Jeff House

For someone who seems to know everything your above qoute is fairly laughable. Surely you don't believe that a little high water actually washed the brown trout out of Taney! Those fish only left the area if they chose to due to availability of food (which with the high water there is no lack of). If anything this high water is good for the fish, it just isn't so good for the fishermen. Maybe it's just a reality check and you're not quite as good as you thought you were.

PC - I fished Zone 1 from the spring down to the handicap ramp to start with. Then moved down to between the 2nd and third handicap ramps. Finished the day between the hatchery outlet and the whistle bridge. Two best areas for me were the cut in the bank between the spring and handicap ramp (right where it gets too deep to wade) and anywhere between the hatchery outlet and the whistle. I know most everyone you see in that area is fishing the far bank but I was working the fish on the close edge and middle. It was great fun as I could see them coming from 2 feet away. Tried several foam patterns but the fish preferred a black dubbing ant with ginger hackle in a size 16. My buddy just ripped them on scuds of various colors and copper johns if you tire of the dry fly bite.

If you're heading to the park anytime soon make sure and have some ants with you. Fished Friday and caught 20-25 fish almost all on an ant pattern (caught a few on a griffiths gnat). My buddy mostly nymph fished and caught 2-3 times as many as I did but I bet I had more fun! Also fished the river for an hour or so before heading back to KC that evening and couldn't even get a hit. Tried nymphs and some streamer patterns but couldn't locate any fish.

Mike - I have made them before but there really isn't a pattern. Just buy the color of glue you want and get a wide gap egg hook. With a little practice you can form a good looking egg by putting just the right amount of glue on the hook shank and rotating it in your vice to form a uniform ball. I don't use eggs much but I made quite a few for a buddy and his son to use and he said they worked great (trout parks). I suppose if you wanted to get fancy you could lay a piece of egg veil on the shank before you started your glue and let it trail back behind the egg. Hope this helps ............Jeff

Thanks for the info guys. Got some ideas to sit down at the vise with now.

I've been out walleye fishing on my local lake here the last few weeks and have noticed large schools of medium to large sized carp out on the flats roaming around. They are in 6-8 ft of water but are cruising the surface most of the time. Have never fished for carp on the fly but this just looks like too good of an opportunity not to try it. Plan on throwing the flyrod in the boat next time and was wondering if anyone had any suggestions as to what flies to throw at them? Any suggestions ?

Headed to Montauk early Friday morning hoping that the river gauges were correct and it would be fishable. Got down there from KC about 10:00 and found the stream and lower river looking very good. As it was my first time down I don't have anything to compare to but I thought the water looked great - good strong flow and clear. Fished mostly in the fly area and C&R areas on Friday with good luck in both sections. Saturday I started off in the fly area but then moved down out of the park about mid-morning as I was interested in looking at the river to see about floating it in my pontoon boat (I had it with me this weekend but to be honest 2 days wasn't long enough to figure out shuttles or put-ins and all the other particulars involved). As it was I found plenty of good wadeable water without getting the boat wet. Met several great guys who I visited and fished with that gave me some good information on different spots.... Chris and Ryan who had just come from the Eleven Point with their driftboat - Steve who was planning on floating the river in his kayak on Saturday and offered me to go along (I had to take a raincheck as I had a friend meeting me on Saturday to fish for a while) and Mike I think, I'm terrible with names, from Crane Creek area who I visited with for a while on Saturday morning. I headed out Saturday afternoon just before the storms rolled in and drove through rain and hail all the way to KC. A great trip with some new friends made and a few fish caught, what more can you ask for? By the way the hot fly for me was a version of the Super Midge I tye with wine thread and a plum colored marabou tail. Most anything I tried in the park did well but that fly seemed to be the best for me. Can't wait to get back down........next time I'm going to have to float the river for sure.

To the gentleman that stated Brett's clients catch fish due to his shuffling technique, I think you should refrain from making statements based on rumors instead of fact. You may be jealous of his fishing skills ( I sure am ) and try and tell yourself that he has to be shuffling to catch that many more fish than you do, but believe me he doesn't! If you fish Taney at all you have probably seen Brett below the dam with clients and 90% of the time he and his clients are not even in the water. One of Brett's biggest peeves is shufflers and he will tell you so. I have fished with Brett twice in the time that I've known him and I can tell you from experience he does not use any method of shuffling to assist his clients in catching fish. Brett is one hell of a fisherman who will use every bit of his knowledge to make sure his clients have a good trip (as I'm sure all of the other guides on the lake do) and this is why his clients catch so many fish.

My guess - March 23rd 2007

I'm not referring to those who are still learning as I am definitely in that group. Everyone has to start somewhere and I'm more than willing to pass on my limited knowledge to anyone interested. The people I refer to seem to know exactly what they are doing, which is standing in prime lies and snagging fish. I personally saw more unethical fishing practices this past weekend during 3 days of fishing at Taney than I've seen the rest of the year. If I had had the local wardens phone # with me I would have called him on several occasions this past weekend. The fishery at Taney is great and it really makes me sick to see what I would call no better than poachers taking advantage of it.

I have never personally fished powersite, but I know a guy up here in KC that loves to fish it all year long. I have heard him say that the fall fishing is good down there, not sure about numbers of big fish? From what I saw this last weekend you won't find a place with more shots at big fish than Taney. If you can put up with the crowd of wannabe trophy hunters that filters in every weekend.

I am good friends with Brett and happen to know the situation that brought on his comments on his website because I was the one that pointed the issue out to him. Brett most definitely does not have a problem with individuals tying his proven fish catching patterns, as a matter of fact he will sit down with you after a guide trip and show you how to tye the flies that you used that day if you're interested. On the other hand when a competitors fly shop tries to imitate one of his most popular flies (poorly I might add) and even goes so far as to use "almost" the same name (they changed one letter) you can see why he might get upset. For any of you who have not seen his wide variety of scud patterns , he definitely does some things that are different from what you normally see. It was very obvious that the other fly shop was trying to capitalize on the popularity of a proven fly with a well recognized name. Illegal or not to me it just didn't seem right.

Thanks for the info guys. I'm going to head to wal-mart after work and see if I can't find one of those Mr Coffee grinders. That's what makes this forum so great, quality information from good people who've been there and done that. Although hopefully Terry's finger comment didn't come from experience!!

Up until now I have just blended different dubbings by hand (scissors and fingers)but have heard in fly tying circles about using coffee grinders? I don't drink coffee so I'm not sure what styles are used or what works best for blending dubbing? Does anyone out there use the coffee grinder method or is there something that works better? I've tried the wifes food processor and wasn't impressed (neither was she!). Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Up until now I have just blended different dubbings by hand (scissors and fingers)but have heard in fly tying circles about using coffee grinders? I don't drink coffee so I'm not sure what styles are used or what works best for blending dubbing? Does anyone out there use the coffee grinder method or is there something that works better? I've tried the wifes food processor and wasn't impressed (neither was she!). Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Stickbaits are always a good producer for browns with spinning tackle. I like the suspending husky jerk in about a 4" size. Best colors will vary with the conditions. Just about any brand of stickbait will work, if you are going to be fishing in the trophy area and wading you won't want anything that dives more than3-4 feet. If you take the time to replace the treble hooks with single hooks it will make releasing the fish a lot easier. Marabou jigs are also a good bet to try with spinning tackle. You can sightfish with a jig and spinning rod the same manner as you would with a flyrod. Brown/Yellow - Brown/Olive - White are three of my favorite colors of marabous. Hope these suggestions help.

Just got back to work where I have computer access ( my computer desk at home was retrofitted into a fly tying desk and the computer sits in the closet!)and wanted to give a big thanks to Leonard for taking my friend and I out last Thursday at Taney. From showing me his most productive night spots to giving us some of his killer fly patterns to use and giving us pointers on retrieves he really made the trip a great learning experience. I would guess that I personally caught 20- 25 fish in the 3 1/2 hours we fished, this far exceeded my previous nighttime trips with the flyrod. Even more important to me than the fish caught was the time he spent instructing us on the different methods he uses at night and the behavior habits of the trout at night(which is totally different than during day time hours). I would not hesitate to reccomend Leonard to anyone interested in learning the intricacies of nighttime flyfishing on Taney. Thanks again Leonard.

Thanks for the tips Michael. I am going to keep at it and one of these nights I'll hit it right. Would love to fish with you Friday night but I have to head back to Kansas City Friday evening. My buddy that's going with me has to be at work Sat. morning at 6:30 so I've got to have him home at a decent hour. I really appreciate the offer though and hope we can hook up another time. I really enjoy fishing with new folks, it seems like there's always something to be learned even if you think you know what you're doing (which I don't!). I'm going to give Leonard a call though since he will be down Thursday night anyway. With any luck I can glean a few helpful pointers to improve my nighttime success rate. One other quick question, are you guys using a sinking line to get your flies down in the deeper holes or just using long leaders with weighted flies? Thanks again for the help.

Was wondering if anyone had any night fishing tips for Taney that they would be willing to share? I am going to be down this Thursday and Friday and plan on giving it a try Thursday night. The last few times that I've tried the night thing my success was slim to none at all. I've got a good selection of Mohair leeches tied up in dark colors (olive, purple, black) because that seems to be a favorite fly on a lot of posts. What about set-up and retrieve? Do the slower, deeper sections provide more night time success? Any helpful tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Stayed at Spider Creek Resort over the weekend and fished the tailwaters both days. Saturday we just got started when they started generating (about 2:00?) so we fished the rise for a few minutes then headed back to the cabin for a cold one and a break. They only ran water for about an hour and a half so we headed back down as soon as the SWPA recording said zero gens running. Started out in the campground at the beginning of special regulation area and fished downstream until almost dark. Caught 10-15 fish apiece but nothing of any size. #20 dark olive scud was the top producer, with a #24 tungsten bead zebra midge coming in a close second. Sunday we fished riffles below the resort for a few hours, didn't see many fish and only caught a couple. Rented a canoe and floated from the dam down to the resort the rest of the day, this was definitely the way to fish. Caught fish almost everywhere we stopped with the best fishing being the stretch right above the bartrand access.Again the dark olive scuds were the ticket. Floated over one deep hole and saw a brown that would have went 15+ and two rainbows that were over 5#.

I fish RockBridge once a year with a friend and his son. The facilities are very well kept and the owners are very accomodating. The only difference between a trout park and a private pay to play fishery is the quality of the fish you'll catch and the dent it will put in your wallet. You can make the experience as technical or as easy as you choose. When I go I fish only dry flies and at times it can get pretty tough. If you go down and fish a SJ worm or egg fly under an indicator you might find the fishing too easy, just depends on your ability and what you're used to. I would recomend RockBridge as a great place for a special treat, but not somewhere I would want to fish on a regular basis (couldn't afford it if I wanted to).

I am going to be in the area the 3rd weekend of August with the wife and some friends for some canoeing and fishing. I really don't want to stay in Eureka Springs but want to be close to the dam. Can anyone recommend a place to stay in the area out by the lake. We would like to get a small cabin or house for the weekend over a motel if at all possible. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

If Missouri doesn't nip this in the bud by outlawing it I think you'll start to see it happening everywhere. Right now it's most prevalent below Taney but those same people probably fish other trout waters also. As more people witness this and see that it aids in catching fish they are naturally going to try it. It may not bother some of you but the damage to the streambed and fishery in general is well documented in numerous other states. Can you imagine going to Crane Creek and seeing 3 guys shoulder to shoulder kicking up the bottom and fishing at their feet? It will happen.

Looks like a Brook Trout to me, nice fish by the way. If you don't mind me asking, what worked best for you? I'm planning a trip to the Beaver tailwaters the middle of August.

Thanks for the info Steve. It sounds like you really like your Waterdance pack, and that's just what I was wanting, advice from someone who had actually used one. I was worried about storage space since I havn't actually seen one in person (nobody around KC carries this pack), but it sounds like theres room for everything needed. If you don't mind me asking, what are you getting for the packs at the BDS store? What about the cost of shipping? Thanks again for the great info.