Lake Taneycomo Fishing Report 9/14/09 - Branson, MO

This fishing report is going to sound like a broken record, basically because this report is going to sound a lot like my report from 2 weeks ago. Conditions haven't changed and neither has the fishing itself. It's still very good, rainbows are nice and fat and generation patterns are still about the same at the first of September.

This is one reason I haven't written a new report since September 3rd. Another reason - Marsha and I drove to Port Arthur, Texas last week to be with our daughter Sara and her husband Josh for the birth of their first child, our first grandchild, Jeriah Caden Clark. Good excuse - right?! We think so. Yes, I took my fishing rods with me but they were never unpacked. Good redfish fishin' in Port Arthur but that will have to wait for another visit!

Water is still cold and clear. Generation has been mixed but off most days with some water in the late afternoon and evening. Still funny how some people root for the water to run, even though fishing is so good. I think most anglers limited out off our dock today on rainbows (4), most using power bait is all colors and styles. I saw quite a few variations this evening. Didn't seem to matter. Quite a few rainbows midging late in the afternoon today in front of the dock. One thing I've noticed over the years is that rainbows will take midges and other insects off the surface in and on the edge of the leaf trail in the lake during autumn. A leaf trail is where a breeze pushes fallen leaves into a line in the lake, most of the time close to or against the bank. Rainbows love fallen leaves and the insects they deliver. And they love my black or red zebra midge, #14, just below a small indicator tossed just in the right place at the right time. Lots of fun! I target a rainbow just after he's taken a midge with my fly rod -- make the cast and watch for the take.

Jigs worked pretty well this week for some. Of course I'm partial to jigs -- I love to fish with them. But one guests of our had a great time last week trying jigs out for the first time. Here's his report:

We arrived at Lilleys last Saturday and now we have to leave tomorrow but while we were here I wanted to let all know that the fishing was great!

We - my wife and I - fished primarily from the Trophy area to the boat ramp...she was using pink and white power bait with good success.

I couldnt buy a bite on pumped nite crawlers so I decided to do something different....I started casting and bumping a 1/8th brown jig......when i started this the size of the fish went up dramatically. When we got back to Lilleys I was in the office and telling what I had caught fish on when Lisa told me that Bill had similar success on a Cinnamon jig.....well I figure if Bill is using it I had to buy a couple and give it a try.

Then the ultimate fishing event happened.....at least for me......on Friday we went just past the boat ramp 200 yards and I had cast out when i saw a flash of silver and my line started coming off my reel like crazy. I knew that I had a big one and she didn't want to come in at all....I fought her for at least 10 minutes to get her to the boat....my wife had the trout net....when I finally got her close enough I told her " you are going to need a bigger net" Thank goodness we had the old stand by.

You know your marriage is pretty solid when you can "guide" your wife to where the largest Trout you have EVER caught is racing all over the place and she keeps saying I cant see it....I tell here to watch the line.....and she says I cant see it! She is looking right and the fish is racing left....I think you ge the picture.

Needless to say I uttered only one cuss word when I thought she had grabbed my line and then she finally landed the trout. For the record I was using 2 lb line ...... the Trout was 18" long weighing in at 4 lbs according to Curtis.

No we didn't keep her, the fish that is - after all of the pictures and such I let her go under Lilleys dock to live to be caught another day.

By the way I have went up to that area all week and bumped either a brown or cinnamon jig and the bite has been fantastic!

While I'm copying and posting fishing reports, here's another from our guide, Bill Babler:

Fished Taney a couple of days this past week, with wonderful results. Also had the opportunity to traverse most of the upper part, taking clients from the restricted zone down to the Landing for lunch each day.

Seemed the entire upper end was catching extremely nice fish, and I'm sure it was a hangover from some very nice stocking right before the Holiday weekend. Fishing should remain good through the Fall, as it most usually does.

Restricted Zone on still flat water the ginger micro in 256th. oz. really seems to be the best nymph. Chuck from Anglers and Archery is still catching them on an egg pattern and always is doing well when I see him on the water.

Moving water for the first hr. after generation starts is really almost unfishable due to high volumes of moss on the upper section, but then as it dissipates, and the flow stabilizes pink micro's in 128th. or egg patterns are catching huge numbers of quality rainbows.

Seems we have a 20 plus inch fish on every trip to the top. Didn't say we got them to the boat, but we are seeing and getting clobbered by the biggin's.

Fall Creek through Branson, it pretty much seems as anything will work, with the brighter colors of powerbait being preferred by these fresh fish. Just driving through the boat traffic going to downtown, it seemed everyone had fish on or in baskets hanging from their boats.

Rainy cool weather this next week, should keep the fishing at a top level, until the stock of fresh fish gets depleted. As long as MDC keeps feeding the Branson Landing area to Cooper Creek, it should be great.

I have to add my personal fishing report from Saturday and this evening. Lilleys' Landing hosted a fishing weekend for the Ozark FFF Chapter out of St Louis. Brian Shaffer filled in for me Friday night with a Taneycomo Talk at the pavilion which I heard was a huge success. Then Saturday we fed them lunch at the Hatchery Shelter below the dam. I got to fish a little after lunch with Bob from the club. They had ran water Saturday morning, which confused everyone. But it was off by 1 pm and down by 2 pm. Bob and I walked down to the Narrows below the root wad and found lots of nice rainbows holding in the current. Problem was they weren't agreeable. Darrell from River Run had already set Bob up with a scud/san juan rig so I had him dead drift first the shallow, close water and then the center of the channel. He quickly hooked one rainbow and then a little later another. That would be all the action for Bob. I wondered down alittle further and caught one rainbow on a brown 1/100th jig- and that was it. I fish an egg fly and then a red san juan up by the root wad just so I could see what the heck they would do when I drifted it by their face. Most would ignore it, some would move and some would dart over to investigate but all refused any fly I threw at them. The only people catching fish were 2 kickers in the rebar hole and one other guy fishing to the side of them. It just was slow.

This evening I boated up to the red house in the trophy area- on the bluff- or what I call dry wash. Surface was slick, very dark and cloudy and a little mist. No one else on the water the whole time I was up there... really nice. I started and ended with a brown 1/100th oz jig under a palsa indicator 4 feet. The rainbows absolutely loved it. I caught over 30-35 rainbows in 90 minutes, lost 3 jigs and missed many more bites. Ended the slow drift down at the Narrows. Nothing huge- 14 inches was the biggest but most were 13-14 inch, fat and fought hard. Most jumped at least once when hooked.

Lake Taneycomo Fishing Report 9/03/09 - Branson, MO

We received some well needed rain this week. No downpours but a nice, gentle, soaking rain that really didn't affect our area lake levels. But for most of this week, the water has been running 24 hours a day at about one unit, bumped up to 2 units for a few hours in the late afternoon. I like this flow but I'm sure the fly fishers below the dam are aggravated because it takes away most of the wading area up there. But with one unit they can get out on the big gravel bar below outlet #3 and drift a scud or strip a wooly and catch trout.

But I think come this weekend, they will not run much, if any at all. The weather forecast says highs are going to be in the mid 70's which is unbelievable for this time of year. So the power demand shouldn't be high and they usually don't run water on weekends. So my prediction is very little to no generation this holiday weekend.

Trout fishing here on Taneycomo has been flat - great! I contribute it to the weather. Cooler temperatures seems to agree with our trout here, as well as other species of fish in area lakes. Plus it just seems like there's a lot of rainbows in the lake right now. I took a pontoon ride to the Branson Landing last evening with friends, ate at the Fish House and boated back after dark. Cruising down, a watched for midging rainbows and did see quite a few from Taneycomo Acres down to the bridges. Coming back, I could see more rises, especially in the Monkey Island area. That's evidence that there's big schools of rainbows in these areas actively feeding on bugs on the surface. If I were fishing last night, I'd try several things... cast a rooster tail, throw a jig and float or just cast a jig straight, probably a small jig like a 1/16th or even a 1/32nd oz if I had light enough line to throw it and work it close to the surface. The idea is to keep the lure close to the surface where the rainbows were cruising for midges.

Now during the day, most of these rainbows are close to the bottom, especially if it's bright out. So I'd go with bait - either night crawlers or Power Bait. Our water is clear so have to go with no larger than 4 pound line, small weights and small hooks. For worms, I use a #6 or #8 short shanked hook and for Power Bait I use a #8 hook. Colors of Power Bait - if I'm using Gulp Eggs, I putting a white egg on with another color... yellow, pink or orange. Some of the nuggets and paste are working too. Berkly has a hatchery nuggets that's brown which is doing pretty well. Anytime we have a big rainbow caught off the dock, the bait it was caught on becomes the hot bait of the week. There was a big rainbow caught last week on the brown nuggets so we've been selling a lot of brown hatchery nuggets.

Fishing up in the trophy area has continued to be very good. We've been seeing a lot of very nice rainbows up there and they've been biting pretty consistently. With this flow, we've been using a jig and float with an olive or pink jig fished 4-6 feet deep and drifted basically down the middle of the lake from Lookout down to Fall Creek. There are a couple of hot spots above Lookout but for the most part I haven't done that well up there so I've been starting my drift at Lookout. Of course, I like working a jig straight, no float, off the bottom as well. Sculpin has been the best color in the 3/32nd oz size and working it in the deeper water, channel side of the lake.

Hope everyone has a relaxing and enjoyable holiday weekend!

Lake Taneycomo Fishing Report 8/23/09 - Branson, MO

Since I'm writing this on Sunday, it's hard to tell what this week's generation patterns will be. Has this been a crazy month temperature wise or not!!?? And the 10 day forecast looks just as nice as this past week's. Low to mid 80's and sunny. In saying that, this past week's generation pattern was a bit puzzling. They ran one unit all day and most nights. This weekend, off all day and night with the exception of an hour late in the afternoon. All our lakes are at or below power pool. Cooler temps mean low power demand. So we may see a week of very little generation.

Keep an eye on http://ozarkanglers.com/forums/index.php?showforum=4 for updated information and reports.

Check lake levels here - http://ozarkanglers.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=17240

And you can see what the generation schedule will be a day ahead here - http://www.swpa.gov/generationschedules.aspx

Off the fishing subject, have to put a plug in for an event here on Lake Taneycomo coming up next weekend. It's a trout tournament held out of Lilleys' Landing Resort and Marina benefiting our local police and fire departments. Starts at 8 am and weigh in is at 4 pm. Check out http://news.lilleyslanding.com/1st-annual-guns-hoses-fishing-tournament for more information.

August is usually hot and the trout fishing is usually not. But this month has been the exception. Our guests here at Lilleys' Landing have caught alot of rainbows off our dock as well as drifting in this area in boats using both night crawlers and Gulp power bait. Had some wind this week which again is a little unusual. When it got windy, anglers switched to trolling jigs, spoons, spinners and crank baits and did well. Mainly trolled from Lilleys' downlake to the Landing. The rainbows being stocked are good sized trout too, averaging 13 inches.

I took a couple of girls out the other day for their first trout fishing trip. We drifted from Fall Creek to Short Creek and they caught their limits of rainbows plus a real nice 17 inch brown, which was released. They were running one unit which isn't much water. The current isn't fast and with the wind blowing upstream, it was tough keeping the line tight and the boat drifting with the current. But working the trolling motor and using less weight than usual, they learned a bite from the bottom and hooked enough fish to achieve their limits.

Trout fishing IS pretty easy. Just have to be patient!

I got out and fished alittle this week. I love fishing two things - jigs and dry flies. I did both this week. Since returning from Alaska, I've been on a dry fly kick. I caught so many nice rainbows, chars and grayling in Alaska on dries, I've tried to carry it over to here at home. And I've done pretty good too. I like fishing the bluff bank from Lookout down to the channel swing most days. There always seems to be a handful of trout holding along the bank waiting, looking for bugs to snatch off the surface. My stimulator usually does the trick. And these rainbows are usually larger than normal too. Great fights!!

My sculpin jigs are working great too. If they are running more than 1 units, I use an 1/8th oz jig but sometimes, like yesterday, I notice with no units or one units, the trout seemed to like the jig swimming more than the usual dropping and jigging. I switched to a 3/32 oz jig, thinking it wouldn't sink or drop as fast. I could get it close to the bottom and lift the rod tip slowly or slower than I usually do (I pop or twitch it normally)... they like that. I first noticed this when I'd throw the jig out and let it sink. When it's sinking, it's not sinking straight to the bottom but sinking at an angle. The lighter jig and different retreive got me more hits. But they are biting short. I missed many more than I hooked, but it's still fun.

In additon, I am posting videos and mid week reports on my facebook account so look me up! http://www.facebook.com/plilley?ref=name

Lake Taneycomo Fishing Report 8/11/09 - Branson, MO

This has been a strange August so far... but typical at the same time. Weather has been on the cool side with some rain thrown in. This weeks appears to be on the cool side with rain today. Should be good for fishing. On the typical side, our trout fishing is fair- only fair. It usually gets alittle tough in August. Our water gets real clear and the trout become picky, it seems. It's not the amount of rainbows stocked - MDC stocks the same amount in August they do in June and July. It's just typical late summer doldrums. That's not to say trout can't be had. Water has been off in the mornings and running starting about 2 pm till dark each day. This has been consistant for the past couple of weeks. It gives fly fishers a chance to wade below the dam as well as boaters time to still fish using crawlers and gulp eggs below Fall Creek. The clearer water means dropping to 2-pound line will get you more bites. I fished the earlier part of the week last week. One morning I threw 3/32nd oz jigs straight, no float, below Fall Creek for 3 hours and boated my limit of rainbows - four. I missed quite a few bites and lost several before getting them to the boat. I used 2-lb line and tried brown, sculpin, sculpin/ginger and brown/orange. At the same time, there were friends of mine fishing from a pontoon in the same area using crawlers and Gulp eggs on the bottom. They'd catch one or two in one spot and then I'd have them move downlake, not more than 400 yards. They started close to Fall Creek and ended the morning at Short Creek with 12 nice rainbows. Another good report - after the water starts, drifting from Short Creek down past Cooper Creek has been pretty decent using Gulp eggs, one white or yellow and one pink or orange. Stay away from the bluff side of the alke because of down trees and other looming snags. Only use as much weight to get you to the bottom -- you'll feel the strike better and not get snagged up as much. Also after the water starts, work a medium to large crank bait along the bluffs and snags for browns and rainbows. Later in the day is better for browns. Bill Babler- Fished Taneycomo several times in the last week with different degrees of success. As far as I have been up is Lookout. I have not been able to fish the lake on moving water, just under hot, bright, and very still conditions.  Lower restricted area to Mouth of Fall Creek has been producing some bites, but it also has had plenty of fishermen. I really have not seen schools of trout and with the current conditions, they would be visible.  Two flies for me are working with some degree of success over others. The first being a sculpin micro jig in 256 oz. With the low water right now I am fishing it about 3 ft. below the indicator. Best bite is occurring from Casket Rock, the Big Rock on the South East Shore across from the Tennis Courts, to the Fall Creek Ramp. With the low non-flowing water, fish this fly on a complete dead drift, only shocking the indicator very infrequently. Most takes are extremely light. Grey or Silver scud in sizes 14 thru 18 with a red tie at the head are the second choice. Again fish this scud a bit deeper, to drag it on the bottom or just above. The trout will pick it right off the bottom, no problem. Not much movement is required. Same locations.  In the afternoons when the water starts, size 14 and 16 peach eggs are reported to be the best bet. Fall Creek, to Short Creek; Bite early is very good on 256th. oz micro's in ginger with a gold head or sculpin with a orange or gold head. Fish these flies through the area of the old Fall Creek dock, just where the dock used to sit. I am using about 7ft. of tippet to an indicator here. If you see trout midging or any surface action, fling your fly in that direction, and you most often will get bit. Move the fly a bit more here than in the restricted zone on this deeper water. The trout are not well positioned and need the movement on the fly to keep contact with it.  As the sun hits the water in the same area, Inflated Night crawlers are working to some extent, and catching very quality fish in the up to 22 inch class, with stringers of 14 to 16 inch trout being the norm, rather than the exception. Numbers are not high however but patients will lead to a very quality limit.  Day before yesterday, We had two limits that I will guess averaged 16.5 inches, but the total for the 4 hr. trip was only 13 trout Keep your boat anchored on the shallow side and throw into the deeper bluff channel. Be prepared to be patient, and just wait. Boat traffic is your friend, as the fish are not moving much and when a boat comes by it repositions the fish. You get a bite on a passing boat most every time. Bob Kline is guiding the lower end and fishing the Corn Field, Bull Creek, and the mouth of Cedar. He reports about 30 fish in half day trips on orange and chartruse powerbait, but the fish are not near the quality as from Fall Creek, through Cooper Creek. I have had two reports in the last week telling me the Branson Landing area, from Monkey Island through Roark Creek, are extremely slow.  All it takes is the stocking boat thru there one time to change that as you know. Bill Babler White River Outfitters fishing guide service whiteriverbb@msn.com 417-332-7016

Lake Taneycomo Fishing Report 8/3/09 - Branson, MO

Haven't written a fishing report in almost a month. May be a record... not a good one I guess. Between traveling and home projects, I've only just gotten out on the lake the last couple of evenings.

This was quite a July, wasn't it? Sure love this global cooling. Fish do too. Generation has been different almost everyday. We check the charts every afternoon to see what they will do the next day - alot of our guests come in and check. It's been pretty accurate. Most mornings it's off and running in the afternoon - up to 4 units. I've heard the same thing everyone has heard about Beaver Lake being dropped resulting in more generation here but we haven't seen it yet. Table Rock is in good shape, not high at all, so we'll see what happens here in the next couple of weeks.

Fly fishing below the dam has been fair to good- depends on the day and time of day. Still catching rainbows on dries - beetles and ants, some midges. With all the rain we're having, san juan worms in brown and tan are working good in the swifter moving water and with the water running. Scuds in #18's and #20's in tan, olive and brown have been good but have to use 7x tippet to do any good, especially in sunny weather.

From a boat, they're using either micro jigs or small 1/125th oz jigs under a float when the water is off both above Fall Creek and below. No wind, the bite has been REAL light, barely moving the float so you really have to pay attention. And again, 2 lb line a must. Change colors if you're not getting bit. Vince reported NOT catching fish on olive but changed to sculpin and did good. There's not much difference in those colors... but it made a difference for Vince. If they stop hitting one color, don't keep fishing it, change. Change depths too.

Evenings are great to get out on Lake Taneycomo. Very little boat traffic and it's been great out there, very mild and little fog. The water starts to drop out about 7 pm. I've been fishing from Lookout to Fall Creek throwing 3/32nd oz jigs and working the middle to channel side of the lake. I tried a white jig and they ran from it. Best color has been a combo sculpin/ginger jig. There seems to be pockets or schools of trout holding here and there, not spread out throughout the area. I'd go for several hundred yards without a bite then get 3 or 4 trout in a row. The size of the rainbows I'm catching are still very good. Had one pushing 19 inches the other day. All are fighting real well. Now I have gone to using 2 lb line. I usually do in the fall months when the water gets gin clear and the trout get alittle fussy about the line size. I've been telling anglers who are fishing below the dam the same thing - go to 7x flourocarbon and you'll get bit more often. I did see some fish taking dries off the surface as the water dropped out last evening along the bluff bank. I didn't have my fly rod or I would have tossed a beetle or elk hair at them. It's getting time for dry fly fishing to get REAL hot. Fun times!

Below Fall Creek, Bill's been catching some REAL nice rainbows on night crawlers, water running or not. Anchor in the middle of the lake and throw to the channel when the water is not running. Inject the worm with air using a blow bottle. Four pound line is ok but 2 pound will catch you more fish. Also, I'd think you'd do well working 1/8th oz jigs along the bluff bank while the water is running. If these are rainbows that have come out of the trophy area, they should take a jig well. Dark earth colors the best- brown, sculpin, olive and combinations work best right now. Of course, jig and float will work in this area too. Best when there's a chop on the water but if it's slick, pay close attention to the float because they might not move it much on the bite. Water off, they've been catching rainbow on gulp power bait, anchoring on the shallow side and throwing to the middle from Short Creek up to Fall Creek. Anchor off the channel and you won't have boats running over you all day.

1st Annual Guns and Hoses Fishing Tournament

What: A fishing tournament on Lake Taneycomo in Branson, Missouri sponsored by Lilleys' Landing Resort and Marina

Why: To raise money for the Branson Fire and Police auxiliary funds to help support our community. Where: Lilleys’ Landing Resort & Marina, 367 River Lane, Branson, MO A free lunch will be provided after the weigh-in!

When: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, August 29th, 2009 Enter your two-man team by emailing Megan@lilleyslanding.com for an entry form. Then drop off or mail in your completed copy of the entry form and your $75 entry fee to Branson Fire and Rescue attn: Kory Klein, 110 Crosby Street, Branson, MO 65616 Prizes will be awarded for 1st through 3rd places and big fish. Each boat that enters will get a raffle ticket, and additional raffle tickets can be purchased for $5. If you register before the tournament day, you also get an extra raffle ticket! 50% off boat rentals will be provided by Lilleys’ Landing for tournament teams. 

To reserve a boat rental call 417-334-6380. If you need any assistance contact Kory Klein (417) 294-3319

Lake Taneycomo Fishing Report 6/28/09 - Branson, MO

Another glorious week has passed here on Lake Taneycomo. It's been hot! Temperatures have hovered close to 100 each day but I can honestly say the trout fishing has been equally hot as well.

Doesn't matter what part of the upper lake we're talking about, fishing has been good this week. Can't say as much for the boating skills, or may be I should say etiquette, on the lake. It's amazing how some boaters don't have a clue what boating rules are, rules like we have on out streets, roads and highways. Rules, if you break them, can cause damage and injury, tickets and citations. If everyone practiced one thing, just one thing, they'd improve their safe boating skills by 100%. That simple one thing is watch your wake. That and steer clear of fishing lines. Wakes cause boats to rock, cause some boats to actually take on water. They throw people around in the surrounding boats, they knock fishing gear from their perches, they cause stress. And it all can be avoided. The bigger your boat, the bigger your wake. Going slow actually does more harm than going fast but that doesn't give you the right to fly by boats in close quarters. Idle speed means just that, put it in gear and don't accelerate.

Yes, there's a reason I'm bringing it up. Yesterday I had a group of boys out fishing above Short Creek. There were three jon boats with an adult and 3 boys, most of them under the age of 10, in each boat. We were anchored well off the channel, allowing boats plenty of room to boat by. There were other boats up and down the lake pretty much doing the same thing. Most boats heading up and down the lake were safe boaters, moving through at slow speeds as to not to throw big wakes at us. But there was one boat that didn't slow down and he didn't keep a safe distance from our first boat in line. He buzzed by within 20 feet of our boat. He even had a small boy with him. I yelled to slow down and I got a hand jester like, "what's the big deal"? Put the shoes on the other foot- had someone did that to him, he'd be ticked. Bottom line, he put those boys in danger by his boating practice and the awful thing about it he knew no different.

Fishing... sorry for the soap box episode.

We did catch trout yesterday. We floated night crawlers and did real well. All nine of the boys caught at least one rainbow and some caught their limit of 4 rainbows. We used 4 pound line, #6 short shanked #89 hooks, #7 split shots set 18 inches above the hook and used half a night crawler, hooked once in the middle, letting it hang off each side. Don't worry about hiding the hook. Shoot some air in the worm using a blow bottle or a hypodermic needle. This floats the worm off the bottom 18 inches. You'll get more bites, faster bites using this technique verses no air at all, just letting it lay on the bottom. Night crawler fishing between Fall Creek and Short Creek has been excellent early in the morning.

Oh yea- did I mention generation? The only generation we've seen has been from about 2-3 pm till dark, running up the lake about 6 feet or 3-4 units and then dropping out about the time they get it up and rolling. Up slow and then back down slow. Interesting pattern. Now this coming week, we might see a bit of a change. With temperature dropping to the upper 80's and low 90's, we may see days with no generation at all.

Lincoln Hunt, a good friend of ours from Dallas, is up for a visit. He likes to wet wade below the dam (no waders, saddles or just wading boats). He's been up there almost everyday this week hammering the rainbows. He's using mainly #20 black zebra midges under a dry fly indicator about 12 inches deep. I got up there one day this past week and caught a nice 18 inch rainbow on a #16 olive elk hair caddis but it was the only taker on the caddis. The best area, reported Lincoln, was below Rebar.

I've also heard using small scuds - #20's - have been working well in the Rebar Hole but you got to get there early - 6 am - to get a good spot. If you get there too late, you might be referred to as a slob for not getting out of bed before dawn. Sorry- inside joke.

Get out in a boat and run above Fall Creek into the trophy area for some great jig and float action. Best jig is still the tan 1/256th oz micro jig although that little brown jig Vince tied for me has done well too. It's a jig he tied himself but he got the jigs from an online store - http://heartlandflygear.com. I ordered and received some of the jig heads and they look marvelous! I've already tried a few, using just a bit of marabou. I think that's the key to these small jigs... you can use too much and these jigs lose their effectiveness. Heartland Fly Gear has an incredible inventory of all sizes of jig heads... plus he's a member of our forum to boot. Check it out.

Again, I'm tying on 2-3 feet of 2 lb Vanish as a tippet. Water is clear and most mornings it's real still. Need that smaller line to attract more bites! And oh yes... the talk is you have to use 7x fluorocarbon below the dam no matter what wet fly you're using. 6x won't cut it. Although I did catch my nice rainbow on 6x but that was a dry. When using a dry, you have to match the size of fly to the size of tippet or you're going to have a twisted mess.

If you catch the water running, don't be scared to throw a medium crank bait like a rapala F-5 or F-7 against the bluff banks below Fall Creek.