April 18th - My buddy Greg from Wichita had 3/4's of a day to play with and with a lot of options available to him...he preferred Crane Creek. Hard to argue with that logic. Plenty of water available where you could take 4 - 5 trips in a row there and not see the same water twice.

Another very nice day for us overall. A little overcast now and then and the fish seemed to like the sunshine. When we did get overcast, we went purple.



It doesn't work too well when it's sunny out I'll tell you that straight up but when you get yourself an overcast, nasty, rainy kind of "tough bite" day...put on a #20 - #22 purple/wine SG-Bug trailer behind whatever you normally catch fish with.

There's a whole sub culture down on the White in Arkansas using that bug and just putting on clinics on that tailwater I get some crazy good reports from my buddy Clint among others who do great with it even in the sunshine? It's our G-Bug pattern in a different combinations of colors and how they are applied. The above was a GB version. The Crane fish seem to like more flash.

Greg probably pulled in 12- 15 fish today. Not as good as it has been lately. He was just getting comfortable with his approach to casting to and catching those tight quartered fish so another couple of hours we probably would have upped that quite a bit. Still, not too bad.

Always a good time with Greg. We have some similar interests. He's got some good intel on one of my favorite teams so it's fun talking that with him.



You know what they say?.....Little fish...BIG FLIES! That may be the smallest trout caught that I've been a part of. Wanting every piece of that Micro Baitfish.

The ginger/olive Baitfish (Micro and Regular size) is always a top producer for us at Crane and Taneycomo. And at quite a few other places I'm often told about that fills me with pride / bordering skepticism. Yellowstone, The Snake, The Green in Utah, the Driftless Area and the UP in Michigan (off the top of my head)...so far, EVERYWHERE it's been tried. Between that and the G-Bug it would be tough to pick which one seems to have the most mass, cross country appeal.

It's closest match the hatch would be a very small sculpin or darter. It's not the sexiest fly you've ever fished...it will be one of your most successful.


Here's another (unsolicited as always) report on the enigma that is...The Baitfish. How's that for a segue?



Brett,

I was reading the report today and marveling over the ginger/olive Baitfish.

Last monday, the day before our tornado, I went to one of my spots famous for
results with the Baitfish. In 1 hour and 30 minutes, 21 bass about a third under 12", a third from 12-15" and the rest 15" plus. The last one of the day was about 3.5 pounds.

Monday I went back to the place where I lost all but one of my white Baitfish.
I had 1 coral one left. Scored a big crappie. All I had then was olive/ginger that you tied for me and the big bluegill were all over it. I took some phone pictures. Now all I have to do is figure out how to get them on the computer.

Just before I went home, walking back to my truck, I stopped at the park's fishing pier and made a cast down the side of the pier. A fat 15" bass about 3 pounds.

So if you need a testimonial for the Baitfish, just ask. So far it's victims have been, trout, bass, every species of sunfish, catfish, crappie and some others I have forgotten.

If I were limited to only one fly for the rest of my life, It would be the Baitfish.

Don Lockwood - TX


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April 17th - After yesterday's antithesis of your classic, trout fishing adventure...Bob was ready for a day on Crane. Not sure if a day could have been ordered any better.











We see a LOT of small crayfish in Crane. Every time I'm there I think..."I need to tie up some of these"...so today I remembered. Actually I remembered that last night. Just tied a few up on one of the Baitfish jig heads and MAN!...they were hammering one in particular. I saved it and tried all my other versions.

Not nearly as interested in the others so yeah!...how about The Craw Diddy! One of the most realistic looking flies (under water) I've EVER tied. Now, that's not always the end all when it comes to an effective fly pattern but maybe so in this case.

Perfect temps...pretty good bite. Just a really nice day. Had a real nice stretch with a black ant (dry fly) for a while too. It helps when it's windy for that pattern which it was. We've been hanging at Crane so much I'm getting a handful of locals coming up to me and talking fishing when we get back to the truck. Very nice folks and full of good intel about the local waters.


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April 16th - Mr Bob's back in town hanging out in his new houseboat. Livin large is the king and he has always wanted to fish Bennett Springs. We mixed a day of his car repair/drop off schedule with a day @ Bennett Springs. I think it's safe to say that Bob will NEVER go back to Bennett Springs.

When we got there it seemed pretty empty based on what I remember (at least 10 years ago). The guy selling tags told us it was REALLY quiet today..."almost nobody here today" was the quote.

Well, that's a matter of perspective as we had to work HARD to find a place we could fly fish that WASN'T within casting distance of another fisherman.

Water was high and cloudy...fishing kind of sucked. We did better than most as everyone we talked to (and they were all very friendly by the way..."you don't mind if I just walk over your fly line do you?...thanks". ...just kidding...he didn't say thanks) told us they were catching hardly nothing.

Lots of people dragging empty stringers around or maybe one or two fish attached so by comparison, our 20 - 30 fish caught wasn't that bad. We tried everything you'd think would do well under such conditions. We settled on a Micro Baitfish (ginger/olive) and a #20 white G-bug trailer. Most came on the G-Bug.

So now, we can say we tried it.


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April 11th - New friends Carlton and Royce joined me in a fairly mild flow form the boat this am. Real nice bite for us today which included some great fish falling for us too. Here's Carlton then Royce with a couple from the day.





Royce was a newbie on the long stick and pretty much kept pace with Carlton all day long. More wonderful folks to spend a morning with. More great weather...more great fishing!


Brett,

Just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed our fishing trip with you. I well recommend you to anyone I know who is looking for a guide. I fished yesterday am at outflow #2 and did good.

Thanks again

Carlton Townsend


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April 6th - New fly fishers Max and Andrew were my buddies in the boat today. Real nice bite for us and these guys were great students and great guys to hang with. How about a couple of 20" plus fish for the younger of our two heroes today?





They both did great today! Really picked things up real well and LANDING a couple of big fish like that on your first fly fishing adventure!?!?...pretty salty!

Don't look too hard at that second one. I just told Andrew to tell his friends..."hey!...I went fly fishing for trout today and caught a couple of 20"ers. A rainbow and one brown one".

See!...I WAS paying attention during the Clinton years. Yes...that second picture IS a brown!...of course, that depends on what your definition of "is"....is.

Ah!...Feels good dusting off the old Clinton jokes...could Paris Hilton be far behind? She'll be coming soon I'm sure. Wait, what?

    April 4th - My buddy Bud from Springfield is a longtime fixture on the local trout waters around here and as good a fisherman as you'll find. My stories of Crane Creek had him intrigued to give it another try after way too many years of respite. With Crane...if there's one thing to learn that will make or break your day it's how to fish it without spooking your targets. In my humble opinion...if you can master that attack you will not only start to pluck out good numbers of fish there...but virtually ANYWHERE you fish for trout in your future. And even if you think you're doing EVERYTHING right...you'll still screw up a hole every now and then (myself included) so don't sweat it...there's always another hole.





So therein lies our challenges every time we tread on the pristine little jewel of life we know as Crane.

Bud is as solid as they come with the long stick but admittedly, most of his work i s done in a more open environment. We broke down the first few pools on how they should be fished (in my opinion) and why and then kind of fine tuned the approach as the day went on. The bite wasn't as hot as it can be but still pretty solid.



I'm guessing maybe 20 or so fish (trout) to hand. I look back on my early days of Crane Creek fishing and that would have been an all timer. But like most things in life, we always strive to do better and improve on any given task at hand.



Always something interesting to see and find when quietly stalking the banks of Crane. I mean yeah....you go there for the trout fishing but there's always a few little interesting tidbits to any day in particular like this big morel we found. And how about this. I'm standing high on a bank as Bud casted to a nice pool plucking out several. Some kind of bug is flying around my head. I swish it away with no success. I finally see a big butterfly doing nothing short of humping my ear. I can NOT get that thing away from me so what the hell....I try to take a picture of it.



You can see it's wing on the left. There's another epitaph for my tombstone..."beaten senseless by a butterfly". Of course you have to have sense before you can be beaten senseless.

One negative on the day was the evidence of a trout massacre by what had to be otters. On the two best holes I've found on this particular stretch of Crane we saw what had to be otter crap in mass quantities on the banks of both of those two holes. Strangely absent were the numbers of trout that had been there all year long. Those spots had consistently been able to give us a dozen fish or so every time we hit them this year. We usually would catch 6 - 8 and move on so as not to over educate those fish. Today...maybe 3 - 4 fish to net at each place and barely a fraction of the fish seen. That plus one big dead 16" fish floating on the bank. Probably a victim of the otters fun and games (they keep killing even after they're full). Natural selection or bucket biology? The MDC has been implementing an "otter reintroduction program" to Missouri over the last few years much to the detriment to the native fishes everywhere. Without trapping to keep these and other destructive forces in check (thank you political correctness) there is no positive future in that regard.

They're cute and everything but man!...they are fish killers extraordinare. Hopefully they'll find the relatively meager offerings in Crane to be inadequate and they'll move on to other, bigger fish holding resources. Disturbing to see but...natures way.

Our offerings of Micro Baitfish (ginger/olive of course) along with the Caddis Sticks and GBG-Bug trailers proved mostly successful. We also caught some on a new Caddis Bomb! Some of you may be able to figure that one out eh?

Great time with Bud as always. One of the good guys out there on the trout streams on the Ozarks.


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April 3rd - My new friends Glen and his 7 year old son Blake from Michigan joined me for a 1/2 day in the boat on what was both their first fly fishing adventure. Brought to us in a round about way by our old friend Michigan Dan Challa.

A semi mild pattern of generation allowed us to have a great time out there and we pulled in a bunch of fish in our half day adventure. Both our first timers did great! Young Blake probably caught 8 - 10 trout all by himself. That means casting, hooking and catching without any assistance from guide boy here. Dad was smoking em pretty much our whole time out there and between breaks of snacks and just playing around on the boat, Blake was on them pretty well too.

Those Juan Bombs are...well...THE BOMB! Especially in this high water. I'm tweaking the colors and configurations a bit and getting them a little bit better and better every trip out. Don't worry ladies, posers and those who struggle with original thoughts...soon I'll have them in the catalog where you can rip them off and call them your own idea...like all the other ones. An occupational hazard I have at this gig. I used to bitch about it...now I just try to have fun with it.

Let us end on a positive note shall we. What a great couple of guys and Blake was great young man to fish with. In a sr. moment this morning, I forgot my camera. Glen took a couple with his phone and he promised to send them in to me. I'll share when I do. A great day out there for us.

    April 2nd - Mr Bob is in the house. Bob's been looking for a place to buy down here but nothing has caught his fancy until recently. Proud new owner of a house boat on Table Rock, I stopped by after our trip to Roaring River today to check it out. Pretty cool!

We've been meaning to fish below the park for quite a while now. Bob had done it way back when he was a kid (couple of years ago) and said he caught fish. I had a customer recently tell me he did pretty well there this year. We hit about 3 or 4 access points starting all the way down by that bridge where it meets Table Rock.

Great looking water down there and everywhere else we tried. Looks like people have been fishing there and maybe fished them out but in half a day of exploring we caught (and saw) NO FISH! I'm guessing the bait crowds pluck them out pretty quickly down that way. Who knows...after a while we decided to go catch some fish so we hit the park for the balance of the day.

Using one of our set ups from yesterdays Crane Creek trip, we picked up fish fairly modestly for our last few hours of fishing. A few fish about everywhere...a couple (and only a couple) where we caught them pretty well and consistently and mainly on the ginger/olive Micro Baitfish. I WOULD NOT go to Roaring River without that Micro Baitfish.



The highlight of our day was a little girl who kind of shadowed us around today at the park The cutest little kid in a visor with a thirst for fishing as strong as I've seen in any kid that age. Throwing her Power Bait around she would look our way for approval now and then. I talked to her a little bit about what a good fisherman she was (she was 7) and how her day was going.

Now days you have to walk a fine line between ...a helpful fellow fisherman vs that creepy old guy when you talk to kids. I think I pulled off the former pretty well. We saw her catch at least one fish on what looked to be a pretty tough day for most. Unfortunately we never saw her parents but hopefully they were keeping an eye out from afar.



That fly above here was from an order I recently did for one of our new customers. Lou had this ratty old fly he said he absolutely KILLS the bluegill and bass with. He didn't know where he got it and has never seen it since and he was THRILLED when I told him I could recreate it for him. Reverse engineering for hillbillys.

SO... I tied up a couple dozen for him and tied a couple extra for me to try. Who knows?...you never can tell about those trout. Well, I stuck it on (under a float because I was lazy) when Bob was taking a break and those trout were coming up and smacking it as soon as it hit the surface. Kind of a wooly bugger kind of thing with some red flash and red tail. Not a bad looking fly...just never thought it was a trout fly? I'll tie more now!



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April 2nd - Bob loves Crane...and I love Crane...today...we fished Crane.



Same old good stuff we always find at Crane with a new twist. On a stretch above that dairy farm there was a back hoe and an MDC truck moving rock on the bank. Below the park and above the dairy farm...you could see it from the road. It looks like they were grooming the area for fishing and maybe bank stabilization, After our trip a local boy told us someone bought that land and is making it a "fishing camp". I don't know what that means exactly but it was good seeing the MDC involved with it.

Lots of fish for us again today. We saw another (maybe the same) monster again at Crane. That fish gets my heart pounding to the point where you can hear it thumping. It looks so out of place on that little stream. One day...we're going to catch her.

Saw my second snake in my 20 years of fishing Crane Creek today. About 30 yds away and crossing the stream. It was a big one but I couldn't ID it at that distance. I don't want to jinx myself by saying this BUT...I think the Crane Creek snake stories are a bit overblown.

Put that on my headstone by the way when I die of a snake bite.



A couple of nice notes from recent trips... including Bobs. It's been a while since I've posted customer notes. Thanks folks.



Brett:

Thanks for another exciting episode of Adventures in Trout Fishing!
Roaring River was beautiful. A great weekday trip but, that little sweetheart was worth the admission. She was so cute . . . & persistent.

We solved the crowd problem though, with a trip to my fav-o-rite place . . . Crane Creek. All day, without seeing another fisherman.
I love Crane a little more each trip! It challenging, both physically & skill-wise but, well worth the extra effort. You've got some excellent patterns worked-up for there. They seemed to work real well on Roaring River, also.

There is a noticeable difference between "a fly" & "THE Fly".
Hope you have time to tie some Rainbow imitation 4 or 5Wt-size Streamers for our next excursion. I think those a worth a try for those big Crane cannibals.

As you were so nice to pointed out (with a sigh of relief!), I made it through two whole days without a tying a single wind-knot; or, decorating a solitary tree!
The numbers of nice trout we're catching, & mid-twenty-inch fish we are seeing is truly astounding! I'll let you tell about the really Big Boy. I've seen your reaction to plenty of Trophy Trout during the last couple of years. Don't think I've ever seen you that excited! I was about to give you a hard-time about it, when I got a good look. It Good thing I'd already been in over the top of my hip-waders; or, I'd have some "splain'n" to do.

Those are some true Trophies worthy of a quest, & a Replica on the Wall-of-Honor.
Crane has to be one of the best wild Rainbow experiences left in continental America. I can't think of another trout stream - wild or stocked - where you can fish that many miles of beautiful water, & not see another angler.

The Fly Fisherman, formerly known as Wind-Knots




Brett,

Just wanted to thank you for the kind words about our day on Crane Creek. Most guides can put you on fish but too few can teach you how to catch them. The reason I enjoy being on the water with you is your willingness to teach . It's not always about catching a bunch of fish. for me it's also about learning something from the experience. thanks for a great experience.

Mike Mccrite

    March 31st - Denise and her hubby came out for a 1/2 a day in the boat this am. First timers both if I recall and in the BIG water we're in right now, they're starting this game under some pretty tough conditions. All things considered, it wasn't too bad out there. The am bite seems to be a little better but mainly I've been dropping Juan Bombs (circle R/copyright/Chartered Waters...blah, blah, blah) down there to them.





Juan Bombs were a creation of mine during the 2008 flood that worked pretty well for us. These fish are diggin the claret Juan Beadros but it's hard to keep ANYTHING on the bottom consistently right now. This little twist get's them down much better and the kicker (literally speaking) is when that jig head hits the rocks it puts a radical "flip" on the tail of the worm that seems to drive the trout girls crazy.

The bite is definitely better with this big water (thanks to la familia de Juan...apologies to all those who actually KNOW how to speak Spanish) but I'll look forward to seeing at least a lull in the generation soon. The fish ought to FREAK ( in a good way) when that water calms.

Wonderful folks today. These brand new fly fishermen picked it up very quickly and did a GREAT job! I wasn't counting but I don't know?...I think Denise may have had the upper hand at the end of the day. They both did great.


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A Few Days Ago - The girls wanted to go fishing today!!!...well, the girl (the little one) wanted to go fishing. I was easily persuaded. We both managed to convince the big one to join us too and we all had a GREAT time! Not that I'm surprised at that but it's been a few years since I've been fishing with Shelley (the big one) and was very happy to have her out there with us.



Ever the tireless worker, she sometimes has to be dragged (kicking and screaming) away from work and in to something frivolous and fun. Water started off for us then a couple of units came on in the evening right about the time we were ready to quit.

She has always preferred spin fishing ..(what are you gonna do?...I should have tried to teach her spin fishing...she'd probably be fly fishing by now).. and she's really good at it. I put on a rainbow Cleo for her to cast while Mckenna and I played with a fly rod and the Micro Baitfish under a float.

Pretty nice bite going on for both ends of the boat. Momma was getting hits and chasers pretty much every cast picking up fish every 4th or 5th cast. McKenna and I had nice action going for us as well. Mckenna ended up being "Net Girl" for both of us having more fun doing that than actually fishing. I see that a lot on my trips with the little gals and guys. They love netting fish for mom and dad. Pretty sweet really, don't you think?





A wonderful couple of hours with my girls. I think we restarted Shelley's fishing fire today. At least a little bit. I set up a rod for her after our trip today just for a subtle little inspiration. She plays around in the garden a lot this time of year which is right on the water so I made her a "garden rod" she can leave down there. That way, anytime she wants to cast around of the bank for a few minutes it's right there for her. I saw her using it the other day...sshhh...dont tell her I saw her.

    March 27th - My friends Jason and Tracy Krebs were my guests today with one thing in mind in particular...more Jr Circuit! These folks are semi local living in Springfield and Jason is always wanting to learn new water. I credit Jason for telling me which of my flies I need to start using at Crane. He uses mostly the regular sized Baitfish in ginger/olive at Crane and slays them pretty well. I had never tried it until he told me about his success. Now, it's usually my lead fly on any indicator set up.

Jason's done some JC w/us in the past and Tracy had her maiden fly fishing adventure with us last fall. Some day when Tracy has her own fly fishing TV show I can sit back and say..."yeah, I taught her how to fly fish"...taking ALL the credit for it ...and deserving none of it.

She's just one of those naturals who could be as good as it as she wants. I hope I'm not giving Jason a complex by bragging about his wife but the girl is solid. Generally speaking, I'm most impressed by new fly fishermen who get the peripherals so quickly and naturally. You can have your cagey veterans who can double haul their 100 ft casts (not with a fly that's going to catch any fish by the way...a single dry fly is just MUCH easier to cast)...but I'll take the dude (or the chick) who can cast, place, present, hook and actually... catch fish!

A novel concept too often forgotten in the teaching of this sport. And if Tracy wanted to start casting it 100' I'm sure she could. I think she kind of likes the whole "catching" thing though at the moment. And if they're out there...she'll catch em.









The JC was quite a bit better for us than it was for me and Mike a few days ago. Much more fishable water and a lot more catchable fish. We had a couple of nice little hot spots where again, we could have pulled in more than we did but we were mostly looking to learn new places so we kept moving.



I loved that fact that these guys were up for doing some exploring on new water. New water for ME too. I talked to a local guy the other day (a spin fisherman) and we were talking about some of the "secret" trout water around here. I knew some of his spots...he knew some of my spots...but I didn't know about one of his spots. It was actually second hand info as HE had never fished it either but he knew someone who had. It was just beyond where I had been to before so based on that, it had fishy potential.

I had always wondered about it but had never made the trek. It was a great day...I had some young kids willing to do a little hiking...so we set out for about an hour detour to check things out. GREAT looking water! No trout unfortunately this time around but I will try it again one day as it just looked too good to not have something in there ...some day.

Now, Jason is a really good fly fisherman and has been at it a few more years than Tracy. He was telling me about a 20" plus Crane Creek rainbow he caught this year. Stripping a Baitfish (regular size) around a log jam. That, to me is equivalent to a catching a 28" - 30" rainbow anywhere else. He was catching a lot of his fish today stripping that Baitfish as well. The little Caddis sticks as trailers (shown on picture #1) were doing real well for us on the JC too. In fact, my typical Crane Creek set up was awfully good out here today. We finished up at a little spot that netted maybe 6 - 8 fish for us. That was about typical of most of our spots and we hit a LOT of spots.

They probably brought 25 - 30 trout to net with a bunch of other fun stuff mixed in. At our last spot I was off with Jason for a while then came back to check on Tracy, fishing a little pool I left her on. Before leaving I kind of showed her how I would fish it. Start here...move on down flipping a little roll cast up against that bank and if you see a fish in particular you want to catch....cast above it a few feet and drift over it...then watch for the take.

So, as I'm walking up towards her I see her flipping that two fly (plus weight and indicator) rig in and around and under limbs and branches without so much as a tick on any of them. All the while, kissing the bank with her trailer fly as perfectly as it can be done...then a quick little pop of a hookset, short and sweet and BAM!!!...another fish on for Tracy. The next thing you know, I'm netting this bad boy for her.



"yeah, I saw him over there against that bank so I tried to catch him"...was her quote more or less. How great is that?!?! Now, that's what you call taking the initiative. A little confidence can go a long way. Did I mention on a 2 wt rod?...6x tippet?...#22 fly?...19" plus fish? Didn't want you to think it was too easy or anything.

Great folks AND great fishermen! We had a real nice time out there today.

    March 25th - John and his son Kyle were with me again today for a whole new adventure with this fly fishing thing. I've never taken true first time fly fishermen to Crane Creek before. That's a giant leap for newflyfishermenkind but I wouldn't have brought them if I didn't think they would catch fish there. We started slowly...getting down on the water in a "dead" area so we could practice our casting and catching etc in these extremely tight quarters on these extremely spooky fish. They picked it up nicely and had a good understanding of things pretty quickly. A little more K on how we'll approach those fish and why and we were off to catch a wild trout for these firs timers.

Well it was another glorious day for us on the water and as we moved along to pool after pool, the boys really started to understand what they were doing and why and they too starting plucking out fish after fish as we moved up stream plying the water with Micro Baitfish and Caddis Sticks.







I would say these guys ended up catching about 25 - 30 fish (trout...more if you're counting shiners) with John and Kyle each nabbing one around 15" - 16".



These guys did awesome today and we all met the challenges put in front of us. Crane Creek wouldn't be my first choice for first time fly fishermen in a perfect world...but today...our world wasn't perfect. They had done the boat thing and really wanted to wade. The Jr Circuit was still a little flush with water so I thought this was a reasonable solution. It ended up being a great day with some great folks. Crane is still rockin pretty good folks! I'm lovin that place.

March 24th - My new friend John Shafer brought his son Kyle out for a couple of days of fishing with us. Brand new to fly fishing both, they were able to get down in enough time today to squeeze in a 1/2 day trip. Fresh in to the deepest, hardest generation we've seen for a while. we ventured out on the heels of one of the worst days I've had before with the Calvins so I was HOPING things had improved by now. I also came armed with some new (old classic) BIG WATER bugs in anticipation of the tougher bite. Our bite today was still not great...but much better than a couple of days ago. Good enough we plucked out a 20" plus spawning male rainbow in the upper section. Not a bad way to start off you're fly fishing career.

I got this little san juan thing I tie with a lot of weight that always seems to out shine the Juan Beadro when it's cranking 4 +. Claret seems to be the fave in this high water. My set up was a smallish white shad (white bass) pattern as the lead...then I trail a blood red Juan Beadro then a wine/claret one. After that it's all about the weight and depth and 99% of folks fishing by themselves don't do enough of either. On a full day trip it's not unusual to lose 3 - 5 set ups due to snagging on the bottom. These fish will be practically welded to the bottom when it runs this hard and you need to get down there in the middle of them to get hit. Most people will stop short of a certain depth when fly fishing saying ..."I cant cast it any deeper than that". If you're trying to cast it in the traditional; sense then yes, you cant cast it very deep but that's where we'll teach you our flat line casting technique. We'll cast set ups 20' deep with 2 or 3 weights the size your average pea and a float a little smaller than a shot glass. It works great and it gets you down to the fish. There's also a "slip bobber" technique you can use as well where you just feed line out through a Thingamabobber until you hit bottom then basically just bottom bounce along with your fly rod until you get a hit. I've done it...it works pretty well in big water. But at some point though you cross the line from fly fishing to "spin fishing with a fly rod" and I like to think our technique is closer to traditional fly fishing than the other.

Well, we had a good time in our short adventure. With a full day on tap tomorrow and water undoubtedly going to be the same...we're talking Crane creek for tomorrow. We'll let you know.


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    March 23rd - My buddy Mike Hagen from the northeast part of our country joined me again this year for a little expanded K on the Jr Circuit. I kind of gave Mike the scoop on things right now regarding our water but being a very good fly fisherman, he kind of knew what to expect. We have options...but it's still a day or two early for our best options.

He fishes Crane every year by himself when he comes down so we weren't going to do that one today. He's done the boat thing with us...but he prefers wading. I told him the Jr Circuit probably needs another day or two but if he wanted to...I'd be willing to check some places out with him and decide after that.

Or...we could bag it all together. Mike was ready to go so we were doing something. I wasn't quite sure what we'd find out there but we were both willing to give it a shot. I thought we could find at least a few trout to play with and maybe even get lucky on some fish moving up. Mike was very interested in learning more Jr Circuit water for future reference if nothing else so we planned at least a half a day this morning and we'll decide after that.

We ended up doing an all day wade (with a LOT of walking) but had ourselves a real nice time. Our trout intake was minimal...maybe a dozen actual trout to net. We could have hit a couple areas longer and upped that overall total but Mike was looking for options so we just kind of breezed along hitting a bunch of different spots. A BEAUTIFUL day out side in the end after days of rain and storms. Here's a few of our moments. Check it out.









It's an adventure, hopefully an education and just a great time being in the outdoors. People should take this up just for the physical and mental conditioning it gives you. I mean....you could power walk around the jogging track with your IPod on...or walk with nature on a crystal clear stream and find something different around every corner. The physical workout is at least as good....the mental rejuvenation is far superior.

Non of our trout caught were too big. Lots of little black caddis on the JC in the midst of spring time coming a couple of weeks early.

A little side story here. There are also LOTS of frogs (Spring Peepers mostly) around. When's the last time you caught a frog with your hands? Before today....it's been a while for me. I see these guys jumping in the water from the bank so I found one who sat still long enough for a quick shot.



Then I thought...I'm going to catch this sucker and get a good close up. Miraculously...I pull off the first part with minimal embarrassment, but that little bugger is trying to push his nose between my fingers. This aint gonna work I'm thinking. So, I focus the camera on my hand and prepare to shoot...and as soon as I open my hand I'll snap the photo. I figured the frog will jump and maybe I'll get something interesting. Here's what I got.



Pretty funny! That sucker is getting the hell out of Dodge with authority.

And at one of our last spots of the day we were fishing a little back alley of Taneycomo where a stream of vast insignificance barely trickles life in to the semi, backwater of the big river. We start sight casting to what appears to be a 20" plus trout holding in a slight current. As we "stealthily" approach with Mike throwing perfect drifts over that fish...we realized... we're casting to a carp! OK then...moving on....though I would have LOVED to hook that thing.

As we move on down in to deeper water we start hooking up with quite a few small largemouth bass and some pretty big bluegill. FUN STUFF for sure and the venerable Micro Baitfish was slaying them all as was a "trout" sized version of my white bass shad fly.

As I'm tying on a new set up I hear a series of big splashes coming from Mike's way. I look over to see him battling a nice Largemouth making several water clearing vaults. Check out this bad boy!



We weren't carrying nets just to travel light so Mike gave him the ole Jimmy Houston lip lift. He didn't kiss him though.

In the past, Mike and I have caught a lot more and bigger trout than we did today but we had a real fun time non the less. A great experience hanging out with a good guy!

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March 22nd - My buddy Troy Calvin and his kids were my guests today on what was the first day of fishing after the big rain ...and after 4, REALLY HARD units of water have been running.

A REALLY tough bite for us today! With Crane and the JC blown out and Taney running as hard today as I've seen it with mild flood gates running...our options were minimal. We had planned for a full day but cut it back to a half day after just a handful of fish had come to net in that time. I also gave them a break on that half day as well.

These guys are as nice as they come. We've fished together before with much better results than we had today. I hate to see anyone catch a perfect storm of crap conditions to fish in and certainly not to nice folks like the Calvins. It's rare but it happens. In a day or two we'll have other wading options and the Taney fish will have settled in to a routine and in to their big water holding areas making them easier to catch. Today, however...is a day or two away from that.


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March 19th - Our friend Gary moved his Tuesday trip up to Monday trying to stay ahead of the big rain they're predicting for Tuesday. Here we go again eh? Well, I'll remain optimistic. They almost ALWAYS get it wrong and usually on the negative side so we'll keep our fingers crossed and hope for a relatively minor blip on the big screen.

We fished in rain pretty much all day today so the camera never made it out. Gary Hollowell, Our resident...resident...and a guy who fishes our flies (and this water) as much as anyone, plays around with a bunch of new fly patterns himself. He has a little black and gray midge pattern he's been doing pretty well with lately and i too have tried that pattern with some success. That may have been Lonnies pattern?...not sure.

Whatever you use...dont go bigger than a #20. With few exceptions (like Rebar or the outlets) it's hard to get a "good" bite going with anything bigger. We caught a lot of fish today but in very specific areas using very specific bugs. G-Bugs and Bit Scuds in olive and the purple/wine SG-Bug (since it was overcast) were real good for us.

Not so good were W2-Eggs, Soft Shelled Scuds, Juan Beadros to name a few. ALL classic fish catchers for the CWTS Nation but today it had to be a near perfect selection. Everyone we talked to (except Gary) was struggling. We gave them the dime store solutions we had found for the day and hopefully helped them turn things around.

A warm rain today at least so that wasn't too bad. We hit a little Jr Circuit early with modest success. When the water came off is when we hit Taney . That's when we had our best success and our hot spots were really good. Great guys to fish with. We had a real good time in spite of the weather.

    March 17th - How young is too young? A question my new friends Brian and Sal asked me when they set this trip up with us. I've taken kids out as young as 5 years old for their first fly fishing adventure but every kid is different. It's all about their attention span. Knowing that every kid around that age is challenged to stay focused on ANYTHING for any length of time...you approach the teaching process different with kids that age. And...having a 7 year old doesn't hurt either.

One great thing about a kid that age though is that they have no fear. As adults, when we're called upon to try something different we start thinking and worrying about it way too much. I hear so many times, things like..."I'm not very coordinated...or...there's no way you can teach me how to do that...or...you'll have to pay up on your guarantee today buddy that's for sure!"...(that's a popular one ... we still haven't by the way... and that INCLUDES our 6 year old guests).

So, you adults are a little tougher to manage sometimes but kids are like..."yeah sure, I'll fly fish!" They don't know it's "supposed " to be difficult therefore when they try it...it isn't!

So the short of it is this. I got myself a couple of gems today in Brian's daughter Cameron (7) and Sal's daughter Bailey (6) as we all went out for a half day of wading with 4 brand new fly fishermen/fisherwomen.

By the looks of things...we had a tough bite going on upon our arrival. A lot of heads down in the fly box with nary a splash or a drag click to be heard. We timed our 1/2 day trip around the scheduled water generation and started our day around 10:00 am. We geared up in waders and gave everyone a little casting lesson in the yard. With 4 brand new folks...it took about 20 minutes to learn the casting stroke for everyone and everything else they needed to know to start catching fish. The rest, we worked on as the day progressed.

While it wasn't the best bite Taney had to offer, I thought it was pretty good and my new friends thought it was GREAT! Now I'm going to show you some pictures here and while you watch these remember this. Maybe one tangle and one break off all day long?...and the girls did a little better than that - if you know what I'm sayin.









Cameron and Bailey were such great kids! Good job mom and dad with that and just to throw a whole bunch of fun in to the mix...they were GREAT fishermen too!





If I recall, each of the girls caught about a dozen each all by themselves and that's with about 1/2 the time fishing and about half the time playing in rocks etc. The two dads were crushing it staying hooked up most of the day and probably plucking out about 25 - 30 each. Micro Baitfish, Bit Scuds and M-Scuds...#22's were necessary most of the time. Black or wine Zebras in that same size was OK. Lots of stuff was working well for us but a simple ginger/olive Baitfish below a float was a great fly for everyone today.





Doubles were constant...we had several triple hookups and yes...even a few QUADRUPLE hookups with the kids and dads.



On kids that age ...I'll show them how to do the cast, presentation, hookset and battling the fish myself one time. Then we'll do it together so they can feel the motions they need to duplicate. Then I pretty much turn them loose and start netting their fish...coaching them along the way if anything starts to get out of sorts,

Every kid understands things differently and you need to be able to say the same things several different ways. Being a father of two kids (one currently a 7 year old) certainly helps me work with folks like Cameron and Bailey.

I also know that kids are uncomfortable with strangers early on so I try to get them relaxed with everything first and that makes things go much smoother. Bailey and I talked about what a pain it is to wear glasses. Always having to clean them and wipe off water splashes...putting them down and forgetting where you put them. All things we both did today. That made her smile. I told Cameron some people kiss their fish before they let them go. Give em the ole Jimmy Houston you know. Hey...when in Rome right?



How great is THAT! I was honored when Cameron felt comfortable enough with me where she wanted to hold my hand when we walked over some of the "trippy" rocks today.



What a great couple of families to spend some time with. We all had a great time. And like my other little buddies who started out like these two and are now young men and women...I sure hope I get to see these kids grow up with a fly rod in their hands too. I know their dads do and if their progression advances like the other kids I've fished with...they'll be kicking their dad's butts by the time their 12. The best deal with all this is that Brian and Sal have themselves a couple of new fishing buddies for a long time to come.

    March 16th - My new friends from Tennessee Jake and Dana were trying their hand at our wonderful sport today. Nice water and weather and overall...a pretty good bite staying on the big river all day long with a whole lot of doubles along the way.





I always bring nets for my customers both for the veterans and the brand newbies. I'll get a look nw and then and even the question...."well, aren't YOU going to net our fish for us?" To which I will always answer..."I'll net EVERY fish for you today if you'd like...but here's the deal."

And the "deal" is this. You're going to catch a LOT of fish with us! If I have 2 or 3 folks I'm helping with fish, technique, an occasional tangle etc...my time is divided equally (more or less) amongst them. You can let your fish swim around until I can make it over to you to let him go...or learn (and I'll help you learn) how to do it yourself. As you can see, doubles and triple hookups are happening all day long for us on most days. If you learn how to take fish off the hook...you'll probably catch twice as many fish on any given day. I'm just sayin'. There is an art to it. You want to take them off the hook quickly without breaking the line or tangling. Then I tell them the 10 second rule. If you cant get the hook out in 10 seconds put the fish back in the water for a breather before trying again. The Ketchum Release is a great tool.



Now, on fish like that 20" er from Dana (above) I'll be there with the net. The only thing that trumps a 20"er???....a 21"er!

Well our friends were great people and again, more great students of the game. They did so well picking it up. Their hooksets were short and quick and the action was pretty good for them most all day. Our bugs were our typical Chartered Waters fare but they were taking a lot of different stuff. Bit Scuds, M-Scuds (new) and G-Bugs in #20's and #22's. A few little midgey things did OK and the Micro Baitfish in ginger/olive is ALWAYS catching a bunch.

Fun stuff.

    March 14th - My buddy Bob hadn't done the boat thing in a long time and he has a soft spot for the big guy. So we hit it in the boat today. Not too bad at all. We left there saying, yeah!...that was pretty good!



Juan Beadros! A blood red one in front of a claret or wine version. If it's sunny, it's the claret. If it's overcast/rainy I'll trail with a purple version. A little more water (3 units plus) I like a white Baitfish above one (or two) of those worms.

With light generation (two units or less) I like trailing a Soft Shelled Scud in a #16. Gray if it's overcast and black (like the brown above took) if it's sunny. There you go...a dime store breakdown of fishing in generation on Taneycomo. Worth every penny you spent listening to it right?


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March 13th - Our buddy Bob brought his buddies Mark and Mark's son Derek on their first venture in to fly fishing. Man Cards right out of the box as we fished in downpours for the better part of the day. We chased a white bass rumor early while water still generated on Taneycomo but that was a bust so when water shut down, we hit the big river.

These guys have been fishing Taneycomo for MANY years but have always done the bait thing downstream. Even though I tell folks that they'll catch more and bigger fish (trout) fly fishing than they will bait fishing...they never really quite buy that sales pitch until they're on the water doing it. So with all those years of coming down here bait fishing for Derek and Mark, here's Derek's biggest trout he ever caught.



A 20" plus rainbow that was really thick and gave Derek a GREAT battle on his 6x tippet and 2 wt rod. While these guys thought the fishing was great....it was really pretty slow. We had 2 or 3 pretty hot spots and if you judge our day by those places you can say we did pretty well. But overall, it was slow most every where else we tried. We ended up staying in those hot spots in the end. I may be dumb but I'm not stupid!

What does that mean anyway?

It was a nasty ass day! The pictures tell a story of a rain that never let up and the pictures don't lie. Here's Bob striking a pose (and a match to a smoke) that adequately showcases our day of weather today.



Just a man on a rock!

I'm finding just a handful of spots that are "good"...and everything else would be considered slow by my standards. So we caught fish in bunches in just a couple of spots. When we got out of those general areas we looked like everyone else out there which was holding a straight rod and getting drenched.

Not a fan of those damn boulders! Let me just get that out of the way right now. I've seen no redeeming qualities from those things being in the river. In time they'll get covered in gravel (a few of them are half under now) and they'll be no more than little humps out there where they will undoubtedly serve a better purpose than they serve now. They don't hold fish and they've screwed up some good areas. But nobody's listening so I'll move on.

Well, we hung on as long as we could but even us well dressed and rain protected types were getting soaked through to the bone...so we called it after about 7 hours or so.

The boys did great and they were great guys to fish with. Really good picking up the finer points of the game and even in this NASTY weather...they kept saying how much fun they were having. Well, if you have fun in this kind of weather you'll LOVE it when it's normal!


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March 12th - Another fun day with Derek, Mark and Bob. A MUCH nicer day for us on the water but still a fairly tough bite. Water generating early so we hit the JC to show our new friends some new techniques and situations to deal with and oh yeah!....some nice fish on the side.



Mark's biggest fish of the trip if I recall. I'm finding some of my Crane Creek flies are crossing over nicely to the JC. There's a fair amount of caddis out here too with a good consistent "Dark Hendrickson" looking mayfly in about a #18 - #16. I'm going to have to try these on Taneycomo now. I've NEVER done well with traditional freestone stream kind of patterns on Taney but these bugs continue to surprise me so why not. I'll et you know.

On Taneycomo, it was the ginger/olive Micro Baitfish below a float. It was windy which gave that fly (a mini sculpin pattern) and very slow and subtle presentation below a float vs a much faster presentation than the same thing stripped. Most of the time, these fish want something more subtle and slower from the presentation perspective. Just my opinion of course but it works for me.

I had a great time meeting these guys and they had enough fun that they got themselves set up with a couple new outfits at days end. They'll be great at it I'm sure and hopefully we'll fish again one day.


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March 11th - Just me and Bobby today and these days, when I ask Bob where he wants to go fishing it's a simple, one word answer....Crane!











So much fun over there. Probably Bob's 5th or 6th time there and we've hit new water every time. There's still a lot more to show him too. We always have great plans to hit all these different places every time we go. We start at one of them and it always keeps us there all day long. Not complaining!...we don't stay there because we have to.



That fish above was about a 16" er. Nice fish and so wild!

We had some great little stretches today. We had a spot where he was catching them every 2 or 3 casts. I actually pulled out the video and I now have Bob captured on film from cast to catch. Pretty cool.



That fish shows one of my new caddis emerger patterns. I'll post pics and put them in the online catalog soon. Another great day out there with Mr O. Wild trout!..LOTS of wild trout. Really fun stuff.

    March 8th - After a few days off we're back at it as we close out one of the nicest winters I've ever been a part of. My buddy from Georgia, Mike McRite comes up every year to see his (and my) buddy Mark Ward and the boys, and he and I always get together one time to have ourselves a new adventure. After talking with Mike for a while he really wanted to learn how to read water better as he fishes small mountain streams back home and wanted to be more successful on them. I thought the perfect match would be Crane Creek for him so that's where we spent another fantastic, warm and sunny March day.

The fishing continues to impress me at Crane. Before every trip over there I tie up some new caddis creations and I think I've got some pretty good ones going on right now with a few more ideas kicking around upstairs.

Back in the day, my first couple of trips to Crane Creek were fairly unsuccessful. 6 - 8 fish for a few hours of fishing was pretty average for me. Pre- Google back then so I went in blind at first trying to fish it like I did Taneycomo. In hind sight...not so much. Short of flopping a wooly bugger around, there aren't a lot of bugs that crossover between those two areas...at least for me. That was before I was a guide so don't worry, I wasn't stealing anybody's money.

I started fishing the hares ears and ptn's and most of what I saw online. My buddy Jeff House turned me on to fishing a little bigger than I typically did and that helped. But...being the fishing nerd that I am, I really started thinking about it. There were a lot of fish there...they were eating something better than what I was throwing at them.

Every stream has it's meat and potatoes. In Taneycomo, its scuds and midges with scuds (in my opinion) the number one choice. LOTS and lots of bugs are always hatching on Crane especially this time of year. You see a lot of surface activity and the more I fished it, the more I realized that the "meat" of Crane Creek are caddis.

I see a lot of other stuff coming up but I ALWAYS see a lot of caddis in the air and coming up as emergers. Most of the surface "activity" you see are what I call splashy rises. It's not the typical "soft sip" you associate with a trout rising to a fly. In a caddis heavy stream that typically means fish chasing emerging, rising caddis flies. That's where I started focusing my tying efforts and that's when things started to turn for me in a BIG way.

Add to those new fly collections, the simple, little gold beaded G-Bug and the ginger/olive Baitfish (Micro and regular) and I feel pretty confident every time we hit the water. Bigger, for me wasn't the answer but it was more an issue of style and substance. The style (pattern) of the the fly and the substance (materials used). Swinging or dead drifting those emergers through the riffles is deadly but it's those bigger, tougher fish in the deep pools is what I really wanted to figure out and that's where some of that new stuff is making it rain for us and I am just having a great time with my friends on that water.

Now I'm not going to say you'll catch more fish at Crane than you will at Taneycomo every day, but right now we are. 30, 40...50 fish days are becoming kind of average for us. Taneycomo usually fishes better (more fish caught) than that overall, but right now it's in more of a funk and that number would be a good day on Taney.

So...that was a round about way to say that we chose Crane Creek today. Taney was up and down with the water generation. Mike will be here for a few more days and can fish Taney another day. Plus this was much closer to his mountain stream environment he fishes in GA than Taneycomo was. It was a fantastic day with some GREAT experiences to remember for a longtime. It took Mike a little while to get comfortable fishing in a small place. It does for every body but as he started seeing his lanes for casting and hook setting he started staying clean and hooking up with fish consistently.





A typical Crane Creek scenario. A beautiful deep, clear pool with a little fish holding structure on the bottom being feed by a progressively deeper set of riffles. "Deep" at Crane is about 3' - 4 ' deep and the riffles are just a couple of inches to no more than a foot. We'll typically sneak up slowly from the downstream side and start hitting the very tail end of the pool. I'll usually spot fish for my guests from up high on the bank to better target our fish and reduce unnecessary casts. Yes these fish are spooky but if you approach each area the right way you'll get hooked up at least a couple of times per hole.

Every little pool needs a game plan. You see it...scout it...figure out where the fish are and how you NEED to approach them with out scaring them. You really cant just start walking up the stream casting and flailing and expect to get good results. EVERY spot is just a little bit different (part of what makes that place so special) and you need a plan for every little hole you fish. That plan includes questions like; where's the LAST (down stream) fish in that hole and how do we get in the water behind him without scaring him? What are my casting lanes...what are my hook setting lanes. It's all part of the fun! We'll stand there looking at a particular piece of water and figure all this stuff out...then go do it.

Every hole isn't always successful. If you do everything right then It usually is but don't expect perfection. Let me say that again...don't expect perfection! You'll have failures. You'll break off, you'll get tangles, you'll spook fish from time to time. But as the day goes on and if I do my job right, you'll get better and better and your success's start outnumbering your failures. You'll learn what to look for before you start your casting or before you set the hook among other things. You will you make yourself a much better trout fisherman playing around in a place like that and every fish is a very rewarding experience.

The day cant be mentioned in total w/o mentioning one of our first stops of the day. Mike was just getting his feet wet plucking out a few smaller fish from a nice little hole when about a 22" fish races out from an undercut to inhale Mike's little 6" rainbow he had just hooked. The fish became oblivious to us when he took that smaller trout and he just kind of circled around in front of us grabbing then spitting out that little trout. I told Mike to drop his rod tip and give the fish some slack. While spitting that little trout in and out ...probably 5 times in a pretty short span....during one of the "out" times he saw the lead caddis fly bouncing around in frount of him. The little trout (caught on the trailer) was giving it a quirky little action while trying to escape the big fish. That fish (no more than 6' - 8' in front of us) sucked in the lead caddis fly with authority and Mike stuck him quickly.

Hooked up!...and as soon as he felt the sting he was airborne about 3x in a row. REALLY cool! If We hooked that fish later in the day we would have been better prepared and probably would have landed him but, as it turned out he snapped us off on one of his wild (and I do mean wild) jumps. Very impressive and a great story to recall for years to come.

The big boy won today but we had a lot of fun with his smaller buddies. Another fabulous day in the Ozarks for us today.


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March 3rd - Mark was planning on spending half a day with me on the JC when his wife and son talked him out of it and took his place. Down to see his daughter in a Volleyball tournament in our home town of Hollister, they switched normal roles and I got to hang out with the better halves today.

Water running so the Jr Circuit seemed the logical choice. Now I wont say we killed them in our half day today (maybe 20 - 30 fish) but it was fairly consistent action and we all had a real nice time.





For a quick half day excursion and a little K on some new trout water...the JC is awfully fun! We get to stay in waders in pristine trout water and stay pretty close to home most of the time. A real fun day with some great folks. Mark missed all the fun! Maybe next time buddy.

    February 29th - Today I saw THE FISH that I want to catch some day. While virtually all of our fishing we've done this trip has been fantastic, on our final (the "extra" day)...Bob was really wanting to do Crane Creek again. Truth be known, that too was my number one choice as well so that's where our adventure began and ended.

If possible, it was better than it was a couple of days ago. We fished some more new water for Bob and the numbers and the SIZE of some of the fish we caught (and saw) was impressive.









We both thought we topped the 50 fish mark today. A lot of small ones always get caught up in the mix but we caught quite a few up to the 16" mark or so....saw several fish over 20" and one incredibly beautiful and wild fish that was in the 25" - 27" range. The biggest fish on Crane I've ever seen and he (probably a she) let us put a few casts over her with a very brief hookup before she had had enough of us.

We had some great light working to our advantage so we got a real good look at that fish and I'm not sure I've ever been so impressed with a single, wild creature. Bob and I were both blown away and we were like...."we're ALWAYS going to check this place out every time we come back here."

I'm not sure there could ever be a tougher fish to catch. A wild fish in every sense of the word with enough life experience with people to be REALLY paranoid of "people like" movement. Seeing that fish and working to her (unsuccessfully) was as excited as I've been in a long time watching Bob (then trying myself) to make it happen. A memory that will be forever burned in my head and hopefully just the first chapter of my story I hope to write about her. Stay tuned...it wont be easy!

I guess we'll have to settle for 14", 16"...and a couple of those wild rainbows were pushing the 18" mark. Incredible fish ANYWHERE you can catch a trout! Just a gem of a day and an experience.

The Micro Baitfish was once again a very successful fly. You'll see a couple of new caddis (hare's ear) versions I tried on this trip with great success. I like that Baitfish in the still, deep pools trailing one of our Caddis Sticks in about a #18. In the current and faster water we're going to a bigger #14 emerging caddis version as a lead fly then trailing another new hybrid that's close to a soft hackle/caddis emerger that works great swinging out of a taillout.











Another spectacular day and one where all I think about now is how I can get back down there for another adventure. My buddy Bob is also becoming a big fan of that little jewel of life. Chances are you'll be seeing more pics from us playing around down there in the near future.

Bob's biggest issue starting his morning with us is where he wants to spend his day. So many options...so little time. Well, we got time.

    February 28th - There's been a great little stretch on the Jr. Circuit that is REALLY active right now. I've been real quiet about it and have only skirted the edges one time since it's been hot. We added that little jewel to our rotation this week and again....what another incredible day on some more, brand new water for Bob.

With generation scheduled to be off late morning we figured we'd hit the JC early then probably hit Taney later on. After another INCREDIBLE day on the Jr Circuit, Bob had no interest at all to fish Taneycomo even with the water off and in the middle of a 60's and sunny day. Hey, lets be real here...there was NO reason why we needed to walk away from what we were immersed in today...so we didn't!

On the way to "the good spot" I see that vague slash of movement on the far shore that got my attention. Nothing that jumps out at you and says "HEY" but an obviously out of place movement in an area that shouldn't have had movement. It stopped me in my tracks then Bob and I stared from where the movement came.

"I know I just saw something over there BOb...you want to check it out?"

I knew the answer to that as Bob is always up for just about anything, so we take a detour and slide down to that stretch of new water.

Quickly enough, our possible movement became reality and a target showed herself that had us both getting a little giddy. I gave Bob a weapon...the 2 wt with a couple of Caddis Sticks below a Palsa straight from our trip to Crane yesterday. It had about the right depth for the water we were looking at and we didn't want to miss an opportunity by changing flies. Bob flips a little line towards the fish to prepare for his presentation then he rolls one out there about 3' to the right of the fish.

"probably not close enough"... I thought to myself.

Before I finished the thought I told Bob "here he comes" as that fish made a bee line to that lead bug and sucked it up with a purpose.

UN-real! First cast of the day and Bob is hooked up with a 21" STUD of a female river rainbow.





As the picture shows....we got her in. Long enough for a quick photo but only after a wild and exciting battle in REALLY skinny water. I thought both pics were kind of cool so I put them both in there.

There's so much life out there that it would blow your mind in trout fishing terms. I sometimes struggle with bringing some of it to the attention of the MDC folks but then would that make it a better situation or worse? There are places on our Jr Circuit where natural reproduction is taking place with our trout. In certain places...there is a LOT of it taking place.

Today, I just happened to strap on that net we found on Crane and while it wasn't a good regular trout catching net...it's fine mesh made it very useful for catching one of the thousands...(maybe millions) of young trout fry starting to emerge from the redds and feed by themselves.







I've posted similar pictures here before (it happens on Taneycomo too) where the subject is quickly taken to area chat rooms and debated on it's authenticity. The current official stand from the state is that there is no natural reproduction on Taneycomo. That being said, I've shown similar pics to an MDC Fisheries guy and he told me that they HAD to be naturally reproducing fish since fish that small don't leave the hatchery even by accident.

There are several other places where the fry are bigger than the ones I've shown above. I'll try to catch a few then take more pics soon so you can see better images. I'm not advocating to stop the stocking on Taneycomo or anything. I do wonder though if there is something that could be done that would encourage and promote the spawning activity that happens around here. It just seems so precious and worthy of protection.

Then again, they didn't take my advice on the fish habitat structure plan either. 6 months in now and those boulders don't hold fish (water on or off) and have in fact, hurt several places that used to be pretty good before they put them in.

OK, back to our fishing. Well how do you top that? First cast of the day ends up with a 21" fish. We move on and we start catching fish after fish in new water for Bob and man!..we are just having a great time. When we reach or original destination we are not disappointed. A wonderful place with riffles on both sides of a big deep pool. This place has been pretty void of fish all year long but was absolutely ALIVE with them today!







Bob is the kind of customer every fishing guide would love to be friends with. Why is that you say?...because he likes to take breaks on a nearby log now and then and he "insists" that I fish when he does it. Well...if I have to Mr. O! These fish weren't pushovers but in the end, we found that little Zebras and BZ Midges and RD (thread) Midges were the key.

When I was playing around on one of Bob's breaks, I swear I hook and lose a nice brown. Not something I was expecting but I think I know my trout so I was a little excited. I mention it to Bob...then kind of forget about it. Then when Bob gets back at it he hooks up with something really nice. A couple minutes later we get that stupid net around this nice 17" brown that took the little Zebra.





While we caught a few fish on a few things, we were getting hit on EVERY drift once we went down to #20's and #22's in the midges. Olive, black and wine were probably best. ZERO takes on the Baitfish and the Big Hurt and various other "trout candy" we use that usually has them running for it. No, very particular today but aggressive once dialed in.

While we were playing around in one place in particular, we both see something REALLY big lurking around on the bottom. When it comes to sip a midge, we good a good look at about a 25" class male rainbow. A real toad! We see him now and then but he's always cruising and not staying put for a decent shot. Then we see him hunker down in the current in a tough, but catchable area.

I call Bob over and he gives him a few goes. He kept trying until break time then he makes me give him a go. After I try for him he moves to a much more catchable area. I tell Bob to come over and try again (and I say this just so you all know that I tried to get him to catch that fish) but no....Bob wants me to keep after it so I do. A REALLY tough fish and I change up a few flies before finding one (for whatever reason) to his liking. That fly was a #16 purple/wine GBG-Bug. After just a couple of drifts I see a flash of white and game is on.

Now, Bob's not big on pictures as you may know so we're not big on taking "the big net" every trip out. It's a little snaggy on the brush but we could have used it (translation...I should have brought it) today as I got the big boy next to me a couple of times for a "tailing" attempt but he didn't seem to like that move too much and always squirted away. I could have beached him but I wasn't going to do that. If we got a pic great but we didn't need to go to any great lengths to get that done. We got a good look and I even hung on to him a couple of times before the hook just popped out. You'll have to take our word for it but yes, it was a real toad of a fish and we opted to take a soft approach on the landing. He gave me a great time. I still get excited about a fish like that.

Bob thought we came close to 100 fish today. We may have...OK, I'll let him make the call today. It was really good regardless. 80 fish...100 fish?...120 fish???...does it really matter? If we wanted to catch a 100 today we certainly could have done it. But we kept moving and catching in new water which made it more fun even though our flies weren't in the water fishing as much.

For the record...day three made it a lock to add a day 4 to this weeks adventure. The dilemma is Crane or the Jr Circuit. Didn't even bother to see if Taney was generating tomorrow. THAT's a nice option to have.


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February 27th - Well after yesterday, we had no big desire to fish Taneycomo. Did I just say that?... Again, we have other options and now is a good time to exercise a few of them. Since tasting the other area trout waters around here for the last 20 years plus, I like to think we have a pretty good portfolio. We're diversified...if you will. So when the river that everyone comes here to see isn't fishing so hot ...or maybe generating too heavy ...then we will have other, BETTER options for our friends to play with any given day.

Bob and I have been talking about going back to Crane for quite a while now. Today was a good day to pull that feather from our cap.

I fall in love with that stream a little more, every time I fish it. I've been taking Bob to different portions of the stream since we started fishing it and today was a new adventure again. There's nothing "new" per say on Crane Creek. It's all been fished before but like any trout stream, the farther you get off the beaten path, the better the fishing tends to be. Well folks!...it was flat out good today.



I've been tweaking some Crane specific bugs and spending a lot of time with them this year in particular. Mostly sub-surface caddis patterns as today we had a BLIZZARD of caddis hatching. About a #18 tannish gray I would say and it was to the point of spitting them out and swatting them away they were so thick. The heaviest hatch I've ever seen on Crane. It was really cool and you could see the "splash rises" from the trout chasing them to the surface as the emergers raced up to take flight. We tried a few dry versions but you could tell it was the emerger they were after and our little versions were making it happen. A Hares Ear kind of pattern was one but with "flowing" materials for better movement. A #14 - #16 was good and we have one I'm calling a Caddis Stick that is about as simple as you can get but man!!!....that little trailer was IT, IT, IT!!!... especially in the slower water. Also really good was the GBG-Bug in #18's and #16's....olive and ginger.



I tried some underwater shots without much success. I try to never take a fish out of water at all unless I'm trying for a quick pic and then it's NEVER for more than 10 seconds.

I think I have some good things going right now as these fish were more aggressive than I've ever seen them. I'd conservatively say we netted over 40 fish today and that was only about 5 hours on the water after our scouting trips. Bob thought more than that but I'll be the voice of reason just to make it sound honest. It was damn good and pretty much everywhere we tried.

We stopped and asked a landowner to fish on one real nice looking stretch of water. We fished it and it looked GREAT...but we never saw a fish and only caught shiners.



Well, here's where a little customer scouting comes in handy. My buddy Jason Krebs in Springfield tells me he kills them at Crane with the ginger/olive Baitfish. I have NEVER fished it there ...before today. I shouldn't be surprised and I kind of wasn't but then again....really? The Baitfish on wild trout?...

It's kind of like eating caviar with a spork...getting the head cheerleader with a line like..."hey...pull my finger?"...being Howie Mandel and still getting paid. All things that shouldn't happen but for reasons we may never know....they DO!!!

Now, should we sit here and feel guilty about catching wild trout with the Baitfish? You can!...I'm going to continue to bow at the altar of the almighty and all catching Baitfish. You stay in the tent with Geeves...sip your gin...count the expensive logos on your wardrobe and quickly recall all the fish you caught today using something else. I'll be the guy in the end zone holding the football.

Now, my little caddis beta (not baetis) versions were about 50/50 keeping pace with the Baitfish (a sculpin pattern) and in reality, that's where I'm going to concentrate on refining the ultimate Crane Creek Bug but ...it's nice to have options.

Bob was plucking out some thumpers today and I'm even saying thumpers by ANY trout stream standards. The bad news....my camera battery died after just a few early shots. I would say half of our fish were over 12" and up to 16" on 4 or 5 of them. Even I was impressed by the kind of bite and the size of the fish we caught and Bob was placing his casts where they needed to be most of the time.



I found this today. This is exactly how I found it too interesting enough. If it's yours give me a call. There's an inscription on it so if you can tell me what that is you can come by and pick it up.

Crane can be one of those places where you can catch a fish or two out of a riffle or deep pool then the fish just turn off. They're very spooky at best and when they see a buddy struggling in the water, they seem to know the score and they'll hunker down until things get quiet again. Not today though. We were catching 4, 5, 6 fish out of each little place plus a few hits and misses. We left most every spot with more fish willing to play but we didn't pressure any one place too much.

Just great stuff and on a day that had to be one of the top 3 of the year in terms of weather. 60's and sunshine with very little wind. Man it was just a fantastic day. We saw one other fisherman there. We talked in the parking lot and mutually decided to go separate ways so as to give each other space. The way it should be. I hope he had a great day too.

    February 26th - Our friend Bob comes down about once a month to get in his fly fishing fix. He'll typically schedule two days with me. If the fishing is good and I have another day open, he'll do three. He pretty much always ends up doing three. This trip ole Bob popped a couple extra Aleeve's and we hit it 4 days in a row (walking/wading) with something very unique and very productive every day. Here's how we started.

We started with a little scouting trip. A pc of water I've hit before but it's been several years ago and I wasn't hitting it too serious then. Everything looked like they should be there. We saw several groups of fish that looked like trout but after a significant effort on our part we were unable to get or at least keep one hooked. We had a couple of them on but I'm not convinced they were trout. We moved on but logged it in the memory bank. We'll definitely be going back there but perhaps after a different quarry.

Our goal on this first day was to check out some new water and since Bob had never fished below Powersite (and I haven't done it much) we gave that a look after our scouting trip and found the fishing to be pretty solid...albiet not always our intended target.





I cant even tell you how many largemouth bass we caught. Most were pretty small but active and a lot of fun! We were fishing/wading from the north side stripping and dead drifting a couple of things. Saw a few bait dunkers down there with monster set ups catch nothing at all.

After a little playing around with different bugs, we settled on the Micro Baitfish either below a float or stripped. That white bass bug I'm tying was doing well on the LM bass too but the Baitfish was (as per usual) ...the king! We only fished about a 100 yd stretch of water and were catching bass, bluegill (and one 16" brown trout) every 2 or 3 casts. The brown was a long and lean one and we got her back in the water quickly but that was the only trout we caught.

All that brought us past noon so we finished up on Taneycomo. Not a great bite out there I must say. Some of the very reliable spots were just not producing much at all. Several of our friends stopped by to talk and discuss their day which was about as good as ours was there on Taney. We found a couple of spots above The Island where they were taking the Micro Baitfish pretty well for Bob and a couple of less then decent spots where #22 BIt Scuds and G-Bugs would hook us up on a few. Not as well as you come to expect out there. In fact we didn't really see many fish in the upper section. We've been having big, short blasts of water in the early am then off by late morning. I cant believe that water is pushing trout down stream. It never has before and that includes flood gates so for some reason, today...there weren't the normal numbers of fish to be caught.

We caught fish today but of ALL the options we have at our disposal right now....today...Taneycomo was fishing the worst of em. I'm going to guess that at least for a couple of days, Bob will be up for some other options.

    February 20th - Our new friends Dave and Matt joined us for a day on our wonderful Ozark trout water. They were interested in playing around on the Jr Circuit for at least part of our day today and as always, well...twist my arm. The water on the big river was scheduled to run until late morning and in my opinion, it's always best to let it settle down for a couple of hours before you hit it. That lets us do what most people find to be a great mix of their guided fishing day by hitting a few hot places on the Jr Circuit early...take a quick lunch break then finish the day on the big river, Taneycomo.

I used to say that fishing Taneycomo will probably give you a few more fish overall than the Jr Circuit will and probably a better chance at a 20" plus fish. I cant honestly say that anymore. On any given day, the JC will out fish Taneycomo so it's really a toss up truth be known. I like to think that I've found better and better ways to work that water and those fish but more than anything, I've made a lot of tracks and have found a lot of new options. Most of them never see anything but our bugs so I keep them on a special diet. You know what they say!..always leave them wanting more.



That was one of our dance partners this morning with Baitfish in tow. We found some real nice spots today. Some old classics that haven't seen anything happening this year and all of the sudden they're alive with fish! We've had a real nice surge of fish here lately that has made them the one occupy movement I'm on board with.

The JC fish are a different animal than Taney fish. On one hand they like a little more flash but on the other hand they can sometimes need something really, really small. Kind of finicky...until you push the right button then it's some of those gangbusters kind of moments. So far I'd probably lean towards a #20 - #22 GBG-Bug in ginger/olive or straight olive but I know of several areas where it's little BZ Midges in #22's and it HAS to be the right color. I've got it down to a handful of buttons now so...



We finished on the big river like planned and today was one of those days where we probably caught more on our Jr Circuit. Real nice guys to fish with as it seems most of our folks are. Dave's been a fly customer of ours for a while now and we finally hooked up to go fishing today

We had some nice moments on Taneycomo with the Micro Baitfish, #22 olive Bit Scuds and #22 ginger/olive SG-Bugs. A couple of spots were pretty good for us but outside of those spots (and no they weren't outlets or Rebar) there wasn't much happening for us or anyone else who stopped to talk to us. Unusual for Taneycomo especially lately but hey, even the great ones (like Taneycomo) can have an off day now and then. Chances are, tomorrow she'll be back to normal.

    February 19th (AM) - Some fly customer friends of ours wanted to lay some tracks on our Jr Circuit this morning. We hit a handful of spots and caught fish in all of them. SA couple were pretty good and a couple were pretty average. The boys really enjoyed the experience and were pleasantly surprised at the water they were catching trout in today.






Even though the big river was coming off, these guys wanted to try this out and had a real fun time with it. Fishing small with 2 and 3 wt rods.....indicators fished best with a little wine Zebra #20 trailing a #22 ginger/olive GBG-Bug. You could take the indicator off and swing that same set up with a lot of success but a CrystalBack (olive was best) with the new SoftCrackle trailer was doing most of the damage. We even caught a few on small dries at places. Beautiful day! Man, weather couldn't get a lot better. Great days to fish in this winter and these guys were a lot of fun to fish with too.


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February 19th (PM) - My friend Greg brought his son Connor and Connor's friends Walker and Matt for what turned out to be a boat trip. Not a great bite out there I have to say. Pretty big water going then dropping out half way through. We caught a perfect storm of some of the worst conditions you can get out here.

Big water is tough. Anything that puts the tailwater level above 708' makes it tough. We started in that, then it dropped down to 2 units. That drop was about as good as the big 4 bite was and at the end of our time (when the water was leveling out) was the BEST bite we had. Timing is everything and this time...we timed it wrong. Now what is BAD??.... Matt was counting today and I think he ended up with around 8 - 10 fish in the net? The other two boys performed similarly well so... about 25 fish in a half day trip? It's not great for here but, it's great most other places. We'll take the glass half full approach.



When it was running the hardest, this white bass fly (above) I've been tying did the best. It's basically a version of a clouser (with Flo. Blue on the back) tied with Marabou. Very soft and "flowy" in the water.

When the water dropped down it wasn't as good as a Juan Beadro though so we switched over. Our best two unit set up ended up being a blood red Juan Beadro above a claret version of the same.

The boys got a lot of hits and hookups but the fish were very fast and you had to be ready to get a good hook in them. It was a real nice day and it's always a good time fishing with Greg and the boys. Those 4 are part of a basketball team that's kicking some butt back in Wichita. Look for these guys on ESPN one day.

    February 17th (AM) - Our friend Michael brought his daughter Hana and his son Andrew out for a half day of action on the circuit. As often as Mr Wishy has graced our presence, you would think he would have fished every slice of water we've ever treaded upon. That's part of what I try real hard to do every day. Not only FIND productive, new water but to take even our most regular guests to something new all the time. We did that today as we hit all new stuff on the mini tour.





They caught bigger but when the day draws near with no pictures in hand...you make concessions. Kind of a tough one this am. We all caught fish but it was slower than it has been for us of late.

Smaller...slower...subtle. All good things to do when the bite gets tough. A cold day compared to what we've been playing in which didn't help our fickle fish. You expect low 40's in February but we're getting spoiled this year so we shivered through a cool one today.

Great folks!...great kids. I was honored to be mentioned in Michaels Christmas letter he sends out every year. Most of our guests end up being friends and nothing short of family in the end. Another great benefit of this gig.


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February 17th (PM) - My friend John brought his buddy and new fly fisherman Lew along for a half day of chasing the trout around. It was a little tougher bite over all for us today. About the same kind of bite we had with the Wishys. Enough to keep you interested but certainly not typical Taneycomo. An approaching front was probably the cause.

We started on the JC in the early afternoon moving to the big river after it shut off and calmed down. We had spurts where we'd catch 4 - 5 in a row then it would just shut down for a while. Just one of those "work hard" kind of days where I just kept changing things looking for lightning in a bottle.

Most of Lew's fly fishing past has been done on his farm pond so stripping was a fav technique for him. With that in mind I put on a tandem Crystal Back set up #18 in olive and dun. His bites were short but fairly frequent.

We caught some fish on a new one I'm calling a Soft Crackle. Something I had no idea if it would even work but on this one day trial on a pretty tough day....I liked it.

John and his wife Tracee have been good friends and customers for a while now. Always a good time on the water with John.

    February 16th - My old buddy Dave and his wife Tonya were my guests today ready for a little exploring on the Jr Circuit. Dave's done a lot of cool things with us in the past and has had some GREAT days doing it. I remember one winter day when Dave caught I don't know how many rainbows over 25". He did a 3 fish, replica collage of his best ones. Then there's the time when he hooked what is (to date) the largest brown I've ever had hooked either by myself or on a trip. We guessed the upper 30's (inches) on that fish. He hooked and caught half a dozen 20" - 25" browns that were hanging out with the big boy before finally hooking big daddy...handled things perfectly only to have about an 18" rainbow come and take the dangling trailer fly and conversely...pop off (not break off) and "switch fish" right at the net. That was the most disappointing 18" rainbow I've ever been a part of.

Well, today's trip didn't have quite the excitement of those events but we waded in solitude in new trout water that Dave had never fished before. We had a great time doing it on a pretty good day.

Here's Dave stalking a little pod of fish in some of the tightest, tight quarters you're ever going to find. Our little TFO Finesse 1wt with the Ross Evolution LT reel #0 (dark, metallic green with Rio Trout LT #1 line if you want ALL the details) was a perfect little tool for plucking out several of those little gems.







Now I wasn't counting today...but if I was I think Tonya might have kicked hubby's butt. I'm just giving the ladies a little shout out. Not that they need any encouragement as they always seem to school their old man at the end of the day.

We caught these fish on quite a few different things. Dave played around with #22 Adams and Griffith's Gnats when we had surface action. While it wasn't the most productive fly choice for us it did catch several for him and dry fly fishing is always a little special when you can get it. The Micro Baitfish in ginger/olive is still awfully good out there plus the GBG-Bugs in #20's. The M-Scud!....a new one we're playing with is doing wonderful for us too. In the gray/olive color or straight olive in #20's and #22's. Pretty good numbers for us today too especially in some of the little ribbons of water we played in.

Great individuals to share a day of fly fishing with. Dave's been talking about hitting Crane Creek for the first time now that he's retired. We may have that story to share with you real soon.

    February 11th - Call your mom and tell her you love her today. My mom knew that I loved her, but I could have told her more.



I make sure that Mckenna will always remember you. She knows what a great person you were.

    February 9th - By special request...The Jr Circuit...the whole jr circuit...and nothing but the Jr Circuit. Our friends today had hit the mini tour with us before and regardless of generation patterns, they wanted to see some more of it. My personal favorite for what it's worth.

It would probably take a week or more to see every place we've caught a trout before but I try to stay on top of the best options while still showing our return friends some brand new places to fish. We made some tracks today for sure but nothing tougher than your nightly walk around the park with your dog...well, maybe a little tougher but nobody's died yet...this year.



Doubled up swinging midges and targeting risers with little dries. Some places are more special than others for sure. I'm a fan of our tour today and the boys were all over it as well.

Real fun guys to fish with. I wish I could tell you more but I'm contractually obligated to remain vague .

    February 7th - Well, our plans were of good intent. On one hand you could say we could have stuck with the original plan. On the other hand...in hindsight...both Bob and myself are very excited about the possibilities of what we found.

The original plan was Crane Creek. Good plan!...I found a couple of new access points for Bob and I to fish some new water there. On the way up I told him about a rumor I heard from a customer about another place in that area. Bobby is always up for an adventure so we thought we'd take a look there in the am, then finish up at Crane in the PM.

My intel was weak albeit good intentioned. But, as if a sign came down from above...just the day before I was sent a sample of what was described to me as ...."the most detailed river map in the state of missouri". That map showed and confirmed the rumor we were chasing. It was still a little sketchy but good enough for us...we were off like little kids looking for a new adventure. There's probably a few (scant few) who know where I'm talking about but it's certainly not on the radar. We're going to keep it below the radar.

When we got back home tonight we both did a little recon on where we just were and gathered enough info to know that we were indeed in the right place (in general) and on the right water.

Long story short is that Bob and I found some wild trout water today that can't possibly get hit much at all. Gorgeous water and in some places I would call it near perfect at least in my fly fishing world. We ended up spending the entire day there and then some. I'll call this a work in progress at the moment but we are both very excited about the rises we saw and the fish we hooked. I plan to do some more exploring and to find some more opportunities at that place in the near future. This one has my mind racing with opportunities. We'll keep you posted.

Wrapping up 3 days with my buddy Bob. Another great adventure for us and a great time each and every day we fish.


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February 6th - Bob's always been a fan of Roaring River. Since the C&R season is almost over we decided to head on down and play around with those fish down there. We had plans of exploring below the park today but our action was good enough that we stayed up in the park for the balance.

We decided to head up top early on to see about playing with some of the big, brood stock fish they put in up there. That was going pretty well until the trout park crowd showed up acting like, well...a trout park crowd... basically casting over the area where we were fishing.

One of those was a local hump that must not have been a fan of mine, making some sarcastic comment under his or her breath about our home waters of Taneycomo while elbowing in to our spot. I'll assume he or she could read well enough to have read our truck lettering hence the Taneycomo comment. I refer to the individual here as a "he or she" since from a distance his or her camel toe was clearly showing if not down right making a statement!...and hey, I'm nothing if not sensitive to those gender neutral broads.

You see, if I was insensitive I would have asked him or her... (OK...I'm going to go with him) ...in what decade was the last time he saw his penis! But that's a fat joke and I didn't want to go there instead taking the higher, more classy road as you can see here laid before you. There!... I fell better already. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to make a call and see if my room in hell is ready.

Bob and I are probably the only ones who got a laugh out of that little story. We'll keep humpies name out of it this time but...I'm not always this nice.

That little episode was but a few seconds out of our otherwise wonderful day. We left our new friends to tangle amongst themselves as we went downstream to a a few of our favorite spots where we only saw two or three other fishermen (all of them friendly) all day long.

Our biggest fish was a 23" specimen caught down there on an orange #16 W2-Egg. Don't let that excite you as that may have been the ONLY fish we caught on that egg. It was near a really worked over spawning bed which is why we put the egg on in the first place. Our best bugs through the day were the Micro Baitfish, the new scud in a gray #20 and the ginger/olive SG-Bug in a #22.





It doesn't get any better than that does it? A 20" plus fish...a quality cigar on a bed of spring flowers trying to get started early. Another beautiful day and this time in February.

We had some decent dry fly action too on a little #22 Griffith's Gnat and a #22 Parachute Adams.



That was spotty as we'd have fish really start working the surface then just turn off. If your timing was right...it was pretty fun.

They started dredging gravel upstream towards the end of the day which muddied up the waters quite a bit. That turned the bite off down where we were but not before Bob caught the opposite end of the spectrum.

Bob has the distinction of catching the largest and now probably the SMALLEST rainbow ever with us.



Suck on that Brad Pitt! Beautiful little fish isn't it? We had ourselves a real nice time today. Good weather, good friends. A little humor thrown in for our own self entertainment. More fun stuff folks.



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February 5th - A little bit of the JC...a little bit of Taney...Bob and I did a few different things today and even though it was one of those cold and raw ones...we had a blast as usual.





More new water was in our path today. Bob is good for something different every time out and we played around on the edges again for at least half of our day.

Good numbers to net today too but nothing over 18" if I recall. We fished by ourselves and we did it all day long . A big stretch of water full of trout and nobody to "trout pork" us... if you know what I mean. And yes I meant pOrk not pArk...if you know what I mean.

    January 29th (PM) - My friend Matt wanted to expand his K of Ozark trout waters a bit today so it was the Jr. Circuit on our agenda for this afternoon.

All Ozark Trout water fishes better in the afternoon with few exceptions. While some of your standard freestone streams fish better in low light and cooler temps....the water here tends to start out too cold every day. So as the day (and the water) warms up as the day goes on...so does the fishing.



We kind of did the classic stalk and catch approach finding a fish or two or a handful here and there...figure out the best angle of attack and end up plucking out a few per spot. We hit a few areas with higher concentrations of fish too but this is always a fun way to do it. My kind of fishing and Matt enjoyed it too.

We're in another great little stretch of weather right now. This has been a very nice winter. Another 4 weeks maybe and we're talking springtime! Lets hope we're not going to pay for this later in the year. We're about due for a dry spring aren't we?

We hit several little places today and had a real good time. You can hit 4 or 5 different places in a half a day if you're up for making some tracks. Another nice and productive day with a good guy.

    January 28th and 29th - My friends Sam and his grandson Jordan were my buddies the last couple of days. Jordan is a lucky young man as Sam does a lot of really cool things with him mostly involving the outdoors. Some of those things include taking a fishing trip with us a couple of times a year for which we are very grateful. Both of these guys are great folks and I always enjoy sharing stories with them when we get together.

Two half days in the boat was our agenda. We contemplated the Jr Circuit but decided that even in some of this high water they're running, the boat seemed like the most fun for these two. I haven't fished from the boat in literally months! It was kind of fun and a nice change of pace from the JC. Wow!!!...never thought I'd say that!

The bite with the high water is slower. With 4 units going hard and a tailwater over 710' high!....that's smokin it pretty hard and we're only netting about half a dozen fish a drift (from the cable down just past the boat ramp). All the way down at the bottom of the Trophy Area (about 1/2 a mile above Fall Creek, down to Fall Creek) is pretty good too but the stretch in the middle is pretty slow. We opted to stay up top most of our time.

When we had two units or less it was closer to a dozen fish to net that same short drift.



I've been tying some funky, white... white bass flies preparing to chase those guys in the next month or two. I brought them out with us today and they seemed to be the hot item. I didn't see any shad in the water or coming out from fish but there must have been enough around lately to have these fish looking for them. This 16" brown was one of our victims on that fly.

A great couple of days with these guys. I always enjoy my time with Sam and Jordan.

    January 27th - My old buddy Jim from the STL area joined me for a 1/2 day on the Jr Circuit. We've been fishing with Jim and his boys for quite a few years now and it's always a real fun time. Just the boss today though so we stayed nimble and jumped around to a bunch of different water so Jim could have a arrows in the quiver for future reference.



The JC isn't as crazy hot as it was a couple of months ago but it's still very solid. Jim probably netted about a dozen fish today on our fairly cold and nasty morning. While that wont be setting any records here in the Ozarks, we jumped around quite a bit and were mainly focused on finding new water to fish as opposed to catching numbers.

Right now we're going really small or....the Micro Baitfish. Not a small fly by our standards but the one "big" fly that seems to keep the fish's interest in even the skinniest water. That fly with a standard ginger/olive SG-Bug in a #20 - #22 or a GBG-Bug (GB = Gold Bead) of the same as the trailer. When we find some real cold or real skittish fish we'll change up that Micro for something smaller and more subtle. I've been tying a new scud that has been doing very well and we'll throw that one on as a lead for the nervous ones. It's still in the "proving ground" stage but it could be making an official appearance (with an inspiring new name) any time now.

We just trimmed the edges of the Circuit today but we had a nice time doing it. Lots of fun and Jim is always a great guy to fish with.

    January 23rd and 24th - What started as an idea to just meet @ Roaring River for a day trip turned out to be a two day affair playing around on the NEW Jr Circuit and a little bit of Taneycomo too.

We've found a nice little stretch of water that is giving us some great dry fly action. Nothing too big for us yet (maybe 16" tops so far) but man what fun. The setting is gorgeous and the takes are so sweet.



It looks like midges are the main focus for these fish but Bob and I are seeing some small (#18 - #16) grayish / tan caddis plus some similarly sized mayflies which looks like a BWO from a distance. I have a better tie I can do for the mayflies. Something better than I have in the box right now but a #18 Griffith's Gnat is working pretty well for us. You get the dry fly drift plus they'll take that Gnat on the swing and strip for another stretch of potential water that the pure dry mayfly pattern wont give you.

With the success of the swing and strip, we played around with a soft hackle... a black #18 MTTB (Marabou Thorax Thread Body) Soft Hackle... to be specific and that too did pretty well for Bob. He was throwing it on the 2 wt and with his Orvis Superfine 4 wt.



While the CORPS told us water was to be on all day...I kept checking and was pleasantly surprised when they said it was off @ mid day. We debated more Circuit time vs the big river and opted for the latter. Taney continues to produce great numbers of fish to a fault at times.

It's been harder to get down to the big boys with all the small fish racing to the fly before it gets to your target. Not the worst problem a fly fisherman can have so I'm not going to bitch about it too much. You drift over a specific fish and get interrupted by the 10 - 12 inchers every time through but again...we can't really complain about that too much.

Another fun time with Mr O. He kind of goes back and forth with that dry fly fishing. Sometimes it's tough to see those little dries. You need to get in to the habit of setting the hook when you see a rise in the general area of where you think your flies are. I think I have pretty good fishing eyes and I too occasionally lose those little specs. When you lose them then you need to move your eyes to the "area" where the flies probably are and watch for the sip. It's a double edged sword. You can use bigger flies so you can see them better BUT...you probably wont catch any fish with them... at least around here at this time of year. Just another option for you though and a fun one for sure.

Lots of ways to skin these cats.

    January 19th - I finally found some time to get out on the water with my girl. She's been bugging me forever and we caught a nice day to play around together.

At the risk of tarnishing the persona of an... "all trout, all of the time" ...fly fishing guide...part of why we changed our lifestyles from corporate usa to small business owner/operators was to enjoy life more and do things with our family on our own schedule. This life is something I've wanted to do since I was about 11 or so. Of course I wasn't thinking about a wife and kids back then but they just make it all that much more rewarding. This gig never feels like a job to me but I still find myself pushing the bounds of what some might call a reasonable work schedule. That's where today comes in.

Pretty much any time my little McKenna is awake, she's attached to my side. We spend a lot of time together but there's no interruptions out here and no distractions. Just me and the kid...hangin...you know.

Now when Mckenna does something she's usually all in with it. Donning my (once little, now bigger than mamma) buddy Sierra's waders, Mr Bob's hand warmer, a new pink Ross Reels visor, her favorite clip on flower accessory, the puppy de jour and her brand new walkin stick she just found..... Mckenna was dressed to the nines and ready to get after it.



Now we could have just sat down and turned over rocks all day long and had just as much fun. But the distraction of the moment was fly fishing so we kept our focus long enough to have our fun doing that.

Water off for us of course and the TFO Pro 2wt is the perfect rod for the little one. It's both our favorite rod these days. Go figure that. While we stood at the shore on the steps above outlet #3, we scanned the shores looking for a likely locale. Not many folks out at all today which was nice. I asked the kid where we ought to try. He eyes immediately went to the flow above the big stump and below Rebar. Now you have to assume she doesn't "know" Rebar so I was impressed that her attention was drawn to the riffles. Always fish in there!...Good girl! Well, we made the trek across the ..."treacherous, alligator infested water and the super slippery rocks put there to keep the dementors away!" (It's never JUST a fishing trip with McKenna)

We made it at last and my little pair of eagle eyes sees the biggest couple of fish cruising around the edge of a seam there and they were the ones she wanted to catch. With a #18 black Soft Shelled Scud below a gray one of the same....she started laying down some pretty nice drifts.



The kid's got a nice stroke. Notice the stop @ 1:00pm? Pretty salty. We were surveying the situation and figuring out the best way to drift our bugs through those big fish...



...always intent on whatever she's doing. After a few nice drifts and a couple of hooked and missed fish, my little cutie pie hooks up with a great warm up fish.



There was a time when my little girl would look forward to KISSING the fish she caught. Now, they're nothing short of nuclear to her so I told her I was going to get a picture of the fish trying to eat her. She thought that was pretty funny.



We wrapped up our day at the Table Rock State Park playground where someone had left a few embers glowing in the public fire pit. We gathered up some twigs and leaves and had ourselves a nice little flame going to warm us up between play sessions.



What a nice little day we had. More fantastic moments that all of us parents cherish more and more the older we get. I have great shots of Marlin and I when he was her age. And I'll have today to bring back some more great memories for me... so when I'm 80 and in a wheel chair with drool coming down my chin and crap in my diapers....I can look at this shot and god willing... at least squeak out a little Steven Hawking like..."that's my girl!"



She's an odd little nut. So very sweet and so very emotional. I see the up's and down's that young mind goes through each day and sometimes I just have to pick her up with a big hug and try to convince her that losing Barbie's shoe isn't the end of the world today. At 6 and 3/4's years old...she doesn't want to hear it. I'm ALWAYS surprised and impressed at what she knows and figures out all by herself. And when I'm just about to cry because she's growing up way too fast, I'm reminded again at what an innocent little waif she is when she asks if she'll be able to live with me forever.

And for all you dad's out there...you know what I told her don't you?

    January 17th - My friends Dave and Jim were my guests this morning for a half day adventure on the Jr Circuit. Water was off at Taneycomo but like so many of our friends, the Jr Circuit held intrigue and a thirst for something new so that's where we spent our time.

It was one of the colder mornings we've experienced as we needed to break a 1/2" of ice in places to get to our areas.



Trout on the rocks. That's some cold stuff and the fish were reacting very slowly to our offerings. Not a bad bite by any stretch but the takes were very subtle so you had to pay close attention. That's nothing new really, we're just splitting hairs at this point. Instead of a .52 second window of opportunity to set the hook before the fish is gone.....it's now like .38 seconds today. I know...tomAto tomAHto right? But when you can gain a fraction of a second on your hook set time then you go from catching maybe 4 fish for every 10 hooked ...to maybe 6 for every 10 hooked. It starts to add up. Well these guys had a great time this morning catching a lot of fish and giving each other a LOT of crap in the process.



They were definitely in to the small stuff today. That cold water had them sipping soft and small and anything with a big profile was completely ignored. Even he mighty Baitfish was drawing blanks. The #20 olive Bit Scud / G-Bug combo however was fooling anything and everything that came near it.

Our first stop was a hard one to walk away from but we eventually left the building to see new water. My second little stop had only been fished once (briefly) this year and with no success. I knew there were fish in this little 10' section of water that if you didn't know it...you'd never see them. In fact, even when you DO know it....you can't always see them. Add to that fact that they are always extra tough to catch in a slice of water that's almost impossible to get a drag free drift through. All that being said...we gave it a shot!

The boys actually plucked a few fish out of one of the toughest little drifts that I personally know of. Doesn't look like much but man...try showing a fly (drag free) to the fish that live there and just see how good you really are. It's tough for me or anyone else who tries it but Dave was rewarded quite nicely there today.

You have a window about 6" wide and about 6' - 8' long where your fly will drift the right way. If you're not in that 6" window then you have NO CHANCE to catch those fish. 9 out of 10 of your casts will probably not drift through it correctly but... just be ready for that one that does.

Dave was indeed ready and on the little 2 wt, he set the hook and gave a valiant effort battling that fish. Just when we thought the big boy had given up he find new life several times over. Dave was patient and eventually he was able to subdue this 20" class rainbow long enough for a quick picture.



What a firm and healthy fish and what a nice way to cap off our day. I had a great time with these two guys like I always do. Another sunny, bluebird day for us. Feels like spring truth be told and we are loving it down here.

    January 15th - My buddy Rudy was in town wanting to try something different today. He was a perfect candidate to expand our range on the JC. I had a couple of places in mind in particular and another one that was a bit of a wild card. A real nice afternoon on the water and we had some real nice areas... then some areas that we thought should have held fish but didn't. Fish happens.

We may have pushed the outer limits today, perhaps out of where our fish might actually hold. Who knows. Every time I say that I get surprised though. Crazy where these fish can get. Some of my contemporaries think they're spoiling our fun by posting where they think we fish on the water I call the Jr Circuit. I've actually seen more than one of them trying to follow us around in their trucks like they're trailing us in a cop movie or something. Let's just say they're not Jack Bauer. I've been shown web comments like... "Oh I've fished where he fishes all my life...I know exactly where he goes and ...blah, blah, blah". I'll just say this. I personally have fly fished down here in the Ozarks now for 20 years including where I call The Jr Circuit. In the entire 20 years of fishing it (sometimes 100 plus days a year)...this year was the first time I've EVER seen another fly fisherman where we fish. That was one time and for what it's worth, that was at one little place that I don't really consider part of the circuit anyway.

I think I know where they think I go and that's fine. If they believe it then I've accomplished my goal anyway.

Enough said. That's why we fish the edges anyway. A little solitude goes a long way. Our first stop today may have been our best spot. A little piece of water I saw from afar on my last venture to this area. It just had to hold fish was my thought. It did indeed and we were catching them there in some really cool ways. Knowing their recent penchant for little midges and G-Bugs, we put that set up on the 2 weight with half a white Palsa and no weight and Rudy started plucking them out with regularity.

That water was so cool. He plucked out one fish in the 16" class but most were smaller. Rudy wanted me throw it around a bit so I put on a #14 olive/wood duck Crystal Back (our version of a Crackleback) followed by a #18 Griffith's Gnat. Using Rudy's Scott G2 2wt, I started drifting that duo through the rising fish and with the right drift, I was getting a hit or a fish every time through.





We went on to look at some great new water most of which was void of fish. I'll definitely look at it again one day but probably not until spring...who knows. I could be convinced.



Our last effort was fishing below Powersite Dam. I have a local buddy who does it all the time and does pretty well. We barely had time to try one place but we tried it anyway. About 200 yards out from us in the middle of the lake was a boat throwing white jigs and catching a few. Rudy was throwing his favorite parade float sculpin pattern (the guy loves stripping sculpins). Seeing the white jig working for the boat people, I put on a Big Hurt below a float and flung it out there as far as I could with my two weight. One blue gill and one largemouth bass later...I had completed the Ozark Hill Billy Grand Slam for the day. Take that Left Kreh!

A great day with a good friend. Great weather that's looking to stay around here for a while. Usually I tell people we're pretty open in January and February but this year we're filling up pretty quick. January is about gone for availability and February is getting something added every day. We thank you sincerely and hope you can join us for all this fun!



A few nice notes from our friends and customers here. I kind of gave up up dating our "What They Say" link years ago. I just add the notes here on the Fishing Report as they come in since this is where you all hang out anyway right? Thanks all.



HI Brett,

I have been meaning to email you all week. Last Saturday you helped me set up my fly rod. And suggested I try your $3.95 fly with the jig head (Micro Baitfish) and also the white jig head with the plain hook (The Big Hurt). I got to fish for about 3 hours and caught 5 fish on each. And missed quite a few more.

You also suggested I fish the slower waters above outlet 2 or by the boat ramp. Both good suggestion. I especially liked it by the boat ramp very peaceful and hardly anyone there. I had never been able to catch fish there before. While the number I caught isn’t anywhere near what you are used to, it was a great day for me after not fishing there for 5 years. And actually one of my higher fish counts.

Thanks again for the advice and help. I’ll definitely be stopping by again.

Steve Wagner




Hey Brett,

I received those flies yesterday - including the 'That Worm Thang' - much appreciated.

Also wanted to thank you for the recent trip we took with Chris. It was great to try some new water and add some new techniques to the arsenal. That 1wt rod was a blast!

I'll stop by next time I'm in town.

Thanks,

Doug (December 31st)




Brett,

I can’t think of a better way to spend New Year’s Eve then chasing trout on the JC. Thanks so much for a great day on the water and for your patience with me as I learn the art of fly fishing.

Aside from putting us on fish and showing us new water you always take the time to truly educate. The JC is a great alternative to Taney when the water is flowing. We caught good numbers of fish and had numerous chances at 20+ inch rainbows. I alone had a chance at a handful (although I think my first fish of the day was at least 20 inches) if only I was a little quicker on the trigger.

It was fun to learn the roll cast ­ something I’m sure I’ll use more often in the tight quarters we were fishing. The shorter, lighter weight rods were a blast, if not a necessity in some of the areas we fished. As I get into this game I think the next thing I’ll want is a 2 weight rod.

Thanks again for a great day. I can’t wait for my next lesson.

Chris Blaine (December 31st)

    January 10th & 11th - Bob and I brought our buddy John from Trout Hollow Lodge out today. He was planning on just spending half a day with us but was having so much fun on the Jr Circuit he just had to stay and play around a little bit longer. We let him in on Club JC with a little tour of a couple of places. He had a great time and was blown away about where we were catching trout. That, to me is the reward that makes this so fun. It's like Christmas for adults. You discover something that you never even expected ...and it's really, really cool too. You kind of get that looking over your shoulder feeling like..."are we allowed to be doing this?..."Is this legal?"













I went all Tony Sweet on you with that last shot. That's my inner Dennis Miller talking. Fun stuff today man. Several places that were previously just ok this year were freakin awesome today. Crazy numbers of fish and a few crazy big ones thrown in there.

What I'll call our typical Taneycomo rig is dropping them on the Jr Circuit just like it does on the big river. An olive Bit Scud or X-Series gray Bit Scud #20 above a ginger/olive SG-Bug also in a #20. About 3' of 6x fluorocarbon tippet from your float to your first fly then about a 2' trailer of the same to the G-Bug. A little #6 or #8 weight between the float and the first fly depending on how shallow you're fishing. We'll do a lot of different things for a lot of different people depending on what they're in to...but if someone tells me..."I just want to catch a bunch of fish today"....then I'll start the day with that set up and there's a good chance I'll finish with it too.

A diverse set of water out there on the Circuit allows us to do some different things which is always fun so we're usually mixing it up. Some pretty good dry fly action is happening in a few locations and anyone interested in that is having a blast. Swinging an stripping streamers and sculpins is, like always...a hit or miss proposition. Some days it can be ok and other days... it's casting practice.

Here's A little side nugget for you new fly guys and gals....dont live and die by the wooly bugger.

Swinging and stripping is how most fly fishing is taught these days. It's the easiest way certainly...but rarely the most effective way to catch a trout. At least around here put it that way. A lot of times I'll have to de-program those kind of fishermen before they start seeing success on a tailwater. Trout spend most of their lives holding in the current waiting for food to come to them. Yes, they will chase a minnow and a streamer now and then but the VAST majority of what they do is wait for the current to bring them food. The better you can be at drifting your flies drag free with the current, the more fish you are going to catch. There you go!...that and $9 will get you a cup of Starbucks coffee.

We hit a fair amount of brand new water with Bob these last couple of days in a mixed bag of weather. Sans a warm shower or two, it was pretty good most of the time. Bob was up for a complete shot in the dark trip (as he always is) and we were both so pleasantly surprised by what we found.

Giving up a little 411 on the Jr Circuit is often reciprocated with a little K from our friends. I've heard rumors of a place....I've looked at it from a far but never fished it. Then came a good rumor from a reliable source. That was many years ago but I figured since the JC was cooking pretty much everywhere else right now, then this would be a good time to make some tracks around that rumored place. With Bob willing to be the Lewis to my Clark we set out to find trout water... and what we found?...hell yeah!

It would be hard to describe the beauty and the solitude of our setting all the while plucking out trout on a 2 wt while swinging midges in the film. "Virgin" trout in the sense that they probably haven't seen a fly yet. They should have been fighting each other for a taste of a Bit Scud or G-Bug right?....but no. We found fish highly attuned to their environment being very selective on what they ate. An olive #22 G-Bug swung in the film was about the only way these fish would take it well. I was impressed with their selectivity taking only small Griffiths Gnats on top or swinging the G-Bug.

Little mayflies popping up....midge blizzards in the evening. Crazy fun stuff and I cant wait to go back! And that little find has me planning on looking in some brand new areas that should also be holding trout. I'm very excited about that prospect. We'll keep you posted.

    January 9th - My buddy Scott wanted to experience the famed Jr Circuit. OK...light the candles.....break out the patchouli oil...we're going to have a seance and come to a full understanding of Club JC. Know it, live it, love it!...FISH IT!!!...then protect it.

Again, just another quick half day for Scott who has caught quite a few BIG fish with us in the past. When I get a half day trip scheduled I have to pick a handful of places (maybe 3 or 4) that we could hit in that time that will let our guests not only stay hooked up, but to learn the most out of the day. We hit about that many spots before parting ways.

Wow, our weather is fantastic! Hard to believe this in January but we are taking advantage of it. We're as busy this winter as we've EVER been since I've been doing this gig and I thank you all for that. Why so busy?...Part weather, part new water... I like to think there's a little results oriented thing going on too..

When you're looking to learn a lot of new water we'll catch a few fish...move on...catch a few more ...move on. I don't like to hit any one place too hard on any given day and I usually give each spot several days (up to a couple of weeks) rest sometimes before hitting it again. I do that by having a LOT of places to hit. The posers keep chasing their tails...a good way to keep them occupied.

Today's pick was geared to finish up near where Scott was staying so we hit that particular place last today. We looked at some new water and before I left I took Scott to one place that has held a few nice fish this year. Scott hooks up pretty quick on one of the biggest boys in there and brings this 20" class fish to net with the #22 ginger/olive SG-Bug.



Pretty salty stuff. A spawned out female looking to put more weight on for the coming year. Another great time with a real nice guy. Scott stayed there himself catching a few more before nightfall came.

    January 8th - The King is back!...well, Bob's back. Same diff. When you're standing in a trout stream catching fish on a fly rod...ALONE....you feel like a king. They say you cant find isolation on a trout stream ANYWHERE in the continental US anymore. I beg to differ.

I had pre scouted some new water for Bob to try today. A couple of new "old" water areas that I haven't seen in years and some completely brand new new spots I had yet to tread... and I'm talking on Taneycomo this time and not the Jr Circuit.

When water is off you kind of have two Taneycomo's. You can wade across the entire tailwater from the cable down to the boat ramp. After that it gets deeper and less wading is done effectively. With the new gravel deposits and changes in channels, there are new areas that can be accessed by boat and waded very effectively if you change your tactics a bit. That's what we did today on Taneycomo.

We hit a lot of those "drive by" places. "Fly over" places if you're in to politics. Places that get ignored by the masses as they speed their way to the Rebars and outlets of the world. We had NOBODY near us all day. One boat started playing around kind of close to us once... briefly but after that it was just me and Bob. Fun stuff on a tough bite day that followed our first cold front in a while. It put them down a bit but we pressed on, figured out something they liked pretty well (ginger/olive Micro Baitfish) and had a great time.



The clean, clear, white tipped and complete fins...the parr marks...if I was a betting man I would bet that fish above was a wild one. I've caught a handful of fish in my day here on Taney that I would guess were stream born. There's no way to tell for sure as all the stockers don't get their pec's clipped but, that fish looked every bit like a Crane Creek fish.

It was also caught in a place where you might expect a wild one to be scratching out a living. WAY off the beaten path in quiet water away from the masses and schools of stockers. Every year around February and March (in normal water gen years) you can find thousands of newly hatched fry on the banks of the upper section. If you look real close early on you'll see a few with eggs sacs still attached. Just above outlet #2 on the North Bank where that good water is coming in from the outlet is a good spot to check. I've seined them before and took pictures...showed them to MDC and they confirmed that those fish were too small to come from the hatchery and had to be stream born. Apparently they stay in incubators at that size when in the hatchery.

I'm sure a vast majority of them never make it too adulthood but I'm sure a few of them do too. Certainly a debatable topic but if I feel confident we have a few wild ones swimming around.

Where we finished today is a place I call Dunbar. Named after our recent trip guest Tim Dunbar. He and his brother fish this little shoal in the upper section quite a bit reaching it only by boat. Bob and I hit that today and found some great activity and some nice targets to sight cast to.



The first time in a long time that Mr Bob didn't pluck a 20" plus fish out of the depths (or the shallows in most cases) but we had a great day non the less. Bob was big on big fish early in his (barely over a year now) career in fly fishing. He's more in to the solitude these days so we fish the quiet places first and foremost and, what the hell....we still pull out a bunch ones too.

    January 6th - Gary and Susan joined me again today. These two are a couple of well traveled outdoors people and for as little as they fly fish, they do a fantastic job.

In short order we fine tuned where the fish were hanging and it was a hit a drift most of the day in our short afternoon trip. It would be hard to physically catch more fish in a half day than these two caught. This was a birthday present for Gary and he was having a blast.

A couple of hours in to our first spot and fish dropping nearly every cast...I asked Gary if he wanted to hit another area. Taking the "bird in the hand" theory, Gary was quite content staying where he was catching all those fish.

Same old things here guys. In the right locale....you can catch all the fish you want on just about anything. The best still though, is the #20 - #22 Bit Scud / G-Bug combo on 6x fluorocarbon. As always, I did a little OT with Gary and Susan but before I left, I set them up with clean tippet, new G-Bugs and threw them a few extras just in case.

Great folks to fish with as always and as I walked away to my next appointment...they were once again....doubled up.

    January 5th (am) - My buddy Don Isaac wanted a little am edu on the Jr Circuit. Where to go, how to fish it. Half a day is barely a scratch on he surface of the JC but it's enough time to have a lot of fun. And that's what we did today while water was still running on Taneycomo. Great looking water out there for us and just so many options that are still ever expanding. Don still wanted a taste of Taney too so after a couple of hours fishing small we hit the big river where we found it pretty solid as well.



A lot of smaller fish in the upper end right now. Areas where there are tons of them too but we'll need a few days of water being at least partially off during the day, to start bringing the big spawners back up in the shallow water. It doesn't take long when that happens and it will be even more fun with more big fish than now.

Don's always a lot of fun to fish with and I'm glad he decided to play around with us today. Crazy amounts of trout swimming around in the ozarks right now. A fun time to be here.


__________________________________________________________



January 5th (PM) - Our buddy Bud Hogan came down from Springfield this time bringing Sam and Ross. I've fished on and off with these two young men since they were a lot smaller. Both really good for picking it up just once or twice a year.

We stayed on Taneycomo all day this afternoon and caught obscene amounts of fish. Man they are smoking hot right now! LOTS of different bugs will catch them in the faster water areas. Our best are W2-Eggs in reds and oranges, That Worm Thing, Soft Shelled Scuds in #18 black or gray then wrapping up with olive Bit Scuds and ginger/olive SG-BUgs in a #20 - #22. Truth be known...the last two catch them EVERYWHERE with a slight drawback in the faster water where the hook up ratio will be a little less than the bigger stuff.

I know Bud likes the JC but Ross and Sam are pretty new to the game and Taney is a little more forgiving when it comes to catching big numbers. A little less technical too if you will so we stayed on the big water this afternoon and I tried to give Bud something new to play with. The 1 wt was a perfect play toy for a guy whose going to catch a lot of fish today anyway...so...why not maximize our fun.

Bud started stripping the Micro Baitfish on that 1 wt (with the Ross EVolution LT #0) and was having an absolute blast. After a break off we went down to the small stuff (Bit's and G's) with a Palsa and that too was just crazy good. It wasn't the 1 wt that was making fishing so good...it was just a whole lot of fun doing it.

A great day over all and as many fish as you can catch in a half day of fishing I believe. More double and triple hookups than single hookups. Good guys to hang with once again and another fantastic January day.

    January 3rd and 4th - Welcome back folks. Another year in the books here at CWTS. The all time record floods (two of them) in 2011 made for a tough stretch for everyone down here last spring but outside of that it was a great year. A great "fish catching" year with lots of numbers nearly every time out. It was a sub par "big fish" year overall. A lot of generation in November hurt that overall number. November usually gives up over 100 fish in the 20" class but this year it was only 32 for us.

I did an even 200 trips this year and we netted 227 fish over 20". I put a little star on the calendar every time we catch one 20" or better so I can tally them. While the late running water made November a less than typical big fish month, October was about average with over 50 fish over 20" being caught and September!!!... (the forgotten Big Fish Month) ...came in a strong second with almost 40 fish breaking the 20" mark. A real nice year overall and 2012 is starting out fast and furious.

These last two days, our friends Greg and John brought their buddy Terry along for a bunch of wading in various local trout waters. Fantastic weather and fishing is at hand for us in many different scenarios. We did a little Jr Circuit action along with wading the big river after it eventually shut down for us. The Jr Circuit probably came up a little tougher for us than Taney did today but Taney was showing us areas where it was just ridiculous numbers of fish. Triple hookups!!!...quite a few of them believe it or not.





Not a lot of BIG fish being spotted in the upper section right now but obnoxious amounts of them and most are willing takers of a lot of different stuff. We're having a great time with more great folks.

    December 31st - More old friends joining me again today. Doug and Chris were my guests and we had ourselves another great time out there. Sounds like a broken record I know but the last time I checked, our repeat customer percentage was around 80% and growing. A fact for which I am EXTREMELY grateful and humbled. At the very least, I want to provide my guests with the best opportunity available to catch the biggest and most fish possible with a fly rod on any given day. Above that, I always try to teach new techniques, tips and tricks...places to fish...bugs to use and why, just to name a few. Anyone can take you to Rebar with a fur bug and catch trout. My hope is to make you a better fisherman every time we go out and maybe even a better steward of the sport.

Well, the Jr Circuit was calling for us again today and hit some more new water for these boys. This weather is unreal and to be wading out here in 50 and 60 degree sunshine!...great stuff. They're taking small stuff now on the JC with the exception of the Micro Baitfish (ginger/olive). They ALWAYS take that thing.





From #20 GBG-Bugs to the standard non beaded variety. Bit Scuds and the X-Series gray Bit Scuds are catching them well. Lots of good stuff working...just has to be small.

More of the nicest folks you'll ever want to meet. We always hook up with these guys a couple of times a year at least. Always fun to fish with and they have become pretty solid with the long stick.

    December 30th - My young "old friends" Chris and Chad were my buddies today and they had the Jr Circuit itch. Good fly fishermen both and wanting to expand the resume a bit so we made a LOT of tracks chasing some quality fish around.









Hard to beat that Micro Baitfish with a #20 GB G-Bug trailer (shown above). We played around a lot with the 1 wt and the 2 wt today mostly. I have to confess that I once had pre-conceived notions about fishing such a small rod. Those notions have all been thrown out the window. The 1 wt is a lot of fun but it cant do everything. It's a little more specialized. That two weight though can handle pretty much anything you'll come across in Ozark fly fishing for trout. Your standard 4 or 5 wt seems like a broom stick after playing with the light stuff. Yes, I am a light rod guy these days for not only the fun of it, but for how it protects your tippets when you have to go small to catch these big fish. I'm just a fan...what can I say.

And I think Chris is a fan today too. He had a couple of classic takes from some big fish. The first one was a 20" fish sitting pretty in a very accessible area. Chris laid down some great drifts over that fish and finally got the take. Very clear water let us see it all happen right in front us. Very cool!



The second guy was a bit tougher. We had a big pod of big fish with one couple quick glimpses of what might have been The Freak! I've seen him twice since we caught him so he's doing well. Not sure if we saw him today but Chad and I both saw a really big one where Chris was working. Where the fish were holding made for a very tough, drag free drift but Chris was persistent and was finally able to get the take we were all watching for. Another GREAT battle ensued and pretty soon he was able to hold up this 22" beauty for a quick pic.



The "beauty mark" on his back looks like the one Bob caught on the 27th. Take good care of this resource. Not only will they live a long and happy life but they'll be there to play with the next time you stop by.

We had another great day out there in some cool water with some fun guys. I think they enjoyed the Jr Circuit experience. I always do. Here's Chris's take on the day. Thanks guys!


Brett,

Chad and I had an ABSOLUTE blast on our trip Friday. Without a doubt one of the most memorable trips we've both been on. I just wanted to drop you a line and see if you would email me the pictures from that day. Thanks again for everything, cant wait to go again!

Chris

P.S. Already tried tying those Soft Shelled Scuds.....much harder than it looks...but its a work in progress! (December 30th)

    December 29th - My old friend Tim Dunbar is a self taught fly fisherman and has done a pretty good job at it by all measures. He wanted to pick my brain for 8 hours or so all day today while hitting some new "educating" water. Tim's another great guy in our ever expanding list of great friends were fortunate to call customers as well. With Taneycomo still running strong, the Jr Circuit had high interest for Tim so that's where we spent our time today.







That last picture may be the unluckiest fish in Taneycomo. I'm scouting ahead for Tim while he works on a little group of fish... and I walk about as far as I could walk in one area. It looked fishy out ahead in the deeper, darker water so I thought I'd throw a line out in to the depths just to see what's out there. I figure if I get a hit or two it would be worth bringing Tim down to play with them. I get a quick take right off...I pause just a little more then another take. I'm not interested in catching those fish, I'm just doing it to see if fish are there for my guests to play with. On the second take the float disappears and while I try hard NOT to set the hook when I'm scouting like that....sometimes, instincts take over. So I set the hook with the 1 wt expecting another 14" ish size fish when all hell breaks loose. That fish takes me on a ride having me wonder exactly what I have on there. After a battle much longer than I had planned...that 21" fish comes to net on the GBG-Bug (olive) #20.

I felt so guilty! That should have been Tim's fish. We went down there and he plucked out a few fish in the aforementioned sizes but no more big ones. Sorry Tim...I owe you one. Tim was able to get one big one to net today. After briefly hooking up with several other big fish this 20" rainbow took the #18 black Soft Shelled Scud and Tim handled him like a pro.



He did a great job today in his first experience in really tight quarters. EVERYBODY is going to find the trees now in then fishing tight so don't expect perfection over the course of the day. Tim was being hard on himself in that respect but he really did great and landed some great fish in some unbelievable places. Always fun hanging with Tim. One of the good guys in the world. Here's his take on our day. What did I tell you....way too hard on himself. Tim can catch a trout on a fly with the best of them.



Hi Brett:

Thank you for a great day on the water exploring the Ozarks hidden treasures. Sometimes in our fast pace world we forget what it’s like to just appreciate the world around us. The Junior Circuit was a wonderful experience. Maybe we did the expanded Junior Circuit? I appreciate your knowledge and patience with me. I’m sure there were times you wanted to ring my neck. My overall evaluation of the day is my reaction time on a controlled hook set is -1 and your teaching skills are a 10+. Thanks again for a great day.

Sincerely,
Tim Dunbar (December 29th)



And yet another nice note from our new friend Bob from the 27th. Thank you my friend. You guys were fun to fish with. And check out the bonefish pic he sent. Makes you warm just looking at it eh?


Hey Brett,

Thanks again for a fantastic day with the Ozark bows! You showed us native Ozarkers some new waters and new ideas on some of our old waters that will be sure to help us both catch more and larger fish.

Your original fly designs are perfectly tailored to the fish and the waters in the beautiful Shepherd of the Hills country. Your knowledge and easy going manner will always insure that Chartered Waters clients have nothing but the best. Heck, we even added a great new Mexican restaurant to our list!

Come on out to the islands and visit sometime. We'll set up a few days on the water for a try at the bad boys of the flats........big Hawaiian bone fish or O'io as the locals call them.

Here's one we had an encounter with back in August. I can't give you anywhere near the service you provide but I'll give it my best.



Thanks again!

Bob Blair (December 27th)

    December 28th (AM) - My buddy Mark Ward received a 1/2 day boat trip with us from his gracious wife Kathy for Christmas this year. After seeing what we're doing on the JC lately he just said...."yeah, lets just skip the boat thing this time". Well played my friend.

Mark was a little apprehensive about tackling the tight quarters that sometimes goes with fishing the Jr Circuit but I knew his skills and knew he wouldn't have a problem with it. A half a day is just a small taste of this fantastic fishery but enough to get the blood going.





Hooked up in both of those pictures (above) by the way. We had plans on hitting several different locales but had enough fun in just one of them that we kind of just spent our time there.

Another fantastic fish falls for one of our friends and Mark did a great job with the business end on that fish. In it's purest form....he saw the fish...casted to it...and caught it. A very rewarding experience.





Another 23" rainbow that took the Soft Shelled Scud if I recall. What a great time we had. Mark is as nice as they come and we certainly appreciate the fact that he fishes with us.



____________________________________________________________



December 28th (PM) - Howard and his son Corey were my buddies today hitting some new water on the water that is, the Jr Circuit. I never hit the same water twice so even with our successful first half of the day on one piece of water...we hit all new stuff this afternoon with equal success.





Corey did a great job working in to the slower pace needed to be successful out there. You need an open mind and a willingness to change a few things about your game. Sometimes its the crusty vets who have a harder time changing their ways than the new guys. Corey probably falls somewhere in between those two and did a real nice job out there today.

Another stellar late December day for us. I don't see how you can ask for anything better at this time of year. And they say there's no up side to global warming. Just kidding for all you crazy communists out there.

    December 27th - Hope you all had a great Christmas! We had a real nice time here. Papa got a brand new pair of shoes (bowling shoes). I know...."if you get a pair of bowling shoes for Christmas...you might be a red neck."

Bob (hailing from Hawaii) and Pat (local boy) return from our blow out last week and we had ourselves a great time out there today. Lots of fish...big fish....a plethora of techniques and situations....that's why we're here right? And lets throw in the fact that we're fishing in mid 50's / low 60's these days here in late December. WOW! You couldn't order a better day.



Well, it started a little frosty for us as I took this picture of the river off the back porch of the shop before we started. It turned much better soon enough in to the aforementioned spectacular day, later on. These guys are fly fishermen veterans but new to fishing with us. Great folks to meet and we had ourselves another great time out there!





Lots of nice fish coming to net for us all day long like this one here by Pat, and we were playing in water that was fun, challenging and highly successful. Still that Micro Baitfish in ginger/olive with the #20 GB G-Bug trailer also in ginger/olive. It's usually about half and half on the takes but some days they like one over the other. The Soft Shelled Scud in a #18 had been pretty solid too at times. Other times it's nothing at all with that one but always work a look.



Highlight of the day and the last fish of the day was this spectacular 22" fish that Bob managed to snag (figuratively...not literally) from the depths of a little run where neither of us saw him in. What a firm and wild specimen. Great fish and caught on the 1wt. How fun was that?!?!...a lot, if I may be so bold!



More fantastic folks I had the pleasure of meeting and fishing with today. ANother great time for sure out there. It's hard not to love your work when days like this come together on a regular basis.




Here's our friend Jeff with a nice note from our rip the other day. Thanks Jeff. Sounds like you figured things out pretty well for yourself.



Hey Brett,

Caught 11 more in that stretch of (water) before I left, one around 18".
How did you do upstream?

Had a great time... Beautiful water and no people!!

When you get time, could you email me the pic of the big trout, might want
to blow it up and hang in my office.

Hope you guys have a Merry Christmas!

Jeff (December 23rd)

December 23rd - My new friend Jeff from just north of us in Springfield is having fun learning our way of catching trout around here and today, we were planning a quick jaunt on the Jr Circuit. He's done the Taneycomo thing with us...had a great time and caught some big fish...lets see what kind of trouble we can get in on the skinny water.

Taneycomo has been in a generating water funk and I haven't been on the big river in quite a while. The boat's been collecting some dust too (and a little more Taneycomo scum on the sides) so I hope she's not missing me too much. Jeff's a solid fisherman so I knew he would get a kick out of our little slice of serenity so we hit a few hot spots in our short time together.

I'd like to give you a story about how we casted to this fish for an hour... changed a dozen flies...tried a bunch of drifts until we finally... blah, blah, blah.....but no. We saw the fish...Jeffs first cast of the day was at him and that cast came up about 5 feet short. I was just about to tell him to get it out there just a tad more when the 23" rainbow raced up to inhale Jeff's ginger/olive Micro Baitfish...and this is what he ended up with in the net.





That was such a classic take and in full view, broadcast to us in Super HD 3D. First fish of the day was our best but we tangled with many other really nice fish that never made it in all the way.

Life is in full swing out there as evidence by images like this.



We stay away from those guys and gals and concentrate on the bachelors and bachelorettes. Tread softly but carry a big stick....or at least something in the 7' - 8' range with a soft touch.

A lot of fun out there for sure. Our fly menu is moving to the small side now and it will continue to evolve as we move through the winter. A great challenge for me and my guests and we are having a blast experiencing it together. Always a good time with Jeff. Thanks man!

We'll be closed for the next few days until we crank back up on the 27th. Have a great Christmas and be thankful for what you have.

    December 21st - The FREAK is in the house! You know, around noon today Bob and I looked at each other and said Man!!!...could this day get any better? Well, warm up the coffee cup, lock the office door and accept no calls...this is a pretty good one.

Our quest for virgin fly water had us strapping on our boots and ready to bruise our knees (and thumbs) if necessary to break new ground. We were excited before we even hit the water as Bob's new 1wt rod came in and we had it armed and ready. The Temple Fork Finesse Series and boy it didn't take us long to put it in our top 3 rods we've fished to date...if not a little higher. $180 has never been so fun.

Every stop on the tour is so unique in how you have to fish it. From the cast to the hook set to the presentation (just to name a few) and before you even think about casting...you have to figure out the situation as it presents itself. Preventive Maintenance 202.

The amount of big fish we are finding is just ridiculous and yeah, you could go to a lot of spots and catch a whole bunch of fish in a day but man!...when you see those 22"ers...25"ers...28"ers swimming around you kind of reevaluate your priorities. It's kind of like going in to the candy shop and they tell you..."hey kid!...EVERYTHING's free!" And your response might be..."even the BIG ones?" Yes son...even the big ones.

But you're going to have to work for them! And here's some of our early work.











Bob was catching them while stripping the Micro Baitfish and ginger/olive GBG-Bugs in a #20. The best though was probably below a float on those same flies plus #18 Soft Shelled Scuds and #20 gray X-Series Bit Scuds. I honestly don't know how many fish over 20" were caught today. 5 or 6 at least but we don't really count them any more and Bob isn't much for pictures with them either. I make him take one every now and then but I like that laid back approach. The fish like it too.

Highlight of the morning (at least for me) was when we find this stunning pair of fish in the skinniest of skinny water. See December 17th AM Report ...where Phillip is trying to catch one out of a little sliver of water surrounded by a lot of crap. Same place Phillip. I was spotting for Bob on the opposite bank when I found them. (I'm always checking that little spot now). Bob got in position and started working in the very, VERY narrow little stretch of water that the fish was holding in. He had about a 6" wide and 2' long slice of water that he had ANY chance of getting that fish to hit. It was a REALLY tough spot. Bob laid down several drifts that could have had that fish but it wasn't overly aggressive towards anything.

It took Bob's bugs once but in the same flash of an instant that it took to suck it in (and before I could squeeze out a "GO" for Bob)...he had spit it back out. Pushing the envelope, Bob finally snagged a little limb protecting the fish and his party was pretty much over. I, however was able to touch the fish with the tip of my rod if I wanted to and Bob was ready for a break anyway so here comes my big moment.

The 1wt had nothing but a Micro Baitfish on the end which served perfectly for a little "cane polin'" action on a fish that seemed to be in the mid 20 inch range. I bugged that sucker for about 5 minutes with a half drift / half vertical jig presentation at times. He gave me one of those lightning fast inhales too one time but I wasn't fast enough... even though I could almost see the pupil of his eye I was so close. Like Bob, I started pushing the envelope a little as the best drift I could find started between two limbs and if the fish did take my bugs at that point, it could only go one direction and NOT break me off in the brush. It was worth a shot as the fish was a worthy foe and he had just about wore out our attention span anyway.

If Monday's catch was the final Brad Pitt scene in... A River Runs Through It....then today was like the first take from that scene. Not quite as dramatic as Mondays but still....REALLY good! If it's possible for a fish to jump out of the water while it's in water that's barely covering it's back?...then it happened with that fish today. It's like a peaceful little setting that suddenly turns in to a carpet bombing. I've had some great memories these last couple of days thanks to Bob's generosity (or his cigarette habit...I told him I'm going to subtly shame him in to quitting) and this one today was another classic. Luckily I'm back on the BIG net these days and I was lucky enough to get my net around this 25" stunning specimen of a male rainbow.







Using trees on the bank for cover I was able to move the rod around enough so that I didn't scare him while still presenting him with a decent drift. Go that extra mile folks. I cant begin to count the number of REALLY big fish that fall for us just because you tried one last cast or tried one more fly or checked that one last place for a big one. I've found that when you're ready to give up...thats when you really have to dig in and open up the playbook. We were about to walk when I threw a few sketchy casts at him. You've got nothing to lose and everything to gain right? The big ones rarely come easy.

We spent the better part of our morning in one general area. We never try to hit any one place too hard and we were ready for lunch anyway. While exploring new water is always fun, so was the thought of trying to find that really big one I've seen a few times lately. We debated the issue and finally decided to hit some "old" new water and scope out a few of those really big ones.

Real nice stuff going on down there too. We didn't really attempt to cast to numbers of fish but when we targeted the bigger ones, the smaller ones always kept us hooked up. When you see a big fish you'd rather not have the "non target" fish interrupt the flow of things but hey...worse things could happen right? We plucked more nice fish out but the really big one never showed his face. About ready to move to a new spot (remember...go that extra mile) when I decided to switch banks where I was doing my spotting for Bob. Some times (most times) you'll get less glare on one side of the water than the other and while I thought I was on the right side...apparently I wasn't.

I'm walking up to where Bob was and WHAM!!!...there he was. I had walked within 10' of a 28" class rainbow sitting like a duck in wide open water on my way downstream. It wasn't until I switched sides before I could see that fish. I get Bob's attention and he gets set up to give it a go. A Micro Baitfish above an orange #16 W2-Egg was the fare and Bob starts trying to put down drifts over that roaming fish. He wasn't running hard or scared but he was always moving a little bit and it made it tough to get a good one over him. The fish finally settled in to a nice little approachable area and Bob got in position. He was able to lay down several good drifts when suddenly his float stops and the surface erupts with thrashes. A vertical jump had Bob yelling something that was a mix of... "hell yeah and no f''n way". In about the time it took for it to land back down in the water, the hooks had pulled out. Major league bummer.

The good news was our big boy was barely phased and was merely shaking his head a couple of times under water then right back to his normal routine. A little different locale required a little different approach and soon enough, Bob was positioned once again to present the bugs. Using the Temple Fork 2wt Pro Series and 5x tippet (I had put on 5x just in hopes of seeing that fish...or one like him) and in what could only be described as a surreal moment, our "monster" fish gets joined by a female about 8" to 10" longer.

"Jesus did you see that thing?"....Bob saw her too and with both fish side by side now...Bob gets a take from one of them for about a second. That take moved our first fish upstream and our new, bigger one downstream.

What a few minutes of adrenaline that was. Bob and I come together in the stream as darkness is approaching. We walk upstream carefully, looking for our initial target with no success. We assumed it had to be upstream somewhere probably hunkered down in a place that wasn't letting in a fly anytime soon. It's quittin' time anyway and we start gathering our things. We walk back down where all the action had just taken place for a final look and still nothing.

"Let me take one last walk back downstream before we go. I'll walk back up the same bank I saw him last time and who knows". I didn't see him walking down and I walked WAY down there. On the way back I took the road less traveled. The one where I trip a lot and the one that gets my net tangled up and my spare rods snagged in brush and ...oh yeah!...the one where I saw the fish for the first time.

You know where this is going right? It's one of those "go the extra mile" lessons I told you about. Well sure enough, no more than 10' from where we saw him the first time was our boy. He was in a tighter little place than before but not impossible and there goes that adrenaline again.

Our hero gets in position and with the same stick and the same set up as before, Bob makes short work of the situation. Much more prepared to connect this time and his casts are much more efficient and on target. In just a few drifts we get the take followed by a series of underwater head shakes by a fish that has no idea it's even hooked. But hooked he was and hooked up well this time. I encourage Bob to start working the angles while battling that fish trying to make him start working a little more. That big boy finally got the hint and takes us 100yards upstream then 100 yards down stream in the course of about 2 minutes.

Now, there's a lot of ways to lose a big fish and break offs haven't been an issue for Bob since the very early days with us. I wasn't worried about that...but neither of us were prepared for the reel falling out of the reel seat and in to the water in mid battle. I kid you not! It happened...there were some tense moments but calm prevailed and we were fortunate to have a fish that was happy to relax for a stretch while Bob was able to fish the reel from the water re attach it then screw it back on. I was on the opposite bank trying to avoid the fish and renter the fight from a different angle when all this happened. Bob was on his own with this one and he managed the situation better than could be expected.

When it first happened I thought oh man!...well...it was fun while it lasted. But the fish was staying still so I quickly told bob to make sure he held the rod VERY still in the process. Nothing prompts a run from a fish that is being calm than a herky jerky reeling action or a flailing of the rod tip. That thumping rod tip sends signals down to the fish that gets them moving away from the situation.

Yeah, we should have lost that fish at that point but we didn't. And you want to talk about a new leash on life and a positive new outlook! We went from the outhouse to the White House on that move and our confidence was sky high. The fish however wasn't using our play book so as I entered the water about the time Bob had reattached the reel....our fish made a mad dash to first, a branch anchored on the bottom rising up then a root wad smacking of something that looked like Howard Hughes flashing some gang signs. (I know I used that one before but I really liked it....and hopefully nobody remembered the first time).

During the battle I pointed that branch out to Bob.

"Sooner or later, that's probably going to become an issue. Be ready to chase that fish around that branch before he breaks you off".

Sure enough, that bastard goes out of his way to wrap Bob's line around that branch...then heads directly in to the heart of that root wad. When that happens...give them slack and put just a little pressure on your line. You'd like them to come out the same way they went in but if they don't (and they usually don't) you can sometimes feed your line and rod through the root wads and back out in to open water for the save. What I try to do in those situations is approach the root wad from the opposite direction and hope that the fish spooks back out the same way it came in.

Once again...our confidence shot back down when that happened. I was able to get up to the root wad quickly to make that move and luckily the fish started "backing" it's way out of the root wad. It must have been wedged in there with no way out but the original way. As it was backing itself out...Bob's slight pressure turned the fish sideways as it was coming out, disorienting the fish for just a second. I was just out of reach when that happened but was able to right myself enough for one semi-desperation like move. It was so tangly in there that I wasn't able to get the net low enough in the water to slip it over the fish. I slid it down between two large roots in anticipation of where the fish would go next. I guessed right but when it felt the net (and it was too big to fit in the net by itself) it backed back out of that looking for a new exit. I had 2 or 3 slots of roots that I could place the net down to keep the fish from getting away but I really couldn't pull it up and out (with the fish in it) once the fish was in the net sans a quick limb removal. It happened again in the second little slot I stuck the net in but this time when the fish backed out, Bob's "slight" pressure turned him on his side again and this time he was on the surface and I was able to get my net under his head while my left hand grabbed his tail and pushed him forward and in to the net.

Wow! All this happened in less than 15 minutes I'd say but man!!!...what an incredible 15 minutes, and I was about to be impressed all over again.

I guessed the fish to be about 28" when I saw it in the water. When I got it in the net I was stunned at the shear mass of that fish. When Bob saw him up close he was blown away. It had the shape of one of those football browns where they're about as fat as they are long. This thing was so thick! Bob caught a 28" female last winter that was just a stud. I held them both and this fish seemed like it outweighed that fish by about 10 pounds. I'll conservatively say it was a mid teens fish in weight but honestly...it was bigger than that. I picked up that dead 31" fish this fall which someone weighed at 14 pd's. Much heavier than that fish. This thing today was at least 29". Best measurement I could take with the fish upright and in the water. It easily hit 29" and that's without laying it down flat and squeezing the tail and all that stuff you're supposed to do when measuring a fish. Probably a 30" fish but we weren't going to sacrifice him for an exact measurement. It's the mass that was so impressive.

So enough of the talk guide boy...lets see the pictures! Well here he is. The fish I'm calling The FREAK! Bob's latest "fish of a lifetime" and I think it's number....I don't know???...maybe 10 or 12 or something like that??? He's only been fly fishing a year folks! To date though...this is his biggest!











This may be the heaviest fish we've ever caught . I'll say top 5 for sure. We've caught several browns over 30" that would rival it but I'm pretty sure it's our heaviest rainbow yet.

What a day, what a day!!! Nice when a plan works out eh??...even with a few kinks in the chain thrown in. And remember... it had a bigger girlfriend!

Crazy fun!