Dave Cook

Ditto on Margot Creek. How's Hunter doing? We were there a couple of years ago and they wouldn't let Hunter play with the big boys.

This is the last week to buy tickets. I just called the shop to get mine.

What bothers me is how they shut the water off, not the fact that they turn it off. They still leave fish stranded. The first two nights they turned it off this past weekend, sculpin were all over the bank up by outlet 1. In years past, I have on more than one occassion found brown trout over 10 lbs stranded on the bar below outlet 3. Thanks for the pictures Phil. I didn't stick around long enough last weekend to checkout the view during the daytime.

Sat., June 11. This one of the times when the generation schedule was in our favor and they stuck to it. We scouted the area around the hatchery Saturday evening around 8pm. The water was around 706 and 3 generators. Those fishing between outlet 1 & 2 were having luck. I watched several fish landed. We started fishing about 23:50. At midnight they turned the water off and it dropped rapidly. Using ultralight spinning, I had a nice rainbow immediately on a heavy olive jig. It seemed that when the water went off, the fish took a little while to readjust. I switched to a light 1/48th olive jig and the fishing picked up. The only other fishermen we saw were a couple of walleye fishermen. Here's how the fishing went. Trout, gar,trout ,green sunfish, goggleye,trout,trout,trout,white bass, trout, trout,trout, bluegill and then just trout for the rest of the night. After about two hours with the spinning, I went back to the fly rod and switched off the jig to a hibernator (olive) and I think it was about 6 fish on 6 casts. That slowed down to about one fish to 6 casts, so after a bit, I switched to a purple PMS. Bingo! I fished that until morning. Once it was light enough to sight fish, casting to objects really resulted in some good fish. My best fish was 20" on it and I lost one even bigger. The biggest change you could see in fishing the dam area is the Rebar Hole. It is gone. A gravel ledge runs down from the island to the other gravel bar and works like a dam. There are four places where the water breaks thru this dam and creates fast runs and deep holes. One of these channels cuts deep into the island and at the far side of this gravel ledge, the water goes around the old gravel bar and then back to the main channel. They all meet about where the end of the old rebar holes hits the high bank and turns left. Still upstream of the snag in the middle of the river. With the water off, there were many large fish going up the fast runs and over the shallow gravel dam. A boat can't make it. The first fish I saw do this was a brown trout that was probably 15 lbs or more. It looked like a salmon on a spawning run. The next fish I saw up the chute was a 3 foot gar right by my legs. The next fish I saw ready to do this looked like a catfish. Didn't get a real good look but this fish appeared to be over 30 pounds. When I tried to get a closer look, the fish backed off and went back to the deep water at the end of one of the fast runs. With that, I was done for the day. With the water off all morning hopefully, there are other reports of what conditions are like on upper Taneycomo.

Thanks for the pics. Knowing it is at record levels and then seeing it - is something else. Are they sandbagging Branson Landing?

I was with the one van on the lot. We tried a few different things, but a purple PMS (unweighted) was what they wanted from us. All rainbows, up to 18". There were some distinctive wind shifts before the storm blew in to give us a clue it was time to call it a night. We were right behind you coming down from outlet 1. During the daylight hours wooly bugger fishermen were having a great day. The wind was mostly from the SW with near whitecap conditions right below the dam.

I catch many bass on a fly rod using a jig and cork for crappie. If I were targeting bass, I would try an unweighted or just a tiny beadhead wolly bugger (olive) in a size 6.

A New Fly Rod http://www.xt.../wat.../watch/7795583/ A friend sent this to me. I think you will like it.

Do they like to eat river otters?

MTFA in KC will have a planning session on rod building on 02/16. This will be to help people find out what they need to order. You can come to this meeting with having to make any commitment to building a rod. Class will start Mar 7. If anyone has any questions about the class they can call me at 816-272-5194. Dave

I got my OAF reel special on 12-30 also. Reel, hooks, fly boxes. Nice quality on all of it. The trout 5-7 looks perfect for my 6wt line. Dave

It was hard to get a little fishing in. 3 rainbows before lunch and 3 after. That seemed to be my limit. It was a nice day even though the guides kept icing up.

A near perfect weekend. Fished Lost Creek, Evening Hole on Thanksgiving. Caught a couple of nice ones. Fished Spillway Creek Friday and caught my best Oklahoma bow. About 21 inches. We also fished a couple of times down at the Re-reg Dam. Not much fishing pressure down there and turned out to be a good choice. I caught this bow down by the RV camping area.

This is our new Thanksgiving Tradition. Trout fishing at Beaver's Bend State Park below Broken Bow Dam on the Lower Mountain Fork River. It's a nice little tailwater and the winter fishing is pretty good down there. A little beyond the Ozark boundaries but it's a nice artifical trout stream. If you want information about it go to http://beaversbendflyshop.com/ website. It's about 180 miles from Dallas and turns out to be a good place to meet family that lives down there.

Sorry about the Alex George reference. I read in the paper today the dropped stocking that lake because it is too shallow. So besides the two lakes at James A Reed, there is Lake Chaumiere in the northner part of KC and a new location being stocked is two lakes at the Fountain Bluff Sports Complex in Liberty.

Alex George would be the closest. It's near the Blue River and 435. If you are coming from the west on 435 take Holmes exit south to Red Bridge Rd. Turn east and when you get to the Blue River Rd turn north. There is construction on Red Bridge at the Blue River, so I am not sure about traffic thru there. Coming from any other direction, I take US-71 to Red Brdige exit in Grandview and west on Red Bridge to the Blue River Rd. I fish at James A Reed in Lee's Summit. There are two trout ponds there.

The wife and I are planning on coming. Just keep the roads clear of ice.

It's usually stocked a day before they close the place for fishing due to a managed deer hunting season. Veterans Day is a good time to check. I live a couple of miles from there and have gone to check on stocking and have met the hatchery truck.

Earlier this year there were posts on the forum that 917 was the new normal for the summer. I just don't know when the summer is over. Even the Corp website is confusing. You can go to a detail page and it shows 915 as power pool (top of conservation pool) and then go to a reservior current conditions summary and see that 917 is the power pool.

Flashlights are cheap, fishing with Leonard ... Priceless. Glad to give a camera assist. Good to see you on the water again. Dave

I plan to come down Thursday night. Hope I can be successful copying the master.

I'd like to add that Jerod wasn't cussing, at least not out loud. Glad I could be there to give an assist. I've been in your shoes and with no On-star. Back to fishing reports. Carol and I walked down to the point and fish mostly PMS's for what was left of the night. She learned my secret technique. Throw it out there. If a fish doesn't rip the rod out of your hands immediately, then let the fly drift (this is where I take a nap), then when you are ready to cast again, there is usually a trout swimming around with your fly patiently waiting for you to set the hook. You can repeat this all night long and the trout never get tired of it. She was fishing a 4 wt, 4x tippet, I was hauling a 7 wt with 2x. Her PMS was olive mine was purple. We both caught fish all night. It was fun to have some moonlight penetrate the fog. I could actually see my flyline drift downstream. We fished until dawn. After daybreak the trout go nuts feeding on top. Carol found that a renegade was on their menu and enjoyed some dry fly action before we called it a night.

I use the 2lb vanish for tippet all the time. It is 5x in diameter. I use it with micro jigs, cracklebacks, small woolies & zebra midges. Thanks for the generation warning Phil but I have to get a night fishing fix Tuesday night. It's just been too long.

Leonard, my apologies for not recognizing you last night. I was the guy in the middle of the river you had to work around when you went to the other side. I can say the olive PMS was catching some nice sized rainbows last night. Many fish in the 15 -19 inch range. Attending the Sowbug on Friday. Dave

Nice net.