Wading While Running Water

[Don]

I drove down to Taney Sunday and arrived about 5:00 PM. I witnessed running water at the bottom of the stairs at chute 2. I fished briefly out of boredom because I rarely fish chutes unless options are limited. I caught 3 on size 22 gray scud. Anyhoo, I noticed water dropping and suited up. Crowd at chute 2 by then made me choose old chute 3 area. As water dropped, I waded all the way to rebar area. I noticed many, many fish feeding off the bottom because small generation continued. I only caught one fish and that was with a ginger G-Bug. I threw everything but the kitchen sink at those guys but it was as tough as I have ever seen it. Not much action was going on top. I drug the bottom with about 20 different scud patterns and pitched midges as well. I'm used to alot of action on every trip but trout whooped my butt this evening . Any of you waders have success on Taney during mild generation in August?

Thanks.....Don

[troutchaser]

It's been my experience that the trout just don't hit much for about two or three hours following generation. I've discussed this with several buddies, and we've got two theories.

First, generation stirs up all sorts of food sources and the fish will gorge themselves silly and then rest when the water slows. Kind of like we would do on Thanksgiving.

Second, the higher and faster water current makes them tired. They just want to find a nice place to rest for a little while.

These are just theories, but they make great excuses for not catching fish when the water is dropping.