Micheal Kyle

I have used the RIO LumaLux line myself on numerous occassions. The best way I have found to recharge it, as well as glow stike putty, indicators, and the numerous glowing tying materials is with a blacklight. I have an LED blacklight myself, and it does not effect my night vision, such as a camera flash does or any bright white light. The draw back is the cold water discharges the line or any glow products rather quickly. Also, the LumaLux line sits lower in the water, because it is heavier, still constructed within the AFTMA set parameters, due to the propeties put into it to make it glow and is more prone to line drag. LumaLux line was originally designed for East Coast fishing for stripers and bluefish, which the increased night time visablity and weight was needed to deal with the multiple currents while fishing the surf. I do not see any real advantage to using a glow in the dark line at Taneycomo for night time fishing, whether using streamers, nymphs, or midges, unless a person is having casting difficulties and needs to see what their line is doing while casting. The BEST recommendation is to get out during the day and practice ones casting techniques and or practice up stream nymphing, if trying to use this line for nymphing at night. jim

When I tie my leechs I will tie them with a 1\8" bead then tie them with #10 lead wraped 8 times then slide the lead under the bead. That is plenty of weight, The crane swivel is a great idea but if you are not familar with casting them it can be very frustrating to you beacuse it will cause a little bit of a hinge action. With heavier fly you can fish 3X-0X which is great. If you want to try the swivel I do have them in my shop.

Some of my best fishing down at Taneycomo has been during the snow. I would be down there but somebody has to run the store.

When I go out of town I will stay in some nice hotels. The Hiltons are where we stay most of the time. We are mostly fishing or hunting when we go out of town. You should see the look that you get from the valet when you start unloading your truck. Then the look that you get from the people that are working inside it's priceless. I just look back like I never seen anyone in suit befor. Have fun and good luck

Thanks On the size of the eyes I had bead chains on but then went to the small lead eye and that worked the best. I would have to recomend that you have a sink tip to get the fly down in the faster moving water.

Fishing in the snow is fun and I have had a lot of good luck. Considering tonight and Saturday night on record to be the coldest nights of the season for 2005-2006. Two words I'M OUT. Good luck and have fun.

Well here is the fishing report for Zink on Wednesday Feb 15. Sorry it took so long but when I got back the flood gates opened at the shop. This is the last time that I will get to go untill the new baby is about 1 month old so I hope that everyone will have good luck and catch a big one. I hope that when I get back down there it will be time for the big boys. We got down there at 10:30 the water level was at 1682 and was falling and continued to fall untill 1:00 pm it a had reached 1117. We then noticed that the water was sarting to rise and at 2:00 pm the water was back up to 3363 and peaked at 4:00 pm at 6497. Very unfishable and unsafe to wade. When we got there I started down below ad I was picking up a few fish and so was Jason, we fished where the sand bars were shallow and created a natrual channel. We would catch a couple of fish and have to move around to another area. We had 21 fish between us and 5 of them were whites and the rest were small stripers. The largest striper that I caught was 17". With the water up it is very important to fish were that natural channels are formed and that will create a seam of slack water to moving water. I was fishing those seams. If you are down there and the water is on you can stand up on the top bank and see where the channels are created, it will look just like a saltwater flat. My advise to everyone that goes down there when the water is on is to pay attention to the light up on zink dam, it will start flashing when the water is rising. It did not take long for the water to come up and get deadly. I consider myself a very good wader and I'm in good shape. With that said this is what I did when the water was rising. I took off towards the berm and crossed and proceded up to the dam where the big rocks were because they were out of the water. I wanted to see what the situation looked like up there with that much water. This was at 2:00 pm with 3663 water level, I saw and its rough when I crossed down at the boat ramp it could have been tough for someone out of shape do not do it. Jason and I then proceded to walk down the side walk and when we got down to where the berm is in front of the PSO the waves coming down through there were class 3 -4 rapids very swift and very fast. Then from there we went back to the car, the water down by I-44 was not as swift but it gets deep, or thats what it looks like. All in all I would consider the trip a good one we saw how the water was with it on and we were able to catch fish. Good luck and I hope that everyone will catch a big one.

For the most part I use the Rio clouser wff fly line. I will somtimes use the Rio streamer tip and that fly line is a floating fly line with an intermediate tip great for fishing deeper holes. From the big hole up to the wire a floating fly line will do.

If someone were to fish over there and the water is running where would one fish

Phil that is it

Yes I have about 10 things of it in stock and it's 4.25 a tub

Brian is correct on the ice off; I have found that it is the only product that will not hurt the fly line. I have fished a lot on Taneycomo @ night, If I were to sit down and take a look @ my journal I would have to say that I have logged 10-12 thousand hours on Taney @ night. I believe that there is just as good of action on Taney when there is a full moon. What I try to do is fish shadows where the tree line makes a shadow across the water. I will also lighten the color of the fly that I use. Whites and grays work great for that kind of action. When the dark of moon is ocurring I will throw the same patterns except for I will darken the color, I love purple and reds. The purple and red take less light to show the color @ night because they have longer wave length in the color spectrum. I really think that the best time to fish is during the half moon stage, when the moon starts to set around 2-3 am the fishing really gets good; and I mean good. There have been nights during the half moon that I have had 60-80 fish during an 8 hour trip. One thing that I would like to point out is that the big fish come out to play at night, with that said, big fly= big fish. I don't disgree that you can catch a big fish on a tiny scud because it can happen. I do think that the chances of you catching a big fish (an 8-12 pound fish) on a regular basis at Taneycomo is more likley to happen if you have a big pattern on. I love the baitfish patterns: sculpins, muddlers,and any type of shad pattern. Not to overload your system with all of this information, but lets not forget about the old traditional wet flies. I do love the Mickey Finn, Gray ghost and the Black Nosed Dace. I wish you luck and hope that you catch a huge fish. Michael

Up stream from Lilley's it starts the trophy area. This time of the year the Fallcreek area can yield some very nice Rainbows. You can not miss it there is a huge sign. I am not familiar with the area, so where exactly is Fall Creek from Lilley's? Pikeman

Phill The PSO is in the very top picture there are 4-5-cooling towers. They show up white in the picture just to the right of the walkway over Zink Dam. There is a boat ramp at 31st and riverfront but there is a sign that says no public Launching if my memory serves me right. Other than that one I have no idea where on would be.

I figured that there would be alot people down there after last weekend. I had to stay home and finish the house for the new baby, that will be here next week. My wife is very happy that the house is done. I hope that everyone had a good time fishing and that they caught some big fish. The last time that I went down there I used my 8wt. When the big fish come up I plan on taking my 10wt. Tight Lines Michael

That would be a blast to fish for those wipers. I would love to fish for them again, however it might be a while before I get to because my wifes and I second child will come on Feb, 23 I suspect that after 2-3- weeks after that date I will get to fish again. I was fan casting and just watching where the fish were. It did not matter where the fly went through if the fish were there they hit the fly. Sometimes they would hit right when it hit the water and sometimes I would catch them 20 feet from me. We did not try any topwater, however if the fish are chasing shad and busting the top that is a blast. One thing to remember is that we had a strong I mean a strong south wind. Like the old timers say "wind from the south hook'em in the mouth". Hope that will help you guy's out . Keep me posted about the wipers. And if possible could you keep me posted on Lake Lacynge, I have not been able to fish over there for 2-3 years. I used to just hammer the fish during the winter by the warm water discharge that was a blast beacuse my dad and I were the only two that ever fly fished over there that I could tell. Tight Lines Michael Were you fishing flowing water with a down and across drift? Or were you fishing slower water and just stripping it back through the holes? Did you let it sink or start stripping as soon as it hit the water? Did you try any topwater poppers? Sorry about all the questions but we are planning another trip later this month or the first of March and trying to get as much information as possible. I do have the rio line and it is great for those big flies. If you ever want to fish for wipers in Kansas let me know we have a couple of good places with large wipers. They are a little harder to catch and you don't get the numbers that you caught in Tulsa but some of them are big 12# +. Thanks for the information Stuart

I think that it does. I really think that the fish have no clue down there anyway. I satarted fishing right after the snow and was using a cream midge and it was great. Then I went to a Mohair Leech then back to the midge then back to the leech. I quit around 2:00 and had caught anround 45-50 fish it just seems that it does not ever matter what you have on. I think that you just need to be there and they will hit.

We were using clouser's just about any color would work, we did however have our best luck on blue/white and chartruse/white #4-#1. We really had to pay attention to the way we were fishing the clousers, we were having to rip them through the water as fast as you could strip them back. I tried some slowers speeds but the fish would not respond to them. I had the Rio Clouser wieght foward floating fly line we tried some intermediate and sink tips but the water is to shallow and it just was not meant to be. Rio Clouser fly line is made to cast those real big nasty flies made of buck tail. Hope that helps you out. Michael

It is on the west side of Tulsa

I hope that everyone will enjoy the photos Tight Lines Michael

That would be great, I will send you the pics. I do not have a image program so that would be great if you would post them for me. I have great camara that I use when I'm on fishing trips, its the Pentax Optio 6.3 mega pix and the cool thing is it's waterproof.

I talked to a buddy of mine that lives in Tulsa and he said that the paper said that it was a homeless drunk

Hey all. Steve, very good to meet you and thanks for the info. on the area. We will definately hook up again on another trip. Lilly, I did get my computer fixed and will begin checking out the forum more often. Ok. Lets get down to it. Took off for Tulsa Sat. morning in hopes of doing a little recon and maybe fooling a few fish on the Arkansas. Two other guys and I left Springfield around 9 AM and we were in the water casting by 1:30 (had a few distractions & our first time in the area). We met 1 other fella down there and took off. Mostly stayed on the upper end near the dam Sat. afternoon. We had clear skies with ~10 mph winds and temps in the low 40's. The fish coorperated with us as we hooked and landed several small stripers, whites, and hybrids between the 4 of us. We sort of cruised around the area scoping out holes and basically getting a feel for the river. We met and spoke with several folks, including Steve, who were really nice and willing to talk about the area. Sun. we were casting by 10:00. Partly cloudy skies and temps in the 30's. Pretty chilly with the winds howling at around 20mph. Began at the dam and worked our way down stream to some other good looking water that we did not get to the previous day. The upper area only produced a hand full of fish for us (smaller fish like the day before). The lower section turned out to be the ticket. From about 12 till we left the water at 4:15 the 4 of us hooked and landed 150 or so fish. Stripers, hybrids, and whites with the largest being a #10 & #8 stripers. We landed 8-10 of those brutes in the #4-6 range and a handfull of really nice whites (big James River female class). There were a few other big fish hooked but not landed. Most of the other fish were a mix of hybrids, whites, and stripers in the 10-15" range. So much fun we couldn't hardly stand it. Along with the "sand bass", we managed to hook a few saugeyes, large jaws, buffalo, and a couple of drum. The crew also saw paddle fish and some nice gar roaming the waters. Overall we had a phenomanal experice for our first outing to the Arkansas & are already planning the next excursion. I am planning to post some pics as soon as I get it figured out. Still feeling my way around the site. Michael Kyle Backcountry Outfitters