Thom

Trav: Could it be that Hillary might help the Dems snatch "defeat out of the jaws of victory" again. I can't believe her rhetoric after each loss in the primaries. It sounds like she isn't reading the papers or looking at at the figures. It looks like there might be some secret weapon lurking in the halls of the smoke filled cronies. Can anyone say SUPER DELAGATES. It would be a shame to have the nominee chosen ignoring the choice of the electorate who went to the polls to cast their vote. Trav .... thanks for the nice article on the lower lake and answering my questions.

My wife who has Alsheimers has lost most of her communication skills. One she has not lost is her bueatiful smile which she share often with me and others. It always lift me up and reminds me of her unfailing faithfullness to make my day. I read somewhere that it takes far less muscles to form a smile than a scowl or frown.

Actually I heard a rumor that hillary was posting on this site under a ghost name and advertising at the end of the post to vote for McCain. I guess she thought if McCain could win she might have a chance. she posts a disclaimer at the end of some posts like this >>>>>>>> WINK WINK

Trav: some questions concerning the lower lake: 1. Is the lower lake the area from powersite dam to the landing if not where? Specifically where is the lower lake? 2. How long does it take to get to the lower lake from the launch in Branson? 3. Where would be the best place to launch a boat to fish the lower lake? 4. Can you list methods, lures, and areas recommended? 5. What are some good places to shop for fishing supplies and advice on the lower lake? 6. Other than your place are there some recommendations for eating or lodging near the lower lake area.I 7. Is the area below powersite considered lower lake or Bull shoals or what? These may be stupid questions but someone once told me that there is no such thing as a stupid question. That person probally never attended a press conference but whatever. The times I vistited what I considered the lower lake I did notice that the vegatation was a huge problem for me both from the bank and in my boat. thanks for your input.

Terrible weather here also. It is only 64 now and it looks like rain this afternoon. The high today is only predicted at 74 degrees. Sorry guys I just couldn't resist. WHAP !!!!!!!!!!! That was the sound of me slapping my hand for being so insensitive. I am in Panama city Florida but .........I will be back home next week. I talked to folks back in Ofallon mo yesterday and they were expecting snow. I know the feeling of being trapped at home. Until I got my 4 wheeler I was snowbound a couple of times a year in the winter. Hope to hear all is clearing off soon. Just thinik........SOON......... We will be basking in the sun and fishing taney again..

All of the ideas above are good. I make it real simple. I usually tie the first fly mostly as an attractor. Multicolored egg fly or san jaun worm first with the usual knot I tie on a single fly just leaving about 18 inches of tag line past the first fly. The second fly , the dropper, is the main attracton or best fly in my opinion and accounts for most of the strikes. Using the dropper has greatly increased my daily counts and strikes usually on the lower dropper fly. The reason I start at 18 inches is that it allow for tying on a few times if the first dropper don't work or if you want to go more shallow. I usually end up at abut 12 inches on my dropper if they are midging with 12 inches below the indicator or as deep as 4 to five foot below the indicator if the fish seem to be deeper in the water column. That's what works for me. I have tried the other method of tying onto the bend of the first hook and not found great benefit. It is also harder until you get the drift of it.

Hey Pat: I am sure glad you made this post because I thought it was just me. Recently on a snowy day I decided to clean up my bench and hook boxes and in he process discovered the same dilema that you mentioned. After a while of sorting they all look alike. Hooks that is. After getting organized I thought that some of the packed hooks on the magnetic strips were the wrong size as I took them out. They were in the resealable packs that I thought never had been opened. Maybe someone in the store had opened them for some reason. Sometimes with the permission of the store owner or salesman I will do this with 2487 scud hooks to be sure I am getting the right tung beads but I always return the hooks to the same package or purchase them. Thom

Zander: Don't be to quick to judge yourself. My son kills them with wollies and I am in the same boat as you. I think that the problem is I have so many other go to's that I just give up too soon. I will try midges, hairs ears, micro jigs, and various egg flys for hours changing until..........walla I have found the one that works. With wollies i give up to easilly. I am looking forward to some of the experts to tell us the secret. I have seen them work and heard anglers that I know catch fish in waders not in their dreams say so. SO LET THE EDUCATION BEGAN...........IN THE WORDS OF MICKEY MOUSE...."I am all ears" Maybe no brains though.

I like 4# vanish green flourcarbon. I also tie about a 3 foot piece of it at the end of my fly line to tie on a tippet. It saves me a spool of more expensive 6 or 7 leader after several trips and works well to tie onto after brfeak offs from tangles and the ones that got away.

I'll bet the terrorist would get a real sense of success with some of these comments. Lets keep the American resourses fighting over here. Keep them near our Jihad. Studing history this has always been a successful stradegy. Napolean, the Roman empire, Great Britian, Spain, Germany, Japan to name a few extended their empires until they were spread so thin that they were bankrupted and defeated. I am not an isolationist but we are never going to convert muslim countries into democracies. Hamas won the popular election. How smart was that. Democracy? NOT>just terriorism under another name. Lets invest the Billions soon to be trillions into border security, technological survalence of the airspace, oceans, and borders, and a strong air defense that can bomb anyone into oblivion anyone who breaches our great American society. Even the current administration now admits that Sadaam had absolutely no chance of doing anything but running his mouth and had "0" to do with 9/11. The mission accomplished fiasco still rings hollow. You can hide but you can escape, Then why aren't we concentating on Afganastan where the leader is. I promised my self I would stay out of these political arguments and concentrate of tying flies and fishing, but I just couldn't resist. BTW Trav: The 9/11 tradegy didn't occur under the Clinton administrartion. At least Harry Truman had the guts to say the buck stop stops here. If things were so bad why didn't the reigning administration straighten them up. Read the 9/11 report and you will find the answer and it wasn't all Clinton. That is why it was supressed for so long.

I think that we as individuals and united through organiations have great opportunities to help others. Our church designates nearly 25% of our budget for serving others. It is the american way to help others in need. If our government would extract less of our individual resourses for nonsence and get it to the real needs we would be much better off. I think that if one would study histories of fallen empires an interesting coorelation could be found between neglect of the needs of the poor and disrespect of the elerly to their downfall. It is a sad day when the richest nation in the world finds itself with folks wanting to work who cannot find jobs and elderly folks taxed to the extent that they are in danger of losing all that they have worked for all of their lives. I volunteer with groups who attempt to help the poor and elderly and find these good americans struggling to hang on in hope of a better life. They are not lazy and dumb but just trying the best that they can to get by. I think that they wuld appreciate opportunity and less taxation over a one time 500 dollars.

This is a pic from my balcony last week. I am in Panama City beach on Saint Andrews Bay. I am hoping to check out the fishing later this week. It was really warm but windy last week so I an hoping to try for some reds or whatever this week from the marina here.

Every exconominist I have read says it is the dumbrst idea to borrow money and give it away to fix the economy. Even fox news anaylist who are of course fair ane balanced say it is a bad idea. Election years bring about strange things like Pat Roberson the champion of familly values endorsing Guilani and an obsecure politician with hardly any foriegn policly experience being a front runner in the dems partly. We are tole that some are dropping out because they cannot afford to advertise in the next primaries (buy the vote?) As one famous american from Branson (Yakov) said....."What a country"...?

To my fishing buddies that have pmed me or otherwise tried to contact me I have been having technical problems which Dano resolved so you will have to put up with my posts again. No I wasn't ignoring you I just ouldn't log on and reply. I am Florida and maybe if things work out I may have some pics or fish stories before the week ends. Hope to get back to taney in march so throw back a few brownies and bows for me to stick.

Good question. I use red hooks for crappie and think they are better. I am not so sure now. Check this info from an itchyology book: Most fish can see in color. As in people, the retina of a fish's eye contains two types of cells, rods and cones. Cones are used for day vision and are the cells used to see colors. Rods are used for night vision and cannot distinguish colors, although they can judge light intensity. The eyes of most freshwater fish contain both rods and cones, though day feeders tend to have more cones, and night feeders more rods. In theory, then, day feeders like bass, trout, and salmon are more sensitive to color than night feeders like walleyes. Studies have shown that rainbow trout and Pacific salmon have color vision similar to that of humans. They can distinguish complementary colors and up to 24 spectral hues. Other studies have shown that brown trout are capable of sharply focusing on near and far objects at the same time and that they can clearly see different colors at different distances.

Red light has the longest wave length and is the easiest to be dissapated by water.....the deeper the better. Water absorbs light energy, the longest wavelengths go first: red, followed by orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Thus red is good camouflage. In deep water or at night, red appears gray. The gray tends to blend into the water colors and objects. The problem is that with the back and forth movement of the head when casting etc the reflections of the gray appears as movement and may spook fish eventually. Kind of like hearing footsteps behind us so it might be best to leave even the red lights off when possible. As it is true that fish cannot see red light they do see the effects just as we cannot see wind we see the trees and water that is moved by the wind.

I know trav. I or no one else couldn't possibly be right in your mind but it is still my opinion. yes it would be a good thing to have a lower taney section.

I stay at Port Aransas some winters. A good place to check out is the flats and intercostal just off the bridge between Corpus and Post Aransas. It is a good place to wade out. The marina on the south side of the exit at the causeway has a great place to find a guide if you wanted to go out in a boat. I've had good luck with most good shrimp imitations as SOI suggested check out the local reports for what's working now. They seem to always come back with limits of specs and/or reds.

Phil: If you are interested in comments here are mine. I like the Lake Taneycomo thread as is because I fish most of it at some time or another in my boat, from a pier, or wading. Perhaps it could be divided from the tailwaters to the powersite or to the landing but I still go down there sometimes also. For sure don't seperate the tailwaters from the lake to roark. As for the waders being clickish???????????????????? Acutally when you stop at the parking lot almost everone says hello and most are willing to share information, give tips, and even drop off a fly or two for the newbe to try. Sometimes it is hard to get to the water without being rude as someone stops to talk. I have had anglers that were doing better than me walk out of the water and hand me a couple of flys that they were doing well on. One guide even offered my grandson advice even though we were not even clients at the time. CLICKISH???????????? NOT! I fish lots of tailwaters and this one is by far has the most friendly and helpful folks I have found. I have not experienced any clickish attitudes.

I recognized it immediately: It is a very will known and much discussed fly used on Taney. a pink PMS otherwize known as a PINK MARIBOU "SOGGY FOOT SPECIAL" SORRY LEONARD .... I JUST COULDN'T RESIST IT. OH OH HERE WE GO AGAIN.

I have spent hours restocking my fly boxes for spring and thought I was in pretty good shape after adding about 100 + flys......but..........after reading these posts I am back to the vise. Lots of good ideas on patterns and colors especially on midges. I have been tying mostly black bodies and having good success, but after reading these posts I will add some other color variations. THANKS FOR SHARING EVERONE.

Tcclubs2: Thanks for the report. Kinda lets us less fortunate fantize a little until we can get down. I hope to get down again after I return from Florida in late February. I enjoy fishing in the winter because their is less boat traffic. I do get a little antcy about getting my boat out and in if the weather is too cold. Where did you launch or did you just rent a boat? Sometimes it is necessary to pass inside someone upstream of fall creek who is casting because of the shallow water. I ruined a prop last year trying to be polite and passing on the other side.... but how hard is it to slow down excuse yourself and pass by. From the description of where you were fishing and how I think a little more courtesy could have been afford you. No need to pass by another boat that close. Just don't let someone esle's rudeness rent space in your head and ruin your day. What color and type of rapalas and where did you have the most success. My last trip I ventured farther downstream but had the most success toward fall creek and above. Thanks again for sharing your trip!

greg: what color on the sigment wrap on the green or olive midge?

We are birders and have several feeders. I have noticed lots of birds the last few years that are staying all winter and last winter saw birds that I had never seen in the winter. I know there is lots of discussion on global warming but we have armadillos in this part of the county in much larger numbers than ever before. I sure would like to see a better crappie spring this year. It sure has been spotty the last three years. Of course trout fishing is usually good all year around. Only the anglers get cold. The trout have basicly the same temps year around.

If I am fishing at the dam I start with a #18 zebra midge tied with a copper tung bead, black thread and copper wrap usually fished under either a red san jaun or peach egg fly with a red dot. If that is slow I switch to zebra black midge with silver wire wrap. If that is slow I go to a hairs ear or try 1/80 brown, green or sculpen maribou jig. All of the above under the smallest float that will stay above the surface. If I am in my boat and I see no surface action,I start with a # 18 hares ear which I tie a little different than the usual pattern. If that is slow I go to the brown, green or sculpen micro jigs. If there is surface action I start same as at the dam only fished under a elk hair caddis to see if a dry will work or if the midge is the ticket. This summer I am definately going to expand my arsenal to dry's which I have avoided. If I am successful I might change all of the above. That is the great thing about fly fishing..... every trip is a new and sometimes different experience. That is why this forum is so valuable with the vast resources of knowledge to draw from. GREAT STARTER TOPIC JEROD. THANKS. Jerod: Do you tie the pine weighted or un weighted?