Your one-stop website for fly fishing the White River, the Norfork Tailwater, and Lake Taneycomo
Darren's Fishing Report
“This page features the updated White River fly fishing reports contributed by Jeremy Hunt’s guide associate, Darren. He is an experienced guide on the White River and Norfork Tailwater in Arkansas and Lake Taneycomo outside Branson Missouri. The Taneycomo Trout guide team only consists of the best, most courteous and most knowledgeable White River fly fishing guides, and they are all proficient at teaching fly fishing to all skill levels of fly fishermen.”
Biography
I grew up in Northern California, in a part of the state that has an abundance of places to fish for trout and other species. My passion for fishing started on a vacation to Hat Creek when I was around eleven. We stayed in these picturesque cabins right at the base of Mount Lassen, a spectacular volcano that’s tip is 11,000-feet above sea-level. Hat Creek emerges from underground springs not too far from where we were staying. It was on these hallowed waters that I realized just how much I loved to fish for trout. Throughout the years, we made many more trips up there, and on each excursion, I would focus on learning all that I could about subtle presentations and keeping myself as stealth as possible – Hat Creek’s trout are extremely spooky. Read more...
Browns in Abundance on the North Fork of the White River - February 21, 2012
I want to start off talking about a trip to the North Fork of the White River. Jeremy invited me to go along with him and a client, and I am sure glad he did. This river is probably one of my favorite rivers to fish in this area. Every time I’ve been there I’ve had a great time, it’s never disappointed me. This trip was about putting Rick onto fish and that sure happened. No big ones were caught this day, but the number of browns caught was the best we’ve seen. When we fish here it’s about throwing streamers and Rick chucked them all day without a break. These fish were so active and aggressive it made for a stellar day.
The night before there was a thunder storm that went through and had the water up higher than other times we’ve been there, but it worked out good. Much of the areas that we would have had to row through, were made much easier and with the wind in our face at times it would have been a real workout. We did have a little challenge getting the boat under one of the low bridges, but with some effort we got it through. We checked the level of the water at the bridge before we put in and decided to go for it; we knew it would be close. As we were coming down the river and getting closer to the bridge there was a little anticipation to whether we would make it under. We continued to catch fish all the way up to the bridge, so it distracted us from thinking about it too much. Rick was still throwing streamers and Jeremy had asked me to fish with the Miracle Fly to see how it would do and it lived up to its reputation, knocking them silly.
The decision was made to go over to the side that had no current and try there which was a good idea, because the boat was a few inches to high from going under the bridge. With all of us out of the boat Jeremy said we should turn the boat around and go through backwards, due to the front of the boat being our highest point. The back end went through with no problems, and then we got to the highest point in the front. With all three of us hanging on it trying to get it under the bridge. I found myself pulling down on the boat and using my head against the bridge as leverage. About half way through there was a tree root that I got my feet tangled up in that made for a little more excitement. We were all laughing through the whole event and as we cleared the other side there was a sense of relief and excitement that we had made it under and now we could get back to catching more fish.
Streamers were the most productive fly this day for catching browns, but the miracle fly held its own. I also took some time and fished with the articulated wooly worm which in some areas worked really well. It was a good follow up fly, meaning fishing from the back of the boat; I could throw into slack areas and leave it longer not having to strip in right away. Being able to fish different water than the front person using a streamer worked out well.
We finished up our day rowing into Dawt Mill, what a cool place to finish off the day. That is the coolest take out point, as you get closer you hear the roar of the falls at the dam and you see this old mill hanging over the river. The mill is now a very nice restaurant that has been renovated. They are also building a really nice patio that overlooks the river and will have a stage for bands. It reminds me of some cool trendy places I went to out in the Lake Tahoe area along the Truckee River. They are really doing a great job with the place.
I’ve been tying a lot this winter and doing videos so I haven’t had a lot of time to write, but I had such a great time fishing the North Fork that I had to make the time. My favorite part of this area of the river is the natural feel, like you’re out in the wild away from it all. If you ever get the chance or want to fish there, book a trip with Jeremy, you will be glad you did.
December 8th 2011
I just love videos- A video from awhile back that deserved some much needed attention
This was some footage from awhile back when we had some really low water. Powersite was getting an overhaul and we benefited from it. What it did was extend the river section of Lake Taneycomo. This footage was taken down below Pointe Royale and as you can see in the video it was really low. I started out when the water was up and fished the flats as the water dropped out, making for some really good fishing. Normally in this area in these flats, the water has very little current, since the lake was so low it caused the water to drop out, due to the elevation change.
After the generators were shut off, I fished my way out to the middle and had a new little stretch of water. I was mostly fishing with the Miracle Fly and my new Wooly Worm. They both worked great and I caught a lot of fish. I was down there the day before and the tree that is across the water had not fallen yet, more effects from the flood. A local guide had gone up above this section earlier when the water was up. He was able to go around the tree, but on his way back down it had dropped out and created a little obstacle for him, it added a little excitement but it didn’t end up being too difficult.
The work on Powersite is finished and Taneycomo is back to normal conditions. They are running a lot of water during the week but they had low water on Saturday. This is what happens during the winter, power is being generated to heat our homes and the wade fishing is less and less. This is why in the past I started seeking out other places to wade fish and I have come up with quite a few alternatives. Finding these access areas took a lot of time, but it has proven to be worth while.
Winter Special
We have decided to offer these “creek” areas to our clients and Taneycomo Trout is running a special for these “special waters“. We can do a 3-4 hour trip for $150. It’s really not worth much more and it wouldn’t be fare to cheat our clients because that’s just what it’s worth.
We will extend trips with water permitting. There would be an additional cost if we continue to fish but that would be up to the client and really up to the fishing conditions that day. I know what it’s like to get caught up when the fishing is great and not want to leave so we understand that. So depending on what the creeks are doing will determine our plan of action for that day. The best thing to do is call or email and we will let you know if it is a hit or miss type of day.
Note: Darren will more then likely be the guide and he spends more time then I do so it makes since to have him put you on his little pets.
December 1st 2011 The creeks are fishing great and should for the winter months to come
Well I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving with friends and family. I know I did. Taney has been running water quite a bite lately, so we have been seeking out other places to fish. We hit the North Fork of the White on Wednesday and had a great time, as you probably saw on the videos. The highlight of the day for me was hooking into a nice brown at the end of the day, what a fight this fish put up. It’s always a treat to head over to NFOW for some fishing. The people at Dawt Mill are always great and we really appreciate their hospitality. I won’t cover too much on this because I know Jeremy has already so moving on.
As winter comes on and the leaves have all fallen off the trees, I begin to get a little excited. The crowds are thinning out, the craziness of the brown run is over and things begin to settle down for the winter. With winter comes the need for power to heat homes and therefore the dams many times are generating power for that, so in the past I began searching out other places to fish. Knowing that fish like a certain temperature of water and that most our creeks are not real cold in the summer months, but in the winter they begin to make a habitat that is quite suitable for trout. Knowing where to find the fish is the tricky part, I have spent endless days scouting for fish on our creeks, and it is kind of like what we used to do when we fished for steelhead. What I have found is that there are areas that hold fish and stretches that have no fish, and you may not come across any for awhile, but now knowing those areas I don’t have to waste my time and can quickly move on to the next spot.
I think what I really like about fishing these smaller waters is that I feel a little more connected with nature, you rarely come across another person and the hunt for the trout make it all worth it. Seeing these fish in the creek and trying to make a presentation without them seeing or knowing you are there is challenging, and of course another challenge is keeping your flies out of the trees, you do go through a lot of flies.
The fish are usually smaller then in the river but every once in a while you come across a big fish, kind of like I did the other day as you will or saw on the video. My son had spotted a big brown a couple days earlier and we had tried for him with no luck. So we decided to leave and come back a few days later. When we went back to the spot we had found him before he was gone, so we moved on up and I started coming across more fish. I was casting up stream so that they would not see me and still looking for that brown. Well, I had caught a couple fish in the tail out of a pool and was inching my way forward looking for the brown, when I spotted him. He was on the bottom next to a snag that had piled up in a corner. He was about ten feet in front of me so I was pitching the “Miracle Fly” up in front of him, much like I used to do for bass. There was a branch sticking out in front of him, so it was tough to get the fly up far in enough, so that it would fall in his zone.
Finally I got the right approach, he turned and sucked it in, I watched the whole thing, and it was amazing. I set the hook; his head came up it looked perfect and with one bolt he spun and my fly popped out. I couldn’t believe it, I felt sick. Well that’s fishing so I moved on up the creek catching more fish and then I hooked into a pretty nice fish in some faster moving water. That fish bolted out and took the fly, and then went crazy that kind of helped with the frustration I was feeling over the loss of that big brown. Sorry about the sound on the video we should have fixed soon. Tight lines see you on the water.
8-26-2011
Final fishing days of summer break
If you want to do something really special with your kids consider Dry Run Creek. It is at the top of my son Jordan’s list of favorite places to fish. Jordan and his best friend Layn love to fly fish and Dry Run never disappoints us. We had Layn over for one last sleep over before school started and the boys talked me into taking them to Dry Run. They were so excited they packed up the car the night before. We headed out early Monday morning and by the end of the day they were crashed out, so it made for a very quiet drive home.
They did have quite an exciting day; they both caught some nice fish. Jordan was using Midges most of the time, and he caught about 20 cut-throats on a size 16 zebra midge. Layne tried other flies but was partial to the Miracle Fly. Jordan also caught some nice sized fish with the Miracle Fly. We had also tried dry flies but the fish were not interested. Layn caught the biggest brown and Jordan caught the biggest rainbow, so they both had a great day. If you have kids that like to fish, there is no other place I know that is more fun then Dry Run.
The next day I took them out on Taney, and we all got to fish. We were using dry flies and the top water bite was on. Taney is finally balancing out after all the flooding and we all did quite well and had a lot of fun.
8-20-11
Long time, no report, but I’m back fishing like never before!!
First I want to say I am sorry for not having anything to post for awhile. From about April to July it gets a little crazy for me. My sons play baseball on a tournament baseball team and it keeps us traveling almost every weekend and during the week he has practices in Springfield. His baseball is finally over and I can now catch my breath.
I took my two boys out night fishing on Tuesday. We started out at outlet 2 and fished our way down stream. Being out at night is sure different than daytime, the river has changed a little and makes you have to re-learn where things are, but it is still pretty much the same. It was a beautiful night and right off Jordan hooks into a nice fish, we had Josh my nine year old doing the netting and he did a great job. After the fish was in the net they noticed it wasn’t a trout, so I headed over there and saw a nice sized walleye. We took the hook out and released it.
We fished our way down to rebar hole, while listening to Josh and all his new experiences of being out in the water at night. He actually did really well and I only had to stop him once from letting his imagination run off. We only fished for a couple hours, it was one o’clock and we headed back to the car. Jordan and I on the way home made plans to head back out in the morning.
Wednesday we started above outlet two, it was a little slow so I changed out several times and finally found what they wanted, a zebra midge, but it still wasn’t on fire. There were a lot of people in outlet two that were catching a lot of fish, but I steered clear of that, those poor fish are just getting beat up. They were stacked in there due to the D.O. being so low, when the water is off D.O. is running down around 3.2 ppm. Anything below 4 the fish begin to struggle and with the cloud cover that doesn’t help either due to less photosynthesis. The good thing for us is that it is a lot cooler than it has been.
The high light of the day was seeing a nice sized fish take an ant pattern that Jordan had just laid out on the water. He did a perfect hook set, letting the fish take it, then after the hook set the fish made a flying leap out of the water. Jordan fought it perfectly and landed it; we took a couple pictures and released it. After we fished big hole for awhile we decided to head out and get something to eat. Overall it was a fare day for numbers of fish caught but we are going into that time of year were the D.O. gets low and we need to be more cautious of how we handle the fish. They can get depleted of oxygen easier so making sure they are revived well is important so they can swim off strong and not go belly up. Taney has some new holes after the flood, which made it a little different, which I think is a good thing. See you out on the river.
April 6 2011 A Windy Day on Taneycomo
The day started out looking like it was going to be a great day on Taneycomo with 2 units running, but as the day went on the wind became quite a nuisance. It made it really hard for my clients to cast, but they still stuck it out and had great attitudes. Jim was rewarded with a nice brown that was caught on a San Juan worm, below Point Lookout, along the wall. It fought hard and stayed deep for a long time. I knew as soon as he hooked it, it was a good fish. My excitement really elevated when I saw it was a brown. We were fishing deep so the indicator was way up the line and the fish was hooked on the trailer fly, so it made landing it a little challenging. Once in the net the fly fell out of his mouth, close call. Jim was pretty happy and I think it made his day. His wife took some pictures and then he released the fish back to the deep.
The other day when the water was off I was fishing along the shore; it was sunny so I could see the fish quite well. At one point I sat and watched as a school of fish swam by, it must have taken five minutes for them to all pass me. I have never seen so many fish schooled up like that. What was good about it was that they weren’t those small Neosho Trout that have been so abundant as of late. It was fish on, for every drift. I was using a midge and they were tearing it up. Fishing on Taneycomo has been great lately.
March 19 2011 March Madness
My son and I went with Jeremy to the Sow Bug down in Mountain Home AR. They had a good turn out, and a whole lot of tiers from all over. There were also special speakers doing presentations in some other rooms. Jeremy was one of those speakers and I was there to video the class. Jeremy was there to speak on streamer fishing on the White River and I think it was one of his best presentations so far. Even though I’m around him all the time and actually involved in doing what he was talking about in the presentation, I still picked up some new things and it also took on new meaning to me. I realized that this is all new cutting edge things that are taking place here on the White. Much like when Tom Rogers came out with new ways to fish high water on the White many years ago. I will have the video out soon so those who weren’t there can see it.
We also spent some time out with the TFO crew, trying out some of there rods. I really am impressed with TFO, especially the unique way they designed the furls of the rod to maintain a tight fit. What TFO has done is left room on the female end, so as the male side wears down it can slide up to a newer section, allowing for a like new fit for longer lasting rod's. I’m also very impressed with the turn around on rod replacement. Rods get broken and to have a company that makes it a priority to get your rod back to you in two weeks and only charge twenty five dollars to have your rod fixed is awesome. The last time I sent one in they sent me a completely new rod and in less then two weeks.
My son also got some one on one time with a Master Casting Instructor, which was really cool. After that we took Jordan to Dry Run Creek for a few hours of pristine fishing. It’s always great to get out there with a kid, and once again Jordan was blessed with a nice big brown. I was getting the camera ready when I hear the loudest yell I have ever heard in my life “set it” there were a lot of people around and I think it scared most of them, I know it scared me. The indicator hadn’t even gone down but Jeremy had seen the fly go into the big browns mouth and he let out a yell and thankfully he did because Jordan set the hook and it was fish on. After a good fight Jordan was able to get the fish swung over to where Jeremy could net it and Jordan has another big fish under his belt, lucky kid.
Friday I did a trip with Ron and his grandson Jason on Lake Taneycomo . They ran one unit all day which made for some good water and it wasn’t bad rowing in it. We started out rowing up by outlet three and started out with a little refresher course on casting, it didn’t take long and Ron had a fish on. We used midges for the first part of the day and then after eating lunch we went to the Miracle Fly and right away it started working. Later I added on a San Juan Worm trailer and it also worked well. The wind came up towards the end of the day, which isn’t a bad thing but it is much better when it is blowing down stream. It can sometimes mess with your drift. They had a good time and they are looking forward to doing it again.
March 1st 2011 High numbers on Taneycomo
The fishing on Taney has been great lately and I’m really enjoying the nice weather. Tuesday Jeremy took out a great group of guys from Illinois that we met here last year. We all met up by outlet one and we had a little time to catch up while waiting for the water to drop. They headed down the river working there way to big hole. I spent some time just past outlet two on the other side by the island fishing and visiting with a friend who was also from Illinois.
I caught fifteen fish before I saw the guys heading back up to the trucks to drive down to where they were going to take out the drift boats. That last fish I caught was a good one, it was about 18 inches and I took a picture, released it and headed to the car. We all had lunch down at the boat ramp as we checked out all the cool details on Paul and Dan’s drift boat.
Jeremy’s dad Bill showed up and I went out with him in his boat. Bill has been fishing down there a lot lately and he knew exactly where the fish were at. We started catching fish right away; we caught quite a few on midge patterns and some with the Miracle Fly as well. I caught a ton of fish, four of them were in the 17 to 18 inch range. We had a great day and I really enjoyed fishing with Bill. I always have a good time on the water with Bill, he is quite the character.
Poor handling of a trout will cause this.
Wednesday I went out and fished the flats below Pointe Royale catching one after another for two hours. I headed back to the car and decided to go up to the boat ramp and see what was happening up there. First cast I had a fish on and it was a pretty nice one, he ended up coming off up by the shore for a quick release. I caught a few more fish and called it a day. Looks like, we will be having a lot of low water for some good wade fishing this year.
February 22, 2011 Updated Fishing Report Drifting the NFOW & Taneycomo
The weather has been pretty nice and we are still having good weather. Last week Jeremy and I spent four days on the North Fork of the White and had a blast. We stayed at Dawt Mill and had great accommodations; they also took good care of shuttling us. The fishing was great and for our first time on that river we did really well. Check out the video on Jeremy’s report. We found out where the fish were holding and it wasn’t up top. The best fishing was from Blair Bridge to Dawt Mill. We also saw a lot of Eagles, which was a nice bonus.
Sunday I took a nice couple out on Taney. It was her first time fly fishing and she was a real trooper. At one point she fell on one of those muddy slippery banks, I thought the trip might be over but she toughed it out and stuck with it. Her husband had fly fished a few times and had a real desire to improve on his casting and all around fishing skills, so I spent a lot of time working with him. His technique really improved and this should help him when he fishes his home waters.
It’s always better to get some help in whatever sport you're doing. It’s a lot easier to learn the right way the first time than to try and learn after you have picked up some bad habits. Those bad habits are hard to undo and it takes a lot of doing it the right way to retrain your self. So taking the time and money to learn the proper techniques, in the long run will save you a lot of headaches.
It was a little disappointing that the water was on all day, I still don't get why it was off Monday rather than the weekend, but over all I think they had a good time.
Jan. 26 2011 - Updated Reports
A few shad are coming through the dam
Warmer weather is out there. Yesterday I had to get out and do some fishing. My car was in the shop but that wasn’t going to stop me from fishing. Instead of just staying home I decided to walk down to the river. It was a beautiful day for a walk. When I got there the water was still dropping out. It didn’t take long before I had a fish on, which was a good feeling since it’s been a while since I’ve fished my home waters. So I decided to put on something that would guarantee catching fish, the Miracle Fly was the right choice. As the water was falling out we had a good current and the fish were quite active.
I started at the lookout working my way towards the dam. The fish were cooperating until I got up to the top of KOA stretch, then it just stopped. Jeremy’s dad came down in his boat and gave me a ride down to the lower end of the trophy area. We were going to fish down there but the wind had changed directions and was blowing up stream, which ruins a drift so we headed back up top above the boat ramp. The day before Bill (Jeremy’s dad) and his friend had fished up there and had a stellar day. The wind had picked up and was blowing pretty well, a little wind is usually good but this was a little too much. Today all that was being caught were some little stockers or as Bill called them “truck trout.” Bill decided to call it a day so I had him drop me off and I headed back down stream towards Pointe Royale. I had switched to a big dry fly (a wooly worm imitation) it’s kind of like a Big Ugly. I figured with the wind I might be able to get one to rise for the occasion, but they weren’t interested.
As I was heading back I came across something of interest, a nice fat shad lying on the bank. The shad kill is starting; I had a feeling that it might be, the signs were there. I was seeing lots of seagulls and some of the fish’s bellies were stuffed. If you ever get an opportunity to fish while this is happening you will be onto something very exciting. As they are running water through the generators these shad are pulled through and then spit out into Taneycomo, and the fish go into a feeding frenzy, time to use white.
It looks like we are going to have some nice weather, you’ll want to hit the Lake during high flows for a chance at this epic fishing experience, of coarse the most productive way to fish high water is in a boat. When the water is shut off you can still get these fish to respond to a shad pattern, it may not last long, so planning is necessary. The generators have been running until around noon and shutting off for five or six hours. The fishing is good and the crowds are down, it’s a good time to be out there.
10-23-10 Fishing Report
Busy on the water
Sorry for the lack of reports, we’ve been spending a lot of time on the water and less time around the computer. The browns have arrived and I have been pursuing them hard. I also have been fishing other areas when it gets too crowded up top. This last week they have been running some water so I’ve been out in the boat, and doing well drifting from the cable down to Fall Creek. No browns were caught but we did have some nice sized rainbows. The fishing is really good as usual, when they are running water the fish seem to be really healthy and strong. I’m seeing a lot of dead fish when the water is off, I think due to low DO levels. Remember to get those fish in as quickly as possible and when taking pictures try not to keep them out of the water too long.
On another note when the water has been off and the horn blows I have been putting on the San Juan worm, sometimes trailing a scud. These fish really get into a feeding frenzy, working the edges is the most productive; the fish will be feeding along the bank. Down below outlet three is a good place to be when the horn blows. I like to be down at big hole and as the water begins to rise I will work the edges, working my way back until I’m on the other side. You really need to be aware of your surroundings, the water comes up fast but if you work it right it can be one of your most productive times fishing. As you work your way back you will want to set up at the lower end where it drops into a deeper hole, if they only blow one horn you can hang out there as long as you want. If the second horn blows once again be aware as the water comes up and move your way back. Be careful and don’t get lulled into staying out there too long, there is a section that is shallower out in the middle but can get much deeper towards your escape route.
When the water is off, I’m finding fishing to be more productive from just before noon on. As the day goes on the D.O. improves due to the sun’s photosynthesis taking place in the water. (If you would like to know more about D.O. you can go to my blog and there is an article about it). Midges, scuds, miracle fly and sculpins, are all working well.
Made a trip to the Norfork last week and it was fishing great. Since we don’t get a lot of dry fly fishing on Taney, I dedicated the whole day to using dries. I used ants, caddis, and cracklebacks, they all worked well. I had an absolute blast having browns, cutthroats and rainbows exploding on these flies. Wading the Norfork you really have to stay up on what the water is doing. You can’t just trust what they have scheduled; you need to call in about every 45 minutes. This water can come up really fast and there are not a lot of escape routes, so it’s a good idea to fish with a guide until your familiar with the waters. This river is a true river in the since you really feel like you have so many varieties of water to fish. It is also a very beautiful place to fish. I feel really privileged to be able to fish these waters; we have some great fisheries and a lot more variety than many people know about.
9-24-10 The Browns are coming
The browns are on the move, I’ve been seeing some nice browns on Taney. This is the time of year I really look forward to, the promise of cooler days and a change in the scenery. As the browns begin to move up, there is the hope of catching one of these elusive fish. Well we’ve been going out night fishing hunting some of these brutes and last night I was rewarded with a nice brown, it wasn’t one of the biggest browns I’ve seen as of late , but what made this fish so special was how it was hooked and that it was a full moon out. It is slow fishing at night when there is a full moon.
Jeremy and I decided to go out in the drift boat and try for some of the browns we had spotted earlier in the day. We had also decided to do some experimenting while we were out there, by trying some different techniques then what we usually use on Taney night fishing. Jeremy rowed us up to big hole and then gave me a Gallup’s S Blonde. This is a streamer Kelley Gallup came up with and says that half of the fish caught over 25”, by him and his clients have been caught on this fly. I had the fly tied to a sink tip; even with the sink tip this fly was quite a site shinning in the moon light, shimming on the top of the water. I began stripping it in with high expectation that this fly would bring a big explosion from the deep and it did. After about the third cast there was an enormous attack on this fly that sent adrenalin throughout my body, I reared back and it was fish on. It put up a good fight and after seeing it in the net I realized how amazing it was to have a big brown ferociously attacked my fly, in just the way I was hoping for; it made my night, no it made my week.
We fished for awhile longer trying other things but had no more brown takers. So we called it a night at about 2:30am. Another week or so and the night fishing should be on fire again, once we lose that bright moon it will get a lot better.
9-14-10
A Night Adventure on the Norfork
Tuesday the plan was to go night fishing on Taneycomo, but things changed do to the water being too high. About 10:00 PM talking with Jeremy I said we should take off and go down to Norfork and fish there, the water is off all day tomorrow. I was meaning, drive down and sleep there and fish the next day. Then it turned into we’ll fish the Norfork at night. Jeremy gave the other Darin a call to see if he wanted to go and he was up for it, so the decision was made to go. I got my stuff together and we met at the drift boat at 10:30. We arrived at the top of the Norfork at 12:30 and were in the water at 1:00 AM.
This was my first time on the Norfork so I had no idea what to expect, but once we started fishing I no longer cared or thought what it would be like, it was time to fish. The moon had already gone down and we had some fog, so it made for a very dark night. Jeremy was on the oars and Darin and I were fishing. We were both swinging wooly buggers and right off we started catching fish.
Not too far down we came up to our first shoal, time to get out and push the boat. We had some good laughs with that, being that I had never been on this river and had no idea what to expect, I decided to play it up and have some fun, making comments like I’m not getting out of this boat and other goofy things, that a first time night fisherman might say or be feeling. It had Darin and Jeremy laughing pretty good. After getting through that it opened up and we were back fishing, I stuck something that felt of a pretty good size and when we got it in, it was a good sized Walleye. After that I got on the oars and became the guide telling these guys where to cast and how to fish, more good laughs from that.
It was amazing how fast the time went by, when the sun began to come up we were only about half way through, if that. We caught a lot of fish all taking turns on the oars, it’s really cool being out with some buddies who are not selfish and only thinking of themselves. Everything flowed effortless through out the whole night and we had some good times. After the woolies started slowing down it was time to put on the Miracle Fly and it lived up to its name. It knocked them silly.
The Norfork in low water was amazing; it is a beautiful river with all types of water. The shoals are one after another and you have very few dead areas with no fish. It was constant fish on all the way down. I see why people fight so hard to keep this river in pristine shape. It would be a shame to let it go to ruin. There are rainbows, browns, cutthroats and brookies. We didn’t catch any Brooks, but plenty of all the other fish were caught in abundance.
This trip at night is not for everyone but if you like night fishing and adventure this would be one for the books. It reminded me of when I used to go four wheeling on the Rubicon Trail out in California. We would four-wheel up the trail at night, it wasn’t your every day trail, it had a lot of rock crawling and was quite an advanced trip, but it pushed your abilities and your stress level to where you have to really take control of your thoughts, and not let your mind run wild. This trip is not for the faint of heart, but if you like an adventure you may want to talk to Jeremy about a trip like this. I’ll tell you this, we had a great time and I’m looking forward to doing it again in the future.
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9-9-10 Updated Report
Great fishing on a Foggy night
Fishing here on Taney is still great. Last night I went out night fishing with Phil. What an amazing night it was. The moon is in the best phase for night fishing, it was dark and foggy with an occasional rain shower, perfect conditions. Phil started out with a white fly and I was using Jeremy’s trusty Woolly Bugger. Rarely do I ever need any other fly when night fishing. Right away I started getting hits, so Phil switched, and we both started nailing fish. Shortly after Phil switched he hooked into a nice Brown who put up a great fight. The presentation I found to work best was with a slow retrieve on the swing. Phil’s presentation was a little different but worked just as well. He was using a twitching of the fly with a pause afterwards. Many times the fish hit as soon as the fly landed on the water, so you had to be ready. We fished from 11:00pm to 2:30am and came close to a hundred fish in that time. We were hooked up 25 times with doubles, both of us having fish on at the same time was pretty cool.
The river all to ourselves
Last week I had Shawn out in the drift boat for a good day of fishing. It was one of those days that really put down some rain on us, but Shawn didn’t care he just wanted to fish. We lucked out there was no lightning so we pressed on working our way down from the boat ramp.
When we got to the top of KOA the sky opened up and it poured, but he kept putting the fly out there and was rewarded with a lot of fish. The bite really turned on when it rained, I did have to put on a bigger indicator, those little pinch-on palsa’s were too hard to see with all the splashing from the rain drops.
The rain let up down towards the bottom of KOA. I put him into some water, where I had seen some big fish holding a couple days earlier. I lined him up and had him cast to the hole where they were holding. His first cast came up short but we let it ride not wanting to disturb the water, his next cast was on the money. The wind had come up and it had started to rain again a perfect combination, the only hard part was being able to see the hit. I positioned myself where I could get a good angle on the indicator. It was hard to see the hit because the indicator was going up and down on the waves. Something looked a little different and I yelled “set!” and he did, he yelled back “big fish”. This fish just stayed down, he didn’t want to come up. We followed it around for quite a while before we got a look at it. We finally got it in, what a beautiful fish.
Shawn is a big guy so the fish didn’t look as big as it was, but even if it wasn’t the biggest fish in the river the experience of him catching that fish on this day made it like catching a fish 26” or better. There is something about being out on the water when no one else is out there, because of the weather. Also how everything lined up to be able to catch that fish made it all the more special. I think we get spoiled some times with how many fish we catch here on these waters, but every once in a while something happens that changes it up a little bit and you get that special feeling that something very unique took place.
After that we fished for a little longer and then we began to here thunder, so we decided to head back up towards the boat ramp. We got back up there just as it started dumping so we called it a day.
August 28-30 2010
A Weekend Giving Back
It was nice being able to give back to a group of people who have done so much for our country. On August 30, 31 Healing Waters came to town. It is a group of people giving back to the Veterans that have given up so much to better our lives. The Vets were all presented with TFO Fly Rods and Reels. Then we took them out on the water to put them in action.
It started out with breakfast at Lilly’s Landing from 6:30 to 7:30 the vets received their rods and were teamed up with a guide and then we headed out on the water. We had perfect weather for the whole weekend and the fishing was good. We fished until noon and then met back at the Landing for lunch. Phil and his family did a great job of providing food and accommodations for everyone. After lunch we went out for some more fishing.
When we came back in at 4:30 there was a great meal ready for us, everyone was stuffing their face and talking about all the fish they had caught. It was really cool seeing all these guys having such a good time. After that they were treated to the Rankin Brothers Show.
Sunday we came back and did it all over again. After a day of fishing Saturday, they were starting to get the hang of fly fishing and were catching more fish.
Giving back to these guys and seeing them having a good time really meant a lot to me, they have given up so much for us and I think it’s really easy to take our freedom for granted. Being around these guys knowing the sacrifices they have made for all of us really brought it home to me. I really felt blessed being a part of this and we need to keep all our men and women fighting for our country in our prayers.
8-20/23-2010
Fishing continues to still be hot on Taneycomo
Taney has been fishing great; the fish are all in really good shape and fighting hard. Also the D.O. has been at good levels, which really helps the fish.
I’ve did a few night trips last week, which were pretty productive; it sure beat fishing in the heat. If you get an opportunity to try it, you’ll find it to be a lot of fun. It’s a completely different experience then fishing in the day time. The fish hit different and being out on the water with very few people around is also a great plus. It reminds me more of what it’s like in the winter when you have the river all to yourself.
Fishing during the day has been good even in the hottest part of the day. I've only been fishing before the water comes on, mostly been enjoying the low water and calling it a day after that.
I’ve been doing well on the Miracle Fly and Midges, and occasionally using the sculpin. Covering more water seems to work the best. The fish are seeing a lot more traffic and are a little more schooled now. Don’t get stuck staying in one place for too long, it helps to search out new fish. Just because you catch a few fish in one hole don’t get caught thinking those are the only fish that will hit, there are fish everywhere in this system. When you do switch to another place make sure you adjust for the depth and different current speed. If you’re not catching fish it is probably do to the wrong presentation not lack of fish in that area.
It looks like we are in store for cooler weather, which I am very thankful for. If you would like to try night fishing give me a call: 916-390-8849
Tight lines see you on the water.
Dry Run Creek 8-12-10
I was down at Dry Run Creek again with my son and his friend. While I was there I caught some footage of a big fish being caught by Drake, who was down from Kansas City for his Birthday. That was what he wanted to, so his mom brought him down and got him a guide for the day. Ron Yarborough was the guide and did a great job of putting Drake onto a nice fish.
We had a good day of fishing a little short lived, the boys had a little too much fun the night before and were wiped out. They slept almost the whole way home.
August 6 2010 A Day on Dry Run Creek
School is going to be starting soon and my son has wanted to get down to Dry Run Creek. So Thursday night I was talking to Jeremy and mentioned that I was taking Jordan to Dry Run on Friday, not wanting to miss an opportunity to go there he jumped on going with us, even though he has been working like a dog and was pretty wiped out.
We can’t fish there but it is still so much fun being on that creek. It can be tough at times because you find yourself wanting to rip the rod away from your kid and start fishing, but all you can do is live through them, which works out as a good thing. It forces you to focus on them, and it’s really cool seeing your son catch a big fish.
We were seeing a lot of big browns and rainbows, but they were locked up tight. We later found out that there was a big event earlier in the week and the fish had been hammered pretty hard. Jordan was catching lots of small fish but the big ones weren’t interested. Jordan put on some good drifts to where all the fish had to do was open his mouth and it would be fish on.
Jeremy started changing up flies and Jordan finally hooked into a big fish, a 26 or 27 inch rainbow. He fought it well but the fish managed to get hung up on someone’s broke off line that was snagged on a big rock. It looked like 12lb mono, the line slid down Jordan’s line and popped the hook right out of the fish’s mouth, one more second and I would have had him in the net. We all stood there in disbelief. Jordan did follow it up catching a 22” bow.
On a good note we saw a lot of really nice Cutthroats in the creek. Their colors were amazing. It’s really good to see them making a come back after the floods a few years back. To my understanding when the gates from Norfork were opened, stripers were introduced into the river system and they put a hurting on the fish population.
We plan on getting back down there again soon, hopefully the fish will be settled down by then.
August 2 2010
Today I took my son Jordan out on the water. We got there at about 6 a.m. and put the boat in. There was a thick fog over the water, which made it tough to get a long drift, hard to see the indicator but it did keep the temperatures down. It didn’t take long for the heat to break through the fog and it got hot quick.
We stayed up by the ramp for a couple hours. I was seeing a lot of fish and we caught a fair amount before we started down stream. We started fishing again once we got down to KOA and caught a few more there. I happen to see a big fish in there that was pretty skittish, it may have been the one Jeremy caught the night before.
We ended the day down below the Pointe after the water had come on. It was good day fishing, but I could have done with out the heat. That’s what I like about wade fishing the water keeps you cool.
July 29,30,31 2010
The water here on Taneycomo has been good. We have been having low water for at least the first half of the day. The fish are still in good shape and fighting hard. Thursday I took a first time fly fisherman named Dan out and he caught on quick. It didn’t take long before he was casting and mending like someone who had been doing it for a while. We had a really good time, he said he is going to start fly fishing at home for bass, I think he will have fun with that.
I ended the week by taking a really nice couple out fishing. The next day I just took out the guy, she decided to do some shopping that day. We were able to get in some nice wade fishing. With the weather being extremely hot wade fishing is a refreshing way to beat the heat. We worked on getting some long drifts; I have found that the farther away you can get the fly from you the more opportunities you have to catch bigger fish. It does become a little harder to set the hook, but with a little practice you can develop that skill and it will end up paying off.
While we were out I saw some big fish that seemed to be on the move up. After my trip was done I decided to do a little fishing for myself, before they started generating. I’m glad I did, I was able to hook three fish that were close to the 20” mark and one a little smaller. I only had about 20 minutes before the water started coming up, but it was fun while it lasted.
July 11th 2010 Taneycomo
Taneycomo has been flipping back and forth with running water. It seems that for the past few weeks whenever they had the water off, I had some responsibility to do and was unable to go down and enjoy the low water. This past Saturday it finally worked out for me to fish low water and it was great. My son Josh and I went close to home, we entered at Pointe Royale across from Lookout Point. We started fishing our way up stream. I wasn't seeing too many fish in the normal spots, but it didn't take long before we found them. We saw a big fish swimming very close to the shore.
I just want to mention that I was not wearing waders, and was fishing the shore line. Many times I see people come down and rush out into the water, sending the fish into a scattering mode. Any time you can fish from shore your chance of catching a bigger fish increases. Bigger fish tend to go into survival mode when they see or hear someone invading their home.
Getting back to the big fish, as soon as I saw it, I stopped and backed up a little, giving it as much room as I could. I set the fly down as softly and started my drift towards him. The drift was just outside his line; he circled around and swam right up to it. Then he started pushing the Miracle Fly down stream, it seemed like a long ways, but in actuality it was probably only a foot or so. I kept waiting to see the fly disappear but it never did. I tried a few more times, catching some of his friends but he wouldn't commit, so I moved on up.
Jeremy had been fishing up stream and I was meeting him down at the Pointe. He and Micah were making their way down and when they got there, they decided that it was a good place to take lunch. I continued fishing above them not having any luck until I moved back down below them. I made a long drift down where the big fish was hanging out. The indicator went down I set the hook and it was the 23" rainbow I was trying to catch earlier he put up a good fight. Jeremy netted the fish for me; we took a few pics and sent him on his way.
After that we got in the boat and left, it was starting to get pretty hot, so we did a lot of shade hunting. I was totally content with catching that fish earlier and was just out to enjoy being on the water. It sure is nice knowing a body of water like we do, being able to go right to where the fish are and not having to waste time trying to find them. On the other hand the hunt can be fun when you have the time to do so.
Tight Lines see you out on the water.
June 12 2010 Taneycomo
Here is a fallow up to the "Live Report" video. Today I got up and checked the water conditions on Taneycomo, and it showed low water. So as I sat there thinking, should I get up and go, or should I get a little more rest. Well that didn’t take long, and I was out the door.
I headed up to the dam, and as I pulled into the parking lot, I noticed a lot of cars, so I made a u-turn and headed down to the boat ramp. Yes, only one car in the parking lot. I made my way down to the water by using the river trail and came out by the water tower.
My rod was set up with a midge and I decided to stick with that. The fish were rising everywhere so I started casting out into the water, it didn’t take long and I had a fish. These fish are in such great shape, they fight hard and long. Right now is the best time to be fishing these waters. The DO levels are good and the fish haven’t been pursued hard for a long time.
I had an appointment so I only fished until 11:00 and when I was leaving some of my buddies were just putting their boat in. They were heading down stream and I really wanted to go with them. Well I did the responsible thing and didn’t go, but as they were leaving I yelled out, I’ll be back.
After tacking care of business, I hooked back up with them down by Fall Creek. As I was waiting for them to come and get me I decided to start fishing, I cast out and after a few drifts I was rewarded with a nice fish. As I was bringing it in my ride was arriving.
Jeremy, little Darren and Don were in the boat. The four of us headed back up towards Pointe Royale. We took turns fishing, three lines in at a time. The fish were cooperating quite well. What was really cool was that we were catching some good sized fish. Then I hooked into a nice 19″ Brown. That fish had some beautiful color and put up a great fight. You don’t see it happen a lot on Taney, so it makes it really special when you do.
We were all using the Miracle Fly in all different colors, and they were all working. The water started to rise and the sky started turning ugly so we decided to call it a day. As we were heading back we saw a Bald Eagle that was doing a little fishing of his own. We sat and watched him for a while, until he got nervous and flew off. That was a great ending to another perfect day on Lake Taneycomo.
•May 30, 2010 • Went out with my son on Lake Taneycomo and the fishing was stellar. Evan with 4 generators running the fishing was great. My son caught a beautiful 21″ rainbow after I had caught a nice 20″ bow. I thought I was going to have the big fish of the day but he edged me out late in the day, cool deal. We caught to many fish to count and were pretty tiered at the end of the day.
The ticket was the Miracle Fly with a Beaded Scud in gray for a dropper, or with a San Juan Worm trailer. We were running deep and worked the edges. The fishing right now is great, even with higher water. Estimating on how many fish we caught yesterday would be in the range of 70 to 80 fish between the two of us. We had double hook up’s all day long, and thinking about it those numbers are modest.
Great fishing here on the White River System. Jeremy put a client onto a 24″ Rainbow the other day down in Arkansas, and many 20″ to 22″ browns. Tight Lines
May 16,2007 Low water on Taneycomo
Last week I was able to get out on the water while it was down. I woke up to get the kids up fore school and decided to check the water conditions on Taney. Seeing that the water was off I decided to go on down. The day before it was supposed to be off, but they turned it back on early in the morning, so I thought that they may do that again and decided to go close to home.
It was 6:30 and I figured I may have an hour before it started coming up. I went down at Pointe Royale below look out point. I decided to start out with a midge, which ended up being a good choice, fish were rising all over. I started out fishing the edges staying out of the water, after catching several fish I moved on out into the water and began working the fish out farther.
After catching a good amount of fish with the midge I decided to put on the Miracle Fly and work the lower column of water. Right away I started catching fish. All of the fishing I was doing had taken place in one area and I decided it was time to move on up river, I moved back out of the water and started the process all over again.
The water conditions were great we had low water with a current, which works out great for fishing down in this area. Many times I’ve been down in this area and have had slack water, when this happens the fish change there feeding pattern and many times become harder to catch.
As I moved up stream it became shallower so some adjustments were made, I had switched back to a midge because so many fish were rising. I fished my way up to the island across from the old KOA camp grounds.
What a great day of fishing. Spring is here and it was so peaceful out there, with the birds making there sounds in the back ground and the fog over the water. It was a perfect day of fishing. The fish are fighting hard and now is the best time of the year for catching lots of fish. Now is the time to book a trip or just get out there. Tight Lines see you on the water.
May 5th 2010 Spring Time Fishiing
The weather has been pretty nice, even though we were threatened with some severe weather. Branson skated by without any problems, all the bad stuff went around us once again. I've been doing some bass fishing lately. I've caught some nice fish on sculpin flies,those bass really hate them. The top water bite is starting to take off, which is always a blast.
Today my son and I went out on Taneycomo and did some trout fishing. The day started out looking like it was going to dump some rain, but it blew over and ended up being a great day to be on the water. We started the day out going to breakfast and then went and got the boat. Taney was running at 703'-704' level, 2 generators. Perfect water for fishing out of the boat.
After putting in we headed up below outlet 3 to set up our rods. I put on a peach Miracle Fly for Jordan and the same for me but with a San Juan Worm trailer (red). I had set us up for slower water and it seamed to be productive so that is how we spent most of our day.
I ran across a really big Brown, it looked to be about 26", the first time I saw him I wasn't sure what it was, then on the third pass by I was able to see it was a Brown, what a fish.
Taney is fishing well and the fish are in really great shape. even the small fish are putting up a good fight. I caught some really fat fish, that looked like a football. I forgot my camera so I don't have any pics, so I'll post some of the Bass that I've been catching.
4-3-10 Dry Run Creek
My son Jordan had one of his best friends Layn over this weekend. Friday night the little die hard fishermen were out in the pouring down rain fishing our ponds and tearing it up, catching bass. Jordan was supposed to play in a baseball tournament on Saturday but we got so much rain Friday night the fields were too wet and they had to cancel it. So what do you do when you have the day planned to watch your son play baseball and it gets canceled, you pack up and head to Dry Run Creek and that’s exactly what we did.
We got a really late start and we didn’t know how crowded it would be on Easter weekend, but we didn’t care. Layn was a first time fly fisherman that had always wanted to try it and was now getting an opportunity at one of the best trout streams in the area. If you don’t know, this creek is just for kids and the handicapped. There are many trophy size trout in this beautiful creek, which sits below Norfork Dam and runs into the Norfork River. There has been a lot of recent work done on this creek to make it better. More structure for the fish has been added, through out the creek. There are also some really nice areas with wheelchair access.
We arrived there at noon and there were quite a few cars in the parking lot, but not too bad. The fishing was a little slower than it has been in times past, but I think that was due to the traffic. People did start to clear out and the fishing began to pick up. Layn also started catching on. I spent a lot of time showing him how to read the water, so that he could get a good drift. If you don’t your chances of catching fish will really diminish, even if there are a lot of fish in there. I didn’t see a lot of fish being caught by others, but our two were tearing it up. They caught about 70 fish and they were both pretty tired and ready to go at the end, which turned out to be about 6pm. I was able to help some kids that were sitting and watching the boys catch fish. I set them up and showed them how to do it. The last I saw of them they were catching fish and pretty happy.
Jordan caught a 21” rainbow and a 22” brown and a whole bunch under those sizes. I think Layn would have had one that pushed 24” but it came off during the fight. Layn has done a lot of bass fishing and the concept of finessing in a big trout was a little new to him. He also had on some others that were in the 22” range that were lost. By the end of the day he was catching on pretty well. I really crammed in a lot of info through out the day, when I felt it was becoming too much for him I would back off and just let him fish and absorb it. Then when he was ready for more I’d give it to him. He could take it, he is one of those kids that has grown up in competitive sports and knows how to learn and apply the fundamentals of a sport.
Layn did a great job, I don’t think he lost any set ups to the trees, which was great for me. His mending and casting improved a lot. He was still a little apprehensive on when to set the hook but he still did great. He definitely walked away with a lot of info, hopefully he will remember some. Both boy’s had a great time and later were going on and on about the great day they had, and how they can’t wait to go again. What an amazing place for the kids.
3-18-10 Lake Taneycomo Report
Well Wednesday was another great day on Lake Taneycomo . We had low water once again, I could get used to this. I had a great couple that I guided today, Betty and Paul, who are from the St. Louis area. I met Paul on Taney the other day and watched him pull in a 22 inch Rainbow, he and his wife decided that they would like to do a little more fishing so we hit the water at 12 noon. Right off they started catching fish, and many times they had double hook ups. The fish were running a little on the smaller size, but what they lacked in size they sure made up for in quantity. At one point Paul mentioned “we’ve never caught fish like this.” I really enjoyed spending the day with this really nice couple.
I’ve been given permission by a home owner here in Pointe Royale to access the water from behind their home. I took Jordan down there on Monday. It’s a perfect location when we have low water. Great flats with fish all over, they were rising every where you looked. After fishing there, we went up below Lookout Point and fished around the island. The midge bite is really doing well right now, the Crackle Back seamed to work also, but the bigger fish were caught on the Miracle Fly. It looks like we may continue to have low water.
Darren
Here’s a testimonial Darren got from his trip last week.
Hi Darren,
Betty and I want Thank You for the wonderful fishing experience that you provided for us this past Wednesday, on Lake Taneycomo. Secondly, we were pleased when we went on your Fishing Report and saw our pictures and read the comments you wrote about our trip. Our four children were impressed and proud when they read your Report about their parents (us). Thirdly, even though I have mentioned a couple of time my appreciation of the assistance you willingly and pleasantly provided me, when I hooked that fish the prior Thursday; I still think often about that day, not only the catch, but also when you waded out in that cold water, practically barefooted, to assist me, a complete stranger. It goes to demonstrate that fishing is a vehicle that connects generations.
Thanks again for the experience and for your friendship. Paul Adams
March 11 2010
The weather has sure been nice the last few days. We are finally getting out of the 20’s and 30’s and even reached 78 on Wednesday. The lake levels are below pool so hopefully we will be seeing some low water soon.
I’ve been doing a little fishing on some of the creeks around and have been doing real well. The fish are typically a little smaller than what is in the river, but occasionally you’ll pick up a bigger one. I really like going out like this, very seldom do you come across another fisherman which is really nice being out there having the water to yourself.
The fishing is hit and miss, in the sense that the fish only hold in certain locations, I’ve spent a lot of time finding where they hold, but that is part of the fun, scouting for fish, walking slowly through the water looking for any shade variation in the water or any kind of movement and when you do find them it’s usually a pretty good pay off, these fish will usually hang out in groups.
I am amazed at how serene and beautiful these Ozark Creeks are, I’ve never seen anything like them, with the crystal clear water and beautiful surroundings, and it doesn’t get any better then this. I really enjoy finding water, which most people go by and never realize that there would be fish in it. It’s really rewarding when you put a fly into these waters and have a fish take your fly.
The other day I was fishing with my son on some ponds near our home. We were fishing for bass, I had a Wooly Bugger on that my son had tied. The bass were not cooperating, there is a little stream that runs into the pond and then goes out and down this little dam. I decided to go to the bottom and throw in. Right off I had a hit but missed it, so I threw back in and the line started taking off, I set the hook and saw the flash of a little rainbow trout. I brought it in took a picture and released it.
The best part was my Father in Law (Roy) had come down and was harassing me in kind of a prideful way,” where are all these fish that you catch, I’m not seeing you catch any”. I said a little prayer to keep myself from saying something disrespectful and then the idea came to try the stream coming out of the pond and was rewarded with catching this fish out of this little trickle of water, we were all shocked. I kept a good attitude while my Father in Law was giving it to me. I guess God doesn’t like pride either. I think Roy was as surprised as I was when I caught that trout, it made for good conversation when we got back to the house, and he had to eat a little humble pie.
I had a little time Thursday so I went down to Lake Taneycomo , below outlet one. When I got there I walked down to the water and saw a gentleman fishing, his wife had just gone up to the car and he was trying to get in a little more time on the water, I could relate to him, not wanting to leave. His name is Paul, he and his wife are from St. Louis . I started fishing up above him and noticed he had one hooked, I could tell it was a bigger fish and it seemed like he could use a little help, so I came back down and gave him a little encouragement on how to land it, which he seemed to really appreciate. It’s really cool to share a moment like this with someone from another area who’s hoping to catch something bigger than your normal stocker. I think sometimes we get spoiled with what we have here and forget what it’s like for someone else to come catch these beautiful fish.
The water was moving fast where he had it on, so I mentioned that he may want to land it down in some back water, which he did. I asked him if he had a camera and I would take a picture for him to show his wife. He didn’t have one so I took one for him with mine and am going to e-mail it to him. The fish was a beautiful 22 inch rainbow with some nice color. He was very thankful, and I really enjoyed being a part of it.
After he left I worked my way up stream catching some small fish and then hooked into a nice 20 inch rainbow. Man these fish have some really vive rant colors, they are amazing right now. I got a picture and then let it go. I did hook another nice one but he broke off.
I was using a peach Miracle Fly with 6x tippet. Even with having the water higher then what we would like for good wading, it still seems to be good fishing right now. These fish are staying real close to the shore line, out of the current. The key is not to always come down and head straight into the water. I don’t know how many times I’ve watched people come down; wade right out into the water displacing the fish. They either head out into deeper water or they go on up above where they won’t have an opportunity to catch one. On this day I wasn’t even wearing my waders; I was just going along looking for fish, even staying back away from the waters edge, when I would spot them I would go up a little farther and then start working the water.
It looks like those smaller fish are starting to thin out and larger fish are being taken. I think when these smaller Neosho trout are planted they kind of go a little crazy and are still in that hatchery mode. But it looks like they are starting to balance out. Jeremy calls them Guarder Fish; they seem to prevent us from catching those bigger fish, which we hate at times. They remind me of the little puppy you bring home and your older more seasoned dog kind of just calmly exist, while the puppy runs around all crazy. As soon as you try and give any attention to your old faithful dog, that has been with you for ever, that little puppy comes over and starts jumping in between, licking your hand, nipping the face of your other dog, basically bugging the heck out of you, until you finally put him outside. Well hopefully those smaller fish are finally outside and we can start catching those bigger fish once again.
Tight Lines,
Darren
February 23, 2010 Amazing Day on Lake Taneycomo
Fishing today was amazing. Last night I checked the water schedule so when Jeremy called me in the morning I knew there was low water at noon, he had the same thing on his mind, so we set a time to meet. They had low water Monday also and I was able to get in a couple hours before they blasted the horn three times, boy did that water come up fast.
I fished down at Pointe Royale, and I started out fishing the Miracle Fly, mainly because that’s what I had set up. But it didn’t take long before I changed to a midge. I noticed that there was a lot of fish rising to the surface, but the biggest key was that there were thousands of dead midges floating on the water. I was thinking that I had water on my glasses or I was seeing spots. It almost looked like when the seeds from a cottonwood tree blow onto the water. So when you come across this, it would be a good time to put on a midge. You’ll also want to fish it close to the surface, about 20 inches from your indicator.
Today we took Jeremy’s boat out on Taney about noon. Jeremy started out throwing streamers and I was putting the Miracle Fly to good use. The water was still falling and the fish were still in transition. With the water coming down we still had a little current so the Miracle Fly was working well, but as the currant slowed down so did the bite. I looked back and Jeremy was changing out flies. Then I herd him heckling me, in kind of a song. Basically saying the bite was off and its time to change, how long are you going to wait? There was more to it but I got the hint, and switched to a midge, and was grateful I did.
Winter time is a great time for a midge bite. In the winter fish really zone in on the midge, as we found out today. We had low water from noon to 4 p.m. and the midge bite didn’t start until about two. In those two hours we probably landed a hundred fish, it was non stop action. It’s really great to have these kinds of days it really improves your hook set ratio. I played and coached Baseball, in baseball we practice repetition, so that our reactions take over and we don’t have to think to hit the ball. We’ll that happened on the water today, we got our repetition and it was great, after a while it was so effortless to hook them, our reactions would just take over.
When the horn blew I said, well that’s over and Jeremy’s response was it needed to be. I’m sure he was right, who would ever want to stop when almost every cast you had another one on, it was incredible. We planned on getting some footage today, but neither one of us wanted to forgo fishing to film, it was just one of those days. I did manage to film a little and I will post that for you.
On another note, Sunday I fished one of the creeks here in town. It’s hit or miss with these creeks; the fish are not always there. I was sitting in the car watching to see if there was any action going on in the water; it was raining pretty hard so I wasn’t in any hurry. I noticed some fish rising so I headed out there, my second catch was a pretty nice fish for these creeks; it was about 17 inches and really put up a good fight. Shortly after that I noticed two guys pull up and asked if the fish were biting. I asked them where they were from, they said Tulsa and they were leaving that day. They seemed like nice guys, I noticed one of them starting to go in where it was a little deep. The water was pretty cloudy from the rain so you couldn’t see what it was like. It’s always hard when you don’t know the water, so I gave them directions where to go in and where the fish hold. It wasn’t the best fishing with the water being discolored but I did see them catching fish.
With Table Rock getting close to pool we should be getting more low water, I’m looking forward to that. The fishing is going strong and so are the fish, so book your trips with Jeremy. He really does have a sixth sense on what to use and where to go, in an ever changing environment, like our tail waters here on the White River system. I always enjoy fishing with Jeremy and I’ve learned so much from him. Granted you won’t be able to learn it all in one or two times going out with him, but you will learn enough to take your fishing to another level. I feel really blessed to be able to fish with him as much as I do. You’re not always going to be able to go out and catch a hundred fish like we did today. It was awesome and we all wish we could have more days like these, but the truth is conditions change. If you can learn what to do different when things change or the conditions are tough, it will make your day much more enjoyable. If you have a desire to learn these types of things, then book a trip with Jeremy and you’ll really learn a lot.
Tight Lines,
Darren
February 10 2010 Low water at Taneycomo
Today I was driving across Table Rock Dam and noticed the water was down on Taney.So I ran home got my gear and jammed back over to the water. It’s been a long time since I’ve fished low water, so I was pretty excited. I started out throwing a sculpin, I had one good hit and that was all. I then switched to old faithful, the “Miracle Fly”. I started catching fish right away. That fly really does catch fish.
I was having a little trouble setting the hook due to having tennis elbow, it’s really fishing elbow. Last week when we were at the White on opening day I hurt it setting the hook on a fish. The injury actually started when I was pitching to my son and he hit a line drive back at me, I was able to get my arm up before it hit me in the face. The ball hit me on the tendon, below the elbow. I was missing quite a few fish, until I figured out another way to set the hook, then I started hooking them.
I went up by the cable and came across this huge crawdad. I’ve never seen one so big, she was full of eggs as you can see on the video.
Well for all of us who enjoy fishing low water, we will hopefully be getting more soon. I only got to fish a short time before the water came back up, but it sure was nice while it lasted.
January 13 2010 Fishing Two Units At Taneycomo
The cold has finally broke, what a relief. Well at least it was a relief to those used to warmer weather. I was at the gas station with my brother in law getting gas for his boat, he just moved out here and wanted to go out and fish. While we were getting the gas I noticed another couple of guys with a boat, one of them came over and asked for some info on where to launch, I told him, and then the weather came up. He mentioned he had moved down from Minnesota. I said that our cold weather probably wasn’t that cold for him he laughed and agreed.
The fish were really biting they seemed to like the weather too. We launched and went up to the cable and began catching fish on the first drift. I started out using the miracle fly and never looked back; it was catching fish on every drift.
Taney was running at 704’ most of the day which is a perfect amount, for a good drift. The upper parts on both sides were real productive. On the south side we were catching fish from the cable down to the big hole, and on the north side from the cable to just above outlet three. We picked some up through the K.O.A. area but it really picked up down at the island below Lookout Point. We were picking up two or three fish on each drift, starting above the Island and on down to the bottom of it. Switching on over to the other side it
was also good but not as productive. We then went on down drifting the bluffs picking up fish through out that run but it was a lot slower. We switched sides by the tennis courts and did real well all the way to fall creek. After that we made another run back up to the top at the cable, we made three more drifts down to the Big Hole and called it a day. Most of our drifts were spent up top, but it was good all the way down to Fall Creek. I lost count of how many fish we had caught after the first hour, so I don’t have an accurate count, but I know it was a lot.
My brother in law is a great bass fisherman and even though he hasn’t done a lot of fly fishing, with a little instruction he was doing great catching one fish after another. It is a little different hook set and with a little coaching he was setting the hook like a pro, I never saw him rip any trout’s heads off. Well, it was another great day fishing down at Taney.
Tight Lines,
Darren
December 10 2009 Fishing the Creeks
I went out Wednesday and fished some of my favorite creeks. I fished for about three hours and caught thirty fish. I did a lot of scouting and it seams like the fish are not holding in the areas I fished last year. In the places I did find fish, it was quite productive. I started out with a small wooly bugger and had so much success I stuck with it most of the time. I did find a spot later in the day where the fish were having a field day on a chamois worm.
Even with Table Rock down they are still running water below. We had low water for a few days but unfortunately it didn’t last long. Hopefully we will see more low water soon. Well, winter is here and if you can handle the cold it is a great time to fish. There are less people here and the DO level is higher so the fish are happy and are starting to put up a good fight.
My family and I are heading out to Northern California for the holidays. We are starting out in Sacramento and I plan on taking my son Jordan to Putah Creek, for some good tail water fishing below Lake Berryessa. I’ve seen some you tube videos that show some pretty big fish in there so hopefully we will hook a few. Then we head further north to Redding where I grew up. We will check to see if there is Steelhead running in the Trinity River, if so we will do some fishing there. I’m also looking forward to taking Jordan to the upper Sacramento River for some good trout fishing. I should have some good reports to share when we get back. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and I look forward to sharing with you next year.
November 26 2009
Report coming soon...
Looks like were back to low water, it’s been a long time coming. I went out Saturday at about five a.m., and threw wooly buggers until the sun came up, then switched to the miracle fly, Jeremy’s miracle fly not that other one. I did well swinging the wooly bugger and caught quite a few below outlet 2 and worked my way down to the gauntlet. After the sun came up the woolly bugger began to slow down but picked right up once I switched to the miracle fly. I caught lots of fish but wasn’t catching any bigger ones. I didn’t see any big ones either.
My son and I went out in the boat Sunday after noon. We started fishing at Fall Creek around the outlet and picked up three or four. We then moved up to the gravel bar behind the houses at Pointe. We were seeing a lot of fish all around the shore, having a field day with all the scuds. Many of the fish you could see, you could see their backs sticking out of the water. They didn’t seem to want anything I was giving them, but the fish out in the channel sure did. We were staying in as close as we could with the trolling motor and moving up through the channel. We were getting hits about every drift.
After I got the boat put away Jeremy and I went out night fishing we started below outlet one and fished all the way to Big Hole. We didn’t catch any trout until we got to outlet 2, above, we only caught warm water fish, bluegill and goggle-eye.
Wednesday I took my kids to Dry Run Creek. This was my seven year olds first time to Dry Run and it was mostly about putting him on some fish. Right away he started catching fish. It was a great experience for him! He caught several small browns, but no big ones. I didn’t see any big browns in there this time, they have moved out, so I think the window has closed for the big browns, but we did see some huge rainbows, which we were fortunate enough to watch Jordan put on a fine display of execution to hook two of these beautiful fish. We had fished our way up the creek focusing on Josh catching fish. On our way back down we saw two big rainbows fighting in some shallow water. They looked like they were fighting over this spot for making redds. We headed down to sneak up on them and see if we couldn’t catch one. Jordan stayed up a ways so he wouldn’t alarm the fish. I went up on a rock to be his eyes and on the third drift one of them was on. The fish kept on fighting each other, not knowing he was hooked. After he realized he was hooked he forgot about the other fish and the fight was on. It’s amazing how good Jordan has gotten at fighting big fish and with a barbless hook, at that. This one was a 23” male and had a pretty big girth. After we took some pictures we moved down to the next hole and I saw another big rainbow. Jordan put on a great drift to entice this big brute to take the fly and another good fight was on. When I netted this one it barley fit in the net, and as I was bringing it up it bent the net. I thought it was going to snap in half. Then as I was bringing it over to the shore it almost jumped out, I thought to myself, what a fish. We took some pictures, revived and then released it. It was great watching this big rainbow swim off knowing he will be caught another time. I like to go to places like Dry Run where it is catch and release only, I like to think by releasing a fish it insures us to be able to catch them again. Anyway we had a great day and made some great memories with my two boys.
November 19 2009
Jeremy and I went out for some creek fishing on Wednesday for another great day of fishing. I caught some good footage of Jeremy in action. Check out his technique, he had those fish in a frenzy chasing after his fly. He was being proactive, rather than just floating a fly down stream and waiting for the indicator to go down. Every time you go out onto a body of water you need to be open to what the fish are responding to. I don’t know how many times I’ve gone out and seen the fish respond to something I’ve done on accident. If you have the time to try some things that are different than the normal way to fish a certain fly, you may discover other fishing tactics.
I sometimes do goofy things when I’m out alone just to study reactions of the fish, many times I’ve been told “that’s not the way to fish that” and most times they’re right, every once in awhile you come across something that works well, just like Jeremy did in this video. He probably saw a reaction that the fish responded to and started duplicating it and it was a pattern that worked on this particular day. You may need a different pattern every day to catch fish, the fish change what and how they like something presented to them. If you can figure out what it is, many times it will carry through out that whole eco system, meaning it will work on other areas and fish for that day.
Everything is about learning and studying these fish so you can have more confidence in what you’re doing. I like sight fishing so I can study how they respond to a certain technique, so when I get into some water where I can’t see the fish I have a better understanding of what they are doing, and how I can catch them.
On another note we came across a beautiful 24 inch rainbow in this tiny creek that we were fishing, boy what a sight. We will be going back to try and catch him, he was a little too skittish on this day. Now that we know he’s there, we’ll be back to see if we can fool him. Tight Lines and have fun fishing.
November 13 2009
Dry Run Creek
Made a run down to Dry Run Creek on Wednesday, with my son Jordan. He’s wanted to go for a while, well ever since Jeremy took the other Jordan down there and caught all those Browns. Man what a day, it was incredible. We got there at 8 a.m. and the parking lot was empty, always a good sign. You want to get there early, because there is two holes that hold big fish and the fish have had no disturbance all night. That’s your best opportunity to hook a big one, but with the right techniques you’ll still be able to hook into those bigger fish. Using the same set up that Jeremy has showed us in the past and some grace from above, I was able to put Jordan onto some great fish. He started right off catching a nice brown about 19” and his second fish was a 23” brown, beautiful fish. Not too long after that he hooked the big one pushing 26 inches. It’s funny, Jordan was having a lot of smaller fish hitting and he didn’t want to set the hook, but I mentioned that one of those could be a big fish, after it gets lighter you can sight fish more but earlier in the morning you can’t see what’s down there. So he must of got the hint because shortly after that, bam big fish on. It was amazing; Jordan did so good to get that fish in, and it took us quite a ways down the creek. He had to fight it through some difficult water, to get it in. We took some pics and then got back at it.
We worked our way up the creek, oh I forgot to mention we were the only ones there all day, we had the whole creek to our self, which was great. The conservation group has done a great job renovating the creek. There were some new places holding fish, and I spoke with a game warden that said they are going to dredge out some more holes throughout the creek. He caught fish all the way up, one nice 22” rainbow in this one section that is like a canal with some slower moving water. It reminded me of some of the places I used to fish out in California, a small creek flowing through a meadow. They have set it up to give the kids lots of different types of water to fish, it’s great.
On up the creek he caught another nice fish, a 25” rainbow that was another good fight. It had some nice coloring on him. There was lot more fish that were caught but not all made it on the camera. We fished from 8a.m. to 4 p.m. my son was exhausted, he slept the whole way home. It’s the experience of a life time; if you have kids you really will want to get them there. Either Jeremy or I would be happy to share this experience with you and your kids, and if you don’t have kids you may want to barrow some, bless them with a trip of a life time. My son has learned so much from fishing this water and catching so many quality sized fish. Those are memories that will last a life time. We’ve gone three times and each time he’s caught a big fish, first time 26” Rainbow, second time 27” Rainbow, third time a 22” and 25” Rainbow, and Browns 23”, one pushing 26 inches and many that were under those sizes. This was a great experience, try it out, you wont be disappointed.
November 9th 2009
I haven’t written for awhile, mostly due to high water. Without a boat you’re pretty much stuck to the outlets and that gets old quick. I’ve been believing for a boat and guess what; a friend from our church gave me one. Pretty cool, I took it out Sunday afternoon with my family; they had a blast and my son Jordan was on as usual. He was tearing it up with the most fish caught. We fished for about one and half hours and caught twelve fish, not bad for our first time out. I went and did drifts like I’ve done when out with Jeremy and it worked great. Now when there’s high water I will still be able to fish.
With the high water I did some fishing with my son on some bass ponds. The bass are feeding up for winter, we where throwing Woolley Buggers and catching bass and bluegill. I got some footage of my son brining in a bluegill and a bass comes up and engulfs it.
Click on bluegill engulfed by bass. You’ll see the bluegill fly out of the bass’s mouth, pretty funny. You can also look at some footage I got today of two trout spawning. I was amazed at what I saw. I’ve seen the male fish in this creek before, he was hanging out in that area last week, as a matter of fact I hooked him but he got off. I was having one of those days, I forgot how to hook a fish, and Jeremy was getting quite the kick out of that. I was really giving him some ammunition for some good ribbing. Today when I went by he was alone and wanted nothing to do with any flies. On my way back I saw another fish in there with him, which I thought was unusual, because he had been chasing fish off every time I’ve seen him. I pulled out the video camera and began videoing. It was really cool seeing her dropping her eggs and him chasing off these two other fish that were trying to steal the eggs. Then I saw him fertilize the eggs, it was amazing. The fishing was great also caught lots of fish in some small water it was great.
Looks like were getting closer to having low water again. That will be good to see. The fishing should be good, after having a break from us all wading in their water.
October 13th 2009
As most of you know, that last storm dumped a lot of rain which has brought Table Rock up 8 to 9 feet above pool, which has forced them to open all ten flood gates, the lake is slowly dropping. Being as high as the water is Jeremy, Summer and I went down to the White, which turned out to be a great day of fishing.
We started out throwing streamers up at the dam nothing to big until Summer hooked into a nice Brown and then I hooked into my first Cutthroat, we had them both on at the same time and netted them one after another. Both of these fish were beautiful fish, it was really cool seeing them both together. That was the highlight of the day.
Jeremy is on a kick of catching some not so common fish for the area. He caught a nice large mouth the day before and a large walleye on this day. I’m looking forward to going back it was nice fishing some new water. Hopefully they can get Table Rock down so we can get some good brown fishing in. We stopped at Taney on the way back and talked with some locals that saw a huge brown down at the fish latter, so we went down there and saw a brown that may go over 30 pounds, it looked like a salmon.
September 22,23 2009
The Browns are starting. I went down to Taney Tuesday morning and the water was off. I caught three or four thinking this is a great start and the fish are biting, then the horn went off three times, we had 3 units coming at us. I moved my way back towards outlet 3 and the water went up quickly; I met another discouraged fisherman from St. Louis. We talked a while about what a bummer this was and then I walked back up to the car.
Not really wanting to call it a day, I decided to put down my pride and go down to outlet 2. Boy I am sure glad I did, the browns came in over night and I ended up catching about fifteen browns and just as many rainbows. They were packed in there. I also saw 2 rainbows caught that weighed 5lbs. each and saw one swim by that was twice that size. As one of the 5lb. fish were being reeled in, this huge fish swam by.
Wednesday I went back down there to fish, I was doing alright when I look up and there was a guy coming down from above outlet 2, with a fish on, line going out into the middle of the river and the fish in a bee line headed down river.
He got to the outlet and he wasn’t sure where to cross. He asked me to take his rod, so I waded across to where he could pass it to me. I then started chasing the fish down river until he (Jim) caught up to me and then I gave it back to him.
We continued down river at a fast pace. The fish wasn’t slowing down any, and Jim asked me to take back over at about half way down between outlet 2 and 3, all I could think was I hope I don’t loose this fish. I came up to outlet 3, crossing it as fast as I could in waste deep water.
We got down about another 150 yards and the fish finally came to a stop. Jim caught back up and I gave him the rod. He started making some headway and was bringing him in, the fish was now about 30 yards out and I herd a snap, followed by a loud nooooo! After sticking with it for about a half a mile, ducking trees, climbing over rocks, all in high water, we were very disappointed.
His line had snapped above the indicator and I could still see it as the fish was swimming off. It’s amazing what you’ll do when your adrenaline is pumping. I would have never gone out that far with the water up, but it wasn’t that bad. I ended up finding another place to fish in higher water and I was also seeing a lot of fish out there.
I finally caught up to the indicator but when I got close the fish took off, we kept going and I was finally able to see it, it was a big brown. Well we put up a good fight but he won. It was a great experience and I’m glad to have been apart of it.
I went back up to fish some more, but it was pretty packed so I went up to outlet 1 and it was also packed, I did end up catching quite a few browns but not as many as the day before.
September 19 2009 High Water
They ran water all day Saturday; they actually started on Friday so I didn’t go night fishing. I did get out there about noon Sunday with my son Jordan. It was packed with people below the dam; it sure is a lot better during the week.
As we walked out to the big hole I was looking for a place I could get us in to fish, there were people fishing from rebar hole all the way down to the big hole. As we were walking out there about three or four people left, so we moved in below the tree. I was throwing a sculpin and right off they started going after it, but I couldn’t get any hooked. Then they got used to seeing it, not having too many options to fish other water I switched to the miracle fly and caught a few, then changed to a midge where I picked up a brown. Right after that the horn blew, I hooked one more before the water pushed us out. I did see one huge brown in there but he wasn’t interested in anything I had to offer.
My son was ready to go home so I took him back to the house and then went down at Pointe Royale, no crowds it was great. They were running 1 unit so I decided to swing a woolly bugger on sink tippet. That seemed to work pretty good, I fished for a couple hours and caught some fish, but as the water continued to go up it was getting less productive so I called it a day.
September 17 2009
Well I was out in California for three weeks for business and I am glad to be back. I really missed my family and our great fishing. I got a call from Jeremy on Monday to go out and fish. I felt like a little kid that was going fishing. Taney looked great and was still fishing well. Jeremy hooked into a big fish and he gave me the camera, I really got some good footage of him fighting that fish, but I made a big mistake and didn’t get the recording going, rooky move.
We are starting to see some browns mixed in with the bows. Wednesday I hooked into a good sized brown and fought him for a little while before the hook popped out. He was really running and stripping out line, it was while the water was at one unit so I couldn’t chase him out to far, had the water been down I could have closed the distance a little closer and may have got him in. He hit on a light colored san juan worm. I did see some other hogs in there when the water was down.
Will be doing a lot of night fishing from now on looking for those bigger fish. We went out Monday night. I picked up some good pointers from Jeremy, which made it one of my most productive nights fishing. I’ll keep you updated on the hunt for big browns. We are planning on going out tonight.
August 19 2009
We’ve had high water this week, so I haven’t been down to fish much, but mostly because I had family in from out of town. I was out Wednesday with my oldest son and on the way back home I pulled in and went down to outlet one, there weren’t too many cars down there so I decided to go down and fish. When I walked down I saw there were a lot of fish in the outlet. I usually don’t fish the outlets, but I hadn’t been out much in the last week. There were only two people down there so my son and I decided to fish it.
Right away we started catching fish, Jordan was using the miracle fly and I was using one also, I soon switched out to a San Juan worm, then switched to a tan scud. I put on quite a few different scud patterns and sizes, catching fish on all of them, but soon they would stop hitting that fly and I would have to switch, I would also switch using weight to no weight, but the same thing would happen, they would stop hitting. The one thing I noticed was, that Jordan was using the same fly, and kept continually catching fish. He wasn’t switching out changing flies, because he didn’t need to.
I haven’t seen that many fish in the outlets since last year; they must like the DO. We caught quite a few browns which was cool and I was also able to remove some flies that had been broke off in some trout’s mouths.
Soon a few more experienced outlet fishermen were down there, we were all casting in sequence like a well oiled machine, it’s pretty funny to watch, but soon there were more and more people in there and then things started to happen, combat fishing at it’s finest. Every one had great attitudes about it which was nice, but we decided it was best to leave.
Tight Lines,
Darren
August 12 2009
Fishing for the last three months has been absolutely great.What an amazing fishery we have here in Branson. Living so close to Taneycomo, I am able to frequent it quite often.
I've been noticing some changes in how the fish are responding. Here in the beginning of August the amount of fish being caught has begun to decrease. I've been findingthat I'm catching less and less fish from what it's been. Although, more fish are still being caught, compared to many rivers during good periods of time.
I've found myself in conversations with friends on the river discussing what's going on here. Part of it is; that for those three months, we were so spoiled that when things change a little, it kind of freaks us out and we started questioning our techniques, is the moon having an effect on the fishing, have the fish been cleaned out, have they moved on, or are they so smart that they know not to take that fly.
Although some of these things could have an effect, I think there is a bigger culprit at work. The D.O. (Dissolved Oxygen) levels are down. In the back of my mind, I've been thinking when will those low levels be back. After having one of those slow days fishing, I was talking with Jeremy and he mentioned "I wonder what the D.O. is?", so when I got home I looked it up and found it, the day before was at 4.4mg/l or 4.4ppm (parts per million) it may have been lower than that today. Trout need a minimum of 5 to 6ppm, so it's getting into a uncomfortable place for them.
Our fish are running on low amounts of oxygen, it would be like us living at sea level and then being taken to 14,000 ft. with no oxygen mask.
Part of the problem is that our water on Taney comes from the bottom of Table Rock, where the D.O. levels are low. Organic matter accumulates and decomposes at the bottom . Bacteria causes organic matter to be decomposed and oxygen is used in this process.
The top of the lake is where the highest amounts of oxygen is. Oxygen is produced by the process of photosynthesis, the plants use the light as their energy source to produce oxygen, but as the water begins to warm, it becomes saturated more easily with oxygen, it therefore holds less and less D.O. The oxygen is not able to dissolve into the water when it is at a higher temp, like in summer. Colder water is able to hold more dissolved oxygen.
When organic matter was washed into Table Rock during the flood, it caused more decomposition to take place and is continuing to have an effect on our DO levels. Just about the time (around noon)the DO levels reach a good level for the fish on Taney, they start generating and the water from the bottom of Table Rock causes a drastic drop in DO levels.
Moving on to the tail water at Taney. The photosynthesis takes place, at the upper column of a lake, which all levels of Taney would be considered the top of a lake because it's so shallow. The good thing is that the water on Taney is cold as it comes out of Table Rock and can hold more DO but for it to be produced in time for the fish at the dam , seems impossible. Remember it is coming out from the bottom of the lake where it has been depleted from DO. The only chance for it to pick any up is from where you have running water like the rebar hole and the outlets or windy days. The agitation of the water causes the oxygen to dissolve and brings the level back up. So the next day its windy and your struggling to get a good drift in your boat or your fly is curling back and hitting you in the head don't get mad remember it may be helping those fish you love to catch.
Something to remember as we go into this tough time for our fish. Think of being on a mountain 12,000ft and having a rope tied to you and being pulled by a car up a hill. So you'll want to get them in as quick as possible and make sure you get them revived before sending them out to go belly up.
The DO levels will be the lowest early in the mornings, because the sun has been gone the longest. They will also be lower when it is hotter, colder days will produce higher DO levels. Also as the barometric pressure rises the water will be able to absorb more oxygen and mix into dissolved oxygen. This may be why in the summer, on rainy days the fishing is better, than on a hot, calm day with no wind.If the waters DO level drops between 3.0 & 4.0ppm, fish will begin surfacing to the top and you'll see them sipping for air. Right now we are having mornings at 4.4ppm and going up to around 7.0ppm - 9.0ppm on the days when we have wind. But when the generators come on it goes back down. On a cloudy day, where the barometric pressure doesn't go up, you may have a low DO level causing the fishing to be slower. All these factors can change the DO levels and there is many different scenarios that can change it.
Well, if you made it through this whole article you now know more than you need to know about DO. Hopefully it answered a few questions for you about what has been going on and gave you some helpful tips about when to try your flies.
June 3 2009
Report from the field..
Well I went down were Jeremy was fishing on the video at Taney. I got there at about 5:30 Wednesday morning. My first cast out I had a hit I set the hook with a miss I let it sit and I saw a huge fish come up and take it, fish on it took off out towards the middle then came back in, then it made a run up past the cable, this went on for a while and then the dreaded snap he broke me off. I only saw him a few times and he was big.
Even though I lost that fish it was still a great day, the fishing was the best I’ve seen in along time, it was cloudy, not too hot and low water a perfect day. At times it was fish on as soon as you could get your fly back in the water. I did catch another nice fish that was 20” and really fat. I took some pics and I’m going to try and get them off my phone, hopefully I can I’ve been having some difficulty with cell phones, yesterday my screen went out, so I used an old phone we had and it doesn’t seem to work now that I’m home, hopefully the pics got saved to my sim card and I can retrieve them.
Its really nice fishing during the week, it wasn’t too crowded. At about 10:30 it started slowing down so I made my way down river, passing up the areas that have a crowd whenever you go. I entered back in down below outlet 2 and right off I had a fish on. I caught about five fish wading down the middle of the river to rebar hole. Rebar hole was pretty packed but I did have one opportunity to get my line in and hooked a nice fish, it looked like a nice fish but the fly popped out, I kind of tried to horse him in because I didn’t want to impede on someone down below.
There wasn’t anyone down below rebar hole so I moved on down. This ended up being pretty cool, I hooked five browns in there nothing huge but they fought well and were sure pretty. I saw some big fish in there that looked over 24” but I couldn’t get them to hit they were too smart, I need to go early in the morning and try. Along with those browns I also caught a bunch of rainbows and one about 17” that was really red and a big hook jaw.
I got down below the stump and the siren blew, I fished a little longer until the water pushed me out. The fish all looked really healthy and fought really hard. It was a great day fishing and catching and my arm was pretty tired. Sorry I couldn't get the pics they're gone.
Tight Lines
Darren
May 23, 2009 Taneycomo- great water for everybody
So I’ve been fishing Taney for a few weeks and it’s been fishing as good as it ever, especially for higher water. They’ve been letting down the water levels, leaving it off at night and turning one, then two and then all four generators by noon. So low water is happening in the morning if you plan on doing some wading. I prefer the boat still because the water is so clear you can see most the takes. A lot of good quality rainbows are also being caught, with most being between 14-17 inches. Today I was rigged with two flies and got a hit on both. The first time I hooked two fish at the same time in high water. I thought it was pretty cool to see. I’ll write more later, but my buddy Darren sent me a report as well.
Report from the field.
Well they’ve finally been able to give us some low water here on Taney. With all the rain causing high water it’s been tough to get in any fishing without a boat. This week they started lowering the water around twelve midnight until five or six in the morning.
I set the alarm for midnight on Wednesday but they didn’t lower the water much, they were still running about 705’ so I reset the alarm for one a.m. same thing and I tried once more at three for the last try. They got my hopes up and let me down hard, but I didn’t give up I planed for Friday night, I set the alarm for three a.m. but this time I blew it, I fell back a sleep, I guess I needed more sleep than three hours. I did wake up at five and got on the water before six.
When I pulled up into the parking lot below the dam, there were quite a few cars there. Four or five of the cars had people rigging up they’re rod’s and looking pretty anxious to get on the water, I soon was one of them. It seemed like it had been forever since we had lower water. The schedule was for no generating but when I walked down to outlet one I saw that it was not down for the perfect wading, but it was down to 703’ level which is still good fishing.
I was using a grey sculpin, working my way out into the water at the upper corner above the outlet. It was still pretty dark at around 5:30. I threw the sculpin out and began to figure out how they wanted it. It didn’t take long before I had a fish on. They were wanting it drifting a long the bottom fairly slow, but I noticed as it began to get light out they were wanting it a little faster and in a more swimming like motion. After catching four fish I snapped it off on what could have been number five.
I then tied on a filiplume which began catching fish right away. All the fish I caught seemed real healthy and strong fighters. The two biggest fish I caught were a 17” bow on the sculpin and a 18” bow on the filiplume. The 18 incher was really fat and put up a great fight. He went berserk rippin all over, I thought I had fowl hooked him but he wasn’t, he was just a fighter. Here are some pics of those two fish.
I ended up getting ten fish in two and a half hours before the horn went off and started shrinking the fishable water. I called it a day choosing not to move up into the outlet.
I’m going to try and get out again tonight; I’ll let you now how it goes.
Tight Lines Darren
April 28th 2009
Well things have changed since the last article. The recent rains have changed the way Taney is fishing for the last month. With Beaver and Table Rock Lake being up, the Core is releasing more water which in turn makes for some huge changes in how you fish Taney.
Fishing Taney now you really need a boat to have much of a chance for a productive day. It is running at about five to seven feet higher then we had a month ago when it was really good for wading. I’ve talked to some boaters who are doing well drifting or anchoring and fishing some of the back water. Typically you will have to fish deep to get the fish, most fish are caught toward the bottom.
On another note someone mentioned to me that Taney was not going to be stocked with trout this year, because of the warm water that was let out of Table Rock last year when we had the flooding. Well part of that is true in a since. I went and spoke with a representative of Shepherd of the Hills Hatchery, and he said that the stocking would be less this year but that they are not cutting off the stocking completely. I read that stocking would be down about 10 percent.
The reason for the decline is due to the warmer water that was sent into the fish hatchery. The warm water kept the fish from spawning as productively, and it also caused a large amount of fish to die. They hope that by next year it will be back to normal.
I don’t know how much this will hurt the fishery up in the catch and release area above Fall Creek (catch and release area, just wishful thinking). I’ve read a study that shows that, in catch and release areas fish stay in that area, they don’t roam into other areas as often. Obviously they have a longer mortality. Even though it is not catch and release only above Fall Creek, many smart anglers chose to treat it as though it is, which in turn gives us a much healthier fishery, I’ll write more about that at a later time.
I’m thinking that where it will be most noticed will be down farther on the Lake. Others will be hit with a decrease in planting including the states trout parks. I can say this even with the decrease in our supply of fish, we will still have better trout waters than most of the states in our country.
This would be a good year to practice more catch and release. This will help keep our waters in good shape and that would mean more fish to catch in the future. I know it’s more fun to catch a 20” or bigger fish then it is to catch a 12” fish that was just planted. It would be a shame if that was all there was in our lake.
As it is there is a slot size on the fish you catch above Fall Creek. The rainbows you can keep are below 12” or above 20”, and for the browns it is only above 20”. Arkansas this year changed their size on Browns from 20” to 24”. By doing this it’s going to raise the average size of fish being caught and is going to allow more fish to reach maturity. I know this will work because I’ve caught a lot of fish on Taney that measure out to be 19 ¾” and caught less over that 20” mark. There are many other factors that come into play and maybe later we will write about them.
Darren
March 23rd 2009
Report from the field.
We’ve been having some good water on Taney as of late. I went out a couple times last week, Wednesday and Friday. Wednesday there was a pretty good midge bite going on, I was fishing at the Pointe starting out across from the Lookout. I worked my way up above the island on the south side. I found some submerged logs that I was throwing over and around and I had fish coming out and smashing it. I didn’t have a lot of time to fish that afternoon but did pick up quite a few fish, I was pretty thankful that I was able to get out being that, some of my wife’s family were coming into town. Most of the fish were dinks but I did pick up a couple 16 inch fish.
Friday they were running water until about noon so I went down then. I should have gotten there a little sooner. I started out at Pointe Royale again and the fish were active right off but as the water went slack the bite stopped. There was a guide who had their people across from me at Lookout Island and they were doing good using grey scuds until the water stopped flowing. I was now up above the island fishing out where I was catching fish on Wednesday and it was dead.
I made my way back over to the shore and switched to a sink tip and started throwing a small streamer. We had some wind on the water and right away I started catching fish. Shortly after that the water started moving again, they must have started letting water out at powersite. I fished my way up to below the boat launch. I only had one section where I wasn’t catching fish and that was in the middle stretch below KOA.
I spoke with a gentleman up at the shallows below the boat launch that was there the day before and he said he did great, but that it was real slow today. It must have had something to do with the front coming in. Overall it wasn’t that bad of a day it just wasn’t one of those days where you catch a tone of fish.
I also fished Sunday afternoon the bite was good, especially towards dark the fish got real active, and they were rising every where. I mostly caught smaller fish, nothing over 15 inches, but it was a beautiful day, too nice to stay inside. It sure is nice having low water. I’m not seeing any of the larger rainbows; it looks like they may be moving out.
Darren
March 11th 2009
Report from the field
Taney had low water, so I went fishing. The colder weather was back, going from almost eighty yesterday to thirty today. I had a little ice on the eyelets, but not too bad.
I fished from Pointe Royale all the way to, below the boat launch up at the dam. It was great out there I only saw three people all day. I pretty much had the whole river to myself. I also saw a red fox down on the island.
I didn’t catch a lot of fish but the ones I did catch were nice fish I caught a couple 16” trout, another at17 or 18 and one over twenty. The rest were all smaller fish. They sure are putting up good fights now. The bigger one had me running up and down the bank. He got close to getting into my backing three or four times. I caught him on a # 16 tan scud that was a dropper under a peach egg with an indicator.
I was also catching them on red san jaun worms under the same egg. I had a few break off with that set up. I also caught fish with a midge under an indicator. I was seeing a lot of reds all along there but most where above the access point at Pointe Royale. That’s also where I was catching the bigger fish.
When I was coming back in I spoke with a gentleman that said he caught an eighteen inch Brown. He was using midges and doing really well.
Darren
March 3, 2009 From the field
Fishing Report
Sunday, March 1st was great fishing at Taney. I got down at the dam at about 7am. It was 15 degrees and cold but I didn’t care, we had low water.
I started out fishing the rebar hole with an egg and started nailing them right away. I then worked my way down through the gauntlet. I only had a few hours to fish in the morning but it was very productive. Before I left I made one more pass thru rebar hole and caught another nice fish with some beautiful color.
I made my way back over to the water at about 2:30; with my son Jordan. We went to the south side down below big hole. I set my son up with a copper zebra midge. Right away he started catching fish.
He kept catching fish until we were invaded by a group of people who came down, marching right out into the water where my son was fishing. I asked the guy if he could not go through the area my son was fishing. He said that he was going over there, which was across the river from where we were. I asked him if he could go up a little further so he wouldn’t disturb his water, but it was to late the fish scattered, so we moved on down the river. It really wasn’t that big of a deal knowing how many fish are in this river.
It’s funny how people before even evaluating the area will just blast out into the water, not even knowing that they could have caught two or three fish before they even entered the water.
It really wasn’t that big of a deal knowing how many fish are in this river. We were now down below the low water and where it starts to get a little deeper, up above the boat launch. Jordan continued to catch fish, and I decided to start fishing.
I started out using a crackleback, which wasn’t working so I switched to a peach egg and it was working good. I was tying on a new fly for Jordan and had given him my rod when he hooked into a nice fish with the egg. I later added on a one inch natural color san juan worm tied on a # 16 heavy- wide gap hook, as a dropper. It worked well until it was snapped off. I was using 6x tippet and 7x for the dropper.
I even caught fish when I wasn’t trying to, I just had it drifting out in the current while I was fixing a tangle on my son’s rod, and I felt the rod jerk so I set the hook the best I could having the rod under my arm pit, it was the arm pit set and it worked, fish on. So I reeled it in and released it, then got back to working on Jordan’s tangle. Well I figured it worked once why not try again, so I had it back out there and fish on again. This time I gave it to Jordan to reel in and when he got it in I netted it and it was the most unique color of rainbow I’ve ever seen, the color that is usually red was orange, it was really cool looking.
I talked to some others that had a great day of fishing; it’s nice to have low water again.
Fish On
Darren
February 28th 2009 Report from the Field
I haven’t had a lot to write about lately with the water running so high. But it looks like that’s going to change. Sunday March 1st shows for no generation at Taney, hopefully they will be able to stick to their schedule.
With the water being so high lately, I have been seeking out other places to fish. I’ve been hitting some of the small creeks around the area. I’ve been spending a lot of time searching out these areas. You really have to do a lot of looking to find the fish. The fish only hold in certain areas and are sometimes far apart, but once you know where they are you can go back to those areas and catch fish. A lot of times you’re the only one out there which is really nice.
It takes me back to when I was in high school (a long time ago) and would do the same thing out in northern California, looking for water that didn’t get fished much or ever. I use to really worry my mother; she didn’t like me taking off hiking down into some canyon alone and she would always be relieved when I would get back. I was glad to be back too, because I was usually really hungry and thirsty. I never seemed to think of needing food and water when I went out; sometimes I still do that now.
Opening day at Roaring River on Sunday should be packed with people but guaranteed to have a lot of fish. That is one amazing place! We are really blessed to live in a state that puts in so many resources for its fisheries. It is great fishing for every one, its set up for the mobility challenged, young, old and every one in between.
I’ve taken my kids there and it’s great for them to be able to see all those fish and learn how to fish better. They really get to hone in their skills by repetition and seeing how fish act in the water, so that when they get out in other water systems they will be able to have the confidence to know they can catch fish, even if they don’t see them. It may take some encouraging for awhile but one day it will click for them. Roaring River is a great place and there are many other fun places to fish in this state.
So take a kid or an elder and fish on!
Darren
February 15th 2009 From the field, Taneycomo
Table Rock has been running over 12,000 cfs the only low water has been at night so I made a night trip down to the water. A friend and I started at midnight Friday (2/13), Friday the thirteenth, didn’t see any signs of Freddy. I was fishing a black leach and my friend Eric was using an olive streamer. We started out below outlet one and worked our way down to the big hole. We caught fish in all the areas going down but it wasn't a real busy night. I seemed to be catching most fish on the swing fishing it slow, almost dead drifting it. We called it a night at about four. It looks like we will have high water for awhile T.R. is at 916.55 ft. it doesn’t seem to be going down to fast so it may be awhile for wading during the day.
Well Tuesday February 11 the report was for low water so I went down to fish on the south side of Taney. I was up above the boat launch working my way down to where the water comes to a more shallow area, the water was not down as low as they said it would be, but it was wade-able. I was working my way out, fishing close in then moving to deeper water, I was using a white streamer and had caught a few and then that dreaded sound went off, the horn was blasting. Being that the water was up higher than the report said I was in hope that maybe it would go down but it didn’t.
I remembered reading some of Jeremy’s old reports that when the water goes up to try the back side of the island above re bar hole. So I went up there. There was a little water flowing from behind the island and I waded across and started fishing the back waters of the island (re bar hole). I started moving up the river side of the island and the horn went off again, I had seen some fish rising just up a little bit and I thought I would have enough time to at least cast out once, but the water started getting louder and the rock I was using as a water marker, that was in the middle of where I had come across which had been sticking out of the water about a foot and a half, was now being covered up by water so I ran back over and hurried back across, I then looked back to see the rock was now out of site.
You know, you think you start to figure out patterns of how the power grid works only to find out there is no figuring it out, except that when the horn blows take heed. I started fishing the back side of the island and I picked up few right away with a glo bug; I was staying out of the water as much as possible not wanting to spook them. Farther up I started seeing some nice fish, but I was having to fish from up in the trees, so I called it a day and headed up the hill to the car.
Tight lines
Darren
February 10th 2009
From the field,
We had low water all week, the ice began to melt the lake went up and Friday they began letting water out. Boaters liked it and the waders hated it.
Sunday I was down at the Pointe and there was a gentleman I was talking to, he saw some shad on the bank, the water had gone down a little and they had gotten washed up on the shore. He picked one up and threw it out in the water and a fish attacked it, he found a few more and did the same thing with the same results. So I guess it would be a good time to use something white.
I went to look in my supply of flies and I had nothing white I couldn’t believe it. I had lost my last one a few days before and forgot to restock, not too smart. I’ve been waiting for a chance to use them and wasn’t even prepared, oh well lesson learned, sometimes you get focused on other flies and you just forget about things that have worked in the past. I’ve really been working the egg a lot. It’s been my main focus of late. I’ve also been doing well with a crackleback, that’s been a lot of fun.
Boaters are doing well, the water will probably be up for a little while until they get the lake back down, I don’t know how much rain were going to get this week, but the weather channel shows rain through Wednesday so that may delay low water a little longer.
Darren
Report from the field. By Darren
Since I’m not at Taney much, Darren has offered to still give you updated reports for fishing Taneycomo. It’s his backyard so he knows what’s going on regularly.
Taneycomo
I went out Saturday (1-31-09) with my son Jordan, we only had about three hours to fish, he had a basketball game in the morning here in Branson then he had another one in Springfield. He’s funny, his team also goes to an intramural basketball game at his school on Saturdays, Jordan said no way he was going to do that also, he would never have anytime to fish. Thankfully they don’t always have two games on Saturdays.
We went out about noon to the point, there sure were a lot of people out there, why wouldn’t there be, it was in the sixties, the snow and ice was melting off and the water was down, great for wadding. We started out fishing at the Wimbledon entrance, working our way up to the lower part of the old KOA camp grounds. I was using an egg, but not really having it in the water much, I was helping my son. He wanted to use a scud so I had tied one on for him, we weren’t really doing to well with that so I convinced him to switch. I put on a green midge with a micro light brown San Juan worm trailer. We still were not catching any. I noticed that we had no current in the water; it was completely dead it even seemed to be going in the wrong direction.
Well my son was starting to get cold; he had been having problems with his neoprene waders in the past, the seams kept coming apart so he traded them in and upgraded to some breathable waders, the only problem was he didn’t know that they wouldn’t be as warm. Earlier before we left to go fishing, I was tying some flies and he came in wearing his waders and boots. I was surprised; well I didn’t think to ask him what he had on under the waders, big mistake. The other mistake I made was not feeding him after his basketball game. So of course things started to go bad while we were out wadding in the middle of the river, he was getting frustrated and wanted to go home, being out there and feeling I had to rush to try and catch a fish, it just wasn’t working so we started working our way back across, I got him back up out of the water, ok now I can start concentrating on catching fish so I throw out and my indicator just sits there, it even looked like it was going backwards. I still had an egg on and it wasn’t working, it may have eventually worked but I was feeling a little rushed remember there were two problems for my son and I had only taken care of one of them, he still needed food so I was kind of rushing my way back down the river while still trying to fish. Fishing the river with no current reminded me of when I used to bass fish out in the California delta; when the tied would go slack the bite got real slow.
Well just before we got back down to where we would leave the river the water started moving again. And to my luck my son got intrigued with some run off from the melting snow. I asked him if I could barrow his rod, knowing that if they were going to hit something I would have a better chance with what he had on and sure enough the fishing was on. People all along there were catching fish. But it was short lived we still had that other problem my son was still starving, so we left and went home.
I was able to get out for a few more hours on Sunday; I went down above the big hole and started out fishing off the bank to see if there were any fish in close to the shore and sure enough there was. Right away I started having fish fallowing the egg I had on. I wasn't using any indicator, it seemed to flow more naturally and it started working great. It was a lot of fun being able to watch them chase after the egg as soon as I would loose site of it I would give a little pull and their would be a fish on, I was also throwing out and allowing their to be an ark in my line, the ark was down stream with the egg fallowing behind, when I set the hook I would just give it a little pull to the down side of me, if I pulled to the up stream side it would pull the line out of the water and miss the fish. When done right the line would pull as though it was on a pulley going around the ark. When the wind came up or the sun went down it became a little more challenging because you could no longer see the egg so it became more about feel, but it still worked well. As it began to get closer to super bowl kick off the rebar whole cleared out so I went up there and caught a few more before it got dark. I started out with the egg then went to a green midge then switched to a grey scud that seemed to work the best up there. It was another great weekend for wading, the weather was great and the ice was melting. We still have some snow on the ground, but all the roads are clear.
