Brian K. Shaffer

Nice fish! I betcha next time she'll net up your catch cool as a cucumber now that she's had a little practice. Won't be long and you'll be in the 20 incher club. cheers, Brian

SPECIAL FOR OAF MEMBERS !! FOAM SPIDER - SOLD OUT ANT / BEETLE - SOLD OUT CHERNOBYL ANT - 2 left Links above show the exact same detailed instructions in the kits. You get 24 hooks and enough material to tie them all up. Limited quantities. Any two for $15.00 shipped. PayPal is best. So, grab a kid and get to tying! cheers, Brian

Wonder why, as you mentioned, you lost a few at the boat. Are you using braid ? Perhaps it is a mono line stretch issue ? That jig sure is fishy looking with the grub on it. cheers mate - Brian

Wow. Now I know I gotta get to Alaska. That intro to spey fishing with k8 looks like a pretty good deal too. Phil - when are we.. I mean you going back up there ? he he he - Brian

Click this HYPERLINK to watch CNN video Click the link above. Great story about that guy... 40 years plus fishing for salmon in MI! I guess thats a pound for every year he was making casts. cheers to big fish - Brian

ha ha ha ha ha .. wowzers.... and a couple zingers... yours was best, mr laker67 Brian

I caught fish right outside the Tommy Hilfiger store in 1998. Those are some pretty streams. It's so funny that you can stop just about everywhere you want and catch trout in CO. Phil and I did Cheeseman Canyon is 1996 or so. What a hike. Phil, do you still have that pic I got of you casting off that boulder ? ( have you got any of those pics posted online ? ) cheers, Brian

Phil - I would interested in a few fly lines. Perhaps I will call you. Brian EDIT - Check Phil's shop prices for fly line. They're GREAT!

ha ha ha ha ha ha... Thanks for moving this and for not deleting it Phil. The kid in the kayaks reaction is priceless. Brian

Get em now... older lures like this only come around so often. Brian

Sold the Billy Pate reel. Brian

Don't they bark up a storm ? My brother has one, and its a nightmare dog IMO. Show us the current pics...... Brian

The emergency phone is the answer. That's why it is there. It rings directly into the control room of the powerhouse. Since I've been fishing here the glass has been broken once that I know of. A guy stepped off the end of the stairs and went swimming. He got out before the water even went down. Brian

This is kind of a spoof video. Shot in HD. Great fishing scenes at the end. cheers, Brian

Thanks for the kind words guys. I was just at the right place at the right time. Zack makes a really good point about water being nothing to mess with. Michael asked if I could post the number that I called, which I can not. It is not a published telephone number. It is strictly SWPA / CoE use only. Stan Jones (the table rock dam superintendent) would be the man to talk to if anyone has any questions about that. (They do not even like me having the number to be quite honest.) That being said, we all should know there is the BREAK GLASS PHONE right there by chute 2. That is what should be used in an emergency such as this one. I did find out later in the day that someone else had noticed him and called up to the River Run shop to ask what they possibly could do. The shop called the hatchery and the hatchery might have known what number to call.. I am not certain. In a life threatening emergency - use the BREAK GLASS PHONE. Thats why it is there. Cheers, and be safe wading LT and any tailwater scenario - Brian

Great post! Thanks for putting that up. You're right, things look bleak for us. Everyone, WATCH THE VIDEO. It explains a lot about the changes in Bull Shoals. Also, read some of the comments. HaHa. cheers, Brian

Sunday August 30th, 2pm The horn blew. ' What ? ' on a Sunday ? They never run water on Sunday ?!?! So I left my favorite spot after hooking up quite a few times over with my foam beetle. On my way towards the car.. I pictured the water that flows thru a special little spot with 1 unit running on the other side of the island. So I crossed the dam and drove down as if I was going to the ' rocking chair ' hole... but turned in to the rebar hole parking instead. This is the turn around on the other side of the river if you are standing in the rebar stretch. I scrambled down the bank and surveyed the water, which had yet to make it thru the slew I wanted to fish. As I looked around, I noticed a fella standing below the big inverted fallen tree trunk below rebar. He wasnt standing near it though.. he was below it about 20 feet behind a mess of tree roots. He was not fishing... he was stuck. I anchored my fly to the hook keep and began walking towards him. I watched as he was eyeing the bank I was on... and he acted as if he was wanting to make a move to the bank.. and I yelled at him to stop, because he would have never made it. It deepens up out in the middle there pretty good. So I yelled " Are you stuck ? " He was having trouble hearing me because the water was rushing besides him on both sides. What didnt help was that now the water was flowing thru the slew... which raises the depth. So I told him to try and walk out right then - towards the other bank below chute 3. I had to point .. cause he couldnt hear me .. for him to walk towards the other bank. Using the finger walking motion with my hands and pointing towards the other side of the river. It really wasnt pretty to watch him try. Clearly, the water was above belly button high then, and he was trying to make his way away from the root fallen trees mess he was standing behind (kind of like standing behind a big rock.. he was in the protective swirl around eddy). It was kind of as if he couldnt break away from that spot. If he tried.. he was just in too strong of water to plant a foot. I yelled for him to stop ... STOP trying to cross, and I mean, I was really yelling. I hollered that I was going to call inside and get them to shut the water off. He couldnt hear me. So I made the ringy dingy phone to ear motion and then pointed toward the water and then pointed down. I think he understood me cause he did stop trying. So I got in my truck and drove to the dam overlook to get reception.... called inside the powerhouse, told the nice lady that someone was very much stuck and she said she would turn it off. I laugh now because I remember her saying - ' Well, how stuck is he ? ' .. and I believe I said.. he will be swimming in a few minutes. She told me she was going to turn it off... and it took around 8-10 minutes for the water to stop. I stayed up there at the lookout.. where I could clearly see the guy... and he wasnt moving yet. Finally the water stopped flowing and reached him without the current it had. So I jumped in the truck and drove acrossed to make sure he was getting out OK. When I walked down the TU stairs he was just making it out from the waters edge. He was full of water.. like middle thigh deep. He looked kinda like he had Michelin man legs.. and he waddled up to right above chute 3... that's where I met him face to face. He was shivering.. and was clearly shaken up a little. I told him to lay down on the rocks and point his feet up ... which did drain all (most) of the water from out of his stockingfoot chest wader feet. His hand was really cold when I shook it... and he said thanks. As we walked out.. I asked him if he had read the sign. He did say he glanced at it.. and he knew the horn meant something.. but he didnt expect the water to come up that fast. It was his first time here. His name is Shawn and he is driving home tonight to wherever he lives.. safely. Alive. Brian Shaffer

Nice Tenacious D reference. Great story. Odds of reoccurence - 1 in 64,839,457 times. That is, unless you are fishing from a bunker. cheers, Brian

I had a question on how to go about paying for lures. You can a} pay via PayPal and I will ship using USPS 1st class, or b} meet up at Lilleys or specific location and pay cash, c} send check or money order snail mail. Most of these lures cannot be found just everyday so act quickly. If you see something you like, please send me an email instead of using the OAF private message system. ozarkflyfisher@gmail.com Thanks, Brian

I'll try to post back the particulars ... year & model #'s. Thanks for the tip about Ulrich's. I will probably look into that. Unless anything else pops up. eBay for boat motor sales... ?!?! hmmmm.... how does that work ? They bid and buy, but how do you ship it ? Crate ... cardboard washing machine box ? Intersting - Brian

Who comes recommended locally ? I have 2 old Mercury motors, both 6.6 I believe. One ran about 15 years ago.. the other not for 50 years or so. Thanks in advance the information. tight lines, Brian

Thats a PIG! Looks like it swallowed a pillow. Dadgum powerbait.... Cheers, Brian

Hi. I inherited 5 tackle boxes full of lures. I am grouping them up and selling them off. Everything from Storm, Pradco, Arbogast, Rogers, Woods... you name it. Take some time and peek thru the pics. UPDATED DAILY If you want something, please do not use PM thru OAF. Just use email. Thanks for looking. Brian Shaffer 3 Sputterbugs, 1 HulaHoople - $14 Woods - $22 Popeil Pocketfisherman, works - $20 Ryobi AD400V reel - $40 Heddon Original Wood Basser - $10 Heddon Zara Spook Line Tie Swaybacks - $50 Blakemore TroubleShooters - $25 Handmade Foil Rapalas - $35 Kuatzky Lazy Ike's - all for $35 Jitterbugs - largest one is musky - $18 ThinFin's - SOLD Herbs Dillys - $14 Cordell Super Shad - SOLD Abu Garcia Ambassadeur MAXlite - $35 * ADDED 12:15pm Friday * Woods woods (wood mfg Arkansas) - SOLD Rebel Craws - $19 Rebel Crankbaits, no name on lip. Surely they are Rebels. SOLD ( found out these are called smilin' minnows by bomber ) Hot Shots - $18 Picos, and Swimmin Minnows. And what else ? These are hard to figure out. Rebel Shad SOLD Rebel Double Deep - $22 Easier for me to send email than PM. Please use email. Thanks! ozarkflyfisher@gmail.com Thanks very looking. UPDATED DAILY - Brian Get em now... older lures like this only come around so often.

That was a great report. Makes me want to get in the car and get down there to Rim. The hopper action can sometimes be sick.. so much fun.. splattin' em down ... ferocious takes.. it is crazy fast paced fish catching awesomeness. I used to go to Fultons to pick up one of thier bass sized grasshopper patterns. It is the only one with a mono weed guard I've ever seen. One could last you a week on 3x depending on if the fish chew them off your line or not. This is certainly the right time of year for it. Click that link below to see more hoppers. Flies of Umpqua / Hopper Link I found the pic of the one I was thinking of : Just wish we had 'em biting on hoppers with any consistancy up here. Cheers, Brian

It is no secret, thats for sure, that honest sellers get the shaft with PayPal due to dishonest people. Granted 99.6 percent of people are just doing good business... but here is always some way that someone will figure out a way. Back when I sold on VFS, which started in 1998, I never had one PayPal issue. There was one guy who didnt recognize reeleasy enterprises on his CC statement and launched an investigation. But it was quickly figured out by his CC company once they called me. Do a google search of ' why i hate paypal ' and you can read for days. There are always some drawbacks ... but with the 99.6% of deals that come off without a hitch - its great! I do really hate the 2.5% they take thought -- cheers, Brian