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eacoffman

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Bleeding Shiner

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  1. We planned on going to the dam early this morning but the tornado sirens woke us up just before 1:30 AM and we went back to sleep around 2:30 AM, so we slept until 8:00. We decided to go to Bennett's on the strip for donuts before starting to fish, only then did we learn about all of the destruction on Highway 76. Due to all the detours we didn't get to the dam until about 11:00 AM. The sun was shining, temperature was in the 50's and it was very windy. There were not a lot of fishermen on the water when we arrived. We each had the same midge rigs that we had used on day 2. Janet had a #16 rust and brown zebra midge about 18 " under an small football indicator. I used a #16 rust and brown zebra midge over a #16 gold zebra midge dropper. We went up near the cable and the wind was really blowing. We had to time our casting when the wind died down so it wouldn't knock our line down in front of us. We each caught one rainbow, neither was of any size. A couple of wind knots later we decdided to eat lunch and return in the late afternoon in hopes of lighter breezes. We returned to the dam at 5:00 PM. It was still sunny, about 60 degrees and the wind had slowed just a bit. Janet went to the cable with the same fly she started the week with and caught four rainbows, the largest were in the 14" range and had good fight. She lost about six other hits. I went to the area just above outlet number 2 with a #16 white chami worm. I put a small split shot about 8" above the worm and a medium football indicator 2' above the worm. I threw the worm near a down log very near the north bank above outlet #2. I caught four ranibows, the second and third were the best fish I cauhgt this week. They were both in the 15" range, good girth and very dark pink color. The other two were silver with very little color or size. I had lots of misses and always seemed a little slow to set the hook in the shallow (about 9") water. Thanks to duckydoty who gave me the worms and advice on how to fish them. I intended to fish them without an indicator and sighting the fly sitting on the bottom, however the wind was still blowing hard enough causing riffles on the surface and I couldn't see the fly most of the time. A couple of times the indicator helped me, the other times I reacted to the rod tip, so the indicator was probably not necessary. The horn blew at 6:00 PM so we headed to the parking lot. Janet and I want to thank everyone at Lilley's for making the Fishing Buddy Special available. Lilley's has been our favorite lodging option since the first time we stayed there years ago.. We also want everyone to know that we will be praying for the people of Branson as they recover from damage brought on by the tornado.
  2. My wife and I arrived at the dam around 11:15, it was sunny and about 55 degrees with a slight breeze. Janet kept her #16 rust and brown zebra midge that she used yesterday and I rigged a #16 rust and brown zebra midge 12" above a #16 gold midge dropper. We both set our indicators at 18". We went up to the cable and Janet caught one rainbow and had a couple of misses. They did not seem to be nearly as interested in the rust and brown midge as they had been yesterday. After about 40 minutes Janet went to the rebar hole and changed to a #18 tan scud but she did not get any hits. I caught three rainbows on the dropper, I couldn't get the fly out of the thrid rainbow's lip so I had to cut my tippet to release the fish. I cut the tippet from the bend of the top fly and continued to fish the rust and brown zebra midge solo. On the next three consecutive casts I caught rainbows, on the fourth cast I had a long distance release. From that point on I had no other hits with the rust and brown midge. The third rainbow was the largest, it was only 14" long, but was really fat and fought hard. One of the smallest rainbows jumped out of the water three times before I got him to the net. When the hits on the midge stopped, I switched to a #14 brown crackleback and worked my way down toward the rebar hole. I stripped the fly several different ways but was not able to get a hit on it. We broke for lunch at about 1:15. I returned to the dam at 3:00 PM and fished a #18 black WD 40 in the current above and below the rebar hole and only had one hit. I then switched to a #14 green wooley bugger and stripped it in slack water and had no hits. At around 5:00 PM the horn blew and I headed to the stairs at outlet #3 and fished the wooley bugger with a split shot under an indicator from the bank. I had only one hit and left soon thereafter. We would like to catch a few rainbows on something other than a midge, rain is in the forecast for tomorrow so we will see what happens.
  3. My wife and I arrived at Taneycomo around noon, the temperature was around 60 with bright sunshine and gusty winds. The water was off and there was a not a huge number of fishermen on the water. Janet and I were both using 5 weight fly rods with 6X tippet. Janet headed to the cable area with a rust and brown #16 zebra midge about 18" under an indicator. I went to the top of the rebar hole with a WD 40 about 5" below a split shot and 2' under an indicator. I later replaced the WD 40 with a red San Juan worm. Janet caught two rainbows near the cable area and later caught one more near rocking chair. All were in the neighborhood of 12" in length. I got skunked with the WD 40 and San Juan worm. After I crossed the mouth of the rebar hole I realized my flies likely never made it to the bottom. I drastically underestimated the speed of the current and the depth of the channel. During 1 1/2 hours I was at the top of the rebar hole I only saw one fish caught, but it was a nice 4 pounder. During the process of getting skunked, both of my boots completely blew out (they were old), so I moved close to the stairs at outlet #3 to get near the parking lot. I tied on a brown zebra midge and caught a rainbow about 3' from the bank directly south of the stairs. The rainbow was 16" and put up a good fight. We left at about 2:15 PM, ate lunch, stopped at a few stores and replaced my boots. We returned to Taneycomo at about 5:30 PM and found the water still off, the wind down and very few fishermen left on the lake. Janet and I both tied on #16 rust and brown San Juan worms. We went to the cable and there were a few trout rising so we set our indicators about 18" above the fly. Janet caught 4 rainbows and had as many long distance releases. I caught one rainbow with the rust and brown midge then lost the fly. I replaced it with a black zebra midge with silver wire. I caught two more fish with this fly but they seemed to prefer Janet's rust and brown midge. We left the lake at 6:15 PM. We were out of the country for a couple of years and had not fished Taneycomo for 2 1/2 years. We noticed the changes in the lake since our last trip and will have three more days to become re-acquainted with our favorite fishing hole. Hopefully the days that follow will produce more fish.
  4. OK, here is a report from the weekend. My wife and I arrived at the Watts area Saturday morning about 9:30 AM, she went upstream a little bit to fish with our friend Vince who had been there since about 4:45 AM. They were fishing the west bank where the trees are down just above the tube. Vince had Janet tie on a green/olive scud (about a 16 ?) about 2 1/2' below an indicator, she was using 6X tippett. Janet caught between 8 to 10 with the scud until they quit hitting it. She then used two copper midges that they hit aggressively, both were eventually broken off. She then changed to a red zebra midge with a silver bead and caught a few but with less frequency compared to the copper midges. She finished the day with a black zebra midge with a silver bead (size 18) and easily caught 15 to 20 fish with that bug. In the afternoon we moved above the chute near the boulders on the west bank and she was getting hits on almost every other cast. I started the day with a red san juan worm, bouncing it on the bottom in the slow riffles below the tube. I threw that fly for an hour until I finally had a fish on and then immediately broke off (I was being hard headed not changing patterns). I then changed to an 18 black zebra midge with a silver bead about 1' below my indicator. I began to catch fish, the first two happened to be the two biggest fish of the day for me, about 14-15". Between 11:00 and 12:15 I caught a dozen fish and missed that many hits. After lunch I stayed with the same midge and caught another 12+ fish, some below the tube and some above. After breaking off I changed to a black size 16 woolie bugger. I threw it toward the boulders on the west bank below the tube and caught 4 or 5 and missed about the same number. I finished the day by going down to the faster riffles that are a few hundred yards below the tube. I used the woolie bugger under an indicator about 1 1/2 times the depth of the water and didn't get any hits. It was time to go home. In all Janet probably landed between 30 and 40 and I probably netted about 30. Vince and others told us that the fishing had been even better in the early morning hours, during some spans getting hits on every cast. Vince and his friend Ralph both caught 17"+ rainbows during the day. I didn't talk to anyone who didn't catch a fair number of fish.
  5. My wife and I checked in at Lilley's, then went straight to the water on Sunday afternoon at about 4:00 PM. We both used 5 weight rods with 6X tippet. We saw trout midging below the stairs at outlet #3 so Janet put on a black zebra midge and I chose red, both #16. We had not been in the water five minutes when the horn blew. I got one hit before the water started to move. We hung around the stairs for a few minutes waiting to see how high the water would get. The final water level created some nice riffles about 200 yards below outlet #3 in the middle of the lake. Janet stayed with the midge and caught one rainbow in shallow water. I changed to a #16 red bead headed San Juan worm, I had it 3' under a palsa indicator. I fished it in about 2' of water and caught three rainbows (none large) fairly quickly, all near the end of the drift. Then I couldn't get a sniff for 10 minutes, I then realized I was missing the worm from my fly. I removed my wormless hook and replaced it with a #18 pink scud, with a small shot about 4' under a palsa indicator. I caught two rainbows in about 3' of water, both near the end of the drift. It was getting dark, we went to eat. I left Janet at Lilley's and I went to the dam at 9:00 PM to try night fishing for a few minutes. I used a white Pine Squirrel with 5X tippet and started about 200 yards below outlet #1, no hits. I walked down below outlet #2 to get a little current to create some swing. I got four fish on, all as the fly began to swing, but could not get any to the net. The two that got close did not appear to have any size. Monday morning at about 9:30 AM it was overcast and thundering in the distance, about 65 degrees, no water running (all day). We again went a couple hundred yards below the rebar hole. I used #18 tan and pink scuds all morning set up like above and only caught two rainbows, both about 15". Janet gave up on the scuds and put on a pale yellow micro jig under an indicator, moving the depths trying to keep it about a foot off the bottom. She caught six rainbows in and around big hole with this setup. Off to lunch. We got back to the dam at 2:00 PM, Janet caught one rainbow at the cable using the micro jig set at 3'. I caught one 14" brown using a #18 tan scud in shallow water above outlet #1 while goofing off seeing if Janet's micro jig would work at the cable. We returned to the area below the rebar hole and caught nothing on scuds, worms, cracklebacks and jigs until about 4:30. We then went below the stairs at outlet #3, trout were midging. Janet caught two rainbows in ankle deep water in a slow current created by outlet #3, she was using a brown midge under an indicator about 18". I used a #16 black zebra midge one foot under a palsa indicator and casted to midging trout very near the bank. I caught two rainbows quickly then nothing for several minutes, then discovered my fly was gone. I then tried a #16 brown zebra midge about 6" under the indicator and casted toward the center of the lake and caught a 15" rainbow that was very fat. Done for the day. Tuesday morning arrived at the dam around 9:30 AM and water was running about like it had Sunday afternoon. Janet tied on a #16 salmon colored san juan worm about 3' under an indicator and caught three rainbows in dropping water. I used the same setup except my worm was pink, I caught one rainbow. We were in the same area under the rebar hole. When the water dropped things slowed down drastically. Janet and I both tried an assortment of scuds and worms with no success. It became very windy and dark so I went to big hole and stripped a #10 olive wolly bugger about a dozen times with no hits. I finished the day back below the rebar hole using a #20 gray scud and caught three rainbows. That was a long winded report to say we didn't do very well, but we had a great time. I saw a bunch of fish being caught in the mouth of the rebar hole at the point. It did not seem to matter if flies were being cast from the point out or from the water to toward the point, fish were usually on. The rebar hole was loaded with fishermen every day when the water was down. The weather was good and had promised to be a lot worse. We fished through a little rain Monday morning but it was not bad. I got to meet Leonard (who I have heard so much about on this forum) at Lilley's this morning, he was there to meet a client, I got to see his little girl, she is beautiful. Phil told us a little bit about his Alaska trips and made us realize we need to get up there. We hope to be back in January weather permitting.
  6. My wife dropped me off at #2 outlet around 2:00 pm, only 6-8 cars on the lot, I was very surprised. The temperature was mid 50's and very windy, no water running. I tied on a #16 light gray bead headed scud under an indicator with 6x tippett and headed to the top of the rebar hole. Caught a 13" rainbow on the 3rd cast and then nothing after that. The wind picked up even more so I decided to walk down to big hole and try stripping wollie buggers and get the wind more to my back. When I got to big hole I realized I had left my fly box on top of the split rail fence by outlet #2. Walked all the way back to the parking lot and was pleased to see my fly box just where I left it. I am sure several people could have walked off with it, thanks to all those who didn't. I went back to big hole and stripped a #10 brown wollie bugger and caught one small rainbow and missed a couple of hits. The wind began to die down so I went back to the top of the rebar hole and used the scud I had on earlier. I caught 3 small ranibows and missed a couple of other strikes. My wife was going to pick me up at 5:00 so I headed toward the lot to see if fish were midging near the bank below outlet #2, no midging fish when I arrived and my wife was waiting so it was off to dinner. I don't know how others fared because there were so few anglers that we were spread out all along the water, it was very nice. I noticed one of the ponds at the hatchery had been drained and there was some equipment nearby, what are they doing? It was a short trip but a great time as always on Taneycomo and staying at Lilley's.
  7. My wife dropped me off at outlet #2 around 2:00 pm, only 6-8 cars on the lot, I was very surprised. The temperature was in the mid 50's, very windy and no water running. I tied on a light gray bead headed scud under a small indicator using a 6x tippett and headed to the top of the rebar hole. I caught and released a 13" rainbow on my third cast but nothing after that. The wind began to pick-up even more so I decided to walk down to big hole to strip a wollie bugger and get more of the wind at my back. When I got to big hole I realized that I had left my fly box on top of the split rail fence by outlet #2. I walked all the way back to the parking lot to find my fly box right where I had left it. I am sure several people could have walked off with it, thanks to those who could have, but didn't. I went back to big hole and stripped a brown #10 wollie bugger, caught and released one small rainbow and missed a couple of hits. The wind began to die down so I headed back to the top of the rebar hole and used the scud I had on earlier. I caught and released three small ranibows and missed a couple of other strikes. My wife was going to pick me up at 5:00 so I headed up toward outlet #2 to see if any fish were midging near the bank. There were no fish midging when I arrived and my wife was there so it was off to dinner. I don't know how the others fared because there were so few anglers that we were spread out all along the water, it was very nice. I noticed one of the ponds at the hatchery had been drained and there was some equipment around, what are they doing? It was a short trip but a great time on Taneycomo and staying at Lilley's. Hope to stay longer and fish more in January.
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