7 Hours Of Fishing Taney Low Water .. Report

[Brian K. Shaffer]

Drove in and saw Darrell guiding out of R/R and Malcolm from Ozark Fly Fishers from STL getting ready to drift boat fish, and he mentioned a lunch at the pavilion at noon... more on that to follow.. with plenty of pics.

I got down there around 8:30am or so... parked.. rigged up a double rig of a debarbed straight shank gray sowbug size 14 with shellback and neon orange 8/0 thread AND a straight shank size 18 midge hook barbless weighted sowbug, gray with a little UV flash mixed in... under a small round indicator.

It was spitting rain ... so I had to wear my rain jacket but it was only 70 or so .. not too bad.

Rain continued all day by the way... sometimes heavy.. but all day - light rain. Whew.

Started just immediately above chute 2. Worked my way into the upstream drift side of chute 2 - perfect for anyone casting left-handed. Managed a few fish but was sidelined by a father/son team dredging the chute with just single jigs. We tangled up a few times and then I approached them to assist their learning of a jig/float technique. They received the info quite well and proceeded to the nearest fly shop to try out the tried and true jig/float.

BUT - While talking with them in the final moments.. I noticed a very large fish. Too big.. Clown big.. it was probably 10-12lbs.... and I told them both to cast to above the fish to lead it with their jigs... neither of which was really in front of the fish on the drift... and they both gasped as this monster stayed around / swam around / eventually turned and swam down... turned back.. then bailed out completely out of sight.

They were shocked a fish of that size was even in this river.. but they both didnt have hats on and only the son had polarized glasses on.. but even without anything this was a big fish and it could have been seen from even the most untrained eye.

POINT - wear a hat and polarized glasses and learn to spot fish.

I hooked a fish right directly below re-bar that was about 5-6lbs and it eventually straightened my weak choice of hook.. but the tippet didnt give way - the hook opened up.

Now is the time to sight fish to big fish. And to be very courteous to others around you.

I plan to fish 5x mono tippet from now on when it is ultra cloudy / rainy out. Next time the dropper fly will be a size 16 barbless Dai-Ichi 1190 straight shank midge hook with a sowbug pattern and I will land it - like I should have done this time.

To me, in the end - the numbers of fish do not matter. Perfecting your presentation matters.

[Phil Lilley]

Good report - thanks.

[laker67]

Good reports from both of you, thanks.