Looks like the rain is going to move in pretty soon.  It was pretty this morning, with the sun shinning and temperatures in the upper 60S.  Around 11:30 a.m. there was a very light shower.  It went away but left us with overcast skies and it is looking a lot like rain.  We will see rain tonight and tomorrow.  The chances for Thursday are backing off a little.  Last time I looked it was down to 40% chance, but there are 50-60% chances into the weekend.  Now it is a wait and see just how much we get.

They do have the water off today!  Yesterday’s projection was for the water to go off at 10:00 a.m.  NOT!!  It did not happen.  However, using two units they ran the equivalent of a low one unit and it was nice.  Tomorrow’s projection is already up and they are supposed to run two units tomorrow

Everyone who came out to fish yesterday thinking they would see the bottom had a good day.  Lots of good reports on catching lots of fish.  However, today the water was off and the fishing was even better.  I was hearing numbers of 50 plus from lots of fishers.   Unfortunately, the number of fishers out today was down probably because no one believed the projection!  Well, if you came, you were rewarded.  I fished a little this morning and it was great!  They were hitting almost everything.  Black midges, big ruby, little ruby, buggers, mini slider sculpin, scuds…..

Recognize this place?

Tuesday morning – 3/8/16

Went out this morning to see what the river looked like.  It definitely has changed.  This is up by the root wad below the rebar hole.  As you can see, quite a bit of fill in up there.  Not sure, but it looks like the gravel bar along the south back down at the rockin’ chair hole is gone.  Maybe it had not dropped out enough yet, but I could see no gravel bar.  It’s just a log wider than it once was.  There is a gravel bar going further across the narrows above Trophy Run.  Created what may be a great run for fishing, but it will be a fast trip in the boats through that narrow chute and probably no rowing back up.  Might make it if you get out and pull your boat back up.  Also looks like a lot of gravel and silt have filled in between Lookout Island and the long island on the Point Royale site.

Yep!  Another great weekend.  Even had the front door opened during most of the day yesterday…it was that warm!  Today will probably hit the 70s.  Only negative, if the forecast is correct, will be the wind.  They expect a front to start being blown in today, so we should see some pretty good wind gusts.  We can handle that.  Tomorrow looks like another nice day, but showers might be moving in by tomorrow evening and definitely are in the forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday.  Even with that, the temperatures will still remain very nice.

IF the generation projection is correct to tomorrow, we will be what Taneycomo looks like again!  They are scheduled to shut down the generations tomorrow morning around 10:00.  They are supposed to be off for fire back up around 5:00 p.m.  Everyone is anxiously awaiting to see what Taneycomo looks like after the December flood we had.  I certainly am!

Another good fly tying clinic this weekend.  We tied the JQ and Tiger Tail streamers.  Great local patterns that work with or without sinking line or leaders.  And, the nice thing about tying them is that you can customize them to meet your preferred method of fishing.  As nice as the weather was, I think some of the tiers were ready to go out and fish them.  Last session for this season next week when we will tie terrestrials.

Sunny skies through Saturday and temperatures in the 60s.  By Sunday, looks like showers are coming into the picture and hanging around for a few days.  However, temperatures continue in te 60s and possibly 70s by the coming weekend.

Darn!  Wish I could have said the generation schedule is lower today.  Beaver hit their magic number of 1121.4 feet yesterday and at that point planned to shut back on the two generators they have been running for several days.  Hoped Table Rock would follow suite.  However, as of this a.m. Beaver did back off running two generators for the entire day, but instead are running them for four hours this morning, then down to one unit for most of the day.  They will run two generators again this evening for four hours then shut her down.  Table Rock is continuing with its two units almost all day today.  Shall we hope for a change tomorrow?!…..to be continued

Ken, formerly from Kansas, who now lives in Branson took a 1/2 day float with Stan Monday.  Lots of fish, but lots of smaller fish.  Lots of wind and water too.  They were fishing the big ruby with the cerise San Juan worm dropper.  Tried stripping a little, but not much success with this.

We still have a couple spots left in the “Spey/Switch-Rod Clinic” coming up this month – March 26!!  Give us a call if you’re interested – 417-332-0460

Checked on Stan yesterday while he was out on a guide trip and he said his guest had been blown out of the boat and was floating down the river.  It was blowing yesterday!  I tried to go out the back door of the shop and had a hard time getting it open as the wind was holding it.  Glad that’s over.  Beautiful day today.  Not quite 10:00 a.m. and the temperatures is already 51 degrees and full sunshine AND no wind!  Let’s get through the next few days and we’ll be back to sunshine.  Good chance of rain starting late tonight and staying around until late morning or early afternoon on Tuesday.  Wednesday looks like partly cloudy with very late showers carrying through to Thursday.  After Thursday it’s back into sunny skies and temperatures in the 60s, and even 70s by Sunday and into next week.  Oops!  What is the saying?  “March in like a lamb…out like a lion”.

We still have the equivalent of a good two units running every day, all day.  However, I believe this will change in 2-3 more days.  At that time, Beaver will reach their goal of 1121.43.  At this point, they say they will cut back on releases to about one-fourth of a foot a day until it reaches the top of its conservation pool .  Their projection is that they will reach conservation pool by March 5.  In the meantime, when they cut back on the current flow rate Table Rock will probably follow suite and cut back on what they have been flowing, unless, of courses, there are power needs or we get a lot of rain.

Billy’s brown – 2/27/16

Billy, from Illinois, spent yesterday on the river with Stan.  Quite a ride with all the wind.  Good day for Billy on the big ruby and the cerise San Juan worm.  And he is still talking about the one that got away.  It took off up stream and snapped hit 4X in a heartbeat.  He did get a good look at it as it was going by and I bet he didn’t sleep well last night!  He has fished with us several time and this was his first brown.

Like I said in the last report, a little reality check for a few days.  However!  We are looking at upper 60s and even low 70s again for this weekend into Monday.  Tuesday is still warm, in the upper 60s, but there is a pretty good chance for scattered thunderstorms both Tuesday and Wednesday next week.  Temperatures will still remain in te mid 50s or 60s for the balance of next week.

Dumping Beaver at a rate of about 1/2 a day.  Fortunately, or unfortunately, at this rate it will take another 7–8 days before Beaver gets back to power pool.  Not sure what this means for Table Rock, but I expect to see some type of generation continue until that time.

Jim – 2/24/16

Good news is that Taneycomo is fishing good.  Wednesday Jim out with Gina yesterday.  They had a windy day of catching on an egg with a midge dropper and a small bugger.  As you can see from the picture, it was a little blustery out there but it did not affect the catching!

Reality had to set in on this wonderful weather we have been having.  However looks like it won’t last long.  Today through Thursday, temperatures are predicted to be in the upper 40s…..more normal.  Some chance for rain, but that sounds like a long shot.  The worse thing I am seeing in the weather forecasts is the wind.  20-30 mph tomorrow and 15-25 mph on Thursday.  Throw a line in that!

Generation was bumped up today to a low two units.  They are using three units to run the equivalent of two.  Beaver is running both their generators, and I imagine Table Rock will keep pace with this input to keep us at or below power pool.

Orin – 2/21/16

A couple more good days on the water.  Sunday, Stan took Dennis and his son Orin out for the afternoon.  Looked line rain Sunday morning so they thought an afternoon trip would be drier.  Good move.  Maybe a few sprinkles in the a.m. but it was definitely warmer and the sun even came out for the afternoon.  Orin had a new fly rod that he needed to christen.  Mission accomplished.  Among the several fish he landed, was a nice 18-1/2″ rainbow.  All in all, a very good day.

Monday, David, from Oklahoma had a late

David – 2/22/16

morning trip with Stan.  Good day for them on the cerise or white San Juan worms.  A little cool in the morning, but it warmed up pretty good.

80 degrees in February?  It feels like we stole a couple beautiful days.  Got up the Friday morning and the temperature was in the 60s….same thing today.  I think yesterday was a little cooler, but we managed to hit the 80s yesterday afternoon.  Upper 60s today; low 60s tomorrow and then a cool down into the mid to upper 40s for a few days then back into the 50s.  Right now it looks like 60 by next weekend!  Biggest chance for rain looks like Tuesday and Wednesday this coming week.

Pretty steady generation pattern the past four days.  Today is projected to be more of the same.  Somewhere around 2400 t0 3000 cfs which puts the tail water in the 704.2 to 705 foot range.  However, be aware, they can always bump it a little more than that so make certain you know how deep the water is when you walk out and keep and eye on some reference point to know that the levels has not changed.  Monday is projected to continue this trend, but they are showing a little more release from Beaver.  This could have an affect on our water release here.  We will just have to see what they do tomorrow.

With this great weather, everyone is having a major case of “cabin fever”.  Allen spent most of Thursday afternoon on the water with Jim working on streamer fishing.  They has a very good day stripping the JQ and the bug eye streamers, but probably did best on the white bead nymph.  Allen is definitely better prepared for streamer work.

Friday, Dave from Oklahoma, fish with Jim Great day on the black JQ, tiger tail and white bead nymph.  For the streamers, the tiger tail did best, but again, the white bead nymph was best.

Kristi – 2/20/16

Glad to see Rick and Kristi back again.  They too could not believe the weather for this weekend so they called hopping they could sneak in a float trip.  Great day for then with Stan.  Cerise or white bead San Juan worms were their best patterns.

I’m shop-bound right now with the sun shining and the temperature is 63 degrees at 11:30!!!  Something wrong with this picture.  The only negative we are expecting today will be the wind.  Looks like the high will hit 70 today and continue in the 70 through the weekend.  And next week’s forecast shows mid 50 all week.  We are now into March with these temperatures.  The only negative, and it’s not that bad, is that next a week from this Sunday currently shows a 50% chance for showers.  Could use SOME rain but, hopefully, not the gully washers we experienced this past year.

They are still running the equivalent of one unit most of the day.  Some days they have increase the flow in the morning from 7:00 a.m. through 10:00 a.m. to as much as three units while they are running Beaver.  When Beaver is shut down, Table Rock goes back to one unit.  This was not been the case the past two days.  They have just run the equivalent of one unit all day.  However be aware this could happen.

Stan on the river Monday with David from Oklahoma.  Bad wind gusts over 40 mph.  Certainly tough casting and even more difficult getting a good drift.  However, they did catch fish and nice quality fish on the cerise San Juan worm.

Jim 2/17/16

Wednesday Jim spent yesterday, and what a gorgeous day it was, on the river with Carolyn.   It did not take long to see that not only was the day going to be great, but so was fishing.  First four casts resulted in fish.  Lots of nice, fat (16-18 inches) fish on either the cerise San Juan worm, or the white grub.  We did catch a few on a JQ streamer but nothing like the worm or grub.

Gary was on the water Tuesday pulling the JQ streamer with a red soft hackle trailer and caught a bunch of fish in a couple hours.  We both agreed that fishing the past couple days has seemed like the good old days.  The fish are there and definitely eating.

Other than Valentine’s Day, the weather has been great.  It is difficult to believe that this is early February!  The forecast for Tuesday is low 50s.  Wednesday will be in the low 60s and Thursday through Saturday will be near or in the 70s!  Sunday should be in the 60s and next week looks like mid to upper 50s.  As a matter of fact, the rest of February looke like nothing less than 50s and 60s for the highs the rest of the month!

So far, the generation schedule the past 3-4 days has been less than a full generator for most of the day.  Usually in the morning around 7:00, they fire up a low two units then three, then back to two for three hours while they are dumping Beaver.  Once that is done, back to the less than one unit.  Over the weekend, it was 30 mw  Today it was all over the board…..one unit, a low two units, then back to a full one.  Tuesday is projected to be the normal ramp up around 7:00 a.m for three hours then down to not quite a full unit the balance of the day.  We will see….

Great Valentine’s Day.  Ed and Susan from here in Missouri decided to take the two-day fly fishing school.  First day was not too bad temperature wise.  We did the morning classroom session on learning about gear, bugs, knots, reading water, stream etiquette, etc.; then went to the water and worked casting.  Sunday it

Ed with his 1st on fly rod – 2/14/16

was to the water for application. Must say, it was definitely the coldest day of the week.  It took us a while to get everything tied together!  Fortunately, within eight minutes from where we put in the boat, both hooked up with their first fish.  This certainly was an aid in warming up the day and an indication of the way the day would go.  What a great start for two new fly fishers.  Hope they don’t think every day on the water will be like this.   Great couple and both did very well with the rods.

Susan – 2/14/16

They shared the glory as they had at least three doubles (both hooked and had fish at the same time).  Best pattern was the cerise San Juan worm.  Overall, fishing has been good.  The water is still off-colored, but that does not seem to hurt the fishing.  Talked to some of our customer from Louisiana who fished all day Saturday and they had a great day on egg patterns and the San Juan worm.

Should not complain about the weather.  So far (knock on wood) we have had a very mild winter.  We are going to get a little weather this coming weekend.  Low 40s Saturday and a chance, 70%, of moisture Sunday with temperatures in the mid 30s.  Right now, the moisture is snow showers in the a.m. transitioning to light rain.  But on Monday, after some early morning showers, it will hit the mid 50s and keep on going during the week.  We COULD even see 70 by Friday.  I’ll take it!

Low flows for the most part on Taneycomo this week.  They are still working at dumping Beaver, so in each morning and late afternoon, they open up Beaver and increase the flow on Taney for two to three hours.  Then back to our low flow.  Today we are supposed to see 30 mw which will mean flows in the 2000 to 2500 cfs range and levels probably in the low 704 foot range.

Quite a few fishers in and out this week.  Hearing good days to slow days.  Noting in particular, but white still seems to be a player.  Gina on the water yesterday

Jim – 2/10/16

with Wednesday Jim.  Not a barn burner day, but good quality fish and what a great day!  They both enjoyed the day and fishing.  Their patterns were an egg, the red tunghead midge and the big ruby.