Taney & White River are both fishing solid with some nice fish being caught.

I got some emails from some of my readers that were a little worried about me. I’m here to say I’m good and fishing a lot. It’s been a little challenging to post my fishing report for this month because I’ve been so busy. I apologize for this, but fishing is what I do and that’s really where my passion lies, pursuing the next excited thing when I’m on the water. I’ll first start by saying it’s been awhile since I’ve fished the White River because Taneycomo is thriving big time. We have tons of low water, so you can be sure if you’re planning on coming down you will have low water. Not only that, but night fishing is always an option for the die hard and let me tell you, we have some big rainbows ready to be caught. I’m seeing lots of rainbows in the 20 inch range and they are becoming plentiful on Taney. Another positive note and it’s got me more excited about fishing my home water a little more often, is we have some browns hanging up top on a regular basis, something I think was declining, but not now. The size isn’t what the White River can offer on any given day, but now we have a shot at variety and not just catching stocker rainbows all day. Of course that will always be the majority on all tailwaters, but being able to give your clients a chance at a brown is something I always try to shoot for. This could be a great year for lots of browns being caught!!

Saturday’s Fly Fishing Trip

This is a great story, so I thought I would share it with you. I don’t do a lot of the testimonial stuff under my reports with clients saying they had a good time, because I already know they did. But it sure feels good when all the stars line up. And you could truly give that customer the day they thought they would get if they did go fishing with someone they believed in….and could get that trophy fish they so want. Stephen has been following me since day one and knows the ins and outs of my site. It took us awhile to link up due to scheduling conflicts over the years, but we finally made it happen. He brought his Father DM Parker, who was there really for his son, but his son wanted him to share fly fishing with him on this day. My goal was to get him in the game as well. He just wanted to be there and enjoy the day. He couldn’t have picked a better day to see what was in store for his son. This really was one of those days that will go deep into the memory book I’m sure of that.

Fishing Report Summer Story

It’s nice to incorporate a story in this fishing report and so we started the day a little late because I couldn’t decide where I wanted to float. We had heavy winds and low water, not a good combination for a drift boat. My plan was to float from Wild Cat to Cotter, but when I went over the 412/62 bridge I could see the chop on the water and was a little worried about floating all the way to Cotter. So I changed my mind and decided to start at Rim Shoals, but once I got down there I could see it was still dropping and the wind was actually going downstream. So that got me thinking that Wild Cat would have the same wind until we turn the corner around Hurst, which is not the greatest water anyways, but the all the water from the boat ramp access till Airport Valley would be prime for big browns. I keep telling people that this is the best stretch of water we have anywhere in the Ozark’s for trophy browns and I’m not lying. If you got to see what I saw this day you wouldn’t want to go fish anywhere else on the White River for the rest of your life. And the fact that this is not a tropy regulated area discusses me to no end. Too many big fish to be hooked and potentially killed from bait. If there’s one other section of this river we should try to get managed the correct way, it’s this one.

So we got a late start because we went ahead and left Rim and went to where I thought would be the best plan for getting some better results. We weren’t disappointed either. Every guides dream was just about to happen. Sometimes it is about making the right call; I call it the “guide call”. The third fish was the one you see in the picture. There’s a channel in the river where all the big fish hide during pressured times and this was the area I wanted to focus on. We had the right wind chop to create fewer glares and that was crucial for getting bigger fish to keep feeding in the middle of the day. I always say, wind is your friend and I wrote an article on the subject. Another big factor that made this happen was we didn’t have a boat in site the first 100 yards from the ramp down. I told Stephen if we have a chance it’s going to be the next hundred yards before we got to the bait boats. That’s what I mean about all the stars have to line up. All I can say is it was Stephen’s day and to be able to spend it with his father is why I’m glad I’m doing this sport for all the right reasons.

We finished the day at Rim catching lot’s of healthy rainbows with a few more browns. I think we ended up hooking seven browns and we lost count on bows. The rainbows are defiantly bigger than Wild Cats, but Rim isn’t storing the browns like Wild Cat. If we continue to have low water on the White we should keep getting these kinds of results.

Jeremy,

I had read the week before the trip from the website of another guide that you need a guide that was mobile. That played big in this trip because after Jeremy looked at the water and the wind at where we were initially going to fish he decided to fish another stretch of the river. This proved to be the right decision because about 10-15 minutes into the fishing I hooked and landed my biggest brown to date (25 in.). Jeremy had called it, knowing right where the big browns stay. Jeremy continued to know just where the fish would be, keeping us in fish through out the day.

This was only my father’s second fly fishing trip and Jeremy spent a lot of time (with much patience I might add) in instructing him. It was a real joy to fish with Jeremy and I think he enjoied it as much as we did. I was very impressed with Jeremy’s miracle fly. I have used many egg patterns tied on jig heads before but none that had the hooking ability or hook strength of this fly. It is definitely one to stay well stocked up on.

Tight Lines,

Stephen Parker

Fishing Report for Taneycomo- the way to fish this river right now

Taney has remained for the last month to fish extremely well. And what I mean by this is the fish are not picky on patterns. This means the D.O. is in very good shape. But there are some patterns that will work better than others depending on the wind vs. dead calm conditions. When there is wind chop you can get away with throwing dries, but if there isn’t wind you better find deep water because that’s where the fish will feed the best. I would say KOA is fishing the best all the way around. And there are a lot of big rainbows holding, but it’s hard to approach this area correctly if you don’t have a boat. In deep water we are sight casting to all the fish from the boat and trying to target the bigger ones holding deep because we can see them. The window is from 9-2 and then the bite slows until the evening. I went up top for the first time in a long time and wasn’t too impressed with how many fish are holding. That’s why I’ll always stay downstream from the boat ramp down. That’s where all the fish are. If you get the chop, up top isn’t that bad, but if it’s dead calm have fun with that. Midge fishing is probably doing the best out of everything we are using for catching lots of fish. Size 16 seems to be the size they want.

There’s also a new fly that I’m seeing a lot of people doing good on and it is called the (Duane Doty originated this pattern) tampon fly. I didn’t name it that, but it works. It’s this over sized chenille in white and they are dragging it on the bottom. I’m sure the trout are mistaking it for either guts or dead trout fry they flush out of the hatchery into the chutes. Maybe even shad, but more importantly they see a lot of white from people throwing it all the time. The key is presentation though; there is some art to how you drag it along the bottom. I’m sure you can find out more about this pattern if you go read posts from Ozarkanglers.com forum. Duane posts a lot there and I’m sure you can read more about this new pattern for Taneycomo.

In Conclusion –

I keep saying I’m going to update patterns, but until my new site gets done I don’t want to go backwards with cutting and pasting. So yes the site is in transition so I’m in a dead spot and have to wait it out. I think everyone is going to like the new layout. Once it gets done I have all kinds of new stuff to share. I’ve been accumulating it for a few years, so a lot of new articles and tips will be posted in the upcoming future. It’s a slow process because I have a lot of content on my old site to get over to the new one and I’ll be ready to GO!! I’m not going anywhere that’s for sure; business is good, so thank you for being a part of Flys and Guides!!

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