Taneycomo is running water for most of the day and through the night right now. If you hit it right you can find lower periods of wadable water, but that takes some understanding, the cfs levels and knowing the river enough in low water that you can figure out whether or not if it is water you can wade. In two units there is enough water to go around. Fishing along the banks and is key right now. Big fish are starting to move up and what really has me going is seeing a few rainbows in the 25-28 inch range. I haven’t seen rainbows that big in awhile at Taneycomo. I keep saying that this river has bounced back in a good way, and I believe it has.
The lake is still up a foot and the crop. continues to leave it somewhere in that neighborhood. Fall is right around the corner and I have actually seen leaves falling. That makes for some great dry fly fishing and that’s when I would throw big dries, either Chernobyl styles or anything that is tied on a size 4. You never know you might hook that big one. Fish it along the banks and be patient for the bite, it will happen. Try standing out in the current and cast towards the banks. I’ve also noticed a ton of fish digging in the moss picking out scuds and sow bugs. It seems to me they are doing this more in still water. What I would do is start throwing flies at the bottom and let them sit until they came by it. They’ll either hit it on the move or you might have to move it to get their attention. That’s a few things we are doing right now.
The White has lot’s of low water right now and you can find it most of the day if you chase it. I kind of wish it was generating because of the streamer fishing. I haven’t been able to really get in on that bite and I‘m missing those browns. We are catching tons of fish in low water with mostly rainbows being caught and a few small cutthroat.
The Norfork is also having periods of low water in the morning. Just be careful when they do generate because that water comes up in a hurry.
Yesterday I spent time at BCO getting some of the how to steps wrapped up that Michael Kyle and I are working on. They came out better this time so I’ve got those all finished. I’m working on the video right now so that should be up sometime tomorrow. He only ties patterns ( DW & Mojo Leech) that catch fish and believe me they have proven that time and time again. So make sure you tie these the next time you fish our tailwaters. There’s also two patterns we added to the steelhead and salmon category ( Egg Sucking String Leech & BTG) that he fishes religiously when he goes to the Neknek river.
August 23 2009
Taneycomo in the morning- low water the last two days, except one hour in the afternoon
Taney is fishing good in certain areas, but in others it’s kind of up and down, or should I say you have to switch up a lot and do different things. It’s all working, but I do see a slight decrease in the fishes behavior and I think it’s from low d.o. levels. It’s not affecting too much as far as the fishing’s concerned, but I’ve seen it in better conditions.
I was able to wet a line with a few of my buddies today, but I was really just wanting to do what I came here to do which was get some footage and learn a little more about the entomology in our rivers. I wanted to get some good photos for some of you guys to see and learn from, if that’s what you’re after. We saw tons of sculpins. Almost every big rock we turned over had at least two or three under it before bolting and going to another. These things are hard to catch. Darren and I spent about an hour just capturing one, but we got it. The colors of these creatures always fascinate me. The mottled look and the different colors to how they can adapt to their structure is truly amazing. The scuds were also a sight to see and I did notice a difference in the color of these scuds. Some were gray and some were tan. That really goes to show you that they actually change in color. The ones I kept in my vial did change color over a few hour period and by the time they were dead they changed to orange. Very cool if you ask me. One thing that got my attention more than anything else was seeing some really big worms that weren’t planarian worms, more like earth worms, but red in color.
So not much in the way of fishing, just fishing for bugs…..
August 22 2009
Trip to the White (Wildcat Shoals) & Fly Tying Class
First thing first, Bull Shoals Dam is finally seeing low water and will for awhile. The corp. is finally getting the long awaited work done up at the dam. I had a trip the other day so I got to check it out first hand. I wanted to do some fishing, but once I saw an Army truck cruising around in the water I decided to head downstream. I actually saw fly fisherman ten feet away from the truck, I wonder if they caught any fish?
Basically from what I could see and what you can see from the picture I took are piles of rock together, kind of in a diamond shape in different parts of the river, mainly on the left side if your facing upstream. If you look down where the truck was is another section of rocks going in. I can only wonder what this will do to some props in four units. These rocks will probably be right under the water where you won’t see them. Some people will be upset, but in the end it’s going towards a good cause, and that’s how I’m going to see it. They did have some root wad, but from what I’ve heard the generation washed it downstream. I thought this would happen so I’m curious what the decision will be next. I’ll keep you posted on the progress as it continues.
The Trip
I had two guys from Oklahoma that had never fished the White, but heard several rumors that they needed to try it out. They’ve always fished Roaring River, but never branched out until now. Tim who owns the local fly shop there in Cassville told them they needed to hook up with me. My job was to show them a good time and that’s what I did. We got a late start driving from the dam down to Wildcat, but the gamble paid off. I knew where all the “local” guides where going to be and it wasn’t Wildcat. We only saw two other boats and both off them where spin fisherman. There were a few fly fisherman, but there was definitely enough water to go around.
It’s funny that everybody follows the patterns down there and that’s always my goal when I go there, do whatever everybody else is not doing. I do this for a few reasons, one is no pressure on the fish and two is to hope I can feel like we have the whole river to our self. It really is peaceful when it’s just you, the river, and the fish. And the clients seem to like it better to. Yes, we did have to hear a jet motor for a few hours, but once that was over it was nice the rest of the day. I’m not really talking about the fish we caught and to be honest I didn’t even take pictures of any of the fish they caught because they we were catching so many it became a challenge just to keep hooking them. It literally was every cast. Chuck told me he has never had a day fly fishing for trout like today. I’m sure because it was the third day of low water these fish were hungry and weren’t too picky on what the offerings were. We only caught rainbows, but did see a school of browns. They were spooky and we couldn’t get near enough to even make that one good cast to them. If it wasn’t a sixty foot cast it wasn’t happening and unfortunately they only had about a forty foot cast. One thing they learned was how important the cast really is. I couldn’t agree more. I think that’s what you pay for, KNOWLEDGE. To me, catching fish is the easy part.
Fly Tying Class
Class was a huge turnout. Thank you for everyone who attended. It was nice meeting some new faces and seeing some old ones. We could only get one fly tied and that was partly my fault. When you ask questions I can get on a roll. But that’s the passion that truly comes out. I love this sport and I love teaching and giving back what I’ve learned.
We tied the shad daddy and I explained how important the marabou is for this particular pattern. (you can read more about this fly if you go look at the pattern). Don’t let the shad kill fool you, these fish see white all year long. Always throw white if nothing else is working.
August 19 2009 General Report
I’ve received some of the addresses to get the free fly sent out for the guestbook signings. I will start working on these request next week. Taney is running water in the mornings now so wading is becoming a little more difficult. But don’t let that stop you because there are several areas to still wade with the 50 mega watts they are generating until 10am or somewhere around noon. The banks are loaded with fish and current is minimal to get some great drifts, just make sure you feed line to get longer drifts.
Last week I went up to Back Country Outfitters so Michael Kyle and I could add some of his patterns to the site. Well, none of what we did turned out because of the lighting we were dealing with, so I’ll have to rain check it and do it again. I’m sure you noticed some of the pages with the patterns he tied, but no steps as of yet. We will try to get these up next week, but for the mean time I added two on the “tying Arkansas patterns” page. One is the Arkansas beadhead and the other is the famous 56er. Nothing fancy about these patterns, but I would definitely add these to your arsenal of fly patterns, especially if your going to the White. The ones Michael came up with is one he uses in Alaska called the string leech, the other that we got tied up so far are called the “DW” and Mojo leech.
August 13 2009
General Report
So what I did on my three days off was soak countless hours updating the site and adding some fresh content to keep you going. It’s been awhile since I’ve updated some fly patterns, but I got three done for you to look at; Mono EYE Ant,Hunt’s High Water Sculpin, Glass Midge and the Shad Daddy. All great fly patterns to add to your arsenal. I also just finished my first Newsletter. There’s lot’s of great content, There will also be flies sent out for the first 50 people who signed the guestbook so please be patient if you’re receiving one already. They will be tied from me as I receive the emails for the addresses to send them to. So if you haven’t signed the guestbook I would say your missing out. So the next 50 registered users will receive their fly once we make it to 100. My way of saying thanks. I have also added a page for Darren's reports that I think you'll find valuable to the site. I'm glad to have him part of the team.
I’ve done one earlier recording, but this one area has my attention and probably will for awhile. Darren and I met up around 8:30 am in the parking lot at outlet one. He had his camera and I had mine. We took turns fishing so there’s one video of me fishing dries and one of him fishing sculpins. The bite was better then the other day so that was a plus. We still had to wait for the bites, but most the fish we caught were all over 16 inches. We lost a few nicer ones, but that’s fishing. One was a brown that got off because of a earlier hook set. We’re watching every take and were also helping each other telling when to set the hook, but sometimes the anxiousness gets the best of us. We’ll be going back and hopefully getting some more footage of the ones we did miss. All I know is, I can’t wait to get back. I wonder how long this bite will last.
What Darren had to say...
Today I met Jeremy down at Taney and shot some video while fishing. Jeremy fished with dry flies and I used a sculpin and the miracle fly. We started out using midges but after sitting there taking footage of the water and a indicator drifting very slowly by, we made some changes.
The worst part was that you could see some big fish come up and just look at it and turn away. But not once the miracle fly went on, they began to come up to it and take it. They just can't resist it.
Jeremy was having great results with dry fly's. I also used a sculpin and they were clobbering it. We had some big fish on but they got off, we did manage to bring in some 20" fish though.
It really is cool when you can get some elevation over the fish, to where you can see how they act in the water, how they react to a fly, if you move it what do they do, sometimes you'll get these smaller fish coming over to look at your fly and you'll see a big fish come in and take it. It's like they get tired of these little fish coming Into their area. They just all of a sudden get territorial. I noticed you have fish that roam around and then you have these dominant fish that have these good spots picked out. Kind of like the fishermen. Maybe they just get used to staying in one spot and are afraid to leave, or they think if they stay they'll get one more, I'm not sure who I’m writing about now, the fish or the fisherman. I guess the key is do what feels right, but don't get caught in a rut, branch out, move around. Typically I have better luck when I move around, but sometimes, it's so good, I'm not going to leave. Today was a great day we had a blast.
Thanks,
Darren
August 9 2009
White River - Bull Shoals Dam - 50 mega watts all day!!!
Now that’s some GREAT water. I had the Manning’s out today. Miles and Macy, it was their first time fishing with fly rods and they did pretty well. I’m glad they had low cfs levels, it made fishing a lot easier for some rookies. Most the water we fished was only a few feet deep and like I said before in the previous reports, finding slack water is key for finding better quality rainbows. We did rig for faster water (in the main channel) just to see the difference and there is a huge difference in the amount of hook ups, plus it’s a little harder for beginners to throw heavy weight. So why not make it easier for them, that’s what we did. Everyone caught fish and dad even hooked a few, but it was more about the kids.
Taneycomo
The other day I had a chance to fish it for a while. Taney is a little tougher from what I could tell, and from what I saw. A lot of people were stumped and didn’t hook anything. A lot different from just a few days ago. I started thinking when I was out there, maybe the d.o. levels are low. I looked when I got home and saw it was in the low 4 ppm. That has everything to do with it. These fish aren’t doing well in these kind of levels. They really need 6ppm to really thrive and feed all day. We still caught fish, but had to work hard for every bite.
The good news is I saw a few rainbows in the 6-8 pound range and one was probably the most gorgeous fish I’ve ever seen. It stood out from all the rest. It had a yellow look to it with a vibrant red gill plate and pink line going down the side that you could see from a distance. Absolutely a remarkable fish. I can’t wait to catch it. I have a day off tomorrow and all I’m going to do is go out and see if I can’t locate it and try my arsenal. I think it’s going to take stealth and something in the 20-22 size fly patterns to get it. Wish me luck and I hope he hasn’t left the building from where I saw him the other day. I don’t think so, but who knows.
August 7 2009
Went back to the White - Same thing
Had George out today. Went back to the dam with pretty much the same results, except we had another grand slam. That is the second one in two weeks. Something I’m not used to, but I’m finding more brook trout, or should I say seeing more in certain areas holding. In this cfs, which is in the 4,000 you can see a lot of fish on the bottom. I actually saw a big school of browns holding in this one area, but couldn’t get them to bite because the “guard” fish were always there to get it first. Those little fish get in the way of the big fish sometimes and today they were definitely doing that. We would wait about ten minutes before we would go back and make a cast at that one particular spot, just to get the fish calm down so we could have another opportunity to hook one. We weren’t successful, but we did hook a brown on the other side of the bank so we still managed to get one. That was the only one we were lacking to get the slam. The bite is real strong before they pump out 20,000 cfs by 2pm. So most of what you’re going to catch as far as numbers is in the morning. I guess that's good because by the afternoon its getting pretty hot so half days are prime time right now. I have a trip tomorrow down on the White so I’m going to try it again. The only difference with this is they're going to keep the good water all day only running 50 mega watts which will be somewhere in the 50-80 mega watt fluctuation. I can’t wait. I expect some good fish will be caught.
The Rainbow Picture
Check out the rainbow, it looks like a cross breed between a brook trout and rainbow. The back is what gets me. In all my years fly fishing this is the first I’ve seen a rainbow look like that. What do you think?
Hope everyone’s getting out on the water and staying cool. Only a few more days left on the special I’m running. Great way to learn a few rivers in the two day special.
August 6 2009
White River - Great water in the morning
Here lately the only thing I want to do is fish right up at the dam. I had Justin and his girlfriend for a full day. We had a good morning catching lots of quality fish. They both ended up with one 20 inch rainbow a piece, with a lot of other fish caught. Another advantage fishing right up at the dam right now is nobody else is fishing it. I saw one other boat all day so you really felt like you had the whole river to yourself. A lot of guides are fishing down at Rim Shoals, which I’m sure is a strong bite, but to me I think the quality is at the dam, plus I don’t have to share the water with anyone. I try to do the opposite then what the norm is, maybe it’s to challenge myself thinking I can find other places to play the numbers game. It’s been working out great and I’m looking forward to the next trip down on the White. Anytime now they should start working on the new project with putting tree stumps and big rocks and boulders, it’s all up there and all the lakes are almost back at power pool. Low water is in the future my friends.
August 4 2009
Taneycomo - Another great day
Since the heat is right around the corner with temperatures rising to 90-100 degrees, its great the way they’re doing the generation schedule. Half day trips in the morning are key, and hooking between 35-50 fish keeps the day pretty productive. I had Rob who has gone out with about every fly fishing guide
in the Ozarks.
My goal was to show him Taney in a whole new fashion. I wanted to throw him as much knowledge that I could because he was hungry to learn it. We mixed it up throwing dries in the wind chop to fishing on the bottom. I think the highlight of the day was helping him spot big fish and casting to them. It was a team effort and it paid off big time. The bad part was we did this too late in the day. I wish we could’ve had more time with this one particular bite because it was turning out to be real productive. Most of all the rainbows we caught in this one area were all pushing 17-18 inches. I should’ve took more pictures, but we were in the zone and could care less about pictures. We didn’t want to waste an extra minute because the bite was hot and we didn’t know how long it would last before they turned the water on.
The best bite is still downstream in the old KOA stretch. The other spot that I’m mentioning, well…you just have to go out with met find out. The hole is priceless and it’s usually never taken. It’s dead current and that stumps a lot of fisherman so they don’t spend too much time there. Fishing dead water, or should I say current is tough if you don’t know what you’re doing. Most people rely on some kind of current so you can drift it to the fish. That works, but there’s so many other ways to get them. And when you have a miracle fly like the one I discovered you’ll never be intimidated by “dead” water again. I truly wish I could share this with everyone, but you can’t because of all the competition out there.
Hopefully some of you long term readers will get down here and see what Taney is all about. Great fishery and I’m excited to be back having the opportunity to fish low water. It’s been fun and I’m glad we are seeing a lot of low water periods now.
I have trips until Sunday and most of them are on the White so it might be until Monday before I can get another report out.
Jeremy,
Wow is all I can say. I have fished Taney and the White with lots of guides from Davy and Crazy to lots of others and never found any guide that has as much passion for fly fishing as you. The knowledge that you have and are willing to share through your web site and through guide trips is refreshing and needed. I learned new things about casting and fishing that I had never heard before. You are a wonderful teacher and ambassador for the sport of fly fishing. And forty (40) fish on what seemed like a slow day for the other fishermen was fantastic. You have a client for life. Thanks for the wonder 1/2 day of fishing.
August 2 2009
Two full days on Taney…but wait, there’s more….
So before I get started on the trip I’ll let you in on a little secret. Maybe it’s not, but because I didn’t see another boat the whole time I was fishing makes me think who else knows about this right now. I’m sure once I leak it out everybody will be there, but who cares, go have fun catching crappie, largemouth and yes, white bass. Where’s the spot you ask, well in Roark Creek.
The other day I went venturing out with one of my good buddies Micah. The goal was to search out only warmwater game. Since I live in Rockaway Beach the river (Taney) is still my backyard, but not where you really focus on trout. My main focus was to fish every creek mouth I could find on my way upstream. Everywhere we went we spotted bass and big ones at that. The highlight of the day was fishing at Roark Creek and that’s where we caught most of everything we hooked. And most of that was crappie, probably in the neighborhood of fifty in about three hours of fishing this one spot. I didn’t go in there searching for much and really couldn’t believe what I saw. On this one tree is where I caught everything. There were times I hooked five or six in a row. The white bass where tough, but there were schools of them from what I saw. I actually saw a largemouth that was pushing six pounds or so, but being in the middle of the day he wasn’t having anything to do with me. Oh well, catching crappie was a bonus and that sealed the deal for me on my discovery.
Taney
I just went on River Run Outfitters website to read their reports and from what they’re saying fishing is a little tough right now. WHAT? Well, I would have to disagree with that. The first day we ended up with 70 and today we hooked 50 and finished early, around 2pm when they started generating. Taney is on FIRE with several rainbows in the 14-17 inch range. We actually hooked four browns in the two days we fished, two a day. The fist two we caught were literally the last five cast of the day. Lee hooked both, but little man (Jordan) hooked the biggest fish of the day and that was the first fish of the day. It couldn’t have been any better for Jordan considering it was his birthday. That was nice of Lee to travel from Tennessee all the way to Taney just to give Jordan a special b-day present.
Today was no different in the fact that we had consistent bites all day. We started a little earlier today just to see if we could hook any other browns because that’s what Jordan requested for the second day. We weren’t disappointed in the results, but we did loose both so we didn’t bring them to the boat. Jordan hooked his first and then Lee hooked is about ten minutes later. They both got off due to break offs. Not good, but we did get to see both and they were both decent browns for this time of year. And considering there’s not many upstream in the river right now the odds weren’t that bad. We definitely had luck on our side, maybe it was because of Jordan’s birthday.
Don’t forget the two day special is almost up so if you can take advantage of it, there’s nobody else in the Taney area promoting this. Great way to learn a lot in a short time of learning the curve to fly fishing.
Jeremy,
I wanted to send you a quick note to let you know what a great time Jordan and I had this past weekend fishing the Taney with you. As you know it was Jordan's 13th birthday and he had a blast. 120 or so fish in two day's , what a trip ! What amazed me the most was we were watching people NOT catch fish and would ask others how they were doing and almost everyone we asked said the same thing, bite is a little slow or not to good. You had us on fish all day even when others were not doing anything.
We will see you again in October and keep track of how you are doing through your website. Also tell your Dad thanks.
Lee and Jordan Mingo
Hendersonville Tennessee
Tying Class
So for some of those who I saw on the river that go to the class, and for those who read the site, the next class will be August 22 from 2-4pm. We will still be covering streamers so I hope everyone can make it and if you don’t tie you can still come and watch. This time you have enough notice so plan for it and I’ll see you there!!! If you have any questions please email me or get a hold of me via phone.
Other things in the works
I wish I had more hours in the day, but I don’t. A few projects that I’ve been working on is a new how-to-step pattern, also updating the fly tyers bench page with keeping reports on tying classes. So this page will get updated on a regular basis with either reports on class or uploading some new patterns. Should give you a little more to do on the site. I’m also working on those fly kits you can purchase for a limited time. I’ll keep you posted, but you don’t want to miss out on these kits because I only do it once a year. Great way to get what works without worrying about what to use on these tailwaters. I take the guessing right out and that’s PRICELESS is you don’t know what to use on our waters.