The 2019 Taneycomo camping trip had the largest number of guys so far, 9.  It started on Thursday March 21st with a group of 5; Mike Bisaga, Mike Chambers, David Komor, Andrew Holderby and Sid Aslin.. Knowing the water levels were high on Taneycomo, (because we use the resources available on the FATC website), the group headed to Bennett Springs. Fishing was tough, but the group managed to get some fish in the net. We had some inside information of a secret fly the “always works”.  Wellll..it worked, but was not magic as promised.

As we were about to leave Bennett, the group encountered the first mechanical failure of the weekend of Mike’s truck, dead battery.  After a quick jump from a hesitant stranger, we were on our way to Taneycomo.

We arrived to Table Rock State Park, to find a very limited selection of campsites. After a brief search, we found our home for the weekend. A quick run to Danna’s for a Danna’s burger, “The best burger in Branson”, and then we were back around the fire exchanging stories of the day and making plans for Friday.

With Taneycomo unwadable, the group decided to head to Roaring River on Friday.  Fishing was good with minimal crowds in the catch and release area. Green Cracklebacks were the fly of the day, with most fish caught on that offering. Scott Dougherty(#6) drove down to RR Friday morning, met us for lunch, and fished the rest of the day with the group. As  we were about to leave, we had our second mechanical failure, dead battery.  Luckily, Sid had his car there, and again, we jumped Mike’s truck. Not wanting to push our luck, the group made the first official FATC trip to O’Reilly auto parts on the way back to Branson to get a new battery.

Great fellowship continued around the fire as everyone cooked their dinner and told fish stories. The condo guys were invited to come over and join our fire, as we prepared a special cherry cobbler just for them.  However, for whatever reason, they decided to not come join us. At first we were hurt, but in the end, that left more cobbler for us.

Patrick Gallagher(#7) and Jason Ludlum(#8) drove in from Ft Leonard Wood,and arrived at camp during dinner with Patrick’s new, never in the water, drift boat in tow. Knowing that Taneycomo was going to be high again on Sat, we brainstormed on how we might be able to have 14 FATC guys(9 campers, 5 condo) fish out of one drift boat. Although some of us were convinced we could make it work, just Patrick and Jason headed out on the boat, and the rest of us were headed back to Roaring River on Saturday.  After finalizing our plans around the fire, all but Chambers went to bed, and when we woke up, Jeff Layton(#9) was camping in the site next us. He rolled in around 1:30am.

On Saturday, fishing at RR was good with many fish caught on green cracklebacks, and white woolly buggers.  On Taneycomo, once Gallagher and Ludlum figured out how the new boat worked, they had some success stripping streamers through the high fast water.

The sky’s opened up about 1pm,. That cleared the few non-FATC guys from the river.and we had the whole place to ourselves.  As the rain continued to fall and we packed up for the day, the condo guys graciously offered us to come to the condo and cook our fellowship dinner.(personally, I think they just wanted some of what we were making)

When we arrived at the condo, beverages were flowing and we learned that Mr Oldani has become quite to Manhattan connoisseur/snob. Although we gave him plenty of grief about all his “rules”, his drinks were VERY good. We all learned something from him.

Great fellowship continued after dinner, and it was nice to have the entire group together.

On Sunday, with water levels high at all the regular fishing spots, the camping group decided to pack up and head home.

If you have not joined us on one of our camping trips, you should consider it.  We always have a great time, and eat well.