Stan had Bill and Chan from Minnesota on the water yesterday and the day before.  They had a great time.   Yesterday could even be called a very good day on the water.  They caught lots of fish, but best of all, they were able to catch over half of them on the holographic green crackle back.  They both really liked this way of fishing.  Over the two days, they fished the size 16 red tunghead midge, a peach egg pattern and the holographic green crackleback, size 14 

Gina and Carolyn were both on the water yesterday.  Gina had Joe from Minnesota out for half a day.  Gina warned him about the unsual conditions but he wanted to go out and "prospect" with Gina.  Joe is a good fisher and fishes a lot of lakes and some streams in Minnesota.  They had a respectable day on the water, caught some fish and he had a good time.  What more can one ask for.

Carolyn had a couple from Louisiana, Ron and Kathy.  They are both good fishers.  Kathy would probably rather fish than eat.  They fish Taneycomo on their own every chance they get.  Although yesterday was not as good as when they have been able to wade fish we made a good showing and also had a good time. 

Our best flies for the day were the Pink Lady egg pattern in the a.m., the red size 16 tungsten midge, copper dun, size 18 midge in the afternoon and the Bug-Eyed Bugger under a sink tip.  The Bugger also worked best in the afternoon. 

Five Flood Gates – March 19, 2008 – 10:00 a.m.

Had two boats on the water yesterday.  Water was very dirty and really moving.  They all caught a few fish, but nothing like we were doing before they opened the flood gates!  Fishing will get better as the water clears up and the fish get acclimated to the higher water and start moving into any calmer areas they can find.  Stan is on the water today and at 10:00 a.m. they had already done as well as all day yesterday.  They are fishing a sink tip line with a Bug-Eyed Olive Bugger.

Last we heard, the flood gates will be open until April 8, unless we get alot more rain.  Let’s hope we don’t.

Don’t forget the women’s fly fishing clinics scheduled for this Spring.  The first one is scheduled April 19, 2008, and we still have a few openings.  Another women only clinic is scheduled June 7.  We do have a co-ed clinic scheduled May 3 if you and your partner would like to learn together!  Give us a call.  Join in on the fun!

Wow!  Just opened up five flood gates!  The Corp. advised us the impact would be to raise the tailwater level another foot and increase the flow by 50,000 cfs.  At 8:00 a.m.  the tailwater level was at 921.5 (normal power pool-915.0 and top flood pool-931.0)  So much for the bad news.

Up until yesterday, we had boats on the water every day and fishing was steady.  Everyone coming off the water with a good day.  The Red Tunghead, size 16 and size 18 Copper dun midges still the most consistent flies, and if you wanted to throw some line, the sink tip with the olive filoplume. 

Good news  – after the gates have been open for a day or two, the fish will start settling in again and we will again find fishing to be steady.  And, I think we are going to see some sunshine soon.

Four boats on the water again yesterday.  Great day on the water.  Weather nice and so was fishing.  All the boats came in reporting good numbers.  Still running lots of water, but they cut it back to three generators flowing 6000 cfs for most of the morning and dropped it even lower in the afternoon.  Really helped fishing!!  We are getting closer to normal power pool.  So far today, they have run four generators.

Gina’s guy, Kevin, from New Mexico, caught a 16-1/2" Rainbow.  This is a lucky guy.  Not only did he catch lots of fish, but his wife bought him the 1/2 day guide trip as his anniversary gift.   He and his wife are in Branson celebrating their 15th wedding anniversary.  Kevin caught most of his fish on the Burgundy and Primrose & Pearl size 18 midges.

Stan had out a birthday boy, Doc from Tulsa, Oklahoma.  Lots of fish, food and a good time.   Their flies were the size 18 Buyrdungy midge and size 16 Red Tunghead midge.

Darrell’s client, Ken, from Wisconsin, was getting away from the cold.   Ken had a great catching day, mainly on the Burgundy midge and the size 16 Red Tunghead midge.

Don’t know what Jim’s guys were catching fish on.  They are on the water again today and scheduled to go out tomorrow (based on weather). 

We had four boats on the high water yesterday.  The two guys in Jim’s boat, Ed and Bob, were catching fish on a size 6 Bug-Eyed Bugger, olive.  They also caught a few on a red midge.  Darrell’s guys, Dave and Dan, caught them on the red midge, but did best on the Olive filoplume.  Stan’s boat with Jim and John, caught them mainly on the red tungsten midge.  They caught a few on the Burgundy and Copper dun midges.  Ken and I, in my boat drifted the back of the island looking for fish.  We tried some midges back there, but not only didn’t see any fish, we didn’t get any hits either.  Drifted on down and noticed fish coming up in the flat area at the bottom of the island.  Normally this area is the island.  Anchored over the grassy area (now under water) and started picking up fish on cracklebacks.  Ken had some he had tied with the burgundy holoshimmer we use for the midge which were working very well.  I used the holographic green and caught several, but I believe Ken’s burgundy was working best. 

We have seen four generators running 24 hours/day since the morning of March 4 thanks to the big rain we had.  Table Rock Lake level is up 2.2 feet over power pool (915.0).  We will probabaly see this trend for a while until they get the lake level down.

Had one boat on the water yesterday.  Despite the high water they had a great time and caught quite a few fish.  Best flies were a size 12 red tungsten midge and the olive grizzly filoplume on a sink tip.  They had so much fun, they just left to tryt it again today.

No one could believe it was the first day of March!  Sunny, warm (70s), light wind and two generators going in the a.m.  Fishing was also perfect.  

Taisha helping Dad

Stan had Taisha and her father, Jim, out for a half-day float.  They set a record for his boat—29 doubles!!  They had a wonderful day and lots of fun.  I believe Jim described the trip as perfect.  They fished the size 18 copper dun midge for the entire trip.  With two generators in the morning which was cut to one late morning, it made for a nice drift.  They caught fish all the way down to about 500 yards above the Fall Creek Boat Dock.

Carolyn had a brand new to fly fishing gentlemen, Steve, and his brother-in-law Jeff, out for half day.  Jeff fishes here quite a bit and wanted to introduce Steve to the finer things in life.  They too had a great day.  Caught  lots of fish.  We started with the size 18 copper dun midge, but also caught several on the Primrose & Pearl as the sun got higher.  After we drifted down a ways, we found a good seam so I changed Jim to a sink tip with the filoplume.  He picked up several fish on that while I worked with Steve on getting his basic casting down.  We then proceded to drift out.  Fished the high side with the copper dun.  It was catching fish pretty steady, but we changed out to the size 16 red tunghead midge and started catching at a faster pace. 

Nice Rainbow Malcolm!

Jim and Darrell were both out on full day trips.  Know they both had good days.  Saw some pictures of nice fish caught in the the Rockin Chair area.  Darrell was fishing the filoplume and copper dun.  They were out again today with the same group.  We’ll let you know tomorrow how they did.

Jim had a trip out yesterday.  Pretty nice day.  Even with four generators going in the a.m. and then shutting it down during the morning to two, they had some pretty good fishing.  Red tunghead #16 midge and the black midge, #18 were the two best flies of the day.  Once they turned it back up to four generators about 2:30 p.m., the water got real dirty with lots of debris and vegetation.  Couldn’t keep your fly clean long enough for a fish to find it!