Good Weather – Bad Weather
Crazy water and weather the past four days. Ran various levels of water all day Thursday until 11:00 a.m. Friday morning. Off the balance of Friday. The equivalent of one generator running Saturday morning until 8:00 a.m. No generation until 7:00 p.m. Sunday morning the equivalent of one generator running until 8:00 a.m. Weather warm, every day except yesterday when it was drizzling or outright raining and the temperatures did not get much above 50 degrees. Bone chilling with the temps and rain. Friday was windy! Temperatures were great, but one of the drift boats called in to see if we had any surf boards as the waves were almost high enough for a good surf run. Today was a warm day in the 70s with a bit of wind.
Thursday Stan had a bass fisherman from Florida on the water all day. Jim wanted to try his hand at fly fishing! He got some fish to the boat on the P&P and the Bug Eyed Bugger. Lots of hits, but a little slow on the draw most of the time. Great guy and fun to be on the water with.
Jim had Dan and Tim on the water Friday and Saturday. Found out that Dan lived three houses from Stan and Carolyn in Stilwell, Kansas for several years! The guys had a couple good days with the black midge, 18 and smaller and gray scud, 16. Gina was wading the Rocking Chair area Saturday with Reese and Landon from Oklahoma. Their father, Tad, wanted to get the guys started on the right foot with a little instruction. Landon is 12 and Reece is 10. They were getting hits on the black and olive midges. Tad, watching and fishing from the sidelines was catching fish on the black soft hackle, size 20. Once Reece started getting hits on the soft hackle, he stopped watching the fish circling his feet and forgot he was cold. Great couple of young men. As Gina said, "nothing like helping a kid land his first trout….made my day!"
Darrell was fortunate enough to get Malcomb and Dr. Dan from the St. Louis area on Saturday. Malcomb is noted for his serenading on the water. Despite the cold, windy, rainy day, they caught lots of fish on the olive filoplume, size 12, black zebra and P&P midges, 18. The Rocking Chair area fished best for them, then past the Pointe area, the shallow edge of the old river channel
Jim had Morgan and Larry on the water. These regulars been going out with Jim forever. Great couple of guys. Morgan did some serious damage to his right hand with a circular saw about a year and half ago, so Jim has been working with him to turn him into a southpaw (left hand is the only right way). Glad to say, Morgan is doing well with it. They landed several fish before they decided it was too cold and came off the water early. Cruised right by the fly shop on their way in and straight up to Dana’s hamburger shop to eat lunch. Best flies were the black midge, 18 and smaller and gray size 16 scud.
Dana was also on the water Saturday with Steve and Bo from Texas. Steve is just getting started and Bo has done some fly fishing. Steve was throwing a pretty good line by the end of the 1/2 day trip. Best fly was the black zebra midge with a shuck.
Sunday was sunny, warm and still windy. Dana on the water with Max and his 10 year old nephew, Andrew. Andrew got the first hit, but didn’t manage to bring it in. Their bugs were the P&P and the olive filoplume. Andrew was going back home to talk his father into coming back and taking him fishing again. Think he likes it!
During the week, most of the folks coming into the shop were doing well in the Hatchery Area on small gray scuds, as small as 20s.