Generators were shut off at midnight last night and are still off at 5:25 a.m.  According to the schedule, they will stay off until 1:00 p.m. today.  We will keep you posted on what happens.  Dare we step into the water and wade for a little while !?!

Table Rock is now down to 917.0, and they are still running four generators.  However, as of noon today, they cut back the cubic feet per second of water flow and the level in Taneycomo was 706.3.  A far cry from 711.5 (plus or minus) we have had until now.   Will keep you posted on our progress from here.

Since Saturday, we have had boats on the water every day except today.  Fishing not great, but still catching fish and they are looking good.  Really coloring up for the fall spawn and still pretty healthy looking.  Stan had Louise and Bob from Indiana out Monday.  Think Louise outfished Bob by a few fish.  Best flies were the red midge with the red size 16 San Juan dropper.  Tuesday, Darrell took Ed from the St. Louis area out.  Ed was mainly interested in learning more about techniques and improving his casting.  Ed accomplished this and landed some fish.  They also did best on the red midge with a red San Juan dropper.

Stan’s guys, Hank and Ken, had a good day Tuesday with the red midge, pink San Juan dropper and Pink Lady egg pattern.  Ken had never fly fished before and certainly missed his share of fish, but did get several to the boat.  Both of them caught some pretty fish. 

Hank – 9/30/08	Ken – 9/30/08

Dana’s guys from Louisiana, Tommy and Hans, not only caught fish on the red midge and red San Juan, but also the holographic green crackleback both as a dry and stripping.

Flood gates were shut off at noon today.  Cubic feet per second (cfs) of water flood went from 11400 cfs to 7000 cfs.  What a difference.  Still not at a wadeable level and probably will not be until they get Table Rock down to at least 917. 

Stan is on the water with two guys from Kansas, Ken and Jeff, and they are having a wonderful afternoon on holographic cracklebacks!  Said they had had several doubles already.

Good news is Table Rock Lake level is dropping.  Since my last report on the 17th, they have dropped the lake level over three feet.  Bad news is, the flood gates are still open.  They still have a goal in mind of 917 feet elevation above sea level.  This they want to get to with or without the flood gates.  When they hit the target of 920 feet, they did shut down the cubic feet per second of water flow, but have elected to keep the gates open.  Of course, this could change tomorrow.  Bottom line, they will run water 24/7 until they get to 917.  Then we will have to see what they do.  If it will get the water back to a wadeable level quicker, so be it!

Have had boats on the water most of the week and it has been tough fishing.  Before they hit 920 feet, the tailwater level was being held at 713.5.  This needs a lot of weight to get down to the fish.  After hitting 920, they cut the level down to 711.3 (plus or minus).  Water has been dingy, temperature is up and dissolved oxygen is down.  Therefore, tough trips.  Catching a few fish, but certainly nothing to write home about.  However, from the folks coming into the shop, they are catching lots of fish up around the outlets on almost anything you want to throw in.  Primarily scuds, tan and gray; San Juan worms, tan or brown small egg patterns to name a few.

Good possibility all 10 flood gates will be open until Monday, September 22.  After that, generation will be heavy and they may still supplement the release of water using the flood gates. 

We had boats on the water all Saturday and every day this week, including today when the opened up the flood gates.  Been a real mixed bag.  One day will fish pretty good and the next day is tough.  Saturday Jim was out with Tom from Oklahoma.  Fairly new to fly fishing and heading to Colorado pretty soon.  Wanted to get some pointers on fly fishing.  Jim worked with him on his skills and they caught some fish on the red midge, pink and orange San Juans and black midge.  Darrell had Bado and his friend Ron on the water Monday.  They did pretty good on the pink worm and copper dun midge.  Stan was out with one of our regular, regulars, Doc from Oklahoma, and his friend Ralph from New Zealand.  Ralph was impressed with our fishery.  He said they have big fish in New Zealand, but not as many.  Their flies were the red midge, pink lady egg pattern and the copper dun midge.  Tuesday was tough.  Darrell was with Duane from Colorado.  Like the rest of us, they worked hard but caught fish on the pink worm,  I had one of my favorite couples, Tom and Marge from California.  We got several fish to the boat on a black woolly under a sink tip and the red midge with a pink San Juan dropper.  One of Marge’s was a really nice one.  One jump and it was gone!  Stan and his guys, Bud & Jerry from Arkansas caught fish on the red midge and pink lady egg pattern.

Jim was out today with Robert and Kevin from CT.  When the flood gates opened, water got real dirty.  Jim opted to come off early and give the guys the trip.  Stan was out with Mike from Illinois.  Had a few hits but decided to give it up because of all the debris in the water with the gates on.  Couldn’t keep the flies clean!  Mike will come back later and try it again.

Forecasting rain starting tomorrow some time and continuing into Sunday.  At least, Monday and the rest of the week look okay.  Depending on how much rain we get, could be several more weeks before the water gets turned off again for wading. 

Have had boats on the water every day this week except today.  Kind of glad we didn’t have a trip today as the tailwater is at 710.plus.  Probably trying to get rid of some water out of Table Rock Lake just in case.  Monday, Stan had the Lynch brothers out.  They had a good day on the red midge and holographic crackleback with a sink tip.  Tuesday was Jim’s turn with the brothers and they threw the red midge with either an orange or pink San Juan dropper.  Darrell had a shot at them also.  Wednesday, Darrell had they on the pink San Juan.  Thursday they got stuck with Stan again and boated several fish again on the red midge with the pink San Juan.  Stan was on the water Wednesday with a couple of new fishers, Glenn and Pat from Oklahoma.  Lots of misses, but did get some fish to the boat on the peach egg, and red midge with the pink San Juan dropper.  Water has been dingy this past week, so we have been doing better on the brighter egg patters and San Juan worms.

Three boats on the water Friday when they opened the flood gates….again!  Stan had Art and Penelope from Louisiana out.  They had a great day.  Fished the red midge and the holographic green crackleback.  A friend of theirs, Dave, was out with Darrell.  Darrell had Dave catching fish on the sink tip with the olive green filoplume.  I had Moses from Illinois back again.  He brought his son, Clarence with him.  Moses had had some health problems and did not get to fish with me earlier this year, but we made up for it Friday.  Good day with the red midge and red San Juan micro worm dropper.  Clarence is brand new and certainly did a good amount of damage to the fish.  Especially fished good a little after they opened the flood gates.  Our only problem after they opened the gates was the amount of debris coming down.  It made it real difficult to keep our flies clean.

Moses – September 5, 2008

Jim and Stan were both on the water Saturday.  Jim’s guys, Jeff and Brian from Michigan, baught fish on the Bug eye Bugger, Black size 18 midge, and red midge, size 16.  The guys got introduced to the sink tip lines.  Stan had Dave and Justin from Oklahoma out again.  They did very well on the red midge with a pink San Juan dropper and the peach egg.  Came off a little early due to rain moving through.

I now have a clue.  They plan to again open the flood gates.  So far, Table Rock Lake has risen almost four feet.  According to our local news, the Corps plans to open the flood gates at a level of 920.0.  Last reports were that the gates would only be opened for a couple of days.  Thinks this lets out wade fishing this weekend!!!

We have had rain for the past 1-1/2 days and are predicted to have rain today, clearing this afternoon.  Table Rock came up two feet with all this rain, so they are generating.  Ran at least two generators all night, ramped up to three some time this a.m. and I just heard the horn for the fourth generator a little before 8:00 a.m.  Don’t have a clue what they will do this weekend with this extra water.  Maybe we will have better insight tomorrow. 

With the two generators running yesterday, know the fishers up in the Hatchery area were catching some fish.  One of our guides reported the gray flashback scud with a worm brown San Juan dropper was working well.

Talked to the people at the Hatchery yesterday and they confirmed our feelings that the dissolved oxygen level is down.  Said they had been keeping an eye on it and the Corps was injecting oxygen.  We also discussed the water temperature, which is still in good limits, of 58 degrees.  Table Rock Lake surface temperature is already in the 70s so maybe it will turn over earlier than it did last year, especially if we keep having this cool weather. 

First weekend since they started changing the generation pattern, and looks like we are getting back to normal.  Friday evening they shut the water off at 9:00 p.m. and left it off until Noon on Saturday.  Saturday it again was off at 9:00 p.m. and on Sunday morning at 8:00 a.m. when they turned on one generator for two hours.  Off again at 10:00 for four hours, when they ran 2-3 generators until 5:00 p.m.  It was off until 4:00 p.m. Monday afternoon.  One generator for two hours then off again until today at 10:00 a.m. starting with two and now running four.

Jim had Leo and Steven from Springfield, MO on the water Friday.  They had a good day on the black midge, blood worm dropper and orange San Juan Worm.  Saturday Jim infected a couple guys from Iowa, Neil and Gene, with the fly fishing bug.  Took them out and worked on casting, line work and hook sets. They even caught some fish!  Best bugs for him were the Copper Dun midge, size 18; blood worm dropper, size 22 and the Ugly Midge, size 18 (this guys has been dormant for a while).  Gina was out with a friend from Oklahoma, Valley, and they too picked up some fish on the Ugly Midge as well as the Red Midge, size 16, and Valley’s "pre-emergers".  I had to stand in the water for a while so I went out for a couple hours and did nothing but strip streamers.  After I found the one they wanted and figured out how they wanted it, I did well on the size 12 olive filoplume.  I was fishing this cross current with an intermediate sink tip and stripping very slowly.  The takes were VERY soft.  As a matter of fact, most of the time I saw my line move before I felt them and in many cases never felt them hit the fly.  Stan was out with Randy from OK. Saturday.  They had a good day on the Big Ugly with a black zebra midge dropper.  It was pretty much 50/50 on the Big Ugly to the midge.  Randy really enjoyed fishing the Big Ugly.

Randy – August 30, 2008

Sunday, Stan had Tom and his grandson, Jason, from Springfield out.  Jason is brand new and really caught on fast.  Tom was excited because he is looking for a fly fishing buddy.  They had a good day on the red size 16 midge with the red San Juan dropper.  Sunday was the day they were messing with the water.  I had Martha from AR. and her friend Marvin from CA.  We too caught them on the red midge with San Juan dropper and both Stan’s boat and mine caught them on the Big Ugly with the black zebra dropper.  Martha found this to be a real challenge to hook them on a dry and really liked it.  Darrell had Randy from OK. back out again.  He had planned to wade Sunday, but they turned on the water so he took another drift trip.  Sunday was a bit tough.  Hits and hook ups were not hot and heavy.  One could see quite a few fish, but they were very picky on where they wanted to feed.   Good news was that we all brought several fish to the boats and everyone had a good time.