fly2fish

Timber, Since you are from SE Okla do you fish Lower Mountain Fork much and do you read the Beavers Bend Message board any? I have been trying to see how many people are member on both boards. HC

Phil, sorry you had to witness that game in person, I was watching it on TV, at least I could turn it off when it started getting painful. But look how they bounced back the next 2 games. When I saw the crowd cheering for So, I didn't know if it was for him being gone or glad to see him back. HC

They process and sell the roe for around $200 a pound, they also take the carcasses to Joplin at some place that turns them into oil. They are looking at setting up 2 or 3 more on some of the other lakes here in Okla. Keystone, Ft. Gibson, Eufaula. The one at Twin Bridges may become permanent. HC

With it up 7 to 9 feet during the day (and most of the night) it is more close to dangerous than doable, the first couple miles especially. After that you are fairly clear and in deeper water. I don't know if you can get much fishing in until you get to the calmer waters. HC

For Leonards PMS (pine, maribou, sculpin) fly recipe look on down in the fly recipe section. For the jig just tie it on a 1/8 oz jig head instead. As for what you call small pound test, we are using 6-8 lb test. Walleye have sharp pointed teeth and not razor sharp edges and usually they are just hooked in the corner of the mouth. I do notice more abrasion on my line after catching 4 or 5 brown trout, have not caught enough eyes on the same line to notice. For technique it varies with the water condition, if you really want to know and try first hand check out Leonards website and book a trout/walleye trip with him.

I wouldn't go just to fish for the walleyes, just fish for the trout the walleyes come by chance or more like accident. This was the first one I caught after several nights of fishing since the gates were open last April. I don't know how much rain the Table Rock watershed received the last 2 days, but if they open the gates again then that may replenish the walleye, smallmouth, goggleye and gar population below the dam again. HC

I did manage to take home 1 walleye Saturday night, also caught a goggleye but released it. I did remember to use the hemos to get the fly of the the walleyes mouth since he took it pretty deep. Water finally dropped to 1 gen but not until about 1:00 am. Ended up with about 15 trout, 1 white, 1 goggleye, 1 walleye. Friday night went to outlet 1 about 12:30am after Leonard said everyone else had left, threw the PMS jig for a while until the water dropped to below 704 and started to use the fly rod with a PMS and caught over 20 between 1 & 2 am all trout. Mostly good size with one 22" and another 21" measured with marks on my net. Henry

Thom, Just got back from Taney yesterday, only fished at night. They cut the water back to 1 gen after midnight Friday and Saturday nights and the fishing was pretty good around outlet 1 and above. You may be facing higher flows then because of the all day and night rains that started last night. There are still quite of few walleyes up around #1, if you can get with Leonard and go up in the boat before dark you can probably get into a few, finally got one on the fly rod Saturday night. Good luck! Henry

I fished the Smokies a couple years ago in March when it was really dry, no snow melt or rain, the streams were really low and clear. I think I went to the same fly shop it was upstairs in one of the small shopping areas just to the left of the main intersection. Fished Abrams creek and caught 6 fish the first morning, 2 above average (12-14 in.), 2 avg (8-10) and 2 below avg. using a copper john or BHPT (didn't matter) with a stimulator for a strike indicator. A lot of fun with a 3wt, also fished just inside the entrance where 2 streams ran head on into each other to form the stream that ran toward Townsend, caught several there. All the way there everyone I talked to said that time of the year the streams would be up and muddy and a lot of people around the access areas and the fish would be smaller than we are used to here. They were only right on one account (fish being smaller) but it was great just to get out in such a beautiful area, only saw maybe 5 or 6 other fishermen in the whole park. HC

I have fished Flaming Gorge back when they were predicting that the next world record would come from there. The number 1 method was trolling count down rapalas in deep water over or next to structure, this worked good during the day. However at dusk the fish started to surface and could be caught on flies using conventional spinning equipment with a clear casting cork. I have found this to be true on most of the western lakes that as soon as the sun is off the water then the trout begin to hit on or near the surface, same holds true for early morning before the sun tops the horizon. I too am heading out that way the first and second week of July to L.V. and hope to get up into Utah for some small lake or stream fishing, and will probably hit the San Juan on the way back. HC

I heard that they made over $1 million on the cleaning station this year, far more than they had predicted, this coming from one of the game rangers in Craig County (Greens former county). So I guess the $400K investment really paid off, now where is the money at?

The last 2 nights they have shut it down completely around midnight then turning on again about 6 am and running 4 generators during the day. Wade fishing during the day is out for a while unless they shut it down for a weekend but they haven't done that this spring yet. There will still be fishing accessible around the outlets but will be crowded on the weekends.

Its sad to see Leonard has gone from a finesse trout fisherman to a spooner now a gar fisherman, what next? LOL Hey do you think my 4wt can handle one of those gar or spoonies or should I use the 8wt. You know I will try the 4wt first. See ya soon. Henry

I don't know if the stained water is actually coming through the turbines or if all the sediment that washed into the channel from the bank erosion is still being scoured out, Thursday night they cut it down to one turbine where you could wade out far enough at outlet 1 to get a backcast in and the bottom felt like it had a layer of mud about 3 inches thick instead of rock pea gravel. If the sediment is more sand based than dirt it may cause it to stain instead of pure muddy water. Just my thoughts. Speaking of that night Leonard and I caught 7 different types of fish, rainbow, browns, smallies, walleye, shad(snagged), white bass, and his gar, incredible night considering the water. Henry

Hey, I will be at Taney Thursday and Friday nights also, will probably be after 10:00 pm. Got to get some of the large egg patterns tied before I get there. Henry

Didn't it say they had a ball catching them, and not catching them on balls? I don't think anyone would waste a good meal of deep fried RMO's to catch something of a lesser delicacy. HC

I expanded on the old carp recipe of strawberry pop and wheaties by adding a package of strawberry banana jello and corn starch to make it more like a dough ball that will stay on the hook better. Since most carps mouths are small and they don't take the dough ball into there mouth they just peck on it, I rig up by tying on a small treble bait hook about a foot from the end of your line, then tie on a large treble hook (about 1-1.5 inches across) about 4 inches below the bait hook. Next tie on a 1/2 ounce sinker on the end. Bait the small treble and cast out. Tight line until you feel one nibbling then set the hook hard, you will most likely snag them on the outside of the mouth with the bare treble. Once you get the first one then the action will usually pick up since they are attracted to the area, because fighting the first fish chums the area because of the baited hook being exposed and falling off.

Lucky $@%&, I will drive all the way from Oklahoma just to eat on The Hill, usually at Favazza's, sometimes it is hard to find one open on Sunday's though. In St. Louis Pasta House and Olive Garden are considered fast food. In Branson P.H. isn't bad, Rocky's is more reasonable and good, also my wife and I ate at an Italian place up by the Welk Resort for our 25th anniv. it was expensive but it was a gift so it didn't seem that bad. Also watch for busses in the parking lot before you go in to any place in Branson, they usually have a place set aside for them but the service can be slow sometimes.

As long as you are at outlet 2 and no cars in the parking lot, you have plenty of room to backcast. Saturday night was good drifting a beadhead peach scud size 10 above a peach egg size 8. I had (3) no.6 split shots about 5 inches above the egg to keep it down. Caught 3 fish in the first 4 drifts between the outlet and the steps. Caught 7 before Leonard came down from 1 (after the boat incident). Went to 1 later with less success, went back to 2 and lost the egg replaced it with a tan chamois worm catching 9 more including a 21" brown, the only brown of the night. My son caught fish at both outlet 1 & 2 with stickbaits but on the average they were a lot smaller fish, he did hang a couple at outlet 1 that had his rod spinning rod bent in half before pulling loose, may have been walleyes like were caught Friday night. Henry

Does anyone know what shape Crane is in after the last rain and what it may be this weekend barring any more rain? HC

If it keeps raining Lake Eucha and Spavinaw would be good choices they are less prone to flucuations during heavy rains. Spavinaw has a dam that the water flows over the top so usually the lake stays within a 3 foot range and clear. They are about the same distance as Grand from where you are. HC

You and a million other guys would like to be making a living fishing, but take a look at the guys in the top 40 of all the major tournys and it is like NASCAR the same ones week after week. Also fishing for a living may not be so fun anymore if the pressure to win becomes to much, you might end up having to catch something just to eat. Good luck, just my 2 cents worth. That was my dream when I was 22 also.

Does the generation chart for Table Rock include the flow from the gates? The 14,000 CFS that it is showing looks a heck of a lot more than the 14,000 cfs a couple weeks ago with all 4 units running. Also with Beaver running 9,000 cfs around the clock and all the other rivers flowing into TR, it looks like it will rise slowly for the next couple days at least. HC

There is another new show on there called Dollarwise Fly, it shows some of the more popular areas like Redfish in Louisiana, shark fishing around San Diego, and Florida supposely on a budget. But some of the prices they listed didn't seem like budget prices to me, $200 a day to rent a kayak to fish for redfish in the bayou.