6/27 - 6/29

[OKFlyFisher44]

6/27

Left tulsa a little after 4:00 after work. After a quick stop at Bass Pro in springfield to get my nephew a trout stamp, we got to Branson around 9:00 to check into our cabin. We got up to the dam right at 10 p.m. and the parking lot was pretty full with more cars pulling in. Lots of people trying to beat the heat.

We started just above outlet #2 with my nephew chunking a olive bugger and I was throwing a purple egg-sucking leech. I had several strikes on the leech but couldn't hook up. I finally hooked into a fish that almost put me into my backing even on my 7wt TFO, just a long hard run! I got him to hand and he was a FAT 18" rainbow. Shaped like a football and solid. Awesome fish. Only brought a couple more fish to hand and just a few more missed strikes.

We moved down to just below Rebar and my 13 y/o nephew caught a couple nice rainbows to finally get the monkey off his back. He didn't believe me that the strikes he'd be getting would be fierce...almost yanked the rod outta his hand on the 2nd fish.

We packed up about 1:00 a.m. as the bite slowed down. I'm still trying to figure out this night fishing, can't quite put my finger on a consistant pattern to fish at night.

6/28

Got up to the dam and was on the water by 7:00 am, lots of people on the water already. I squeezed my nephew into the tail-end of Rebar just above the big root-ball and I fished the run just below it. Again, it was the san juan worm with a scud dropper that worked well for me but I did have to keep switching colors on the san juan and the scud. Caught a bunch of 14-16 inch rainbows out of that hole, all of them strong, healthy, and FAT! Hooked up with another football pig of rainbow and lost him at the net!

Moved back upstream to help my nephew who was struggling a bit with missing fish. He's doing pretty well but is just slow on his hook sets when he gets a strike or he doesn't recognize the "softer" strikes where the indicator just stops or twitches a bit. He was getting frustrated so we packed up for lunch.

Came back around 5 and just pulled on our waders when they blew the horn. It was just 1 generator so we fished the high water for a bit along the edges between outlet #1 and #2. Brought a few fish to hand before we loaded up to go back and eat dinner.

Got back up to the dam around 10:30 and went up to the cable and fished our way downstream. The water was still falling but was almost bottomed out. It was SLOOOOWWWW. Don't know what the deal was. We switched between lots of flies. We stripped fast, slow, and even just let them swing in the current. I think I got 5 strikes the whole night and missed all of them. My poor nephew didn't even get a bite.

We were tired so we headed out just before 1 am to get some much needed sleep. I talked to the only 2 other fisherman out that night as they left when we did. They caught lots of fish on a olive bugger, just stripping it slow. I know they caught several as I seen them turning their headlamps on to net fish. They were wading out in the middle of the river between outlet #1 and #2. Don't know what the deal was.

6/29

Got up to the dam and on the water around 7:30 am. I decided to play guide today and help my nephew get on some fish. I took him down to Rebar and we got the prime spot just below the 2nd pile of rebar sticking up. The bottom drops off there and is always loaded with fish. Its no secret as there's always someone fishing there. Anyways, I never made a cast all morning but Colton got into some fish! He ended the morning with 18 in about 3 hours...proud of the lil' fella. The first hour I had to really help him on detecting strikes but the last 7 fish he got all on his own. Even got him dialed in on his mending, FINALLY! He hooked a TOAD of a rainbow just below rebar but it made a huge run soon as he set the hook and the tippet broke....he was bummed.

Anyways...fishing was really good during the day. We had a great time.

I'm still stumped on what to think on the night fishing thing though. Its back to the drawing board once again...

[OKFlyFisher44]

A little fish porn for you guys...

[DaddyO]

Chance,

Good Report and good pics. Looks like you and your nephew had a good time.

Phil

[wackinbass]

Excellent job on the fishing and nice report. Thanks!

[zsmith62]

I'm still trying to figure out this night fishing, can't quite put my finger on a consistant pattern to fish at night.

I'm still stumped on what to think on the night fishing thing though. Its back to the drawing board once again...

As far as finding a consistent pattern, there's really not just one go-to pattern although a lot of people seem to like that PMS fly. Really, a lot of your streamer patterns will work, you just gotta find a color that will work good. Even then, you're most likely gonna have to change colors a couple times during the night.

As far as getting a handle on the night fishing in general, it don't happen overnight (pun intended). It takes a while to get the hang of it, just keep working at it.

[OKFlyFisher44]

I agree with ya Zach on the various patterns. I always figured on that...along with constantly changing colors. I'm wondering if your choice of location to fish the river changes at night? I seem to notice more people standing in the middle of the river fishing, which makes sense as you could cover a lot of different water by either stripping the fly or letting it swing in the current.

I don't know, I was kind of frustrated sunday night after the other guys said they were really into fish and we just struggled! I need to sit down and tie up some more streamers in largers sizes. Only have a few things much bigger than a size 10, most of my buggers and mohair leeches are all in the sizes 12 and 14. I imagine those sizes are big enough but in my very short career night fishing at Taney (4 nights, lol)...I've gotten more consistent bites on larger flies which obviously the fish can detect them better in the water at night. Saturday night, I had a ton of bites on an egg-sucking leech.

Who knows, maybe I'm just over-thinking this whole gig and just need to shut up n' fish!