The Chartered Waters Fishing Report

   January 2nd - An all day affair with our buddy Scott Daldrup. Water ran all day today. A couple of units. Table Rock hovers above 915' as Beaver keeps a fairly aggressive generation schedule going. We kept the waders on and had a great time on a really nice and sunny day. We had a great day today. Some really cool pics too. Gettin Jiggy with it! Scott started stripping some olive and ginger/olive Jiggy Buggers and hammered them really well including this fish topping the 20" mark plus one hanging in the riffles.





We've caught that guy before as he has that little scar on his head. Beautiful long and sleek fish. We caught another one in there just shy of 20" and that bad boy gave us one of the best fights I ever remember from a trout. That settled down after a while so from there we went chasing the skinny water fish that seem to be feasting on these little fellas.



Most of these bugs have a brighter green body but this is basically it. It's been tough fooling them with the right dry fly. We've caught a few but it's an emerger in the form of the right tied RD Midges that is getting them caught.



Truth be known...the best fly catching these fish is a #22 Bit Scud and it doesn't much matter what color we're using. There are scuds here too so even though the visual tells us they're taking emergers up top, they prefer the protein of a little scud on the bottom.
This was that stunning not quite 20" fish that took the little RD shown on the pinky finger.





I love these pictures. I kept him in some riffles after a good battle getting him primed for the return. I just thought it made a great shot. An awesome fish. This little fish was just so pretty I had to take a photo.







I questioned if he may have been a stream born fish. So vivid and perfect in every fin still with distinct parr marks. It fought like it was the first time she'd ever felt a hook. Hard to say for sure but it was a beautiful little gem.

Not every spot we hit today had fish. In fact we came up blank on a couple but where we did fish it was a LOT of fish. Fun, fun stuff on another really nice Ozark winter day with a great friend and customer.

   December 31st - Byron and Josh Wheeler finally got that trip in. They were scheduled the day of that last big deluge of rain and today we finally got a good one. These guys are neighbors and real good folks. Fairly new to fly fishing but doing very well at it. We hit the Jr. Circuit today. The big river is running so we had to walk softly and speak quietly about all places where fish can be caught. Things haven't quite settled down from the big rain but it's close. Some of our spots need a couple more days before we're back to where we were.

We did a lot of stripping today. Great weather and the bite seemed best pulling olive & ginger/olive Jiggy Buggers. Sometimes just a mild twist (and downsize) to a Baitfish Jig turns them on. We were hammering them pretty well on the Jiggys when they just turned off on us. We switched over to an olive/ginger Baitfish and it was on again. Look at the color of these fish.



They look like a steelhead some of them. Pretty impressive fish and full of fight. At the end of the day we fished small and shallow trying our best to imitate these.



This is the adult stage but the emerger stage has a bright green body and a dark green to black head. We're coming pretty close to matching them with an RD Midge pattern. There's a lot of them where we fish from 24's to 18's and both Josh and Byron (dad) had them figured out pretty well.




Josh caught back to back browns at one spot. Nothing huge but healthy and pretty fish. It was a fun day today. These guys are really great people who visit us often. We greatly appreciate their business and I always have fun showing them some new ways to catch fish and places to catch them.

    December 30th - Our new friend Steve was my guest today. A brand new, fresh out of the box fly fisherman who really seemed to get a kick out of this sport. First a little housekeeping. How about NO TANGLES all day long for this rookie. That doesn't happen even for the veterans. A very good student who quickly got the hang of things on a fairly tough and windy day. Well, of course we had to get the first trout (or any other fish for that matter) caught on a fly rod.



Not a bad fish at all. We got a lot of stuff in on this half day adventure. Along with the dead drifting we did some sight casting, swung some G-Bugs and soft hackles and even stripped some Jiggy Buggers. All did well in the right locales and some spots and techniques were very good. Taneycomo seems to be back on a generation pattern. That last rain episode was a good one and raised Table Rock's level over 915'. Not by much but Beaver is running most of the time as is Taneycomo. I'd look for that for a few more days until things stop draining in to the big lake. It didn't slow us down. On a 65 degree day on top of that. Yes, two days before January and we were almost in T's wading in beautiful water. Steve was a great guy and I enjoyed his company. He comes down to Branson often and this is the first time he's ever tried fishing. I hope this doesn't contribute too much to another fly fishing widow but hey, there are much worse things a guy could be doing with his time. That's what I keep telling Shelley anyway.

   December 28th - This was our group of first timers that Eric and me took out this afternoon.



Let me see if I can get this straight. In the front row is Michael (8). Middle row from the left is Holly (7), Kaylie (11) and Natalie (11). Back row is Chris (18) and Mike (he never shared age info with us). Sisters and cousins and brothers and just a big happy family. This whole trip was a treat from Grandpa Bill who didn't even fish with us. That's a nice Christmas gift.

Well Eric and I had this master plan about how and where we were going to attack this day with this big group of rookies...HAH! That lasted about 10 seconds. It basically ended up in a fish catching and netting lalapalooza where Eric and I got to test our track skills. What a GREAT group of kids (and a couple of big kids) they were. Very nice and respectful... Talented!...and great students of the sport. I've had more than one group of "veterans" in my day that could have learned a thing or two from these guys. Let's start with our smallest fly fisherman. Young Michael was counting his catches today and the last number I heard from him was 16. It was probably higher. We just plopped him down at the head of Rebar and let him go. Throughout the day he had about half a dozen rude slobs come within 10' of him thinking it was the "area" and not the indian. No such luck fellas. In spite of the ethically challenged having no problem with pushing out an 8 year old kid from his fishing spot...he would just move a few feet away and just keep on catching to the chorus of muffled cuss words from the geriatrics. I just love seeing that.







Then there was Natalie who worked a nice little run and with Eric's help figured out that hookset thing pretty quick and pretty much lost count of how many she caught.



You gotta love pink ear muffs on a trout stream. Mike?...he just chugged along joining the never ending group of dads who get schooled by their kids on their virgin fly fishing experience. He caught a bunch though.



Holly was absolutely NOT in to holding the fish so we had to compromise for her only photo.



Chris had a real nice feel for things and stayed hooked up most of the afternoon sacrificing the better runs for the younger kids even helping them net a few fish while I worked on a tangle.





He was a good young man!

Finally we have Kaylie. It's the quiet ones you have to watch out for. Another great kid (they were all genuinely good kids) who had a great knack for this sport and may have caught the biggest fish of the day. She caught this wonderful rainbow in the 18" class using a Big Hurt in the Upper South Pool.



She wasn't crazy about holding that fish either but we got her to hold a smaller one later.



Bright red nails...Fuzzy hats...pink ear muffs... we were a good lookin crew out there!...and that was just Chris!!! (just kidding buddy) Eric and I had a great time with this group of great folks. They all seemed to have a lot of fun with this new sport and they were very good at it. The 6 of them probably caught around 80-90 fish in their half day adventure. Rookies!...with half of them still in a single digit life span. All that while some local "veterans" are complaining about how bad fishing is. As some of our younger guests might have said today...whatever!

   December 26th (p.m.) - Rudy, Josh, Daniel and Mike were my buddies for an afternoon of trout chasing. I debated the big river or the Jr Circuit for our trip. While the latter had big fish it was slow overall for numbers yesterday. Taney is good in the right locations but it was getting busy in the a.m. and those locales could be occupied. We went with Taneycomo. The going was slow early. A lot of fish were seen and seemingly active as we started our afternoon above outlet #2 but takes were few and far between. A bunch of changes which included weight, depth, flies and locations finally started producing a decent bite in there. The most active fish were feeding over rises in the river channel. High spots closer to the surface had fish taking a #22 black Bit Scud over a #22 black/gray RD Midge. Most took the midge. Here's Josh doing the dance with one of those fish.



Daniel was doing real well in there catching close to a dozen in about an hours time. We took the group down near and around Rebar and it was ridiculously easy. Mike became spectator after a while while Rudy (like always) was doing more helping of others than he was fishing himself. Josh and Daniel were constantly hooked up and every time Josh had one on he exclaimed ..."this is the biggest one yet!". We stopped listening to him after a while but he did catch several very nice rainbows including this one.



A lot of things catch a lot of fish in Rebar right now. G-Bugs, Bit Scuds, RD Midges, Cham-Juans, Micro Juans, W2-Eggs, Soft Shelled Scuds...in the right spot...just about anything works. Rudy was swinging and stripping a brown Occam's Micro Sculpin on his new Scott G2, 2wt and getting hit most every cast.

When someone tells me they were "hammering them" out there today I always ask ...where? There are a couple of spots where the bite is always good...a few more where it's usually good. If you take Taneycomo as a whole right now, it's slower than average so if you can catch them well outside of those select few holes, you got something going. That's when I'll really start listening. Outlets of course don't count. So, the best bite on the river as a whole right now is a #22 black Bit Scud above a dark RD Midge in a #22. Black, wine or a variation of the same is catching the tough fish. Edges and banks seem to hold the most active fish too and 7x fluoro helps. Stripping and swinging some buggers and sculpins and soft hackles will get some business for you at times but that can be a complete bust too so...stay small for now. It will change for the better soon.

Always a pleasure to fish with the Dodorico clan. Good natured and fun loving folks. Rudy's a great guy and we value his friendship and patronage quite a bit.

   December 26th (a.m.) - We had a very nice Christmas and we hope you all out there in trout fishing land did as well. Thanks to all the nice friends and customers who sent us cards and goodies. I guess my old thermos must have looked pretty bad eh John? A special thanks to Paul who went WAY over the top and got me that Callaway Hyper X Driver. I told Shelley she had to sleep on the couch last night so I could spend some quality time with my new club.

Well, today I had a guest of ours from flood water times back in town. Karen came down from her Springfield vacation to fish with me while Doug went duck hunting. He would have had to have a pretty good day in the blind to beat Karen's top performances. We hit Taneycomo early to a fairly open Rebar..fish a drift! A "hit" a drift would be more accurate as these fish even in the easy places like Rebar are biting quick often leaving you empty on the hook set. But it was fun and we caught them hard for an hour in there. Lots of our friends on the water today. In fact the namesake of the recent hot fly (the RD Midge) was on the water out there. Rudy Dodorico and Josh were cross stream pulling them in pretty consistently. Karen was interested in learning new water so we hit some of the Jr. Circuit to finish our morning foray. Numbers in the "classified" areas were as low as I've experienced to date but the quality was hard to beat. Stripping an olive Jiggy Bugger similar to these



Karen started plucking out fish after fish from one of our little gems. We were only hitting each spot for about half an hour so we'd make a few casts then move. We made enough casts there for Karen to stick this beautiful rainbow on the olive Jiggy before moving on.



A sleek 20 female that gave us a great battle. Next stop...slower. A few caught but we didn't stay long. Next stop...NOTHING! First time ever at that hole. I can't imagine the warmer weather could have hurt things but maybe so? 4th stop...again nothing and another first. Last stop was a gem though and actually almost a new stop. It was kind of between a couple of great producers of late in a place that hasn't produced much. Remember I told you I saw a thumper of a rainbow recently. Well he was there again with a couple of his big brothers. Awesome fish were abound and in the spawning mode. Picky eaters but not impossible. With a little black Soft Shelled Scud trailer #18 and a red W2-Egg lead we saw one big boy give us a take. Karen was quick on the set and the game was on. An epic battle ensued. Karen is a fine fisherman and she handled that fish in every way that you should. After an up and down the hole battle I was finally able to slip a net over this thick and deep 22" rainbow.





A real toad and a gorgeous fish. That's where we finished our day having to drag Karen away from the action. She was a lot of fun to fish with. A great companion on the water and I'm glad she chose us for a day of fishing. Actually, it was a Christmas gift from Doug and I think it turned out pretty well for her.

   December 23rd - Downpours this morning and afternoon had us rescheduling today's trip. They're in town for 2 weeks so we picked a day next week to shoot for and hope for better weather. All dressed up and nowhere to go but fishing, I went ahead and braved it for a couple of hours just to see how the big river was fishing. Pretty good overall and here's my report. Only 2 other people were fishing as far as I could see both ways. Yeah, weather kind of blew but when you can have the river to yourself it ain't too bad. I had on a #22 dark gray/purple 2-Bit Scud with a black/gray RD Midge trailer. The two other people were fishing Rebar (one on both side) so I dropped a couple of casts at the head with a fish or hit every drift. Mitch was on the opposite side and lower hooking up about the same. I threw it out a little farther and stuck something really big. A big head came out thrashing the surface before it decided to steamroll down to the deep section. Armed with my little TFO 2wt I gave chase and eventually subdued him enough to slip a net around him. Here is the little fella that gave me so much fun this Christmas eve's eve.





A 23" brown and just a specimen of a fish. That might be the biggest brown I've ever caught on a midge. While I don't blindly agree with the "big fish eat big flies" theory I don't find browns over 16" showing much interest in midges. There are always exceptions and I've caught a handful over 20 using them but I never expect to. Truth be known, I didn't see that fish at all. I was blind casting when I saw a slight wake cast from a bigger fish. I started casting in that general direction and there you go. Quite a lot of fun. Below Rebar was pretty slow on that same set up. I went up above #2 and casted to a huge stretch of rising fish. That was pretty good using that same set up. They were aggressive takers and I stuck a couple of fish that would have flirted with 20". The fish definitely seemed a little more active overall and it was good seeing a good bite somewhere besides Rebar. That's been the same old song and dance lately. Rebar is good...outside that you have to work a bit. The Stretch below the boat ramp isn't bad but again, it's the faster water that's producing the best bite. I wouldn't say O2 levels have peaked yet.

There was quite a bit of gravel filling in from below #2 all the way down to The Bay in front of #3. The flood gates caused some of that but this last little bit of 2 - 4 units of water we had added quite a bit more. I'm not sure how those relatively mild amounts of generation could have done that but it was clearly more than say a month ago. There are some NICE spawning rainbows around now and that should just get better through the winter.

   December 21st - A trip cancelled today. Wind with a high in the teens would have been a raw one for sure. It was sunny though and that always makes things better. Mitch said he's seen more browns coming up below the dam too. Last time I fished it I definitely saw more numbers of 18-22" browns from the Gauntlet up. We'll hit it if this water shuts down soon. Monday is scheduled to be off most of the day. Good news as we have 6 trips scheduled this week. Weather is looking better after today too. Table Rock is back down to 913.6. That's been fluctuating depending on what Beaver is doing. Not a whole lot
scheduled as of yet in January/February right now so if you want to know our "secret locations" give us a call. That plus we'll chase the big bows and it looks like a late run of browns on Taneycomo too. Give us a call.

   December 20th - Rex and Rick were brand new fly fishermen looking to learn the trade today. Water running all weekend but that didn't slow us down any. We donned the waders, did some casting lessons at the shop and hit the Jr. circuit. Jr only in the smaller water sense. Catching is just as major as the big river if not better. Today though, a tad slower than previous trips. Pretty good water temps. About 40 where I checked in one area. We've fished it in the mid 30's before. That's a tad chilly. We started at 12:00 noon hoping for a shut down in Taney's generation. No such luck today hence the "Jr" circuit. Our good friends John Edie, Mitch plus Tim and Rick Dunbar have been hammering them in our little spots too. Similar if not the same flies we are using. We need to start a skull and bones type club where if anyone mentions the locations of these areas they need to leave the room. All our customers we share this with know the score and have quickly come to understand why we stay mum to the free world. John's actually doing a little shared scouting for us in a couple of new areas I haven't been able to hit yet. I'll report through him when he calls me.

Our bite today was sub par compared to what it has been lately. With only a half day at our disposal we never hung out in any one area too long if the bite was slow. We hit 4 different areas (about an hour in each one). We'd get some hot and heavy action then it would just die out. Probably some roaming fish created that scenario. Cruising from one spot to another..cruising past us giving us a hot stretch then moving away providing the more spotty action. Each locale probably netted us 8-12 fish each for us. Not bad for first timers and especially in front of a massive cold front bearing down on us. That always puts them down for a tougher bite. Here's Rex with his first ever fly rod caught fish then Rick and Rex battling a couple in some different locales.







They did very well! Had quite a few doubles going. They quickly learned a solid traditional cast with the good old roll cast thrown in for when we needed it. Stripping buggers was not too hot today. We tried it for a stretch but the fish liked a dead drift much better. The hands liked a dead drift better too as stripping makes for a colder and more wet experience. Not always the best combination for winter fishing. Coral W2-Eggs were probably best with a #16 purple Soft Shelled Scud trailer a second choice. We caught one nice fish as soon as I put on a wine RD Midge then it never got hit again. An orange W2-Egg did well too.

We saw a thumper of a rainbow towards the end of our day. He gave us a look but he looked like a resident fish and wasn't going to be easily fooled. The girls had called and were waiting for us back at the shop. Another half an hour and I think we could have figured out a solution for him but...if we want to fish (guilt free) another day we better listen to the better halves. Another couple of great guys to hang out with. Hopefully that fly fishing thing will stick with them and we'll be seeing them again

   December 18th - Water continues to be a little up and down lately. With the big lakes at near power pool there's not much need for generation anywhere though we are having some colder days which would justify some a.m. generation. Table Rock has crept back up to 914.6 with all that Beaver has been generating. With the exception of this weekend the power generation schedule has been pretty accurate too. Taneycomo is fishing tougher. It's what I call a real estate bite...Location, location location! If you're in the right location you'll do well. If you're not...you might struggle. The right location usually involves a faster flow (with water off). Table Rock could start to turn any day which will be like turning on a switch for these fish and it should be great then. I debate with myself what the turnover will be this year. My initial thought was that the quality of the turnover won't be as significant this year due to the amount of the thermo-cline that has already been drawn down. There should still be a turnover but the amount of quality oxygenated water could be less. If you think of Table Rock like a bucket of water and gas mixed together, the water (which sinks in gas) is the colder, less oxygenated water taking up the bottom 1/2 of the bucket. The gas (the oxygenated water) is in the upper half. Since they've run so much water all year long that "gas" water is now closer to the bottom of the lake where the turbines are pulling water through in to Taneycomo. Table Rock essentially stays at the same level throughout the year getting replenished with more of that surface (gas) water. Right now, the upper ...say, 4/5ths of the lake has that same kind of water. Since's there's not a lot of water at the bottom to "turn" with, what will be the result? Now you could say that there will be better oxygen when it finally turns over creating a better, longer period of oxygenated water since all that upper stuff has been drawn down. That may be the case but the reason I think it will be the opposite is that around this fall we started seeing water temps in the lower 60's due to upper layers of Table Rock's water being drawn down to the bottom by the generation. That water was (is) pretty low in O2 so I'm wondering how much better the new (mixed/turned over) water will be over what we have right now. The short answer is I don't know for sure. That is my opinion based on events (heavy generation) that has happened throughout this year for us. I'm just making my best educated guess. If anyone knows any facts or previous examples in this matter I'd love to hear from you. We don't want to be one of those places who states their opinions as fact then conveniently forgets about it when the truth rears it's ugly head. I'm always hoping for the best for our wonderful fishery and this year has certainly thrown us a few curves where opinions and theory are about as good as anything else. We'll see what happens and we'll report our findings here. Fishing is still good regardless. We'll try to see the forest AND the trees!


Here's a nice note from Richard and his wife Darlene. We're glad they had a good time and learned a few things. Don't be (as Mr Wishy would say) "skeered" of winter fishing. Winter is what you make of it. We make it a great day of catching fish!



Hi Brett:

Darlene and I enjoyed our trip with you on chilly Wednesday Dec 10th . Glad we booked , heard about you from your Fishing reports on your informative site.

Due to it being only 29 degrees in morning with light snow and wind forecast thought about cancelling-Glad we Didn't!!! This was our best trout fishing trip of the 5-6 we have been on and caught and released the most trout.

We liked that you didn't fish yourself and focused on the changing conditions and making adjustments, changing flies and rods while coaching us who are new to fly fishing.

With cool weather it was wonderful to have Taneycomo almost to ourselves-we had been there in warmer weather "combat fishing" elbow to elbow not any fun and almost no fish for us.

Enjoyed "Rebar" on Taneycomo. Highlight later was your "secret spot" where we had a trout on almost every cast whether casting or using for us the new technique you showed us of "stripping." Yes it was cold but the fishing was hot, we were dressed for the weather, hand and boot warmers worked.

Thursday pm we returned to "secret spot" on our own for little over an hour from about 3-4 pm. Weather now sunny and a "balmy 40 degrees!" Used Techniques and flies you showed us. Lots of Action again on the small egg (W2-Egg) with purple scud (SG-Bug) then we stripped using one of your flies (Jiggy Bugger) with great success. It broke off on a nice fat rainbow so used a black wooly booger with some green with equal success.

We netted well over 30 Rainbows and 1 Brown lost as many. Did Catch and Release to save them for another day when we return to Branson for 2 weeks in late March for more Trout action and bass on Tablerock.

I will keep reading your Fishing Report to get my trout fix until we return again. I think Santa may bring me a TFO #4 rod to add to our #5s.

Thank you again for your patience with 2 active seniors and for so ably guiding and sharing information with us.


Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Richard and Darlene, Plano Texas.

   December 13th - Roger and Brad were brand new fly fishermen who joined me for the learning experience on an all day trip today. Highs forecast in the 30's got us prepared for the worst but we managed quite nicely all day long. Water running on the big river (Taneycomo) kept us on the "other circuit" all day today. A decent bite out there for us. Roger asked how I'd rate the day today when we wrapped it up as he thought it was a great day. I said it was probably below average but a Taneycomo below average day can be stellar on most trout streams. We guessed about a 60-70 fish (caught) day. Not bad for a couple of first timers in 40 mph gusts of wind and Taneycomo running 2 strong. I don't think we ever got that hard for winds though. At least where we were fishing. Here's young Brad with not only his first trout but first fly rod caught fish too.



He caught bigger. In fact we had several fish pushing the 18" mark and when I asked Brad if he wanted pictures with any of them he said.."Nah...I'm good." He was more interested in spending his time catching the next one than he was admiring the last one. Depending on where we were depended on what we were using. Dead drifting the old coral W2-Egg #18 with a purple/wine SG-Bug #20 was pretty good everywhere we went BUT...in the skinny and faster water we needed to be subtle exchanging the W2's for tiny little RD Midges in the #22 sizes.

We graduated to stripping Jiggy Buggers, Baitfish Jigs and Cham-Leeches in olives, browns and blacks. Roger especially really liked that style and he hammered them for the better half of the afternoon.





Does he look like he's having any fun? Young Brad was a trooper as he never faded in our all day excursion. Our breaks back at the shop with a hot coffee and a lunch makes these winter trips a breeze. We'll get toasty and warm before heading out to finish the day. Having our shop ON the water is a big plus. I really enjoyed my time with Roger and Brad. They were great guys and became very good fly fishermen by days end. They liked the sport enough to get set up with a couple of Temple Fork TICR rods so they can try it themselves the next couple of days. They know the hot spots now. I'm sure they'll do great.

I'm always surprised at what we find during the course of any given day on the water.



This was on the bank at one of our spots. It is December 13th right??? I'm not sure how that works but a little jewel like this on your path to the water gives even the coldest of cold days a little optimism and reflection. Only a couple months of winter before spring right? Having said that...don't let the winter slip through your hands. Great fishing and NO CROWDS awaits you. Some of our best and most savvy customers know these next 2 - 4 months is the best time to be here especially if you're looking for big rainbows. We'll be here!

   December 12th - Jason Humm joined us for a quick half day trip today. Jason is a great guy and regular customer of ours. We planned our day for the afternoon to get a little warmer temps outside. It really wasn't too bad at all out there. We've had what some might call cold days on the water lately but if you dress the part it's very pleasant even too warm at times. Hands, head and feet are the 3 top areas of concern. I wear a micro fleece hat over my CWTS red ball cap. I put a couple of the Hot Hands in between a cotton sock and a wool sock for the feet and two Hot Hands (one in each pocket) in my jacket. I've never had a problem and I'm the guy getting my hands wet most of the time on the trips. I simply can't fish in gloves. I know some do but I don't have any feel and of course flies get stuck on any kind of fabric. My solution is Hot Hands in the pocket and I stay very comfy.

With the tailwater running a couple of units we hit the secret tour today and had a great time. Too many fish to count but we caught them a whole bunch of different ways in our short 5 hour trip. Stripping Jiggy Buggers, Baitfish Jigs and Cham-Leeches in olives and browns was probably the best in deeper slower water. In the riffles and runs they liked something much smaller like the dark gray/olive 2-Bit Scuds and purple/wine SG-Bugs in a #20 or #22. Theses fish are a mix of stockers and resident fish. Even the stocker fish though are getting very healthy in their spawning colors and looking more and more like veterans of the big river.




Jason really got a kick out of fishing these places we hit today. Places he never knew were here at his disposal. The variety of ways to take these guys is a kick too. He ended up playing with that 8' 2wt most of the day and just loving it.



Whether it was stripping a Cham-Leech, dead drifting some tiny little scuds to even hooking a few on dries late in the afternoon...it's a pretty versatile little rod for as small as it is. We sell some Scott and Loomis 2 wts as well. Great rods, great actions but... a bit more expensive. My whole thing with the TFO 2 wt is the value and a relatively modest investment for a niche rod. In my opinion, for a fairly fast action rod there is no better VALUE than that Temple Fork Professional Series of rods.

Our most fun part of the day came in the end. We fished some faster water to rising fish in a place they haven't been before. We started with the 2-Bits and SG's and hooked up OK. Did some Bleeding Griffith's Gnats (dries) and MTTB Soft Hackles and that too caught fish. But when we went to a wine RD Midge trailer that was the one that caught them. We went back to a spot where we had only hooked one fish on the purple/wine SG-Bug and proceeded to catch about as many as we wanted to on the RD Midge in a #22. While these areas have been pretty forgiving on fly selection to this point, they certainly had their mind set on those RD's in the faster water. That was a case where we absolutely matched the hatch. You can usually catch some fish on just about anything. When you can give them what they really want you'll catch a LOT of fish. It was a fun day with Jason.

   December 10th - Rich and Darlene from Texas were my guests today. A half day afternoon was the plan just to catch the warmest part of the day. That turned out to be about 34 degrees so that's all relative. It actually wasn't too bad out. We never got the strong winds they were predicting which made it much better. These folks are new to fly fishing with only a handful of outings under their belt but are doing very well at it. Their main goal was to catch fish so we started on the big river assuming crowds would be low and we could get in to Rebar. One person fishing on the whole river and only two outlet guys. My buddy Mitch came in the shop and had the same experience recently. He said he kept looking around thinking.."did they close the river today or something?" All you need is just a slightly less than ideal forecast and suddenly nobody comes out to play. Well, we had a great time and we hit fish pretty well in Rebar. Starting with the bold and bright stuff (W2-Eggs, Cham Juan's) We weren't getting bit like we should. Switched to a purple/wine SG-Bug in a #20 and that was good..switched to a #20 dark gray/purple 2-Bit Scud with a rust/mocha RD Midge trailer and it was a fish (a hit) a drift. Here's Darlene hooked up with one.



These fish were hitting quick but hitting often so there were a lot of brief hookups. We went down to the gauntlet area and that was slow. A few hookups but with only half a day we fished "super secret" the rest of the day. I got a nice picture of them doubled up that I'll send them too.

Before going I saw 6-8 browns in the gauntlet that were 18 - 22". Most I've seen in one area in a long time. VERY line/fly shy though. Any time a drift got within 5' of them they swam away and these were little bugs for the most part. Numbers of them had definitely increased though over the last week.

Our first stop was slow. Good thing about these places are that the fish are pretty willing takers. If they're there, they'll hit it so you don't have to wait around long if you're not getting hit. We caught two there in about 10 minutes. That's slow. We moved on and found the motherload. The old coral W2-Egg was smokin but they had never stripped a fly before so I put on a ginger/olive Baitfish and an olive Jiggy Bugger and that action was better than dead drifting. Their fingers got a little colder stripping line as we had ice in our guides but they loved the technique and had a blast catching them on that Scott S4 and the Loomis Eastfork in a 4 wt. Waking up they had serious reservations about catching fish in weather like we had. In the end they had a great time catching a lot of fish and learning some new techniques and places to fish as well. They were a great couple to hang out with who are doing very well in their young fly fishing careers.

   December 7th - A pretty nice afternoon inspired Eric and I to do some exploring. He also wanted to see some of the places I've been taking trips to lately and maybe even get a cast over that big bow Greg caught last week. What a great afternoon! Very little wind and the bite was as hot as ever. Today was the first time in ALL my years of fishing these little gems that I actually saw another fly fisherman. He was walking out and we were coming in. We talked a little. Agreed to keep it on the down low. He discovered this particular hole a while back too. I guess if you paint the perfect picture of a "secret" hole you'd never see another person there ever. He wasn't fishing exactly where we were and that stop where we saw him was one of 19 different places (I counted them recently) that I've been hitting lately. 19 so far...I have plans for more scouting with a couple new areas I'm quite confident will be holding good fish. 19 places to catch trout non stop where so far...I've seen only one other fly fisherman in umpteen years??? Not a bad way to spend a day. We fished about 3 hours today and I couldn't even begin to count the number of rainbows we caught but we caught 6-8 browns between us. Here's one that took the new Cham-Leech in a #14 brown, stripped back slowly through a little seam where we saw some fish working.



One that Eric caught was spilling some milt. Maybe that late brown spawn we were hoping for is still a possibility? That little Cham-Leech was a pretty good bug. It caught fish every place I tried it today. Loads of fun. Here's a rainbow that fell for it too



You can see the leech sticking out on the rainbow. Hard to beat a coral W2-Egg or the purple/wine SG-Bug. The more clear the water, the more natural you need to get in bug color. Browns and olives in Bit Scuds and G-Bugs are necessary in the gin clear stuff. Off color water is better for the W2's, Cham Juan Worms etc.

There are two more big stretches of water I'm dying to try. Maybe this week or next I'll get with Eric and we'll check it out. They look great from what I've seen but I haven't found ideal access yet. We'll keep you posted. With pictures of course to keep it honest.

   December 4th - Greg is a guy who just loves this sport and is truly a joy to fish with. He's fairly new to it all and is learning more tricks all the time. He really got a kick out of our secret holes today. More fish today...better fish and not another soul to be seen. I have to be honest and say this was one of my most rewarding days of fly fishing ever. The day was wonderful! Cold!...never broke 40 but sunny and no wind. Nicer than yesterday really. How's this for cold!



Greg breaking ice as we start our morning. Water temps today were in the mid 30's when we started but it warmed later. It's a really nice little outdoor experience in some of our places. We see a lot of wildlife, no people and a lot of fish.



I took Greg on a whirl wind tour of our super secret locales. Something we'll do for everyone who takes a trip with us this year. We had a great time and he really enjoyed the experience. It didn't take long to have a moment I'll never forget. I've spied a huge fish in a little dink of a hole several times on previous trips. Extremely spooky and wary and I don't think I've ever had anyone get a hook in him. We catch many smaller ones from around him but never the big boy. After wearing out some smaller fish I tied on what might be one of the best bugs to ever catch a trout...the purple/wine SG-Bug in a #20. All this time of trying to place a perfect cast over that fish was put in perspective when Greg threw one that I thought was off course only to have that sucker move 8' over and inhale that SG-Bug. What a show that thing put on in razor thin water getting airborne several times while Greg managed him like a pro. Did I mention he was on the 2 wt??? Incredible moment...incredible catch...incredible fish!





We were quick to get her back to her little home but I'm telling you I've never seen a more wild and perfect fish. By her behavior and reactions I wouldn't be surprised if she's never felt the sting of a hook. Really cool and Greg's biggest trout ever. In the 22" class based on where she showed on my net.

We hit several more locales and along the way saw some sites like this.





Think the water got high this year? The final really cool moment came when I found another new locale that was just sick with fish. Not just fish and nice ones but I'm telling you....WHATEVER we threw in there they were on it before you could set the hook. We stripped buggers, G-Bugs, threw dries...and even this Cham-EEl.



It was actually TOO easy. We could have caught 200 fish in there...changed flies and caught them all again. Just a very rewarding and enjoyable day today with a great guy. Great fishing we have going on here and I can promise you it's like nothing you've done here before. FUN, fun stuff!

Here are a couple of unsolicited comments about some of our new fishing spots. See for yourself.


Brett,

I've been running like a chicken with my head cut off since our vacation was over but Paul, Dad, and I wanted to tell you what a great time we had on our trip. You spoiled us last year by turning us into trophy hunters so this year's water conditions took some getting used to, but a good time was had by all. We never would have dreamed of fishing in a few of the secret locations you scouted out for us, we'll have to start calling you the "Trout Whisperer" for your ability to think like a trout! I'm going to be calling you about that little 2 wt rod we used also, catching trout on that thing was sweet.
With any luck, and the right water conditions, I'll be down there this weekend trying out some of the new flies I got from you.
Talk to you soon.

David McGowan


Brett - just wanted to thank you for the tips on locations that I gave my buddy. He didn't have much time to spend fishing and wanted to make the most of it while he was down. He ended up fishing for a couple of hours both days he was down and caught fish each time while wading those secret locations. He told me that the red W-2 egg and a little black zebra midge that I tie with a white marabou tail were the two best producing flies for him. One afternoon while the wife was shopping at the Landing he walked down and was able to catch some fish in Rourk from shore as well. He said that he missed quite a few in there so the numbers must be pretty good. Really hoping that the good fishing holds out for a while as I'm anxious to get back down and wet a line. I'm starting a new job in 10 days so it will probably be after the first of the year before things settle down enough for me to make it back down. I'm hoping that the new job will allow for more time to spend on the water than I was able to swing last year. Again, thanks for the info, it's great to have a friend like you who is always willing to help with advice for us less fortunate souls who can't spend every day on the water. Here's hoping that you and the family have a WONDERFUL holiday season and as always I'll be looking forward to making it down to my favorite trout water and seeing you soon.

Jeff

   December 3rd - Greg Sevier is down with me for two half days today and tomorrow. Greg has become a new customer of ours this year and is really getting a kick out of this fly fishing thing. He's fished in about everything with us this year including some flood gate time from the boat. Today his options were much better as we had an afternoon trip wading on the river. Very consistent and pro wading conditions continue for us. A little water early a.m. shutting off around 9:00 - 10:00am and staying off past dark. The dropping water bite is tougher but after it falls out it's pretty good in certain areas. Table Rock is creeping back up to about 913.8' after a low of 912.8'. That is all Beaver generation doing that as we've stayed dry all fall for the most part. Beaver is getting close to normal which will mean the first 2 big impoundments on the White River system will be at normal levels. Bull Shoals will be the last and it is generating heavy each day to reach that goal. The winter fishing here on Taneycomo is pretty "normal" now as far generation schedules go.

So with Greg starting his day in the afternoon we waded our first half day. Can you believe just a handful of people out all day and most of those were in outlet #2. Rebar had one guy in it so we had to throw a few around in there a few times to catch some numbers. It was good but small fish mostly... 16" tops. We decided to check some of the redds and see if we could hook a bigger one. We did "hook" some bigger ones but only 18" or so made the net.



It was a cold and blustery day. Actually it started fairly warm like around 50 then a cold front blew in and it ended windy and cold. A more challenging bite ensued after that but we still found active fish. I hit The Stretch in the evening (first time since the flooding) and found some very active fish and several active redds down there as well. A really nice looking area and easily BETTER looking now than before the flooding. Some nice character to that area now and a better flow too. I only hit it as we had been hammering them in there from the boat with running water. You could see the redds in that deeper water when drifting so I figured they'd still be there. Yes they were and a Cham Juan Worm above a purple/wine SG-Bug or a small black Soft Shelled Scud worked great. Most came on the trailers. Not bad results for a tougher and increasingly tougher day today. Greg did great and we're probably going to hit the "Classified" areas tomorrow morning.

   December 2nd - Pete and Tyler. More experienced guys with the long stick and more of the same water conditions. Some early a.m. water then off by 9:00 or 10:00. We'll take it! We're having some fun in some fun places with some fun equipment early. Everyone loves that TFO Pro 2 wt. $150 has never been so fun! What a blast to battle fish on that thing and we did plenty of that today.





A much warmer day today. We were almost in T's out there. Lately our early morning forays into the highly classified locations end with lunch at the shop to get warmed up, get some coffee... let the big river drop out after generation shuts off and finish our day there. It's working out quite nice actually. Loads of fish early then Taney gets better as it drops out.

I've found about 10 - 12 active redds out there that I'm making daily visits to on my trips. Most hold fish from 16 "- 20" (an occasional 22"- 24") most days. Some days are better than others but none of those bigger fish are pushovers. We have to work on them and you need a good drift to make it happen. Tyler left some hardware in a couple today and we never landed one over 18". Rebar has a lot of active fish and the Gauntlet also holds good active numbers. After that (and outlets don't count) you have to work for them. Basically, the faster water is your best bet to catch numbers and it doesn't matter too much what you're using. A real good combo is a Cham-Juan Worm or W2-Egg as a lead fly and trail a #20 purple/wine SG-Bug or little Bit Scud. In the dead water and edges you need to stay in the #22's and what I call the RD Midge (Rudy Dodorico's thread midge) These fish aren't really hammering the flies right now. By their somewhat passive behavior I'm guessing it's still in a low O2 issue. Until there's a turnover it will probably stay the same so go small in the calm water.

It was nice meeting Tyler and seeing Pete again. More great guys who genuinely enjoy the sport.

   December 1st - Mark Hannah and his buddy Tom were our guests today. Good friends and customers of ours and a couple of fanatics. Tom cut his teeth with us last year chasing the big browns as an intro in to fly fishing. He has picked it up very well and Mark is solid as always. Keeping up with his fly fishing sons is his biggest challenge. Early a.m. water again had us hitting the super secret locales until it came off in late morning. Pretty good action everywhere we went. Water temps ranged from 40 to just over 50 depending on our locale on a cold and blustery day. A handful of browns came to net today. Small ones mind you but who knows..maybe? The bite continues to be small. Bit Scuds and G-Bugs down to #22's. A simple thread midge that Rudy D showed me has been a pretty good bite too in black, wine and rusty dun. #18 W2-Eggs in coral, red and tri-color (red/orange/coral) are a good lead fly as is the shameless Cham Juan Worm. It is what you think it is. A San Juan Worm made from chamois cloth. I've added it to our collection of "Cham" flies and wouldn't you know...it works pretty well. Almost too cold to break out the camera today but I had to show you all what our rainbows look like right now.



Pretty good stuff eh? This was an 18"er Tom landed. Both Tom and Mark had hooks in 20" plus fish but I must say, the big ones we're finding are very tough to fool. They're line and fly shy and it's hard getting a good drift over them before they spook. How trout should act I guess. I think we've been a little spoiled in the past. There seems to be a bigger concentration of midges on the water too. I've never seen the blizzard hatches that we're getting most evening in the upper section. Almost like snow at times. Maybe the flooding did something beneficial for those little bugs too but there are a butt load of them right now. Mostly very small too like in the 26-22 range. That might explain Rudy's thread midge success.

Great guys to fish with Mark and Tom. They came down with Pete and Tyler (tomorrows trip). All lawyers or judges...is anything getting done in KC the next two days? That's OK. We're glad they're here.

   November 28th - Don Hatcher brought his son Brian out for a half day of chasing some fish. Water is off again and scheduled to be off through Sunday with Monday being about a half and half day (scheduled). A normal pattern emerging???...we are certainly hoping so. Some really nice rainbows are making their way up top and if you can find them...you can catch them. As I was telling Clint on our last trip. We just need a few days of water off to get these fish back up and in to the spawning mode. While they're not hot and heavy yet there are numerous redds and many fish starting to stake out some turf for the winter. It looks to be a good winter and spring for the rainbows. Hard to say about the browns. My last hope is either when the lake turns and or the water gets cold enough to trigger a late brown run. Every brown we've caught all year including recently have been very healthy and have shown no signs of typical spawning wear and tear so that tells me they still need to do something. Who knows. As weird as this year has been I wouldn't be surprised if a late run still happens.

So today I started Don and Brian in the prime Rebar run. Pretty good when it's available. It's almost outlet fishing when it's crowded. Catch enough fish and soon you'll have enough company on both sides of you that you're ready to find some solitude. That's what happened today. Only a couple of people in the area when we started. Two tangles from other anglers later we decided to move on. Lots of fish and a good place for these newer fly fishermen to get their feet wet and land some fish but after a couple of hours it was enough. Not before Don and Brian hammered some really nice fish including this beautiful 20"er for Don.





One of a couple that size he caught today. When Rebar got crowded we sight casted to toe edge fish with #20 and #22 Bit Scuds. One of the best flies for that now is the dark gray/purple 2-Bit Scud in a #20 - #22. A very dark and subtle bug and one that matches naturals pretty well.





Some really nice fish are in those spots. Just look for that tails breaking the surface. That will tell you they're working scuds and sow bugs. If they're sipping the surface then they're taking midges or Bit Scud Shells. Lots of fun and water NOBODY fishes. Challenging but fun.

Great folks Brian and Don. They did well and they were fun to fish with. Water temps are down to the 50's now and the fish are flush with color. The winter spawn in starting and water generation is cooperating. It's looking like a good winter for big rainbows.

   November 25th - A light schedule this week but our new friend Clint Burns joined me for what turned out to be a WHOLE DAY of water off. They scheduled it last night but I couldn't let myself believe it until I saw it myself. Tomorrow is scheduled for the same sans one hour of one unit late at night. The eternal optimist in me is saying that this could be the start of "normal" flows. It was what I'd call a tougher than average bite out there. The traditional faster water runs were slower than normal too but Rebar and the Gauntlet area plus The Rock always produces fish.

The BEST bite though is fishing the edges. It's what was best for most everybody during our tournament and it seems that immediately post running water it's the best bet most of the time. Finding the right size and color seems the biggest challenge but once that's done the rest is just catching. What I'll typically do is use a couple of bit scuds. G-Bugs can be OK but it seems that Bit Scuds far outshine other bugs with this technique and the smaller the better. A #20 is as big as I usually get and #22 is better. I rarely go to #24's simply for the poor hookup ratio but you will get more hits on a #24. If you're not concerned with losing a few more fish go down to a #24. Simply set the first Bit Scud about 1 & 1/2' below half a Palsa Float then trail a second one a foot behind that one. No weight and if it's calm and sunny you don't even need the Palsa. Next...start looking for tailing fish. Yes, I said tailing fish. Clint said that it was the closest thing to bonefishing that he's ever done and he goes bone fishing. These fish are digging scuds and sow bugs on the bottom and in less than 1' of water. Their tails will literally be up and out of the water like a tailing bone or redfish. They'll be in dead water bays and edges and isolated pools. Lightly drop your bugs near and ahead of the fish and watch them for movement. You can usually see a wake from a fish moving towards your fly. They'll race up..stop...suck it in EXTREMELY lightly then spit it back out. If you can literally see the fish suck it in your chances go way up. Sunshine and calm water helps that if you can't see the fish then you watch your Palsa or any un-sunken tippet on the waters surface. All you'll see is a twitch in most cases so look hard and be quick. 6x fluoro is OK but 7x is better. It was a good day for Edge Fishing today. Sunny and calm. A great day in general with temps pushing 60. Here's Clint in mid-battle with an edge fish plus a few other images from the shallows.







That last shot are clusters of some kind of planeria I think. They're "leechy" looking things that I've seen before. They seem to come around in spurts. I'll see them for a couple of weeks then they're gone. I can't determine if fish are feeding on them or not. They're small...no more than a centimeter in length and very pliable, able to ball up to the size of a#10 split shot. The brown in the picture took a #20 olive Bit Scud. Browns are fairly rare in that shallow water but smaller ones will be mixed in there with the rainbows. Very nice rainbows will be in there. Up to 20" are not uncommon with lots of 16-18" fish. It's a lot of fun and I've been letting my guests use a 2 wt to catch them and what a blast that has been for them. We kept an eye out for big fish all day walking some of the more likely stretches but nothing really made itself known. I showed Clint how we sight cast to those bigger fish using some willing 16 to 18" rainbows and even those smaller fish were very rewarding once we made contact.

I showed Clint a few new areas and a few new ways to catch these Taneycomo trout. He's a fun guy and a great new customer of ours. I always enjoy fishing with him. He's a former tournament Bass pro and has taken to fly fishing almost full time now. You gotta love that.

   November 22nd - Mr Koogler! Bob's been a great customer of ours for a few years now. He's been fishing Taneycomo for over 40 years now and always enjoys the day out there. He had good reason to enjoy today. Just a half day morning trip in the boat. A decent bite for numbers but quality was brilliant. One early drift found this thing snagged to a claret Juan Beadro.



Man those shad are skanky smelling fish. You can't even wash the smell off. I've got about a dozen Paris Hilton jokes running through my head right now but I'm trying to be better.

I put on one of our new Chameels as a trailer behind a shad BaitFish Jig. First drift down Bob hooks up with something solid. It hangs out for a while then blisters a run upstream and doesn't even begin to stop. I told Bob to hold on as I gave chase with the big motor. Bob handled things like a champ even loosening the drag when that first long run really started getting out there. I would guess it was a 100 yard run and we were getting down to some silver on the reel. We made it up never seeing the fish at all. I thought it may be a nice but foul hooked fish as tough as it was battling but no...he was clean in the lower lip. Bob saw a big red flash down deep and got very excited. When the float finally got to the tip of the rod I moved away from motor and picked up the net. Just as I looked over starboard the fish was on the surface and I made one quick and easy scoop of that fish...or at least his head. That fish was on the Chameel (my chamois leech pattern) and it was a stunning 28" male rainbow.



Bob had never caught anything close to that in his 40 plus years of fishing here. I know Rob and Tim are going to be jealous. He played it like a champ and like the ultimate champ and sportsman...he let it back in the water to fight another day. Not before putting in an order for a replica though. What a fish! That thing had survived a heron attack on his back a long time ago. It had some braided line in his mouth that someone quite a while ago had the thrill of a life time. I couldn't physically break that braided line and had to cut it out. Bob still managed to land it on 4lb test tippet. Pretty good day. He caught another beautiful spawning 18" female later in the day but after that 28"er...a picture didn't seem worthy enough? That 18" fish took the Chamble. My answer to a cluster hump of chamois strands tied together. Not sure why I got on the chamois kick today but I'm sure Bob was glad I did. That Chamble was THE hot fly during the day. I'll have to put on some kind of disguise and start fishing those things a little more often. It's not brain surgery that's for sure but today...they liked them big time.

   November 21st - Mike and Mike. Friends of the Millers and Snyders (the PA connection) were with me for a full day of it. We literally did it all today. They are here for a few more days and wanted the best Taneycomo education a day could offer. We started Mid Drifting from the boat as I pointed out good spots to beach a boat and fish for midging trout. That bite continues to be strong and not a big change in fly selection. A Cham-Wow was a real good lead fly above the ever strong claret Juan Beadro. We did 2 drifts down to Lookout catching about 12 - 15 fish a drift. They wanted to see a bunch of places so they had a lot of options over the next few days on their own so we hit our "classified" areas after those two drifts. We explored some new areas again today with some good results. Today we treaded on freshly formed gravel bars created by the summer floods. Places not yet disturbed by the foot of man since the flooding and possibly places that NEVER see another fly fisherman. Here are just a few shots from our day.














We stalked spawning fish with their backs out of the water. Lots of beautiful little redds with skittish and challenging spawning fish. We spied a few browns mixed in too. I'm hoping this is the start of more brown action and not the end. We'll have to wait and see on that one. I personally love that kind of fishing. Little 2 to 4 wt rods and barely a whisper of a fly on the end. Fun stuff to be sure. The Mikes were good fishermen and good guys to hang out with. I enjoyed meeting them and will probably be seeing them on the water over the next couple of days. Hopefully they'll be back to experience Taneycomo under more normal conditions. If it's not normal, then they now have a few more rounds in their chamber to be able to catch some high water fish.

   November 20th - Speaking of Mr. Wishy. He and his son Andrew joined me for a day of something new all day today. I knew he'd be up for checking out our new locales and he certainly was. Andrew is new to fly fishing but very good at it. His first time was with us a year or so ago and he just has a good feel for it.

Doubles all day long and wading all day long never setting foot on the boat. It was a brutal wind out there and I knew a boat ride would be a bear. Besides, to see new places you have to do a little exploring. For the most part these fish are taking small stuff on small set ups. Maybe you're not in to wading shin deep in gin clear water catching 16 - 18" fish on 2 wt rods and #22 bugs. I kind of dig it and so far, everyone I've shared this with just loves the experience. We explored some new areas with Michael and Andrew today. Some were good and some were not but it was all fun. This is a redd from one of our places where a pair of 16" bows gave us hookups and chances but ultimately won those battles.



Other fish during the day weren't so lucky.










Ask me about the Cham-Wow! A little diddy I tied up last night that Andrew said he caught about 500 fish on today. No he didn't catch 500 but he had non stop action most of the time and he caught a whole bunch. Cham-Wow! You know that commercial (spelled differently for legal reasons) where Vince champions the miracle that is the Sham Wow. I'm mesmerized by that commercial. It's cheesy but I can't turn away every time I see it on. "Are you getting that camera man?...this stuff sells itself!" Well Vince inspired me. I now have the Cham-Wow, the Chameel and the Chamble. The second two are untested yet.

A cold, windy and sometimes overcast day turned out to be a great day of fishing and catching. I always enjoy Michael and Andrew's company.



They tend to catch (or bring) some crappy weather with them lately but that's OK. Glass half full...lemonade...you know the deal. Make it a good day. Here's Michael describing our day in an email.


Dear Brett,

I can't tell you enough how great a day Andrew and I had yesterday. I couldn't have imagined what "secret places" you had in store for us as we drove down for the day.

Andrew and I both were impressed with our adventure. Right from the start as we drove up on a bald eagle and it's yearling. Andrew thought that was actually Chuck in one of his new camo sniper setups - you know, it coulda' been.

I was extremely impressed with the scouting you have been doing. It was fascinating to see spawning beds and chase after fish in what can be only described as the secret corners of Taneycomo trout paradise. When I told Julie we could see (edited for security reasons) during our fishing trip she thought that was absolutely cool.

The idea that these fishing spots are available opens new doors for us long distance hook ups. We no longer have to use the generation schedule to decide if we want to come fishing for a day trip. Even on weekends there is no pressure on these never before fished locations. We got first hand proof when a guy came up to us and asked if we were catching fish, and that he always fished by the dam over all these years and had no idea fish were right in front of his ...(edited for security reasons) "place".

You are a true sportsman. It gave us a great challenge to fish with you yesterday. As always we learned so much more about our art form. I would have not been eager to fish in a couple of spots - however, watching Andrew perform like a seasoned veteran, roll casting into the wind under a tree - I figured I better get in there and not mess up. Also, watching him and I pitch our offering side by side into a pool the size of a bathtub - and pull fish out was truly amazing.

To see big fish again, and sight cast to them - even with nary a hook up - I could have tried (oh wait, I did try for quite a treat).

Finally, fishing side by side with you and Andrew to end the day was a real treat. Not only is it fun to fish with you, but, watching you fish is always another treat and opportunity to learn more about what is what….not to mention it provided a perfect opportunity to announce…"This triple brought to you by our friends at Chartered Waters".

Oh yeah, I loved fishing with the 2 weight set up, sweet, agile and down right fun to catch fish on.

On the way home as we relived our day with each other Andrew answered a question to his bride over the phone, "I don't know, but it was a lot". Ah………sweet is the sound and ours is the reward.

Chartered Waters boys, Chartered Waters.

Yatahey, Michael

P.S. Ask me about the Muskie at Pomme de Terre. Them is big ass fish!


And here's our buddy Jeff House. All around character and good guy..pretty fair fisherman I might add. Sending us a report and advice on where to send a friend. We hooked him up.


Brett – First of all wanted to drop you a line and let you know how much we enjoyed the tournament this year. As always it was a great time with some really nice people. Next year maybe it will all come together and we can get low water , nice weather and a bigger turnout. Really enjoyed talking fishing with Eric , he seems like a great guy to have as part of the shop , looking forward to doing some fishing with you guys in the future. I've got a favor to ask , A good friend of mine that I work with is going to be in Branson for a few days this next weekend and he is wanting to do a little fly fishing. I've taken him to BSSP a few times and Taney once last year but he's new to the whole thing. I told him I'd set him up with the right gear and setup but wasn't sure where the bite was happening at right now. He's probably not really comfortable wading in the generation going on so I wondered if you might clue me in on the hotspots you mentioned in your latest report. Sounds like some (edited, but yes..he guessed right) like we discussed when I was down for the tournament. He won't have a lot of time to fish he said (only what the wife will allow!) so I'd like to give him a good idea of where to find a few. Don't expect you to give up the “Honey Hole” just a spot where he can wet a line while wading and maybe hook a fish or two if he's lucky. Appreciate it man, I have hopes of getting down to do some fishing myself. Talk to you later........................Jeff

   November 19th - John kind of liked that Mid Drifting so since he was only with us for a half day today, he and the boys did that in the a.m.. It was so good even Paul and Dave decided to finish their day doing that too. Not before we did a quick excursion on the Upper South Island catching some sippers on dries. Specifically a #18 Bleeding Griffith's Gnat below a Krystal Back. The Griffith's caught them all for Dave and Paul. Here they are buzzing Paul's head plus on a streamside rock.






Water is "stained" for lack of a better word. The bottom is dark and the clarity is about a 5 if a 10 is the most clear. Typically our tailwater is a solid 9 for clarity with the ability to see 15-20' deep. Now I'd say you can see a softball sized, light rock on the dark bottom about 6' down but not much farther. What does that mean??..still a little brighter and goofier on fly selections than I typically am. It's not muddy like a 10 flood gates kind of clarity but still the jigs and worms and egg selections have me fishing in shame a little bit. Eggs actually have some validity right now as rainbows are spawning and eggs are in the water. The white BaitFish too is imitating the shad surviving in the tailwater and is a consistently good producer. The worms???...could be the erosion of the banks (starting with the flooding) that has put more real worms in to the river and has triggered an increase in activity with those bugs. Scuds are OK but just not the staple they have been for me my entire Taneycomo career.

John caught 3 bluegill in a row on the Upper South Island. Brilliantly colored. They look like trigger fish or grunts in the face with a fan of electric blue lines radiating out. Here's John hooked up with a conventional trout. A classic Taneycomo shot.



These guys are always a blast to fish with. They hammered some big browns and rainbows last year at this time. It's a different year right now for sure but there's a lot of really fun fishing to be had right now.

Here's a note from our Catch Fish Classic Champion Michael Wishy. I've been lax at posting some of our customer reports. I'll try to be better.


Dear Brett,
I had a great time with all our friends of Chartered Waters. Coming off last years zero fish production I did come in this year expecting to be competitive, Rudy and I were determined to place well as a team. I think in the final analysis Champion, Big Fish and Miss Congeniality will stand up as a challenge to all future Chartered Waters Catch Fish Classic teams.

I will say that fishing was easy duty in difficult circumstances. In the final analysis, much like the US Open, the lake water level, scattered fish and wind/cold presented sufficient challenge for all comers. I do consider myself a "mudder" and I always say, "you only get to choose the location and date, the rest is up to the fish God's." The hard weather set up the course to play to my side of the river.

In looking back at my (4) fish tally of (3) 18", (1) 17" fish - all were caught on the #20 Purple/Wine SG-Bug. Two of the 18" fish were caught each day about 4:30, and overcast. With the overcast conditions, purple was a hot color for me. In addition, #18 purple soft shell and #20 purple bit scud were solid.

In my last hour of the competition, I was posted up on Rebar in a spot the Rob put up great numbers on. I'll bet I hooked a fish every 2-3 drifts all on purple something. My PW G-Bug broke off and with only 15 minutes to go, I decided to just go w/ the Purple soft-shell and was still able to still hook up several more times before the horn blew the contest to a close.

It was good to meet up with old friend Mark Ward, another example of how big our baseball family really is. I enjoyed very much fishing with Rudy - he is top shelf of a guy. Jeff and Rob also helped me break down the area for low water generation so that I won't be so intimidated to drive down for 2 units or less. Also, Jeff sneaking up on the fish also brought into play a reality that there are times if fish see you - then you can't catch 'em.

The biggest thrill for me was getting through such a windy experience. There were times when brutal wasn't too harsh of a word to describe the conditions. To make all the fly changes and just plain battle that wind for fishing position was especially rewarding. Not to mention that fish were tough to scout out and because most fish were under 15" the four fish I netted to win were especially rewarding, even if not in the 20" club. I always feel like I improve every time out, and this was no different.

Chartered Waters Boys, Chartered Waters. I have you to thank for all of this as I wouldn't even know about this corner of the fishing world otherwise.

Yatahey, Michael

P.S. Tell all your friends to fish the Muskie @ Pomme de Terre. Them is big ass fish.

   November 18th - Our day yesterday went so well we kind of did a repeat of it today. Starting with just drifting from the boat we did that until about 12:00. Good action again. The Mid Drift is a really good bite with probably the best opportunity to catch the biggest fish the river has to offer right now. I would say it was the best for numbers too until my recent discoveries. Here's a nice spawning rainbow John nabbed with a white BaitFish Jig.



Lots of eagles around these days. AT least 3 regulars hanging out around Lookout and many more pop up now and then.





It's hard to argue with the boat action. From the cable down to Lookout we'll get anywhere from 10 - 20 fish a drift. White BaitFish Jigs above a Juan Beadro is what I'll start the day with and how I steer our customers who fish from a boat. It's solid action with nice fish getting hooked. John lost a pig today and many 16-18" fish with the occasional 20" plus fish make the net each trip. Beaching then wading around the Upper South Island, Lookout and a variety of other places on the big river is pretty good too. A nice way to stretch your legs after a couple of hours of catching on the boat. Then we have our highly "classified" locations where it's traditional wading and stalking a small stream environment where rainbows are spawning and you never see another soul. That's all I can say...sorry. Lots of fish there too. Believe it or not, running water can actually open up new areas to fish and that's how we're playing right now. Eric has done some of that on his trips recently and everyone is having a blast. Here's what Larry Hurt said about his recent trip with a couple of edits from me to keep things on the down low.

Brett:

Tell Eric we enjoyed the day... What could be better than spending a day on the water, beautiful weather, fishing with your partner in life for the last 37 years, and great conversations with Eric when the fishing was slow........ Kinda shows the sport we chose to enjoy, and make a living with, isn't always in the numbers of fish caught. After all I'm still trying, with great difficulty, staying ahead of Nancy, I think the chore is getting tougher every trip. Yes, she tore me up at... (names removed to protect the innocent)... you have decided to protect on your web, great idea... Eric was telling me about the two of you ripping a lot of lips in this area about a week ago. A great little spot, hidden where NO one would have thought trout would be had. I can assure you I will never show anyone or tell others of this sweet little spot. Do you think wild trout could come from these waters? Tell Eric if he is free some Friday-Monday, during winter C&R season, and wants to hit Montauk for a days fishing to give me a call... I like Mondays not many people there.

Larry

The McGowans and I finished our day in a new "secret" location with good results. Something about a coral W2 Egg in a #18 that those fish are just loving.



Healthy fish..RIVER fish with some recent stockers mixed in but just a blast. Not sure what our plan will be tomorrow but I'm sure it will be fun.

   November 17th - The McGowan's are with me for the next 3 days. Fun, fun guys! Dad at 85 gets around better than I do. Dave and Paul are a couple of characters and I always enjoy my time with them every year. Lots of options are available right now as the big lake level is at 913.5 and two units still run 24/7. We did it all today starting with a Mid Drift from the cable to about the old KOA rip rap. We picked up about a dozen on that first short drift with one pushing 17". Passing that opposite bank from the rip rap we saw a line of midging trout that would choke a horse. We couldn't resist. We beached the boat and ultimately put on dry flies and plucked several fish from that seam. Any wonder why they were midging in this area?



The bank in that spot was flush with them and all 3 guys were getting them on dries. Either a Krystal Back (my Crackle Back version) or a Griffith's Gnat above a little down winged midge pattern I tied up this morning (an Adams color in a #22) and they hit both equally. Here are a couple of shots including a triple or as Dave (McGowan) calls them..."a McTriple".






That was fun but after lunch we hit a trib and the boys just had a blast and really caught fish.







The laughs from these guys said it all. They couldn't believe we were catching fish where we were catching fish...and SO MANY!! Better water...better fishing. We'll hit some new areas over the next couple of days. Areas they or anybody has most likely never casted a fly on for that matter. It was a fun day today!

   November 13th and 14th - A late cancellation for these two days allowed me to catch up on some fly orders and re-evaluate the current Taneycomo situation. Table Rock is at 913.8' and the tailwater continues to run 2 - 3 mild units all day long around the 705' mark. Water temps are staying around 60 degrees and the O2 levels are poor. Now if we do our Mid Drifting all day long with 2 - 3 people we break 100 fish netted most every day. That's OK but normally here it's even better. The warmer water and lower O2 has them a bit more passive than normal. So what do they need? Colder water and better O2. Where can they find that now? That was my goal today and the little one and I found some. This is one I'm not going to post to the world. We're telling our customers about it and if you come in the shop we'll point you in the right direction but I plan to be spending some time with trips there so I'll be a little coy about it online for now. Armed with my 8' 2wt TFO Pro Series Rod and the little one with her rubber ducky we set out to where I felt there should be something like what we were looking for. I couldn't tell you O2 levels but the water temp was 55 and the fish were lively and plentiful.









McKenna caught all the fish though I may have casted once or twice for her. Beautiful water really and as always..never a soul to be found. We had a few more places we went to spot fish. They were there...active and willing takers of the only thing we tied on that day. A #22 olive/brass BZ Midge with a #18 olive/brown SG-Bug dropper. All but one came on the SG. FUN, fun stuff man! A whole new world of wading is out there right at our doorstep. It should last through April/May as usual. Some nice spawners are mixed in there too. What can I say. The greatest trout stream in America for my money is the tailwater that is Lake Taneycomo.

   November 12th - Our friends from Springfield, Bud and Mary Hogan were my guests today. Bud's a regular guest of ours and he's managed to drag Mary along a couple of times. I see now why he doesn't do it more often as she always out fishes him. Mary graces our walls with a big brown she caught last year as a first timer. Guess who caught the big fish again today?



That's NOT Bud if you're wondering. Although at the end of the day it may have been a little tougher to tell the two apart as Bud had to borrow Mary's pink, sparkle lip gloss with "plumping" effect as he couldn't find his personal Simms chap stick. Was I not supposed to mention that Bud? Hey, who am I to judge another man's lip care practices.

It was a slower than average fishing day. Probably around 8 - 10 fish a drift. Our half day trip only netted 30 - 40 fish. Bud was keeping track of how many fish less than Mary had and she had about a dozen before our last drift down. A slower than average day for here but not bad in the grand scheme of trout streams worldwide. Coral W2-Eggs are picking up a bit but it still runs a distant second to claret and blood red Juan Beadros. The white and coral BaitFish Jigs are still OK and worth a throw throughout the course of the day.