  Thursday, he spent all day on the water with Stan where he applied the information he learned on Wednesday; tying his own knots, rigging for various presentation methods, recognizing hits, hooking and playing fish.  Richard had a good day on the water catching fish on the black zebra soft hackle, Primrose & Pearl midge, red midge.  Did do some streamer work with the filoplume, crackleback and olive wooly bugger.  Hits, misses……to be continued. 

Jennifer – 8/26/10

Friday, Carolyn on the water with Blake and Jennifer from Texas.  they had just finished the two-day school at Dogwood Canyon and wanted to apply their skills.   Sorry about the picture Jennifer.  Looks like there was a water drop on the camera lense.  Worked a little on casting, but mostly on catching.  Good day on the red midge, black wooly bugger and floozie.  Now they are going to practice a lot, right guys? and get ready for catching red fish on the fly rod. 

Saturday, Carolyn had Mary Ann and her cousin, Mary, aka "turkey" on the water for a long half day.  Good day on black zebra midge, Primrose & Pearl midge, black wooly bugger, floozie, and even the holoraphic green crackleback.  Mary Ann is a seasoned fly fisher.  Her cousin Mary has not picked up a fly rod for a couple years.  We worked on her casting a little, but  mostly, she worked on catching.  

Mary Ann – 8/27/10

Wow!  Did it feel great walking out of the house this morning.  Mid-sixty degree temperature.  High today will be in the upper 80s or lower 90s.  More to come.  Had the generators off yesterday morning, but sorry to day, they have two running this morning and the level at 7:30 a.m. was 704.5.  They will probably keep it here until early afternoon, which is sort of what they had projected…..not quite so high this morning, but we know how that goes.

Sunday was a pretty good fishing day.  Jim had Tom and Cooper out for a half day float.  They work on techniques, especially dries and streamers, so their primary patterns were the black wooly bugger and a black ant.  Had a fun day and did well.  Carolyn had Rick and Krirtsi, from the St. Louis area out, also for a half day float.  They are getting ready to go to Alaska, so Kristi wanted some work on her casting as well as catching fish.  We pulled a few fish on the natural, size 8 sculpin pattern and the olive floozie.  Kristi caught a nice 17-18 inch rainbow.  Beautiful colors.  She had the picture on her camera, and we will post it when she sends it to us.  Action not fast and furious on these patterns so we changed out to a size 20 black midge.  Don’t know how many fish we pulled out of the skinny water on the north bank below the Rockin Chair entrance.  Set the depth between 16 and 18 inches and wondered what was wrong if we had a drift and no hit. 

Weather forecast shows some relief from the heat.  Monday and Tuesday should be in the low 90s with Wednesday and Thursday in the upper 80s.  Forecast for humidity is also lower.  Most of the week, we had generators off most of the morning; coming on in the early afternoons.  Today it was off and they blew one horn at 3:00 p.m.  they are scheduled to run one for three hours today then back off.  Sunday looks pretty much like a duplicate pattern of today. 

Thursday, Stan took Diana from Independence out for a half day drift.  Diana is another lady who fell in love with fly fishing after a full day instructional/catching day on the water in April of this year.  Her best pattern was the Primrose & Pearl midge. 

Lucy – 8/20/10

Friday, Jim and Carolyn had a fun family from Texas out for an instructional/catching trip.  Carolyn took the ladies, Lucy and Olga and Jim took the guys, Jerry and Aaron.  Once everyone got the basic roll cast and pick up and lay down cast, we worked with them on rigging and presentation techniques.  They have a couple nice ponds on their place in Texas that have bass in them.  They wanted some methods for catching them with a fly rod.  We worked on dries so they could use poppers, as well as buggers so they could do some streamer work.  Everyone finished the outting with a pretty good cast, definitely learned a couple knots and caught some fish on the black bugger, black ant, black midge, holographic green crackleback and the floozie.  Stan had Mark and Fran out, also for half a day.  Too hot to sit in the sun all day, even if you are catching fish.  These two took our two-day school earlier this year and, glad to say, still at it and having fun.  They had a good day on the black zebra and a red/black midge. 

Good day to ostanding out there in the water.  Generation shut down completely at 10:00 p.m. yesterday and is still off this morning.  Scheduled to be off until 1:00 p.m.  Believe it is to be on until 9:00 p.m. and back off again.  Maybe it will be off again tomorrow, but will know for sure what the projection is by 4:30 p.m. or so today.  Overcast this morning and no wind.  Forecast is for upper 80s to lower 90s.  What a pleasant change. 

No one guiding for the past couple days, but that will change soon.  Lots of trips coming up.  Have talked to several customers who have been wading and fishing in the mornings when the generation was lower.  One fisher has had a great couple days fishing dries.  He said almost anything you threw in the way of a dry was working, especially up near the bank below the fish ladder area.  Black ants, beetles, hoppers, and he had something very similar to an orange stimulator.  Came in to stock up on more flies.  We have also noticed more dry fly activity when on the water. 

A little overcast today which makes it feel cooler, and it is not supposed to be quite as hot as it has been.  Think we are looking at mid 90s, which certainly is better than the 100s.  Coming week looks like low to mid 90s also.  Relief at last!  Water has been off since yesterday morning.  Projected for a low one generator for 3-4 hours this afternoon.  Monday looks like one generator until 1:00 p.m. when they will eventually ramp up to the equivalent of three generators. 

Joe – 8/14/10

Fishing certainly better yesterday than the day before.  Jim had Jim and John from the Jefferson City area out all day.  They said they had a fun day and worked all kinds of patterns.  Caught some fish and missed a whole bunch!  Boated a nice 20 inch rainbow on a black bugger.  Also caught fish on a black ant, various midges, and, of course, old dependable scuds.  Stan had two brothers, Joe and James, out for a late morning start half day.  James now lives in Nixa and Joe comes from Oklahoma.  Started out a little slow, but once they put on a copper dun midge, size 18, it just improved from there.  Wound up catching lots of fish on a bug-eyed bugger.  Fish seem to be holding better in the old river channel along the high bank above the Fall Creek area. 

Although the projection for today was no water except for three hours this afternoon, I was not too surprised when I checked the generation this morning and found they were running an equivalent of one generator.  Good news is they did shut it off around 8:00 a.m.  Projection for tomorrow is also no generation except for a while in the afternoon.  We are looking forward to a cooling trend which will put our temperatures in the low 90s instread of 100s!  The humidity will also drop, which will certain be a BIG comfort factor.

Think the fish are even sick of this heat.   Fishing Wednesday and Thursday was slow.  Jim had David from Illinois out in the morning.  they boated some fish, but worked for them.  Rusty midge, blood worm, tan b-bug and #10 olive bugger were the main flies they used to catch fish.

Stan had Olen and Skip from the Kansas City area out Thursday.  Skip is pretty new to fly fishing with Olen being the seasoned fisher.  It was a slow morning but picked up a little before the generators came on and also after the water picked up.  It seemed to fish better further down near the end of the quality management area.  Best flies were the big pink San Juan worm and an olive marabou. 

IT HAS BEEN HOT!  So far this week, temperatures have been in the upper 90s with heat indexes in the 100s!   If we are lucky, it looks like a little relief in sight by Sunday when it will cool down to at least the lower 90s, possibly upper 80s.  Generation pattern has been pretty consistent this week.  Water off in the morning from midnight until 6:00 a.m. when they run a low one generator for maybe an hour.  Staying off until noon or 1:00 p.m.  Have been starting it up pretty hard with first two generators, then the last two within an hour and running them to a tailwater level of 710 feet.  Fishing is still fair to good depending on where you are and how and what you are fishing.  However, so far this morning, based on everyone who has come into the shop, it is tough!  At least in the upper area near the Hatchery where most of them were fishing. 

Monday, Jim and Dana out with our annual group from Texas.  Jim had Rick and Davis.  Jim said the cone head bugger pulled well with a low one generator going.  They also caught fish on the red midge and gray scud.  Dana had Taylor and Beau.  They were catching on the red midge, olive floozie and peach egg.  Caught fish all the way down to Fall Creek. 

Mike from Kansas spent Tuesday morning with Jim.  Fishing a little slow but they caught fish on the black midge, size 18 tan b-bug and gray scud.  Carolyn was out with Jim and Brad from Oklahoma.  This was the second day of the two-day school they were attending.  The morning before, they spent learning the various casts.  Jim was roll casting the entire belly section of his fly line within no time.  He said it was just like something they do when they are roping cattle.  Unbelieveable!  We worked on nymphing/midging, streamers and even dries.  Know they caught fish on every technique.  Wanted to make certain they knew how to rig up and fish various presentations.  Black and rusty zebras were working; the olive floozie on the intermediate sinking leader, a size 14 yellow hopper pattern in the skinny water where fish were working, and, after doing a seine check where we found lots of light tan/gray colored scuds, a size 16 light gray scud.  Noticed several pregnant scuds on the seine too.  Last, but not least, the holographic green crackleback, also working the shallows in the shade along the boat ramp bank.  Jim owns a ranch in Oklahoma and knows places and people out West with rivers running through their land .  Thought it was about time to learn how to fly fish so he could pack into some of those places and catch some fish on a fly rod.  I think he is going to do that some day.

Jim – 8/10/10	Brad – 8/10/10

So far this morning, the generation schedule is right on.  Actually running about 25-30 mwh (as projected).  Still early, so we will see if it stays in that range.  If it does, it is certainly wadeable below the fish ladder, once known as outlet 3.   Weather forecast is mid to upper 90s today and tomorrow, so it is going to be a warm one. 

Stan out yesterday with Colin from the Kansas City area.  Colin is a Mid Shipman at Annapolis Naval Academy.  He is finishing up soon and waiting to see what his assignment will be.  He is fairly new to fly fishing and had a very good day with Stan catching fish and learning more about different ways to fly fish.  They caught fish stripping the holographic green crackleback and the large pink midge when they were drifting.  Good luck with your career Colin!

Followed the generation projection Saturday with the low one generator spike in the morning and again in the afternoon.  Otherwise, the water was off all day Saturday.  Today, the projection was for a low one generator until early afternoon, but I can tell you that did not happen.  They actually have the equivalent of one full generator, using two units.  By 4:00 p.m., they should shut down the generators until midnight.  Tomorrow’s projection is a low one unit until 1:00 p.m. when they will start ramping with two generators and all four by 3:00 p.m. 

Fishing is still rated fair to good, again, depending on where you are fishing and what you are throwing.  In the early mornings, if the water is off, try a black zebra or the rusby zebra.  Near the outlets, tan or brown glo balls, or gray scuds.  If there is any surface activity, especially if the fog is still on the water, the small, 18-20 black thorax midge has been working.  Otherwise, strip olive or black buggers. 

Mohammed with 19" rainbow – 8/8/10

Dana had a couple doctors from Nebraska on the water for half a day Saturday.  Farhan and Mohammed loved the loved the surroundings as well as the fishing.   Their best flies were the tan b-bug and size 16 dark gray sow bug.  Jim was out for the morning with Norm and Chris.  These two from Indiana had a good day on the black midge, blood worm and size 12 olive bugger.