Today I took out Lisa, Randy and eleven-year-old Jake.  Randy and Jake are big sportsmen; they love to hunt and they love to fish.  You could just tell that Jake was a fisherman.  He needed no assistance; he was very good at casting and never took his eyes off his bobber.  The water was off so we started with the float ‘n’ fly on the spinning rods using small sculpin jigs and bait fish imitators.  It was a good morning bite but by lunch time the wind had started to pick up so we decided to go to Shorty Small’s for lunch and let the wind decide to either really pick up or die back down.  By the time we got done with lunch, we had a steady 20 m.p.h. wind, which is perfect for fly fishing on the shallow flats when the water is off.  We anchored the boat and got out the fly rods.  We had a quick five minute lesson to review the basics and by then Jake was already hooking up with his first fly rod fish.  Jake ended up catching a bunch of fish, one after another, to the point that his parents just sat back and enjoyed watching him fly fish and have a good time.  I couldn’t have asked for a better day to fish or better folks to fish with.  

Today I took out Matt for the second time this year and we’ll be going out again in a few days.  He brought a friend, Mike, with him.  The water was off this morning.  In previous weeks the bite has been pretty tough with the water off, but that was not the case today.  By the end of our eight hour trip, we had caught just over 100 fish including some really big ones.  We started out right at the edge of the Trophy Area below Fall Creek on sculpin jigs and micro shad.  The micro shad caught fish pretty good for the first few hours of the morning and the 1/100th sculpin jig ended up lasting all day long.  Matt caught the big fish of the day, a giant rainbow, on a sculpin jig.  After the sun got high, we switched over to midges and caught them on pearl, rose, copper, dunn—a whole bunch of midge colors worked today.  It was a great trip.  Matt and Mike are a lot of fun to fish with and we just joked around all day and had a bite about every minute to minute and a half the entire day—it was awesome!  This was the best bite with the water off that I’ve seen in several weeks.    

Today I had out Ron and Carole from upstate New York.  They are return customers and today was almost a mirror image of last year’s trip in that when we got out there we had steady water and we caught fish non-stop all day long.  We started near the dam stripping wooly buggers and sculpins.  We had quite a few follows, but they wouldn’t take it so we switched up to nymphs and deep-drifted under an indicator from the cable down to the mouth of Fall Creek.  We caught larger fish up above in the Trophy Area, but caught higher numbers in the lower Trophy Area.  Ron and Carole helped me break in my new boat today.  I now have an Express 20 foot flat bottom, a big open boat that allows me to take up to six people at a time, which will work out really well for families.  We stopped and had lunch at the docks, then headed back out with a light two generators running all afternoon.  We stuck with scuds and sow bugs; the fish were full of scuds and sow bugs #12 to #18.  Once the wind let up so things got calm and sunny, we switched out to #18 scuds in olive, gray and brown.  We had a terrific day.  Tomorrow Ron, Carole and I are going to go out on Table Rock and crappie fish.

Today I picked up Walter and Dennis from Fall Creek Marina.  There were three generators running pretty hard, so we ran up to the dam and threw shad and sculpin patterns.  Both Dennis and Walter hooked up with a nice fish each.  We’ve been catching some pretty big ones in the upper end early in the morning before they knock the water back.  We stayed up top for about 45 minutes and caught a few good ones, then headed down the lake.  Walter and Dennis wanted to do some bait fishing and take some fish home, so we went below Fall Creek where you’re allowed to use power bait, tinted eggs and live bait.  We fished there for a while, but the bite was pretty poor.  We also ran down by Monkey Island and fished, but again there was a lot of moss from them running the water so hard. We decided to head up to the Trophy Area and fly fish.  When we got up there, most of the moss had already washed out.  Just as soon as we got our flies in the water, both Dennis and Walter were hooking up left and right.  They ran water all day today.  It was a fantastic bite.  We had many double hook-ups, caught quite a few very nice rainbows and had a good steady bite.  About 1:00 p.m. they kicked the water back to one generator, so we switched to some small scuds in a sculpin pattern, sizes #16 and #18 under an indicator, which kept us getting bit for the rest of the afternoon.  Walter and Dennis are both repeat customers and we had a really great time last year.  Today was perfect, bright sunny weather, and we caught a lot of fish.  Dennis is a peanut farmer and today he left me two giant sacks of peanuts from his farm, which was really neat. It was terrific to fish with Walter and Dennis again and I hope to see them back next year.   

This evening I picked up Danny, Chuck and Chuck from South Chicago at Lilley’s Landing.  It was another miserable day, raining and 42 degrees.  But these guys were ready to fish.  They had had a bad experience with another guide up on Table Rock.  Not only had they not caught any fish at all, they felt like they hadn’t been treated very well.  As a result, they were really looking forward to having a good time and catching fish.  That was all Chuck wanted, was for his sons to have a good time and catch fish.  Unfortunately, as with any business, there are  good guides in Branson and there are some poor guides.  I work very hard to show everyone a good time, keeping them on fish and changing out all of the lines and hooks whenever it’s needed.  I also don’t fish when I guide, which makes a difference.  If I fished while guiding, I would end up paying attention to my line’s location and my indicator, which doesn’t work well when you are trout fishing. As a guide, you need to be keeping everybody’s line in order and helping watch the indicators.  Another big factor in not fishing myself is boat control.  We headed up to the Trophy Area and anchored on the gravel flats.  The water was off and there was a little bit of wind.  It didn’t take long at all until Danny had on the first fish.  As it turned out Danny not only had the first, but he also caught the most and the biggest fish.  His brother, Chuck, wasn’t far behind him.  Despite the crummy weather, we had an absolute blast.  Everyone caught a bunch of fish.  We just stuck it out and pretty much stayed in the lower half of the Trophy Area fishing midges and #18 scuds under an indicator on the fly rods.  These guys had never fished before with a fly rod, but they didn’t hesitate at all to pick up the fly rods and start getting their flies out there.  They ended up having a great time.  Danny was excited to have caught the first and the biggest fish.  He won some money from his dad and his brother because they had a little bet going.  These were some guys I’d love to fish with again. Not only were they a lot of fun, but they toughed out the bad weather conditions and ended up catching a bunch of fish.  We pretty much had the Trophy Area to ourselves.  The rain had just about chased off everybody else.     

This morning I had out Doak, Walter and Josh.  The weather this morning was absolutely miserable, 37 degrees, spitting rain and 15 m.p.h. wind.  But these kids wanted to fish so they bundled up and they had a blast.  Right off the bat they were running quite a bit of water so we went up to the cable in the upper Trophy Area and bottom-bounced flies, scuds and egg flies on a drift rig.  Both the boys, Walter and Josh, each caught a really nice big rainbow.  From there, as they knocked the water back, we fished our way out of the Trophy Area on the float ‘n’ fly on the spinning rods.  The boys picked up the cast right away and were out-fishing dad in no time.  Like I’ve said before, this happens more times than not.  Women and kids, both boys and girls, just seem to get more bites and the fish hold on a little longer for them.  The water was on most of the morning and we had a great time.  My hat goes off to these kids; they really stuck with it.  We went to the marina to get some hot chocolate to warm them up , but they were sold out of hot chocolate.  We ended up fishing out most of the rest of our trip in the Trophy Area. The boys wanted a few fish to eat so we came out of the Trophy Area and caught some so the boys could have them for dinner.  I got their fish cleaned for them and put in bags, then they were on their way.  I always enjoy being able to take kids out.  These two had to put up with some pretty bad weather, but they ended up catching a lot of fish and had a great time.   

I picked up R.T. and Charles from Lilley’s Landing bright and early this morning.  It was a chilly day.  In fact, it’s been a very chilly spring.  Although we’ve had some nice days, we’ve had many more cold days.  But these guys braved the weather and we got out there.  The water was running pretty hard so we headed up to the upper Trophy Area and fished nymphs on the fly rods under an indicator and we fished with some scuds,  #12-#16.  Just as they shut off the water and we began backing out of the Trophy Area, R.T. hooked into something giant. Ten minutes later we finally got it into the net—a gorgeous rainbow that just would not give up.  After the water had slowed down, we went to Shorty Small’s for lunch and then got back out on the water.  Now that the water had quit draining out of the Trophy Area, the fish wanted something small. It was definitely a midge bite.  The wind picked up pretty good so Charles decided to start stripping a leech on sync tip line; a leech that he ties himself and has had good success on.  After only a couple of casts, he was already hooked up with a nice rainbow.  He did some stripping for a while and caught several nice fish. We ended up going back to midges after that and couldn’t have asked for a better day.  Both R.T. and Charles are very good at fly fishing and ended up catching a lot of fish.  We had a great day.                  

Today I was out on the water with Mike and Dalton from Tennessee.  Dalton was one awesome kid to fish with.  He had an excellent cast and hook set.  He had no trouble keeping his eyes pinned on his indicator.  We started with the water off today and it only took about 15 minutes of fishing to determine that the fish were not going to take anything big, so we switched over to small midges on 6x tippet. Those fish were really picky and they wanted something really small.  Right off the bat, Dalton started putting fish in the boat.  Dad was getting behind a little bit, so we switched locations and went over to a small rock pile.  Before we knew it, Mike’s drag was ripping out.  He was losing enough line that we had to turn on the trolling motor and go after his fish.  It took quite a long battle but we finally got the fish in—a behemoth rainbow, over 20 inches and at least 4.5 pounds.  It was a giant!  Right after that Dalton hooked another really big fish, which unfortunately fell off just as we were getting it into the net.  We ended up using midges the rest of the morning since the fish would only eat something really small, which has kind of been the norm lately with the water off. We ended up having a great day.  Dalton is one of the best kids I have ever taken fishing.  He was very good at fishing, very polite and wanted nothing more than to see his bobber go down again.  

Today I had Ross and Sarah out.  Ross is a fly fishing fanatic.  He had been on a tour in Iraq and was in the reserves in Afghanistan. He was back home to the States finally and just couldn’t wait to get out on the lake and do some fly fishing.  It ended up being a really good day with a good bite.  The water was off almost all day.  We started throwing micro jigs and midges.  Both Sarah and Ross started catching fish right away.  We fished until about noon and then decided to run down and eat at Short Small’s on the Branson Landing.  When we came back up, the wind had picked up a bit so we grabbed the waders, hopped out of the boat and did some wade fishing.  This was Sarah’s first time fly fishing and wading, but it didn’t take her long at all to start catching fish.  Midges and scuds are what we caught most of our fish on.  Ross had an awesome day.  He’s a very good fly fisherman and a blast to fish with.  He and Sarah are very nice people and it was an honor to have fished with them.  I can’t wait to fish with them again; it was a great time! 

I picked up Brett, Nathan and Avery from Cooper Creek’s dock.  This was the boys’ first time for fly fishing and first time for wading. The water was off but we had quite a bit of wind.  It was also a little overcast.  But it was a perfect evening trip to go wading.  We’ve been doing very good in the evenings from 3:00 p.m. until dark.  We got the waders on, went up just above Fall Creek and hopped out of the boat.  It didn’t take long at all before the boys started hooking up.  They had really been looking forward to this trip and now they were having a blast.  The boys picked up on fly fishing really quick—kids do.  Taneycomo is a great place to fly fish.  You don’t have to do anything fancy; you don’t have to make  really long casts to get bites.  Most times you get a lot of bites and a lot of opportunities to set the hook.  These kids certainly took advantage.  They had a really fast, light hook-set and the indicator would barely jiggle before they set the hook.  For it being the first time, they did an amazing job  and, of course, they out-fished dad, which is the norm on Taneycomo.  Women and kids always end up catching more fish than dad!  Once it got to be about dusk, we fished a little bit more out off the boat and then I dropped them off at Cooper Creek.  It was a  perfect evening.

Today I took out Bill and Derek.  Derek had been really looking forward to this trip;  he wanted to catch some fish.  We had water running early, but later in the morning they shut the water off so switched over to midges sizes #18-#20.  Derek was an awesome fisherman.  He was good at casting; he watched his float the whole time and he ended up catching a lot more fish than his grandfather.  Bill did an excellent job of setting his hook.  We fished from Fall Creek up to Lookout Island.  We caught most of our fish on a #18 midge.  

Today I had Kevin and Laura out with their children, Drew and Ashley.  It was a chilly morning but they all got up early and bore the cold weather.  I picked them up first thing at Scotty’s Trout Dock and we headed up the lake to the Trophy Area.  We had quite a bit of water since they were running 3 units, so we decided to bottom-bounce flies which meant everyone could fish at once.  They ended up doing very well.  The bite was a little slow but everybody caught fish and had a great time.  We spent all morning drifting from the cable down to the mouth of Fall Creek.  Almost all of our fish came on scuds.

At lunch time, the girls decided to go shopping but Kevin and Drew stayed out with me for a full day trip.  It turned out that as the day went on, it got windy and the bite only got better.  We went to several different places and did our best on midges #18-#20.  After the trip, Drew sent me a wonderful letter about how much he enjoyed the fishing trip.  I think I enjoyed it just as much or more.  They were a wonderful family to fish with and we all had a lot of fun and caught a lot of fish.  The next day Drew and Kevin fished on Table Rock and caught a lot of bass too.  I’m looking forward to fishing with Kevin, Laura, Drew and Ashley again next year.   

This morning I took out Gary.  He wanted to do some spin fishing and fly fishing.  Because we had pretty light water all morning, we decided to stick with the fly rods so we could see the lighter bite.  Gary is a good fly fisherman and had no problem getting his flies out in front of the fish.  He is a retired school principal and, as it turned out, he used to be the principal at my elementary school, so we had quite a bit to talk about.  It can be a small world sometimes!  We also talked about fishing and the schools in the Shawnee Mission district which I attended after we moved to Kansas from Illinois.  We ended up just fishing out the morning on the fly rods and caught most of our fish on small scuds and flies, also small jigs. 

This morning I picked up Dan and Kim from Cooper Creek.  This was their first time fly fishing.  They also wanted to try wading, but the generators were running water, so we fished out of the boat all morning.  Both Dan and Kim picked it up very quickly.  It was a great bite from the cables down to the mouth of Fall Creek.  Our best flies were egg flies in peach, apricot and red followed by brown and gray scuds.  We also fished some small jigs.  Both Dan and Kim caught quite a few fish and we had a great morning together.

This morning I picked up Chad and Meredith at Lilley's Landing for a fly fishing lesson and wading trip.  This was Meredith's first time fly fishing and both she and Chad were really excited to learn some new techniques to catch some trout.  We started with a quick lesson on the basics of fly casting and hook setting and then got right to the important stuff--catching trout!  Meredith was the first to hook up on a 1/100th oz. micro shad and Chad wasn't too far behind on his first hookup on a ginger micro jig set under an indicator.  The fish were a tad bit picky this morning but Chad and Meredith each managed to catch a dozen or so by the time we decided to go wading.  It was an overcast morning with a little wind and that helped make for a better and longer bite when wading.  Chad and Meredith caught a ton of fish wading and had a terrific time.  Chad took some great photos and passed them on to me.

Spring break reservations are starting to come in now.  These are always fun family trips.  It never ceases to amaze me how quickly kids catch on to both fly fishing and spin fishing.

They soon learn that a great day on the water catching fish and laughing with the family is a lot more fun than just sitting at home on the couch playing video games.  It's always a real pleasure to hear that the family is back to fish with me again because the children wanted to come so much!      

Greg and his son Connor were able to squeeze in a fishing trip today.  Greg and Connor have fished with me before and Connor brought a couple of his friends along this time.  We had great water conditions today with two units running and a tail water of 706.  We fished from the cable at the hatchery all the way down to Fall Creek.  Bigger fish came in the upper trophy area, but our numbers were better in the lower half of the trophy area.  We fished with both the float 'n' fly and the fly rods.  Although Connor had fished this way before, his friends picked it up really fast.  The fishng and the weather were perfect until about the last thirty minutes of our trip when the wind picked up to 25-30 miles an hour.  It takes a lot of wind to get down into the valley but when it does , it can make fishing from the boat very difficult.  Fortunately, it held off for all except the last bit of our trip and we were all very happy with the fishing.  Kids always do really good trout fishing on Lake Tanneycomo.  It was nice to have Greg and Connor back on the lake again. 

I picked up John and Brett from Lenexa, Kansas, this morning for a full day of fly fishing.  We had some current to start with early in the morning and fished scuds in the channel under an indicator, catching dozens of trout in no time.  The trout really bit well, but it was a fast bite.  They didn't leave much time for a hook-set, but Brett and John had no trouble hooking up.

They shut the water off early so we decided to go wading. I got Brett's fly rod rigged up first and handed it off to him and told him to make a few casts from the boat until I could get John's fly rod rigged up for shallow water.  I'll bet Brett caught ten fish before I was done tying John's flies on.  We ended up catching 25 trout before we even stepped out of the boat.  Once we got to wading around, the action didn't let up.  By day's end, John and Brett each caught close to a hundred fish.   

Chris, Darren, Steve and several of their friends were back in Branson for their annual winter trip to Lake Tanneycomo.  They come and stay at Lilley's Landing every year with a huge group of guys. We went out fly fishing the first morning and had a great bite.  They were running two units out of Table Rock Dam.  We started our drift with the fly rods from Lookout Point and it was only a minute or two before we had our first fish on.  I've had the opportunity to fish with Chris several times now and he is easily the best at casting and hook-setting, I have had out on a trip.  Scuds #14 to #18 in olive and gray were the best flies for us.

On our second day out Chris, Darren and four of their other friends all came out on a pontoon from Scotty's Trout Dock.  The water was on for a few hours so we bottom-bounced eggs on drift rigs early in the morning around Monkey Island and the 65 Highway bridge.  They shut the water off around 10:00 a.m. so we went up the lake and fished below Fall Creek, anchoring on the channel edge.  Chris caught the big trout of the day on gulp eggs off the bottom.  We caught over 50 trout and had an awesome trip.  This is one of the most enjoyable trips I get to do all year--we always have a lot of fun.    

Bill from Texas joined me today for a fishing trip.  They left the water on all morning and we fished the float 'n' fly on our spinning rods.  We did really good on #12 -#14 OMG sow bugs.  Bill does a bit of fishing and has a perfect hook set.  We do really good on Taneycomo in the winter.  Not only do we catch huge numbers, but we catch a lot of big fish also.  Despite the weather, December to February  is some of the best trout fishing all year.

I picked up Keith this morning from Lilly's Landing for a fly fishing trip.  There were four units running with the tail water at 708.2.  It took quite a bit of weight to get our flies to the bottom, but once those flies hit the bottom it only took seconds to get a fish on.  We stayed in the Trophy Area and fished big scuds #8-#12 behind an egg fly. Lately they have only been running water in the mornings.  In the afternoons with the water off we have been doing our best fishing with #12--#18 midges, three to four feet under an indicator.

Today I picked up Susan from Lilly's Landing at 9:00 a.m.  Susan loves to fish as if you couldn't tell, she came by herself and didn't care one bit that the air temperature was only in the upper 20's.  She had her first trout hooked within five minutes and never went more than ten minutes the rest of the day without a fish on the end of her line.  We bottom-bounced eggs on a drift rig in the unrestricted area and then in the afternoon we continued up to the Trophy Area and fished the float 'n' fly on the spinning rods.

This morning I had Dennis and Dawn out with me.  They have been running qute a bit of water, 3-4 units each morning until about noon, then shutting it down.  The bite in the morning has been fantastic.  It has been cold but once the sun gets over the trees, it's not that bad.  We have been successful on egg flies, red and pink San Juan worms followed by a #12-#16 scud or sow bug as the trailer.  Dennis and Dawn did a  good job and caught  fish all morning.  We fished from the upper Trophy Area down to Lilly's Landing. 

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, NOVEMBER 27th

Caleb, Jab and Ab came out for an afternoon fly fishing trip.  We had three units running and the fishing was incredible.  But it’s almost always awesome in late fall and winter.  We have our best fishing of the year in December, January and February with lots of big, hungry rainbows.  This afternoon we caught more than we could keep track of.  Several triple hook-ups and some very nice rainbows.  We stuck with OMG sowbugs and scuds under an indicator.  These guys were already good at fly fishing and needed no introduction to casting or hook setting.  It was a fun trip with a great catch.

Today I had Doug and Matt out.  We started the morning with three units running and a tail water of 705.3.  Doug and Matt both do a lot of fishing and had no problem picking up the float ‘n’ fly and getting their flies away from the boat.  We had perfect water conditions all day and ended up catching over 100 trout today.

The water stayed stable and didn’t rise and fall, so that kept the fish in predictable places and feeding on the same size flies.  A #12 OMG sowbug with a #16 scud as a tail fly is what we used all day. Fall and winter are a great time to trout fish on Lake Taneycomo.  There are a lot of fish and not much fishing pressure.  We do very well November through February and often have quite a few hundred plus fish days.  Matt and Doug had a fantastic day fishing and they are going to take me spoonbill fishing on the Neosho River next spring, which I am really looking forward to. 

Ed and Kayla from St. Louis joined me this morning.  We had three generators running this morning, which is always nice when there are young kids in the boat.  It makes for a lot of bites, a lot of fish and keeps the kids interested.  We used the float ‘n’ fly on the spinning rods and had a bite every couple of minutes all morning long.  Kayla beat her dad fishing on a #12 OMG sowbug and a #18 scud as the tail fly.  She did a great job watching her float and getting her tip up when she had a bite.  This was Kayla’s first time fishing and she had a blast.  She even held her own fish for the picture!  It is always a special trip for me too when I have the opportunity to take kids out for their very first fishing trip—they are so excited and usually amaze me with how well they do.  

Today Glen came back to fish with me again and brought his uncle, Tom, with him.  Glen is one of the funniest guys you could ever meet and that makes it a lot of fun to fish with him.  The water was off today and we started on the spinning rods with jigs and midges.  It didn’t take long to figure out that it was a midge bite.  #16-#18 copper, zebra and burgundy were our best colors.  In the afternoon the wind picked up pretty hard, so we ditched the boat and went wading on the gravel flats.  Same patterns, #18 midges under a strike indicator kept fish on the end of our line.  Tom and Glen caught more fish that we could count and we all had a great time.

Brad, his twelve year old son and their friend Brian met me Thursday evening at the back of Point Royal for the first of a couple of four hour trips.  We went out for the evening bite on Thursday and the morning bite on Friday.  When I picked the guys up Thursday, we had a light two units running with the water rising.  We were using the float ‘n’ fly on the spinning rods and really got into an awesome bite. The guys had never been trout fishing and picked up on it really quickly.  They caught more trout  than we could count.  Each of them caught an 18 inch rainbow that put up a great fight.  We did best switching to a very dark almost black #14 OMG sow bug behind a #10 gray scud.  The next morning they had four generators running and a tail water over 708 which was too high to pick them up at Point Royal, so they met me at my house and we left from my dock which is right on Taneycomo.  We bottom bounced  flies in the upper trophy area and caught a lot of 14-16 inch trout.  In fact we caught one fish under 12 inches and that was the only small trout; the rest were really nice fish that put up a great fight.  These guys had a lot of fun and greatly enjoyed trout fishing for their first time.

Bert came out for some wade fishing this afternoon.  We stuck it out until the rain and lightening chased us off.  Bert had never gone wading before and he caught several fish and really enjoyed it.  Bert also had never caught a bass on a spinner bait.  So we took care of that on Table Rock.  I always look forward to Bert coming to Branson because we eat a lot of great food and have a good time.

Andy, a long-time client, made the trip up from Wichita to get his trout fix.  Andy caught a rainbow over six pounds earlier this year that made the newspaper. Andy is good at getting the big ones to bite.  We fished with the spinning rod with the float ‘n’ fly.  The water was running on two units and stayed pretty steady.  We had a really good bite and Andy caught a bunch of nice rainbows.  No browns to speak of; they just haven’t shown up in big numbers like they did last year during the last two weeks of September when we caught them every day for a couple of weeks.  Some of the guys I know that fish the outlets by the hatchery after work have seen a few small 14 to 18 inch browns being caught, but no giants.  With the water off, I have only seen a few browns and they haven’t been that big.  Luckily there is still time to see some numbers and some big ones show up.

I had Mike and Wes out this evening.  This trip was set up by Diane because she really wanted her dad to catch some fish.  I think she was the most excited for the trip even though she didn’t come in the boat with us. The water was all over the place this evening—they ran two  units and then bumped it to three and then completely shut if off.  That’s where a guide can save the day by making the correct adjustment to the leader length, fly strike and color and to make the proper weight adjustment for the rising and falling water.  Diane’s father caught a bunch of trout and some big ones too.

Today I had a special trip out of Lilly’s Landing.  The Frickeys were here in Branson for their honeymoon.  They got married in New Orleans and Kendall wanted to catch a fish on a fly rod, something that he has never done.  Fortunately, Kendall caught a bunch of trout this evening on the fly rod.  They were running four units pretty hard so we had a bunch of moss to contend with as it has been a while since they had four units running.  The bite took a little dialing in , but when we got it right, the trout were coming to the boat one after another.  We caught them from the cable down to the mouth of Fall Creek.  Our best flies were a peach egg in front of a #12 brown scud.  

I picked up Robert and ten year old Michael from River Run Outfitters.  Robert has been fly fishing a long time and wanted Michael to get some experience on the water with a fly rod.  Michael picked it up very quickly and had a fantastic hook set.  He did such a good job of watching his strike indicator and when he got a bite, he got his rod tip to ten o’clock at the speed of light.  This  is a picture of Michael’s first fish on a fly rod.  We were all very excited.  Michael went on to outfish his dad and caught a ton of trout.  Taneycomo is a great place to learn how to fly fish.  You get a lot of bites and a lot of chances to catch a fish.  We had a fantastic day on the water. 

Robert got here at sunrise this morning and brought a friend with him.  Robert and his family have fished with me several times and Robert is a big fish magnet.

He catches a giant rainbow every time he is on Lake Taneycomo.  We had three units this morning and it was a really good bite.  We fished the float ‘n’ fly on the spinning rods, something that Robert has gotten very good at.  Our best flies were #12 OMG sow bugs followed by a #14 gray scud.  We caught all of our fish in the trophy area, mostly in the lower end.  Robert is always a lot of fun to fish with.   

Ron and Marge came out this evening for what ended up being an awesome evening of fishing, not to mention that we had the whole lake to ourselves.  The water was still running and remained stable, so the fish bit steady for the whole night.  We had such a great time Ron and Marge also booked a bass fishing trip with me on Table Rock for Friday.  Our best flies were an apricot egg fly in front of a #14 OMG sow bug.  

Sal, a pastor from Kansas City, came out with his son and a friend from his church.  The water was off but by the end of our trip, we had caught quite a few fish.  We had to work for each bite as the trout were a little picky.  We had to change flies and locations quite a bit in order to keep getting in front of new fish and keep getting bites.  Very neat folks to be out with and we ended up with a lot of fish.  

Mark came out this evening by himself.  We had some water running and a nice bite on a perfect evening.  Scuds produced the best for us.   Mark caught a lot of fish.  No browns to speak of yet.  A lot of folks have been asking, but we haven’t seen a nice bunch of browns show up so far.

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, SEPTEMBER 2

Gary, a long-time customer, brought his sisters with him for a pontoon trip.  We met at Scotty’s Trout Dock, hopped into a pontoon and headed up just above Monkey Island for an awesome fishing trip.  The ladies caught a lot of fish and had a great time.  Gary was fishing for big fish and he finally hooked into one , but just as he hooked into it, that fish took off at 100 mph and snapped his line.  Pontoon trips are a really good way to take a large group out and have plenty of room to fish and just walk around.

Harry and nine year old Colin from Texas came out for the evening bite.  We used the float ‘n’ fly on the spinning rods and they both caught on really quick.  We caught a bunch of fish and had a good time doing it.  Collin did a great job of watching his float and picking up on the quick bite.  Egg flies with #14 scuds as the tail fly in gray and brown worked the best for us.  

Gary and Debbie came out for the evening bite and we had a light two units running and pretty much the whole lake to ourselves.  I think everyone had sat in the sun all day and by the time we got on the water they had had enough and gone home.  It was a terrific bite.  We used the float ‘n’ fly on the spinning rods and after we got the colors dialed in, it was one fish after another.  An OMG sow bug #12 and a steel gray #16 sow bug were the ticket.  Midway through the trip, Debbie landed this amazing 22½ inch rainbow on an OMG sow bug #12.  Debbie and Gary are lifetime members of the Conservation Federation of Missouri (CFM), an organization that does a lot to help Missouri wildlife and conservation.  We took a few pictures and released the fish unharmed.  Debbie got her lunker release certificate from the Branson Chapter of Trout Unlimited.  

Derek, Jason and Erin were back for their annual trip to Taneycomo.  Last year when they were here there was a lot of water running and the bite was totally different.  Today the water was off so we stuck with jigs on the float and fly.  Jason loves to fly fish so he used a fly rod and fished midges under a strike indicator.  We fished from Fall Creek to Lookout Point and had a good steady bite all morning.   Everyone caught quite a few fish and we caught some big ones

Tonight the Dennison's joined me for the evening bite.  We have been going out for fishing trips at 6:00 a.m. or 4:00 p.m.;  those are the peak fishing times right now.  The morning bite has produced more fish and the evening bite has been catching the bigger fish.  Another benefit is you don’t have to fight the heat.  It is 20 degrees cooler on Lake Taneycomo than anywhere else in the area. 

We had four units running this evening.  We started with bottom-bouncing flies and before long we switched over to the float and fly on the spinning rods and we also used the fly rods.  The fish were biting really fast this evening but when we switched over to the strike indicators we weren’t missing our bites anymore.  Egg flies, scuds and sow bugs worked the best for us. 

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JULY 27th, p.m.
Tonight I had Gina and Judd from Arkansas out with me.  When we hit the lake there were four units running and a tailwater of 710.  They weren't keeping fish, so we headed up to the trophy area.  We started on the spinning rods bottom-bouncing flies and both Gina and Judd caught several fish right off the bat. After an hour and a half of fishing from the cable down to Fall Creek bottom-bouncing, we decided to do some fly fishing.  This was both Gina and Judd's first time ever fly fishing.  We did a quick once-over of the basics and did a little practicing of settings on the reel and then got right back to fishing.  When fishing heavy current you really need to set from the reel.  A good part of the money you spend on a reel is so it has a good drag system.  When you stick a big fish in fast moving water, the fish is not going to budge.  You need to be able to let him pull quite a bit of line out.  If you try to slow him down, he'll just break your line.  Neither Gina nor Judd broke off a single fish all night.  Both of them hooked into some really big fish.  Judd spent ten minutes landing this 23 inch rainbow.  Both Gina and Judd really enjoyed fly fishing; I think their next trip will definitely be a fly fishing excursion.

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JULY 25th
Awesome day on the lake today.  I had Eric in the morning and Tyler in the evening.  Both were first time fly fishermen and both really enjoyed themselves.  Teaching them was a lot of fun because they caught on so fast. They casted, they set the hook, they let go of the line when the fish made a run and they led them into the net. Taneycomo is a great place to learn how to fly fish.  You get a lot of bites and have a lot of opportunities to learn a good, quick hook set.  You don’t have to make a far cast in order to get bites and that really helps getting novice fishermen to start catching fish right away.    

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JULY 24th
Chris and Steve from Oklahoma were here for the evening bite.  They were running a lot of water, four units with a tail water of almost 710.  We got out the fly rods.  This was only Chris and Steve’s second time to ever fly fish. They did a great job and picked it up really quickly.  But I have to give credit to Darryl from River Run Outfitters for taking them out the day before and teaching them so well.  We headed all the way up to the dam and started drifting scuds and sow bugs.  All of our big fish were in deep water, 10-12 feet deep and on the channel edge.  We went shallow a few times and fished the bank but never caught any big ones, so we just stuck to the deep water.  It was a nice evening and we pretty much had the whole trophy area to ourselves.  

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JULY 22nd
This morning Logan, Lily, Laura and Shannon came up for a trip to the trophy area.  Logan was really excited to get out on the water and had been looking forward to this for a while.  No water running today so we stuck with a jig ‘n’ float above Fall Creek and all through the lower trophy area.  It took Logan a bit to warm up, but when he did, he caught one fish after another all morning. Six year old Lily liked reeling them in and especially netting the fish.  The morning bite has been really good on the entire lake, whether in the trophy area or the unrestricted area.  

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JULY 20th, p.m.
Tonight six year old Cade and his friend Rylan came out with Cade’s dad for the evening bite.  They had four units running pretty hard and a tail water of just over 710.  We weren’t going to be keeping any fish, so the kids bottom bounced flies in the trophy area from the cable down to Fall Creek.  It was a good steady bite and we caught some really big trout.  It’s not easy bottom bouncing because you really have to set the hook quick when you feel the bite, but Rylan and Cade picked up on it pretty quick. 

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JULY 20th
Nine year old Miles showed up today ready to fish.  Miles is absolutely crazy about fishing and it only took a couple of minutes for him to have his first fish in the boat.  We fished a jig ‘n’ float and stayed around Fall Creek, catching one fish after another.  Miles is a really good hook setter and never took his eyes off the float.  He caught fish all morning, making his grandfather proud.   

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JULY 19th
This morning I fished with Brent, Andrew and Brian.  We went up to the trophy area and started with the jig ‘n’ float and also fly fished with micro jigs and midges.  The fishing has been excellent early in the morning and there is fog on the lake almost every morning which extends the morning bite.  These guys fish quite a bit and did very good on our trip, catching a bunch of fish. 

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JULY 16th
Today I picked up Chris, a lifelong friend, and a couple of his friends who had never fly fished before.  Chris and I hadn’t seen each other in a long time.  Since we last saw one another, he has done a lot of fly fishing all over the world and is very good.  Chris held back and let his friends go after it.  We had awesome conditions with two generators running, overcast skies and fog which kept the morning bite solid, one fish after another.  Some big ones too, including a brown  Jason hooked that got wrapped around the trolling motor, but we still got it into the boat.  We also did a pontoon trip with some more of Chris’ friends and fished another morning on the float ‘n’ fly.  It was a terrific three days. 

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JULY 14th
Kelly was here for an eight hour fly fishing trip.  But like the last several eight hour trips, we called it good at about six hours.  The fishing has been so good in the morning that there has been no point in staying out in the broiling sun  to catch one more fish when we have already caught forty or more.  Kelly fly fished all morning with midges, scuds and jigs and stayed bowed up the whole time.  We had light water generation all morning and that really kept the fish biting.

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JULY 13th
Jay, Mike and Jake came out with me this morning and weren’t keeping fish, so we headed up to the trophy area.  The water was off so we stuck with the jig ’n’ float.  We had our first fish within one minute of throwing our lines out.  We didn’t catch any giant fish, but we caught a lot of fish.  We joked around, having fun, and decided that whoever caught the last fish would be deemed the coolest.  Eleven year old Jake caught that last fish, so Jake is the coolest!

LAKE TANEYCOMO, JULY 12th
Kevin and Tom from Normal, Illinois, showed up for an eight hour trip that proved to be anything but normal.  Kevin and Tom had never trout fished before and wanted to keep some fish from the unrestricted zone and then go up to the restricted area and try some fly fishing.  We started with night crawlers on a custom drift rig below Fall Creek and on our first drift down to Trout Hollow we picked up five good keepers.  Half-way down on our second drift, Tom hooked into what we thought for a second was a snag.  Then his line came ripping out of his spinning reel until the "snag" swam sideways.  After ten minutes we got a 23 inch, 8.06 pound brown trout to the net.  We put the fish in the live well right away and let it rest for quite a while and then headed down to Liley's Landing to weigh it on their digital scale and take pictures and measurements.  This brown had a girth of 17".  We put the fish back in the live well and took it up to the trophy area and released it.  Tom got his pin and a certificate of merit from the Branson Chapter of Trout Unlimited for releasing his lunker unharmed.  We grabbed the fly rods and fly fished for the second half of our trip.  Two units were running with a tail water of 705.8.  We started with egg flies in peach and apricot with scuds behind the eggs and then after a short drift switched to #10 OMG sowbugs in front of a #14 gray scud and caught a bunch of fish.  Just before it was time to go, Tom hooked, landed and released a 20" rainbow caught on a #14 gray scud.  Not a bad day for two guys who had never trout fished or fly fished before!   

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JULY 10th
The water was off this morning when Debbie and Richard got here.  We changed up our rods and switched to sculpin jigs and also a jig ‘n’ float.  Those two lures got us bit all morning.  Richard and Debbie have fished all over the world.  They had a lot of great fishing stories and tips.  We caught a big bunch of fish by the time our trip was over. We stayed above Fall Creek the whole morning and only saw a couple of boats. 

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JULY 9th
Thirteen year olds Tanner and Seth got on the computer while here in Branson, looked up some fishing guides, compared prices and chose to go with me.  They had their grandparents drop them off at my dock to go trout fishing.  These two guys are crazy about fishing.  They reminded me of myself at that age.  And man, I’m here to tell you that these two kids are excellent fishermen!  They picked up the float ’n’ fly like they’d done it a hundred times before.  It was obvious that even though they were only thirteen, they both had thousands of casts under their belts already.  A light two units running and cloudy made for perfect conditions for an awesome bite.  We lost count after the first half hour, just catching one after another.  Egg flies, scuds and sow bugs were the ticket.

We fished from the dam down to the mouth of Fall Creek, then stayed in the trophy area.  These kids were a lot of fun to fish with. 

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JULY 8th, p.m.
David and Susan came out for the evening bite.  We hit the water at 4:00 p.m. and managed to fish for thirty minutes before the rain set in.  No lightening or thunder and the trout were really biting good,so we put on the rain suits and stuck with it.  We fished from Fall Creek to Cooper Creek and caught all of our fish on night crawlers.  We’ve had a lot of rain the last few days and the worms are always good in the summertime after a big rain. 

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JULY 6th, p.m.
Tonight I had the Wilson family out.  We had boat full of people and a boat full of fish by the end of the evening.  Two year old Cannon sat there all evening and watched everyone fish without a peep.  I couldn’t believe it—two years old and not one blow-up!  We fished below Fall Creek all evening and had our best luck on night crawlers and gulp eggs. 

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JULY 2nd, p.m.
The Wiley family was here for an evening trip.  With three units running and the tail water at 708, our fish were pretty deep.  We started with night crawlers and eggs around the Branson Landing and Monkey Island area.  We did pretty good there for a couple of hours until the sun got behind the trees.  After that we started fishing from Fall Creek down to Cooper Creek and did good there as well. This evening family trip was fun for everyone.

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JULY 2nd
This morning Ed, eight year old Graham, Garrett age twelve and fifteen year old Graydon joined me for an awesome family trip.  The water was off and since we had so many people in the boat, we decided to anchor fish which is something we don’t do very often.  We set anchor and started fishing night crawlers and gulp eggs.  The kids did great. It didn’t take long before they had their limit and were returning the rest of their catches to the water.  After the sun got over the trees, the fish quit hitting on the eggs; they just wanted night crawlers. These kids were a blast to fish with and we had a terrific day on the water.

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JUNE 30th

I picked them up at Cooper Creek Resort and down the lake we headed.  We fished eggs and crawlers around the Landing and also below Fall Creek and found the slower, deeper water to be a little better than up by Fall Creek.  By the time to go, everyone had caught his or her limit.

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JUNE 28th
Kevin and Tyler arrived at 6:00 a.m. this morning.  I thought the water would be off because it has been off every morning lately, but there were already three units running with a tail water of 708.3.  It was dark and foggy, but we put bright egg fies on in tangerine and orange with big #10 and #12 scuds as our tail flies.  Fifteen year old Tyler came out of the gate running--this kid was good!  He landed fifteen fish within the first half hour of our trip and kept this pace up for the rest of the day.  Tyler had already caught a nice brown trout when at 11:00 a.m., he hooked into and landed a 22 inch rainbow on a #14 OMG sowbug.  It took over 10 minutes to get this fish to the boat, but Tyler took his time and played it out perfectly.  After netting the fish we took pictures, measured it and released it unharmed back into the lake.  Tyler received a pin and a certificate of merit from the Branson, Missouri chapter of Trout Unlimited for having fairly caught and released unharmed back into Taneycomo his trophy fish.  Tyler's dad, who's a Missouri hunting guide, was a good sport about Tyler's success, cheering him on.  Below Fall Creek gulp eggs in yellow and orange have been very good on drift rigs and, after the sun gets up over the trees, night crawlers pinched in half on a drift rig have been outproducing the eggs.  Remember, no live bait, scented bait or soft plastic bait is allowed above Fall Creek to the dam and all rainbows between 12 and 20 inches must be released.  The game warden was out recently and wrote several tickets for illegal fishing up in the trophy area.

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JUNE 27th, p.m.
This evening I had Kathleen and her son, Nick, out.  They drove several hours just for their fishing trip.  They had fished on the White River before but came up empty-handed.  Naturally, they were concerned that they might not catch anything on their trip with me either.  I told them that if they didn’t catch any fish with me, it would be the first time ever that someone didn’t get any fish while out on one of my guide trips.  Within one minute, Nick had his first fish on.  He had a very quick hook set and both he and Kathleen had no problem casting. They were kept busy catching fish for almost the whole evening until the worst storm I’ve ever seen on Lake Taneycomo rolled in at 70 miles per hour and that ended our trip!  Nick and Kathleen caught a lot fish and took some special memories home with them.

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JUNE 26th, p.m.
A big pontoon trip out of Scotty’s Trout Dock this evening.  Ryan, Corey, Eric and Tom were out with me tonight.  They wanted to keep fish, so we fished eggs and crawlers around the Landing area. The fishing was good and steady the entire evening.  Ryan caught the most and Eric caught the biggest.  Both Ryan and Corey did a really good job setting the hook and caught a lot of fish.  It was a great way to spend the evening, bobbing down the lake in a pontoon. We never even broke a sweat; it’s really cool and mild on Taneycomo in the evening.  

Four units were running when Bill, Isaac and Jenna arrived from Georgia.  We used the float ‘n’ fly, and we also bottom-bounced flies in the trophy area.  We did better bottom-bouncing than on the float ‘n’ fly rods because the water was so deep and the float ‘n’ fly just wasn’t getting down deep enough.  Jenna and Isaac caught a lot of big trout.  We only caught four that were stockers.  The rest were between 14 and 18 inches—not a bad average! The fog set in early and really cooled things down.  But not the fishing.  We had a great trip and a great time.

Dave and Cooper got here at 6:00 a.m. this morning.  The water was off and they weren’t keeping fish, so we headed to the trophy area.  We threw jigs on the spinning rods for the whole trip.  We hit a couple of spots and picked up several fish before they would shut down.  On our third spot, they never shut down.  We spent two hours in one spot and the fish just kept biting. It was a little feeding frenzy!  By the time we wrapped it up, Dave and Cooper had caught over 70 fish, with some real nice ones too.  Cooper’s big fish was an awesome 19” rainbow that he caught sight fishing.  He caught several sight fishing.  Both Cooper and his dad were very good fisherman with long casts and fast hook sets; they were really able to make things work for them.     

Tommy, April and Colton, long-time customers of ours, were here from Arkansas for their annual fishing trip.  Colton is really into baseball, so they have to wait until the baseball season is over before they can go on vacation.  They had a light one unit running this a.m., with a tail water of 703.2.  We headed up to the trophy area and started fishing with the float-n-fly.  As usual, the morning bite was excellent. Right off the bat, Colton started getting fish to the net.  Shortly after 8:00 a.m., he caught this awesome rainbow, just over 20 inches, on a #16 sow bug.  On our very next drift, Tommy caught a fantastic brown on a #14 OMG sow bug.  The fish bit really fast today.  There was hardly any water running and by the time the sun got over the trees, the bite was really fast.  Light line, small flies and getting far from the boat makes a world of difference.  Colton ended up out-fishing his mom and his dad.  Baseball had a lot to do with that.  The second his float twitched, he had his rod up to 11:00.  It was fun fishing with this family again and I hope we are able to go out together again next year.

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JUNE 20^th

Robert, Haley and Cole were back today for the second time this month.  They came through for a trip on the 12^th before the kids were due to be at Camp Kannikuck.  Unfortunately, Leona was under the weather and couldn’t make it today.  They had a $30 bet riding on today’s trip.  $10 for the biggest trout, $10 for the most trout and $10 for the smallest trout.  Haley won $10 for the most trout; she caught 19.  Cole won for the smallest fish.  Like our last trip, just before we were through, Robert caught a whopper.  A 22 inch rainbow that put up an awesome fight.  We had to chase it down with the motor because that fish pulled so much line out.  Robert caught his big one on a #14 OMG sow bug with 2 lb. line on the float-n-fly.  The water generation has been light and small flies #14-#16 have been the best for us.  1/8^th oz. sculpin jigs in olive or ginger from the trophy area past the Branson Landing worked from the shore back to the boat  just off the bottom have been very good also.  Out of the restricted area from Fall Creek down to Scotty’s Trout Dock, pink and yellow gulp in the early morning on a drift rig have been good and after the sun gets over the trees, night crawlers have been out-catching the eggs.

Dickie was here for the sole purpose of catching a trout on a fly rod.  He recently started fly fishing but as yet had not been able to hook a trout on his fly rod.  So we headed up to the trophy area with 3 units running and a tail water of 708.  We had a #12 OMG sow bug in front of a #16 gray scud. Within minutes Dickie had his first trout ever on a fly rod.  For his first fish, it was an awesome rainbow.  We caught a ton of fish.  The evening bite has been excellent and we have been catching a lot of fish.   

Sandy, David, Michael and Anna were here for a family trip.  They had done some dock fishing at the resort without much luck, so decided to go fishing with me.  The water was off, so we headed up to the trophy area.  It was a tough bite with the fish biting very fast, but we managed to catch several nice fish.  Anna caught the biggest fish on a #12 zebra midge.  After a couple of hours, we decided to head on down the lake to deep water near Scotty’s Trout Dock.  We started out with yellow and pink gulp eggs and began catching fish right away.  Michael wanted to try worms, so we set him up with some night crawlers.  He caught a bunch right off the bat, so it wasn’t long before everyone else was ready to switch to a night crawler.  After the switch, it was steady fish all day long with most of them coming from 17-18’ of water off the bottom.     

Steve and Elizabeth were here for their long-awaited trip.  Steve is on active duty and has been over in Iraq from where he scheduled this trip by email months ago when he found out he was going to have a two week leave.  Elizabeth caught the most fish.  She was using a 1/100^th oz. micro-shad and Steve was using a micro-sculpin and a #16 midge.  We kept these baits five feet under a float up in the trophy area.  We fished the trophy area for a couple of hours and then headed down below Fall Creek with the same baits and finished out our trip there.  2 lb. line is all we’ve been using when the water is off.  Anything heavier and you just don’t get as many bites.  Steve only has 4 months left on his tour of duty.  I will be thinking of him and sending my best wishes that he returns home safely to his family.

 Jason and Jordan were out with me along with a couple of their other family members for an evening trip.  They were running a lot of water, 3 units with the tailwater at 708.5, so we started bottom-bouncing flies on the spinning rods and Jason was fly fishing off the back of the boat.  We caught a lot of big fish bottom-bouncing this evening.  Even when they shut the water off just before dark, we were still catching them one after another.  Jason caught the most off of his fly rod.  He was very good at fly fishing.  Apricot eggs, Y2K eggs, and peach eggs in front of #14 olive scuds, gray scuds and brown scuds were the flies we used successfully all evening.  Jordan caught the first brown we’ve seen in a while, a really nice fish.  

Lorraine and Debbie were here for a fly fishing and spin fishing trip today.  The water was off so we started with the fly rods with small micro-jigs under very small strike indicators.  The bite in the trophy area and below Fall Creek was very fast.  Having a small indicator helped catch more fish.  Lorraine had been on a losing streak and had not caught any fish on the fishing trips she’d been on at different lakes over the last couple of years.  This was her first time on Taneycomo and her first trip out with me—fortunately, we were able to totally turn her luck from bad to good.  Both Lorraine and Debbie caught fish steadily on the fly rods until about 10:00 a.m.  Once the sun got over the trees we switched to the spinning rods, went to 2 lb. line and kept our flies quite a distance from the boat.  As we got our lines away from the boat, the bite started picking up again and both Lorraine and Debbie were bringing them to the boat. 

This morning Robert, Leona, Haley and Cole got here at 6:30 a.m. There was a lot of fog and quite a few boats on the water already because it is free fishing weekend in Missouri, which means no licenses are needed for the weekend.  They were not keeping fish, so we headed up to the trophy area.  Two 1/100^th oz. micro-shads, one 256 oz. ginger jig and a micro-sculpin is what we started with.  The micro-shads were the best until 9:00 a.m. and then the micro-sculpin took the cake.  Cole was the first to start putting fish in the boat and Haley was right behind him.  Leona caught the most and Robert caught troutzilla, an awesome fish that went just over 20 inches.  He caught that fish on a micro-sculpin five feet  under  a carrot float.   

Larry and Audrey were back again for their annual fishing trip. Last year it was the whole family, so we got a pontoon boat from Scotty's Trout Dock to accommodate everyone and spent the day in the trophy area. Audrey caught the most trout and Larry caught the biggest. On today's trip Audrey caught both the most and the biggest. One unit was running when we started at 3:00 p.m. today, so we started below Fall Creek where we could fish some deeper water. We used a 1/100th oz. micro-shad set 7 feet under a float and caught our limit in the first hour. By the time we had our limit, the water was up to three units, so we chopped our rig and went to the float 'n' fly as we headed up to the trophy area. Audrey picked up the cast in no time and was catching fish right off the bat. It's not easy throwing around a 14 foot leader, but she had no trouble. A #12 OMG sowbug and a #16 gray scud kept Audrey busy with fish. Larry had an apricot egg with a #14 gray scud on. We caught fish pretty steadily until around 7:00 p.m. when the fish really turned on and we were getting bites just as soon as our flies got to the bottom. Next year when Larry and Audrey come back, we are planning to go bass fishing on Table Rock

Dave, Dave and Dave went fishing with me today.  Yes, that's right--a family of Daves!  After an hour of saying Dave and having everybody look at me, I asked the youngest Dave if people called him "Junior."  He said "no", but on another fishing trip everyone got fed up with three people saying "What?" every time someone said "Dave", so they started calling him "Steve" instead as a joke.  I happen to be partial to the name "Steve" so for the rest of the day I called the youngest Dave, "Steve".  These guys were expert fishermen.  Very good casters and hook setters and within the first hour we lost count of how many fish we had caught.  Dave the second caught the first brown trout we have caught in over a month.  It was a beautiful fish that came out of a seam below Lookout Island.  They had enough water to get up to the cable at the dam and we fished from there down to the mouth of Fall Creek.  We used a float 'n' fly and our best flies were a red shami worm in front of a #16 micro-sculpin and a #12 OMG sowbug with a #16 light or dark gray scud as the trailer. 

Walt, Wes and 12 year old Jake came out for an evening trip from 4:00 p.m. until dark.  I have been doing quite a few evening trips.  The bite has been awesome and you basically have the entire lake to yourself.  The bite from 3:00 p.m. until dark gets better by the hour.  When the sun just starts getting behind the trees is when we start catching the big ones.  Wes caught this enormous trout, over 20 inches, just above Fall Creek on the rock bar on a #16 gray scud.  He had not caught a fish that big out of Fall Creek in a long time.  But they kicked the water up to 4 units by 6:00 p.m. and we were the only boat around when that big fish pulled up on the shallow rocks to feed.  We were right there at the right time.  That fish took a long time to get into the boat, especially considering it was on two pound line.  Jake was a fantastic fisherman.  He caught more trout than his dad and Wes.  Jake did all of his own casting, mending of his line, and hook setting.  Kids often do better than the adults; they are quick and pick up what a good hook set feels like very fast.  Fishing with a float or a strike indicator really helps keep kids involved for the whole trip.  It's a lot of fun when you can see the bites.    

Today I had a pontoon trip out of Scotty's Trout Dock with the Vorsilli family from Chicago.  We had the opportunity to go up to the trophy area because they weren't keeping any of the fish.  In the trophy area you cannot possess any fish between 12 and 20 inches.  That restriction gives people the opportunity to catch a big fish and it works because we catch big fish all of the time in the trophy area.  The conditions were perfect for bottom-bouncing, which is what you need to do when you have a pontoon full of people.  You can't throw a float 'n' fly out of a pontoon boat with five people in it .  We had lots of water running, 3 units to be exact and it was cloudy with a little bit of rain.  We caught two 20 inch fish; 12 year old Daniel caught one on a #12 gray scud and Vicki caught one on a tangerine egg fly.  It's not every day you can catch two 20 inch fish out of a pontoon boat.  Two days later, Tom, Jim and Daniel Vorsilli came in my boat and we fished with the float 'n' fly on the spinning rods from 4:00 p.m. until dark and did great. Both Vicki and Daniel got a pin that Scotty's Trout Dock has from the Trophy Trout Release Program offered by the Branson chapter of Trout Unlimited for releasing their lunkers.  These 20 inch fish are hard to come by; there just are not that many of them.  It is very important to release them back into the lake.

Today's fishing was totally different from yesterday with a light three units running when Kevin and twelve year old Connor joined me.  We hit the lake at 6:30 a.m. with a tail water at 705.3.  We started with the float 'n' fly and it was just crazy how many fish were in the trophy area.  We got bit as soon as our flies got to the bottom.  An apricot egg with a #14 and a #12 gray scud was all we used for the whole trip.There was no reason to change flies because the fish didn't let up for one minute.  Connor picked up on the float 'n' fly within ten minutes and could throw it as far as he wanted. By the end of the trip he had caught 31 trout by himself with no help from me or his dad except to net the fish.  The trout fishing has been awesome all spring.  Big, hearty, hard-fighting trout--what more could you ask for?

The water was off this morning when Doug and Ryan from Texas joined me for their fishing trip.  Ryan is the most well-mannered 12 year old plus big and strong enough for his age to be a football coach's dream player. These are pictures of Ryan's first trout on a fly rod.  He picked up on the roll cast very quickly and had no problems getting his line out and setting the hook.  We had a great time.  Doug and Ryan were a pleasure to fish with and I hope I see them again next year.

Today I had Aaron out.  We were going to do some boat fishing and some wading, but the boat fishing was so good we never put waders on.  The water was off for the second day  in a row.  The last time we had the water off for a full two days the fishing was incredible and this time was the same.  The fish were fighting over which one could get to our flies first.  By the end of the trip Aaron had caught 91 trout.  I even made a few casts myself and caught a nice 22 inch rainbow.  We used micro-shads in the morning and when the sun got over the trees, we switched to a 1/100th oz. micro-sculpin and a #18 blood or zebra midge 5 feet under a strike indicator. Aaron had been looking forward to this trip for a long time and we had a terrific day.