This Is So Much Fun, I Am Never Going Home. Dam
And so the odyssey began. On March 23, the Fabulous-5 (Craig Dull, Paul Schneider, Scott Payne, Mike Oldani, and Jim Craig) left Craig Dull’s house at 8 AM enroute to Pointe Royale at Lake Taneycomo (LT). We knew, from monitoring the flow and height of LT over the previous two weeks, the odds were against us for fishing LT this weekend.
Knowing the lake was too high to fish on our get-a-way day, we headed to Bennett Spring before driving south to Branson. We found the water at Bennett Spring was high and VERY murky. You truly could not see more than 4” into the water. We also found a multitude of fishermen had the same plan for the day. I guess that is typical for Bennett. We adapted to the water conditions and the crowd. We seemed to do best with bright colors like cerise worms after we each pried our way in between other anglers along the shore. The weather was beautiful, even though the conditions made fishing a challenge. But, what is the best follow-up to a challenging day of fishing? Fellowship, of course. Our condo was ready and waiting when we arrived that evening. After everyone got moved in, we enjoyed a hearty chili dinner with all the tasty toppings. The traditional Manhattans followed quickly. Mike had the recipe perfected and seemed to work nonstop to keep up with demand while we watched NCAA basketball.
Waking up Saturday, we found LT was still not fishable–disappointing, but not surprising. We quickly switched to plan B—Roaring River State Park. The FATC campers had a good day there Friday, so we were pumped. We were also happy to be joining the FATC camper group for a day of fishing, which would later extend into a full day and night of fellowship. FATC had the fly-fishing section all to ourselves, and the water was beautiful. But, the fishing was again challenging for most. A couple guys did well on green holographic cracklebacks. The rest of us tried EVERY fly in our boxes. But lo and behold, at the end of the very rainy afternoon, we found the yellow egg pattern and white wooly bugger seemed to be the most consistent. Undampened by the challenging day and wet weather, we headed back to our condo. We were satisfied to know that the fish we did catch were hard earned. But how would we have known the best of the day was yet to come.
The rain and wind that afternoon and evening made it difficult for the FATC camper group to prepare their dinner at their campsite. So, they brought all the food (tons of it) and adult beverages (gallons of it) to the condo. Before they arrived, we downed our lasagna, cranberry tossed salad, garlic bread and three bottles of (Aldi) wine. We had cleaned up the kitchen by the time the campers arrived so we could turn it over to them. They quickly got to work preparing some amazing venison dishes, despite a small oven fire. Although the condo boys were already stuffed, we couldn’t help but accept their offer of some delectable wild game food. Everyone was stuffed and happy. Like Friday night, Mike stayed very busy behind the bar preparing his trademark Manhattans. The fellowship was exceptional as we had plenty of time to socialize. It was that night when, in a moment of pure clarity, Craig Dull stated, “This is so much fun, I am never going home!”
We awoke Sunday morning hoping the Corp of Engineers might smile on us and slow the flow of LT before we had to leave. But, they did not. So, we packed up and headed out for the highway 8 bridge just east of Maramec Spring Park. Storms were bearing down on us, but we had the river to ourselves. Mike and I headed way down the river to start and the rest of the guys started where we parked. While the fish could have been more cooperative, both groups put fish in the net. The yellow egg pattern carried the day. Shortly before 3 PM, it was clear some heavy storms were almost on top of us. We called it a day and headed to the cars.
The guys on this trip showed they could rise to challenging fishing conditions and weather and still have a great time. It’s not all about the fishing, right? In fact, we had a unanimous agreement that, like many of the Branson billboards we saw, this trip was “Voted the Best” fishing trip.
