Simsmarine

No, not with the CF wing, once its soaked you're good to go. The slow fall is what triggers the bites. If you tie them with any kind of a hair wing you'll have to add a bit of lead though. The only particular I can think to add is: I fish them with 4lb. flourocarbon tippet. This purple wetfly and a dime sized sponge spider(black/white legs) is all I have needed the last few years to load up on gills at the 5 different lakes/ponds that I fish. darn, now I'm gettin' all psyched to go Gillin' ! I'm gonna wait until this current front passes, then I'll give'em a try. I have noticed that if you get after them as soon as they make their first movement into the shallows you'll get bigger ones. Then after that with each passing warm day more and more little runts will start to show up. Don't forget that the North side of the lakes warm up quicker.

Guess what? the bank in the pics are in the Gravois arm. And the water there is not so clear...hint hint. The fish aren't on beds yet by any means, just lovin' the warm off colored shallows I think.

dp, How much company did ya have, and which zone did you see the lunkers in ? I'm thinking about going down tomorrow (Wed.) to see if I can get my picture taken with a fat Brown or Bow, and to practice some soft-hackle presentations. A thunderboomer or two is in the forcast so that may keep the crowd down.

Water is/was super low and fish were confined to the deeper pockets, or darn close to them. Caught a few little Browns swingin' #8 tan Muddlers, a few little Bows dead drifting a #8 olive leech, and several Smallies helped break the monotony.

The backend flats are warming up. If you can find shoreline cover in the flats you can get'em as shallow as 2ft. A few locals might recognize this bank...it's loaded! One pass with the jiggin' pole and a SouthernPro Umbrella tube brought to hand 17 keeper Crappie and 4 keeper bass. Go get'em.

GF, I tie them myself, it's a: 9671 #12/ black glass bead/ black round rubber tail/ purple(med.)ultra chenille body/ black saddle hackle/ black crystal flash wing. Assembled in that order. The pattern originally(as shown to me) had a calf tail wing and required some lead wraps along with the glass bead to sink it, but I like the flashy CF wing (with no lead added) better. There IS something about that purple body, I did some in solid black, and some with a chartruese body but they haven't impressed me near as much as the one shown. Again, if you try it...No retrieve! just cast it close to the cover, tighten up the slack and watch for a bite as it sinks. That Mackie bug oughta do the trick too....I'd try it in Purple

Wayne, Wal-Mart has a little palm sized sewing kit, it is marketed under another name but if you look at the back of the bubble package it says "mfg by Coats & Clark". There are 6 spools of thread in the kit and the much praised "summer brown" is included. All the colors in the kit would/or could be good midge colors (except for maybe the blue). It twists up real good and I'd bet my last dollar that it is the original stuff that started the YS pattern. I did up a bunch of 24-22 YS's several years ago and gave them a workout at Bennett, the white turns a yellowish cream color after it gets "stream stained" and I did real good with it around the weedbeds at the highbank stretch. I never fish it anymore though cuz I hate fishing for above average fish with 7X... 6X seems like "barge rope" when tied to a 22-24 Gaston says they use 5X with 24's on the SJ, but I just can't bring myself to do that.

I like those Wayne, and wouldn't mind paying the price. But, I wish they were slimmer (they run 1 1/4" to 1 1/2"). I know that seems anal to some,that's why I opened this topic by saying " sometimes it amazes me how hard I am to please". I can't really explain it, but that unnecessary thickness in my vest pockets bothers me. I guess it's like the new (more compact)cell phones...nobody wants the bigger clunky ones of 10 years ago hanging on them anymore.

Yep, that's it. Thanks Dano

I'm gonna tie up some fresh ones tonite. What size do you like and what hook do you use.

This one kicks gill-butt for me. No retrieve necessary, just put it close to them and let it slow-sink. Here's the biggest one I caught last year (the one in my hand), and another close candidate.

Yeah sounds like fun ! I've tried exactly that several times during different conditions, without success. I guess I'll have to just stick with it awhile until I get bit a few times and gain some confidence. Heck, I think they are a breeze to tie. Body/rib/collar/wet-hackle, right? Is there a technical step that makes a better than average SH ? I use the "V" method of tying in the soft hackle on little ones, whereby you cut the tip of the stem from a Partridge feather (or whatever soft body feather you want), lay the resultant "V" of fibers under the hook eye at an upward angle, pinch, and wrap loosly at first, twist the fibers equally around the hook, pull the feather stem butt to get the length you want, then tighten up, cut the feather away and form the head. Looks good, and you can control the length of the fibers for consistency. With this method though you must have a collar of fur or herl to help splay the fibers against. I think I tie a dandy SH, just can't fish them worth a hoot... But I'm gonna work on that. What sizes do you like ? and what hook do you use? Thanks, G.

Holy retail,Batman! Huge price difference between the two links above. Damnation! Once again though...over an inch thick.

(417) 532-4338

Phil, Do you not require PFD's on, and kill switches connected when the big motor is running ? We've had a few liability issues here on L.O. and every hosted Tournament is strict on that. Just a suggestion, 'cause I notice several of your participants "forgot"

Yeah I think I'll go down for that if I can get away from the shop.

Sometimes I amaze myself at how hard I am to please. I can NOT find a flybox anywhere, at any price, that I truly "like". They are either too long, too short, too wide, and mostly too thick. I like the slit foam concept as far as holding/organizing the flys, but even with the vast array those offered by CF, SA, ect... I still cant be happy with them. Ideally I'd like to find a lightweight box 5 3/4" X 3 3/4" X 7/8" with slit foam spaced perfectly to accomodate flys from #18-12 on one side, and the other side having a 2" magnet pad for midges and tiny stuff along with more slit foam. Then another box the same size, but with foam slits to accomodate larger #10-6 buggers, leeches, muddlers and stuff. Why is it that all the otherwise perfect boxes are so blasted thick ? I don't use big hackled drys, so I have no use for boxes over an inch thick that cause bulging pockets on my vest and make me feel like I have huge boobs coupled with a massive beer belly The old Perrine boxes are the only thing I can find that aren't overly thick, but they are heavy, sink like a rock, and don't latch very well. I might just undertake making my own somehow...any ideas? Or does anyone know of a source for quality uncompartmentized (how's that for a word?) plastic boxes ?

I guess I need lessons on fishing the SH, the only way I ever got bit on them was adding splitshot to the leader and fishing it like a nymph and Bennett. Is that the way y'all fish it, or are you fishing it unweighted in the top of the water column ? On the swing? Or what ? Thanks, G.

I'm hesitant to say this for fear it will be taken the wrong way...but...I think originally John's TC differed in the fashion that the shellback is tied on. I was taught to lash the D-rib on top of the body rather than tie it in at the tail and fold over (like Jeremy shows here). At first I thought there wasn't a significant difference in the end result, and not worth nit-picking about, but it kinda is. When the shellback is lashed on top in the "intended"(as I know it) fashion the fibers from the body create a halo behind the fly after stroking it with a dubbing brush, or after catching a few fish with it. I think (FWIW) this really "makes" the fly, and you don't get that effect when you tie the shellback in the standard scud fashion. Just throwing that out there for consideration, nothing else.

Hank, Those medium sized styrofoam "strike indicators" (bobbers) will give you enough weight to throw any fly with an ultra-lite spinning rig. Wollybuggers, scuds and beadhead midges probably catch the majority of the fish by flyfishers at Taney, and you can drift those under a strike indicator, or tightline-drift them along the bottom with splitshot and spinning tackle and do just fine. In all actuality, there's not much a flyfisherman can do... that you can't do "better" with spinning gear. The fact that your mono/flouro line cuts through the current and isn't floating on the surface causing you "presentation grief" is a big plus in your favor. Some of us just love flyfishing enough to... put up/learn to deal...with it. When I see flyfishers using dime sized bobbers I often wonder why they don't just flick them out on spinning gear and avoid all the mends.

Yep we had a killer time. Hooked up with Wayne SWMO Fri. afternoon shortly after a briefing with Jeremy Hunt who was preparing to do some toon drifts. Between the info Jeremy shared and Wayne's advise we had a good primer to start the weekend. Ended up staying at Table Rock inn, nice folks, and very reasonable ($25/nite for 3 guys) and the restaurant kept us nourished...and caffienated just fine. None of us caught a 20+ but I had one that pushed 18 and several 15-16's, Uncletube had one on for a few seconds that might have went 20...but it got LDR'ed. I alternated between TC and a Pine Squirrel leech all weekend and basically caught fish until my hands ached Saturday...Sunday I took more of a sight fishing approach in search of a big one but honestly never laid eyes on anything over 18"...maybe next time. I have a confidence problem fishing the stillwater/or slow-water stretches, so I spent the entire weekend fishing the faster water below Re-bar. Probably could have located some bigger fish if I had spent more time fishing some deep slow holes, but I fell in love with that stretch of faster moving boulder water and couldn't get away from it. Yes we made a trip out to Phil's, I needed some D-rib to tie up some more Crack and the other two shops had already closed when we got off the water, nice place and very well stocked...love those stripped fur hides that are hanging up by the front desk! I'm planning to make it down again sometime before my busy work season kicks in. Oh yeah....I discovered that nighttime flyfishing is not for me...hu-uh, nope!

Blasting off for Taney shortly, expect to get in some afternoon and evening fishing before scouting out a good steak dinner. Any last minute recommendations on a place to stay (since Lilley's is booked solid) for 3 guys ? Or fishin' advise ? What's workin' at night ? It's been 20some years since I've been there. Thanks all.

no change

Our chimney is 10" clay tile surrounded by concrete and stone (60" X 28"). I can't imagine that it would have been damaged and all looks ok, but I'm sure nervous of it after seeing how hot it got.

If you haven't cleaned your chimney lately don't put it off another day, I cleaned mine back in October but we had a flue fire tonite. We just happened to be eating dinner and one of the kids looked out the window and said "what's that wierd light flashing out there"? I went out and the flames and coals were shooting out of the chimney like a rocket, the weather cap had completely melted! Gravois FPD was here in 5 minutes flat and kept it confined to the chimney until we could get it extinguished so we suffered no serious damages but if it had happened 1 hour later we wouldn't have noticed it right away and it would have taken the roof without a doubt. I always just cleaned it once a year and the buildup never seemed that bad...but I'll be doing it once a month from now on. Just thought I'd share this experience in case any of you have been putting it off.