Brian Wise

Brian and others, I "fished" Saturday morning at the Falls for the photographer for Rural Missouri Magazine (the electric coop magazine.) I had "one of those days" for an hour or so where I couldn't get a hook into the fish, drove me CRAZY! Also fished Sunday with Damselfly. Fishing was slow at Patrick, there were takes but it just wasn't that great of a day. The water being a touch high made it pretty hard to get a good drift (and to wade) to the holding spots in areas where the fish had been fairly thick. Brian EDIT: I should say though that Damselfly was throwing some crazy awesome drifts in the higher water....didn't want my statement above taken the wrong way. :-)

Hey all, Before all the storms went through the area I decided to head to the islands above Patrick Bridge. I started at the uppermost island and got into fish right off the bat in the main "hole" on the river left side of the island. Nothing big but numbers were good. The water was pretty good so I decided to go ahead and nymph the other side of the island too (I usually swing wets on that side)hooked a lot of fish higher up on the island and had SEVERAL hits during the swing after the drift. Worked my way down to the next island and fished all of the good water in between (read: all the water ) Hooked a few in between the islands and thought I should probably get going....stepped out of the water and KABOOM the thunder hit so I made the 1/4 mile walk back to the campground in record time I was just pulling off my waders and the rain hit, and hit HARD. Most of the fish came on a smaller brown or dark golden stone. I did however hook quite a few on some Copper Johns and a black Copper John (totally black, even the bead) in a size 18. Great couple hours of fishing, I should however report that the rain that came through that night and the next day has brought the river up quite a bit and as of 4-27 the river is at 898 CFS which is about 3.43' at the gauge and falling. Brian

Depending on the weather I will be hitting the accesses tonite "scouting" for Damselfly's trip down this Sunday. Will post anything I find... Brian

Brian, We ended up re-scheduling. I was not on the water last weekend. Brian

NoLuck, It is pretty much an all day thing and yeah, the door prizes are usually stellar! Brian Edit: I am donating a guide trip on the North Fork of the White to the door prizes...

Dang Brian, I swear I replied to that pm.... I'm going to be at Feather-Craft Saturday and then I am guiding on Sunday. Doubt I'll be able to make it up there, again... Brian

Hey guys, This Saturday (April 14) Feather-Craft is having their annual Fly Fishin Expo. Several Manufacturers will be there and some meat will be cooked. I will be there all day so if you stop in be sure to introduce yourself. Brian

Actually Damselfly, we will fish the exact spot where we caught that fish..... Can't say for sure if she will be there or not but we'll give her a shot! Brian

Fred, That 'bow was from Rockbridge. Did you get a chance to look into where Spring Creek runs into the Bryant....a lot of the time there are some really nice 'bows in there. Good report!! Brian

ummmm, damselfly....did I know that was "you"?? Yeah guys, this fish was dead serious. As soon as the guy hooked her she ran to the deepest part of that hole and just held there....with solid downstream pressure held on her might I say. He did a great job landing the fish, I tried to tail the fish to land it because my net wasn't big enough but it turned out my hand wasn't big enough to tail the fish to land it either!! Too cool.... Brian

Hey guys, Fished 2 guys from St. Louis last weekend for 2 days. First day on the water at around 1:00 p.m. until dark. The fish didn't start biting until the "golden hour" right before dark, nothing big but a couple of fairly nice 'bows. Second day put in at Blair and floated to Patrick. Fished right below the put-in at Blair and hooked 2 or 3 and then booked it to the Islands above Patrick so these guys could see that water during the half-day trip. The first day we had to drop down to a size 12 Golden Stone with a Copper John (Chatreuse to match the Caddis bodies a little) to really get the fish going. The first island was fishing a little slow until one of the guys hooked a really nice brown that we landed at the bottom of the island. Measured at 24" with a massive girth, I'm saying a 7 pound fish (a pound and a half off of what the average fish weight calulator online says...just for good measure ) Brian

Turkeyhawk, Are you talking casting or just fishing? If you are talking casting you can't go wrong with Joan, Lefty, or Mel... If you are talking fishing, Trout Bum Diaries..Period! Brian

Hey guys, Fished the mouth of Gooley (SP?) Creek on Bull Shoals this evening. I had heard that there were some rather large sows down there that were following the spin-fishermans offerings all the way in but little to no takes. Anyway, I started with a purple and white clouser and rolled a really nice fish but ended up breaking her off. No fish landed at the mouth so we moved down into the lake a little farther and instantly started catching little males. EVERY cast for 20 minutes and then a few more stragglers from there on out. Nothing of any size at all but they definitely entertained us for a little while. Brian

Exactly Steve. I have played around with a two-hander but nothing real serious..just enough to really get me going though. I have not seen the video, it would definitely be one to see from what I have heard! Brian

Outdoorarki, Depending on the fly and rod you are using you can effectively roll cast a mile.....some of it may not be "regular" roll casting but it can still be done. Brian

I'm sorry guys, we floated from ROLF to Blair. Saturday was the day of the report. We caught one brown saturday that may have went 16", the rest were all rainbows. Brian

I didn't make it down this year. Sorry I missed out on meeting some of you guys...and casting Harry's rods (I have to give him props everytime anyone talks about his rods ) Brian

Bass Pro in Springfield had one left as of today at about 5:30...at $19.99! Run Terry, RUN!! Brian

Hey guys, I fished a father/son duo today. Started at the falls and the temp was in the mid 30's and didn't get much warmer than that. A few hits at the falls on a Stone/dropper combo and one nice splashy rise to a dead drifting wet fly in the film. Today was pretty weird...the fish were not in the "fishy" water, they were in skinny water. They were not taking the nymphs very well at all but they were taking the wets really well. We landed no fish on nymphs for the first time in as long as I can remember, all fish were caught on winged wets today and the father almost caught a dozen. I had a couple of firsts as well. It sleeted/snowed several times throughout the day and I saw Caddis and BWO's during the sleet...I had never ran into that before. (I just had to use one of the new smilies) I do not expect the fishing to stay anywhere near what it was today, like I said, it was just....weird. Brian

Sorry to chime in so late.... I had been looking for a fairly long handled net with a rubber basket for a long time that didn't cost big $$$. The reason I was looking for a long handle is to land fish just a little farther away for my fisherman, thus saving a few heartbreaks a year . Anyway, I was at Bass Pro in St. Charles a couple of weeks ago and came across this Frabill Landing Nets It is listed on Frabill's website for $69.99 but Bass Pro had it for $19.99!!! I don't know if it was mistakenly priced that or what but I didn't complain. I usually only carry a net when I am guiding. I also wear a hip pack instead of a vest so I have no D-ring but I just slide the handle of the net down my hip pack and it works great! Honestly it probably isn't for everyone but it was exactly what I was looking for and $100 cheaper than most of the other ones a lot like it. Brian

I want to say the Stones in the photos are 2XL #10's but don't quote me. The killer thing, 15 turns of lead along with the bead! I usually do go a little bit smaller early in the season for the goldens but hold pretty strong using the bigger darker stones pretty much all year.

Journeyman, 90% of the time if I am nymphing I will be fishing a stone as the lead fly of a two nymph rig. I kind of put a twist on the Kauffman Stonefly.... You'll have to excuse the quality of the tying, I just pulled these out of my box.... Brian

The river is fishing pretty good right now. The water is cooperating and has stopped "yo-yoing" since we haven't gotten a lot of rain lately. Stones are doing the best, period. But on the skinnier water wets and flymphs are tearing up the smaller fish. Will give a full report this weekend... Brian

If the fish have moved up into the river I would look for them in a good deeper tailout, and if they are in there very thick you can see "clouds" of them. For spinning gear I would throw swimmin' minnows, Blue Rebels, and grubs...the colors of the SM's and grubs are the hard one to figure out, and can change from day to day. Brian

MS, By looking at the current water levels I doubt it will be much below your experience with the gauge at 2.95' I'm not as familiar with Hebron as I should be but the water has held real steady for about the last 24 hours. Brian