Fished 09/08-09/09

[Don]

I dropped by Lilley's for supplies and his daughter said Phil just left for Alaska. As I drove over the dam I saw they were running water. I arrived at Table Rock State park at 5:00 and set up camp in the pouring rain. I tied up a tarp and built a pretty good fire in the pouring rain. I was getting hungry so I grilled chicken in the pouring rain. It was rather relaxing just sitting there listening to the rain splash the top of the tarp. I learned why one should wear both parts of your rain suit. I only wore the jacket, so 3 hours later, the water that ran down the jacket was soaked up by my jeans and the rest of my clothes. Duh. The rain stopped about 8:30 so I changed to dry clothes and rested for awhile.

Around 9:00 I became bored and decided to take a drive to the dam. I got out at the chute 1 parking lot to ask some guys if water was off. After a few minutes I was revealed that one of them was Leonard. He twisted my arm to suit up and I obliged. We hit the water a little before 10:00 and fished for 2 hours spending most of out time between chutes 1 and 2. I had one strike on a black pine squirrel. Leonard suggested he would be trying the color white so I caught 2 on a small white wooly bugger. I had more strikes stripping after the drift. I then switched to a white rabbit leach and caught 2 more while drifting slowly. Leonard had to leave while I needed a break because I had nagging lower back pain all weekend.

I visited Michael Kyle, Dwayne, and a few of their friends as they were suiting up at the pavillion. They looked like they were on a mission. I debated on fishing again and since I just slammed a Red Bull energy drink, I was obligated to the gauntlet. It's my favorite place to fish streamers during the day. I started just below rebar and worked my way down towards the end. I wanted to try the big hole but there were people fishing there. I enjoyed the elbow room and the solitude, however alot of lightning in distance made me a little nervous at times. I used only one fly, the white rabbit leach, no weight, and had many strikes. I only caught 5 more and missed and lost quite a few fish. All caught were bows from 12-14 inches. I walked back to the top of the gauntlet ready repeat things with a natural color rabbit leach and then the alarm on my watch reminded me that it was 2:00. I made a few unsuccesful casts and packed it in back to camp. It was the first time I fished at night in two years and my third time night fishing ever. To date, it was my best night trip.

I arrived back to the dam at 8:30 AM Sunday and fished until noon. Fishing was very slow and I only caught 4. I caught those with GBugs and scuds from Chartered Waters. I might have caught a few more but I spent at least an hour pounding on a lunker rainbow that I located. Final Score: Lunker Bow 1, Don 0; similar to the KC Chiefs game.

Don

[MrDucky]

Don sounds like you had alot of fun

[Leonard]

Don...

Enjoyed the visit and the fishing... I had a blast..

I didnt mean to twist your arm so hard..LOL

Hope to do it with you again soon...

Leonard