Weather forecast is still looking good for this time of year.  Friday’s weather was great.  50s, no wind, but a little overcast.  Yesterday, I think it got into the low 50s, but it was windy and pretty brisk on the water.  Today we are looking at sunshine, temperature in the upper 40s to low 50s and pretty calm wind.  Monday and Tuesday look like low 50s, but chance of rain late Monday which might go into early Tuesday.  Wednesday and Thursday upper 50s to low 60s.  Weather man said this morning that a cool front is trying to move our way by the weekend, so we will either see the mid to upper 40s or low 50s by then.  Other than Monday, sunny to party sunny skies most of the week.

Friday we had some off water from noon until 4:00 p.m.  Saturday it was off all morning until 3:00 p.m.  Projection for today is two generators until noon then down to one until 6:00 p.m. and then off for the balance of the day.  Monday is projecting no generation from around noon until 5:00 p.m.  Now does that make sense?  On Sunday afternoon and off Monday afternoon?

Couple boats out Friday.  Jim had Matt and Dana out for a half day.  They had a tough day, boated quite a few fish, but really could not hone in on any one good pattern. 

Terry and Leslie Cloper from New York, spent the afternoon on the water with Stan.  They managed to find the spots and patterns which were the red midge and a copper dun midge. 

 Saturday Jim had Joe and Bruce from Illinois out most of the afternoon.  They did find the places and patterns and had a very good day on the rusty midge with a gray scud dropper.  Although this picked most of their fish, you know Jim, they did hit a few on a size 17 sculpin bugger.  I went out and fished for a couple house Friday and had a wonderful time at the Rockin Chair area stripping a holographic green crackleback.  Another fellow came down my way and asked what I was using as he had not caught anything yet, so on goes the holographic green crackleback and he proceeded to catch fish until they blew the horn.  Jim Quinn, one of the local, avid fly fishers was also out and I asked him if he would try out one of Shannon’s sculpin patterns.  John is always happy to try something different!  He landed a nice beautiful rainbow.

 

Fished the Rockin Chair area yesterday afternoon and it was a completely different day.  Brisk, overcast and windy!  Lots of hits on a mouse gray sculpin.  Managed to land a few.  Tried the crackleback…no luck.  Fished the gray scud, caught a couple fish.  Fished a copper dun midge…caught a fish. Finally, about time to quit, put on the black head, black body midge and got hits pretty regularly and caught several fish on this.  You would have thought, with the overcast dark day I would have tried this earlier…   By this time, my fingers were white and the horn went off!  Oh well, there’s always another day!

I know I have said it before….but what a difference a day  makes! Yesterday, snow, wind, sleet, just plain crummy weather.  Today, sunshine, upper 40s, little wind and what a great day.  We are expecting precipitation tomorrow with temperatures in the 50s.  Looks like great temperatures and sunshine for the rest of the week.  50s over the weekend into next week.  Just think, February is almost half over. 

Even the Corps gave us a nice Valentine’s Day.  There was  lots of time to wade fish today.  The generators started shuting down around 10:00 a.m., and were off by 10:30 a.m.  Several folks wading and fishing today.  Projection for tomorrow is pretty much the same.  Generators off late morning until around 5:00 p.m. so wading will definitely be a option.

Jim out for half day float today with Ron from Minnesota.  Good day on the water for Ron using a red mudge, pink scud, and a jailhouse bug eye bugger.    No complaints when these two came off the water today.  Perfect weather, and lots of good fishing. 

Nice picture of an 18″ rainbow from Darrell this morning which he caught on a size 18 gray scud up in the Hatchery area.

We have had a few days of more seasonal weather.  Friday never made it out of the low 40s and despite the weather forecast, which called for sunshine and mid 40s by afternoon, temperatures dropped and we never saw the light!  Yesterday was another 40s day, but we did see some sun.  Today it’s working its way into the low 30s but there is lots of sunshine and very little wind.  Tomorrow, according to the forecast, is not going to be very nice.  Looks like light snow in the morning, wintry mix by afternoon with the high in the low 30s.  Maybe an inch of something.  Good news is that by Tuesday, we will be back into the 40s, maybe even mid 40s.  Maybe some showers Wednesday, but back into the 50s by the weekend. 

Generation has been pretty non-stop except for 4-5 hours from midnight until early the next morning.  Almost every day they cut back the generators to one for six hours or so, so there is some limited wading during this time.

Carolyn out Friday afternoon with Josh from Salem, Missouri and his uncle, David.  This was that day it was supposed to warm up and sunny up in the afternoon….NOT.  As a matter of fact, by the time we came off the water, it was 33 degrees according to the gauge in the car.  The worst part of the day was the wind.  Couple generators going and the wind would take us up stream.  Tough on the casters!  Despite the less than desirable weather, it was a pretty good day on the creek!  We pulled fish on at a pretty steady pace all afternoon on the red size 12 tungsten midge.  Also well on the red San Juan worm as long as the tungsten bead was in tact.

Another beautiful day in the Ozarks! We keep saying, “how much longer can we be so lucky?” Today was in the low 50s with lots of sunshine and very little wind. Tomorrow looks like low 50s and the possibility of precipitation by tomorrow afternoon or evening into early Wednesday. Dry through the weekend, with temperatures for the most part in the 40s.

We had lots of off generation time over the past weekend. They had it on for a while this morning, but it was off by 9:00 a.m. (not in accordance with the projection) and it stayed off until 3:00 p.m. when they really opened it up. Tomorrow looks like generation all day with it shut back to the equivalent of one generator from 11:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m…..to be continued.

With the water off over the weekend, quite a few fishers on the water. Most of the reports were good on catching. One of our customers caught a nice 22 inch brown pulling a orange streamer he had tied. Another guy caught a 20 inch rainbow on our mouse gray articulated sculpin. Several others doing well on the gray scuds and copper dun midges.

Jim on the water today with Marge and Price from Kansas. They had a good day, until they fired up the generators at 3:00 p.m., on the red ass soft hackle, a holographic green crackleback, and the olive/black sculpins.

Weather continues to be unbelievable! We are supposed to see this nice weather for at least a couple more days. today should be in the 60s, but windy! and tomorrow and Thursday are predicted to be in the low 60s. Friday looks like 50s, and by Saturday and Sunday, maybe the upper 40s.

Wish the generation schedule would be as cooperative as the weather has been. For the past five days we have see non-stop generation most of the day. At least during my waking hours. I don’t do well fishing from 11;00 p.m. until 5:00 or so in the morning. Today’s projection is more of the same. They have on most days, shut it down to one generator from about noon until 5:00 p.m., but today they are not shutting it down quite that much. So much for wading. We’ll just look this afternoon at 4:30 and see if the projection is more of the same.

Rick and Kristi decided they better get out and cast out any cobwebs this past Sunday. They are getting ready to go fishing for steelhead in Oregon in February and had not thrown a line for a few months. They spent half a day on the water with Stan this past Sunday and they had a very good day of casting and catching on the red midge. Rick stripped a holographic green crackleback a little and caught a few fish on that, but the red midge was the pattern Sunday. It would have been a perfectly perfect day if the wind had not been blowing so much….good temperature and good fishing!

I think we got all of the rain out of the area this morning. Still overcast, but I can see it clearing to the southwest and our temperature is around 40 degrees. Don’t think it is going to make the low 50s as predicted a couple days ago. Still looks like mid 50s for Friday and partly cloudy. Mid 40s Saturday and low 50s Sunday with sunshine.

Today’s generation schedule projected no generation from 9:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. today. Guess what! It is almost 1:00 p.m. and they have been running one generator since around 10:00 a.m. Looks like that will be the generation most of the day. Good news is that at this level, you can do some wading around and below the fish ladder area (aka outlet 3).

A couple Mondays ago, January 16, Jim had Harry and Carl on the water. Harry caught a nice brown and just sent me the picture today…so here it is. Nice brown!

Other than today, with the rain and temperatures in the upper 30s, we continue to have pretty nice weather. Thursday, the prediction is low 50s and partly cloudy. The rain should end early tomorrow morning. Friday we are still looking at partly cloudy with temperatures in the mid 50s. Saturday, partly sunny and mid 40s, with Sunday full sunshine and about 50.

This past Monday and Tuesday, the generation projection was for water most of the day. In reality, we had no generation for 5 hours Monday and almost 8 hours yesterday. Today, the projection was for off water during the middle of the day…and it is. Tomorrow, more of the same, no generation from about 9:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m.

With the water off yesterday, a few people were fishing. Still lots of different patterns working. While it was sunny on Monday, the primrose & pearl midge was working great. Yesterday, with the wind and chop on the water, the olive wooly bugger was working as was a beadhead hare’s ear. Good fishing on this pattern for Shannon and Mac at the Rocking Chair area. The Big Ugly with a midge dropper near the bank fished good for Darrell. Seeing some nice rainbows showing up.

Just a little heads up for all the people who fish Missouri’s cold-water trout hatcheries and the upper portion of Lake Taneycomo here in Branson, Missouri.  Effective March 1, 2012, porous-soled waders and wading boots will be banned.  They are trying to prevent the introduction of Didymo, commonly referred to as “rock snot”.  This alga is not currently found in Missouri, however, didymo is as close as the White River just south of Missouri’s border.  Felt-sole waders and wading boots, worn by many trout anglers, appear to be a likely pathway for the spread of didymo.  Felt soles are porous and hold moisture for days.  A single cell of didymo can survive in the sole of the boot and then be introduced unknowingly to the next stream the angler visits.  The Missouri Department of Conservation has found a temporary fix for felt-soled waders or boots to make them non-porous.  You can check this out by going to:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_udcfZqA_w

On a more pleasant subject, fishing continues to be good.  Beautiful day out there today and not only are they catching lots of trout, one fellow who came in this morning caught about a 10 pound walleye yesterday.  Surprised him!  Thought he has a really nice brown on.

Well, they backed off the weather forecast a little from earlier this week.  Looks like we will only be in the upper 40s Thursday, low 50s Friday and Saturday and low to mid 60s Sunday.  No rain in the forecast until Tuesday.  We did have a cold front come through early Tuesday.  Cold yesterday and it was in the teens this morning.  Good news….I see lots of sunshine and it is supposed to be in the mid 40s today.  As long as we keep seeing all these good days, it is just one less day of winter weather…..January is over half over.

The generation schedule has been pretty close.   We did have lots of off generation over the weekend as projected.  Monday we had generation in the morning, off for 7 or so hours, then back on for a couple.  It was off  yesterday until 6:00 p.m.  They had projected some generation in the a.m., but it did not happen.  So far today, they are right on.  We are seeing the four generators right not and should have generation until noon; off for only four hours today, and then back on.  As always….to be continued!

Monday, a couple guys from the Carthage area, Harry and his friend, Carl, spent the day on the water with Jim.  I know Harry had a great day.  He landed a beautiful 25 inch, heavy girth Brown!  They estimated it at about 8 pounds.  Caught this beauty pulling Jim’s jailhouse sculpin.  They also landed some fish on the red and a San Juan dropper.  With the water off, they had the water flowing back upstream experience.  Pretty interesting when you see your patterns going up instead of downstream! 

Know I sound like a broken record, but it is fishing very good.  One of our customers came in late yesterday and said he had caught over 50 fish yesterday afternoon, mainly pulling olive buggers.  A young man and his father were in Monday and they had each caught over 20 in just a few hours that morning.

Wow!  Have we been fortunate with the weather.  The weekends have been very nice, 50s and 60s, and sunshine.  We have a cold day in the middle of the week and then it starts warming up for the weekend.  Usually, we have great weather during the week and the weekend goes to pot!  Love it!  We are expecting a cold front to come in tonight which will cooling down tomorrow and Wednesday.  By Thursday, we will be back into the mid 50s, low to mid 60s Friday and Saturday and upper 60s Sunday. 

The generation schedule this past week and over the weekend was pretty nice to the waders.  Starting Wednesday, we had a 5-7 hour window of no generation starting from late morning until late afternoon.  Over the weekend, after they fired it up for four hours in the morning, it was off the balance of the day and only ran a couple hours on Sunday.  According to the projection, we should see that window of no generation around 10:00 a.m.   That and this nice weather doesn’t get much better.

Except, fishing has also been very cooperative.  Stan took Brad and his son Clay out for half a day float last Wednesday.  Great day on the water.  Lots of fish on the primrose & pearl midge as well as stripping the holographic green crackleback.  Brad and Clay are from Kansas and were very happy to see such a good fishery so close to home. 

One of our customers, Freddie, had a good morning yesterday pulling the 56er.  Another customer said he had a good time pulling small soft hackles.   Sounds like we ought to take advantage of this great weather and go fishing.