Generation off all weekend!

Water ran most of Friday, but when it was off for a while mid-day, Gina and Darrell were wading and had a great time.  Gina was throwing a small dark soft hackle and cleaning house.  Darrell was throwing a filoplume or crackleback and also having a great day.

The size 18 black midge was hot Saturday until the rain started.  Once that happened, they shut off.  Afte the rain died down, the holographic crackleback was working.  Folks were also catching fish in the hatchery area on the size 16 dark gray and tan scuds. 

Sunday was just an all around good day.  Water was still off, no wind, and the temperature in the upper 50s.  Gina did well on a glitz midge, size 18, hot pink.  Carolyn was throwing a holographic green crackleback.  Lots of fish and lots of misses.  Also working well was a size 20 olive zebra midge and the size 18 copper dun.  It was one of those almost every cast days.  Saw lots of folks bringing in fish.  As the afternoon came to an end, the size 20 BWO soft hackle was nailing some fish.  Stan and Dawn even had some hits and caught a few fish on the size 22 sproat midge dry fly.  It was difficult to leave the water when we did.  All you could see when you looked up stream were circles everywhere on the water as the fish were coming up to feed!  What a beautiful day.

April 18, 2009 – Help us celebrate our 10 Year Anniversary!  We will have product reps here so you can pick their brains as well as most of our guides.  Fly tying demos, games, drawings, casting instruction, and more!  Best of all, hot dogs with all the trimmings!  Catch a dog then go catch a fish!  Festivity will start at 9:00 a.m. and last until 4:30 p.m. 

If the river guys are being kind, the projection is for the water to be off all weekend!  Here’s hoping.  See you on the water!!

April 18, 2009 – Help us celebrate our 10 Year Anniversary!  We will have product reps here so you can pick their brains as well as most of our guides.  Fly tying demos, games, drawings, casting instruction, and more!  Best of all, hot dogs with all the trimmings!  Catch a dog then go catch a fish!  Festivity will start at 9:00 a.m. and last until 4:30 p.m. 

Water generation has pretty well followed the projections this past week.  Off until 6:00 a.m. then on for 3-4 hours, and off until 6:00 p.m. or so.  Very surprised to see it running last weekend and will be surprised if they run it this weekend.  But, they have their reasons!?  We are just a little below power pool at 914.9.

Darrell is glad to be home.  He and his wife took a two week drive to the west coast to visit relatives.  On the way out he stopped by the San Juan and fished a little.  Fishing was tough!  Being the observant person he is, he noted even the guides were not pulling in any fish.  He was on his home water yesterday (Taneycomo) and caught enough fish to make up for not catching any for two weeks!  The olive filoplume was the ticket.  He tried a few midges and other patterns, but this was the one!  He called me from the water to tell me how glad he was to be home!  Don’t tell him, but we’re glad he’s back!

Well the generation schedule messed up the weekend fishers again.  Water was off during the mid part of each day, except last Monday, all last week and then they ran a low two generators both Saturday and Sunday.  The tailwater level bounced back and forth primarily between 705s and 704s over the weekend.  Today, the projection is to again have the water off during the mid day from 10:00 a.m. until 7:00 pm. 

Now for the good news.  We had boats on the water every day since Thursday.  Fishing has been very good.  Not too many larger fish, but lots of fish.  Friday Stan had Doc and Terry from Oklahoma out.  Doc said they set a record for fish to the boat on this trip and he has been with us over ten years now.  Their best flies were the red beadhead midge while the water was moving and they dropped down to the size 18 burgundy midge after the water dropped.  Dana and Carolyn were out Saturday with a father (Troy), his son (Alex) and son-in-law (David).  Troy had fish some and Alex and David were new.  The red midge did pretty well in the earlier part of the day as well as the Lightening Bug.  Once we got to Lookout Island and started throwing the olive filoplume with the sink tip, fish count went up.  This was the preferred method of fishing for Alex and David. 

Stan was also on the water Saturday with Tashia from Independence, Mo and her father Jim.  They had been out with Stan before and were brave enough to come back and go out with him again!.  They had a wonderful day on the water with the red and burgundy midges. 

Yesterday was father/son day.  Stan had Tom and his son, Chris, from Texas out.  Another great day with midges, the red, copper dun and burgundy midges.  Carolyn was out with Howard and his son, Steve.  Howard is from Springfield, Mo and his son is currently living in Texas where he is attending college.  We started out with the red midge, Lightening Bug and a new midge Shannon sent with us to test.  All these patterns worked well.  However, we again picked up the pace on catching when we started stripping the olive filoplume.  Finished off the day down below the high bank area stripping holographic cracklebacks without sink tip in the shallow water.  Steve almost went into the water when he started complaining about how his hand was hurting from catching too many fish!!

Water generation, other than Monday, has followed the projections almost on the tee.  Should shut down today at noon and be off the balance of the day.

Yesterday was certainly a midge day.  Think you could have thrown any color midge and caught fish.  From customers coming into the store, however, the copper dun was number one, closely followed by the burgundy midge and then the primrose and pearl.  Lon, said he did very well later in the day on an olive wooly bugger.  Bob and Mac were out and Bob was catching them on the above listed midges plus the holographic copper midge.  Mac likes soft hackles and cracklebacks and he did fairly well on the holographic green crackleback and the dark olive soft hackle.

Stan even caught some wading a little above Short Creek on the Lightening Bug and copper dun midge.

Yes, the water stayed off all day yesterday as projected and the projection for today is the same pattern.  Projection showed no water until 6:00 a.m. when they will run the equivalent of two generators for one hour, then four generators for two hours and back to 2 generators for one hour then off at 10:00 a.m. for the balance of the day. 

Everyone on the water had smiling faces and were catching lots of fish on various patterns.  Stan, Bob and Gary, we catching them all day on the Lightening Bug, size 18; Burgundy Midge, size 18; the size 8 Bug-Eyed Bugger; and Burgundy Crackleback, size 14.  Probably the number one pattern was the Burgundy Midge.  Some of our customers who were on the water fishing, sent some folks up to get the Burgundy Midge as it was working so well for them. 

REMEMBER EVERYONE – Your 2008 licenses expired at midnight February 28, 2009 ! !

LADIES – Don’t forget the Women’s Fly Fishing Clinic being offered on April 25, 2009.  This is a full day clinic that will give you everything you need to know to get started fly fishing.  Check under www.riverrunoutfitters.com/fly-school/ to learn more about the clinics. 

LAST, BUT NOT LEAST – Mark your Calendars for APRIL 18, 2009.  Come help us celebrate our 10 year anniversary.  Door prizes, hourly drawing, games, product reps., casting instruction, hot dogs, and lots of fun!  Everything begins at 9:00 a.m.

They did not follow the projection Monday, but they did yesterday…..almost.  Projection was for the water to turn off around 10:00 a.m. both days and leave it off until 6:00 or 7:00 p.m.  Monday they ran all day and yesterday they did turn it off at 10:00 a.m. and kept it off until 5:00 p.m.  This morning it again is following projection.  Off at 10:00 a.m.  Projection is to be off all day.  So far, so good.  Weather is great……sunny, little breezy, but we can handle that!

Friends came in from the river yesterday afternoon and they did well on the size 18 red burgundy midge and the blondie crackleback.  Just had a call from one of our boats on the water today and they had caught several fish on the size 18 lightening bug.  Certain there will be several other patterns they used with success by the time they come off this afternoon.  That was just their first report for the first hour.  Think it was a hint for me to tie up some more! 

Still running water with four generators on around 6:00 or 7:00 a.m for 3-4 hours, then shut down to equivalent of two generators for 8 hours, then back up for 3 hours and off until the next morning.  Today was a bit of a change with three generators on this morning and still running only three.  According to the projection website, there will be no generation tomorrow.  Be still my beating heart!!

Jim had a couple guys from one of the shops in Michigan on the water Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  Jim works in the shop and John is a guide.  They had a great time catching fish on the red tungsten midge and a couple variations of the bug-eyed bugger.  The icing on the cake was the weather!  One of the guys, think  it waas Jim, commented he was glad he brought his shorts!  John was going back home to 200 inches of snow!  Ugh!

Stan had Jim and Kevin from Oklahoms out for a couple half days Thursday and Friday.  Thursday they caught lots of fish on the holographic green cracklebacks, and the bug-eyed bugger on sink tips.  On the drift out they picked up several more fish on the red tungsten midge.  Friday was almost a repeat of Thursday, but they did boat a few more nicer sized fish.  It was tough for them to drive back home this morning in the snow.

Water continues to run nonstop except for off at 11:00 p.m. then back on each morning by 6:00 a.m.  Running the equivalent of four generators for 2-4 hours then cutting back to the equivalent of two.  Still keeps the level in the area of 707.5 with the two generators running.  We are still a little over power pool.  Anxious to see what the pattern is going to be once we reacdh 915.0

Darrell had Jim, from South Dakota, and Dean out on Saturday.  Little slow start looking for fish, but when they found then and started throwing the sinking leader with the olive filoplume it was a great afternoon.  Dean called today looking for a sinking leader.  First time he had fished with one and really like it.  He said they were hooking fish every cast for a while!   He was hoping Jim had the materials to tie up some filoplumes. 

We have seen an almost duplicate pattern of water generation for the past four days.  Off at midnight for 5 hours, then four generators raising the level to 710.2 (plus or minus) until they turn it off again.  Today’s projection looks a little different…..we’ll see.

Did have boats on the water all weekend.  Darrell took out a previous customer from Nebraska, Scott and his son Justin.  Justin is pretty new to fly fishing.  They had a good day on the black midge, size 18 and the red tungsten size 16 midge. 

Stan and I both spent Valentine’s Day on the water.  He had a pair of brothers, Mark and Mike on the water.  I also had brothers, Dave and Justin out.  Stan’s guys did well down below Lookout Island on the pink lady or red roe egg patterns.  We slipped in above them and started catching them on the olive filoplume on a sink tip.  Sunday I took Jim and his son Ross out.  This was after scooping the snow and ice out of my boat and saying "what are we doing?"  We picked up a few fish on the bank below the boat ramp on the pink lady egg pattern, then proceeded down to the seam below Lookout Island.  It did not fish nearly as well Sunday as the day before.  We did have a good time and it was worth the scooping.  Mornings both Saturday and Sunday were slow.

Although Beaver continues to rise, Table Rock did go down 2/10ths of a foot from yesterday morning same time.