Chartered Waters Trout Shop & Guide Service

05/21/2026

05/20/2026

I have NEVER seen so many gar in the Trophy Area as I’ve seen this year. And we haven’t really had any floodgates for a while? My theory on the floodgate fish is after the gates shut off they either go downstream to find a creek to live in (or near) to get out of the colder water…or they stay around upstream where they don’t seem to live too long? The ones we’re seeing now are dead or dying but they would almost have had to be coming up into the Trophy Area from downstream? I’m not sure?…but there’s a lot of them and they don’t look great? 🐟

05/20/2026

Jeff and the boys from a few days ago. 4 newish fly fishermen in a boat ‘can’ be a little interesting at times but these guys were champs! They caught on well…caught a bunch of fish …and DIDNT catch each other?…or me!…so we like that too 😆. They were great folks to spend a couple days with!🐟🐟🐟🐟

05/06/2026

5/5/26🐟 a few pics from a few trips recently. Mostly boat trips and mostly all pretty good. We had a brief stint of a very mild 1/2 unit or so for about 3-4 days in a row. They got picky at times during that stretch until I re-remembered the cherise Micro Mega…that lil sucker has climbed back to the top of the arsenal with zero to mild flows from the boat.

04/21/2026

4/21/26🐟

Several trips over the past weekend under ‘water off’ conditions most of the time. I’m still leaning towards afternoons for starting times if the schedule allows as the bite is picking up every day after mid day.

The black Baitfish Jig (1/295th oz) early then the same thing in olive mid day on have been my go tos. Not as hot on that rusty midge recently but those things are always decent on a windy and sunny day.

No pics except this quick 3 hour trip Sunday afternoon trip. My new friends here spent the previous two days fishing (ALL DAY on Taneycomo one day …and all day at Roaring River the other) …coming up empty both days.

They were good fishermen so it wasn’t that!..but the setup can be the deciding factor some days. I told them about the jig and float set up…6x fluorocarbon and the flies of course…gave them a few of the Baitfish Jigs we were using at the end of our trip and told them that exact same setup will smoke em at Roaring River too👍🏽 …and to check out Tim’s Fly Shop when they’re there.

Well they definitely figured things out nicely boating about 40 fish and missing about …oh….maybe 5x that many? lol…but I told them that EVERYBODY misses about 4 out of 5 hits no matter how long they’ve been at this. They’re just fast little suckers!

04/15/2026

4/13/26🐟…4 minutes on Taneycomo

04/15/2026

04/15/26-🐟 it’s officially beautiful weather here in the Ozarks! These next two months are probably the top “secret months” for taking trips here. Not too many people yet…that starts in June lol…but Spring is just kicking in …and the weather is perfect and the fishing is great …the birds the flowers the warmth!…everything is happy including the trout in Taneycomo.

A recent trip with new fly guys John and the boys still had that slower am bite going for us but they had a full day planned so we couldn’t start too late. We took off at 9 and it was actually solid early, but the really good bite started around 11am?

The black Baitfish Jig (1/295th oz) has been a pretty good early bite fly for me and it was for these guys too. After noon most days a lot of things start working pretty well…and that’s w water off btw.

Wading has been outstanding! Probably a little better than the boat overall but even up there…the early morning bite isn’t worth getting up too early for most days. There are still some very active spawners in the trophy section. Not quite like fall and winter here but later in afternoon right now if the water stays off there are some really hot fish up there!

I took my buddy out 🐾around noon for a fly delivery and a little fun time in general and wow!…crazy good STILL!

Here’s an attempt at my camera work. I have a tripod I’m about to bust out here soon lol.

🐟 #18 olive Swimming Scud lead wa #20 brown/olive G-Bug trailer. Pretty tough set up to beat out there. As you can see the action is pretty salty. You won’t “catch” every fish you hook but you will hook a LOT!!!

03/31/2026

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