Flysmallie

I've only seen "Man vs. Wild" once. It did seemed staged and I didn't like it as much as Survivorman. Les Stroud definately seems to be the stronger of the two. That guy will eat anything and he does it all by himself. I bet he would even like your viennie gravy!

I've got a lot of work to get done on Thursday if I'm going to pull this off, but if I do I'm gonna be down looking for some fish on a dry. I'll be driving Wes the Fish Finding Taurus. He is grey in color, sporting a beautiful OAF bumper sticker (thanks Phil) and has a knack for finding water that holds fish. You wouldn't expect that out of a company car. Sure hope he wasn't built with a tracking device!!

I'm trying to talk one of my buddies into coming, if he does he will be able to supply another grill. I would bring one but I'm a campfire guy. I don't need no stinkin grill. But I'll bring a thermos of coffee.

Yep, they are in there. The spots I have fished are before the rivers enter Stockton Lake. It should only take a couple of hours from the south side of KC. There are some smaller branches that run into stockton that have some good smallies in them. I also know of a few good coves on the lake that you can drive down to and catch them from the bank or a float tube. You are going to want a 4wd to get to some of the best spots.

I expected that response. Only I thought it would come from Terry .

Alright, what the heck is a seahorse??

I agree 100%. I've never needed a subwoofer to enjoy my time on the water.

LMW, you may not live close to Taney, but I know you live a lot closer to some good smallmouth streams. That's how I started this whole flyfishing deal. I thought I would practice with the smallmouth, I had some knowledge on catching them, and then change over to trout. I learned two things. I didn't know as much about smallmouth fishing as I thought I did and a 18" smallmouth is hell on a 5 weight. When the water is warm there is nothing better than wet wading a smallmouth stream. It is a lot about practice, but you also need the help of others to get you catching fish and building confidence. Had it not been for a very friendly guide on Taney one day I probably would have given up on trout. Me and a buddy had been fishing for smallmouth with flies all summer and that fall we decided we should try to catch a trout. Went to one of the flyshops and they told us they were catching them on scuds. So we loaded up on their recommendations and hit the water. We fished for a couple of hours never catching a fish. We might have had a bite but we probably couldn't tell. There were several people around and they were all catching a few. About the time that we were ready to give up this guy in a drift boat rows over and asks what we are using. We showed him and he asked if he could make some suggestions. He gave us some midges and told us how far up to put the indicator and exactly how to fish them. I tried to pay him twice but he wouldn't take anything. He just told us that next time we came down we should come by his shop and he would sell us something then. And then he just paddled away. We ended up catching about 30 fish together in the next couple of hours. I don't know why he picked us out of the crowd, maybe we were just that bad. But if didn't, that would have probably been my last trip to Taney. I'll have to give him credit for turning me into the trout bum that I am slowly becoming. Bottom line, you will get there with practice. But if you can spend a few hours with one of the really good guys on this forum you will pick it up a lot faster.

Luckly my waders leak right in the crotch. That way when I'm pulling them off in the parking lot everyone can stare and point at me. It's great fun. Gary, spinning gear is allowed and yes you will need a trout stamp.

That would be great Leonard. I just need someone to watch me and tell me what I'm doing wrong. It seems like a lot of times my fly hits the water behind me just as often as it does in front of me.

After I posted the deal about the sausage balls I realized that I had made a mistake. I knew somebody was going to take that in the wrong direction. What's really weird is the first person that came to mind was Terry Beeson. He's made himself quite a reputation for this type of thing. It's just some simple bisquick, sausage and cheese rolled in a ball and baked in the oven. I may be in for lunch. Don't be offened if I wear my waders to lunch. I tried to patch them again but they are still leaking. If Santa doesn't come through I'm going to have some wet drawers

Growler, I never fish above the old boat ramp either. But it looks like there will be food at the pavillion!!!! Come on over so everyone can put a name on a face and then we can head back down to the quiet area. I'm sure I'll bring some type of food. May be a good day for some warm sausage balls. They go real good with a cup of coffee.

I have yet to fish above the old boat ramp. I started going there because there were less people and I didn't want to get in anybody's way when I was just starting. I still go there because there are less people and plenty of fish. I've never had the desire to move into the crowds closer to the dam. Of course I still feel like I'm just starting and still struggle to cast. Anybody want to risk a chance of fishing with a rookie to help him out with his horrible casting???

I'm in. I've already cleared it with the wife and everything!!! Dang, I just remembered that my waders are leaking big time. I've tried sealing them up but have yet to solve the problem. Fat guy doing the splits on a mud bank is hell on a seam. Anybody have any ideas on how to seal this up?? If all else fails I'll just be wet, again.

Decided that work was overrated for a Monday, so I headed to Taney to try out some of the midges I received from Fly Swap 2. I arrived around noon and started out fishing a zebra with no takers, after about 30 minutes I started trying every midge I had at every depth. Still no takers. I knew that there were fish there because they were rising all around me. And these little flies were flying all around my head and floating in the water. I just couldn't figure out why the wouldn't take my midge! Yeah I'm not the smartest trout fisherman out there for sure. After about an hour of no takes on the midge and watching these fish rise I finally decided that I had nothing to lose by throwing a dry. I have never thrown a dry to a trout so my selection was not the best in the world. I finally decided that I would tie on a griffins gnat. It was the smallest dry that I had, probably a size 16. The first cast I landed a beautiful 18 inch bow. What a blast it was actually seeing the take. Reminded me of fishing for smallmouth with a popper only better. I ended up landing 9 fish losing several more fish and missing at least twice that many. I had a blast. Here are few things that I learned about fishing a dry in that 4 hour period. 1. A griffins gnat will only last so long, so try to have more than one. 2. No matter what you think while standing in your garage loading your equipment, always take floatant with you. 3. When people talk about making sure that the fly is in the trout's feeding lane, they mean right in the lane. Not six inches to the right or left. These people will no longer be considered stupid. 4. Have more than one dry with you at all times. 5. TAKE FLOATANT. These were my first trout ever on a dry and I do believe I have found a new favorite way to fish. I'm gonna be a trout bum yet.

The Wiggle Wart is the second greatest crankbait. The Flat Wart was the greatest crankbait I have ever fished. They were sometimes impossible to tune to make them run right and once you did the first fish you caught would knock it out of whack again. I guess that's why they quit making them. But I still buy everyone that I can find. Flat Wart's have a real tight wiggle that drives fish mad. I used them so much for several years that I would throw them anywhere, including the middle of brushpiles or drag them through timber with all the confidence in the world that they would come through it. I still claim that I can tell when a fish is getting ready to inhale a Flat Wart (my dad thinks I'm an idiot for statements like this). But if you are in tune with one particular crankbait you will know it's every move and feel. And if you concentrate really hard you will notice that a crankbait's wiggle will change just as a bass tries to suck it in. I know you all think I'm an idiot too, but I know it really happens!

bobber is Matt Foley??

Randy, mine are in the mail. Sorry about the delay. I did send them priority mail so they should be there in 2 to 3 days.

I would be interested. Have been planning on building a rod this winter. Might as well figure out what I'm doing before I jump right in.

I've been out of town also. Get them finished up this weekend and out early next week.

Alright I'll tie a #20 Olive Thread Midge that timsfly has suggested but will probably use a bead for the for the head. The smallest fly I have tied so far is a #16 so this ought to be interesting. I apologize in advance for the fly you get from me! Smallmouth just don't eat this small, they like big meals like me!!!

I'm in. Still undecided on what to tie. Any suggestions?

Wow Leonard, your Raiders didn't look so good. I'm another official Raider Hater!

My love for rooster tails has caused me to start experimenting with spinners on flies. Line twist on a spinning rod is one thing but it's really bad on my leaders. Im getting a lot of knots probably because I can cast so well . Has anybody every tried to use a small barrel swivel on a fly line? I was thinking about just using it to connect the leader to the tippet? Is there a swivel small enough?

Me and a Buddy floated the lower James Friday afternoon. What a great day. I left my go to bait at home (wasn't happy about that) and had to change the way I was going to fish. Ended up catching most of my better fish on a 3 inch grub. Sometimes they wanted it bouncing along the bottom and other times swimming it across the current. Most of the smallmouth were in the 10 to 13 inch range. Lost a couple of nice fish using an old rusty mepps spinner. I was waking it and both of them just destroyed it. Just couldn't keep either one hooked up long enough to get a good look. Caught several Goggle-eye that were 9 to 10 inches on the grub. And I will reapeat what other have said. The people at James River Outfitters are great.