duckydoty

Got a call from Nighthawk around 7 on Friday night with an invite to the strippers club. My first response was "It's nasty outside" Russ's reply was, "A little rain dont hurt......them fish are already wet." Now where have I heard that before???? Well, upon being called out, I could not refuse an invite to strip a few streamers while the water was off. I showed up at the pavillion about 9:40, lightning was flashing, thunder was rolling, the wind was blowing, the rain was flat out coming down, and Leonard was standing under the pavillion. I guess he knew it was club night too. First thing Leonard asked was "Are you gonna fish in this?" Well, that's what I came down here for. Russ showed up at 10 and asked if I was gonna fish with it lightning out. I said, "yep," and he said, " if your gonna, then I am too," and we all headed for the water. Russ and I headed to the rebar and Leonard went down below outlet two. I started with white mink sculpins, Russ with Leonard's red hibernator. Russ picked up a fish right off the bat at the rebar and I was sucking goose eggs. Leonard met back up with us and we headed to the gauntlet. I switched over to a black wooley, picked up a fish and let Russ know what color I was using. I'm assuming he switched colors at that point because he was catching two to my one. Leonard was picking up a few fish too, but I do not know what he was getting them on. I think he was changing things up quite a bit. I ended up with 10 fish down in the gauntlet and Russ said he got a dozen or so. We decided to go up to the flats between outlets one and two around midnight thirty and Leonard, due to a hurting back decided to go on home. When we got up to the flats, Russ absolutely took me to school. I think he was catching fish on every cast. We fished up there about an hour and I only brought to had 3 fish. My only saving grace was that the last of those 3 was a pretty decent fish. Best fish of the night. Had a fun time out there and glad I got to fish with some good friends. Russ was right, A little rain did not hurt them fish!

in the mail today

I got down there about 10:30 last night and the water was dropping. Took it forever to drop out. Left at 2 in the morning and it still had not dropped all the way out, but it was getting close. Fishing was fair. Landed 15 total. Fished streamers only and caught most on white.

I'm fixin to head down there and fish till the sun comes up. Waters sposed to be off at 11.

Ralph, You are putting a hurting on them big lunkers. How many you caught this catch and release season?

Looks like you made the best of it. Now we can dream about it the rest of the year in anticipation of opening day!

I'll be back in town on Thursday if your still around. You gonna hit Crane while your down here too?

The shammy's are the go to fly right now. Scuds would be a second. They should be shutting the water of at midnight till around 5 or 6 in the morning. Almost went last night, but decided not to around 11:30 p.m. because I'm headed to Joplin today for a few days. You just making a day trip, or gonna spend a day or two down here?

Any day fishing is a good day Ralph. Looked for you on Friday at Roaring River

Rick I think I got just enough of that cloth you gave me to last about one more season. Gonna have to try and track some more of that down. Brian I'll give you a holler later in the week. Headed to Joplin for a couple of days, then back to the fishin.

Come on down.

Awesome report Marty! I've already changed gears into the fishing mode. It's kinda nice not getting up at O'Dark Thirty in the morning

Fished the upper end this afternoon for a couple of hours. One maybe 2 units running and the fish were biting good on white chammy worms. Picked up 3 small browns right off the bat then nothing but rainbows after that. Fished the seams below outlet 2 all the way down to the stairs and caught 25-30 fish in just a couple of hours. Fished the white chammey under an indicator about 36 inches with one size 4 split shot for weight. Biggest fish went about 17 inches and they all faught pretty good out in the current. Used 7x tippet.

Fish biting good on Taney right now. Even with the water on.

Well I was proven wrong yesterday. Only picked up one fish on the heavier line in a deep run. Had a good hatch coming off and had to go down to 7x to get some fish to bite. Never had to do that there before. Just goes to show you never know what's gonna happen and you have to stay flexible. Try many different things untill you find something that works. Siphorin what the fish wants is a lot harder than figuring out what you want. Sometimes they are not the same thing.

I only saw one redd on the lower end. Three decent fish were working it and I just left them alone.

LOL! I sure was. I went there last year right after duck season was over, and there were ducks everywhere. All the other ponds were froze over and every duck in the county was at Crane. None today though.

Headed to Crane today for a little fishing. Got to the Lower Wire Road Access about 11:30 and started fishing Polish Nymphing style with heavy size 10 depth charges. Picked up a couple little bitty ones in some of the deeper faster runs. Good hatch coming off. Grey may flies 1/4 to 3/8 inch long. Changed things up and went to 7x tippet with some dry flies trying to match the hatch. Picked a few more up on the dries. Tried skating but only got a few hits and quite a few refusals. Went to a dead drift with the dry and started hooking up. Today was the first time I really felt like the fish were line shy. Water on the lower end is in good shape. Just a little low, but lots of good water to fish. Many runs, deep holes, and log jams to fish. Went up to the City Park area to check it out and man was it low. Not much moving water up there with only a couple of small runs to fish. Did manage to pick one up just before the bridge. Fun day that required lots of patients and trying lots of different flies. Today, smaller was better.

I'm a firm believer in heavier line on Crane. Those fish are not line shy. They are people shy. Fish tight to the log jams, under cuts and root wads. Use heavy flies that get down quick. Ill be there in an hour and let you know how I do. Gonna use 4x tippet and depth charges

When we floating Shoal? Any time in Feb is good for me

I'm glad I got out there and got one yesterday. Now that Rick is retired, we dont stand a chance with them big boys. He'll have them all sore lipped in the next week.

Congratulations Rick! More time to spend on the water now ehh?

Got to go fishing today. The regular stockers were biting good. Caught plenty of them on white chammy worms and BHPT's. Caught a few on dry flies and did pretty good early on streamers. Saw a few clunkers but most of them did not want to play. Ended the day with a nice one. Took a grey sculpin

My wife and I love dogs and someday will take on the responsiblity of bringing one up with proper training. As of now, we are still not grown up and resposible enoough to have one.

you gonna be there Ralph?