zander

With the price of gas the way it is, and my truck with the appetite it has, it has been hard for me to justify driving down to Taney everytime I want to go fly-fishing. I finally just HAD to get out for a little while. I went down to Lake Springfield and was throwing a weighted yellow bunny leech for a while by the warm water outlet. Needless to say, I kind of stuck out a little bit there. People were giving me looks that weren't full of fellowship and admiration to say the least and one fellow with his two boys next to him kept saying loud enough for us all to hear, "Well if he wanted to fish like that he should go to Bennett Springs." If it was five minutes away from my house like this was, I'm sure I would have. I'm sure they were just a little frustrated since nobody was catching anything, but I decided to head down behind the dam before my muzzle cam off. I tied on a little foam grass hopper and flipped that thing all over along the side of the stream but no takers. No one was catching anything. It was a lot of fun though, and if anyone in Springfield needs a fly-fishing fix like I did, I would recommend going down behind the dam and trying to catch some bass or bluegill. That deep valley can block out most of the wind and make casting easier. I'll probably try to tye up some Davy Wotton floating shad and try up by the warm water outlet again, but next time not on a weekend. But it was a good two hours and it got the monkey off my back for a while longer.

No we don't have banks yet in Missouri. We might buy Washington Mutual this year so things might change. I have found one person today at work, still trying to get a few more so that it can be more reliable. As far as the Branson TU website it would be nice if it were updated and there was a form that you could use to join the chapter.

Leonard, I am trying to put out the word here at the bank. Other people can check with their employers to see if there are similar programs with which the company provides financial assistance to non-profit organizations as a result of employee volunteerism. It is a tax break for the companies and it improves employee satisfaction so most of the bigger companies have these. Please check with your employers.

47%

It could have been a southern chain pickerel. They like warmer water and in Louisiana I caught a 3 pound one in a forest creek not 6 feet wide and three feet deep under a fallen beech tree on a white marabou jig. Pretty hardy fish, taste pretty good but lots of tiny bones so fry them really hot.

Chase is the third largest employer in the Springfield area so I am hoping other employees read this post. As you may or may not know, our site lead has committed that we would volunteer one hour per employee per month to various organizations in the area. Also you may not be aware of the financial benefits local organizations can have from our time. As long as 3 (me included) Chase employees volunteer for one hour each in a month, Chase will give the organization (501-3c) $500 for each month that we do this. This adds up to $6000 per year. Our fellow Chase employees generate tens of thousands annually from this benefit for local organizations, not all of which I would personally support and some I'm sure I'd actually oppose. Trout Unlimited can benefit from this. Time at meetings, picking up stuff along Taney, and all kinds of different things could qualify for time spent, we just need a TU person to sign off on it each month. Please contact me via PM if you are interested in having our employer put money into something we wish we could be doing all day at work and that we are lucky enough to do when we are not!! Chase already supports Trout Unlimited with the Trout Unlimited Visa that we have as well as the Orvis Visa. Please contact me to help me out. I only need two more people. If you read all of this and you don't work for Chase, but know someone who does please forward this to them. Also check with your own employer about similar programs. Most large companies will have something exactly like ours.

so you were fishing on the Bull Shoals side?

Thanks for the replies guys. After making a few last night, I can see the advantage of using something with more meat on the bones to build up the bodies faster. Thanks again.

Good timing having it on the 16th, right after my payday, with the discounts I can get more bang for the buck.

I stopped by Backcountry Outfitters today and bought some stuff to tie cracklebacks. I was told I needed stretch nylon thread. I asked why and was given a reasonable answer which I unfortunately can only remember part of due to my ..... I can't remember why either. I know they look and behave differently when there is no tension on them. The stretched nylon with no tension can look like Buckwheat's hair, and the waxed thread looks like regular string. What is the main functional difference and can you use waxed thread to tie cracklebacks for colors that you don't have in the strecthed nylon yet? Stupid question probably but inquiring minds want to know.

I have two cents to give as well. A. Trav has given me advice via PM so that would not be visible on the board. He has helped me at least. B. Leonard has helped me immensely. If not for him, I would have tried flyfishing only to abandon it because I had absolutely no idea what I was doing until he offered to help me out of the blue. The funny thing is, I felt guilty for getting as much help as I did from him since he is a guide and I paid nothing. Leonard no doubt would get much more business if he didn't give so much away but then that would not be Leonard. Just from what I know, he is a class act, and my experience has undoubtedly been had by many many people as well because that is who he is. And before I spent both pennies, I have seen him catch big browns darn near every time I was lucky enough to fish with the guy and snapped photos of them myself. Yes, they weigh out.

My old boss at the USDA went on a hunting/flyfishing trip to New Zealand and was told by a guide "Don't step on any brown moss-covered rocks." This was because it might be a kiwi bird. He stepped on a green moss covered rock though and fell down hurting his back pretty badly. Anytime you are travelling outside the US for an extended period of time, it is a good idea to have international medical insurance. You want to remember the trip for the good times, but sometimes things happen and like the scouts say "Be prepared."

I'm surprised no one has answered you yet. There is a boat ramp close to downtown Branson at the RV park. It is also by Scotty's Trout Dock. Instead of going down Main Street with your ig, it is easier to come in on Branson Landing Blvd and just keep going on it until after Bass Pro, then you'll go past a stop light and will be able to see the RV prk and signs at that time.

Way to go Greg! I have the utmost respect for you guys who can get out there in weather like this although I am not jealous in the slightest:)

My friend's dad in junior high managed to do it. The boat was called "The African Queen" and they were trucking through the swamp portion of Kincaid Lake in Louisiana. My friend and his sister were upfront. Sister yells "STUMP!" My friend thought she yelled to jump, so he goes off the side, it hits a submerged cypress stump and down she went. The African Queen II had a longer life, but it does happen, albeit unusual.

My guess is that it was the weight combined with the way it tended to get off the boat. A big nasty tangle of trees might not come apart so easily and when half of that big nasty heap is hanging off and down in the water I can see it flipping the barge. Haste makes waste. Downsizing here might have been the way to go, of course hindsight is always 20/20.

http://www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...KING01/80119013

Congratulations on the wedding....and the new house. Sounds like you have already landed a couple of really nice ones.

My father and I took part in the Masters tournament on Saturday. It was quite an experience. Neither of us had ever fished in a tournament of any kind before and thought it would be fun. We signed up and started making plans. I bought a bunch of new tackle and spent an hour or two organizing my tacklebox and getting the poles ready. I had everything we would need piled on the garage floor by my father's boat. My father was resposible for getting the boat ready. We met Sat. morning at 5:00 AM to leave Springfield and head down to Taney early. My dad had the van loaded up and the boat hookep up when I got there. We put in at the boat ramp right by Scotty's about 6:00 AM and as I floated away from the trailer I went to start the boat. This is when things started going bad. No juice in the battery. I had told my father no less than three times to charge the batteries. I tried to use the trolling motor to take the boat to the dock, but no juice in it either. By this time despite the 27 degree air, I was pretty steamed. I paddled over to the dock. I sent my father on a mission to Wal-Mart hoping we could get the battery jumped with enough time to spare before the tournament. Luckily Lamar from Scotty's showed up and let me borrow a quick jump kit. and when that failed to do it, he let us swap out the battery and even put our old one on a charger for us all day. By 7:20AM we had a running boat and were ready to go up to Lilley's when I realized my tackle box was not with us. Everything else from my pile had been loaded up, just not the bright blue tackle box that would have seemed important. All we had to fish with were the lures we had tied onto our poles earlier and a couple of spoons in my father's tackle box. By this time I was pretty sure I was going to be one of those people who would not speak to their father for the next 5 years. The brutal windchill I dealt with speeding up to Lilley's made me focus on other things though, namely not turning into a popsicle. As we puttered into Lilley's it was nice to see a well-organized event in the works. Everyone was really helpful and the launch was truly something to see. I had never been around that many boats in such a small area before. It was kind of like driving in Mexico only in boats. We headed down to lower Taney and fished from about a mile below Rockaway to Empire Park all day. The only thing that we could get consistent action on were rainbow trout patterned spoons (didn't have much to work with remember). Also complicating things was that my father was working the fish finder and had set it on "simulator" for the first half of the day. I was wondering why there were so many humps in the middle of the channel and the water temp kept saying 64 degrees. We both caught our limits anyway and had the opportunity to cull up a couple of fish each. We were the first to weigh in and for about two minutes we were in first place in the tournament with a weight of 4.88 lbs. Now we knew before we even left for Taney that we had no hope of placing in the tournament, but we did not want to come in last either. Phil was reassuring that our weight shouldn't come in dead last. I guess his years of putting on the tournament paid off because when it was all over, we were not last, so it was a success. After the tournament we headed back down to Scotty's where we exchanged batteries with Lamar, without whose help we would have been totally out of luck. And of course, without Phil's time, energy, and money the tournament would not have taken place. So here is a big "thank you" to you two guys. Now I can say that my father and I fished a tournament together, overcame adversity (with help), didn't place last, and remained friends at the end of the day (although if we ever do this again, I am checking everything myself). Thanks again guys.

thanks guys for the advice

My father's boat has two livewells and they are both painted black or are black due to the materials used to make them. Consequently when you have fish in there you can not see them at all when you are looking down in there. We were thinking of painting the walls and bottom of it white to be able to see things better but I am scared that the paint would leach chemicals to the fish causing them to croak. Does anyone know of anything we could safely paint that with which would not cause us to get lead poisoning or the fish to expire early?

might be a business killer Lamar, I mean I don't think a family in a rented boat would want to ease up to the dock as you are standing above them on the dock in a kilt robbing their kids of all innocence. might end up in jail:) the bagpipes would be nice though

That sounds like a blast. I can't wait for my son to be old enough to flyfish with me but even then unless I can find a Thomas the Tank Engine flyrod I may not have much luck in that dept.

we had real severe weather last night

nice pictures but it is making me need to go to the bathroom