duckydoty

Bring it! There are quite a few trout below the dam. I have even caught some nice browns down there.

Welcome to the forum Patrick. Glad you decided to start participating on here. Looking forward to reading your reports.

Looks like the Doty Clan will be coming down to RR on the 2nd. Brother Dave, my pops, a nephew, Step son and a couple of buddies. Looking forward to that. I'll be bringing duck poppers to cook on the grill. Looking to fry some whites up in about 3 more weeks.

Alright, Don! I'm sure we will be in for a great report! Tight lines to you, buddy!

DD'sMC really want to float and fish the Buffalo before we head up to Alaska this Spring. Looking forward to your report!

Yeah, I cant see them either. Always looking for some new white bass soft baits, so I am interested in seeing them.

The weather is great, the weekend is almost here and there is no excuse to not get out of the house to shake all this cabin fever that has been going around! I'm hopeing everyone on this forum gets a little fishing or some outdoor activity in this weekend so I can read some fishing reports instead of what has been deamed "keyboard warrior" skirmishes. Come on guys....get out, and lets see some reports!

These are hatchery trout. Think about what they are use to seeing and eating. They have grown up eating pellet food that has a smell to it and maybe they have seen some eggs. If you are fly fishing try using a fly that resembles these items. Glow balls, egg patterns, and what I call dog food flies (pellet flies) might work a little better for you. Most of the people I hear about fishing these stocked ponds are successful on power bait and cheese bait. Make sure you are using light enough tippet also. Try 7x to see if it increases your bite chances. You will have a little more fun fighting the fish on lighter line too. Good luck to you and keep us updated on your success.

I like it!

44 west to Springfield. Take 65 south out of Springfield towards Branson. Take 160 east to Forsyth. In Forsyth you can take State Highway Y (Right) towards Empire Park. You can access the North side of the tailwaters there. If you want to fish on the South side keep following 160 through Forsyth and down the hill to Shadow Rock park. That is Swan Creek. Might be some walleye in there too. Just past Shadow Rock Park is hwy 76 that crosses Upper Bull Shoals. Take 76 (Right) and go across the bridge. 1st road on the right take and follow through the camp ground and all the way back to the dam on the south side. Good luck and let us know how you do.

If your going in SW Missouri, you can try below Powersite Dam, or Beaver Creek, or even the James River below Blunk hole.

Nice to have you here. See you on the water and tight lines!

Table Rock, Taneycomo, and Upper Bull Shoals were all open.

I dont often state opinions on here, but it is of my opinion that you are a mighty fine fisherman and that you also do your best to try and protect the fishery that brings great memories to not only you, but your clients as well. Your living depends on it.

My wife is really jonesin to get some small mouth fishing in. Gonna have to quit chasing trout for a day or two and put her on some smalleys.

About 50% of the ground is still covered this morning. Most of it should be gone by the end of the day today.

I talked to the folks that use to operate Rainbow Run hatchery, or pay per trout thingy. They use to allow you to pay $20.00 to catch and release with barbless hooks for 1 hour. I would take kids in there to teach them how to fight big fish on the fly rod. Anyways, while talking to the guy that raises the fish, he told me that over all, trout are really pretty tough fish. The only thing that will kill them is putting your fingers in thier gills and holding them up by thier jaws to be weighed with a tool such as a boga grip.

Good looking fly.

Boy, I need to quit carrying MC's net around. I forgot to grab mine again and hers was in the car ready to go. That fine looking landing net is a custom made net that was flawlessly hand crafted by one of our very own fellow OAF'ers none other than Laker67 himself. A few years ago, MC requested a new net big enough to hold the lunker trout that she was now persuing with alot of success. I was truely honored to be lucky enough to get one of these nets from Rick and proudly gave it to my wife, DD'sMC, for her birthday. At that point in time I was officially dubbed "Net Boy"

MC is looking forward to the 2nd. I picked up two more nice ones at the twin falls after you guys left. Did not see the big sow again. She must have been sulkin.

Great to have met you too kdan. What a thrill it must have been running around fishing with Laker as teenagers!

Got a little fishing in on the river today. It was a hard decision wether to fish Crane or Roaring River. I opted with the river since today was the final day of C&R. The weather was great, fishing was good, and got to see and old friend on the water today. When I pulled into the parking lot, I spied this fella in full concentration performing his magic. Nice to see you again Rick and congratulations on that 13 pounder! My first fish of the day was a good one to start the day with. I ended up landing 4 lunkers today. Not a bad way to end the season. Caught several sculpins today also. All my fish were caught on a white mink leech or sculpin pattern. Well, we have to stay out of the parks for 2 weeks now, so I'll be hitting Crane and Taney over the next couple of weeks.

This kind of situation happens everywhere, not just in Missouri and our fine trout parks. Last year while guiding in remote Alaska, I was helping a blind person (yes, leagally blind) fish in a remote stream 40 miles from the closest road. The only access to this creek was by float plane or boat. We were having a fantastic time catching rainbows and dolly varden. I would be his eyes and describe our surroundings, details of the stream we were fishing, and using the clock system, where to cast. I would correct his cast with statements like, a little further out, more to the left,or right, or shorten the cast just a little. I would tell him when to mend and which direction to mend. by watching his indicator I would also tell him when to set the hook. We made a great team and were very successful at getting him on fish. When he would hook up, he did a great job of fighting the fish and at that point all I had to do was net it. If I held the fish within 4 inches of his face, he could scan over it with his eyes and make out its beauty. My guest and I had been fishing this section of stream for a couple of hours. Due to his lack of vision we did not have the option of traveling by foot very far up and down the stream and I had to keep him in a fairly open area to allow for the extra time to safely move when bears came though. After fishing for a couple of hours a boat with 8 or 10 people pulls up and the fishermen on the boat proceed to walk up and start fishing within 10 feet on both sides of us. Now this is Wild Remote Alaska out in the Bush in the middle of nowhere. These people stayed at our sides for almost an hour fishing and none of them had any disabilities. I could not believe they came all the way to Alaska to stand shoulder to shoulder with the only other people on the whole stream to fish??? Just goes to show...These kind of people are everywhere.

Wasn't that deer found dead tangled in a fence?

Now that is some good fishing!