Days have been hot and forecast is for more of the same so we have been having had advisories almost every day.  Hottest days are forecast for Friday and Saturday in the upper 90s.  Chances for rain start popping up by Saturday.  Might not be so bad if it would rain.  Next week looks like a cool down to the low 90s.  With that comes increased chances for rain.

Generation has been pretty much the same every day this week.  Low generation in the a.m. then kicking it up to the equivalent of three units by 11:00 a.m. or noon.  Running the higher level for 5-7 hours, then back down to the equivalent of one or less for the night.

Roger – 7/15/16

Sitting out in the middle of the river with the sun beating down really takes its toll.  Especially if one does not keep hydrated, so take lots of water with you when you go out.

Fun day on the water for Stan last Friday when he had Dave and Roger out for half a day.   Good fishing for these guys on the

David – 7/15/16

Ruby 2 under the big Ruby.

Saturday, Dana took JJ and his eleven year old son, Keaton, out for half a day.  Good day for these two fishers on the Ruby 2 and the copperhead black midge.

Due to the heat and funky generation patterns, Stan turned the full day trip he had scheduled on Monday with Tom and his son, Michael into a half day trip.  Hot day and fishing went south when they turned on two more units a couple hours earlier than scheduled.  It is not unusual for the Monday schedule to be a little off the wall.  Sure it’s hard to predict what they will need to do on Friday when they put out the schedule.  Anyway, they had a good half a day and were happy campers!  You guessed it….big ruby with the Ruby 2 dropper.

Yesterday, Stan took Terry and Yasuto, from Oklahoma, out for half a day.  Really good day for these two guys on the ruby/ruby combo.

Knox – 7/19/16

Carolyn was fishing Knox and Gabrielle with the same pattern combo and they, too were having a really good day.  Knox had the opportunity to fish the North Platte in Wyoming with some of his friends

Gabrielle – 7/19/16

last fall and he would say “these fish look like those on the Platte”.  We did catch some quality fish.   Gabrielle and Knox took our two-day fly fishing school last year.

Driving across the dam a couple nights ago, you could see the Branson Showboat on Table Rock and everything had that hazy look to it.  I can see why it is called “lazy” as it was very hot that day and one did not feel like doing much of anything, especially outside.  Fortunately and unfortunately, we had a lot of rain today.  We might still get some more tonight.  There is a chance for scattered thunderstorms developing later in the day tomorrow and maybe some more after midnight and into Saturday a.m.  Sunday looks pretty good, even some sunshine possible and much less chances for rain.  Monday and Tuesday are sunny, temperatures in the mid 90s and no chances for rain.

This week has seen a pattern of the equivalent of one unit or less all morning.  Then, by noon or 1:00 p.m. they turn it up to the equivalent of two units and then three, more or less.  This runs for maybe six hours then they back it down to the equivalent of one unit for the rest of the night into the next morning.

Susan – 7/10/16

Stan on the water Sunday with a couple of our regular, regulars, Susan and Lionel from Oklahoma.  They had a very good day on the bug

Lionel – 7/10/16

ruby with the ruby 2 dropper.

Monday Stan had Cleo nd Diane out for half a day.  This was Diane’s first fly fishing trip and she caught some fish on the ruby 2.  However, it was a completely different day than the day before.  The fish were not nearly as hungry

Wednesday Kevin and Brendan spent half a day with Stan.  This was

Brendan – 7/13/16

their first drift boat trip.  They have been fishing one of the parks so this was a new experience for them.   Their best patterns were the big ruby with a ruby 2 dropper.

Kevin – – 7/13/16

That time of the year when we have slight chances of rain almost every day.  Some days we get it, some days, especially when we don’t expect it….we get it.  Temperatures pretty much in the upper 80s to low 90s into the next weekend.  The following week now looks like mid to upper 90 and chances for rain continue (20-40% chances)

Water has been up and down since the 4th.  Today is the lowest it has been for at least four days when they had it off for a short time in the morning.  We expect the same generation pattern tomorrow that we had today.

Gina on the water 4th of July with Dale and his wife Lisa rode along.  Worked hard for their fish, but they did catch

Dale – 7/4/16

some on the copperhead black midge.   Stan Phil and his son, Chris out for half a day.  Chris is on a mission to catch a fish in all 50 states on a fly rod before he goes to college.  He is now 15 years old and is in the

Chris – 7/4/16

double digits on states in which he has succeeded so far.  He was really excited to catch this nice fish on a size 20 soft hackle

Tuesday, Stan was out with John and Jon.  They both caught fish on the P&P midge and worked hard for them.  Jim had Sean and his son Zane on the water.  They also were catching on the P&P as well as a blood worm dropper.

A couple new, young fishers on the water Thursday.  Gina had Stacy and his son Devin out for the morning.  Tough day, but everyone caught some fish.  Devin did a good job of hooking and

Devin – 7/7/16

landing a nice rainbow.  They were fishing the SJ worm,

Stacy – 7/7/16

big ruby and the black copperhead midge under a chartreuse egg.  James Albert had Steve and his son, Case, on the water.  This was Case’s first time fly fishing and he got his first fish on a fly rod.  Looks like

Cast & Steve – 7/7/16

another new fly fisher in the works.  Best patterns were the red San Juan worm under the big ruby.

We have had some much needed rain over the past several days.  Most of it has been late at night or early in the morning.  Chances of rain are scattered over the next several days, but right now, nothing major.  Temperatures will continue in the upper 80s to low to mid 90s.  Think it will be steamy!

Almost every morning for the past several days we have had no generation.  This has allowed lots of fishers to wade again!  They are scheduled to have the generators off today until 1:00 p.m.  Table Rock Lake is slightly above power pool so we might see a change.  Will be interested in the projection this afternoon.

Last Wednesday (yep!  behind again) Stan had John from Florida on the water for half a day.  John is a salt water fisher so he could throw a nice rod.  Good day for John on the black copperhead midge and a B-bug.  Dana and Carolyn had a group of guys from Indiana on the water all day.  Carolyn took Rudy and Dana had Meredith and Chester.  Rudy had a fun day on the ruby 2, and P&P midges, and a B-bug.  He christened his new Tom Morgan rod on a pretty brown trout.

Rudy – 6/28/16

Thursday, Stan took Rudy and Dana was back out with Meredith and Chester.  Another good day for everyone on the ruby 2 and P&P midges.  Crazy bunch of guys to fish with.

Sean from New York spend most of Friday (until the water came on) on the water with Stan.

Saturday, Carolyn took Tim and his grand daughter Alyssa out for the morning.  What a neat young lady.  Slow start to the morning, but we moved around enough and tried a variety of patterns and finally struck pay dirt.  Great seam with the ruby 2 midge and Tim and Alyssa started hooking up.  Two doubles and they managed to get in one set.

Alyssa and Tim – 6/30/16

Neat anniversary present for Nickki from her husband, Justin.  She mentioned that she would like to try fly fishing some time, so he arranged a 1/2 day instructional trip with Carolyn for the two of them.  Was she surprised!  They both went through the normal routine, roll cast, then regular cast, a little line management then off to getting a good drift, hooking and

Justin – 7/1/16

Nickki – 7/1/16

playing those allusive trout!  Both did well on the P&P midge and I think Nickki likes it!  Stan was out all day with Rusty and Tim from Michigan.  These good fly fishers beat the banks all day on the P&P and had a wonderful day….at least until the water came on.  Things slowed down a lot, but they were still not ready to leave the water when they did!  Gina was out with a couple of fairly new fly fishers,

Andrew and Blake – 7/1/16

Andrews and Blake.  They had a good day on the black copperthead midge and a black soft hackle.  And, a really fun time for them with the Big Ugly and a midge dropper!

Beautiful, sunny, and not too hot day today.  Slight chance of rain this afternoon.  Much better chances for rain tomorrow and Friday.  Slight chances for rain over the weekend with temperatures in the upper 80s to lower 90s.  Next week looks like a return of the upper 90s by mid week.  Ugh!

So far over the past weekend and this week, we have seen off generators in the a.m.. and then on as early as 1:00 or as late as 3:00 p.m.  But when they turn them on, it has been two units followed by two more within two hours.  Lots of water!

We had new fly fishers on the water each day last Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  What fun!  Thursday, Carolyn took Jane out for the morning.  Her husband Vince came along to watch.  By the time we finished the morning, Jane was looking good and feeling much more

Jane – 6/23/16

confident with casting and line work.  Plus, she caught some fish on the ruby 2 and the copper dun midges.  It was a beautiful day on the water.

Friday, Josh was celebrating one of his significant birthdays.  His present was a guide trip!  His wife, Amanda rode along and we all had an overcast, wet day on the water.  Fortunately, the fish don’t mind a little more water!  Josh is a new fly fisher and wanted to work on skills and expand his knowledge of various ways to rig up as well as other presentation methods.  After a little work on casting, we started out nymph-style fishing and caught several fish on the ruby 2.  We then moved on to stripping the tiger tail and hooked

Josh – 6/24/16

some fish on this.  His best fish of the morning was a nice 17 inch rainbow.  He managed to finesse this fish in on 7X!  Stan had John and Garland from Oklahoma out in the rain, and they were catching on the white grub.

Stan took a couple more new fly fishers out on Saturday, Caleb and Sandy from California.  This always looked like

Sandy – 6/25/16

something they wanted to try and they did.  Fun day for them, mainly on the rusty midge.

Listen to the weather on TV this a.m. and they are talking about how the how much we are behind in rainfall this year!  I’m not complaining….yet.  Looks like we are in the mid to upper 90s for the next ten days.  Some chances for rain scattered throughout that time period, but nothing very major.

Generators off for a while in the a.m. this past Friday and through the weekend.  Looks like our normal pattern so far this week.  One unit in the morning then two to three units running from early afternoon into early evening.  With the heat we are experiencing, I cannot image a change in this pattern unless it is to run more in the mornings than they currently are running.

Let’s get caught up.  Gina on the water last Tuesday and Wednesday  with Paula from here in Missouri.  They fished the black copperhead midge, ruby 2 and tiger tail.

Paula – 6/15/16

They had a fun and good couple days on the water.  Caught several nice fish.   Mike and Mark from Texas spent Wednesday morning on the river with Stan.  Good day for these guys on the black copperhead midge and the white grub.  Bite was slow for the first hour on the water, but it finally took off and made their day.   so

Friday, Jim had Chris and Donna from Texas on the water half a day.  These new fly fishers had a good day on the copperhead black midge and a blood worm dropper.

Jim and Stan had a group on the water Saturday.  Pete and his friend Dan from Romania fished with Stan.  Jim had Mac and his son, J.P.   This was Dan’s first time with a fly rod, but he and Pete brought several fish to the boat on the P&P or black copperhead midges.  Jim was working with Mac’s son and Mac was catching on the P&P with the blood worm dropper.  Fun day for everyone.  Carolyn had a group

1st time with fly rod, 1st time holding fish!

of students in the water Saturday.  Glad to say everyone caught more than one fish.  Nymph style fishing it was on the copper dun midge and streamer style fishing, it was on the holographic green crackleback using the 2.6 ips sinking leader.  Tough getting everyone to concentrate on knots and bugs back in the classroom that afternoon!

Sunday Stan took Jeff from Oklahoma out for the morning.  Fish kept running away from their flies so he went to 7X (ugh!)  Made a difference.  They started catching fish on the P&P.  Carolyn had Kathy and her grandson, Ryan on the water.  Slow bite so us and we finally changed to 7X.  Big difference, especially after we moved back to a spot where we earlier had seen fish, but no takes.  Lost two nice fish (thank you 7X) there and landed several others.  They actually had a double on the P&P.

Really tough day Monday for Jim and Stan.  Jim had Derek from Illinois out.  They caught a few fish, but really no good fly.  Stan took Dan from Mt. Vernon out for the morning.  Grumble, grumble….water up, then down, then up, then back down.  They caught a few fish on the P&P under the big ruby.  The fish do not like the water level extremes any more than we do.

Let’s hope the water is off so we can get into the water and fish!  Looks like upper 90s the next three to four days.  Chances of showers Friday, but that’s it for a few days.

They had the water off today after 9:00 p.m.  Back on around 2:30.  Scheduled to be off again tomorrow.

Fishing has been good.  Stan was on the water yesterday with Bob from Washington state.  He has a very good day on the black

Gina – 6/13/16

copperhead size 18 midge.  Nice 17-1/2″ rainbow.  Carolyn had Gina and Bob from Florida out for the morning.  Gina’s first fish was a nice 17″ plus male rainbow.  What a say to start out.  They had a good, fun day catching on the black copper head midge and then stripping the holographic green crackleback trailing behind the tiger tail.  Gina had not fished this way before and her first cast hooked up with a nice rainbow.  Unfortyunately, this was the only one she brought in this way.  Bob

Bill – 6/13/16

was hooking and bringing in several, but it faded out after a little while, so we went back to the black copper head midge and everyone started catching again.

Today, Darrell took Terry from here in Missouri out for half a day.  Terry has fished with us since 2002.  He had a

Terry’s fish – 6/14/16

good day on the black size 18 copperhead midge.  Jim had Dan and his daughter, Adee out for half a day teaching them the art of fly fishing.  Adee is going to be a natural says Jim.  She is throwing a very nice line.  They caught several fish on various things, but no best fly today for them.

Hot!  That’s the word I would describe the weather yesterday and again today.  Looks like we might have a chance for showers sometime this afternoon.  Monday is also forecasting possibility of showers in the afternoon.  Tuesday, slight chance in early afternoon and more of the same for Wednesday.  Temperatures are forecast to be in the 90s all week!  Time to go stand in the water!

Generators were scheduled to be off yesterday morning.  However, they were on until 9:00 a.m. when they turned them off, and they remained off until the projected time of 1:00 p.m. when they turned on one and eventually had all four units going for a couple hours.  Back off by 9:00 p.m. and they are off this morning as projected.  Scheduled to run around 2:00 p.m. today.  Tomorrow they are to run a low one unit until noon and at 3:00 p.m. they will probably have four units going and plan to open the flood gates at that time for two hours.  The four units will remain on until 8:00 p.m. when they start shutting back to a low one.

Fun day on the water Wednesday and Thursday for Jim.  He had one of his customers, Jack his grandson, Zac, on the water.  Zac said he smoked his grandfather!  They were fishing the tiger tail, pink San Juan worm and the ruby midge.  Stan out on Thursday with Tony from Illinois.  All their fish were caught on the red San Juan worm.  Carolyn was working with a new lady who wants to learn.  Another woman fly fisher, Jody, will be walking the rivers now.  We went through as much “stuff” as we could cram into a half day trip, including stripping.  It was the holographic green crackleback on the sinking leader.  And, she is throwing a nice line.

Friday Stan took one of his regular, regulars, Ken out for half a day.  Took a little to find what they wanted, but they finally honed in on an orange egg pattern below the big ruby.  Generation was up then down Friday.  Made it a little tough!

Saturday, Stan had Brian out for the morning.  Water was supposed to have been off, but it was on….at least until 9:00 a.m. when they shut it down.  Jim had Brian’s son and future son-in-law, Nathan and Adam, out for the morning.  This was everyone’s first time fly fishing and I don’t think it will be their last.  Jim’s guys caught on the tiger tail, ruby or P&P midges, and a scud pattern.

Brian – 6/11/16

Brian was catching on the copperhead black zebra midge.   Dana and Carolyn decided to seize the opportunity of fishing with the water off.  We jumped in the drift boat, rowed over across from the boat ramp, into the water and hooking up with fish on the copperhead black midge under the ruby 2 and Dana. and the holographic green crackleback trailing the tiger tail for Carolyn.  Wonderful three hours!

Just for everyone’s information, they plan to open the gates for approximately two hours on Monday from 3:00 p.m. until 5:00 p.m.  Total release (generation and spillway) could exceed 15,000 cfs depending on the power needs.  They need to do this to “Wash Out” the stilling basin to conduct an inspection of the stilling basin.

Great weather we are having.  No rain.   Sunny skies and temperatures in the 80-90s.  Slight chance for isolated showers during the afternoon Sunday and very slight chances Monday morning.  Tuesday looks like the best chances for rain at this time.

Still running some level of water 24/7.  Yesterday it bounced around from 2400 cfs to as much as 3700 cfs then they cranked it up around noon to three units at more than 8000 cfs and levels in the 708 plus range.  Today is projected to be more of the same but the increase coming a little later in the day.  With this weekend being “free fishing” weekend, let’s hope they keep the level low or OFF!

Had several trips scheduled for this past Saturday.  With the pouring down rain we had Saturday morning, a couple of them scheduled to a

Rich – 6/5/16

later date and a couple moved to Sunday.  Stan took Rich from Kansas out for the day.  Rich had blast.  He is a new fly fisher and fell in love.  Red worm under the big ruby were the patterns for him.  Carolyn had Brad and his father-in-law, Mick.  They also were from Kansas.  Good, fun day for these two guys.  Brad is fairly new with a couple years under his belt, and Mick grew up in Colorado fly fishing with his father out there.

Mick – 060516

However, he had not been fishing for some time and this was a great experience for him.  Their best patterns were the big ruby with a size 16 red d-ribbed midge dropper.  We also stripped the tiger tail and either the green holographic crackleback dropper or filoplume dropper.   We actually caught several browns that day.

Bill – 6/7/16

Tuesday, Bill spent the morning on the river with Carolyn.  Good day for Bill on the big ruby with a red San Juan worm dropper and stripping the tiger tail with a filoplume trailer.

Gina had Wednesday Jim out on Wednesday.  Jim had a good day, but then Jim always has a good day when he is on the water, on the ruby 2 midge and stripping the holographic green crackleback and a shad trailer.  Fun day working the high bank.