Seth

I'm taking off work and heading down for opening night again this year. How did you do last year on opening day? We snagged the first night and we caught 8 spooners in about 4.5 hours between three of us. We had two shorts. It was a blast. If we get a week of warm weather before the opener, it's going to be a killer time again.

It sounds like they have been running lots of water and the temps have been extremely cold for a while now but still not a big shad kill. What are the ideal conditions for one to happen?

LOL...wow those subliminal messages really work. Thanks guys, I will get in contact with some of the shops you mentioned. I didn't know they would ship out orders like that.

I don't live close to any fly shops and I only get a chance to go down to Taney a couple times a year. Bass Pro and Archery and Anglers are two places I get my materials when I am down there. Does anybody order materials online? What places do you recommend for online ordering?

I use my fish food flies in our catfish pond when we feed them. A catfish on the fly rod is a blast. They pull and pull and pull some more.

Thanks. I checked the Fly Recipe section already, but I guess I just over looked it. I'm going to try this one at Maramec Springs and see how they eat it there. Been trying to find a good never fail fly for that place.

Is this Primrose and Pearl midge you are using a secret recipe or can I find the recipe for this pattern so I can tie up a few to try.

Yea, he said he was just watching the show. He told me that you were using a big size 10 midge and egg. I was shocked when he said size 10. Thats a good size fly. His son goes to school at Evangel there in Springfield and I'm gonna come down and stay with him one weekend and get in a bunch of trout fishing. Maybe I can come get some more night fishing lessons and get some donated flies from Leonard.

Hey Leonard and Ducky, did you guys talk to a guy named Darryl Grubaugh while you were fishing? He is one of my buddies dads and he went down there last night and stayed till this evening trout fishing. He was telling me about two guys fishing a midge and egg combo and tearing the fish up at outlet 2. I told him I thought it was you two.

How far down in the water were you using the woolies?

Well did you do any good? I didn't make it down there. My little truck is only 2WD and I wasn't sure what B highway was like. Hopefully, I'll get down there next weekend.

I bow hunted really hard this year and got enough to fill my bow hunting fever. The rod I got is a 4wt 8 foot St. Croix Premier. Cabelas had them on sale marked down from $100 to $60. I've got a 4 weight Teton Tioga that I'm putting on it. The rod feels like a winner just holding. Hopefully it works with 7x tippet and I don't snap fish off like I do with my other rods. I'm not sure if I am going to make it down now or not. It depends on the weather. If its not snowing hard Sunday, I'll try and make it down that day also. Maybe we can meet up if you go Sunday also.

What kind of tackle do you all prefer to use for snagging? I started out using the broomsticks, but have moved to surf tackle for the last 4 years. With surf rods, 10ft+ in length, we started to hit more up of those suspended fish it seemed.

I got a new fly rod that needs broke in and bow season is over with also. Only one thing left to do and thats trout fish. Anybody else thinking about going down this weekend?

Cabelas has these rods in their sale paper that I got in the mail last week. The rods look decent and for almost half off, I went ahead and picked one up along with some new fly line and backing. Anybody use these rods and have an opinion on them?

I have tried tying up some make shift "G-bugs" like Brett ties for my personal use. The reason I did my own was because I have never had a chance to make it down to his shop. Next time I get the chance to go down there, I will drop by his shop and buy a handful of his flies because the ones I tie are nothing like his creations. Every fly I have tied is a copy from something I have seen so I didn't worry about any laws or whatever. I told him in some emails I sent him that I had good luck on some make shift G-bugs and he appreciated the report. Brett has given me fishing tips over the email and I met him the last time I was down there and shook hands and he seems to me like a great person and an amazing fishing guide. I find it kind of pathetic that a fly shop would start copying his exact flies and then even call them the same thing pretty much. Hopefully Brett can get some sort of a patent on those great flies of his because they work so well, others are going to try and steal them and make a profit off of them

I believe you can gig up to Fall Creek. Gigging is not allowed in the Trophy Area on Taneycomo. A person would have blast up in the trophy area gigging because the suckers up there are THICK.

We used to always go down at the buzzer, but I never get down there before noon anymore. I can usually still do pretty good in the afternoon hours on my fly rod and a beadhead or san juan. You just have to move around to the different holes and find fish that are feeding.

Just add another section on the current forum for hunting. Most of us here are probably hunters also. For hunting related stuff, I always get on Mathews and Archery Talk forums. I'm addicted to bow hunting as well as trout fishing.

I landed 7 fish total and my girlfriend got skunked. Caught most of my fish down at the bridge hole. Green/white rubber legged jigs, rainbow powerbait, orange worms, and Secret Bait are what I used to catch my fish. You had to keep switching baits becuase you would get a few bites on one thing and then they wouldn't look at it. It was tough fishing for the most part, but I would guess that if I had kept a stringer of fish yesterday, I could easily have left with 8 pounds of fish. There are loads of nice fish in the stream right now.

We had some of him fried up yesterday for lunch along with some hush puppies and macaroni and cheese. Was delicious.

Yea it was a blue. I was flopping out becuase I wasn't sure if it was a blue or a channel since they only stock channel in that lake. The state record for channel is only 34-10, so had it been a channel it would of crushed the record hehe. But still, that's a fish of a life time for her....and thats only like her 5th catfish she's caught in her life LOL.

Well me and my girlfriend decided to go catfishing last night to get her dad some to eat. We went to the local park lake with a tub of turkey livers and our "light" catfish tackle. We got there and I baited up the rods and threw both of them out. I was cleaning up my mess I made with the livers and my rod bout went into the water, and this is less than a minute after I threw out. I grabbed the rod and set the hook then handed the rod to my girlfriend becuase I was still cleaning my mess. I figured it was a nice fish the way it hit, but then when it stripped off probably 75 yards of line I was like, DANG!! I thought we had one of the big ol grass carp the lake has. We'll she played it for a while and I realized that I had NO NET and my rod only had 14 pound test on it so I was wondering if I would be able to get it in. Then the thing came up to the surface and I seen it was a monster catfish. I didn't know what to do, so I stripped down to just my shorts on and waded out into the water with this monster. This fish was getting if I have to wrestle him up the bank I decided. I was hollering at some kids we knew on the other side of the lake and to everybody if they had a net for us. One kid came over with a little trout net and I was like "NO NO NO that won't work". Then he seen the fish boil and seen its head and started flippin out too. By now the other kids we knew started coming over towards us. Just as they got close, my girlfriend got the fish's head turned and got him close enough for me to grab. I grabbed his head with all my might and wrestled his flopping body up the bank, just in time for them kids to see it. Everybody was hoopin and hollering. One of the kids mom works for the paper, so she came and took pictures of her fish. She will be in the paper this week with her big fish. We went up and weighed it at the bait shop and the scale tipped down to 45 pounds and it measured 47" long and 27" around its belly. Here's a pic....

I more often than not always hook the fish in the corner of the mouth or sometimes the very top of it. I don't know if it's in the way I set the hook or what, but I never really have had a problem losing many fish. Sure here and there I have a few pull out but not many, even with #22's

Well I posted in the newest night fishing thread thanking Leonard for the flies and tips, but I will say it again in this one. Thanks Leonard, Was a pleasure meeting you Leonard and I look forward to getting down there again hopefully this August to try out night fishing again. Definetly will have to get some tying supplies for making some white woolies and squirrel leeches.