Fishing Report

[Phil Lilley]

Drove to the dam this morning at 7 am- met up with Randy Waggoner and his crew at rebar. Randy is a outlet junkie but he did rather well at rebar yesterday so he converted. Pics of yesterday's trip to follow.

When I walked up, Eddie Ketchum had aleady started his assault on the trout, landing 4 trout in 4 casts including this 22-inch brown. He was using a 2-fly rig tying on a #18 gray scud as both.

Randy landed one alittle smaller but the hook location was questionable.

Then it slowed down... alot. No shortage of fish and esp browns- big browns. I couldn't get them to take anything- broke off on my first cast and that was about it for me.

At 9:30, Eddie walked upstream to see how some of his friends were doing. Rob had been casting to a browns for a hour to no avail. Eddie asked to see his rod and casted- just to show him the proper drift. Of course he hooked the brown and landed it. 26 inches and about 8-9 pounds.

Rob has to at least get in one of the pics.

All fish swam off unharmed.

Leonard was up trying out a new white bunny fly. Pretty amusing watching him work that fly on the bottom, enticing mainly rainbows to pick it up and eat it. He let me try- drifted it by a huge brown below rebar and we both thought it took it. I may be getting slow in my old age.

Chuck Gries had a client below us. I didn't see it but Chuck said he landed a 24 inch brown. I saw them taking pics of a fish.

Other than that, it was pretty slow. Not as crowded as I thought it's be. Nice morning.

[Don]

Thanks Phil,

I've been debating whether to go today or not. Your report has inspired me to fling a few flies at those big brownies. I'll be there in an hour or so....Don

[Phil Lilley]

I'm planning on being back later this evening. Look for a yellow hat.

[Terry Beeson]

Phil,

In that first pic... that rod looks longer than 9 ft... or is that an "optical illusion"....

[Phil Lilley]

It's not over 10... but I bet it's 9.

Eddie is the Berkley rep for Bass Pro. It's probably a Fenwick!

[Danoinark]

Dang I hate being stuck in the office.....

[Terry Beeson]

(Stupid stupid knee!!!!)

And I have to go to Branson this afternoon... and Cindy is on her way to Rolla to work tonight... and that means she'll sleep all day tomorrow... and then she's going to a "hen party" tomorrow night... and I can't stand up for more than a few minutes at a time!!!

STUPID KNEE!

[Don]

Phil, I did see a yellow hat, but the post you made was after I shut off and started loading the van.

I started on the bank below all the fishermen in Chute 2. I stayed on the bank for awhile as not to spook potential trophy. I first tied an experimental homemage brownie bug of some sorts. It had a gold rabbit strip tail. However, the body was wrapped with brown barred schlappen instead of standard wooly size hackle. It was on a lead wrapped hook and looked big and buggy. I missed several strikes while sight fishing and landed none because they were either short striking or I'm just too old and slow.

I then looked up toward the dam and thought maybe that some big browns wanted to be elusive from crowded areas. There were about ten people around chute 1 and nobody on the opposite side. I spent some time on the south bank throwing egg patterns around structure. Caught four bows 12-14 inches. They seemed sluggish and did not have alot of fight in them. Low D.O. I guess? I also caught my first sucker on a flyrod. Fought hard and was about two pounds. I tried stripping a big black fly with a rabbit strip tail and disco yarn body, again big and buggy looking. Got tagged once but no fish.

Finally it was time for nymphing. I tied on a size 16 ginger G-Bug and fished from the south side as I worked my way down the river. When I got to the area above chute 2 where the shallow water drops into deeper water, I hooked the biggest trout I've ever hooked. Got her about ten feet in front of me and she finally lurched hard and came loose. I reasonably estimate 26 inches and maybe ten pounds. I noticed that my sinker came off during the fight so opened my sinker box and spilled most of my number 6's because my hands were shaking so badly from the adrenaline. It was not easy getting a sinker on my tippet at the time.

Nobody was in the pool from chute 2 to rebar. Looks good to me. Lots of people down at rebar. I started stripping size 14 PMD crackleback. Several strikes and a breakoff but finally landed a stocker about 5:20.

I have not had a chance to night fish this year and this was good as any. Horn blew at 5:30. I went back to the lot and waited, hoping for only one unit to run for an hour. I rerigged with a bigger outfit and went down chute 2 about 6:35. I was the only vehicle on the parking lot and saw nobody. By then, they were running two generators. I fished the seams with a white mylar zonker, no luck. Full moon, running water, not my best odds so I went home.

Terry, I hope your knee gets better.

[Phil Lilley]

I went back down but didn't take a rod. I went with the guys staying here hoping for take a pic of another big trout. They fished rebar and below with little success. When the horn blew, I high-tailed it to the north bank cause I only had tennis shoes on. I sat at the TU stairs till the others wondered back- it was almost dark. Randy parked above #3 so I went out that way- not to the parking lot or I might have seen you Don.

[Kicknbass]

Yes, they were both nice fish. I had just arrived and saw him land the 26 inch fish, they were looking for a tape to measure the fish with, I had one and stepped in and measured him. Beautiful fish. Later, I met Chuck and his client after watching them land the 24 inch fish, and took their pictures holding the fish. What great luck to see both of those fish up close.

My luck fishing wasn't as good, but I did manage to land a 20 inch fish.