Guest flyfishBDS Posted January 14, 2006 Posted January 14, 2006 BEAVER DAM STORE REPORT January 12, 2006 G'day y'all from the Beaver Dam Store crew! Winter, what winter? If it wasn't for the wind over the past week or so, we would have unpacked the shorts and sandals and gone paddling in the lake. Well, maybe. But the days have certainly been gorgeous and a great time to fish. Even on the breezy days you can often find a corner on the tailwater to duck out of the wind _ your might find exploring more on the river will open up some great new water. The Midge hatches have been superb, great dry fly action. In this week's report we unveil a great new Shad fly, show off our new goodies from the Fishpond range, give you something to help pass the time at work between fishing trips and of course the fishing report. FISHPOND AT THE DAM STORE Come and play in our Fishpond _ some of the finest vest-packs, gear bags and accessories on the market. And not only do they designed superbly, work exceptionally well, but will also have you stylin' like never before. Comfort, fit and quality are all Fishpond hallmarks. We have just received out first shipment of Fishpond gear into the Dam Store, and the crew have been dancing around trying stuff on, playing with tools, fiddling with zippers and tossing wrapping paper around the store like kids at Christmas. Getting any work done was nigh on impossible. We will be expanding our range of products in our spring shipment (if you like anything they make we can order it for you) but here is our list of Fishpond essentials. Double Haul Chest/Back Pack: Any smarter and this fly fishing "load mover" would have a college degree. Wear it as a light chest pack, a back pack or clip it all together for serious fishing expeditions. The zip down fly bench, with replaceable foam inserts are sweet for carrying most often used patterns, there is plenty of room for your other boxes, and it can be fitted with a hydration bladder for long hot days on our tailwaters. $119. Hydration bladder $24. San Juan Chest Pack: Some days it just doesn't make sense to carry everything along. A few flies, a spool of tippet, some sunscreen, floatant, some nippers and haemos are about it. The San Juan is made for hot lazy days, shoret evening wades and those winter days when you don't really feel like cramming your vest under your wading jacket. Comfort rules with the lightweight San Juan. Yet it still features the fly bench with replaceable foam, webbing and loops for tool attachment, capacity for a decent sized fly box, if there are extra patterns you have to carry, and a secure zippered interior pocket for keys. 360 Degree Swivel Retractor: This is probably one of the most solid and well thought out zingers we have seen on the market. No flimsy pins to bend, a strong UV protected poly cord and hefty snaps. These you can count on to protect your Dr Slick and Fishpond tools. Match the nippers with Fishpond's superb Pitchfork Aluminum Clippers or the nifty Aussie Clippers pictured at right. Our own Aussie Steve has a pair he purchased back home in 1999 which are still cutting. Light, yet study enough to cut your heaviest striper tippet. SWEET SHAD FLY This fly is so sexy we still aren't sure if we shouldn't put an Adults Only rating on the photo. One thing is certain its going to get eaten by a lot of fish species this winter and spring. We bought in the shad fly specifically for the Arkansas shad kill, one event which turns otherwise big smart trout into big dumb gluttonous trout. But since then we have been having plenty of fun coming up with other uses _ largemouth bass on SWEPCO lake (which by all report is fishing superbly), spring smallmouth, white bass and hybrids running upstream from Table Rock and Beaver Lakes and of course Beaver stripers. This shad pattern (size 6) comes in three versions to cover a variety of fishing situations. The floating version will be hot for shad kill situations, Beaver Lake whites, or stripping the fly in shallows. The weighted and sinking versions offer two sink speeds, for drifting the flies during the shad kill under an indicator or fishing deeper lakes for bass BIG DAM SALE A close friend of mine used to live by the mantra "Never Pay Retail". Well here is your chance to extract a bunch of bargains well under retail prices from the Dam Store. We have a huge inventory of 2005 stock that has to get moved so we can stock the shelves with new stuff. Hobies, fly rods, reels, nets, fly lines, leader and tippet, flies _ you probably saw the list in our special report last week. If you missed it drop us an email and we can send it out again or better yet call in and peruse the deals. And don't forget if you don't live within an easy drive of the store we can ship it to you STEVE'S FLY KNOT If you have have taken one of Steve's guide trips or classes you have probably seen this knot tied, and definately used it. He actually found this knot in an American Angler magazine while still in Tasmania. But he's know used it on both sides of the Pacific for everything from Alaskan salmon, Arkansas trout, Baja snook and roosters. Its quick to tie, extremely strong when tied correctly, and it lets you know if when you get it right. More over in these water it the Eugene Bend is a very good knot with flourocarbon _ significantly better than the improved clinch which is one of the most popular fly-tippet connections, and found in just about every knot book. So here is the tying instructions for the Eugene Bend _ we have photocopies available in the store as well for your kit bag or practice at home. 1 _ Pass Tag end through hook eye. Leave a long tag. Lay the fly on your fingers with the tag end pointing back up the standing part of the tippet. 2 _ Form a loop with the tag end gripping the two legs of the loop between your forefinger and thumb, the end of the tag will be pointing back into your palm. 3 _ Bring the standing part of the line (the section running to the fly line) up between your forefinger and thumb so all three “legs” are pinched together in the same spot. 4 _ Twist the loop around the standing line 4 times for 6x and 5x. For heavy or thick tippet use 3 turns. 5 _ Poke the tag end through the remainder of the loop (to make this knot faster to tie you can often manipulate the tag end “forward” earlier in the sequence). 6 _ Gently pull the tag end so the knot snugs onto the standing part of the line. DO NOT TIGHTEN. You are aiming to get the loop closest to the hook eye small enough so it won’t slide over the hook eye. 7 _ Grasp the standing part of the leader and the hook by the bend. Draw the knot down to the hook eye with a smooth pull. Maintain a firm steady pressure until you feel the knot “click” into place. The tag end should sit at an angle (20-30 degrees) to the leader. 8 _ If you don’t feel a click then give a sharp pull, the knot will break easily and retie, otherwise _ pinch your barb down and go fishing. SPOT THE 20# TROUT Sitting at work dreaming of big fish on White River tailwaters? Need a trouty fix? Courtesy of Phill Lilley's OzarkAnglers.Com website comes TroutCam, underneath the dock at Lilley's Landing Resort, a permanent webcam into the waters of Taneycomo. Instead of wasting your time playing solitaire on those slack afternoons, do something way more productive, like observing trout behaviour. Watch a bunch of Taney rainbows and browns cruising, feeding and hanging about around the cooler etc. It's also worth checking out the Ozark Anglers Forums, a new and very worthy board covering all the major White River lakes and tailwaters, plus the Missouri Trout Parks, and everything from bass to bluegill to brown trout. You will see us posting under the nickname flyfishBDS. Here is Phil's Instructions on how to load the webcam: "Find Windows Media Player (on your computer). If you don't have it, you can go to http://microsoft.com and download it. To find it, go to Start/All Programs/Accessories/Entertainment/Windows Media Player. Go to File/Open Url In the Player then type (or copy paste) http://208.180.97.140:1200" FISHING REPORT Beaver Tailwater: Fishing has been up and down like the temperature guage around here. Stone cold one minute and half an hour later its red hot. Perseverence will pay off. Probably the most reliable fishing has been the midge hatches. One is usually starting around 11am, another around 4pm. During the hatches a Parachute Adams (20-22) is a great all-rounder, Adams (20); Midge Adams, Cream Midges, or our newly unpacked Adult Midge Light, Snowshoe Midge Emerger, or Parasol Midge Emerger have all had some success. With so many fish up on the surface, picking a target fish and aiming for the best presentation is often the best approach. We have Wapsi's Razor Foam Midge tying kits ($8 each) to whip up some of Pat Neuman's great little fly. Tie it as a pupa or an adult. Its simple fast and effective. If you don't fancy dry fly precision try swinging a soft hackle, Olive Submarine, Dark Olive Dun and Peacock and Patridge and in deeper or swifter sections try the new Fulton's Tungsten Wired Red butt. Before the midge hatch try Zebra midges (black, brown or red); Razorback Midges; Charlotte's Redneck Midge and other midge pupa imitations. And our missing fly tier Bryce Cadion has resurfaced after hunting season so we have back in stock Bryce's TDM in three colors _ don't miss out! Subsurface sowbugs remain the fly of choice through much of the upper section of the tailwater. Try our gray sowbugs 12-18 or the sweet McLellan's Woven V-Rib sowbug. Olive Woolly Buggers, and Egg patterns are performing well particularly in peach colors, Umpqua's superb low water Flashtail mini eggs, and the bead head Veiled Eggs for faster runs. We have also been able to finally get in some teeny size 18 Flashtail Eggs which should be gobbled up. As the cold weather increases watch for more early morning water releases, particularly on weekdays. Generation has been starting in the evening on dusk. Call 417 336 5083 for a real time recorded message (after the Table Rock report) on water releases. Tight Lines from the Beaver Dam Store staff, Lisa Steve, Shirley, Tom and Kevin. PLEASE NOTE: The Beaver Dam Store Report comes out weekly in an email form. If you would like it delivered, in living color, to your email drop us a line _ beaverdamstore@ipa.net
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