Project Healing Waters

At daybreak, water temp was 55.1 degrees above DTT all the way up to the first riffle. At 2pm it was 56.5 at DTT. I caught one male mid-morning up above DTT on a gray/white Clouser Minnow. When the crowds starting stacking in on top of each other, I high tailed it to Swan. I figured if I had to fish in a crowd, I might as well have modern conveniences. When I left at 2pm, you would have sworn there was a $1 million white bass tournament going on in Beaver Creek. If the water warms to near 60 degrees, this will push the whites up the creek where it's too shallow for most of the boats.

Phil gave you good advice. Every full-time pro I know or have read about was a good amateur first. You will have to work hard toward your goal in your spare time and on your own dime before anyone takes you seriously. Also, remember that the $$$ in bass fishing is in TV and videos. LOOK NEAT AND CLEAN. Stay fit. Speak well. Have good manners and be friendly, enthusiastic, and respectful. Frankly, there are scads of folks who can catch fish. What the folks with the money and gear are looking for are the ones they can be proud to sponsor and will represent their products well. Investing? A good used boat, a reliable truck with a camper or SUV, and CASH for travel/entry fees/incidentals. You'll have to establish a podium record at tournaments over time. You can't do that unless you fish a LOT. And DON'T GET MARRIED!

WilliamJoseph is making 2 pair of KILLER waders, the W-2 ($179 MSRP) and the Dry-namic ($289). And they come with the famous WJ warranty. I've worn almost every brand and style of breathable waders over the past decade of field testing and writing reviews. And I don't think you can come close to the value for the $$$ of these WJ waders. Pair them with a pair of Citico Creek wading boots from Chota ($74 MSRP) and I think you've got the best bang for the buck in the breathable wader marketplace. There are full reviews of both of these waders on my fly fishing blog.

IF we get no more rain, you may get enough clearing by mid-week in the feeder creeks to get into some fish. I tried to fish Bull Creek yesterday way upstream off of Taneycomo at Walnut Shade. Folks were still running jon boats with outboards up past the furthest rapids upstream that I went to (one or two). The paddlers are out in force running the rapids. That will continue for at least another week. But they aren't thick enough to disrupt fishing. But the water was 52 degrees all the way up there at 4pm in a shallow eddy, and it was still too murky for trout. Too cold for bass and too murky for trout = no fish. On the other hand, the edges and eddies were lousy with minnows. The trout WILL move up into these creeks and feed on them when the water clears enough for them to tolerate it. The flash flooding was extreme and it literally SCOURED a lot of the creeks down to bedrock and deposited huge gravel deposits around structure, inside bends, etc. Access roads are washed out in many places. Some are still underwater. That canoe may come in very handy if you focus on the creeks. But ONLY if we don't get more rain. Here's another suggestion: I have found in the past that some of the longer coves off of Taneycomo hold some of the larger predator species (bass, trout, walleye) when the flood gates are open. Things have to clear up some for the trout, but the bass get back there pretty early. There is more forage in these coves than usual due to high water levels, but the current is minimal compared to the main lake bodies. And that is attractive to the fish...especially the older ones who have been through it before. As for Swan and Beaver, they really don't clear that quickly. They are both subject to severe upstream erosion. But I have caught whites working my way up from the mouths of these creeks when they were running hard and looking like chocolate milk. You'll catch them along the edges in about 3-4 feet of water fishing near the bottom. I do it with silver/white or gray/white Clouser Minnows on a fly rod. The Clouser Minnow was designed to give a fly angler a similar tool to the Countdown Rapala. And I would suspect that 6-8" Texas Rigged rubber worms fished slow along the bottom would work well, too. In muddy water, I'd go with black, black/chartreuse. You're going to need good maps and lots of local info. Don't hesitate to invest the time to get good, detailed info from local shops, anglers, marinas, etc. The PFD's are a darned good idea. And the suspender style are the best for fishermen and duck hunters. Get the camo ones so you can use them duck hunting, too. For more about the smaller creeks and stuff not covered here on AO, you may want to search my blog at http://OzarksFlyAnglers.blogspot.com

Yep! You said it, Matt Taylor said it, and his dad said it. So I figured it might work. So we tied up a bunch of size 8 dark brown nymphs and put the tail, legs, and antennae on them in brown sili-legs. Worked like a champ if you could get them to the bottom. I hooked briefly with two BIG Browns while floating fast water. The first was a true Leviathan that took a big rusty brown streamer. The other took the stone nymph dead drifted at the tail of a deep, fast riffle. I have no idea how I lost the first one. But the second one came up and did a barrel roll on me in the fast water and slipped the hook before I could relax the tension. So stripping streamers over the top of the big rocks on high water could be productive too.

I took 2 wounded soldiers in our PHWFF program from Fort Leonard Wood down to the Sowbug last weekend and we stayed at www.taylormaderivertreks.com on the NFOW. We fished Saturday morning and all day Sunday. Saturday morning, we only had about 1.5 hours to fish in the morning. We waded in at the Patrick Bridge access. Neither of these guys had wet a fly line before. We had tied up a bunch of heavy brown stone fly nymphs with rubber legs. I didn't rig up a rod, but just played coach. The flow rate was about 900 cfs and I knew it would be tricky wading and tough fishing. Both guys caught fish. The big fish was an 18" Brown that weighed about 2 lbs. That was one of the duo's first trout and first fish on a fly rod. The other caught a nice Rainbow...also his first fish on a fly rod. We rigged 12-13' of 3X leader + 4X fluoro tippet, a couple of #4 split shots about 18" above the fly, and about 7-9' up the leader we put on the indicator. Tough rig to cast for beginners, but they did great. One of the guys lost his right knee to an IED blast in Iraq. He's the one who caught the big Brown. Thus, the topic description. Sunday, we floated the lower float from Blair to the Taylor's with Shawn Taylor. We all caught fish. Jose again caught the big fish o the day, but this one was a Rainbow. I LOST the big fish o the day...maybe the decade...but that doesn't really count now does it? Again Sunday the size 8 brown stone fly nymph with rubber legs was the ticket. Great day. For photos and more in depth coverage see my blog posts from the weekend at: http://ozarksflyanglers.blogspot.com

I finally read the article in Fly Fisherman. It's a very accurate and insightful view of PHWFF. The setting is our annual 2-fly tournament fundraising event in Virginia...last year's to be precise. But it actually tells the whole story of PHWFF in a nutshell. The author was wounded in Vietnam and has continuously struggled with his own injury throughout the intervening decades. So he possesses a keen insight into what these young men and women are going through. This coming May, SGT Dan Grace of Gassville, AR, and I will be traveling to Virginia to fish as a 2-man sponsored team in the benefit tournament. At that same time, we have another wounded warrior, SSG Ryan Hamme, going on a week-long float fishing trip down the Smith River in Montana. Later that same month after we all return, Phil is hosting the PHW group from Fort Leonard Wood at Lilley's Landing for a day of fishing and fun on Taneycomo. April will have us down at Taylormade River Treks on the North Fork of the White, where I am writing this post from now. We've been staying here for the Sowbug and doing some fishing. We're going to float the river today with Shawn Taylor. I have with me two soldiers from Fort Leonard Wood: SGT Jose Pacheco, who lost his knee to an IED explosion in Iraq, and SSG Ryan Hamme, another combat engineer NCO from FLW who suffered a broken back.

I carry some soft plastic eggs on worm/scud hooks. I carry some bunny leeches and wooly buggers with soft plastic tails extending beyond the fur or marabou. If there's nobody down in Zone 3 and I'm getting crowded in Zone 2, I have been known to tie on something with soft plastic in it and fish down there. The way I read the regs, I'm perfectly legal to do that. On the other hand, toss a fly with soft rubber legs in Zone 2 or 3 and you're breaking the rules. Thankfully, I only fish trout parks when teaching or with buddies who invite me to go with them. Too many crowds, rules, and fish for my taste.

We'll get this article in a PDF file pretty soon, but I haven't seen it yet. Thanks for calling attention to it, Leonard. Our annual 2-fly tournament at Rose River Farm in Virginia in May will be an episode of next season's Fly Rod Chronicles on Sportsman's Channel, too. We have quite a few press articles and tv clips from the past year or so that we distribute to board members, regional coordinators, and local program leaders for their PR and informational use. In the past few months we've been covered in most of the major fly fishing magazines. Last Fall we were on CNN and FoxNews. Last Spring we were all over NPR for about a week and in the Washington Post. Thursday evening through Sunday evening we'll be down in the Mountain Home area for the Sow Bug Roundup. I'll have 3 soldiers tying flies there on Friday and Saturday afternoons. If anybody wants to take them fishing on Sunday or a half day either Friday or Saturday morning let me know. High water...need boats. I need to plan our April and May fishing trips right away. Missouri Trout Fishermen's Association of Springfield and Roubidoux Fly Fishers Association co-sponsor the PHWFF program at Fort Leonard Wood. The TU and FFF chapters from Fayetteville co-sponsor the program at the VA hospital there. Delta TU sponsors our program in Memphis, TN. And Capital City Fly Fishers sponsors the program at the VA hospital in Columbia, MO. Those are all of the programs currently up and running in MO/AR. AFF is working on a program for Little Rock. Ozark Fly Fishers is working on a program for St. Louis. And Heart of America Fly Fishers is developing a program with the military hospital at Fort Leavenworth, KS. If you are interested in getting involved in PHWFF in your area, check that list above and get in touch with someone from the appropriate club. Also, donations of gear, trips, money, etc. are always welcome. You can donate them to any one of these clubs in in the name of Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, Inc. if you want it used in that specific area. If you want it to where the most need is in the Southern Region, you can donate it to PHWFF Southern Region by contacting me directly. The region consists of: TX, LA, MS, AR, TN, MO, KS, OK. If you want a donation to go to the national organization for allocation by the board of directors to where they feel it is needed most, you can log on to www.projecthealingwaters.org and click on the donation button for instructions.

I can see it now...scores of new clients expecting to catch at least one 20 lb Brown each night they fish with Leonard. Well, you've got your work cut out for you now, hoss! I wouldn't budget any big tips or a lot of referral biz. This is exactly why you have to be careful what you say to people. Ya just never know who you're talking to. You might want to go buy a bunch of 20 lb Brown trout and a huge aquarium for the house. Then get a good portable live well for the back of the minivan. And train them to only bite the Roo-bug.

Brand new Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing limited edition aluminum fly boxes and reel from FFB. A large percentage of the proceeds from sales of these items goes to Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing. The reel is one of the finest fly reels I have ever fished at any cost, but at $140 the value is unparalleled. And Project Healing Waters will receive $50 for each reel purchased. There are only 50 of these reels being made. I have ordered several of the FFB fly boxes and given them away as gifts or prizes at fly fishing events. They are made to the same quality standards from the exact same high grade components as any of the aluminum fly boxes costing far more. These bear the Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing logo and sell for far less, with $10-12 per box going to PHWFF. There are only 100 of these fly boxes. For more info and pictures click: http://ozarksflyanglers.blogspot.com/2008/...-boxes-and.html

They call it the SPRANG RIVER, Don. But they also say AR-KYEN-SAW. But northern AR is one of those exceptions where I do NOT follow local pronunciation practices. They're just too darned silly. I just had to cancel the fishing trip for PHWFF due to the impending deluge, floods, and heavy snowstorm we're supposed to get between now and then.

Virtually everyone from those times would be considered "spineless" about their feelings on slavery and racism if held to the same retrospective standard to which you hold Justice Taney. Abraham Lincoln said in the L-D Debates, "Do not misunderstand me. I never have argued for one second that any negro was the equal to any white man. And I certainly would not want one living next door to me!" Lincoln, in fact, had ZERO notion of issuing the emancipation proclamation until he was convinced by his cabinet that it would wreak havoc in the South. If you recall, the EP did NOT free slaves OUTSIDE of the Confederate states. In other words, US slaves were still slaves even after the EP. As for buying/selling of slaves in MO, I believe it was still allowed up until a few years before the Civil War. But I do not recall emphatically. There were a bunch of Constitutional problems with the whole issue of slavery in those days. It is clearly unconstitutional to proscribe the buying, selling, and trading of ANY legal property in the US. So if slaves were legal to own, they were also legal to buy/sell/trade (according the the USCON). Slavery literally unraveled the USCON. And we never really put it back together.

The historical record is actually fairly clear that Chief Justice RB Taney was NOT a radical bigot. In fact, he freed all of his slaves prior to the Civil War and even gave pensions to those whom he deemed too old to work. He referred to slavery as a "blight against our nation." What he said in the Dredd Scott case that has followed him long since he wrote it down and condemned him to the position of a pro-slavery racist is best paraphrased as: the framers of Constitution didn't think blacks to be truly human. They didn't relate to them at all in any political or social way. Thus, the writers of the Constitution would have in no way meant for civil rights to apply to slaves. It wouldn't have dawned on them. Therefore, the ruling of the court is that the US Constitution does NOT guarantee the right of full citizenship to blacks. You see, he was a strict constructionalist. He believed that the FRAMERS' INTENT was of paramount importance when interpreting the Constitution...not his own political, social, or religious opinions...or anyone else's who did not have their names on the dotted line. He DID see the Civil War as a war of northern aggression against the south. But that was not because he was pro-slavery. It was because he believed strongly in states rights over nationalism and thought the US government was seriously overstepping its authority. Finally, Taney County was named after Chief Justice Taney one year after he took over the Supreme Court and BEFORE the Dredd Scott case ever reached the Supreme Court. So we cannot assume that there was any racist or pro-slavery intent on the part of the namers of the county in their choice of names. Taney County has always been a Republican stronghold in Missouri. And Abraham Lincoln (and most of the Abolitionist movement) were Republicans. So it would seem reasonable that Taney County...in spite of being located in extreme southern Missouri before the Civil War...was probably not an overly pro-slavery place. Slavery was legal here. But it was likely a fairly contested issue. FYI, the Taney County Courthouse was destroyed in a Civil War battle. We don't hear much about that battle. But that would have taken place in the old town of Forsyth on the banks of the White River...now submerged beneath Lake Taneycomo.

TAY-nee County, Missouri, is named after the former Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court who authored the Dredd Scott decision. His name is pronounced TAY-nee. This would also be handy to know if applying for a job with the prosecutor's office.

Locals call the county TAY-NEE. But most call the lake TAN-EE-CO-MO. Go figure. I've always relied on the predominant local pronunciation of things to give me guidance. For example: Nevada, MO...folks from SWMO ALL say Nuh-VAY-duh instead of Neh-VAH-duh (like the state).

I can't. The system won't let me do anything but reply to existing posts until I can reverify. And it won't send me a verification email. Catch-22. Shoot me an email at ken@kenmorrow.net and I'll respond.

A 2-man cataraft.

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

Trav, I sent you an email via the site, but I changed my email address due to getting rid of Mediacom recently, and there's a malfunction in the system that won't send me a new verification email. So please respond to that email at ken@kenmorrow.net Thanks.

I think the platform is the problem I see. Flats boats are good skinny water fishing rigs. I wouldn't put railing on one for fly fishing. And the forward casting deck is very stable. Maybe if you put a CHAIR on the poling platform...

I ran a 16' jon boat on Taney for years. It drew about 2" too much water with a 25hp to truly go anywhere...way up Bull Creek, on the shallow side of Bull Creek, all the way back some of the shallowest coves, etc. I also fished it up to Pointe Royale quite a bit. I drew 6" of water with the trolling motor running and 2 good size men and a Lab on board. I don't think the flats boat is a good idea, Phil. Polling a flats boat...as some have said...is not a no-brainer. And where a flats boat would come in handy on Taney (see above), the bottom is too silted for efficient poling (even with a mud foot). As for upper Taney, try this scenario... 2 guys rent boat @ your place and head upstream on no generation to fish the shallow shoals. They've never poled a flats boat before, nor fished from one (most of your customers I'd imagine). The view itself can be disorienting. Add wind and it gets worse. Add current, and it gets worse. So 1 guy falls off the platform in 6" of water on a rocky shoal. That's gonna mess him up pretty badly. If the casting angler doesn't know any better, he/she is also likely to hook the platform angler or toss them overboard with a sudden move that the platform guy wasn't expecting. This is why the skippers of flats boats micro-manage so much. It's a safety issue as much as their superior view of the fish. They coach, the angler follows their instructions. You know what I would rent from you? canoes, river johns with small motors AND a trolling motor, and those 1-2 man inflatable pontoon boats with the rowing oars. I don't have anyplace to store the latter, or I'd probably buy one because nobody there rents them. I'll bet they would be popular. Shuttle folks up to the MDC launch and take them out at an appointed time from Cooper or downtown. Or they can just pull in there at your place. If that was reasonable, I'd do that several times/year. And a fleet of those costs a lot less jack than one flats boat.

Not much bugs me when I'm fishing. Motor boats upstream of the MDC ramp on less than 2 generators bother me in general. When I go fishing, I know I have to share the water. I expect that. If that's with some guy who wants to play fetch with his dog, a couple with rugrats who like to chunk rocks in the water taking a walk, or folks in boats. As long as someone is being thoughtful of others, I have no quarrel. There are some things we just all think are rude because they are: setting up to close to someone else who was there first without getting their permission, lining someone, being unnecessarily loud, littering, fishing illegally, and hitting others (boat, wading, swimming, etc.) with unnecessary wake. The way I see it, if I go to fish downstream of a known float launching point I have no reason to gripe about how many canoes went by. Duh. And...generally speaking...if a boat interrupts my fishing (out of necessity to transit) it will only last for a couple of minutes. I can take a break. No big deal.

Depends on what I'm fishing. If I'm fishing streamers or soft hackles, I fish and move downstream (not always with soft hackles). When fishing dries and nymphs, I fish and move upstream. Soft hackles fish well both ways if you know how to control the slack in the line on an upstream presentation.

Depends on what I'm fishing. If I'm fishing streamers or soft hackles, I fish and move downstream (not always with soft hackles). When fishing dries and nymphs, I fish and move upstream. Soft hackles fish well both ways if you know how to control the slack in the line on an upstream presentation.