You know, I have to be real honest with the readers because that’s what I do. I read all these websites that are about Taneycomo‘s fishing conditions. I mean don’t get me wrong, this is my home water and this is where it all started for me so I love it here, but when I read all these sites that say fishing is great and we’re catching lot’s of fish, I just shake my head. To be simply honest with you, it’s not fishing good at all. In the past years it was nothing for you to catch a hundred fish every time you went out and right now you can’t do that for a few reasons. I’m not out there everyday anymore since I moved to Arkansas, but I fish it once or twice a month and can say at this moment….fishing is fair. Let’s be real here, with water temps in the 60’s and the d.o. being bad for a long period of time, these fish have suffered. I spent from 12-6pm fishing with the water off and caught several fish, but most of everything I caught was skinny in the body and not big by any means. Big heads and small bodies and that is the first I‘ve seen it like that in all my years fishing it. And for the most part the browns have moved out too. I counted about six browns in the neighborhood between 3-6 pounds. Nothing like you should see this time of year. The high water pushed them up sooner this year, they did their business and are already back downstream. I hate to be the one giving you this information, but who else will. It seems like nobody is really being honest and saying the real truth, and maybe that has to do with generating trips.
Here’s another thing I notice that is really bad for Taneycomo since the floods of 2008. The upper section has filled in dramatically . Where trout used to hold, they don’t anymore. The river doesn’t really get good until your down at the rebar hole for holding plenty of fish. I know the outlets do, but I don’t talk about the outlets, I talk about the river in general. If I was a trout I wouldn’t live up top simply because there’s no holding grounds. And if you ask me, the fish aren’t stacked up in numbers like they used to be in past years. It’s sad to see this, but that’s what it is. In high water, it’s a different story because they have plenty of room to roam. All I know is it’s sad to see this river changed in a bad way.
Now on a good note, the fall is here and it’s as beautiful as it’s gets. The wind was blowing hard yesterday and the leaves are getting in the way of getting good drifts. All day I had to pick off leaves that my fly caught when I would pick up to recast. I’m looking out the window right now and see another windy day so be ready for that. I brought my drift boat and actually put it in about three o’ clock to find myself taking it out about fifteen minutes later because I was a sail boat out there. One reason why I use boats instead of wading is simply because you can see higher up and spot bigger fish. I think it’s a big advantage and to me, I’m always after bigger fish anymore. I played the numbers game when I was growing up, but anymore it’s to test my skills and go after big fish. I plan on fishing today sometime around noon. That seems to be the routine for Taney. They run in the morning and shut it off for six hours and then run it until 10pm and then it’s off until the following day at 6am. Table Rock is back down to pool for the most part so they shouldn’t generate a lot of water, but the reason for this is, Beaver is running and dumping into Table Rock because they’re up seven feet above pool. Beaver can only hold ten feet before they have to run flood gates so I’m sure that’s why they are running some water on Taney. Another reason is because of the d.o. and the ppm staying higher then 4. This was a big wake up call and tells the higher up that they need to figure out these d.o. problems for the future or we’ll see problems like this again. I apologize for such a negative report, but it’s important for the readers to know this.
What flies are working?
I didn’t try everything in my arsenal, but I did throw a number of patterns. If you’re fishing along the banks try midge patterns and fish them on the surface or right under the water column. On the surface olive loop wings, emergers, or RS2 were working the best. I also tied on the big ugly and a rusty midge dropper getting hit’s on both patterns. If you want to no the honest truth, the rusty midge was beating everything hands down. If you’re nymphing on the bottom, gray scuds, any color egg patterns and bead head hares ears were the ticket for me. They’re starting to chase stuff so small wooly buggers and crackleback’s on the strip are producing as well. Good luck out there!! I took pictures but didn’t bring my usb cord to upload them. When I get home I’ll upload the pictures and you’ll find them with this report. Take care out there and watch out for those armadillos.
The Media Group
Unfortunately I will not be going on the road with the group. With not enough time to plan for it, I really need to stay home and take care of my family. I would’ve really loved to be a part of it, but there will be other times. I plan on going out west this winter to finish filming in Colorado, Montana and Wyoming. I’ll keep you posted. To follow up with the tour in PA and NY going visit their blog.
October 21st 2008
Taneycomo
I had the chance to hit Taney for two days last week. I was real disappointed in the fishing. And the water conditions weren’t all that great either. I saw a lot of dead fish on the bottom, and big browns at that. It was probably one of the worst days I had in fishing in a long time. I felt like it was my first time ever fly fishing and let me tell you Taneycomo is an easy fishery and should always be hooking into trout there. That tells me because of all this high water generation and terrible D.O. levels it has made fishing tougher then ever. You really had to work hard this time and the fly that was working the best was a peach egg pattern also midges along the shallower water. We caught fish, but nothing of any size so I didn’t even take pictures. Here lately I’ve been forgetting my camera so I’ve been relying on other peoples camera. They finally sent some pictures my way so I got some up from last weeks trips. As you can tell it’s a short report because there’s really nothing to talk about.
Generation schedule has been keeping wade fishing from happening for the most part. Even though it’s low for four units you can still wade along the banks, but I didn’t see to many rods bent unless you fished the outlets and those are so crowded with fisherman you’ll have to fish along the banks unless you have a boat. I’m not saying you can’t fish so don’t go, but I’m spoiled with this better water down here on the White River and Norfork so comparing the three rivers I can honestly say the fishing is a lot better down here. For some of you that have never been on my site, I recently moved so I could guide for Blue Ribbon Fly shop so that’s why I’m talking about these rivers a lot more. I’m in the process of building a site for this area and when I do it will be split up into what’s going on here and what’s going on in Branson.
White & Norfork
Fishing has been steady on both tailwaters. With the generation patterns staying the same I’m starting to figure out the bite on both stretches since we have this steady pattern. The White is running six to seven wheels while the Norfork is running two units equaling just under one full generation. I must say I like it better on the fork for easy fishing, but the white is still producing better quality. It’s kind of a catch twenty-two because more browns are coming from the fork, but bigger rainbows are coming from the White. So it really depends on the client and what he’s after. It’s good that we can switch it up and have so much versatility in the fishing conditions. I’ve been spending most of my time at the upper end of both dams and fishing Rim Shoals in the morning. The bite is really good at Rim in the morning then we will either go to the Norfork or Bull Shoals Dam in the afternoon. There’s a little driving time, but it’s worth it.
On the other note, I have potamoimediagroup.com down from Colorado. They’ll be on the road six weeks and won’t finish shooting until April. The first stop they hit was Taneycomo catching a 23 pound brown night fishing last week with Michael Kyle from Back Country Outfitters located in Sprinfield. Now they are down here for a week getting some footage on these tailwaters here in Arkansas. So far so good on what we’ve been able to get for footage. They won’t leave here until Friday and they asked me to tag along and go film with them in Pennsylvania and New York for a month. I’m excited to be a part of this and I will try to keep you posted on what we’re doing on the road. I don’t know all the details, but I do know it will be a blast. The goal for their footage is to catch nothing but big fish where ever they go. The title of the video is called “No Passport Required” which means they are trying to promote big fish in the states instead of going internationally to find them. When it’s all said in done their goal is to film a series of Fly Fishing DVD’s. Wish us luck and keep us in your prayers.
October 13th 2008
Taneycomo
Finally got to spend a few days over at Taney. I took the drift boat thinking the water would be lower than what it was (but it ended up being three units), but I still drifted catching a few fish behind the islands. I also wanted to night fish, but that didn’t happen either. Because of guide trips the following days I couldn’t stick around as long as I would have liked. I’m heading back up this weekend hopefully we'll have some better luck with the water being shut off. The most productive fly was a rusty midge. A highlight of the trip was catching a Kentucky spotted bass up by the cable on a fly called the butt monkey (originated by Kelly Galloup). It happened right before I was heading out...I walked up to the cable and stuck it on the second cast. On another note: while I was drifting down past the boat ramp I saw tons of white bass hanging around the stairs in the grass that is submerged under the water. Just thought you might want to know.
General Report on the White and Norfork
I’ve been fishing both rivers and I must say the fishing has been just as good...if not better than it has been the previous fall seasons I've fished here. This is especially true on the White River. And I’ll be totally honest with you, the White is on fire and browns are all over. If high water is keeping you from coming I’ll be the first to say you’re missing out on some quality trout fishing right now. And it doesn’t get any better than this wherever you may go. Even though we’ll have high water generation until January or longer, (unless we get more rain) this is the best time to hook into a nice brown of the year, and it's been a great year for browns already.
The Norfork…to me, isn’t prime for catching a lot of fish during high water generation, but if you get chances to fish it when the water is off you’ll catch a bunch of fish. Up until last week we had significant stretches of low water that would last six hours or longer before the water would come up. Then the fishing would slow down. This week I fished it and it was a tough bite. We actually saw a few browns over twenty inches that were right under the surface coming up for oxygen. It kind of reminded me of my fish at home in the aquarium. When the ph would be lower than 7.0 it becomes acidic and fish are susceptible to death and come to the surface gasping for air (same as what they do in low d.o. levels). If you read the last report, I talked about seeing a lot of stripers dead on the bottom when I floated down last week. That’s a sign of bad water in itself. It’s good to see they're dead because we all know they aren’t good for trout.
If you do fish the 'fork try throwing streamers. Even though the oxygen levels are bad, they’re still chasing stuff. Also red san juan worms and bead head hair bugs are fishing well right down the middle of the current, but to me, if you’re after numbers it’s going to happen on the White.
White River
Now we are seeing real high water (seven to eight units) at Bull Shoals Dam, but it doesn’t effect the bite. In a full day we’re catching 40-60 fish so staying busy isn’t a problem. Mostly all rainbows, but every once in a while you’ll hook into a decent brown that changes up the day. Throwing a variety of san juan worms in different colors are big producers, but to get into the really nice browns, it’s streamers (yellow zoo cougar). The key to this bite is looking for shallower water so you keep it in the strike zone longer. In deeper water I’ve been dead drifting streamers. I never knew until recently when I saw scores of dead sculpins what this river really had in the way of sculpins. It changed my thought process and gave me the confidence to fish more streamer patterns. About a month ago they shut the water off for a few days so I headed to the dam to fish low water. What I saw on the island and along the banks were thousands of dead sculpins that didn’t move fast enough with the falling water. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I saw families together from babies to adults. Some of these sculpins had turquoise on their bellies that indicated they were spawning. I raised sculpins in my aquarium about five years ago and that’s exactly what they looked like before they laid eggs. It was fascinating to see and to witness that many dead ones at the White. This convinced me to fish more streamers on the bottom (dead drifting).
If you’re looking for low water and can get away from the hot Arkansas bite, Taneycomo is not far from being back at power pool. I could see some low water really soon in the future and the browns are already up and some hogs are being caught. But it is possible that they will run Taneycomo through the fall in order to keep dissolved oxygen levels acceptable. Although this will be tough on wading anglers, it would keep the fish healthy, which is often an issue. The drive is only about an hour an a half from Cotter, and if you make a full day out of it, it is worth it...high or low water, day or night.
Night fishing is also something to think about if you're into that sort of thing...if you ever want to try it out, please let me know and I would be glad to set you up. To really be successful at this you do need to know a little about the cast, but for the next few months, nightime is when to target big browns.