Jeremy Hunt

Not yet!! It will be later in the fall. To hot right now! I want to do it for the people who are in class and learn how to tie these patterns, then we go out as a group and learn how to fish them and why trout relate to the different insects and why these patterns work in our tail waters. Also casting,presentaion are key as well so we will be touching on those also. I think we will sign up about twenty people and do a all day event. It will be open for the public so the first twenty who sign up will be the ones. I did this one other time and it was awesome so I think it will benefit everyone in some way.

Classes will be held this Tuesday at Lilley'Landing starting at 7pm until 9pm. We will be tying the "Big Dry". We will be talking about how to fish it and when the best time to use it etc. It should be a great class so I hope to see everyone there. All you need to do is show up and we will do the rest. If you have a vise bring it and I will furnish the material.

We can do that if you ever come down on the weekend. Just give us notice so we can prepare for a class to be held. The workshop will be on a weekend. I would say on a Saturday. I'm not sure when it will be, but I will keep everyone posted. jh

Started fishing around 11am this morning. I went downstream and fished lookout hole throwing the Big Dry and had some massive hits on it. Sometimes these fish will scare you if you’re not ready for the bite. When they want it they don't wait around to think about it. If you ever get to fish the bluff out of a boat make sure you look for fish feeding on the surface close to the bank. Not the ones midging, You will notice the difference because they will make a little more disturbance on the water then the way they do when they are sipping midges. So if you throw it in that general area where you see them taking things on the top. Cast your fly and leave it sitting for a minute and more than likely they will come over and get it. Sometimes if you barely give it a twitch that can produce some hits to. They turned the water on around 1pm and so I got ready for the fast bite. Threw on a worm brown color san juan worm in a size 14 and fished the water rising in the stretch right below the rebar hole. Did real well for about an hour. Seem to have hits every drift going downstream in the boat. Nothing of any real size today. I would say the biggest trout was 18 inches and all rainbows. Nothing really changes when the water rises and I think worms are the easiest things washed up besides sowbugs so they are definitely plentiful in our river system. I always think Taney fishes good with one or two units because the water is still low enough for them to see your flies and the current is not going to fast to still make some good drifts. We fished two generators running for about an hour before they cranked on all four then we decided to cal it a day. JH

Hello to everyone, Classes are starting back up for the fall. They will be held at Lilley's Landing Resort. Classes will be on every Tuesday at 7pm until 9pm. I really don't know if we will start this Tuesday the 15th. If anybody can attend this week on such short notice please let me know and we can have class this week. If not then we will have class for sure on the 22nd. The best part is they are FREE to the public. I hope to meet some of you from the forum so if your ever in town please feel free to stop by and learn some patterns for our tail waters. Or if you have a question about tying something we are always willing to help out. One thing I would like to say is I wanted to do something a little different this year for the class. As a group I think it is important to go out after we tie some of these patterns and learn about them. I mean really learn about the presentation and why trout take different patterns for different types of water. Kind of like an "On Stream Skills Workshop”. We will touch on different casting, presentation, how to get longer drifts, how to read water, what insects are in tail waters (entomology), etc. I think we will do a full day, 4hrs in the morning and brake for lunch then 4hrs in the afternoon. Let me know what you think? JH

Wayne, Yes it does make a great indicator fly. I would say tying it with a brown foam post would do the trick for warm water species. If you tie it with a orange foam post they will take it for an indicator. If you look at my pic next to my name you will see one tied with orange and he took this as a indicator fly. Going fishing right now and will be throwing the big dry until the water comes on. I will let you know how I did. ATTENTION: Classes will start back up this month. Tuesday nights from 7pm until 9pm. They are FREE and you can't beat that!!! Everything you tie you can keep and I always give you some extra scraps laying around so it is a good way to get some free material and learn some great patterns. If you are wanting to be apart of this let me know so I can prepare for class. If anyone can make it this Tuesday then we will have class. If not then we are gong to start classes on the 21st of this month.

Wayne, We do have the foam at Lilley's Landing fly shop. I have tied this fly in yellow, orange, red, white, blackfoam post bodies and have done well on all colors. I would have to say that black is probably going to always out fish the other colors. If anyone would like to know how to get this foam. Wapsi carries it and you can get any fly shop to order if they do not have it in stock. It is called cylinder foam. The size you would need is 1/8 and 3/16. I will talked to Phil and see if we can get some other sizes and colors in the foam. jh

Hey Greg, Classes should start back up sometime this month I think. If you can make one of the tying classes I would be glad to help you with the tying the collar of hackle in. Once you get it, you get it. There is nothing like seeng somebody actually tie it. I think that makes a big difference in learning how to tie a pattern. It always helped me when I watched. :-) jh

Wayne, The pattern is on the forum. Go to the recipe page and you will see how to tie it.

I used it in both places and had alot of luck at Table Rock.

Yes I was. The Big Mo. They seem to like this everywhere I use it. It is a must have fly if you know what I mean. If you want I can send you one in the mail for a sample fly. You will catch big fish on this fly. jh

August 5th 2006 Bill Badley gave me a call and said he wanted to give a shot again on the Big Dry. I told him to meet at the boat ramp at 10am in the morning. I had a feeling that they might leave the water off a little longer than they have been because it was a Saturday. We immediately went to lookout hole where he had a ten pounder on last week fishing this dry tied in a size 4. I went ahead and set him up while I had to retie me a leader, tippet, etc. While I was in the process of rigging up he caught about five rainbows right of the gate. We didn’t catch anything over twenty inches like we were hoping, but nothing under sixteen inches either. Now once I got set up we went looking for any shadow we could fine that we thought a trout would likely be entice into eating a big bug that happens to fall out of a tree which would be our bug. I did throw in this one spot that looked prime and I really wanted to hook up with a nice brown so I made a cast and guess what, the he was on the end of my line. I couldn’t get a look to see the size because he darted off like a rocket. I could tell he had some size and the fact that he was digging down gave me the impression that I actually did have a brown. The fish didn’t get into my backing and he only made one good run before he gave up. He was about nineteen inches and a brown of that size his a lot stronger than a rainbow in the same size in our river. Later on that day they turned two units on so we decided to head up stream and fish a brown San Juan worm. When the water was rising we caught fish after fish for about an hour. Once the water settled I saw this one stretch that looked deeper and I adjusted my depth about two more feet than I had it set originally. So now I was fishing about six feet to the fly. I knew I was plenty deep enough to be on the bottom for sure. The funny part was Dave’s guide service was beside me with a boat full of client’s. I know Dave and we’re friends so it was all in fun when I say this. I hooked one of my biggest fish this summer in front of him. And one thing I will never forget is to hear what those people said when the fished jump out of the water. I could hear almost all of them say, “that is a big fish”. It took me about fifteen minutes to land this rainbow. We measured the fish and it was 26 inches. The only thing that was bad is I forgot my camera and the only camera I had was the one on my phone. I was heart broken that I forgot my camera. I’m sure all of you have been in my shoes. Now what I’m about to say is kind of crazy and some of you won’t believe what I did, but here it goes. While we were handling this fish and I was posing for a picture and the fish did his little shacking around and flew out of my hands into the water and sank to the bottom on his side. I was worried that if I don’t revive him that he would be another one of those trout you see on the bottom bellied up when you go by in your boat wondering how this one died. I was not going to let that happen so the crazy thing I did was jump in and net the fish to get him back to life. It was so hot that I forgot how cold that water really is when you’re in it. I lost my breath a little bit and to be honest with you I don’t ever want to do that one again. I’m sure anybody that saw this had a good laugh and at the same time was wondering what I was doing in the first place. I did hear Dave tell me that I needed a bigger net and he is right because if I had a bigger net I think I would have done things a little different when handling this fish. What a story for the summer of 2006. Tight lines!!! August 2nd 2006 Decided to go fishing with a few friends. We called the dam and they were running one unit, but by the time we got there and loaded the boat it looked like they had all four units going. I thought to myself we should just go back home because I knew that it would be a little difficult. We went ahead and gave it a shot. I did know a few places that could have some fish holding so we went down to the stretch at KOA campground. There is a shallow spot right when that stretch gets skinnier that seems to always have a few trout waiting for San Juan worms. There is a lot of grass under water when the water comes up and washes some of them away. I knew that it would only be good for a few drifts so we really had to make them count. I would say we caught about five before we decided to head up stream to another place that was probably good for few more trout. This particular spot that I’m talking about is the flat water right passed chute (outlet) two closest to the bank. If you don’t know the area I’m talking about, just look for the grass under water. This is another good stretch of water if your throwing flies. I usually always catch a few, but not enough to keep me in the game that day. We only caught a few there and I was really getting tired of practicing my cast so we decided to give this up because it was a slow bite. I didn’t want to stop fishing so I had this bright idea to go try out “BIG MO” on Table Rock with the fly rods. Fly Fishing on Table Rock Lake. We put in at the public boat ramp right across from the State Park Marina. I thought we could work some coves and catch something. I was aiming to catch blue gill. I knew my friend was still learning how to do this whole fly fishing thing and thought this would be a good way to practice casting and setting the hook. I don’t mean to put my friend out there so I want say any names. I knew when we were on Taneycomo earlier that day he had about six hits and didn’t land any of them so I knew he might want to learn how to do that more. And the fact that he still didn’t believe that we could catch fish in a lake on a fly rod was something I had to prove to him. He grew up fishing the conventional way like myself. He laughed when I said we could catch warm water fish on the fly rod. So I had to prove him wrong. The lake had some high waves from all the activity and I wanted to test my little riverboat with a 15hp motor. I know that sounds funny in a way and let me tell you it sure looked funny putting in my boat next to these big boats. I’m sure some people got some laughs, but I didn’t care because at least I’m fishing and to me that’s all I need to worry about. We went across the lake to the first coves we saw. All I can say is I’m glad we went because as soon as we threw in we caught fish after fish. It didn’t matter what cove we went in they were there. We had more luck in the places that had rock ledges. And another thing I notice is if we got right up to the bank with the fly they would hit it as soon as it landed, but if we would throw it a foot or longer away from the bank they wanted nothing to do with it. The majority of the fish we caught were goggle eye and few bluegill. No bass because I got to excited catching these that I didn’t want to waste anytime waiting for a hit when they were steady hitting the “BIG MO”. Another thing that was great about the day is my friend had no problems setting the hook now. I would say he got both his wishes and I got to prove to him that fish do hit flies in a lake.

Can anyone get a picture of it. I would like to see it.jh

Friday 22nd Started fishing around 10am in the morning with my friend Bill. He used to be just a client, but know we are really good friends and go fishing quite a bit. From all the talking that I have been doing about fishing “BIG MO” he just had to give it a shot to see what it was all about. The water was off when we started so we immediately went behind the houses at Point Royale throwing dries along the bank. Anywhere we saw overhanging trees that created a shadow over the water had fish holding and those where the more aggressive ones that were willing to strike the fly right on the fall. The places holding the most trout were definitely the shallower areas along the bank. When we would come to the deeper pockets along the bank we did not have as much luck. We did this for about two hours until we got to fall creek and caught some really nice fish. All rainbows with a few that hit the 19-20 inch range. I can honestly say that this fly becoming one of my favorite flies I have ever fished. And anyone who fishes this fly says the same thing. Bill and I decided to go upstream and fish the area around the boat ramp. The water was still off so we tied on some bead head midge patterns and fish areas we saw more fish holding. I always look for fish feeding on the banks they seem to be the easiest to trick into coming over and taking a look at what I have to offer. We had the best luck on size 18 with a black body with a copper bead. We did this until they turned the water on. I knew the pattern from some of the days before that they were going to run it a noon. When they started generating we headed up to the dam and drifted brown San Juan worms and had hit after hit. No size to them and the disappointed part of it all was they only ran the water for about an hour that day so just when we thought we were going to fish one unit for the rest of the day they did that. And for some reason if you have ever been out there fishing the water on the fall it is not really that good. I don’t ever do well when this happens, but once it gets back down to level the fishing seems to go right back the way it usually is. We decided to call it a day and go back out the next day around the same time. Saturday 23rd 2006 Before I get started I just want to say that I was glad we went out this day. I knew it was a Saturday and the crowds where definitely going to be a factor. We did the same thing as we did the day before. He wanted to get back on the dry bite so that’s exactly what we did. The only difference on this day was the size of trout we caught and the water generation’s schedule. And they both worked out great for some really good day of fishing. It’s all about timing sometimes and that’s what fishing is all about. Sometimes it turns into catching instead of fishing. So we combed the banks like we did the day before and it wasn’t exactly what we expected. It was a little slow when we started this morning. We caught some fish but nothing of any size really and not a lot of them very active in the morning for big dries. And from fishing this fly a lot lately I have decided it is definitely an evening bite. I do know that the cicadas are really thick in the trees right know and they seem to be more active with sound in the evenings. Maybe that has something to do with why we caught some really big fish on them and I will tell you about it as I write about this day of fishing we had. So they started generating around noon again but the only difference in this day verses yesterday was that they did not turn the water off and ran one unit all day. This made for some great fishing all day and because I have a boat now I am learning everyday how to adjust to any water conditions out there. Today was one of those days that I figured out how to fish new water and sure makes it rewarding when you do that. So if you have a boat and your wanting to fish some great water in one unit I can tell you where. If you go up to the cable and drift down the opposite side of the bank the water is holding alot of fish and the drift is great in one unit. I never had much luck fishing zebra midges right at the dam in low water so I really never used them up there, but I remember how good they work in Arkansas with a little generations so I wanted to try them up there because the water conditions seem to be about the same. Well I’m glad we did because for about four hours we caught fish every time we drifted down and I’m not exaggerating. It was bite after bite. Really no size and they were all rainbows in the 12 to 16 inch range. We got a little bored doing that after awhile and it was getting a little late so we decided to give the dry fly another chance down on the banks behind the houses at Point Royale. The location I am talking about is a little pass lookout hole going downstream. The time was around 6pm when we started fishing down there. I want to touch on this real fast because I think it is important to say this, I think this made all the difference in the world. I found out that fishing down out lookout hole with no generation that the current pushes you to the bank and also is real dead on that side of the bank which makes it hard to just drift down making the fly look more natural. I notice that you will have a lot more hook ups if there is some current going downstream. It is real wide down in this stretch of water so the current speed is not that much, but enough to create a little current, which you need. You will not do as good if it is dead still down there and you will definitely not get the proper presentation I think you need when fishing this big dry fly. Talk about the fish we caught this day was by far the best day I ever had on this particular pattern. My buddy made a cast and had a 10 pound brown on this fly and when I say this trout hit it with a vengeance that is exactly what he did. He came out of the water and I never saw anything like that before on a dry fly. The only bad part about it was is that he did not end up landing it. He tied a bad knot and now he is going to live with that all his life and if anything he probably will be checking his knots from now on. We did end up catching about ten more fish on this pattern after the big let down. He made up for it catching about a 22 inch rainbow and a couple of other really nice fat rainbows on this pattern. I can tell you that this fly is catching some really nice fish right now so if you would like to know where to get this pattern at you can pick it up at Lilleys Landing fly shop or e-mail and I can tie some up for you. If you want to know more in detail just give me a shout and I can tell you more.

Fishing Report Taneycomo -July 6th Lately they have been running one or two units for about an hour starting at four in the afternoon. So I know from past experiences that this would be some great water to fish from a boat. So guess what I did. Yes, got the boat out and wanted to make sure that I was out there when the water started. I put in around 2pm and headed downstream while I waited for the water to come up. I wanted to fish lookout hole and really figure out the bite right there. I have been fishing out of the boat a lot lately and every time I go thru that stretch of water I always see big fish cruising. I started throwing the “Big Dry” to see if I could get any of there attention. I did catch some trout on it, but nothing of any size. That was the fist in a while that I did not pull anything over 20 inches. This fly has caught me more bigger trout then any other fly in my fly-fishing career. I have only been fishing this fly for about a year now and I am very satisfied with this pattern. I have used it in lakes for blue gill and floated the Kings River about a month ago and caught smallmouth bass like crazy. Before I headed up to fish the high water bite. I wanted to fish a zebra midge because I knew the wind was creating some great chop on top of the water. I tied on a black one in a size 14 with a 7/64 tungsten bead. I know this is a big bead for that size of hook, but for some reason they like it better and I do to. I put it about 12 inches below the palsa. I made a cast to the chop and where I saw those fish cruising at lookout hole and with in a few seconds the indicator went down and I set the hook to an 18-inch rainbow on the first cast. It was definitely producing a lot of trout while we were fishing it. When we saw the water rising we headed up stream to start fishing high water. I switch over to a San Jaun worm tied to 5x tippet. I was fishing about 6 feet from the indicator to the split shot. There was one unit running so I went up to the stairs where chute two is and started drifting until I would get to the boat ramp. I tried worm brown first with not much action so I went with a size 10, 3769tmc. The size chenille I was using was the standard chenille and not the micro. I was using this color called fl. Red. They seem to like it that color a lot better than the normal red. We notice immediate hook-ups on this so we fished this for about an hour until the turned the water off. We probably caught twenty trout, all rainbows. I decided to call it a day after that and go get some dinner. I would say the fishing conditions at Taney are good right now. JH

Nice pattern JoRob, I tie something close to that for Taney at night. This is a simple pattern to tie, but very effective fly for catching a lot of trout. I agree with throwing a red bead and tie the body in purple and black to imitate egg-sucking leeches when fishing at night. You can tie that same pattern in olive in a size 10 with a gold bead fishing it on a dead swing with no strip and hook up trout in the middle of the day when trout seem to be picky. I have found that fishing big wooly’s during the day is not the way to go. I have never had much luck fishing wooly buggers in anything bigger than a size 8 during the day with much luck. Size 10 and 12 are the ticket. If the wind creates chop on the water then you will definitely catch trout on wooly buggers. Just remember to fish your fly under the choppy water and not the calm pockets that sometimes don’t get any of the wind that comes and goes throughout the day. night pattern- Egg sucking leech Lake pattern- Char. ostrich with palmered chenille ody JH

I am using sowscud. I like that the best. I wieght my scuds and depending on how fast the current is going to be the key on how much wieght you actually need. That is what most people don't really think about. You always need wieght on any flies that you want to get on the bottom. I put my split shot a lot further than 6 inches. I have found that if you give it more room from the split to the fly, you actually wont hang up as much. Especially in high water. Try that out and see what happens. jh This weekend is when I will be there. I will be trying to fish the Norfork, but depending on the water is going to be the factor. I know there are fish loaded in there right now and if the water flow works out then the conditions should be great. If not then I will probably fish wildcat shoals on the white. I did really well there last time I went. jh

Fishing report 7-01-06 Rim Shoals Fishing at rim was really good these last couple of days. The water was dropping when we got there so I knew it must of pushed some fish downstream and Rim as a lot of good holding areas for trout to feed in so I knew fishing was going to be good. It was sunny and I was surprised how cool it was for the sun to be out. It made for a great day on the water and that was exactly what we got. We started around 9:30 in the morning and the water looked like it only had about a foot left for it to be at zero units. We first started fishing Jenkins creek with zebra midges in black with a gold or copper tungsten bead. I like to tie mine with a 7/64 bead on a size 14. I have found out for some reason they like them to be bigger verses smaller beaded ones. I believe there is some theory with the fact that they probably see the bead a lot further, which is going to increase your odds on how many fish see your fly from a distance. My dad and I would be fishing the same size fly and for some reason he was out fishing me because he was throwing the heavier bead. So it didn’t take me long to start doing the same thing. We started catching fish right away. Although we were dealing with other boats in the same area so after catching a few trout we decided to head downstream and give it a try down there. It seem like the fish were biting everywhere we went. We did switch off and threw some olive wooly buggers in size 10 in the deeper pools as we went by them. We did all right throwing these, but the fly of choice was definitely the Zebra midge in black. It was consistent all day and it has been for the whole year. This is definitely a fly that you should have in your fly box everytime you fish Rim. We did switch over and fish the fast riffles throwing the big dry that I always talk about. I was teaching a guy by the name of Mark how to fish this fly effectively because he always likes learning new things, especially when it comes to presentations. I figured out that fishing this fly on the swing and stripping it in like you do a wooly bugger you get just as many takes on the strip as you do fishing it as a dry on the top. When fishing this fly you will find out that you will have some aggressive takes and sometimes you will have some massive hits when you least expect it. If you have any questions give me a call or e-mail me because you definitely need to learn about this fly. I am going to be tying these for Phil Lilleys Fly Shop and if your local you can pick them up there. Here is a picture that I put up above that shows this pattern. Or you can go to this link www.ozarkanglers.com and you can learn how to tie it on your own.

In time we should have a lot of patterns on here. I Know there are a few patterns for warm water fish right now. If there is one in particular that you want, let us know and we will see what we can do. I know when classes start back up we will be posting a lot then. JH

Fishing conditions at Taneycomo are really good right now. I recently got a new boat and have been fishing downstream below the wading areas in the deeper spots. I must say that I really never fished down there a lot, but it is worth it. I haven’t had high number day’s like I do up at the dam, but I seem to always catch something worthwhile down there. I have been fishing along the banks where there seems to be a lot of overhanging trees. I know you have heard me talk about the fishing big dries if you read some of my reports in the past. I’m telling you that if you have not fished big dries on any of the tail waters we have in these areas then you are missing out on some really big fish coming up to check out the goods. Were definitely catching some bigger fish on this fly right now whether it is with no water running or all units going. If you go to the fly recipe page on the www.ozarkanglers.com forum you will see how to tie this fly. Go check it out. I think you will put this fly in your collection of go to flies when conditions are difficult. I also think this will be one of your big fish search patterns. If you are fishing in the wading areas up at the dam you will catch a lot of fish on scuds in size 16. I have had real good luck fish scuds in tan with a red head. You don’t have to get fancy with these patterns. I think our trout like them just to be dubbed and picked out. Also when they start generating in the afternoons try throwing (worm brown) San Juan worms tied on a straight shank hook, which is the 3769 tmc. I like this hook when fishing faster water because of a better hook set. I’ve had some good luck on catching bigger fish on this set up as well. Just make sure you are getting this to the bottom in a hurry so you get a longer drift. I have some trips in Arkansas this week and will let you know how fishing is when I get back… JH

RIM SHOALS FISHING REPORT 5-18,19 2006 Been fishing Rim Shoals just about everyday now for the last week. It has been hit or miss because of the weather we had. It is a lot better now I must say. All I can say is if you are not fishing Zebra midges on the White River then you are definitely missing out on some great fishing. It is crazy the way that fly works. We are fishing it with 6x and the sizes we are having the most luck on are 14. I would say black is the best color right now, but red is working to. In the evening we are having some good fishing on dries throwing size 16 elk hair caddis. Fishing them at Jenkins creek in the fast riffles. They seem to like it best on the tail out of the riffles when the current slows down a little bit. I’m also swinging them a little bit or making them do some crazy twitch. That is about all I’m fishing right now. Having too much fun fishing these two patterns. I want to say that we are having a little problem with algae growing in the shallower water at Rim. We need to get some generating to push this stuff out. You will notice that some of the water you normally catch fish in is probably covered in moss. The only parts that you are really able to catch fish in are the deeper areas or the faster water. Most of all the slack water that is shallow with little to no current has moss beads growing so much that there all over the surface. Everybody is saying they have not seen it like this. WILDCAT SHOALS FISHING REPORT 5-20-06 This is definitely one of those stories that you have to see it to believe it. My father and I had one of the best days fishing together for trout so far. We will never forget this one. We haven’t fished there for a while, but somebody told us through the grapevine that the fish were loaded in Wildcat Shoals right now so we went to give it a shot. They were right… the fish were loaded in the deeper stretches of the river. So many that when you threw your fly out there you would have more than one fish try to get the fly. You could set the hook and miss one and then continue your drift without recasting it and get another hit on the same drift. It was like they have never seen a fly before or like they were all wild trout in the middle of nowhere. We really thought maybe it had something to do with our choice of fly we were using, but after we fished that fly for awhile we wanting to see how many flies we could catch these trout on so we switched over to a big dry in a size 4 and it was doing the same thing the zebra midge was doing. It didn’t matter what you had that day. I guess that famous saying, being at the right place at the right time fit so well that day. I even started striping the dry right under the surface column with long fast strips and pausing just a second before I started the strip again and getting some big takes doing that. Most of the bigger fish caught that day were on that presentation on the dry. I know that I saw about four trout over 10 pounds in the area we were fishing. I’m going back right now to see if we can’t catch one of those lunkers!! The dry fly that I’m talking about is on the fly recipe page. It is called the BIG DRY. You wont leave home without this fly once you see what can be caught on this thing. I started fishing it last year and it has not let me down yet. JH

Fishing in Michigan for Steelhead and on the Pere Marquette River!!! Ok, Fishing in Michigan...... It was great as far as the drift down the pm and really getting the whole traditional fly fishing experience we all look for when we go out. The fishing was not all that hot. The timing was great as far as the steelhead coming into the river, but the weather kind of backed up the run of f. Everyone keep saying that we need some rain. I knew the day I got there that they were expecting some rain thatnight. And the next morning is when we got out there with fresh rait was going to turn into a good day of fishing. They said there were only 500 fished that have moved up. I was like you, that is a lot of fish, bit they seem to say that was not not enough fish to go aroundto . It also seemed like when we knew there was a spot to have a few steelhead holding on the gravel bed's there was somebody fishing it and in those rivers up there you give people there space and not crowd them out which I like that method. I did forget to think that it was the weekend when we did go fishing. And the fact that I did go up there to pick up my boat and didn't have much time for fishing because I had a lot to do and just kind of threw fishing in there for a day. I know that it wasn't much time and I did drive all that way to catch steely's. The only thing that made me feel better about leaving early without fishing is they weren't up there like they were suppose to be. I did end up catching this fish that you see in the picture though. This fish was well worth the trip though because this is a wild brown that is 20 inches and that is kind of hard to catch in this river system. There average brown that are actually caught are between 12 and 16 inches and not to many for the day. As we were drifting downstream in-between stops for fishing for steelhead we fished steamers off the bank and striping them back to the boat. It was a short presentation because the rivers are not that wide. I notice as I was casting this white streamer pattern they were following it , but not taking it and the fish that were coming up to it were 14 inchers that would come out of a deep holes and almost chase it all the way to the boat. So the guy that was guiding me that you see in the picture was telling me to add another fly about 2 feet from the first fly. I thought that was a good idea too. When he opened up is fly box he handed me a size 2 Zoo Cougar that Kelly Galloup invented for these Michigan waters. I never fished one but saw a show on OLN that Jack Dennis and Kelly were showing how to fish this fly effectively. I always wanted to fish this , but never gave it much thought. I actually have tied this fly and never fished it on our tailwaters. I just had other go to flies for our waters and forgot all about this one until I trusted what the guide said about fishing it that day. I was glad I did because when I was throwing it next to the bank this one fish hit the first fly and then went to the Zoo Cougar and took it. I was glad that I got to see the take because I learned something from it. I never really saw to many fish hit a fly that way. The water was not that deep in the center only along the curves of the river. I set the hook and the rest was history. The only thing that was different for a fish that big in our waters was , it would have taken you for a run. This fish really didn't.do that at all ,this fish would only go in circles like it was fowl hooked and I didn't really notice it was hooked correctly until I got his head up and got him into the net. It was something to learn and that is what I got out of the whole experience when landing this fish. I'm glad I did because he was a beautiful fish and the fact that it was wild one was a pleasure to see.

One of the guy's from the tying class had this to say... From the field... I was pretty surprised that there weren't more people taking advantage of the good weather on Tuesday. It was extremely sunny with the temperature holding at around 60 degrees, there was a slight breeze, but it wasn't quite enough to put a chop on the water. I started fishing below rebar and worked my way down to big hole. I was casting a size 18 soft hackle to the opposite bank and letting it sink by mending the line before starting the swing. I tried different retrieves, letting it swing and then stripping it once it was below me, and using small strips while it was swinging. I received a hit almost every cast when I used small strips and about every other cast when just allowing the soft hackle to swing with the current. I landed several nice fish this way, but it just wasn't producing many large fish. I could see some actively feeding about 15 to 20 yards off the bank above me. I tried using the soft hackle, but it wasn't any use. Casting up stream didn't allow for a good presentation, or enough time for it to sink. I switched to a size 16 bead head zebra midge followed by a San Juan worm in worm brown. I fished these flies about 24 to 30 inches below a pinch on indicator. The midge sunk the flies pretty quick, the San Juan was set to where it would skim the bottom, and sometimes cling on to a rock. Fish after fish fell to this combo. They attacked the San Juan pretty hard. The best was to allow it to sit on the bottom above several feeding fish and then give it a little bounce to pull it off the bottom, it seemed like several fish would actually fight over it. After catching several nice fish just above the big hole I noticed that no one was fishing rebar. This is one of my favorite places to fish when you can have it to yourself. After walking up to rebar I realized why no one was fishing this hole, the water was extremely low and the fish were holding primarily in the lower part of the hole- with several large rainbows and two nice browns holding in the slow water below the last set of rebar. I took several fish by standing at on the bank at the middle rebar and drifting the midge and San Juan down below the last set of rebar, but for the most part the fishing was slow to what I had encountered earlier. I decided to pack it up and head over to Lilley's for fly tying class. It really doesn't matter how the fishing is, although it was great on Tuesday, class is an excuse enough for the trip to Branson. I always learn something new, and it has helped my tying tremendously. Nathan Fitzgerald

I will be gone this Tuesday so there will not be a tying class. I have to go to Michigan to get my boat. I will be back for the next Tuesday class though. I will see yall when I get back. Oh, by the way fly fishing as been real good on all the rivers. JH

I have had a lot of luck on that pattern, right below the Bull Shoals Dam. At Rim Shoals I do well on the red. I don't tie any peacock herl on mine though. I just don't think you need it unless you are trying to catch the fisherman to.Lol