3wt

Still realize that the text you read does not comprise any actual rule. It's a meeting minute bullet point referring to something that will be much more specific I hope. Or it could turn into a poorly worded law and turn into another 'deer hunting with dogs' or 'really officer, I was TRYING to snag gar' situation.

Pretty preliminary info, don't expect any clarification for a while. But I'd spread the word for people to start saving their pennies for a new pair of boots.

I'm sure it will make a good boat anchor eventually.

if you're really wanting light and under 100 I'm sure there are some bare bones options like pflugers that my work out.

I think I'd try to learn some type of spey casting and maybe get a switch rod. Pretty cool stuff, but it looks tough to learn. I saw a guy at Carondolet park standing out on the dock practicing casting with a 12' 8wt Sage a couple weeks ago. Looked fun.

I'm sure you can find that pattern on the internet if you try. If Gary recommended an emergent sparkle pupa in a black dressing, I'd go with it. But try some soft hackles too. Sometimes stocker trout aren't smart enough to know what they're eating, and a lighter offering might do the trick. For example - during trico hatches I've caught few trout at Montauk on actual trico imitations. Usually sometihng lighter like a grey body and grizzly hackle work better. Maybe the lighter dressing looks like the natural's wings that are clear, or maybe the fresh out of the hatchery fish just see it better and react.

They were kind of just a gimmick. They fell out of style for a reason. And they weight a ton. And they require maintenance. And they serve no real purpose other than reeling up when you want to move to a new spot. Did I mention they weigh a ton? I don't think there is a modern rod out there that you could balance up to one. If it's tough to keep the line tight right after hook up, just strip a couple feet until you have the fish on a good tight line then once you're letting him start to fight get the slack up and get the fish on the reel. This should work until you get a fish that decided to swim right at your feet. Then you might have some slack line to deal with - but just strip some more manually, and get him back on the reel. Once you have the fish on the reel it shouldn't be a problem - just let the drag do it's thing.

As Sheridan Anderson put it in The Curtis Creek Manifesto- "Drop one in a sandy creek and learn something about applied mechanics."

If I get a chance tonight I'll see if Lafontaine has any advice on this hatchin 'Caddisflies.'

The first one looks like a dry fly. CDC will eventually sink, but the dry hackle won't have the motion you're looking for in a wet. I think the dressing with the sparse wet soft hackle and maribou are more appropriate for a wet. I'm not familiar with the black cadiss hatch, but I'm not sure that a wet caddis should look quite like an adult with the down wing and what not. For a typical caddis pupea or emerger I'd say less is more. Leave off the wing. Try with the sparse thread body, but maybe also a hearl body - I think there's a classic wet called a sparrow and one called a starling and herl that may be the ticket. I think I'd try a variety of soft hackles in various shades of dark. Nice thing is that they tie up pretty quick so you can whip some up at camp pretty easy.

And they make an in between "textured" GPX (and other mastery lines) Sharkskin is awsome and you pay $100 for it. It shoots great throught hte guides, and is a super supple line - seems to float down to the water when casting dries. It should be terrific in cold weather. Also it's supposed to last forever, and come off the water well. I really do think it's worth the money if you like the line. The 'textured' is like $80. Probably more like a dimpled standard fly GPX. I doubt you get the suppleness of sharkskin. GPX is somethign like $60 and good line. But I like RIO Grand much better. The TFO pros ar fast, but not lightning fast. I think it would do well with a 1/2 up weight line, if you want that at 7 wt. I think you may be alright without it. If this is truly just as streamer rod then take a look at some of the special streamer lines. Or maybe the bass bug lines. I hear they can be nice for chucking chicken sized flies. I'd really consider specializing if you only use it for streamers. I think pro streamer guys have some very different setups - like sinking lines and unweighted huge flies. But they don't translate well to all purpose use. But neither does a 7wt in general. And at Taney, long line streamer fishing is a lot of fun. So even if you don't plan on casting a long distance, don't rule out doing it. I bet you'll find yourself waist deep with 2 generators running, wishing you could cast a little farther or wade a little deeper. You'll be double hauling for more distance in no time.

I'd go with that rod (or the 8'6" one) if I was staying in the parks and spring streams and Taney once in a while. If I was spending more time on Taney, I'd go 5wt. That said, I think everyone really needs about 3 rods. Maybe a 3 a 5 and a 7. Once you had those then really go specialized like an 11' 4wt just for nymphing, a 7' 1 or 2wt just for little creeks...

Tough to recommend line without knowing much about the Rod. High end line is in the $60+ range. Good brands are RIO, Scientific Anglers and Cortland. They each also have less expensive lines - I think ~$40. For me, I'd spend the cash if you're only doing it every 5+ years. Check with the descriptions to make sure you're matching the line style to the rod action. For cheaper some people like the hook and hackle brand fly lines. You can check them out on the hook and hackle website. I hear they're good for the cost. But for me I'd say spend $60 every 5-10 years, and then try not to abuse it. Entry level rods can really be affordable these days. TFO Series One are ~$100. Kind of moderate speed. TFO Pro series are really nice and are ~$150. There are other options from Echo, St. Croix, and redington that are fairly inexpenive and not throw aways that you'll be upgrading from in a year or two. I'd say stick with 5wt if you're spending time at Taney, but also Bennet. I think upsizing would be heavy for the trout parks and spring fed rivers and going down to 4wt would be a little light for an all around Taney Rod. I'm not sure there is such a thing with that body of water. But I take my 5wt when I go.

I can attest that they do work well in a size 10 down hook 3xlong streamer hook, weighted with lead wire, no super glue, and without palmering the maribou (palmering made it too bush on the smaller hook). Even weighted they don't go all the way down so you won't loose them. I have started straightening out the eye with my vice for this fly - just because I like the straight eye and I didn't want to go buy new hooks...but if you find yourself at a fly shop, I realy think I prefer straight eyes for steamers. This is my configuration of the fly for the current river, but I did fish them at Taney and you will catch fish with it. Probably a little small for down there in general, and probably not the killer for night time or for bigger browns. It's a terrific fly Leonard. It's almost knocked down the mohair leech as my favorite streamer...almost.

Streamers tend to work well too - Mohair leeches, buggers, sculpins (look up leonards pine squirrel sculpin and PMS) - all of the above in a 10 or 8 and olive, ginger, brown black etc.

And my brother introduced me to them on the last trip.

Yonder for me too.

That's why when we fish down there and feel competitive with eachother, a brown counts as two...aka the 'brown trout multiplier.' There's also a dry fly multiplier in play, but that's a different story.

Some around here say they catch mostly browns and a few rainbows. I catch probably 90+% rainbows down there. The bigger browns are down there, just getting their attentin can be the trick. Your best bet is probably at sundown and at night. On the plus, a lot of the nice gravel bars in the upper stretch are great locations for fishign too, so scoping out the water and waiting for nightfall wouldn't be too tough. I think the spinners and the like would be good options for predatory browns - in fact it might be the trick to get them moving in the daytime too. good luck.

And to my knowledge the smallmouth fishing will essentially suck in that stretch. So you're kind of after trout or nothing.

Lots of gravel bars for camping. There are a few good spots just below baptist, and then at Ashley creek a few miles down. That might be a good first night stay and let you take your time wade fishing the trout water. I think you'll find the current to have a lot more gravel bars that the 11 pt (from what I recall.) So it's not usually a big issue to find a spot to crash. The blue ribbon is best for trout. I'd make sure I spent a lot of time fishing the first day and a half. Once you get close to cedar grove it slows down. I don't know much about the white ribbon area, but some really do well down past cedar grove, probably closer to welch spring. I've never used a spin setup for trout outside of montauk, but I'm sure black/gold, olive, olive/brown, white etc. maribou jigs 1/32, small rooster tails, wooly worm spinners (aka montauk specials, bennett specials) all work well. That pretty much exhaust my old spin fishing arsenal, but I haven't really tried spin fishing for ~15 years, so I'm probably not the best expert here.

Not really selling night fishing here. Taney must be a hotbed of cryptozoology.

Nice job on the fish. I agree with heron on this one. I do know that there is a resident bald eagle at the first bend down from the park septic area. You can sometimes see the remains of his dinners in the water below the trees on the big bluff. But this one looks like a stab from a heron. I've caught fish with a hole all the way through their back. It's amazing they survive that. I think this guy's gill plate saved his life - and i'm glad it did; you can tell by his fins that he's been swimming in those waters for a while now.

Last time I went to Taney (2007?) I remember asking some questions about fishing there - at that point the biggest concern was, and I quote, "some of them boys be arkies." Sounds like the situation has gotten only slightly scarier in the past few years. I'd love to try night fishing. I'm barely brave enough to fish in daylight on that water. I'd need to meet up with some of y'all if I was going to consider it. Also these branson trips are really family trips. I just sneak out for the mornings before anybody else wakes up - so I'm not sure I'll be able to sell all night fishing.

Went to Taney for my third attempt at tailwater fishing. It's been a few years, but I learned a lot the first two attempts and finally got a feel for wonky tailwater trout. Pretty much fished early mornings Sat-Mon. Saturday was 0 generation. great wading down around rebar. Lots of fish rising for nymphs pretty much everywhere. started catchign them on a black zebra ~12" from the film. Caught one or two w/ a PMS and several swinging soft hackles near rising/nymping fish; that's alway a fun way to catch fish and loose flies. I think a total of 9 or 10 in a few hours. Mostly stockers with a few in the 12-14" Sunday I think had 1 generator going. Mad the wading trickier for an amateur. The fog and off color water made it hard to read the water depth. Did well stripping PMS and other streamers in the current. I think about 5 total in a couple of hours. My fishing buddy cautght a fewer than I did, but cauth one that was probably over 18". Also saw a blond girl wade in to about 2" below the chest wader top - thought she was in for a cold day, but was helped out by some folks with her. In hindsight I think I recognized one of the rescuers as Leonard??? Just based on other pictures in the low water post. Monday had more water. Really tough wading. Fishing buddy caught one over 20" and a rainbow and a brown that was probably 15 or 16. I finally caught one nice rainbow down near rebar right before we left. It went >18". Tailwaters are still not my thing, but they do have a certain charm to them. Tough to read water, but I really liked long-line streamer fishing, just kind of searching out all the water. Still think it's weird that trout just hang out in appearently structureless shallow water, but where else would they go? Finally figured out that you can just fish the water and find fish without trying to hard to read where they should be. Searching worked much better. Strangely enough, I couldn't get them to touch a scud. Altogether I appeared to be catching more fish than anybody within sight, so I felt pretty good about myself. The fish I caught were healthy and strong fighing. And catching fish on 50' of line swinging a steamer makes the hook setting and playing fish a different game than I'm used to - probably could have caught about 3X the fish I did catch if I could have gotten the hook to do its job. Lots of fun. Hopefully it won't be 4 years before I go again.