Nighthawk

Google "Nitro Caddis" for a great looking pattern.

two friends and I fished the river on 2-17. got to the big spring area of the state park about 10:30 and the fishing was a little slow for our taste, so we moved up to the marina. that made all the difference. the fish were hot for midges. best pattern was rusty brown with a black rib and copper bead and variations of that. I ended up with 26 rainbows and 1 16" brown, one buddy got 22 rainbows and the other about 12. we quit about 2:45 and had a great breakfast at Lettie's Mexican restaurant. wonderful day!

don't know if will matter for your gathering, but the 16th of March is sowbug roundup.

was the moon out?

the former TFO rep in the Springfield area told me (and I agree) that you only need 3 fly rods; 4,6, and 8 wt. and the 6 is most versatile. you made a good buy.

fishing pal, Dave Tucker and I hit the river Wednesday. we put in at the marina in the state park and found the going a little slow. decided to move down to the spring. boy, did that make a difference! we got into fish right away, I on a sowbug and Dave on a midge. before they opened the generators, we had landed 25 apiece. the fish tore up 2 sowbugs and I eventually switched to a midge also. on the way home, we stopped at the front porch restaurant in Yellville and they were good enough to fix us breakfast at 2pm. the perfect end to a perfect day!

I tie all my midges on a 2499spbl TMC hook #14. it's a 2x short so you're actually tying a # 18 and you can tie it shorter on the shank if you want to go smaller. rusty brown with black head and also with a copper bead. have also had good luck with a copper dun as tied by River Run.

chicks that hot would melt the ice!

nice blog report. Rusty is my son, very proud of him!

fished with 2 buddies Tuesday below the MDC boat ramp, in the riffle by KOA. got 31 between us. almost all on midges

sorry you have caught the disease. you should have taken up heroin or meth; something non-habit forming. seriously welcome to the fraternity. you will find many hours of happiness on the water with a fly rod. there's just a mystique about that's hard to explain. good luck.

She will remember those times forever. Good for you.

i went back to a vest after a while with a pack. couldn't ever find what i was after in the main pocket. now to remember which pocket each item is in:)

welcome to the forum. sounds like you have the boys on the right track. look forward to reading your posts.

Brian, looking for a longer rod for mending and line control. got a 6'6" 3 wt bamboo,but can't see myself making big upstream mends with it. maybe i need to take it out for a test drive.

is there an address i can put in my gps to get me from Springfield, Mo to beaver dam? also what color midges work best on Beaver tailwater?

i'm looking for a 8 1/2 to 9' medium to soft action 3 wt fly rod to handle midges and an indicator and 7x tippet. any suggestions? thanks, Russ

a good friend and i headed for the White on Sunday and started at White Hole, 0 units projected all day. i caught a pretty 17" brown on the first cast and followed that with a couple more, as did my buddy. then the fish turned off like a switch. after a while a guy in a boat motored up to us and informed us that we were wading with 1 unit running and another was coming down right behind it. we thanked him profusely and high tailed it for the bank. we ate a shore lunch and talked about jumping down to Cotter ahead of the rise, but i called the white river # and found out Norfork was shut off, so we headed there. just as we pulled onto the parking lot i called the number again and it said Norfork was running 1 unit, and Bull Shoals was off! so back to the white just below the dam we went. called the number as we got to the state park and Norfork was already off again. we waded in at the state park and hammered the fish until dark and cold ran us off the river. moral of the story watch the water level and call the number often. FYI 870-431-5311.

Gary, sorry to hear you've taken up fly fishing again. You should have taken up heroin or crack cocaine; something up could get off of easily. Now you're hooked for life. Seriously, welcome to the forum, hope you find some good stuff here. Russ

went down thursday and got 11 throwing a rusty brown midge 15" under a small indicator. hope for some chop on the water.

they will be open any day now and yes they will have flies.

they will be open any day now and yes they will have flies.

just got back home from visiting the new Plateau Fly Shop in Springfield, Mo (formerly Backcountry Outfitters) across from incredible pizza on Campbell. One word "inventory". We now have a fully stocked full service fly shop in Springfield. they are not really open for business yet but the owner and manager are in there working and will sell you what you want if you have cash, or are willing to wait for them to run your card the old fashion way. Sage, Scott, TFO, Hardy, Greys and Redington rods, at least 80 rods in stock. Tibor, Abel, Galvan, Ross Sage, Redington, Hardy, Greys reels. Full line of Simms stuff, Renzetti, patagonia, you name it. plus fly tying stuff out the wazoo. I have no financial affiliation with them just thought everyone would like to know they're there. phone # 417-889-6548. owners cell # 849-1667.

i have personally seen some 5-7lb browns and a buddy who owns a fly shop saw 2 20lbers, so the fish are there, maybe not in great numbers. whether they will be biting when you are here, nobody knows. i haven't heard of many big browns being caught yet, so if it were me, i would monitor the forum and come when the catch rate improves a little.

i have found the night fishing to be very slow lately as well. a buddy got into them pretty well the other night on a sjw, though. the daytime fishing has been slow except around the outlets. may be an o2 thing.