2/1/2016 fishing report

[Ham]

It was my absolute pleasure to fish with Richard Button and BilletHead yesterday on Taneycomo. I swung by Lilley's Landing and got my trout stamp and a couple of OAF stickers. They have a really well stocked shop. i was sorely tempted to shop, but I had to meet the guys at the ramp.

We launched at Cooper Creek. Very nice launch. It was pretty chilly 28 degrees or so. Billethead had gotten a tip or two from DuckyDoty so we headed up above Fall Creek and fished the deeper side of the river. Not surprisingly, I threw Zig Jigs. Richard and BilletHead started with fly rods. 

We all started with White jigs or flys, but I honestly think the bloom is off that rose. Judging by all the White Jigs I saw broken off in trees up and down the river, that was definitely the deal recently. It's always worth a try when they are generating, but we just did not catch that many on White. I broke off a White jig and switched to Tri Olive. I caught a fish almost immediately with it and stayed away from White most of the rest of the day. Brown/orange was also good for us.

We caught a few, but curiosity got the best of me and I decided to run up close to the dam. We ran all the way to the cable. We spotted DD up river and watched one of his guys catch a nice fish on a fly drift rig on spinning. We started on a section of bank that Richard and BilletHead know well. We almost immediately started catching fish. Action was much better in that area. I know we could have put up huge numbers if the wind had been <10 mph.

The wind was just a pain in the butt. It makes it tough to sling flys. It makes it tough to get a good drift and I really struggle to jig fish when the wind gets >10 mph. We were getting blown upstream against pretty decent generation. They had run about 7000 CFS and it dropped by dribs and drabs down to 5300 or so. 

Whenever I could get a good drift and the wind would slow just a tad, one of us would hook up. We also had a bunch of doubles, but we never got a triple. The fish were fat and happy. generation really helps those fish fatten up. Shad are a great food for the trout. I think the "extra" water helps the entire food chain.

Billethead is a 99.44 % pure fly rod fisherman. He caught some on streamers and some beneath an indicator. Big San Juans, 1/32 oz Zig Jigs, and Y2K's all caught fish for him. He did sling a Zig Jig just for a minute to catch a couple of fish just to show me he could. I brought a couple of fly rods, but never strung one up. I did borrow Richard's fly rod for a few minutes and caught a small one and lost another drifting a 1/32 oz Zig. The wind soon irritated me too much to keep that up. Point made and back to Zig Jigs.

Richard did better with jigs. He had a lot of fish hooked on the fly rod, but I'm not sure he got any to the boat with it. He had some real nice jig fish though. We all caught enough fish to keep us interested. The wind kept us cool, but the sunshine was good for the soul. I had such a good time with these two gentleman. The day flew by.

Richard brought drinks and sandwiches. BilletHead brought some goose jerky that was as good as any jerky I've ever had. Makes me wish I hunted geese. You might think you know what goose tastes like, but if you haven't had it done right, you just don't know.

i hope we can do it again soon. Here, there, or somewhere else ; I look forward to fishing with either or both of them again. 

BilletHead took a few pictures. Maybe he'll share. 

 

[BilletHead]

        Ah yes another fun trip with friends. Yes windy and kudos to Ham for boat control in the conditions we had.I am not sure I would of had his patience. Another good thing besides fishing we got to solve world problems and talk smack about OA forum members too . Go ahead and guess you know who you are! HA.  Funny also who you see on the river. Many, many moons ago I met a gentleman on the Bates county drainage ditch. He and I stood on the muddy bank catching crappie, walleye, white bass and hybrid in a small slot on the river. We were the only ones there and introduced ourselves. His name was Ken White the outdoor writer. We conversed about turkey and deer hunting, fishing of course too. Being outdoor folks I have seen him other places also fishing. It has been several years until yesterday. As we visited with DD floating down the river I thought I recognized one of the gents in the boat with him. I said is that you Ken White, yes he said. Pretty neat to see him again enjoying being out doing what he likes to do. A nice fellow. Icing on the cake for a great outing. Some shots from the day,

    For some of you that have a hard time imagining the power of the force of what high water flows can do.

BilletHead

 

[dtrs5kprs]

Pretty darn nice day.

[Terrierman]

Nice hat Ham.

[grizwilson]

1 hour ago, Terrierman said:

Nice hat Ham.

Gonna check my truck looks like mine

g

[Ham]

2 hours ago, Terrierman said:

Nice hat Ham.

Authentic Mad Bomber with Rabbit Fur. Nanuck of the North doesn't like cold ears. 

[Ham]

1 hour ago, grizwilson said:

Gonna check my truck looks like mine

g

For the record, the last time a cold weather hat was accidentally kleptoed, Quill back was on the losing end and I had to mail it back to him for the good of the group. It wasn't me that had the cold bald head on that trip.

 

[netboy]

Sounds like a fun day for sure.

[grizwilson]

4 hours ago, Ham said:

Authentic Mad Bomber with Rabbit Fur. Nanuck of the North doesn't like cold ears. 

Neither does griz. but added a bill to mine to help shade eyes and see fish better..... otherwise same hat only customized.

[mic]

Ham, I was kind of hoping but expecting a try with your tankura rod.