Fly Fishing Report – Late September – 2020

Fly Fishing Report – Taneycomo and Norfork

The low water on Taneycomo in the last few weeks has shifted us back to the Missouri tailwaters probably more than it has all year.

The fish are on the move and we are seeing several nice Browns and many-colored up Rainbows that are all moving up for the spawn.

The water went from zero generators to two in the last few days, taking a bit of the wading game out of the equation for most.

The Norfork is staying a consistant flow through out the day and night giving the fish and anglers time to settle in.

Taneycomo – Sept. 28th

Jeremy was out with a young couple on their Honeymoon.

The two were out enjoying a little time in Branson and had the opportunity to get some time on the water.

The generation changed over the weekend, while we ran a couple of trips on the Norfork.

The water level has increased to around 33-55 megawatts around 2400-3600 cfs.

This is very much needed as the amount of dead fish on the bottom of the river had been increasing by the day.

With the poor oxygen levels we have been seeing on the lake.

The Megaworm seemed to loose a bit of it’s luster on the low two unit water, so Jeremy shifted to the Miracle Fly in Golden Nugget and worm brown San Juan worms.

Taneycomo – Sept. 25th

I was able to get out with Rex and his brother in-law for a full day trip on Taneycomo.

Rex was able to wrestle in a brown and several nice rainbows throughout the day.

Brother in-law Robbie was short changed early on playing camera man but was able to finish the day out strong in the afternoon.

Once again, the gentlemen were faced with glass water with little to no wind chop making catching a bit difficult at times.

A weather pattern we are seeing all too often on Taney.

Taneycomo was at zero generation for the duration of the trip.

The most productive fly for that day was the chartreuse Megaworm.

We were able to get a few on the Perfect Scud and Olive Dun midges but by far the Megaworm shined on size and quantity of fish to the boat.

Norfork Fly Fishing – Weekend Report 26th & 27th

Jeremy and I hit the Norfork this past weekend along with many other guides in the area.

Reports from most all of them was that the White was just not fishing well and many of the clients were ready to keep the rods bent the rest of the weekend.

To say the river was packed would be a definite understatement, but what was nice was the Fork was fishing just fine with all the boat traffic.

The generation stayed a consistent 49 megawatts or around 4900 cfs throughout the two days.

Jeremy was out with Jack and his brother in-law from the Memphis area, while I was out with Dwight and Lanny from Kansas City.

We both stayed with tandem rigs.

When comparing notes at the end of the day we ran much of the same thing.

We stayed with bright colored San Juan worms as the attractor in cerise, red, and fluorescent pink.

I threw a few Miracle flies at them dropping off Bloody Mary’s and Norfork Specials.

The biggest difference was the choice in droppers.

Jeremy stayed with the rainbow warrior nymph and larger ruby midges.

While I stayed with smaller size 16 super and ruby midges manly because of the lack of larger midges in my fly boxes.

White River Fly Fishing – September 25, 2020

Jeremy ran a short half day on Friday on the White river and was able to pick up several nice rainbows by the dam, but was hoping for a successful hopper bite down river which never seemed to progress.

The typical flies that produced upstream were, Miracle Flies, San Juan worms, ruby midges and dynamite worms.