Fishing Report

[Phil Lilley]

Headed down to BS Dam with Bill Babler this morning- got there at 12:15 and was fishing by 12:30. 6 units running, plenty of water for my Landau to get to the dam with no problem. About 5-7 other boats out off and on- most were river jons and most were guided parties as far as I could tell. Some were throwing fly rod, float and a white fly 6-10 feet deep. Some were throwing jigs.

We didn't see any shad in the water but by the looks most of the trout we caught they've seen some lately. Big bellies. The gulls were diving at the dam at times during the afternoon.

We didn't kill them by any means. We tried drifting for the first couple of hours from the dam to just above the wing wall at the dock. We picked up a few on white 1/8th oz jig. They seemed to like it just drifting and bouncing on the bottom. Needless to say, we went thru alot of jigs. It's hard to bend the barb on those jig hooks! Bill landed a nice brown and we landed a dozen decent rainbows in the 13-15 inch range. All were healthy and fat... fat and healthy I mean.

Then we anchored on the left side of the river at the line below the dam and fished both the seam and the slack water. Bill fished a jig and float using a white micro jig and I stayed with a white 3/32 oz- then a 1/16th oz white jig. I found they really liked a slow drifting jig close to the bottom. I could keep the 1/16th oz right at the right level longer and draw a hit almost every time. I did try some other colors- sculpin with an orange head did the best. Then ginger.

We finished the day as the last on the river. I caught the big fish of the day- the brown in the pic. White jig.

Again, didn't tear them up like I thought we would considering they've seen shad in the last week. Bill's observation was that he thought there's not the same numbers of fish compared to Taney- at the dam. My experience at Taney is if we've had shad like the White has had, we would have had a 100 fish afternoon easy. But we had high skies and little wind- and we hardly saw another fish caught by anyone else on the river besides what we caught. It may have been a tough fishing day.

[RiverRunner]

Those are some beautiful fish, did the white jig you were using have a chrome or white head?

[Phil Lilley]

White. The micro Bill used had a chrome head I think.

Did land one cutthroat today. Most were rainbows and about 5-6 browns.

[RiverRunner]

I'm headed to Norfork this weekend, guess I'll have to pick up some white powder paint before then!

[Kicknbass]

Nice looking fish. I don't know what the temperature was there, but it looks like a nice day. I'm sure it was cool by looking at Babbler's ears.

Too cold around here to fish unless you have an ice auger.

[Ham]

Nice Fish.

[duckydoty]

That sure was a Pretty Brown! Are there any cutthroats in Taney?

Duckydoty

[Terry Beeson]

Nice pheesh Phil...

And from one of my favorite places to fish... Along with Taney, Norfork, Little Red, and the Spring....

[Phil Lilley]

No cutts in Taneycomo. Wish there were.

[Bill Babler]

Very nice trip to Ark. yesterday. Great to catch-up on stuff you just don't talk about too much on email.

Seem's to be alot more guide trips going on at the bstailrace than up here, as it appeared there were 3 or 4 trips going on when we got there and a guide pulling out at the ramp as we were lanching.

None seemed to be catching them as well as PHIL and i. Notice the caps for a reason. When you put that guy on a streight line jig he is deadly. I had to make a quick switch to a jig and float in some slack water, just to make it respectable. You don't have to catch 50 fish to have fun.

The day was beautiful and the company great. WE did see several strands of what appeared to be flesh floating in the water and I believe the gulls may have been diving on this. We saw no shad, but the health and the fullness of every fish we caught was amazing.

All most all the guide boats were fishing flyrods, but for the most part down there they use a tecnique that we seldom employ on taney. It is little more than a flop out and you for sure would not need a flyrod to do it. A canepole or switch would employ about the same fishing style.

Most were fishing a white either streamer or jig, or egg pattern about 6 to 8 ft. under an indicator. If their rods were 9footers they were probably fishing with the indicator about 9ft. from the tip of the rod. They just leave that much flyline out and never pick it up or cast it. After they drift the area they choose, they just motor back to the spot with the fly line dragging behind the boat and when they get to their desired location, they just make a hard overhand slam and drift it again and again. alot of times their strike indicator, will be drifting within 4 or 5 ft of the boat.

I have seen a couple of the Ark guides on taney and they also drift like this during generation, only with maby 10 to 16 feet of tippet below the indicator, seems to work, as their clients catch plenty of fish.

They will fish it right under the boat with no cast at all. Their clients after the drift, will pull the flyline in till the indicator reaches the rod tip, and then pull the tippet in wraping it around their hand. When they get to the desired drift location they will hand drop the tippet and fly just over the side to float the strike indicator, they do have to mend from time to time, but that is about the only fly fishing manuver they make.

I like to watch myself cast to much for this presentation, and is that really fly fishing, just because your using a flyrod? Just a question, not a critism.

All in all, what a great way to spend a 32 degree February day.