Wish Me Luck.

[ozark trout fisher]

Throw a coffee brown rubber leg stonefly. Yanked a nice 20" Brown in some fast water below the park last weekend.

Cool, thanks. Think I may end up doing a short morning float. Just depends on how crazy the river looks from a crowds perspective and whether its 150 degrees. The idea of being in a kayak instead of wading chest deep in the water sounds a little scary if the forecasts hold, so we'll just have to see...........

[ozark trout fisher]

Just got back a couple of hours ago. It was rather crowded down there, but we were able to find some open water and a few fish as well. We decided on Saturday, in order to avoid the canoes, we'd just have to fish Montauk Park. The others in my party didn't want to get up early, but I woke up in time to be on the river when the buzzer sounded. Goodness, it's been a long time since I've fly fished a trout park in regular season and it was jarring. That said, the fishing was really pretty good for a couple of hours in the morning. But then the heat settled in about 10 AM and slowed things down a whole lot. Egg patterns were working well as you'd expect. The riffles (both in the fly only area and below) were full of fish as always-and the fly only area did not get crowded until about 9 AM. I guess there were a lot of late risers. Anyway, it made for a nice couple of hours until the heat/crowds drove me off.

We spent the next few hours just trying to survive the heat anyway we could. The fishing had shut down at 11 AM and there was just no point. We did get out again in the evening. This was the best fishing of the day and I even was able to draw a couple strikes on attractor dries. The fish were not large at all, averaging about 10 inches, with an (approximately) 15 incher being the largest.

So yeah, we had a good time. Much better than sitting around home watching football without question. On the other hand, would I recommend any self respecting fisherman go down there on Labor Day weekend? No, in a word. It was fun but we were so tired of the crowds that we didn't even bother to fish this morning and just left after taking down camp. No regrets on going-but I'm looking forward to hopefully getting back down there when there is some room for folks to spread out.

I plan to post some pictures probably tomorrow. No big fish to report but the scenery was great as always.

[gbuettmann]

Fishing during a holiday weekend is no fun. I was in Branson over the July 4th weekend and snuck out one morning early (5:30 am) to Taneycomo. Caught a bunch of 12-15 inch trout before the guides came in around 9 AM. It was fun while it lasted, but got really crowded really quick. Best to avoid any waterway on a holiday weekend. But still was great to get out, smell some fresh air, catch a few fish, and take in the beauty. Good luck to you next time.