Gina had Scott and Rhonda from Winconsin on the water all day Tuesday.  They had a wonderful day on the water.  Caught lots of nice fish.  Rhonda is just getting started and she did quite well.  They were fishing the olive bugger on a sink tip, the black zebra midge and the red midge.  Jim had Brian and Brandon from Oklahoma.  Brandon is 11 and just getting started.  Jim worked with him on indicator fishing.  It was almost nip and tuck for a while.  Red midge, black midge and olive bug eyed bugger. 

Wednesday Darrell had Rick from Canada out.  He had fished the previous 2 days with Stan and Darrell finished him up with another good day.  Jim was out with Andy from Branson and his friend Greg from out of town.  Greg is a beginner and was soon catching fish on the red midge and #18 black midge.  They boated a lot of fish in a half day.  Stan and Carolyn had Doc, his son Pat, and two grand daughters, Conner, and Hannah.  In addition to getting out and collecting rocks as various places, Conner and Hannah each boated from fish.   Doc and Pat, who were Stan had a real good half day on the red midge, pink midge and pink San Juan.  The girls were fishing the red midge and black zebra.  Everyone hooked fish stripping the holographic green crackleback. 

Sunday and Monday AND today and no rain.  AND, no rain in the forecast for at least the next three days!!  Still running generators 24/7, but the water has cleared up considerably from 2-3 weeks ago.  Lots of folks are catching fish up around the outlets on lots of different things.  Scuds, of course, small dark midges, and even some dries in the late afternoon early evening.

Boats on the water Sunday and Monday.  Stan had Earl from Texas out Saturday and Sunday.  They had a couple of great days on the water.  Earl was introduced to cracklebacks and soft hackles and really liked that.  Darrell and Jim had a group of guys from Kansas out Sunday.  They too had a great day.  Jim had Dwan picking up fish on a black midge as well as a black size 20 soft hackle.  Robert and Phillip, who were with Darrell worked the bug eyed bugger and also the hot pink San Juan. 

Gina and Carolyn took a group of guys out in the afternoon from Arkansas.  Gina’s guys, Mike and his son, David, caught a lot of fish on the olive wooly bugger, the black zebra, and the red midge.  Mike caught the numbers and David caught the quality (largest fish to their boat).  Carolyn had Ed and John.  They did well on the holographic green cracklebacks with the sink tip.  Also caught a lot on the hot pink San Juan and finished up the day with the red midge.  All in all, a beautiful day.  Weather was great, light wind and good quality and quantity of fish. 

Stan and Carolyn had a family from Kansas out for a half day trip on Thursday.  Stan had Jerry and the son Nick, and Carolyn had Margaret and the daughter, Kerie.  Kerie and Jerry had fished with Carolyn last year on Father’s Day. Think Dad has a fishing buddy. 

We all did well on the orange or pink San Juans, pink midge and cracklebacks.  Everyone enjoyed the cracklebacks.  We were fishing the cracklebacks under a sink tip. 

Dana had Bob and Kerry from Missouri out all day.  They had a wonderful day on the pink midge, pink San Juan and ….you guessed it, the holographic green crackleback. 

Yesterday, Jim and Darrell took a group from Oklahoma out.   Yesterday was a little tough.  Keith and Brian who were with Jim caught fish on the red midge, black midge and orange San Juan.

Stan and Jim out today.  We’ll see how fishing is today.

Stan had Scott from Oklahoma out yesterday.  They had a few sprinkles of rain every once in a while.  No lightening and thunder, so it turned out to be a good day.  They caught lots of fish on the holographic green crackleback with the sink tip, mainly in seams on the slack water side.  Caught a few on the pink midge, but the crackleback was the fly.  Fish laying up everywhere they stopped to fish.  Scott is ready to go out and do it again!

Last Tuesday, Darrell and Jim had a party of four on the water.  Darrell’s boat, with Sue & Lou from Illinois, initiated the "rodeo" rule.  If you stay on a bucking horse for 8 seconds, it is considered a ride……so if you keep a fish on for 8 seconds, it’s considered a catch (just kidding).  Jim had their friends, Matt and Holly.  Holly is new to fly fishing but did land several fish.  Their best bugs were the bug eyed bugger, red midge and hot pink or orange San Juans.  Stan had Joe and his little dog Bear from Louisiana.  They fished the pink midge, red midge and holographic green crackleback. 

Wednesday, we again had three boats on the water.  Jim was out with Keith and Mel from Texas.  They had a good day on the bug eye bugger, hot orange San Juan and red midge.  Their catch included a nice 19 inch Rainbow.   Stan had Daniel and Harry from Florida.  Good day on holographic crackleback using a sink tip and the peach egg pattern.  Unfortunately, they lost several fish due to hooks bending.  We found that with the heavy water, and using a sink tip on the cracklebacks, we should tie them on a heavier (2X Heavy) hook instead of the dry fly hook we normally tie them on.  We have corrected this problem.  Carolyn had Scott and his son Mitch from Oklahoma out.   I had Mitch out last year and he has come a long way with his fly fishing.  Our best patterns were the peach egg and the holographic green or blondie cracklebacks. 

Thursday four boats out.  Stan and Darrell had a group from Oklahoma.  All new to fly fishing.  Glen and Evan out with Stan and John and JP were with Darrell.  Everyone boated some fish.  Mainly on egg patterns.   Jim was out with Chris from Tennessee.  They had a very good day primarily on the bug eye bugger on a sink tip and some on a size 22 emerger pattern.   Carolyn was out again with Mike and Trish from Texas.  Another good day, once we found the fish, on the bug eyed bugger, crackle back and peach egg pattern. 

Jim and Darrell were the only ones on the water Friday.  Darrell had Albert and his son, James, from Louisiana out.  They had a great day.  Peach egg pattern and red midge.  Jim had Keith and Brandi on the water.  They hooked a good number of fish on rthe orange San Juan and red midge. 

Saturday, a pop-up thunderstorm came through in the a.m.  We had five boats scheduled to go out, but once we started seeing lightening, those of us still on solid ground, stayed and those already out came off.  All the trips were half day and the heavy rain and lightening hung around a good portion of the morning and after it went through, the river looked like chocolate milk.

Sunday was a bluebird day.  and four of us were on the water.  Mike and Wally from Indiana, out with Jim, hit a midge hatch for about 45 minutes and caught several fish on a size 20 emerger.  The rest of the time they were picking fish with the bug eyed  bugger.  Dana had Bob and his 11 year old grandson, Cody on the water.  They caught fish on the bug eye and the hot orange San Juan.  Stan took Steve from Texas on a half day trip.  Steve wanted to learn and fish the sink tip.  He did and he loved it.  The crackleback was working very well Sunday.  Carolyn had Mark and Holly from Michigan on the water.  Holly is new to fly fishing and, of course, caught the largest fish.  Think Mark may have boated more, but they had a good day on the bug eye and crackleback on sink tip.  Did catch a few on the egg pattern.  Holly was throwing a good line by the end of the trip. 

We all woke up Saturday morning to the sound of thunder, flashing of lightening and a heavy downpour of rain.  This went on all morning into mid afternoon.  Overall, we had almost 6 inches of rain in our area and the Table Rock Lake went up over a foot Saturday and has now leveled out at about two and a half feet higher than it was early Saturday morning.  That’s the bad news.  We have added some more time to getting Taneycomo back to a wadeable level.

Now for good news.  Sunday was a bluebird day.  Clear, blue sky.  Not much wind early in the day, but it did pick up after noon.  Fishing was very good and had continued through yesterday.  Have three boats on the water today so we’ll see if the trend continues.  They did crank up the generation from the three they have been running since Saturday to four today. 

Sunday we had five boats on the water.  Jim had Steve and Judy, Darrell had Robin and Kristi, and Stan had Rick and Greg .  All these folks are from the St. Louis area.  One of the guys didn’t want to fish in the same boat with his wife since she made him look bad on their trip earlier this year!  Everyone had a great time and caught a good number of fish in their half day outting.  Jim worked on some casting skills with his guests, as well as hooking a good number of fish.  All the boats caught fish stripping the bug eyed bugger under a sink tip.  The Hot Orange San Juan dropper work well when drifting under an indicator.   I had Mike and Trish from Houston out on a full day.  We did really good stripping the bug eyed bugger and a holographic green crackle back under a sink tip.   Trish was dubbed "Crackleback Momma".  She also caught several with the Hot Pink San Juan dropped from either a red midge or the tan flashback scud.  We are all fishing seams wherever we can find them, and edges of the banks.   Water has cleared up considerably from what it was 2-3 weeks ago. 

Yesterday, Gina and Jim had a party from the Independence, MO area; Irene, Patty and Jim.  Jim and Patty are fairly new to fly fishing, but yesterday’s fishing got them "hooked".  Patty and Irene fished with Gina.  Patty caught fish on the red midge and an olive wooly bugger.  They hooked a lot of fish in a half day trip!  Jim worked with Jim and got him false casting, working streamers as well as indicator fishing.  Stan went out with a couple of friends of ours from the Kansas City area.  They are down for four days of fishing vacation.  They had been on the water all afternoon Sunday and part of Monday morning without a fish.  After a bit of coaching on what to look for from Stan, they have a plan on where and how to fish now.

Gina had Valley and her daught Dalley out for Dalley’s birthday.  Here’s our birthday gal with a fish!  She caught this one on the pumpkin crackleback.  They also caught several that day on the rusty and red tungsten bead head midges.

For the past six days, they have kept the water level in Taneycomo at 710.5 plus or minus.  With this stability in the water level, the fish had settled into predictible locations.  Yesterday, at noon, they dropped the water level to 707.6 and actually shut it off for about two hours from 11:00 p.m. to midnight last night.  Bugs we are fishing well with are the Bug Eyed Bugger both with a black marabou tail and the sculpin olive marabou tail.  We will have these recipes on our web site shortly.  We are fishing these under an intermediate up to a level III sink tip line.  Also the hot orange and hot pink San Juans dropped from either a #16 red tunghead midge or the peach egg pattern.  We are working seams and edges.

Jim had Bob from Penneylvania out yesterday.  The worked the Bug Eyed Buggers and caught lots of nice fish.  Stan had Brian (swan dive) from Florida out.  He had a wonderful day!  First time for Brian to strip buggers and he liked this technique.  We call him swan dive as he did this graceful slide into the river yesterday when he stepped onto the slick boat ramp when getting out of the drift boat.  Gina had Jim from Texas out Monday.  It was Jim’s first time with a fly rod and he caught on real fast.  By the time the day was over, he was fishing well under an indicator as well as throwing a sink tip.      

Jim – May 23, 2008

I was out with a friend, John, Monday afternoon.  We had a wonderful day.  The weather was perfect, good company and the fish cooperated.   All we could say all afternoon was how fiesty the trout were.  We only fished the Bug Eyed Bugger.  John tried a few of his favorite and normally good flies, but the Bugger under a sink tip was the fly for us that afternoon. 

Driving on Fall Creek Road this morning on my way to work.  Saw a young turkey along side the road up a ways in front of me.  I slowed down, not wanting to spook the turkey.  He waited for me to stop, about 15 feet from him.  When I came to a complete stop, he slowly trotted across the road and went into the field on the other side of the road.  Sooooo…watch for turkey crossings on Fall Creek Road!!!

Stan had a half day float with Mike from Indiana.  Don’t know who enjoyed the day most, Stan or Mike.  Mike has fished all over the world and had many great fishing stories from Tarpon to white bass which he shared with Stan during the trip.  Mike caught enough fish that he called his wife to tell her he was going to fish a little longer than originally planned.  Good thing there were snacks in the cooler!  Their best flies were the bug eyed bugger using a sink tip, an egg pattern and the red midge.  Mike was happy and surprised to learn there is fly fishing in this area.