so far this weekend, they have followed their projection.  Water turned offaround 11 p.m. Friday night and stayed off until 2:00 yesterday afternoon.  The equivalent of one generator for five hours, then back off again.  It is off this morning and the projection is for the same pattern as yesterday.  Weather sunny and warm yesterday.  Predicting some rain today, probably this afternoon.

Hearing mixed reports on fishing.  Friday, it was a low two generators most of the day and people were catching fish in the Hatchery area on small, 16 and smaller, dark gray scuds and holographic green cracklebacks.  These were the two main ones we heard of.  Yesterday, one of the guys fishing the Rocking Chair area did well on the Primrose & Pearl midge fishing very shallow 15-17" on the edges of the banks where the fish were working.  Dark gray scuds were still a player in the Hatchery area.  Also heard from some fishers who were struggling.  Said it was "pretty tough".  Couple fishing sculpins and dark olive wooly buggers said they did well and were catching the nice fat fish.

Last Thuraday, Jim had Ray from Kansas, out all day.  They had a fun day on the size 14 ruby midge and a small gray scud.  Little tougher than normal; the fog stayed around longer than usual and the water level was fluctuating most of the day. 

Jim was out half a day with Chuck and his son, Collin, from Texas Friday.  These two are brand new to fly fishing, so Jim worked with them most of the morning on casting and line work.  Did hook some fish on the red midge and gray scud.  Must have been school day.  Gina was also on the water with a new fly fisher, Tom from Aurora.  Tom is Gina’s pharmacists and is going to Montana later this month.  Realized he better learn "the ropes" so he spent the morning with Gina learning the roll cast, pick up and lay down cast.  She also worked with him on handling a sinking line, stripping, mending and indicator fishing.  Think he is going to be ready for Montana.  Landed several fish, so he has worked on hooking and landing fish.  Have a great trip Tom!

EVENT – Every Saturday during month of July, River Run Outfitters is participating in the Orvis "Fly Fishing 101" event.  It consists of free half hour fly casting and leader and knot tying lessions with one of our staff.  Upon completion, you will receive a FREE $15 savings card valid for that day only to put toward purchase of any Orvis product.  Also, a free Trout Unlimited membership valued at $35.   Sessions are only held between 9a.m.-12noon and you must contact us prior to attending to reserve your space.  What a great way to get started in the wonderful sport of fly fishing!

Oops!  Missed the full day trip Dana took out on Monday.  He had Jerry and his wife, Barbara, out for the day.  Barbara really enjoyed the day and she would catch a few fish and then sit back, relax and enjoy the scenery.  They caught fish on the gray scud and a dark gray sow bug.  These folks fish all over the country and enjoyed our fishery.

Tuesday, Stan took Jerry and a friend, Benny out for the day.  Running four generators, but they had a great day on the big ruby midge, a natural San Juan worm, a gray scud, and the olive filoplume.  This was Benny’s first fly fishing adventure and he thinks he is "hooked". 

Still generating all day.  Started out with two this morning until around noon when they turned on one more.  However, the extra generator did not result in much change in the level.  It was 706.0 with two generators and is now 706.9 with three.  Overcast most of today with scattered light showers.  Expecting the same weather for tomorrow.  Will have to see this afternoon around 4:30 what the generation will be for tomorrow.

Another good day on the water yesterday.  Stan and a friend from Texas, Dan, went out around 11:30 a.m.  They caught a lot of nice, fat fish on the olive filoplume, holographic green crackleback, big ruby midge with a big hot pink midge dropper, and gray scud.  Caught fish on other patterns too, but these were the most consistent.  Gina had Valley, from Oklahoma, and one of her relatives, Tim, from Florida out all they.  They had a wonderful day on the "floozieplume" (can’t make up my mind on how to spell this one), gray scud and pink San Juan.  They too experimented with other patterns and caught fish, but these were the most successful. 

Valley – 7/7/10	Tim – 7/7/10

No down time on generation since late Monday night.  Yesterday they started off slow, but before the afternoon was over, they had all four going full blast.  Today, they started off low with two generators, but have now ramped the two generators up so the tailwater level is at 707.0 feet.  Light to heavy showers off and on today, so it is pretty hot and humid!

Wanda – 18-1/2" – 7/5/10

Jim on the water yesterday with Scott and Adria from St. Joseph.  Scott has been fishing with Jim since 2001, and Adria is just getting started.  They had a good day on the small black midge with the blood worm dropper and a size 16 gray scud.  Carolyn had the birthday ladies, Wanda and Joanna out for half a day.  Tried to get them on the water last month (their actual birthday month) but we were blown off thanks to a rain storm.  But as the saying goes, good things come to those who wait.  Nice day of fat rainbows.  Wanda’s 18-1/2 inch rainbow was caught on a size 18 Primrose & Pearl Midge.  They were a bit leader shy that day so she was using 7X.  Other good pattern for the day was a "fluzzieplume".  This is just something in the works.  May be good, may not, we are still testing it.  Did watch one of our customers fishing just below where we were at the Rockin Chair and she was using a size 14 olive wooly bugger and catching fish right and left.  So, it was a good day on the water Monday.

Finally saw some non-generation days starting on July 1 (Thursday) when they had it off from midnight until 11:00 a.m. that morning.  Friday it was off from midnight until 2:00 p.m. and Saturday from midnight to 3:00 p.m.  Monday was low generation, the equivalent of one generator most of the day.  Kept the level around 704 feet until 2:00 p.m. when they raised the level up to 706 feet plus.  So far, dry weather, but we might be getting some showers on a few days this coming week.  

Hubert – 6/29/10

Little behind here, but we will try to get up to date.  Last Tuesday, Stan had George and Hubert, from Lebanon, out for half a day.  They had a wonderful day of nice quality fish on a Big Ruby and the little Ruby.  Meanwhile, Jim had Wayne and Colleen from Hawaii out again.   They spent the day catching fish on the Red Ass soft hackle and size 12 Bug-Eye bugger.  They too, caught some nice quality fish. 

Wayne and Colleen didn’t get their fill of fishing on Tuesday, so they spent another full day with Jim on Thursday.  Best flies this day were the miracle scud and a bug-eye bugger.  Darrell had John and Kyle from the Kansas City area out for half a day.  These guys were brand new and wanted to learn how to fly fish.  They learned and caught.  Good day on the Primrose & Pearl and purple midges. 

Friday had three boats out.  Jay, from Oklahoma, decided he it was time to spend another half day on the water with Jim.  They had a good day on a black midge with a blood worm or ruby midge dropper.  Fishing was a bit slow in the a.m. and fish were taking pretty soft, but they still had a good day.  Darrell was out for half a day with Joe and Erik.  Joe has done some fly fishing and brought his friend, Erik, along to get a taste of it.  These guys from Florida boated lots of fish on the purple midge and an olive filoplume.  Stan was out with John and Carol from the St. Louis area.  This was Carol’s birthday and she caught her first fish on a fly rod. 

Saturday was a tough start.  These fish were not interested in any form of a midge.  Fortunately, in the right place with right pattern such as a sculpin, or other streamer, or using a sinking leader or line to get your pattern down, you could catch some fish.  Stan had Carol and John out again, this time for half a day.  They had a good day on the olive filoplume (using a sinking line), a light olive size, 16 soft hackle, and a size 18 gray scud. 

Carolyn was out for half a day with Rich and his eleven year old daughter, Janet.  Rich has been out with Carolyn a couple times before and decided it was time for Janet to start fly fishing.  She already enjoys fishing and I think she is going to be quite a fly fisher some day…..she already has a very good roll cast!  Their best pattern was the olive filoplume. 

Janet – 7/3/10	Rich – 7/3/10

Tom and Mike from Ft. Lenard Wood, were with Dana for half a day.  Slow start in the early part of the day, but they started picking up fish on the olive filoplume, holographic green crackleback and a gray scud.  Jim and his client, Maynard, from Baldwin were also on the water for half a day.  They did find some fish taking a black midge with a blood worm dropper.  Takes were soft and they were moving the bugs to give them action.  Water was very flat 

Cathy – 7/3/10

Saturday.  They also caught fish on the gray scud.   Cathy, a Navy gal from Nebraska, spend the whole day on the water with Gina.  Not only does she like the water, but loves fly fishing.  They had a fun day with the filoplume, gray scud, and when the water came on, a pink San Juan worm.  She caught a beautiful 18 inch rainbow on a filoplume.

Cathy had such a fun time on Saturday, she spent half a day Sunday on the water with Carolyn.  It was another filoplume day and we threw in a few holographic green cracklebacks when the fish started dimpling the water feeding subsurface.  This was fun as you could see the fish swirl when they were hitting the fly. 

Four units are going already this morning, and the word is that the Corps is beginning a draw down of the reservoirs that should be complete by July 5th.  With the inch of rain over the weekend and the extra water from Beaver Lake, Table Rock is up about 3/10 of a foot for the week.  Despite all this the generation was shut down on Saturday and Sunday from midnight to noon.  So there was good wading this weekend.

The flies that caught fish were the olive, rusty  and red midges , and hot pink San Juan worm. On sinking leaders with streamers, the olive filoplume  and holographic green crackleback, and olive wooly bugger have been hot.  We were fishing high water all week  and drifting the midges and tucking into seams for the streamers. 

At the outlets, we hear from our customers that grey scuds  and brown and peach eggs have fished well.  They haven’t minded the big water because they said the fish they caught were bigger with the water up. 

Last Wednesday Perry and his daughter Brittany who is attending college in Branson went fishing with Stan.   Brittany had studied late for a big exam and then took some time wtih her dad to learn about flyfishing.  The boat ramp was closed Tuesday and Wednesday for paving so Stan put them in downstream and rowed up to Fall Creek.  They just got settled and into fish when the horns sounded!?*#  Such is life on a tailwater.  Perry and Brittany caught fish on the rusty and olive midge. They called it quits a little early and we hope Brittany got a good nap and a good grade on her exam. 

Water came on at noon today instead of the projected 2 p.m.   Reports coming into the shop the last two days from waders are mixed.  One guy has a great outing and the next guy says fishing is painfully slow.  Stan went out this afternoon with Perry and his daughter Brittany.  He said they just got set up and the fish were active all around them.  They started out great guns, getting takes and fish . . . and then the horn sounded and conditions did a 180.  Perry and Brittany got a crash course in beginning fly fishing though and were very happy with the results.  

Our guide Darrell shared these next pictures of John from this past weekend’s fishing trip.  The picture of the fish in the net is dazzling!  Good art work Darrell.

 John displaying a "River Rainbow"

  Picture by Darrell Lundberg

Got lots of trips to report on from the last week.  We know you want the scoops and nuts, so here we go. 

Last Monday Thomas and Carolyn from Texas were out with Darrell.  Carolyn was in Branson and attended the Orvis fly fishing school at Dogwood Canyon and wanted to try out her new skills on the tail water.  They caught fish on the P& P and the holographic green crackleback. 

Tuesday Gina took her sister Penny and Uncle Don from Florida out for his first fly fishing trip.  He needed a quick lesson in casting before he tackles a stream in North Carolina later this summer.  Don casted like a natural and hooked his first fish on a wooly bugger.   He was all smiles and Gina was a very proud niece. 

Thursday, Jim had a couple of more Texans, Chad and Charles, who wanted to learn to fly fish. They worked on nymphing skills and caught their first trout on  rusty midges and the blood worm dropper.  Gina spent the afternoon with Clint and his nine year son, Sam from Louisiana.  It was Sam’s first fly fishing trip.  According to dad, Sam is a lucky fisherman, and he proved it by hooking up with the first fish of the day and later setting the hook and landing a 16 1/2 inch rainbow all by himself.  Seemed like the fish got bigger as the water got higher, and Clint inched out Sam and caught a 17 incher right at the end of the day. 

   Sam’s Big Bow!

Clint’s aka Dad’s Bigger Bow !

 Friday, Stan took Walter fishing.  Walter has recently moved to Oklahoma and has been exploring trout fishing opportunities in the area.  Sore shoulder and all, Walt was determined to get water time and catch some fish.  Four more folks from Louisiana booked an introduction to fly fishing with Jim and Dana.  Quinn and Larry took the float with Dana and caught fish on the red midge.  Jim worked with Craig and Judy on casting and hook setting and Craig and Judy  hooked their first trout on a fly with rusty and red midges. 

Saturday and Sunday Chuck and Judy from Oklahoma City put a floatilla of friends on the water with Stan, Jim, and Darrell.  Chuck and Judy were excited to fish their new Sage rods acquired last April here in the fly shop and had a ball catching fish on red, rust and P&P midges.  Mike and Pam got some help with casting fishing techniques from Jim.  They did some streamer fishing with bug eye buggers and nymphing with midges and boated a good number of fish in the two days.  Darrell fished with John one day and added a second fisher Chuck on Sunday.  The purple and black midges and the filoplume were the hot flies for them. 

The Kerrs from Louisiana were in Branson again this weekend.  Saturday, Dawn and Carolyn her mother-in-law were out with Gina.  Carolyn fished until noon and boom, boom, boom caught several fish in a row while the trout ignored Dawn.  Dawn took over first chair after lunch and found a spot below Lookout Island where she demonstrated once again why she is known as the "Stripper."  She caught lots of fish on the filoplume.  On the drift out , she fished her first thingamabobber with a big ruby, little ruby dropper, learned the choronomid wiggle, and nailed several 16 and 17 inch wide bellied rainbow.  That lady can fish! 

Stripper strikes again!

Sunday Stan was out with Phil, a returning customer from Kansas.  Dana fished with another yet another vacationer from Louisiana, Ken.  Ken had a great float down the river and caught fish on the olive filoplume, red midge and peach egg.

A couple of ice fishers from Wisconsin, Keith and Bill went fishing with Stan on Monday, the official first day of summer.  Don’t need to tell you they didn’t need to drill any holes in ice to get to the fish.  It was hot challenging day for these fishing veterans, but they boated some good fish on the rusty midge and the pink San Juan worm and had plenty of hits and misses.  Despite the heat, Bill thought it was pretty cool day of fishing. 

That’s the wrap for the last week.  Today the road to the MDC boat ramp is closed for repaving–so no boats on the water today.  Lots of folks were wading today.  Some of our regulars reported fishing was slow on midges but got some action on woolies and cracklebacks and eggs.  The water was off until 2 p.m. and a couple of generators are going now.  

He may be a small trout, but he’s a keeper!  Gina’s grandson Will stopped in for visit yesterday.  Caddis was the main attraction, of course. 

The heat is on here at Taneycomo.  Don’t think there could be a better place to spend a hot afternoon than standing in the cold waters and  fishing for trout. Lots of vacationers/fly fishers kept the guides in a sweat last week.  Fishing was good, and customers landed lots of nice fish last week in the 16-17 inch range.  You might hit  some slow periods when the fish are on siesta mid day, persistence will pay off. 

It was another week for a hodge podge of files that worked.  With all the green moss on the bottom the olive filoplume was a winner.  We saw trout with bellies full of moss, and they were sometimes very interested in mouthing a fly that looked like that green gook in search of scuds or sowbugs.  You needed to make sure that filoplume was on or near the bottom for success.  Olive wooly buggers and the bug eye bugger sometimes produced the same result.  The midges at the top of the list were the ruby, red, rusty, purple, and black.  Peach eggs, pink San Juan worms, holographic cracklebacks, and the miracle and grey scuds had some good days too.  The fish seem to be hanging close to the bottom no matter what the generation level is. 

Speaking of generation, it was all over the place last week.   We started the week with units off in the mornings and generation of 2-3 units coming on about 2 p.m.  Thursday morning two units were running and the other two generators come up and kept water rising all day.  Then for the most part, we had one or two units on steady for the weekend.  Yesterday we started out with a low one and tail waters around 703.6 and about 2 p.m. two more came on.  This morning the generators are quiet, but expect we will hear some warning horns later, and more units will crank on to product power for our air conditioners. 

Well, they pretty much followed the generation projection for the weekend.  Water off Friday until 2:00 p.m; Saturday until noon, and then it came on low; and Sunday until 3:00 p.m.  It came on each afternoon for no longer than 7 hours, then back off the the rest of the night.  Weather even cooperated.  Looked like rain for a while today, but we managed to get through it.  Friday morning we had a gulley washer for about an hour, but once it stopped, it turned out to be a nice day.

Jim on the water Friday, in the gulley washer, with Marc and his son John.  These fishers from Ohio tried to get on the water with Jim Monday, but we had some bad weather that day too.  Persistence paid off as they had very good day Friday on the rusty midge, blood worm dropper and the bug-eyed bugger.  Water was off for all of their trip and they picked fish all the way down to Fall Creek.  Once Kristi picked up her husband, Rick at the airport, they headed to the fly shop and took a half day float with Stan.  These two fish a lot.  They had a wonderful day on the rusty and purple midges.  Even saw them on the water this morning (Sunday) and they said they had a great morning on the Primrose & Pearl Midge.  Rick has his own drift boat, but discovered it is hard to run a drift boat and fish at the same time.  He did take Kristi out this morning, and they both caught fish.

Stan took Kim and Steve out for a full day on Saturday.  Think Kim caught her first trout on a fly rod with us about seven years ago.  She has come a long way since then and really likes it.  They both had a very good day on the Primrose & Peal midge while the water was off.  One they started generating, Stan changed to the Big Ruby.  That was all they needed to continue hooking fish.  Dana had Ron and his son, Nick out all day.  These fisher had a great day on an olive wooly bugger, red midge and a little brown midge.  Ron and his other son, Jeremy, had fished with us several years ago.  This time Nick got to spend the day on the water with his father. 

Jim was out today with Dave and his father Jeff.  Good day on the rusty midge and blood worm dropper.  Dawn, aka "the Stripper" from Louisiana, joined me for a fun day on the water.  True to form, we both stripped various patterns for the short period of time we were out.  Caught some on the holographic and blondie cracklebacks, a few hits on an olive bugger, but once we put on the rock worm caddis soft hackle, it was total chaos until we quit.  Several doubles, lots of "pick and rolls", and lots of fish to the boat.  What fun!  But alas, all good things must come to an end, so we started rowing out about 2:30 p.m.  Dawn’s husband Albert, who was upstream, was yelling at us to see if we had a camera.  One of our customers, Kevin, had a big, beautiful rainbow hooked and wanted a picture.  We rowed very quietly up to where he was still playing the fish, used our big net to net him and took a picture of this beautiful catch.  Think Kevin was still floating when he came into the shop later to get copies of his picture and leave his e-mail address so we could send him copies of the pics.  Good job Kevin!  What a great way to end the day.  Oh yes, this beauty was carefully revived and will put a smile on someone’s face again.  Who knows, it could even be Kevin.

Kevin – 6/13/10 – 26-1/2 inch Rainbow