Meramac River 8/21/2005

Met up with Vic from the Ozark Chronicles board at Meramac Springs Park outside of St. James around 3pm. Our plan was to wade below the park to fish. I had done this exact same thing almost a year ago and had some decent luck on light Cahills trying to imitate the white flies that hatch on the Meramac. It was really hot so we both decided to wet wade. I started out throwing hoppers under any cover that I could find and Vic started out throwing a minnow imitation. I had four good hits in the course of an hour, but no fish to show for it. Vic also had a couple of good misses. A little later we ran into a Polish fellow from St. Louis who was fishing a gold bead wolly bugger and had just released a nice brown. Vic and I gave him a couple hundred yards and began fishing again. We started trying some different things. Since going under was working for our new polish friend I tied on an olive mohair and imedeately laned a nice rainbow. Vic continuted to fish dries but only had a couple more hits, but no fish. Around 6pm Vic had to leave, but I stayed to fish some more. Not long after our new Polish friend came running upstream muttering how mad is wife was going to be and that around the bend was some more good fish in "easy river" as he put it. Which I took as easy water to fish since most of the rest of the water was broken up by dead falls and debir in the river, which made getting a good long drift almost impossible. I fished untill about 7:30 and laned about 6 good rainbows, two of which were at or above 15 inches. All of the fish I caught were on olive or black mohairs, dead drifted. I really like this piece of water and hope to get back there in the fall, after the canoe season has ended.

Taneycomo 7/29-7/30/2005

Met up with Wade and Mike at Fall Creek Inn Friday night around 10:30pm. After checking in and tying up some black mohairs with crystal flash we hit headed for the river. There were only two other cars in the parking lot when we arrived. They apparently had turned off the water just before we had gotten there and it was still droping. This is usually bad for the fishing. However with in the first ten minuts Mike had a Rainbow on. Not much later Wade landed the nicest Rainbow of the trip. Each of us caught a couple there and then decided to move on down. The next hole we hit was the rebar hole. If you have ever been to the upper Taney area you will recognize it by three pieces of rebar jutting out of the river. The water was up just a bit so I waded out into the middle of the run using the rebar as a gauge of where I was. This is a very dangerous spot because after the last piece of rebar the river drops into an 8 to 10 foot hole. I quickly landed 3 fish on three consecutive casts and then hollered for Wade to come over. I believe he got a couple of bites but no hookups. We continued on down stream casting and stipping mohairs. Each of us getting the occasional hook up. The next day we fished from Wades new boat and picked up a few fish during the day and at night. On the way home Mike and I stopped by Bumsteads restaurant in Ozark, MO. It is a very unique place and worth the stop. The food is awesome as well.