DoveTail

They make 10' sections of sinking line you can attach to your regular fly line, some come with welded loops so it makes a quick change possible. That will help you get it down in the deep water by the dam. The fish are deep there.

A low pressure system given the name "Ike" put about 4-5" of rain all over the state. No guage malfunction. Water will be up!

Rigging can be done however you like. Some will tie the trailing fly off the bend of the hook. Instead of just fishing with an indicator / bobber some like a hook in the indicator (a big dry fly). So fish it just as you would any fly under an indicator. If they are hitting big dries, I have had luck with some striking the dry fly. You will catch a random fish on them, most will be on the trailing fly. If you aren't having any luck with your big dry, change to a different one, or they just may not be hitting the surface.

Those things will eat a lot of game fish. Some have posted "studies" claiming they only eat bait fish. I have seen a lot of game fish with bite marks all over them. Even if the gars do eat smaller bait fish, that is taking away part of the food chain.

If you are not coming up with anything as Kayser mentioned, you need a perfect dead drift - the same speed as the current. The same holds true for any fly pattern you are fishing. If you still are not coming up with some strikes, the fish may have just turned off. I have had that happen on the midge patterns. They just will not hit. So change the size, color, depth and start going through other types of flies. I have found if you tie on what they want at the moment, the trout will usually strike the first cast with the new fly. So your timing may have been off? All the flies they sell pretty much work at one time or another. The fun part is trying to figure out what they want and when they want it!

I don't have the numbers on all the rainbows being stocked or the browns for that matter. Some people do catch an occasional monster rainbow but you don't see that many. I think if bigger size limits are going to be put in place, then it needs to be in force for the entire lake and limit the bait fishers on how many they can pull out. There are a lot of fish in the trophy area. Some nice big browns are up there, but they are not stacked. Fewer trophy rainbows. They do exist but not that many people ever catch any. If they are going to get big, then they have to have a chance to grow. The bait fishing areas need to let them grow also.

Nice report. Sounds like they were hitting quite a few different flies. Good thing the water was not muddy, glad you had some great fishing. Bummer on the hail storm.

Your jigs and glow balls are actually good to use. If you are using a jig, you can just run it under an indicator. The glow ball you can bounce along the bottom. They will also hit those under an indicator. Any section of the stream in Zone 1 and 2 are good where you can find some elbow room. I have caught fish all along all sections. No one place seems better than the other. I'd drop in the fly shop at Bennett Springs or Weaver's and they can give you the latest report. Cracklebacks, some small dry flies (really doesn't matter what kind if they are feeding on the surface), some WD-40s, San Juan worms...about any thing will work. If you look up and down the stream, you will notice someone will be catching a few more fish than those around them (they are probably using something different). Then the fish will change and the guy next to them will start catching more. The black and yellow marabou jigs work really good early. As the day goes on, I have noticed you want to go smaller in the size fly you are using. Also, I would not use a tippet larger than 7x if the water is clear.

Something should be done about the bait fishing downstream and put some size restrictions down there.

If you are new, I'm not sure how much you know, but if you are only catching 1 or 2 fish per day it sounds like something is wrong. As you know there are tons of trout in the trout parks. Montauk is great and close by, then Meramac Springs is close by also. Bennett is probably just a little more distance for you. Regardless where you are fishing, if you don't hook up fish with in a minute or so I would say you have the wrong fly on. I'm not sure what time of year you are going or what the stream conditions are. If the water is clear you probably do not want to use tippet larger than 7x. You can probably get by with 6x with stained water. If you are using 6x in clear conditions, then this may the reason why you are missing any strikes. If you are fishing with some swift current, the fish will be on the bottom and unless you are dragging the bottom you will not get many strikes. Also, just watch and see what the fish are doing. If they are feeding on the surface, throw something to them that is on the surface. If they are on the bottom, give them something on the bottom. In the trout parks, you will always find fish that will hit a dry fly when all the others are on the bottom. Also find fish that will strike on the bottom when the stream is boiling the surface - those are exceptions. Go with what the stream is doing. The other thing to try in the summer or fall when the streams are usually more clear is go small. Sizes 20, 22 - maybe some 18s. I would also have a minimum of 9' of leader, maybe tie on 12'. Make sure your fly is a natural drift (not going faster than the stream's current or not slower - drifting at the same rate). Some simple tips and you should hook fish on a few minutes. Hope that helps.

The noon reading is already down to 2.80' which is higher than it was a before the rains but shows a pretty quick drop relatively speaking. Should be getting better every hour I would think and in a few days really good if they haven't already started biting.

Either click reply or new topic. The window pops up to type text in. On the lower right side will be a Browse... and also an UPLOAD button. Click the browse and you can look through your computer or memory card (where ever your images are), LEFT click to highlight, then click open - then click the UPLOAD button on OAF. You won't see it in a preview but the menu of "Manage Current Attachments" will show you if it has uploaded and ready to post. Walla!

Bummer. At least the good news is the spring is already on the way down. The 7pm reading was 2.96' after it's peak today. I'm speculating in a few days it will be okay. At least the water was not muddy (if you are calling it stained). That should clear up fast.

Warm water can not hold as much oxygen as colder water.

I can't recall where the signs are there, but most parks have signs stating "Wading by Anglers Only". I guess since they were swimming, that wasn't considered wading???

That will make some interesting fishing this fall if it ever goes down. No telling what you may catch!

Egg patterns and San Juan worms are always good bets. If you have any midge patterns those will work. Try some jigs in various colors. If you are not hooking fish quick, make sure you are deep enough.

Table Rock will be running 4 generators as they are at this moment, so you will not be able to wade the river. Boating is about the only option and fly fishing from that would be good. There is a public ramp just below the hatchery you can launch your boat from.

They are running 4 units right now, probably will until things are under control whenever that may be. When ever it goes down there should be some healthy fish.

Yes, the 2nd Friday in November is the 14th. The winter season is Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday only each week until the 2nd Monday in February. That's Feb 9, 2009.

So far, Montauk looks the best on water conditions: Stream Flow Levels link for Montauk State Park <--- click here Rain totals as of Thursday morning:

From the radar image summary, it looks like all of SW Missouri received at least 2" with most areas up to 4". Some small isolated areas just north of Springfield only 1" but up to 8" in Kansas. That will make the fall fishing tough in the tailwaters.

Buying in the 100s is the way to go. I like Mustad due to the hook color, probably doesn't matter but I don't like bright shinny hooks.

Nice looking fish, health and fat. Sounds like a good time.

I think I had the same idea as the rest of the human hatch today - hit the water before the potential big rains arrive and make things muddy. There are a lot of fish in the water in the fly fishing zones. The bait areas look pretty fished out but some people were still pulling them out. The fish seemed like they were hammered this weekend with a lot of fishing pressure but they were still active and doing surface feeding today. The surface action was not aggressive, more of a come up and sip it, maybe look at it. When one it, they usually did with an aggressive strike. Lots of looks and missed strikes. I probably did not catch more than 2 or 3 on the same fly then would have to change it up. All the action I had were on dry flies with the exception of a few fish early on small green jigs. Arrived very early, so the stream was void of the human hatch but as the siren approached, they did also. There are some big fish in the stream. The old stock from the hatchery is being released into the park (not sure how many fish each Friday, but they are releasing all of the older 400 big fish into "retirement" in the park as the younger stock will take over the hatchery program). Some of those fish are pigs, the hatchery gentleman told me some are 14 pounds. The flies were small. Today, unless it was small, they would not even look at it. No luck on any egg patterns or San Juan worms (tried every color and style), PT, jigs later in the day (with the exception of the couple from the early morning), hare's ear (BH and regular), Prince nymph, soft hackles, plus every other wet pattern I had. On the dries, if it was small, including hoppers, there were a lot of takes. I caught a mayfly that looked tiny compared to a #20 dry hook. Black body. I was able to hook a few on a dry caddis #12, smaller elk hair in an 18. A madam X in a #14 also worked. Today, it seemed dry was the ticket. The rainbows are getting some color. There were a few browns swimming around but did not catch any.