John W Kelly

There was a gentleman fishing a little bit down stream from the rock dam in zone 1 that I thought may have been you (going off of your profile pic). I think he had a vest on though. Had a tan ball cap on, possibly a Winston logo, but I didn't get close enough to tell for sure. I said "Hi" to him just in case.

Here are a few pics from the weekend. The first two are from Saturday after it started sprinkling a bit and people left. It rained a little harder from mid afternoon into the evening and I had the whole run from the gauge tower to the #1 wing dam to myself, which was fun for long drifts. The last two are from Sunday, which was a beautiful day with cool temps and not too crowded. I never left zone 1 either day. Fished the upper zone 1 Saturday and lower zone 1 on Sunday. Both days produced a good number of fish for me...mostly small with a couple of larger surprises thrown in.

It's a beautiful day today!

Starting to rain a little bit and half the people just left .

Rise and Line!

Im taking rain jackets and sunscreen. This is Missouri you know...

I'll be wearing the same thing as in my profile pic. Floppy cheapo bass pro hat and floral reyn spooner hawiian shirt .

According to the Weavers BS report, it sounds like the moss has been trimmed for us. http://www.missouritrout.com/weavers/report.html

That would be like one of those movies where a huge disaster occurs and we would be the only ones left to fish .

I'm heading down to spend the weekend too. Gonna be a longer wait to leave Friday night...!

It was a little chilly in the morning (45°), but warmed up in the afternoon. Water generation all day. Wading and fishing the banks worked good for me .

Thank You. I completely agree. They look nothing like the real thing...which makes me wonder if there would be any difference at all in catchability between a midge that is a little more real looking and one that is a rough abstract.

haha, how true. I purposely designed a "Glitz" series of flies as an experiment to see if they would attract the High Maintenance Female Trout. The Emerald Glitz:

I went back and looked at the photos I have, then measured the distance on my finger...the midges where 6-7mm long and 1mm wide. Tiny. Tried to make a more "real" looking imitation. Up close, it looks a little abstract, but at actual size, it looks pretty good.

Thanks Wayne! The pupas were a centimeter long and 1-2mm thick. Very small. I also found a swarm of green Crane Flies near the water. There were some larva, like green blood worms, underneath the moss.

I fished Taney up by the dam in the morning hours yesterday (Sunday). The outlets appeared to be producing some fish (as usual I guess), but I don't fish them. My hot fly that I was using the day before turned cold, so I explored around a little to see what was going on. I came across an area where there were thousands and thousands of midge casings floating around and it appeared that a large early morning hatch occurred. I found a spot where the fish were lapping up the stragglers and took some photos. It looked like there were possibly two different kinds, which I found in different areas. One was darker and one was a little lighter in color. They could be the same though...

I found a good video on Phil Lilley's Youtube channel that shows a close up of some local pupa, but im not sure how accurate the colors are. Video here: I tried to copy one from a still shot of the video, but wondered if anyone else had some good photos.

For me, I enjoy the science and art of fly fishing. It requires intelligence, skill, and patience. The more knowledge and experience that is gained, the more efficient it becomes...if you choose to be efficient. It also allows for a wide range of experimentation and exploration, which is a big part of the enjoyment I personally get from it. I've only been fly fishing for a short time, but most of the flies I use I've designed myself and catch fish on them, which makes it even more FUN!

Having strict personal rules for counting catches seems to be pretty normal then... Thanks everyone!

When someone says "I caught 8 fish today", do they mean: 1. I had 8 fish bite at my fly/bait. 2. I had 8 fish hooked, but some got away. or 3. I landed 8 fish in my net. I started fly fishing this year and have discovered that each stage is a real challenge; to the point that if I don't land them in my net, then I can't say that I "caught" them. I've observed other fishermen who get the fish close to their net just to have them escape, so I wonder if they consider that to be a "catch". So, what do you consider to be a "catch"? I realize that the more experienced angler might prefer to not net their fish and 'let' them escape. It is less trouble and less stress on the fish, but is it still considered to be a "catch"?

The fishing started off slow for me. I was trying out some new flies that werent connecting. A guy next me caught several in the early morning near one of the outlets on a soft hackle. I ended up landing 6 on nymphs, broke tippet on 3 more, and had 8 or 10 on&offs (didnt get the hook set good enough). Suprisingly, I didnt see very many people catching fish.

Wind, rain, and fog from 7:00 until 2:00...

Springfield News Leader article, with video: http://www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/201306121539/LIFE06/306060054

Don't know if this has been posted already, but this article was in yesterday's Springfield News Leader: http://www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/201308290257/LIFE06/308290030

I was there the other day. The water levels seemed 'normal', but I dont know what normal is. It was flowing, fairly shallow, and clear. The water felt cool, but not cold. I walked through the park and along the upper conservation trail, but hardly saw any fish (some very small ones). Got eaten alive by chiggers or mosquitos or something... It's a beautiful area! Hth