We have had a lot of rain off and on since Saturday.  And, as a result, Table Rock Lake is now up to 917.1′.  It came up a foot in just a little over one day.  So, guess what.  Generation is also up.  Had the water off three hours Monday morning, then ramped up to four generators by noon.  Off until 9:00 a.m. Tuesday morning, then ramped up to 3 for the rest of the day.  Two going this morning until 10:00 a.m. when they turned on another and now (2:20 p.m.) we have four going with a level of 708.9′.  Doubt that we will see much, if any wading for the next couple days.  This weekend will be a surprise.  Hope it is a good one.  Chances of rain in the forecast until Saturday, when we should see some sun.  However, they forcast rain the past two days and we have lucked out both days….no rain. 

Stan on the water for half day float with Bruce from Colorado.  Told him he really didn’t have to come this far to fly fish, but think they like it here.  They had a very good day on the size 18 Ruby midge under the Big Ugly. 

Tuesday, Carolyn had two of her regulars, Alan & Heidi out for a half a day.  Everyone was excited as they got on the water as there was no generation.  Passed one of our customers, Donna, as we were rowing up toward the "Gauntlet", and she advised she had been having a wonderful morning stripping the crackleback.  Just got a little ways above her and the first horn sounded.  That was the end of that.  Made it up to the "Gauntlet" before the second horn sounded.  When it did, the water turned to chocolate milk!  Took a little while for the water to run through and turn back to normal color and when it did, we found some fish and had a good catching day.  Best patterns were a size 12 or 14 Hot Pink midge with a tungsten bead head, size 18 copper dun and Ruby midges.  We’re going to try it again tomorrow.

Darrell took Jerry and Gail from Texas on a half day drift today.  Started out a little slow, but when they found the right combination of fish and the pattern they wanted, they had a fun, fish catching morning on the Ruby midge and the holographic green crackleback.  As with most new fly fishers, Gail caught the most and largest fish!

As I was driving to work yesterday morning, with all the fog throughout the valleys, I could see a hint of color on the trees poking up above the fog.  Might be a pretty Fall.

Generated water all day Friday and Saturday.  Shut down at midnight Saturday and came back on Sunday as 2:00 p.m.  One generator on this morning at 6:00 a.m. and a second came on at 7:00 a.m.  Running 705.5 right now (9:30 a.m.).  Saturday was a down pour of rain all day.  Sunday was pretty nice althought the fog came and went most of the morning. 

Saturday, Wendell from Ky, had a half day float with Stan.  Not sure if they were just determined to fish or "gluttons for punishment", but they stayed on the water for the full float throught the down pours.  Looked like drowned rats when they got back to the shop.  Good news was they caught some fish.  Best patterns were the red midge size 16 midge with the size 18 burgundy midge.  Carolyn had Richard and Barbara from Raymore, MO. out for what was to be a half day float.  They had already missed several, brought one to the boat, and just brought in a "doubles" when the sky opened up.  Decided to come off the water and sit for a spell to see if it was going to let up.  After two cups of coffee, and a cream cheese cinnamon roll, the decision was it was not going to stop.  Best patterns were the size 16 red midge with the black zebra or ruby midge dropper.

Sunday Jim and Dana each had a veteran on the water as part of a Healing Waters activity.  Didn’t get to talk to them too much, but know they were getting hits on a size 12 varigated sculpin patterns using the sinking leaders on low water and size 8 of the same pattern when the water came up.   The morning fish a little slow, but really picked up in the afternoon and especially when the water came on.  All in all, a good day and everyone had a good time.  Both Jim and Dana said this was a lot of fun and are looking forward to the next time.

Stan was on the water with Bruce from CO. for half day.  They had a very good day on the size 18 ruby midge dropped below the Big Ugly. 

Chad & Roy – 9/20/09

 

 

Carolyn was out with Chad and his father, Roy, from TN.  Chad had a very good day on a golden variant sculpin and a natural pine squirrel sculpin under a sinking leader.   Roy was throwning the ruby midge dropped under the Big Ugly.  Lots of missed and lots of fish.   Chad’s nicest fish of the day was a 19" Rainbow that he caught on the natural pine squirrel sculpin.

They have been following the projection on generation pretty good so far this week.  Why can’t they do that on the weekends?!  Off every day until around 5:00 p.m. then on for one to four hours and back off.  Projection for today is the same and so far, it is off.  Tuesday it rain and drizzled most of the day.  Yesterday was overcast all day with periods of light rain.  Rained again this a.m. but does look like it might clear up for a while.  Think we have possibilities of rain in the forecast again for tomorrow.  Weekend looks pretty good.  Temps in the 70s.  I just looked out the window and actually see patches of blue sky!!!

Jim out yesterday with Mark and Chris, from here in Missouri.  This was their first attempt at fly fishing and they learned alot, had a fun time and caught a few fish.  They are floating the Buffalo today so we hope they can apply from of their new skills to fishing there.  Best patterns were the copper dun and ugly midge, size 18 gray scud with a blood worm dropper.  They pretty much stayed in the area just above and below the MDC boat ramp.

Reports from fishing up near the Hatchery are a mixed bag.  Catching fish, but not real fast and furious.  Seeing a few nice rainbows, a few browns, but not consistently. 

Well, they suceeded in messing up the weekend with unprojected generation both Saturday and Sunday.  It was only the equivalent of one generator, but it was up and down, they off.  Yesterday they projected no generation until 5:00 p.m. so they turned it on at 3:00 p.m. and kept it on for about three hours.  Today’s projection is no generation until 5:00 p.m.  Just checked at 3:05 p.m. and it is still off.  Threat of showers every day for the past three days.  Sunday cleared up and was a beautiful day.  Monday we had some light rains for very short periods of time.  Today is pretty much a drizzly most of the day.  Slight chance of rain again tomorrow, but we are also supposed to see some sun.  Sunny and in the low 70s upper 80s for the rest of the week.

Jack and his son, Dan, from Indiana, spent Sunday and Monday on the water all day with Jim.  This was Dan’s birthday present from Jack.  They had a couple of good days stripping size 6 sculpin patterns and picking up some nice Rainbows.  They also fished the size 16 red ass emerger and the red midge. 

Generation projection has been pretty much right on all last week.  No generation until early afternoon, then generation for two to six hours and back off until the next afternoon.  However, this weekend was a different story.  Projections for both Saturday and Sunday were no generation until 5:00 p.m. then one generator for one hour then off the balance of the day.  HO HUH?!  Saturday, generation started shortly after midnight and continued until 7:00 a.m. when it shut down until 8:00 a.m. then back on until noon when they shut it down for the balance of the day.  Today, the generators came on around 7:00 a.m. and are still on (shortly after 10:30 a.m.)  Forecasting rain chances Monday and Tuesday and scattered showers the rest of the week with temps. in the 70s to low 80s. 

Jim had two new guys on the water Thursday for a half day trip, Charles from FL, and his son, Kenneth, from WA.  It was a fairly slow day, but after going through the normal instruction on casting, line management, etc. they did catch some fish on the copper dun and the gray scud with a blood worm dropper.  Hook sets were there biggest challenge. 

Friday, Darrell had Earl and a friend, Miles, from the St. Louis area out for half a day.  Good day on the water.  They boated several fish on the Ruby midge, size 18, and the size 18 olive zebra midge. 

Earl – 9/11/09	Miles – 9/11/09

Carolyn had Art and his boss, David, out for half a day.  Art lives here in Missouri and David is from Texas.  They too had a good day using the size 18 copper dun midge dropped below the Big Ugly and the size 18 Primrose & Pearl and Ruby midges.  Caught several on the Big Ugly, but they were taking the midges best.  Also had a few stripping the holographic green crackleback.  

Rebecca & Georgia – 9/12/09

Gina had Georgie and her daughter Rebecca out for a long half day Saturday.  These ladies live just across the river from Kansas City on the Kansas side.  This was the day they started messing with the generation.  The ladies worked for their fish, but caught several on the Fl. Red San Juan worm, Primrose & Pearl size 18 midge as well as a dark brown zebra midge.  Gina’s word was ‘tough’.   

So far, Monday and Tuesday they had not started generation until 3:00 p.m. on Monday and 2:00 p.m. Tuesday.  Projection for today is 3:00 p.m.  Probably will see generation at 2:00.  Glad they really ran some water yesterday for a while.  Lots of algae or something floating in and on top the water…..Ugly!  Weather has been nice, 80s.  However, we are getting some rain today and the projection is for slight chances tomorrow and Friday.  Right now it looks like the chances will increase by the weekend.  Let’s hope it goes north or south of us. 

Both Jim and Stan on the water Monday.  Jim had Dennis, a fairly new fly fisher from Trenton, MO out for a 1/2 day wade trip.  Dennis wanted a "learning experience", so Jim obliged.  They worked on lots of stuff as well as catching lots of fish.  Best patterns were the size 16 Miracle Scud with a blood worm dropper and the size 18 Ugly midge.  Stan was with Rod, from Kansas.  They too had a good day but on the size 18 Ruby Midge. 

Yesterday, Stan had Pete from Virginia out all day.  Pete has a hat full of ugly bugs and added the Big Ugly to his collection after fishing yesterday.  Pete really liked our fishery and plans to bring a friend and come back as soon as he can.  Obviously, the Big Ugly was one of their patterns, and they dropped the size 18 Ruby midge from this.  When the third generator came on yesterday, it had the water so dirty you could not keep a fly clean.  Not much action after that.

We did get a lot of rain early (I was still trying to get some sleep) Saturday morning and it looked like it was going to rain some more most of the morning, but it cleared off and was a great day.  Had so much water flowing into Taneycomo from all the creeks downstream, the tailwater stayed about a foot high (with no generation) all day Saturday.  Table Rock only came up about a 1/10th of a foot, so we are holding at 915.34′.  Both Saturday and Sunday they ran the equivalent of one generator 1-2 hours between 4:00-5:00 p.m.  Water is off again today with the projection of the equivalent of one generator somewhere around 4:00 p.m.  Beautiful, suny day with temperatures in the mid 80s.  Same projections for tomorrow.  Even though they are projecting the same generation schedule for tomorrow as today, I think we will probably see a little more.

I fished for a little while Saturday.  Waded in at the Rockin Chair area.  Did not see too much action when I got there.  Picked up a few early on a P&P soft hackle and a holographic green crackleback.  Not enough to get excited about so I changed to a golden variant sculpin pattern under a sinking leader.  This was what they were looking for.  When I left I loaned my sinking leader and a few sculpins to one of our customers who was not having much luck.  Hope this helped!

Sunday, Jim had Manuel and his wife, Lorna, out for half a day.   Didn’t take them long to get into fish on one of Jim’s newer bug-eyed sculpin patterns.  It is a size 12 with grizzly hackle and a "Jailhouse Marabou" brown/black tail.   They had such a great time, they booked a couple days around Labor Day 2010.  Downstream, Stan was out with Mike from Iowa.  They were trying various midges with little success until Stan tied on the size 18 Ruby midge.  Between the Ruby midge and the golden variant sculpin, they had a very good, enjoyable half day.  Meanwhile, Carolyn was upstream with Dawn (aka ‘The Stripper’) and her mother-in-law, Carolyn.  This was Carolyn’s first experience with a fly rod and she started out with a bang!  After working on casting a little, mending and a little line handling, we put on a size 18 Copper Dun midge.  About the 4th or 5th drift resulted in a fat, 18 inch Rainbow.  Carolyn proceeded to catch several more on the Copper Dun.  The Stripper was strippping (of course) Jim’s bug-eyed pattern.  She caught fish on this, got lots of hits on the golden variant sculpin, and caught fish on a few other patterns we put on.  Other good patterns during the day were the P&P and the filoplume.  Fun day and Carolyn is coming back!  

Carolyn – 9/6/09

Carolyn’s first fish on a fly rod.  Told her it doesn’t work this way everytime! 

Three generations of the Kerr Family – 9/06/09

 Albert, Dawn, and James Albert have been fishing Taneycomo for more than two years now.  After each trip they go home to Louisiana with tails of the fish they caught and good times they had. Carolyn decided it was time for her to join in the fun.  We spent a long half day on the water Sunday and had a ball.  The "Cacklecraft" was in her true form. 

Generation schedule since Tuesday has been consistent…..running!  Most of the week it has been two generators at a tailwater level around 705 plus or minus.  Other than Wednesday, weather has been great.  Cool nights and just right days, 70-80 degrees.  Bit of a breeze for a while yesterday.  We do have rain in the forecast.  Think there is a 50/50 chance for tomorrow.  So, that means there is a 50% chance it will not rain!

Pat – 9/3/09

Darrell out for half a day with Ron and Pat from his part of the country, Minnesota.   They had a fun outting and caught fish stripping the holographic green crackleback or drifting the pink San Juan. 

Jim was out for a long afternoon float with Bud and his son, Derek.  They had a good day stripping the red ass emerger in the seams.  They picked some nice rainbows and a few browns.  Also did well earlier in the day with the pink San Juan dropped below the red midge.  Better fish and definitely more fun stripping the emerger.

Generation pattern so far this week has definitely been a bit erratic.  Monday it was off until 2:00 p.m.   On until 8:00 p.m. then off until midnight.  On at midnight until 6:00 a.m. or so then off for about three hours then back on.  So far, they have not shut it down and are projecting generation all day today.  However, it is primarily two generators at a level of 705 feet plus or minus.   Weather has continued to be great, but today we got some rain.  Rain in the forecast, 40-50% chance, into Friday. 

Stan and Jim were on the water Monday for a half day with a group from Texas.  Judith and Jim were with Jim, and Norman and Laura were with Stan.  All of them were fairly new to fly fishing and they had a fun trip catching trout on the Copper Dun Midge, size 18; a size 16 Lightening Bug; size 20 blood worm dropper under a size 16 Miracle Scud.  They were scheduled to go out again today, but the rain made everyone think otherwise…especially when we heard some thunder this morning.  

Tuesday, Jim had Danny from Mississippi out for half a day.  Danny had some some salt water and warm fly fishing, but never trout and lighter gear.  Had to do a little hook setting work in order to get some fish to the boat.  With the water flowing, the red midge with either a red or orange San Juan worm were their patterns.  Stan had a couple of his regulars, George and Hubert from over by Bennett Springs, out for a late morning start half day.   George  was very pleased with the quality of the fish she consistently caught.  Good day on the Lightening Bug with a pink San Juan dropper early in the trip, then switched to the red midge with the same dropper later. 

They did generate water every day last week except for a short down time Tuesday night from 7:00 p.m. to midnight.  Generation in the mornings was lower, but they ramped up in the afternoons.  Both Saturday and Sunday we again saw no generation all day except for 3-4 hours in the afternoon.  Projection for today is no water until 3:00 p.m. then off again the balance of the day…..we’ll see.  Weather has been unbelievable!  When I got into my car this morning to come to work, it was 49 degrees.  Brisk morning to say the least.  High for today is mid 70s.  The weekend was beautiful too.  Should have unseasonal lows this week with the possibility of showers mid week. 

Jim took Kevin from St. Joseph, MO out Friday for a half day float.  Kevin used to fish this area a few years ago and wanted to get "back in the grove again".  Had a couple generators going to they fished a size 16 red soft hackle at the Lookout Island which worked well in the film.  Also caught fish on the size 14 Miracle scud with an orange San Juan worm. 

Saturday, Stan and Carolyn had the Louisiana Kerr family out for half a day, all day, whatever we wanted to do.  Obviously, Dawn, aka "The Stripper" wanted to throw patterns she could strip.  We did well in the morning on the holographic green crackleback.  Late morning or early afternoon, they just shut down on this, so we went looking for new waters in which to strip.  Unfortunately, they didn’t like anything we threw, so we started drifting midges with a San Juan worm dropper.  Hot pink and red worms were our afternoon patterns, especially after they turned on the generator. 

Sunday Darrell had Rick and Ken from Columbia, MO. out for the morning.  These guys did well on mainly on the P&P midge,  Also caught some on the Rusty and Zebra midges.  Carolyn fished with a local guy, Chad for a while in the morning.  Chad is getting ready to go home to Tennessee for a week and wanted to throw some dries in his home waters.  Worked mainly on technique as we couldn’t find a dry they were real excited about except the Big Ugly and they certainly were not overly excited about this one.  In the afternoon, Carolyn had Stephanie and Spring out for a learn day.  These two nurses from Skaggs are a hoot.  Fly fishing is something both of them have been wanted to learn, so this was the day.  We started out, of course, with the roll cast then progressed to the picked up and lay down casts.  Got through a little line management work and the horn went off.  Okay, time to change gears.  We rigged up with the Lightening Bug with a red San Juan dropper and the red tungsten beadhead midge with a hot pink San Juan dropper and started fishing.  Fished the rise, got into the boat and drifted for a while.  If anyone was on the river, they had to hear the screams and hollering of these two when they would hook a fish.  What a joy, what a day!  Lots of hookups, breakoffs, and a few actually made it to the boat.  We finished off the afternoon, sitting in the boat, eating black seedless grapes, enjoying the cool breeze blowing across the water, learning how to tie knots.   Hope they are practicing at work (on their lunch hour, of course) today.   

Stephanie – 8/30/09

Our Louisiana family called Sunday morning to report that they were catching lots of fish in the Hatchery area on the Fl. Orange San Juan worm and an orange bodied crackleback.