Pretty warm days this past week.  Looks like we might be getting some rain tonight and/or in the morning.  After that, more chances for rain toward next weekend.  Boo!  Hiss!

After having several days with no generation during the morning hours, it came to the expected change Saturday morning.  Now we are seeing low generation until about 8:00 a.m. then two units on for 3-4 hours, then three units for 3-4 hours and sometimes four units for 3 hours or so then they start backing it off toward night….back to one unit.

Beth – 6/15/20

Beth and her son, Joe, were on the water with Carolyn last Monday.  One of the off in the morning days.  Wonderful day!  We found a nice

Joe – 6/15/20

spot where we could get a good drift with the off water and caught fish on the holographic green crackleback, a red soft hackle, but mainly drifting the Ruby 2 under a red d-ribbed midge.  Their last catch of the day was unique.  They had had several doubles (both having a fish on at the same time).  On their last cast of the trip, they both landed about the same distance from the bank about seven to eight feet apart.  Someone said “wouldn’t it be something if we get a hit at the same time”.  The words were barely said when both indicators dipped….at the exactly the same time….and they set the hooks and brought them in!  They had a fun day!

Tom – 6/17/20

Wednesday, Dana had Matt and Tom from Texas on the water for half a day.  Very good day for these guys fishing mostly in the Rockin’ Chair

Matt – 6/17/20

area.  They were catching on a copperhead black midge with the

Nyla – 6/17/20

bloodworm dropper.  Meanwhile, Carolyn was downstream a ways with Dan and Nyla, from Kansas.  They had

Dan – 6/17/20

a great day on the holographic green crackleback and especially the ruby 2 midge under the red d-ribbed midge.

Don and Tanner, from Kansas, spent Friday morning on the water with Darren.  Good day for these guys on the

Michael – 6/19/20

copper dun and black zebra midges.  It was one of those off water mornings so they fished mainly from the fish ladder down to the boat ramp.

Gary – 6/19/20

Carolyn took Michael out again with his friend Gary.  Very good day for these guys too!  They were catching on the ruby 2 midge until they fired up all four units.  Catching pretty much went south after that.  Think we picked up three or four in a pool, but too much garbage hitting the flies.  Fortunately, it was at the end of our trip.

Evan – 6/20/20

Saturday, Dana and Darren had the Davis family on the water.  Evan and Erin were with Dana and they were catching on either a holographic green crackleback or nymphing

Erin – 6/20/20

the copperhead black midge.  Ezra was with Darren and it was a JQ streamer or the copperhead black midge.

We don’t know how to act having so many days in a row without rain!  Looks like we have three or four more, then 30-40% chances start showing up by the weekend.  Best chances look like the end of the following week.  Temperatures are in the 80-90s so it has been hot!

Our generation pattern has been either off in the a.m. or low.  Then some time in the afternoon they turn on two units.  Not sure how much longer this will last, but it has certainly been nice for the wade fishers!

Jim on the water last Thursday with Jim from Springfield.  They have fished a lot together over the past ten years.  Water was up and down that day and they caught fish on the ruby midge, the hot hare’s ear and stripping a size 8 JQ streamer.

John – 6/13/20

Saturday, Dana took John and Robert out for half a day.  Good day for these guys on the black

Robert – 6/13/20

copperhead midge, a clown egg pattern, or stripping the holographic green crackleback.  Darren Leslie and Matt, from Nixa out for half a day.

Leslie – 6/13/20

Fairly new fly fishers, so Darren worked a little with them while catching fish.  Best patterns were the tiger tail and holographic green crackleback.

Todd and his friend Chuck spent Sunday on the water with Dana.  Worked a little harder this day for fish, but still had a good day on the cerise San Juan worm, a big ruby and a black copperhead midge.  It was

Grant – 6/14/20

another day of the water going up and down.  Carolyn had Bill and his grandson Grant.  Grant will be playing football for MU this fall and definitely filled the front of the drift boat.

Monday, Don took his grandson fishing with Carolyn.  This was Anton’s first time fly fishing and

Don & Anton team catch – 6/15/20

fishing for trout.  He did good at getting his pattern into the wader and picked up on mending quickly.  Could not get the hang of setting the hook!  First trout he brought in was a team effort.  Grandpa hooked it, and Anton brought it in!  He kept working at it and success!  He got a good drift, hooked and brought in his first trout on a fly rod all by himself!

Anton’s 1st all on his own – 6/15/20

Red d-rib midge or ruby 2 were the patterns.  Don was also catching on the tiger tail.   Not sure if it it the warmer days or the water going up and down, but fishing the past few days has been a bit more difficult than a couple weeks ago.  Hearing the same from several of the waders coming into the shop.

Beautiful weather in the forecast for the 7-9 days.  Temperatures in the 80s or low 9os AND no rain!  Slight chance next Thursday and the following Saturday.

The rain that was forecast for our area and Arkansas did not amount to as much as predicted.  Thank you!  So far, all the lakes are staying below flood pool and with this bout of nice, dry weather ahead, we should make some headway in getting them on the downward trend.  Right now, Table Rock Lake is only using one to three generators.

Ralph – 6/10/20

When Dana hit the water yesterday with his guest, Ralph, they were running all kinds of levels of water.  For a while Taneycomo’s elevation would be 704.2′ then jump to 705 for a while, then 707′ and back down to 705′  Despite the erratic water levels, Ralph had a good day stripping the holographic green crackleback and nymphing an orange egg or ruby 2 midge.

Having some great weather except for the rain that came in last night and into this morning.  Like we need more rain.  The good news is that the next 8-9 days are showing very slight chances for more rain!  And, temperatures in the 80s for the most part.  Maybe we can dry out a little.

Table Rock has been generating 24/7 for several weeks now.  However, although not projected, they turned off the generators this morning on Table Rock.  HOWEVER – they did turn generators back on at 2:00 p.m.  With all the water that Norfork and Bull Shoals received over night and them already almost at flood stage, they don’t need our water.  The Corps had already warned Cotter that Bull Shoals would need to release 40,000-60,000 cfs of water to address Cristobal’s projected precipitation.  It will be somewhat of wait and see over the next few days as to what our generation pattern will be.  Right now the schedule shows generation all day tomorrow.  The only thing for certain is that we will start releasing water at some point to get Table Rock down.

Fishing has just been wonderful.  With the water off today, fishing is great for the waders!

Miles – 6/3/20

Last Wednesday, Dana took Corey and his son, Miles out for half a day.  Good day on the water

Corey – 6/3/20

for them on a size 10 gray scud or stripping the Tiger Tail.  Dennie and Adam didn’t get enough fishing on Tuesday so they booked another half day.  Darren got them into some more nice fish mainly stripping the Tiger Tail in a nice seam along the long island.  Another great day!

Larry – 6/4/20

Larry from Kansas spent half a day on the water with Carolyn Thursday.  He too has a really good day early on the cerise San Juan worm under the big ruby.  Nice, fat fish most of the trip!

Roy and Allison from Oklahoma spent Sunday morning on the water

Roy – 6/7/20

with Dana.  More nice, fat fish for them mainly on the black copperhead midge.  Sunday started out for only one unit going until around 10:00. When the second unit came on, fish started stacking up along the edges really nice.  We also had a school on the water that day and the students were catching lots of fish, especially when they the second unit.  The red d-rib midge or gray scud were their nymphing patterns and the JQ streamer was their stripping pattern.

Nice warm weather for several days.  30% or less chances of rain over the next several days.  However, by next Monday night, chances increase due to a tropical storm forming in the southern Gulf of Mexico.  After that, it’s back to low chances again.  Let’s hope so as we really don’t need any more rain to fill up the lakes.

For the next few days, The White River Reservoirs will be a transitioning from surcharge operations to “normal flood operations”  This will mean that the lakes in our system will reduce releases and begin passing inflow to maintain one foot below the top of flood pool.  The immediate affect of this has been the closing down of the spillways and they are currently running four units at 9900 cfs.  In the near future, releases will increase from Bull Shoals and Norfork.  Bottom line is that we will probably see a lot of water for several weeks.

Aubrey – 5/30/20

Aubrey and Shane from Sedalia spent half a day on the water with Dana last Saturday.  That

Shane – 5/30/20

was the day they opened up the spillways right about noon.  Made fishing a little tough, but they did catch fish on the copperhead black midge, ruby 2 and P&P.

Monday we had four generators and four spillways open.  Jim took David and Ed out for half a day.  Good day for them on the big ruby, hot hare’s ear and

Cannon – 6/1/20

stripping the JQ streamer.  Meanwhile, the rest of the guides were on

Chris – 6/1/20

the river with a three-generation group of new fly fishers

Mark – 6/1/20

from Louisiana.  What a great

group and fun day.  Darren on the water with Chris and Cannon.  They

Parker – 6/1/20

were

catching on the white mega worm.  Dana’s guys, Mike and Aiden were using a ruby 2 and the red

d-rib midges.  Gina had her guys, Mark and Parker, throwing

Keith – 6/1/20

the cerise worm under the big ruby and eventually stripping a JQ streamer.  Keith and Wayne were

Wayne – 6/1/20

with Carolyn catching on the white mega worm and the ruby 2 under a big ruby.  And before some of the fishers

Group Lunch time

headed out, it was group lunch time!

Tuesday, Darren and Carolyn took

Bruce – 6/2/20

another group out.  Bruce and Dennie fished the half day with Carolyn.  Started out kind of slow.  White mega worm attracted nothing, so we finally started catching on the big ruby and ruby 2.  Darren and his guys, John and Adam tried the white worm and various midges with little luck.

John – 6/2/20

Picking a few fish here and there but not as well as we would like it.  Finally everyone switched out to the Tiger Tail on a 4 ips sinking

Adam – 6/2/20

leader and started catching.  Finished off the trip with a bang!

FYI  – They plan to open up four spillways (aka  floodgates) tomorrow at noon.   Release is projected to be 5500 cfs in addition to what is flowing through the four generators.  Total release will be around 17000 cfs.  We have certainly seen and fished more.

After we get through today and tomorrow, it looks like we might see a weekend and several more days past the weekend without rain!  Plus the temperatures are going to be in the 80s and possibly low 90s.  We need lots of hot, sunny days to dry us out.

Unfortunately, all the lakes in the White River System are at or only slightly below flood pool.  They were supposed to open the spillways on Table Rock yesterday.  So far, they have only opened up the spillways on Beaver and Bull Shoals dams. I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before our spillways are opened.  In the meantime, they only have one unit going so fishing should sill be good and doable.

Jim on the water Monday with Jason and his son, Andrew.  Good day for them until the water trashed up after they turned on the generators.  That’s the only bad thing when the generators are completely off for several hours…..the water really trashes up when

Oliver – 5/25/20

they fire up a couple units.  Best patterns were the copperhead black midge with a blood worm dropper.  Meanwhile, Carolyn had Rick and his grandson, Oliver, on the water.  Started out pretty slow.  Oliver had three hits and misses on

Rick – 5/25/20

a black copperhead midge.  Rick hook one on the ruby 2.  Couple fishers upstream from us hook a fish each and that was about it, so we decided to move.  Moved downstream a little ways and put was able to put Oliver on the fish.  He is doing well at getting his line out, mending, hooking and

Rick & Oliver w/one of their doubles – 5/25/20

bringing in the fish!  Fun day with these two.  Couple doubles!

Every day they forecast rain and some days we get it, but others stay dry for the most part.  Friday we got a lot of rain pretty early in the day.  Yesterday stayed dry, and it has been dry so far today.  Monday shows a 60% chance for rain with scattered storms both during the day and evening.  40% is showing up for Tuesday.  Right now, Wednesday and Thursday show the best chances for rain with 80%.

Yes, the generators were off again today and are projected to be off during the morning hours both Monday and Tuesday.  Cross your fingers.  All the lakes are just three feet or less from flood pool.

Matt – 5/22/20

Dana on the water Friday.  That was one of those days when it rained earlier than projected.  However,

Jeff – 5/22/20

until it really started to blow and go, they roughed it out and had a very good day on the black copperhead midge and an orange egg pattern.

Saturday was a beautiful day and Darren and Dana had a group of three guys on the water.  Darren took Jim and they had a very good

John Jr. – 5/23/20

day on a brown zebra midge, a little thread midge and the ruby 2.  John and John were in the boat with Dana.  They too had a very good day on the black copperhead midge early, then it was the ruby 2 or an orange egg pattern.  No generation for this group until 11:00 a.m. and then it was only one unit for an hour.  Fishing was good during this one hour of low generation.

Sunday, Carolyn took John and his son, Joel out for half a day.

John – 5/24/20

Another no generation morning!  Slow start on the midges.  Think Joel “picked and rolled” three fish and John was getting no action on the midges.  So we moved and changed

Joel – 5/24/20

patterns.  Right spot and right pattern as they both started catching stripping the Tiger Tail trailing the JQ streamer on a 4 ips sinking leader.  Fun day.  Turned on one unit at 11:00 a.m. so up river we rowed and hooked some more up there on the ruby 2 and black copperhead midges.  Joel caught his first 20 inch rainbow!  Congratulations!

All the fish everyone is catching are absolutely fat and full of fight.  Lots of them are really colored up.

Had a few dry days this past week, but last night and today, we are getting tons (well maybe not quite) of rain!  And, the forecast is for more through the weekend and through most of next week.

Because of flooding down south, the white river system has been holding water during the morning until 10:00 a.m. or noon then turning on one, unit, for an hour then, two, three and finally four units for most of the afternoon, then low or off again.  Not certain how much longer this pattern will continue, but certain it will not be much longer as all the lakes are getting very close to their flood levels.

The good news about the off water in the mornings is that fishing has been wonderful during these off water periods!  Carolyn on the

Chase – 5/20/20

water Wednesday morning with Michael and his son Chase.  Think this was Chase’s first experience with a fly rod and he was roll casting and hooking fish in no time.  Took a while to get a good hook set,

Michael – 5/20/20

but once he got the hang of that, it was “fish on”.  They had a good day on the black copperhead midge.

Thursday, Dana was on the water with Micah and Al for half a day.  It was

Al – 5/21/20

another wonder morning of no generation and they were catching on the black copperhead midge.

Micah – 5/21/20

Once the water came on around 11:00 a.m, Dana switched them over to an orange egg pattern and the catching continued!  Carolyn had John and his

Brian – 5/21/20

father Brian out for the morning.  What a fun day for these two!  When the water was off, it was the black copperhead midge.  After they fired up the first unit, the red d-rib midge or the black copperhead midge were the patterns.

John – 5/21/20

Then the second unit came on so we pulled in close to a shallow bank, put on the sinking leaders and stripped a tiger tail or crackleback trailing the JQ streamer.  More fish on these.  Dad caught the biggest fish and John caught the most.

Many of the fish everyone has been catching during these no water days have been awesome!  Fat, healthy and full of fight!  It has been a delight!

After several days of rain, we have sunshine!  And, it looks like that will be the trend through this week and into the weekend, where chances of rain pop up again!  50/50 chances so let’s hope for the better….50% chance of no rain!  Temperatures will be in the 70s early in the week and 80s near the end of the week.

Right now there is no generation!  They shut down the generators yesterday around 10:00 a.m. even though the projection was for four units all day.  Today they were planning on three units all day, but so far zero!  Bull Shoals has also shut down their generators.  Understand there is lots of flooding downstream from the White River.  Not certain how long they will keep the generators off but certain they will have to turn them on at some levels soon as Table Rock is at 923 feet and Bull Shoals is almost 691 feet.

While the generators have been off, several fishers have hit the water.  Something many have not seen for months!  Fishing is great!  If you are near the area, better grab your fly rod and get into the river!  Almost anything is catching.