Taneycomo in May

Its been too long since I went down to Taney, so when I saw the water was scheduled to be off Monday, I was up at the crack of dawn and headed down the road. In reality it was a little before dawn and I should have taken the time to check on the water release. No, probably best that I did not or I would have stayed home.

Arrived at the access, took the customary visit to the restroom before donning my waders. On my way back to the truck, I noticed the water was moving rather quickly.  Yes, they were running water. That was not scheduled until 2.  Instead of putting on my waders, I walked down to outlet #3 and watched the water. It was slowly receding.  They either shut it down or reduced the flow. So it was back to the truck and get ready for some fishing.

When I reached the water, the gravel bar I like to fish off of was still submerged; I entered the water and slowly fished my way toward where it should have been. Timing was either good or lucky because I reached where I liked to fish just about the time the gravel bar appeared. It was cloudy so I started fishing my favorite spot with a purple and starling soft hackle and a tan g-bug tied on as a point fly. The fish liked this combination.  When the sun poked through and the skies cleared, I replaced the purple and starling with a caddis green soft hackle.  The fish liked this combo even better.

I fished about two and a half to three hours, that's about how much I can take at a time. Caught and released a few more than a dozen fish.  Most were very brightly colored, only one or two of the "silver" bows.  The fish were healthy and had several that wanted to jump.  Lots of fun! All but one of the fish were in the slot limit and had to be released. I had one time when I made three casts and released three fish. The only "keeper" and I released him too, was a beautiful rainbow and was about 21 or 22 inches. I got him on the reel and had a great time before bringing him to hand.

Great day at Taney topped off with lunch at Danna's.

Spring 2014 MSU Class

Most of us have heard the expression "that's why they call this fishing and not catching." When I asked one of our experienced fishing students how he liked the fishing at our Thursday evening outing at Mountain Springs Trout Park, he replied: "this isn't fishing, its catching." Last Thursday was one of the most productive nights I've ever seen anywhere. We had 24 people fishing, 18 students and 6 members.  Everyone caught fish, big fish and lots of them.  Larry estimated about 700 pounds of fish.  He might have been a little high, but not much!

Today we went to Roaring River State Park.  The fishing was slow, but I believe everyone caught fish. One student decided she wanted to take her fish home, so Joe took her to the cleaning station and showed her how to fillet her trout.  Later, she told me how much she loved eating fish and proudly showed me the fillet.  Then took about 15 minutes to tell me how much she enjoyed the class. Most of the students expressed their desire to follow up on their fly fishing, so the class was truly a success.

My thanks to all of the members of MTFA that helped with the classes, or the two fishing trips or all of the above.