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. 

The rain we had yesterday certainly did make it much more comfortable today.  Not nearly as hot.  Ran a high one generator all morning today then ramped it up to four units by 1:00 p.m.  Schedule for Saturday if off except for one generator for an hour in the a.m and again in the afternoon.  Otherwise, no generation.  Sunday looks like a low one generator all morning, then completely off by 3:00 p.m.  Somehow, that does not compute.  Anyway, Monday will be back to the low to high one in the a.m. then ramping up to four generators around 2:00 p.m.  Weather looks like it is going to be pretty nice.

Jim took Mark and his son, Aaron, from New Haven out this morning.  Aaron had several fish on but could not quite get them to the net.  He stayed with it, and finally success!  Aaron was really happy that he had hooked and brought a fish to the net today.  Good work Aaron.  Mark had a good day on a cone head bugger, a size 14 red midge and a size 14 gray scud.  Stan on the water with Todd from Kansas.  Being from Kansas, you can imagine, Todd is a bass fisher.  Once he found the touch for setting the hook on trout, he had  good day stripping a holographic green crackleback and drifting the red midge.  Everyone said it was a nice day to be on the water.

Wow!  Can not believe it is already Thursday.  Generation schedule changed a bit the past two days.  Yesterday and today, they projected a low flow equivalent to one generator in the morning and evening hours, and ramping it up to the equivalent of four by 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.  The low one was about a full one yesterday and and little higher than that today.  Just heard the horn a few minutes ago and they are flowing four generators at a level of 707.8 and rising.  They are even running two generators at Beaver right now.  This past Saturday, the water was off until about 1:00 p.m. except for a real low flow at 6:00 a.m. which lasted an hour.  Sunday was pretty much wadeable all day.  They did run the little spike in the early morning, and turned on one generator for an hour and a half around 3:00 p.m. but that was all.  Monday and Tuesday was the early morning spike then on with all four at noon. 

Weather has been HOT.  Nice to see the rain today.  Looks like it will cool us off for a few days with chances of isolated thunder showers both Tuesday and Wednesday.  Temperatures in the low to mid 90s with chances again of showers Friday and Saturday.  Quite aways off, so no telling what the weather will be by next weekend.

Dana had Mike and his son, Ian, from Kansas out for half a day Sunday.  They had a good day on a tan b-bug, and light gray or dark gray scuds.  Hooked a lot and missed a lot. 

Monday, Stan had Jerry and his brother Charlie out for half a day.  They are both seasoned fishers although Charlie is pretty new to trout fishing.  He does a lot of off shore fishing in Florida.  His brother Jerry is from Lee’s Summit and just fishes a lot.  They had a good day stripping the olive floozieplume.  Also fished the primrose & pearl and purple midges dropped under a hopper.  Jim had Matthew and Lukas from Texas out for an instructional trip.  They went through everything from roll casting to knots and bugs.  They did get to practice landing fish which they caught on the black midge and blood worm.   

Julia – 8/2/10

We almost had everyone on the water Monday.  Darrell was also out with Pat, from Oklahoma and his son, Chance.  Pat and his wife had been out with Darrell back in 2007, and he wanted to introduce his son to fly fishing.  Best fly for them was the primrose and pearl midge.  Carolyn was introducing another woman, Julia from Oklahoma to the wonderful world of fly fishing.  She loved it!  After spending some time on roll casting, pick up and lay down casting, mending, and line work, we went live with a fly.  Primrose & pearl midge was working, but the best was the floozieplume.  We have another "stripper" on Lake Taneycomo.  Picture is not of her first trout on a fly rod….sorry.  We just had a little trouble hanging on to those slick fish!  She came into the shop the next day and learned the knots.  This, of course, was after she had already been fishing in the morning.  One last thing about Monday, it was HOT! 

Tuesday Dana took Brian and his son, Dustin out all day.  This was another hot day, but the humidity seemed to be a little bit better.  Bet is was still a little warm, however, for these two from Minnesota.  They had a good day on the tan b-bug and red San Juan worm.  Darrell took Mike and Silvia, also from Minnesota, out for half a day.  You can imagine what the shop was like before everyone left with Brian and Dustin, Mike and Silvia, and Darrell all being from Minnesota.  They were all on another planet for a while.  Mike and Silvia’s best fly was the purple midge.  Both are pretty new, so Darrell gave them some instruction during the trip. 

Wednesday, Stan and Doc Stewart, from Oklahoma got onto the water just a little earlier than normal (another hot day).  Doc was in an auto accident this past April while in New Zealand and severely injuired his right hand.   His goal for the morning was to see if he could still fly fish.  I am glad to say, after a few trials and errors, he still has the magic touch!  He was able to bring in fish stripping an olive wooly bugger as well as drifting the big ruby with a 

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primrose & pearl midge dropper.  Kayla and her brother Kalvan (Butch), from Nebraska were brave enough to spend  half a day on the water with Jim.  These two had never fly fished before and Jim said they worked very hard at learning everything.  They landed fish on the gray scud,  and pink, red and purple midges.  Gina had Joyce and her grandson, Robbie, on the water Wednesday.  This was Robbie’s first experience in a drift boat and first experience catching trout on a fly rod.  He made his Grandma proud!  Tough day as they got on the water a little late in the morning and the generators were ramping up during their trip.  Crazy currents made getting a drift or even stripping patterns challenging.  Robbie still managed to land some fish on the floozieplume and the red midge. 

Other than Friday, the water had been off every morning, except for the one hour around 5:00-6:00 a.m. when they turn on a low one for an hour.   Then, they turn on all four for six to eight hours sometime around noon or 1:00 p.m.  Back off around 8:00 p.m.  Friday they ran a the equivalent of a low one generator until 6:00 a.m. when they added another generator.  By noon, it was running all four and did not shut down until 10:00 p.m. 

Jim had a very nice young man, Peyton from Georgia, on the water Tuesday.  Peyton thought he wanted to learn how to fly fish, so his Mother booked a trip for him.  Jim said he was a good student and landed fish on the black midge blood worm dropper and an olive bug-eyed bugger.  Peyton came back into the shop the next day to rent equipment for his father so he could take him out and show him how to fish.  Peyton caught fish but I don’t think his father landed any.  Maybe next time.

Wednesday and Thursday, Stan had Joey and Shelia from Oklahoma on the water.  They fished all day Wednesday and half a day Thursday.   This was Shelia’s first time with a fly rod and she picked it up very fast.  Think she even caught the most fish each day.  They were catching on the size 18 purple and olive midges.  Nick and John from North Carolina spent the day with Jim Thursday.  Nick fly fishes quite a bit and John not as much.  They were able to catch fish on the size 14 bug-eye bugger, and did well on the black midge, blood worm and size 12 pink midge when the water came on.  Both bugger and midges have been working well in the area by Trophy Run development.

Darrell had Chester and his friend Larry out Thursday and Friday mornings.  Chester took the fly fishing course offered by Dogwood Canyon last year.  He hopes to take his fly rods on a motorcycle trip to Alaska some day.  They good a couple good morning on gray scuds and the cerise San Juan worm. 

Trish and a 24" Rainbow – 7/30/10

Bet lots of people where wondering what all the yelling was about Friday afternoon.  Trish and Mike were out with Carolyn again, and Trish hooked into a beautiful 24 inch rainbow.  She was doing the twitch-twitch, slow strip with the olive floozieplume.  We caught a few fish on most everything we tried, but no real consistent pattern.  Fished the cerise worm, big ruby midge, hot pink San Juan, and the bug-eyed bugger.    This was the day they started with low water early in the day and ramped it up during the day.  Meanwhile, Barry and Gary from the Lee’s Summit area found the water higher than they could wade, so they checked to see if Stan was available for an afternoon trip.  Turned out he was so they spent the afternoon drifting and catching some fish on the cerise worm under the big ruby midge. 

Casey and 15-3/4" – 7/25/10

Last, but not least, here is a picture of Casey on her first fly fishing outting.  We tried to stretch this one so it was as big as her Grandfather, Jim’s fish, but couldn’t quite make it.  Neat young lady and think she will be a fly fisher some day.

Wow!  It has been pretty warm here for the past couple weeks.  Got a little cool off yesterday afternoon and it is overcast, with a 40% chance of rain here today.  Nice for a change!  Generation schedule is still being pretty well followed.  Just as was the pattern last week, they ran one generator for about one hour this morning at 6:00.  It is scheduled to stay off today until around 1:00 p.m. when two will come one and they will ramp it up to four generators by 2:00 and eventually off by 8:00 or 9:00 p.m. 

The early morning fishing has been pretty good, especially if you are there before they turn on the one generator as you get the advantage of fishing the rise.  The downside of this is that as the water starts to fall after they shut down the one, fishing slows down considerably.  But hang around long enough and try different patterns and places, and fishing will start picking up again as the water stabilizes.  Still would say fishing is fair to good, and the fish are good quality.

Tony and Amber, from Oklahoma spent the morning with Jim.  Tony is the fly fisher and Amber wanted to go along to watch and enjoy our river.  They had a good morning on the black thorax midge, size 16 and 18 gray scuds and the blood worm dropper.  Tony pulled out a nice 17 inch rainbow.  Gina had Brenda and Jim, from Oklahoma,  out for half a day.  Brenda decided to get herself a birthday present…a guided fly fishing trip.  She had a wonderful birthday as they caught lots of fish on the floozieplume, ruby and rusty midges, gray scud and the blood worm dropper. 

Brenda – 7-24-10	Jim – 7-24-10

Sunday morning, Carolyn had the opportunity to help James, from Arkansas, get his second granddaughter, Casey, introduced to fly fishing.  This ten year old little gal picked up pretty quickly.  She even outfished her grandfather.  Several times she roll cast her own line, set the hook and brought in a nice rainbow all on her own.  A few other times I would cast for her, but she did everything else.  Grandfather took lots of pictures and when I get a copy of one, she will show up on the site.  Her best pattern was the floozieplume.  She said one of the things she really enjoyed about fly fishing was letting the fish go.  Stan and Dana had a group, Bruce, Adam, Sarah and Jan out for half a day.  Believe they are all from the Lee’s Summit area.  They frequently fish here on their own, but knew there was a high probablility the water would come on so they decided to book a trip with us.  Stan had Bruce and Adam throwing the Primrose & Pearl midge when there was no generation.  Then the water came on, the big ruby with a cerise San Juan dropper was the ticket. Dana had the ladies, Jan and Sarah on the size 16 tan flashback scud and a dark gray sowbug.  A good time was had by all!  Can’t leave Jim behind when everyone else is on the water.  He had Faron, from Louisiana out.  Faron is new to fly fishing, so guess what they did for a while.  Jim worked with him on casting, line work and everything else.  He did let him catch some fish so he could practice playing and bringing in fish.  Their best patterns were a brown midge, the black thorax midge and a blood worm dropper. 

Yesterday, Stan had Gene, from Kansas, out for the morning.  Gene agreed it has been too long since he last fly fished….about two years.  He used to get out at least once a year, but we get busy.  Anyway he had a good morning on the primrose & pearl midge, blood worm and pink San Juan worm.  Darrell and David, from Illinois, were out at the same time.  Pretty good day on the red and purple midges.  David brought in a nice 17 inch rainbow. Now Trish and Mike don’t like to do anything ordinary, so they coerced Carolyn into an late afternoon trip.  When they hit the water, all four generators were running.  They pulled a few fish drifting down to the Lookout Island on the cerise San Juan and pink egg pattern dropped below the ruby midge.  At the island, Trish and her "twitch, twitch, slow strip technique pulled several fish on a size 8 bug-eyed bugger.  Nice, comfortable evening, despite the threat of rain.  The finale was the beautiful sunset we saw from the overlook area on the way back to the shop.

Must say again, they have been pretty close with following the generation schedule most of this week.  Pump a little water in the morning for one hour or less at about 6:00 a.m. then off until some time in the early afternoon when they run the equivalent of four generators for about eight hours.  Been giving us some good wading time in the mornings to catch fish.  Weather has even been cooperating.  A bit warm, but no rain and even a little wind a few days. 

This past Wednesday we had Stan and Jim on the water for half a day.  Jim had Carl from Ohio out working on "everything" as Jim put it.  Carl is brand new and really wanted to learn.  Had a good morning on the water and caught fish on on the size 18 rusty midge, blood worm dropper and black midge.  Think Carl had a good time!  Stan had Rick McNary, from Kansas, out for half a day.  They had a wonderful day on the primrose & pearl midge with a blood worm dropper.  Stan also introduced him to the sinking like and a hololgraphic green crackleback.  He really liked this!

One of Jim’s regular, regulars, Bud and his friend Derek spent all day Thursday stripping the size 12 bugger, or tossing a size 18 black zebra pattern, and when that did not work, a gray scud.  Fun day and they were both worn out when they came into the shop.

Tracy – 7/23/10

Friday, Bud had recoupled so he spent another day with Jim pretty much throwing the same patterns.  Another good day and "pooped" Bud at the end of the day.  Carolyn had Tracy and Bill, from the St. Louis area, out for half a day.  This neat couple was ready to learn anything they could.  Worked on Tracy’s cast and she was throwing a good line by the time we finished the morning.  Bill has a great roll cast and can get to almost anything he needs to.  Had them working the floozieplume until the water came on then we switched to the big ruby with the cerise large San Juan worm and caught fish all the way down to Fall Creek.  Stan and Gina were out with a group, some from Columbia, for half a day.  Stan was with Jim and Andrew.  Good day on the primrose & pearl midge with a blood worm dropper and the black midge with a copper head and copper wire.  This was Andrew’s first time with a fly rod and he certainly held his own!.  Gina had Merrill and Melanie.  Only married for about a year and pretty new to fly fishing.  Worked the peach egg pattern, red midge and the olive floozieplume!   Darrell had Steve and Chris our for the early morning.  Chris is just home from Iraq.  Steve got to spend the day with one of his boys, Chris.  They boated fish on the purple midge under the Big Ugly. 

Overall, fishing is probably fair to good.  They have been a little picky on patterns, so keep on trying various things, and definitely try different presentation techniques.  Looking for the best water will also help.

So far this week….knock on wood….they have followed the projected generation schedule pretty well.  Off in the mornings from midnight to 6:00 a.m. when they turn on a low one generator for an hour or less.  Stays off until 1:00-2:00 p.m. they start ramping up until all four generators are going.  Around 7:00 p.m. they start shutting down so the tailwater level is back to a level of 701.6 around midnight.  Weather is still hot.  Temperatures in the 90s and heat indexes in the 100s.  Little breeze yesterday which helped a little.

Mixed stories on fishing as the week goes on.  Some folks are having a hard time, but Monday and Tuesday, those folks fishing in the hatchery area were catching fish on the light gray size 16 and smaller scud or sowbugs.  One customer reported a very good day just above the boat ramp on a size 14 olive wooly bugger.  Today it has been the dark gray scud and a size 14 and up to size 8 olive wooly bugger.  Think some of the difficulty some are having is where they are fishing.  Need to move around a little to find the fish.

Dana on the water Monday with Dana and her friend Annika, from Denmark.  This was a total surprise for Annika as they had not told her what she was going to be doing Monday morning.  She and Dana had a good time and caught fish on the red midge and copper dun midge, size 18.  She was really catching on to casting before the morning was over.  Stan had Craig and Trey, from Texas out for half a day.  This was their first experience too, and they caught fish on the primrose & pearl size 18 midge. 

Trent – 7/20/10

Darrell took Trent from Minnesota out for half a day Tuesday.  Trent is pretty new to fly fishing, so he learned a lot and caught some nice fish.  Best fish of the day was the 22 inch rainbow he hooked on the size 18 purple midge.  Way to go Trent!

Typical July weather, except we have have over five inches of rain this month.  Looks like it will continue to be mostly sunny and hot until the weekend when we have a chance of showers.  That’s a long way off, so it remains to be seen.  Generation pattern this past week was on all day except for Tuesday morning when the generators were off until 1:00 p.m.  This weekend we had no generation until early afternoon both days.  This was great!  

Kelton – 7/16/10

Friday, Darrell was out for 1/2 a day with James and Kelton from Arkansas.  They had a good trip on the holographic crackleback and the big Ruby midge, both before and after they turned on the water.  Stan half half a day with Kurt, from Oklahoma, and David from Kansas.  Both these guys are pretty new to the sport and did well on the natural colored worm under a size 14 gray scud.  They did best on the holographic green crackleback under the intermediate sinking line. 

Saturday, Carolyn had Rick and Kristy from the St. Louis area out for what wound up to be a full day wade/float.  They had a great time on the primrose & pearl midge, callibaetis soft hackle size 18, olive floozieplume, and scuplin patterns.  Wish we could have stuck all the hits we had on the sculpin, but they were short taking several of the hits.  Wasted no time, however, on the other patterns.  When the water came on about 1:00 p.m. the rise fished very good with the primrose & pearl and our high-water go to setup, the big hot pink midge with a hot pink San Juan dropper.  That’s when we decided to ride out the rise and make it a full day.  Fished great the rest of the day as we picked up several more on the high-water go to setup and the floozieplume.   Jim had Price and Marge from Kansas out for half a day.  They did well on the size 18 rusty or black midges with the size 22 blood worm dropper.  As always, they had a great time with Jim.

Sunday, we saw one of our customers who has greatly cut back on his fishing time since "the twins".  Good to see him with a fly rod in his hand again!.  Mario, from the Springfield area, brought his father, Mario, so the two of them could spend a half a day fishing with Stan.  This was Mario Senior’s first time with a fly rod.  With a little instruction he did land his first fish on a fly rod.  They did well on the primrose & pearl and purple size 18 midges.   And then there was the Stripper, Albert and James Albert from Louisiana.  They were on the water all day with Darrell and Carolyn.  The guys were catching fish on almost anything they tried, but best were the primrose & pearl and purple midges, size 18 with the water off.  Then the ruby, size 12 when the water came on.  Meanwhile, the Stripper and Carolyn spotted fish feeding in about 1-1/2 feet of water and started throwing soft hackles and the L’il Easy at them.  What a hoot watching the wake of the fish as they chased the L’il Easy to eventually take it!   Also did well on the floozieplume and sculpin patterns.  High-water setup worked when the water came on, but the water was so gunked up and dirty, it was hard keeping a clean fly in the water.  Did pick up some more on the drift out, but nothing like we had done with the low water.

Generation has continued 24/7 sinceTuesday afternoon.  So far, it has been fairly in the mornings, then ramping up to 3 or 4 generators in the afternoon.  Table Rock has only come up 2/10ths of a foot after all the rain we earlier this week.  It has been pretty hot out on the water, but we are expecting some rain this afternoon ot tonight which they say will cool us down a little…..Hope so!

Lots of fishing and even some catching going on the past couple of days.  Stan was on the water Tuesday with Darren, from Kansas.  We have known Darren from way back in our firefighting/EMT days.  they had a good day on the hot pink midge dropped under the big ruby midge.  Jim was out with Jack who drove here from Indiana.  Their bugs for the trip were a gray scud, the big ruby with a pink San Juan worm dropper. 

Wednesday, Jack drug Jim out again, kicking and screaming.  More fish on pretty much the same bugs as Tuesday.  They had a fun day and even stretched the 1/2 day into a full one. 

Jack (the one w/Darrell)

 Meanwhile, Darrell had Jack from Texas out for 1/2 a day to teach him the fine art of fly fishing.   Not only did he learn a lot, but boated several fish on the hot pink midge under the big ruby.  Stan was having Matt, from Michigan throw the same bugs with good results. 

Fishers managed to get through yesterday without much rain.  However, the sky opened up last night and we got lots of rain.  Flow projection was pretty much right on this weekend, and this morning flow is a bit higher than projected.  Projected was 25 mwh and it appears we are getting around 50.  This means tailwater level between 704 and 705 fett with 3500 to 4000 cfs.  Scheduled to ramp up to the equivalent of two generators by 2:00 p.m.  With all the rain we received, sure projections will be subject to change as we see the effect of the runoff.

Yesterday was a fish top water or strip something off the bottom.  Everyone we talked to was catching fish. Some definitely more than others.  The scuds, midge, nymph fishers were catching fish, but those using size 16 black ants or beetles, or even a small white dry, and those stripping olive wooly buggers from a size 6 down to a size 14 were doing very well.  Had to pick your spot for the dries…look for the classic nose circles indicating top water feeding to catch on dries, but they were working well and what fun!   Every day is a new day on the water here lately.