BrianK

The river was up 10-12 feet after Ike and is still up 2-4 feet but falling. I'd expect it to still be 6-12" hi and murky by this wknd and the fishing still tough. Keep an eye on the river levels as USGS.gov One link at the top of this page but 2 other gauges up river are at Windyville and a new one at Leadmine. http://waterdata.usgs.gov/mo/nwis/rt

That makes sense. Sounds like another nitetime fishing opportunity. Some of those things were huge! I was thinking about coming back down this wknd but not so sure now with the river running about 1500cfs right now. Brian, have you checked out the river since the rain? wondering if it is still clear enough to fish or muddy? Looks like the Bryant didn't get too blown out so smallies might be an option....... Do you have any time this wknd or are you booked up? I may be down solo! ( i left you a voice mail also) Brian

Made it back down for a few hrs fishing Sat, Sun, Mon. Mixed results but overall very good. Saturday pm after the canoe traffic settled down, got to fish for a couple hrs. Surprisingly few fish but the one I did catch made up for it. A fat 21" brown. Caught a few glimpses of him swirl at something on the surface and knew he was just sitting down there. Threw everything in the box at him then finally nailed a big white woolly with a ton of weight just as 2 canoes passed by and almost hung me up. Good to have my 11 yo photographer with me. Sun morning with thick fog on the water at daylight, picked up several rainbows on a small brown sculpin pattern. very deep. Shut off about 8am. Sun nite fished about an hour from 10-11 but to no avail. Hoping to pick up the stray monster brown throwing some big hardware. Mon am a little slower but still managed a few. A buddy of mine down camping with our family caught his first trout ever. A NF rainbow is a good way to start. Monday afternoon before heading out, Landon and I paddled up river to play around. I had heard stories of stripers coming up river this year and a few being caught. Hadn't seen any until now! There is a marauding band of stripers or hybrids (or both)in the first pool above McKee bridge. Looked like about 20 fish in a school ranging from 18-30++ inches! Wondering if anyone has seen this many in other pools or if they might be concentrated here. We know it can't be good for the baby rainbow (or anything) population in this stretch of river. Anyone heard anything from the MDC on this? could they shock and relocate them? So I went back for the rods and spent an hour sight fishing to em. Nada. They were very spooky. or just full! Good weekend. Let's hope Gustav doesn't blow things out too bad. Doesn't look good for this wknd though. Brian

You're killin me! That is awesome. Good advertising (maybe too good) for the river and your services. B

I was down last wknd and the water was in great shape. No problems wading. And hey if you are wet wading then it really doesn't matter if you take a swim(except for the camera). Fished the upper trout water (ROLF to Kelly) Saturday afternoon during the peak of the canoe hatch. Caught about 6-7 fish total but definitely started picking up as the canoes and sun (and my kids' interest) started fading..... Caught another few fish Sun am from 10-noon. Most fish on black stones, olive woollies, eggs, prince, sj worm. good luck and scratch the itch. mine is from poison ivy from the weekend. Brian

I emailed Jeff Briggler at MDC and he burst my bubble and informed me that it is actually a MUDPUPPY. Mudpuppies have the red gills, hellbenders don't have have much more wrinkled skin. He wrote a great article that explains the differences. I'll try to attach a link. Still a cool thing to see. Oh, and the snake is a Northern watersnake according to him and it was trying real hard to eat the poor salamander. was latched onto it's tail. http://mdc.mo.gov/documents/nathis/herpeto...an/hellbend.pdf

Got on the river at Thomasville late evening Fri 16th. Willow Spgs had gotten an inch or two of rain Thursday just at the wrong time to bring the upper river up about a foot and visiblility way down. River very tricky up top with tight bends, high water and lots of trees. Just thankful to not dump before we pitched camp for the nite. No fishing done in muddy cow water. Eagle nest with 2 eagles (i'm pretty sure)on upper river. pretty cool. Saturday water still hi and murky but improving. No true portages but lots of walking around trees and hacked our way thru one. Fish not cooperating yet (at all). starting to wonder if we might float 2 days and get shut out. Started picking up a few as day went on and river continued to improve. Near 3 ft visibility by end of day. Earlier in the day I asked Scott if he'd ever seen a hellbender. Neither of us had until now. Caught a little movement on the bank and went to check it out. Just above roaring spring. I'll let the MDC know. Guess we have our answer for their decline. Big suckers. This guy was about 10"long. Sunday God smiled on us and the river was much clearer and fish were waking up. They weren't going crazy but definitely better numbers and a few bigger fish. No monsters though. Mainly used small soft plastics on the bottom. Flukes produced a few. Took our time and fished to Cane Bluff until early afternoon. Hated to leave the river now that things were getting good and the weather was perfect. Overall another great trip down a great river. Boys had a blast as usual. Hope they take me in 30 yrs!! Thanks to Brian Sloss for taking good care of us as usual. bk

you dirty dog! Alright, i'm hanging Christmas lights then we are heading down. Might get a few hrs this afternoon while the girls Christmas shop. Then i'll sneak back away in the middle of the nite to try again. oh...nice fish Brian

Anyone braving the nighttime elements tonite(Fri) or tomorrow???? I'll be down in Spf and will try to make it down for some Taney therapy. Let me know. Haven't been down in a while but heard that nites have been very crowded this fall. Is it still a madhouse or is pressure letting up some? Hopefully see some of you guys out there. Brian

thanks.

Is there a 'how to' on here somewhere or a link to a recipe somewhere. Sounds pretty easy but have never seen it. I'd definitely like to give em a try. I use an egg pattern probably more than any other. What about the website to order colored glue sticks? thanks, Brian

Not sure if anyone ever responded to a question way up stream.... How should we be treating waders/ boots/ felt soles????? Spray em down with a dilute bleach solution?? Drying in the sun may not be an option in cooler weather or if fishing the next day. Seems like boots and felt soles will be an easy way to spread these guys to other waters. I was on the NFoW on Sunday and a couple guys floated by in a canoe. They mentioned that they were at Taney the day before. Alot of trout streams will be exposed when folks stop off to hit another stream on the way home from Branson. Any signage showing up yet at the Taney accesses? Brian

A beautiful fall day. Any fish were a bonus. Didn't get down to the river until about 11pm so I decided to try things at night. Fished until about 2am under a bright full moon. No big lurking browns but did manage one rainbow on a pine squirrel sculpin. Sunday started very good but slowed down as the sun got higher about 1030. Stayed with the same basic setup as Brian mentioned. Big black stone and assorted droppers. A pink egg dropper caught the most fish early. Water very low and clear. Caught about a dozen fish including several 1st year fish, a few in the 13-15 range and a nice fat 17". Lost a couple other nice fish. Caught another dozen or so misc. suckers, shiners, etc...just to keep things interesting. Fished around ROLF above and below the Falls. Great to see the small 6-8" fish from last years hatch! Look forward to some better numbers for the next few yrs. Hopefully the river will get some water this fall and the trend will continue. Brian, how were things from ROLF down to Blair?

JS- sounds like you are lucky too that the woolly didn't get you on the backcast! ouch. Ducky - nice fishes up in Alaska!

Brian- sorry for the lag. email sent. -Brian