September 10 Fishing Report

[Phil Lilley]

Generation lately has been anyone's guess.  According to the SPA online forecast, they're supposed to run about one unit for an hour late evening every day but that's not been very accurate.  They're been running water starting about noon - 1 p.m. and off by 8 p.m..  They are running 2-4 units, 100 megawatts at about 707 feet.  Lake temperature remains about 58 degrees.

So the water has been off from 8 p.m. till the next mid day giving fly fishers a chance to fish below the dam as well as other parts of the lake.  Tim Homesley fished a couple of mornings last week and "was impressed" at the number, size and quality of our trout.  Tim owns Tim's Fly Shop near Roaring River State Park.  He said his best fly was a chammy worm which is basically a San Juan tied with a thin slice of shammy cloth.  Some people use it on a small jig head.  I've been told the best way to work either a shammy or mega worm (white) is let it go to the bottom and move it, keeping it in sight.  And when it disappears, set the hook because it's probably in a fish's mouth.

 

Other flies have been small (#20-22) gray scuds, cracklebacks (#16), P&P or rusty Zebra Midge (#18), foam beetles and ants and black or olive wooly buggers (#16).  Also brown or olive sculpins have been catching fish too.  Even some bass have been hooked below the dam fishing streamers.

I've done pretty good fly fishing, using a red Zebra Midge (#16) under an indicator 3-4 feet deep, fishing from the Narrows down to Fall Creek when the water is off, 6x tippet.

Below Fall Creek, the pink Berkley's power worm is STILL king!  It's amazing how well this bait has worked for so long.  Almost all our guides fish it because it works!!  Steve Dickey has been parked 200 yards above our dock for a couple of weeks each morning with his clients catch rainbow after rainbow.  He stays in the shade of the bluff until his trip is over about 10:30 a.m..  Even during the day in bright sunlight, it works.

Buster Loving reported his clients caught over a hundred rainbows on spoons (Cleo 1/8th ounce) in the Branson Landing area a couple of days ago.  It was a fish on every cast, he said.

Night crawlers and PowerBaits still are catching trout too.  Again, we haven't seen much of any slow-downs this season.  I believe it's because of the warmer water.  Our fish are more active and need to feed most of the time to keep their strength.  This also helps the food base, minnows, sculpins and bugs.

This is a picture of the gravel flat at the Narrows above Fall Creek.  At low water, there's more exposed gravel than ever before.

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[mikeak]

Thanks