Steve Smith

I apply a light coat of super glue to the fly's back and "glue" the herl to the body material. This prevents it from spinning when the hackle is palmered forward.

Bumping up as a reminder

I have a tough time keeping up with OAF. Got a question email me at steve.smith@fasco.com

I have not posted in a while – been a madhouse at work. We are planning our fifth annual Roaring River Opening day C&R biscuits and gravy feed on Friday November 13th at 7 AM [Opening horn is at 8 AM]. Location will be the last campsite in Campground #3 near the old dam just off HWY F. Come all – Ozark Angler members or not, and families. All you need to do is bring what you would like to drink. We will also have a grill setup and hot dogs going 12 noon at the same location. It would be fine if you would like to bring a condiment or chips, but not required. In case of rain, we will move the meeting place to the shelter area along HWY F. Look forward to seeing everyone.

Hey

I hope it's not a sign of the times, but the past few years you really have to watch your gear in any park or conservation area. As far as the parks go, I don't know if the others are worse or better or the same. I try to tell folks not to leave their gear out in the open if I notice it as a friendly reminder. There were two guys during the last catch and release season left their new Orvis fly rods in their truck on a trip to the "John". You guessed it... gone. There are so many new faces these days, you don't think about someone grabbing a rod, vest, or box out of a truck or open vehicle. I don't know if Park Rangers patrolled more if it would help or not.

I came through the park about 6:30 this morning [Friday] and it was rolling really well and very muddy. Dry Holler was far from dry with incoming water aready level with the flooded river. Oddly, the campgrounds #2 & #3 still had RV's parked in it. I expected them to be evaculated by now. Probably be a good weekend to tie. I had a feeling last night watching the weather reports it would get bad. Anytime they say a front will stall out over the top of us, we can expect heavy rains if the moisture is there.

RELAY FOR LIFE BENEFIT TROUT TOURNAMENT, on APRIL 25TH, IN ROARING RIVER STATE PARK Opening horn to 11:30 am weigh in. $20 entry fee per person with 50% payback – first and second place heaviest stringers paid. Tournament sign in @ 6:30 AM at the old dam parking lot – end of Zone II [Campground #3]. A daily tag for April 25th has to be presented for sign-in. Three (3) fish total weight in same area as sign in [old dam]. Fishing is restricted to inside the park in Roaring River’s Zone’s I & II with artificial lures only [upstream from old dam]. All MDC laws and rules apply. This benefit tournament is OPEN to everyone… This is an opportunity for everyone to have fun while donating to a worthwhile charity. A hot dog feed will be provided after weigh in the old dam area parking lot. Please bring lawn chair, a side if desired, and your own refreshments. Please contact Steve Smith with questions.

RELAY FOR LIFE BENEFIT TROUT TOURNAMENT, on APRIL 25TH, IN ROARING RIVER STATE PARK Opening horn to 11:30 am weigh in. $20 entry fee per person with 50% payback – first and second place heaviest stringers paid. Tournament sign in @ 6:30 AM at the old dam parking lot – end of Zone II [Campground #3]. A daily tag for April 25th has to be presented for sign-in. Three (3) fish total weight in same area as sign in [old dam]. Fishing is restricted to inside the park in Roaring River’s Zone’s I & II with artificial lures only [upstream from old dam]. All MDC laws and rules apply. This benefit tournament is OPEN to everyone… This is an opportunity for everyone to have fun while donating to a worthwhile charity. A hot dog feed will be provided after weigh in the old dam area parking lot. Please bring lawn chair, a side if desired, and your own refreshments. Please contact Steve Smith with questions.

Bob; can't help on the boat other than Google "Table Rock Boat Rental". You should get lots of hits. Not an expert on walleye, but I believe they would be just coming off spawn in the backs of the rivers flowing into Table Rock. Although at the other end of the lake, the Kings, Roaring, and White River towards Arkansas would best bets, but that's where I have been looking. Caught my biggest walleye ever last year on St Patricks Day in Roaring River. And, the best time to catch them is after dark on 1/4 ounce Kastmaster spoons [rainbow trout pattern]. There are a lot of other guys on this board more experienced than I that may be able to give you better suggestions. Good Luck. The "Rock" won't be anywhere near the walleye factories in have in your part of the world. Good luck

A "whales tail" should help you out on your problem. I have a Lowe Sweet 16 deep vee that had the same problem. Mine is the bolt on style, so can't help you on the no drill type. Mine is a simple four bold attachment where I drilled out the stabilizer plate. It was easy to install and no noticeable difference in gas use. Just picked up the size for a 50 horse. If you watch BPS outlet store, you can sometimes get a bargain. One word of caution, watch bouncing in the wind about tree tops and stumps.

Mulberry River in Arkansas. Don't get there as much as I would like too. www.turnerbend.com

Posted too quickly. Any of Leonard's leech combination should work well on pike too providing you have a wire tippet. Rip any of his PMS leeches through the cabbage weeds and you better have a flyrod with backbone. Leonard gave me one of his leech patterns during Roaring River's C&R season. I plan to stock up for my trip to Lake of the Woods.

For walleye, I would use Leonard's black PMS leeches. In June on Rainey, the 'eyes should be ten foot or less depending on what part of June. A nine foot leader on floating line with shot weight should do the trick if you can sit over them. The problem I have had is feeling the bite. I would suggest getting a tub of Berkleys Gulp! leeches and soak Leonard's PMS in there. That should help the walleye to hold on long enough to feel the bite. My two cents

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I tried setting Explorer to accept all cookies and still had the issue. I only have one computer, but will try with another this afternoon. It did allow me to stay logged on long enough to reply this time though.

Used the leech pattern in Canada with great success. Outfished guys using live leeches and even at $20 bucks a bucket, cheaper than a pound of live leeches. Walleye held on to them just like they were live, and durable too. One bait wuld last through several fish. Big fish were 5, 6, and a 7 pound walleyes... all caught on the Gulp brand leech. I highly recommend them.

Thanks Phil. Learn something everyday. I just assumed four generators was wide open. Never realized they can adjust flow. It's a good thing they were not running full blast or there would have been no way we could have fished.

A buddy and I spent last week [Monday 27th to Saturday Nov 1st] on Taneycomo’s upper end wade fishing and found it a pretty tough go. I could not believe how warm the water was all week, and understand the concerns. As far as water conditions, we had about three hours early in the week with zero generators and the rest of the week pretty much full blast generation. The unofficial rumor we heard was Beaver and Norfork had generation issues and Table Rock had to pick up the slack. I don’t know if that’s fact, but it was a reasonable explanation why the generation was on 24 hours for so many days. We were limited to fishing the outlets and nearby slack water to attempt any safe wading possibilities. We still had a blast though even with the limitations of water that could be waded. Sight fishing with Oregon Cheese egg patterns [jig head], some on zebra midges, and dark leech patterns worked well for my partner. However, Cracklebacks worked well too when I could fish slack water. Many times there were just too many people wade fishing to cast a dry fly parallel to the banks. Sight fishing for me is impossible, but my partner hooked up with several nice fish during the week. None of them were horses, but certainly not small stockers either. The fact is we did not see any one with a big fish all week long [not even snagged]. As I mentioned, my partner had the right pattern. Often using a gold bead or light colored patterns, he would watch trout take the fly, which would never twitch the indicator or line. It was one of those patterns that unless you could see fish take a fly, you’d never know it. The oddity was several questioned him on the fly being used, but it wasn’t the pattern that made a difference. Personally, I can count on one hand the fish that gave me any indication of a strike the entire week. Guess my poor eyesight is one of the reasons I am such a dry fly fanatic. Despite the poor wading conditions, it was a great week.

We will have our annual C&R biscuits and gravy feed 7:00 AM to 8:00 AM at Roaring River State Park on the opener Friday 11/14/08. As in year’s past, we’ll use the last campsite in Campground #3 just up from the old dam just off Highway F end of Zone 2. Look for a cream colored Ford Explorer with the plates “O-GRAT1”, or a bunch of folks spinning yarns. Everybody’s welcome to join in as we’ll have plenty of everything fishing or not. We will also have dogs and chips at 12 noon in the same spot for lunch. We are looking forward to visiting again with all who can attend. No need to bring anything but what you want to drink. If you need to contact me, ping an email to steve.smith@fasco.com

Spammers off Google mail got so bad, we finally had to block GMAIL.COM off our firewalls and that's too bad because it is a really good service and free of charge.

I go both ways, but lean more towards Froghair Floro even on dry flys. But,I rarely use a dry smaller than a 14. Mostly because I can't get over the "bass set" that floro allows some forgiveness for. When the water gets real clear, I go with a green mono if I think the fish are spooky. I am just learning to rebuild leaders and that been a challenge too with floro. Found a surgeons knot holds floro the best when spicing tippets so that has eased some of my pain. The bottom line is whatever a guy believes in is the way to go.

Chub; the area you described is the Muncey [sP] Cemetary and a favorite place beer feast and four wheel drive "off roading". I hate to see landowners close off a section of the river, but it is a sign of the times. There are just too many folks that leave their trash and ruts behind with their kind of "fun", and it's not just kids that do the damage. There are several areas along Roaring River where landowners have gotten tired of having their property abused and trashed up. Their only recourse is to post, fence, and or block off access. Now, I don't think blocking the river is legal, but I also understand thier reasoning. Just another example of a few ruining our sport for the many.

Give Tim at Tim's fly shop a call. I know he has some rod repair resources and he would be fairly close's number is 417-847-4956