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Mayflies hatching in Taney


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March Browns, Phil. I've known about them on Taney for about 3-4 years now. Always last few days of March or early April. Usually starting about Point Royale, maybe a bit upstream.

What you describe would be a HUGE hatch for Taney!

And improving Mayfly hatches are usually a sign of improving water quality.

SilverMallard

"How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of - and which no other people on Earth enjoy."

Thomas Jefferson

(This disclaimer is to state that any posts of a questionable nature are to be interpreted by the reader at their own peril. The writer of this post in no way supports the claims made in this post, or takes resposibility for their interpretations or uses. It is at the discretion of the reader to wrestle through issues of sarcasm, condescension, snobbery, lunacy, left and or right wing conspiracies, lying, cheating, wisdom, enlightenment, or any form of subterfuge contained herein.)

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LIB MR BUGS 2!

At least it ain't a skeeter!!!

TIGHT LINES, YA'LL

 

"There he stands, draped in more equipment than a telephone lineman, trying to outwit an organism with a brain no bigger than a breadcrumb, and getting licked in the process." - Paul O’Neil

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I caught several fish on PTN's the other day. Didn't get to fish a lot because they started generating and ramped up to 4 after a bit. But on 1 gen, I did well on BH PTN's. BH Hare's Ear is also a good choice...14-16. Both work well this time of year as things begin to warm up.

SilverMallard

"How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of - and which no other people on Earth enjoy."

Thomas Jefferson

(This disclaimer is to state that any posts of a questionable nature are to be interpreted by the reader at their own peril. The writer of this post in no way supports the claims made in this post, or takes resposibility for their interpretations or uses. It is at the discretion of the reader to wrestle through issues of sarcasm, condescension, snobbery, lunacy, left and or right wing conspiracies, lying, cheating, wisdom, enlightenment, or any form of subterfuge contained herein.)

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Is this a portent of things to come? Is it really possible to have mayfly hatches on Taneycomo?

Paul Rone

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troutchaser,

There have been small hatches of Sulphurs, BWOs, and March Browns on upper Taney for as long as I've been fishing there (1998). On the "lake" part of the lake, there have always been mayflies. But what Phil described and what I saw Monday is far more significant in volume than they have been in the past. And the trout were actually feeding on the surface aggressively.

SilverMallard

"How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of - and which no other people on Earth enjoy."

Thomas Jefferson

(This disclaimer is to state that any posts of a questionable nature are to be interpreted by the reader at their own peril. The writer of this post in no way supports the claims made in this post, or takes resposibility for their interpretations or uses. It is at the discretion of the reader to wrestle through issues of sarcasm, condescension, snobbery, lunacy, left and or right wing conspiracies, lying, cheating, wisdom, enlightenment, or any form of subterfuge contained herein.)

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I've noticed spinners on the water in the past, but it was always near the bank within feet of some sort of brush. I've never seen anything that I would call a full-on hatch.

Why this change? You mentioned water quality. Is that all it takes?

Whatever the change, it must have started about a year ago to get a hatch like this now, right?

As you can tell, entymology is not in my skill set - yet. Consider me eager to learn, though.

Paul Rone

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Well, I'm no stream biologist! But water conditions are a key factor: turbidity, nutrient loads, dissolved oxygen, submerged cover, flow rates, depth, temps, etc. all play a role in creating "ideal" conditions for everything in the water. And these things...like most in nature...ebb and flow over time. In a tailrace like this one...with extremely dynamic and unstable flows...whatever consistency one might witness in other streams just isn't there.

So...to MY way of thinking...it's nearly impossible to isolate the variables on Taney enough to know what's actually causing what. So I just try to enjoy what I get and adapt to the EXTREME changing conditions. In fact, I think fishing Ozark tailraces makes one a more versatile angler than if we fished places with more consistent water management. In effect, each generation cycle is a "Spring runoff" in the Rockies. And each time they turn the generators off, we learn to fish on dropping water, then on shallow slow streams, and then on still waters. Sometimes we get bugs. Sometimes we fish streamers. Sometimes we fish emergers. Sometimes we get shad kills. And there is the ever-present macro-invertebrate population. We have two different Rainbow spawns and one Brown spawn on Taney alone. I consider Taney my fly-fishing school and laboratory. And when I travel to other locations, I always find something useful that I learned in changing conditions on Taneycomo.

SilverMallard

"How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of - and which no other people on Earth enjoy."

Thomas Jefferson

(This disclaimer is to state that any posts of a questionable nature are to be interpreted by the reader at their own peril. The writer of this post in no way supports the claims made in this post, or takes resposibility for their interpretations or uses. It is at the discretion of the reader to wrestle through issues of sarcasm, condescension, snobbery, lunacy, left and or right wing conspiracies, lying, cheating, wisdom, enlightenment, or any form of subterfuge contained herein.)

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