Report from Branson Fish-In
Email in from Ken Morrow:
Just wanted to let you know that we are off and running in Branson.
Yesterday was a slow day of folks trickling in mostly in the afternoon and
evening. Everyone is either camping at Table Rock State Park or staying in
a motel. Leonard and I kept missing each other yesterday. I fished for
about 90 minutes on my own in a run known as The Gauntlet. Red Zebra Midges
were the ticket, but the bite was slower than I expected. Leonard fished
the area upstream of Chute 2 from the hatchery and did quite well with his
boys. Several of the guys finally got together last night, but I went home
a bit after 3 pm.
This morning, 4 of us met at Table Rock Inn for breakfast. It's right
across the highway from the entrance to the State Park. At 8:30, I headed
for the water. Canoeguy and his sidekick were supposed to go get licenses
and meet me at the pavilion at the hatchery parking area. What should have
been a 15 minute wait was terminated at 10 am when I decided I'd better go
yank them out of the fly shop. Sure enough! That's where I found them.
They went to BOTH fly shops! When I walked in, they were fiddling with some
Winston rods. We finally got on the water at about 10:30 am. I took them
down below the Big Hole. The fished there and I went on downstream to The
Narrows. We were still within line of sight and hollering distance. We
caught a few more fish each and quit for lunch at 1:30 pm. Well, I didn't
eat lunch. But they did. They went to Danna's BBQ, a favorite with the
tourists near the dam and hatchery complex off of Hwy 165. I headed up to
the fly shop and bought the most expensive bottle of sunscreen I have ever
seen in my life! But it is SPF 30 spray-on with non-DEET insect repellant
built in and it won't harm your gear and isn't greasy. But I still felt
like I was paying a lot for the convenience of not having to drive to
Walgreens.
At 5pm, we all met at the pavilion for introductions. Phil Lilley, owner of
Lilley's Landing Resort and Marina showed up. At 6pm, we went to the
hatchery guest center for the tour and a Power Point presentation from River
Run Outfitters. Then Leonard and two of the guys headed back to the stream
and us three amigos headed back to Danna's BBQ for dinner. Obviously, the
place has made a big impression on them. I personally thought it was just
average. Yes, I'm a local and I had never been there before. I shy away
from most of the places the tourists rave about.
Well, some of the gang is night fishing tonight. I don't night fish. Mr.
Murphy of Albright is also camping at the State Park in the big blue
Albright motorhome. I was too tired to stop by and knock on his door this
evening and it was pushing 9pm anyway. So I headed home. We meet in the
morning at the pavilion at 9am. I did get a righteous sunburn and make some
new friends today. We'll move up to colder, better oxygenated water
tomorrow. What fish we did catch downstream today were very sluggish and
the water was pretty warm. So we'll stay closer to the hatchery for the
rest of the fish-in where the fish are congregating to bask and feed in the
colder, more oxygenated hatchery discharges.
