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So Pat decided she wanted to learn to do some tying. Borrowed a second vice from a friend so she and I could tie side by side. I thought this could be a good thing figuring we flyfish together and when we start loosing flys I'm the tyer and have to do double to restock the boxes. Last weekend we started with some olive mohair leeches and some black simi seal leeches. Pat got better with each one. I did a few of the easy crawdads a couple days ago, Pat got back to the vice again this morning and we did our favorite fresh water catch all woolly buggers. Pink/white/chartreuse. Got three each. To make them last longer we counter wrapped in a fine wire through the hackle. A couple of her Marabou tails got a bit long but she's getting better. Then added another element to the buggers. I like some dubbing under my hackle then fluffing it out for a thicker body but still translucent. Bass, bluegill, channel cat and crappie love this almost as much as the red/white/chartreuse. Mine on the left and Pat's on the right. Nice tiny heads on these. Husband and wife tying station.

I'll start by saying that the staff at Lillys' Landing were all very courteous and helpful. The lodging is outstanding - clean rooms that are well maintained. The bass boat I rented performed flawlessly. The trolling motor with spotlock is a great aid in fishing the river. Got out early Friday with John Neporadny. John is an outdoor writer and has a lot of experience fishing the local area including Taney. That experience was very helpful as I had never been on the lake. We started the day throwing jerkbaits and hoping for a big brown, we didn't get much interest in the jerkers so we made the decision to go to jigs. The jig fishing started off slowly, but we discovered some freshly stocked rainbows in the Monkey Island area. They were schooled up around the island and near creek mouths. We caught around 50 of them, 11-13" fish. 1/16th oz marabou jigs worked for us. Milo joined us for some late afternoon jerkbait throwing. He took us up past Fall Creek into the trophy area. It didn't take long before I heard John say something like "big fish!" and I turned and saw a nice brown do some tail walking and head shaking. A neat but also scary sight as that airborne head shaking usually results in the lure being tossed one way and the fish going another way and disappearing into the water. However, the fish stayed pinned, and the battle was on! A word about Milo - He's great to fish with and is very knowledgeable about Taney. He can be intense at times, and this was one of those times. He started barking commands: "JEFF LET ME KNOW IF WE GET CLOSE TO THOSE TREES!" "JEFF - HAND ME THAT NET!" "JOHN GET OVER ON THIS SIDE!" JOHN DON"T LET THAT FISH GET INTO THE TROLLING MOTOR!" Afterwards it was funny, but it was all business at the time. Milo did a great job of keeping the boat away from obstructions and maneuvering the boat to keep John in a good position to fight the fish. I stayed out of the way and took a couple of pics. It was fun to watch. The fight: The fish: It was 24" and estimated 7 lbs., nice thick fish. A triploid to boot. We caught a few more on the jerkbaits, I had caught my 2 biggest fish for the trip, a brown and a rainbow that both were in the 15-16" range. Saturday, John, Milo and myself went right up to the trophy area to start the day. We threw the jerkbaits for a bit, but no interest from the fish except for a few follows. We switched to jigs and started picking up fish, mostly rainbows with a few small browns. Nicer fish in the trophy area for sure compared to what we caught downriver and we caught decent numbers of them. Milo had something like 5 on his first 5 casts. He was using 3 lb. braid (I didn't know anyone made braid that light, but you can get it at Lillys' Landing) with 2 lb. leader. John was also using a 2 lb. leader, and both he and Milo out fished me as I was using 10 lb. braid and an 8 lb. leader, however I was able to stay within shouting distance of them. John got big fish honors once again for the boat, this time a nice rainbow. The fight: The fish: We went back to the cabin for "2nd Breakfast", after eating, John, Ray, and myself went downriver to torment the hatchery fish. We found a bunch of them in a riffle down from a creek mouth and my guess is we caught 60 of them at least. We had triples several times and doubles most of the time. We looked upon it as providing some education to those trout as to the evils of some of the "food" that presents itself. Jigs again. It was a great two days of fishing, we boated between 150-200 trout, and got to see a really nice brown get caught. On a personal note, Marty and Pat gave me a really nice point Marty made which will go on my mantle. And I purchased this nice souvenir coffee cup for my collection.

Alright - I used to be super active on this forum but got busy with life and things and, well, you guys know how it goes. I finally got to make a trip back over to the river for the first time in about 9 months and it rekindled my love for our river, to say the least. It was like the days of old - not many boats on the water (it was a Thursday and a Friday) - the fish were hungry - they were hitting hard - they were plentiful (boated over 150 from Thursday afternoon thru Friday about 1:30pm) - and they were quality! We were able to boat numerous 16-20" fish, a couple of 22", a 23", and 2 over 24". It was a spectacular day and a half.

Always a struggle for me to decide where to fish. I want to catch everything and I want to catch Lots of them, but I can’t stand the thought of being a One Trick Pony and fishing the same way or the same place over and over. I’m also trying not to trailer a boat >100 miles each way more than once a week. This time of year I focus on cold water species or places where the water isn’t cold. I’ve had some good trips to Arkansas Nuke One recently, but I just didn’t feel like fishing it again. I’ve been catching trout well in the White River which is Super Close for me, but I wasn’t feeling it. USCOE Little Rock app wasn’t functioning so I didn’t want to run to 11 Pt with Waldo in tow to find the water too low. I had an awesome trip to the Spring River near Hardy, AR but I didn’t want to fish it again so soon. I decided to go to this little spring fed lake and play with my fly rods and get a Chain Pickerel on fly. I’d give McCormack a couple of hours and fish somewhere else on the way home to add numbers. I had a new 8 weight fly rod that needed to be used and to catch a few fish on it, but I also carried a 6 weight, a 7 weight, and a spinning rod with 10 lb braid. I parked in the day use area and dragged the boat down to the water. I made a separate trip down with rods. Got into my Christmas waders (my wife got me some nice new ones that are super Comfy and I actually stay dry wearing) and finally got started. I started with this one the 8 wtand this on the 7 wt I took less than 5 minutes to get my first Chain Pickerel on fly for the year. I caught my second one the next cast and missed a third on the cast after that. I put the 7 weight down and started with the 8 weight. It didn’t take long, but that fly didn’t get enough looks quick enough for me. I switched to an inexpensive conehead bunny something and the chain pickerel snacked on it early and often. I made my way around the lake getting bite after bite. Missed some, lost some, and caught more than a few. I was gonna leave to pound numbers elsewhere, but I was catching them there and having fun so I decided to stay. well, on a backcast with the 8 weight I tangled with the 7 weight and it knocked the fly loose from the 7 weight and the fly settled in the water. The wind was pushing me slowly along and I looked down and saw a fish trailing my 7 weight fly. I grabbed the rod and gave it a twitch and the fish ate the fly!!!I didn’t even know the lake had Black Crappie. The water is super clear and a lot of my eats were very visual. including this surprise Largemouth. I knew there were a few bass in the lake, but I suspected they would too chilly to play. I took a little lunch break. I put the 8 weight away. Got my 6 weight rigged up and grabbed the spinning rod. I wanted to see if I could get more crappie. I could and did. Even some of those bites were visible. I tried slowing the fly down in deeper water and Chain Pickerel still ate it about as often as crappie. I used the spinning rod to see if the fly rod was being inefficient, but I didn’t really catch them a lot faster on spinning, but it was easier to deal with. I even got a chain pickerel on the spinning in deep water. I did pretty well checking my leader for nicks from the toothy demons, but my luck ran out and I lost flys on back to back bites. Bummer. I had a Great Day. I had hoped for A Chain Pickerel and 20 fish total. I ended up catching 22 Chain Pickerel, 8 crappie, and 2 Largemouth Bass. Not bad at all for 4 hours of fishing.

Pat and I did a field hunt this morning for geese, duck too if they happened to fly by. We have been watching a field that geese have been using with a few ducks mixed in. This is a wheat field and hard to hide in with some fescue waterways going through it. there is a roost pond the birds have kept open the birds are flying to and from. We set up in layout blinds in one of these waterways. 32 full body canada decoys put out. There is only one problem with this set up. There are so many birds using this spot and they are coming in in huge flights if they want in another part of the field you are screwed. Best part of the morning was another sunrise afield with my favorite hunting partner. Birds started coming off the roost and heading towards us. Those first birds were whitefronts. Pat calls them special bellies. For those of you that are not familiar you will soon know why. Behind these first birds were waves of other whitefronts and canadas and ducks mixed in. I called with the call and my speck call is junk plus I suck at this call, but the specks came in to take a look meanwhile the bulk of the birds were honed into another spot in the field. The first few specks were close, and Pat was excited. I told her take the shot and she did. Her first speck hit the frozen field. She was pretty pumped. She has shot at one before and missed, this turned into crying . The rest of the birds coming off the roost went with the others. We continued to hunt with a small group of canadas coming close, but none would commit but just go to the others. As long as that group was there nothing will come to the 32 decoys we had out as opposed to the three to four hundred in the field a quarter mile away. Pat decided to walk over and get those birds up. She did and the birds went back to the roost. Finally, the birds started trickling out but flew North away from us and the field. Later on a few remaining geese lifted off and checked us out. They were still more interested in where the big wad was making pass after passing around us just looking. This is when I decided non committing birds if they were close enough would be targets for pass shooting. This became a game will they get closer or not. We took two canadas and I got a speck. Beautiful birds, tasty birds. One set of speck breasts are in the sous vide ready to take out and sear. Gotta take care of that as Pat fixes sides.

If you didn't know, when I am not chasing lifers I tend to be fond of chasing trout in many different locations. There aren't many stream-bred brown trout or wild brook trout streams closer than a couple of hours from me. It's the weekend and they were forecasting some bad weather moving in. I decided to go for some stocker rainbows and I did a trip North to the Patapsco River near Elderburg MD, which they stocked on the 4th. With the bad weather I figured I could get in a couple of hours of fishing. I didn't expect that It would be snowing as soon as I got there. The road ran along the river and I could spot likely holes to target for holdover trout. I met a man and his young son along the road that were not having much luck. I decided to go well below them before fishing. Upstream from where I parked, there was a small creek confluence with the river. I checked but the hole at the confluence was only big enough to hold a single trout and I didn't see or spook any. I will have to remember to check out that spot for micros later in the spring/summer😉. The snow was getting heavy. I headed downstream and found a nice hole to fish. After my initial attempts at getting a strike were spurned, I had to make a shift in plans. The snow had now turned to feezing rain and my fishing window was closing. I just knew that this hole was the best spot for a holdover stocker in the limited time provided by the weather. (purists cover your ears/eyes 😉😂) Since I was planning on keeping a fish or two, I tied on a #20 treble hook with a split shot about 6 inches from the hook. I put on a couple of bubblegum colored Gulp eggs and cast out into the current seam on the edge of the deep water. I have used this setup to harvest stockers for years from stocked ponds like the Urban trout program in MO. It didn't take long and I hooked and landed a decent 13" stocker rainbow. I would love to say that I caught a few more, but no more bites even from casts to spots that should have had fish. The weather was getting worse and I had a bit of drive home and decided to leave after 20 or so mins after catching that trout. I can't complain since I did end up catching a trout in a new location. I plan on coming back to this area and hope to find some decent fallfish or maybe some interesting micros. I plan on making this trout with a hot chili/sesame oil with lemongrass. Maybe that will end up on the What's cooking thread.

I fished the Coldwater access down to Sam Baker back in the end of November. This report is a bit late. Bass were biting really well. I caught fish near winter areas, but they were surprisingly up in spots with more current. I didn't bother crappie fishing, I just threw jerkbaits, jigs, and swimbaits for bass. With the exception of a 24 inch walleye, and an 18 inch largemouth it was all smallies and spots less than 15 inches. I released the walleye so maybe it will grow to be a real giant!

Let's finish this nymph. After the trim job this is what it should look like and what I was going for. After trimming around the hook eye you might still have a mess. A small drop of head cement in my case some UV glue on the threads. Still some wild hairs around and in the hook eye? Heat up a needle or straight pin and insert into the hook eye singing them into oblivion. Don't touch the thread wraps on your good work will come undone. Because of the lead placement on the hook this will ride hook up. No problem less snagging on the bottom. Ham said this is a good imitation of a little sculpin too.

Been busy tying for customers, myself, and just to kill time during this bad weather. Playing around with color combinations with DnDs and Slug-Os. Threw in a Boogie Man, too. My favorite articulated streamer is the DnD (with the Slug-O a close second). The way it darts and cuts through the water really replicates the action of a jerkbait--as long as you don't do the normal, fairly worthless strip, strip, pause when retrieving it. Work the rod tip! Anyway, need to get some recon and see which colors work. Here are some samples. Also, I have found deer belly hair to be the best for the wedge heads. You can use body hair, but you really need a lot and need to pack it super tight.

How I miss my fishing buddy Richard Mac Button. Was a member here for a while.

Waded at Rim Shoals this morning and had a good trip. Water was at minimum flow but still a bit higher than normal due to runoff from the recent wet weather. Best flies today were an olive/brown woolly bugger and the usual egg patterns fished in tandem. Ended the morning with lots of rainbows and 1 cutthroat. No browns today. Here are a couple of the better rainbows...

Decided to see if we could catch a trout before we froze to death this morning. Luckily some giggers from last night left a fire going.

We committed Dad to the nursing home on my annual trip to Spring River the weekend before Memorial Day 2022. His health had been failing and we were unable to stay with him and keep him going. He had fallen and banged himself up several times that spring living there by his self. My visits to him weekly on trips back from taking care of the farm always started on how things were going. When he became unable to get outside and feed, his collection of Banty chickens was given to a friend. When he came in to collect them off their roosting pen, 2 roosters escaped that night and went feral. We had a stock dog, part Pyronees and Border Collie that was getting long in the years and a 30 year old mare that reared many colts. My head count, 2 roosters, a dog, and a horse. Then we went on to other things. Months went by. One trip, 1 rooster, a dog, a horse. Came home to farm to find chicken feathers out in the garden spot, chicken hawk plucked him right there. Later, a dog and a horse. The other rooster disappeared, coyote, bobcat, or an owl popped him off the roost. Finally we got over that part, thankfully he quit asking. He missed the part where my sister came out with her husband and had to put the dog down. He never knew the part about when I came in on a hot July day and found the horse dead several days of old age. Finally, Dec 20, he passed in my arms with family around us that morning. We buried him the afternoon on Dec 26 with military honors in a church grave yard at the head of my paternal grandparents, next to my paternal great grandparents not far from the family farm in the family church yard. And that is how that story ends.

It finally warmed up enough to get out and fish, so I took the boat up to the State Park. Fishing was good on the 1-unit flow and the fish were hungry. Caught a bunch of rainbows and 2 decent browns on a sculpin imitation fly. The south wind picked up and made it difficult to work the fly, so I left a bit early.

With the blizzard coning tomorrow I made a trip to the BS dam access. I was met by our local Game Warden, and he doesn't bother to check me these days. Always good to see him out there. Fishing was pretty good. A friend caught a nice rainbow right of the bat and I ended with 9. Best flies for me were egg patterns and a UV nymph my friend tied. Here is best rainbow....

Mrs Billethead is done with her flies!! I did brown and copper thread midge pupae on size 14 barbless hook. I am a new tier....having a lot of fun with it!! Hope you guys enjoy this....I sure am!!

Great time yet again. Love seeing all of you every year. Here are some pics I took.

Napping while knapping

Yes Pat and I watched you guys! Then we found a few with the fly rods. Fun.

Rob caught a dandy rainbow, you can tell how big it is by how small his hands look

This is a thing that Sugarbritches did before her & I collided.....and it's one of my favorite meals. So I always get it the day after Valentine's Day 😉 as a confirmation that I did good yesterday 🤗 I sometimes get lucky on Devil Dogs night too.......So wish me luck! 😁

We did a cooking class last night with my daughter and new son in law. We’ve done a few at this place and they’ve all been good (KC Culinary Center in Overland Park). This one was Thai food which is something the missus and I have very little experience with. SIL is an adventurous chef and eater so this was right up his alley. It’s part eating, part learning and part cooking. The chef had a background teaching culinary so she had the skill set for this. She started us off with a lettuce wrap with chicken and Thai basil that was made ahead. Lotsa interesting flavors and very good. Next we made a slaw with cabbage, red peppers, edamame, garlic and cilantro with an Asian ginger peanut dressing. Then we did a shrimp pad Thai with cabbage, noodles, peanuts, sauce, etc. The recipe is about a mile long. Really fun to cook and explore all the new things, and it was all outside our normal zone. The slaw was delicious as was the pad Thai. So many new flavors for us and skills learned (like cooking rice noodles correctly) Dessert was a black rice pudding with mango and coconut cream. Oh, dang! Kind of expensive, but split the cost across education, dining, entertainment and family time budgets and it’s cheap (almost).

We once again set down at the vices this morning. Let's see how Pat did downsizing a bit. Today we did thread midges. Rusty and olive. Hook TMC 2499 SP-BL. Wicked sharp and barbless with a wide gap. Yes you might loose a fish or two if you let your line go loose but in the net with one flop of the fish they unhook themselves. Size 14 but make your midge like an 18. Fish could care less about the hook if they are biting they a focused on the midge. Pat got a bit long on the midge size but so do I at times. She feels cross-eyed right now.

I fished this morning and was able to catch some LM and K's on a swimbait and Damiki. I was around fish that were feeding on bait near the surface. The fish were really focused on the bait and most would ignore my presentation. Once you catch a fish within a group the others get educated real quick. The ratio of LM and K's was about 50-50. I would swim/shake the Damiki on a 1/2oz head and it produced better than the swimbait. I kept the boat in 30-60 FOW and there were plenty of trees in the area(s). The WT was in the 46-47 range. There were more boats than I expected...not sure of any tournaments.

Want to say Thank You, to @Phil Lilley, Marsha and the entire Lilley's Staff, for being such Great host. As Marty mentioned above we were blessed to have such nice accommodations, a truly great place to gather for FFFF.

It has begun. VID_20250130_183838173.mp4

Happens every winter in anticipation of spring and good things to come. Two dozen of our favorite colors. Do you think I can get them into the Clouser box?😁

Looking good, brother ! 👍 You gotta try Olive over Tan with Root beer flash..... Absolute KILLER in clearer water !

Family portrait of one of our members.

I stayed in marathon Florida, February 1 through the 10th and the weather was spectacular. 75 at night and 84 during the day. I did not book a guided trip. I’ve done dozens of saltwater trips and honestly they have gotten to a price I’m just not willing to pay. 🤷‍♂️. I hit several state park beaches and caught lady fish and finally a lifer jack cravelle! About 15” and it’s crazy how hard they fight. All my kids and even my wife had caught one before but not me. Bahia Honda has a nice flat and that’s where I had the best luck. The Fugitive swim bait got absolutely tore apart but very few would get hooked. Switched to an old twin prop bang o lure in chrome and they destroyed that too. No pictures as I was wading far out on the flat. Literally hundreds of yards. Sorry @Johnsfolly And of course we hit all the tourist stops from key Largo to Key West. I can’t recommend it enough if you get the chance.

I finally did it! Thank you to all of you who donated to this essential cause here in our part of the country. We use food as a tool to influence our neighbor's lives in helpful ways, building relationships through monthly distributions throughout Taney and Stone Counties. Polar Plunge Donor Link- http://weblink.donorperfect.com/PolarPlunge2025

DJ, Blake and I set a new One Cast record today. Landed 22 trout. 49 minutes.

Extra credit for using “spurned” in a report👍

I was calling this a sculpin streamer. Forever now the "Grinch bug" I asked our friend why? He said my grandkids would call it a Grinch because of the color. Alrighty then. I had an idea for this swap but went through a couple prototypes until I decided this was the one. B10S #8, inverting tungsten bead, thread, small wire for the ribbing and pine squirrel strips and peeled the face and substandard strips for the dubbing used. The head/pectoral fin area and body behind is olive chartreuse UV dyed. I did use a black sharpie to dull that down some but still shows under the UV cure light. These little guys ride hook up. The sink test went well on the prototype. I will post that separate so maybe it won't downgrade so much. A couple pictures will be double showing the UV color. You can strip, jig, bounce on the bottom or dead drift. They will catch more than trout I guarantee. Right at an inch and a half inches long.

I was surprised how similar the flats were to the Bahamas, cancun and Cozumel. And backcountry mangroves. I was wishing I had my boat. The water is very placid in the winter. If anyone goes you can rent a skiff at Robbie’s on islamorada. Which I will be doing next time. Hopefully next January again. Dozens of tarpon under our dock. No fishing on it though.

That's the one perk of being the fry man. I got to "test" several pieces of crappie and turkey before anybody else. 😁

It's not a bunch of picky eaters for sure. Yes, there was a lot of food made, but there was a lot consumed. If you spend all day fishing, then you miss out on some food. Came back in for a fried crappie lunch Saturday, but too late, it was gone. Thought I could fall back on Phil's brisket, but no, it was gone. Don't fall for the "we made too much food" story. If you're not there when it comes out of the fryer, grill, or pot, then you are out of luck.

@gotmuddy, Don't feel too bad. We were sitting in the flower bed swing enjoying the sun. I exited it to check out the bees working in and out of the hives. The swing stopped squeaking. This is what I seen 😂. Taney fest can take it's toll.

Another one is in the books, Old friendships just get stronger and new ones were made. I don't think I will really need to eat anything for a week being full of all the food there. Everyone did an amazing job bringing food an cooking. FFFF, friendship, fellowship,food and fishing Pat and I feel this is the order it should be in. Lodging is the best looking off the back of our unit and covered deck we gaze over the dock and lake. Out the front door last night I see Venus getting closer to the moon. Found out this morning this is called Venus kissing the moon. Leaving was sad but we have already made reservations for next year.

Cody has to get some rest at some point. He was chief entertainer and chef in addition to fishing and leading the charge over to The Cheeky Monkey.

Maybe I was just focused on my beer

Fishing is exhausting

Durch and I fished the Kings today and also motored over to Mill Creek. It was very tough for us, we caught 5 bass total. Dutch had two of those and they were both keepers, and one was close to 3 lbs. The few we caught all came on Ned rigs in 10-20 FOW. Tried a swimbait for a while with no takers. Looked at a couple of deep spots, nothing there. WT 43-45, however the upper Kings by the 86 bridge is iced over.

I fished this morning and found a real good deep water swimbait bite. After this last cold snap the WT has dropped to 45.8 and the fish still seem to prefer the SB. I kept the boat in 40 to 70 FOW and the bass were steadily moving throughout the entire water column. Fish in the 1-10ft range were fairly easy to catch, but the deeper fish have a mind of their own. Lots of trees in the area but the fish swim right by the trees and keep on moving. I caught a fair amount of LM, but mostly K's and just a few SM. I rountinely had fish on my graph from 7 to 8:30AM then they started to disappear. For me, scouting an area after 8:30 can be very misleading. I looked at two other area's after 9AM and caught a few more keepers but at daylight tomorrow morning these same area's could hold lots of fish. I used a 5/8 jig head with 3" SB 90% of the time and I did catch some on a Damiki rig. These deep fish like to posture underneath the back of the boat so I often throw my SB about 10ft behind the boat and reel it thru the suspended fish (normally about 25-35ft down).

I haven’t been fishing on a Saturday in forever. It was cold and foolish me thought there wouldn’t be many down at Cape. We were 6th to launch. When we go to the good spot a boat was on it. We pulled up to a bluff and a boat pulled in ahead of us. The next place had 2 boats several hundred yards away so we fished toward them. Another boat came along and pulled up in front of us. It was that way everywhere we went. With all the boats running around one would think it was May. When we left Cape there were 25 rigs on the lots. Now I remember Saturday. BTW fishing was tough.

Oh I love a Good DIY trip. @FishnDave documented our trips to Florida and Louisiana pretty well. And our trip to the Arkansas River. I have some OOT trips in the works as well as my usual weekly adventures. I am planning a multi day trip to Okefenokee Swamp to mess with Ruddy Bowfin, Chain Pickerel, and Fliers. I’ll hit up some Alabama stuff on the way over and some Florida stuff on the way home. I’m flip flopping between hauling canoe vs renting a flat bottom. I’m doing the long term planning. If it is a solo trip, I will tent camp to save cash. I want to go to Havasu and Boundary Waters and Arkansas River in OK. well, everywhere really.

Those smallmouth in that Indian are actually Neosho's. That's where our Neosho movie filming begins in March.

Chunky White River rainbow.