Welcome to the Ozark Fly Fishers
Founded 1971
A Missouri 501(c)3 not-for-profit corporation
Construction Continues
Hatchery project completion date is now estimated to be January 2026
Still Casting for a Leader
Fellow club members,
As the seasons shift and we enjoy the long evenings on the water, it’s time to turn our thoughts toward one of the highlights of our club’s year-the Annual Banquet. It’s an evening we all look forward to: great food, fine company, raffles, live auctions, fish tales, and maybe even a few lies about the one that got away.
But, here’s the thing- we need someone to help make all this happen.
We’re currently seeking a volunteer to step into the role Banquet Chair. This position isn’t about doing everything yourself; It’s about helping guide a team of willing hands to bring the banquet together. If you’ve ever enjoyed an evening of laughter, raffles, and community thanks to this event, you know how important it is to our club culture.
The Banquet Chair is responsible for:
Helping organizing the raffle, auctions and donations. The venue, food and bar options are taken care by other volunteers. Between all the other help, it promises to be a smooth, fun, and memorable evening.
You’ll have plenty of support-past chairs are happy to share their wisdom, and the board is ready to help every step of the way. Whether you’re a seasoned organizer or just someone with a passion for the club and a knack for getting things done, this is a great opportunity to make a big impact.
If you’re interested or even just curious, please reach out to me. Stepping up for a role like this is how we keep our club strong, connected, and thriving.
Steve Antonic
President. Ozark Fly Fishers
314-401-8874
sjantonic@charter.net
BANQUET REMINDER
Dear Members
The time has come to mark your calendars, saving the date for our annual fundraising banquet.
As you know, our annual fundraising banquet is our clubs largest fundraising eventof the year, providing us the opportunity to sponsor our many events throughout the entire year.
Next year’s banquet and silent auction is on Saturday, January 17th, 2026.
The banquet will be held at the same location as years past. Andre’s at Sunset Hills 13366 West Watson Road Sunset Hill, Missouri 63127
This year’s cost will remain the same as last year, $40.00 per person which includes a nice meal, desert, and open bar. The event will include raffles, silent auction as well as a live auction.
We encourage all of you to bring your spouse, guest and even friends, who might not be club members, to join us for a great night out.
Please mark your calendars, make plans to attend and support your club. Reservation forms will be made available in the near future.
Thank you and hope to see you there.
My trip to the Orvis Rod Shop
When my wife suggested a road trip to several New England states in early September, my answer was, “Uh, yeah, sure.”
I DID try to sound as enthusiastic the trip as I could. But to be honest, September and October are a couple of my favorite months to trout fish. By then the hottest weather is pretty much behind us. The evenings can be nice and cool. Plus with the kids being back in school, it’s often a great time to fish.
But we do so many things as a couple just for me, I couldn’t possibly say no to her, in fairness.
So she made all the reservations, planned things out and asked if there was anything special that I wanted to do.
When I noticed that “our” itinerary took us through Vermont I hinted that a trip to the Orvis shop in Manchester would be nice. Anyone familiar with the Orvis Flyfishing Podcasts knows Tom Rosenbauer says they have tours of the rod shop. As Tom R says, ”If you are in the area, stop by.”
A check on the website mentions that tours are available weekday at 10:30 am. Wouldn’t it be cool if Tom Rosenbauer himself was there? Fat chance of that…
So my good and patient wife and I stopped by the Orvis flagship store and found out that they open the door to the Rod Shop at 10:30 sharp and if no one is outside waiting, there’s no tour that day.
The reason is that one of the 42 workers at the rod shop gives the tour. They are quite busy building rods and need to get back to work.
At 10:25 am we were sitting in the bench outside the door. Three old guys tumble out of a pick up and said they were going in the tour too. At exactly 10:30 am as promised, the door opens. A family of 4 who we later found out were from the UK, joins us. As we are signing the register, in walks none other than the much celebrated Tom Rosenbauer himself, with a buddy.
I can hardly contain myself as I ask to have my picture taken with him, to which he kindly consented.
I managed to tell him how much I enjoy his podcasts, but I take pleasure in disagreeing with him on occasion (as I’m certain he has heard many times before.)
Tom knows as well as we all do, that flyfishing is a more personal sport than might be imagined to the outsider.
There are no right or wrong ways of doing things. Some ways work better than others and your style/preferences are something that must fit you and you alone.
It’s as another notable Tom (Hargrove) says, “there are many paths to the way”.
So my wife and I and a bunch of strangers and Tom Rosenbauer took the tour.which was quite interesting. We saw how they create the different sections of the rods by wrapping carbon fiber tape around different size tapered rods and then baking them. The various sections are gently cooled, and then sanded, trimmed, painted and have the ferrules wrapped by hand. Later the rod guides are meticulously put in place by hand. We asked some questions such as how they are able to make a variety of weight rods with a certain action On a few occasions, Tom R provided the answers. At the end of the tour we were given Orvis stickers. I went over to the flagship store and bought a couple shirts. The British guy bought a $700+ flyrod.
On a personal note, meeting someone you consider a revered “celebrity” can be an unsettling experience. It occurred to me plainly: even though I’ve sat listening to Tom Rosenbauer in his podcasts and watched him for hours in YouTube videos, Tom was not as familiar with me as I was with him !
Of course he wouldn’t be, you might be thinking. We’d never actually met in real life. But due to the expanded social media presence that celebrities have today, it’s only natural to feel that we are buddies.
It’s a sobering experience to realize that, well, we just aren’t that close.
Still, the tour was a fun and different experience.
Dan Stag
Westover Farms in August
Four of us, Dave Haas, Marlan Graham, Ed Bean and I headed down together on August 18th to Westover, after the big heat wave passed. We bumped into Susan and Dan Krupa while we were down there. It was nice weather, good food and some good fishing. Marlan caught a nice 20 in in the woodland stream pool. Dave caught some on a crackback in the creek, and one nice one farther up in the spring on a cane rod. Ed got fish in the Chuck Tryon meandering stream. Dan and Susan fished below the low water bridge and had good luck. I had never fished below that low water bridge before, and had some good luck there as well. There is a gate to field which can be used for access to the stream, rather than climbing down the steep concrete. There were a bunch of fish of all sizes in the rocks where the water spills into the creek. I used a new 10' 2 wt TFO nymphing rod, and it worked great for running a Chewy Caddis over the cracks between the rocks.
Tight Lines,
Paul Jackson
Bennet on a Friday
Took a drive down to Bennet Springs with Jeff Cohen on Friday, August 29, getting in the water around 9:30 after a little morning business.
Stepped into the hole above Holland Dam and saw many fish in the water. Squeezed in right above the dam, crowded slightly by another guy who was doing well and tied on an egg sucking leech, which worked some and caught a few. Next cast landed a fine Maple Tree so I tied on the same pattern and once again landed the same fine looking Maple Tree. At least I was consistent.
Decided to skip the crowd and moved up and out to the middle of the stream. Tied on a soft hackle and stripped it down and across with a little interest. Adjusted my tactics once again and tied on a Bennet Springs Killer. Deadly. I started getting action on most casts if I hit the right area. I had a field day and most were nice fish, with some girth and fight. A few went sixteen inches and very few small ones. About 4pm my legs had enough and my fly was in tatters (but still working) so I gave up. Had thread and wires hanging on the hook, but still getting interest. Noticed some were sipping top water as I got out. Jeff said he saw good fishing down at the spillway, so Bennet is definitely fishing well.
Dan Rasch
Mid-week Montauk Gathering
Let’s Go Fishing !
There will be an informal meeting on the stream at Montauk State park Tuesday September 16th, and Wednesday September 17th. Come and stay the night and fish both days OR come down for either day. We will meet at the parking lot at the Park Naturalist office at 8:30 am and reconvene for lunch each day at noon to eat, brag and tell fish stories.
The fishermen are on their own for food, lodging and rides. But if you let me know I’ll try to pair you up with another person, if you’d like. On Tuesday evening we will eat dinner at a nearby restaurant (probably Salem).
If you are interested, either let me know by contacting me at danstag@att.net or just show up either (or both days). Again, this is very informal, but should be fun to get out with our Ozark buddies and tease the trout. Mark your calendars and Hope to see you on the stream !
- DanStag
The list of upcoming events:
Aug 21 - Logan Huff, Morgan Guss of The Diamond State Fly Co Arkansas
Sept 25 - Jeff Mace, Feather Craft
October 9-12 Taneycomo Outing
October 23 - Joe Oelke - Urban fishing in St. Louis
November 14-16 - Bennet Springs Catch & Release Outing
December 11 - Christmas Party
January 17 - Banquet
February 21 - All Day meeting with Son Tau
Thanks,
Paul Jackson
Lake Taneycomo Outing
October 9th, 10th and 11th 2025
Ozark Fly Fishers fall outing will be held at beautiful Lake Taneycomo the second weekend of October. Lodging has been arranged at Lilley’s Landing Resort. This has always been an enjoyable outing with the chance to catch some really large fish. We have reserved four cabins for Thursday, Friday and Saturday night October 9-11, 2025.
Lilley’s Landing has its own trout dock with jon boats that can be rented by the day. For those interested in renting boats or guide services, you can reach out to:
For those interested in renting boats or guide services, you can reach out to:
River Run Outfitters
Historic Hwy 165
Branson. MO 65616
1-417-332-0460
https://www.riverrunoutfitters.com
Lilley’s Landing
367 River Ln 2626
Branson, MO. 65616
1-(417)-334-6380
https://www.lilleyslanding.com /
Thanks, Ed!
Fly Casting Tip September 2025
Continuing a discussion of Lefty Kreh’s principles of fly casting. As a reminder the principles are:
1) “You must get the end of the fly line moving before you can make a back or forward cast.”
2) “Once the line is moving, the only way to load the rod is to move the casting hand at an ever-increasing speed and then bring it to a quick stop.”
3) “The line will go in the direction the rod tip speeds up and stops—more specifically. It goes in the direction that the rod straightens when the rod hand stops.”
4) “The longer the rod travels on the back and forward casting strokes, the less effort is required to make the cast.
Regarding principle #4 – Said another way – the farther one wants to cast the greater the stroke length needs to be in order to cast farther most efficiently. With a short stroke only the tip of the rod bends, (unless an enormous amount of speed is produced). The tip has less ability to add power to a cast than the butt section of a rod. Therefore, if casting any distance, the caster should get the butt of the rod to bend in order to add power. While increasing the stroke length is key another essential is to maintain the correct arc of the cast. That is, one should maintain a straight line path (SLP) of the rod tip. A big arcing cast is not an increase in stroke length.
Also, Lefty adds that a longer stroke is needed to make several of the special casts (e.g. – side arm casting in windy conditions). It pays to practice changing stroke lengths to improve practical on stream casting.
Bill Armon
September Fly Pattern
Copper Swan
The Copper Swan is originally a Rugue River pattern developed by Trophy Waters Fly Fishing in Medford, Oregon. Meant to be a scaled back Copper John, with a little down-sizing from the original *8, it is a great pattern for local waters. It sinks like a rock, has everything a good nymphs should have, and nothing it shouldn’t.
Hook: Heavy Wire Scud Hook #10 or 12
Bead: Gold Tungsten of appropriate size
Weight: .015 Lead wire
Thread: 8/0 Black or Red
Body: Brassie-Size Red Wire (or your favorite color)
Thorax: Peacock Ice Dub
Hackle: Natural Dun CDC
Wings: White Goose Biots
Place bead on hook and secure hook in vise. Add 4 or 5 wraps of lead wire and shove up into the bead. Start thread behind the lead wraps and secure in place.
Tie in a section of colored wire just behind the lead wraps and secure on top of hook back to the hook bend and return thread back to the thorax.
Wrap the wire body forward using touching turns to form a uniform body covering 2/3rds of the hook shank to the thorax.
Dud a thorax of peacock ice dub to just behind the bead leaving a little room for the hackle.
Prepare the CDC feather to tie in by the tip and secure just behind the bead. Make 1-2 wraps of the CDC stroking rearward and secure with thread wraps. Trim excess.
(You could also use the dubbing loop method to add the hackle if you prefer.)
Tie in two goose biots on top forming a V extending to just short of the hook bend.
Add a little super glue to the thread and make a few wraps, then whip finish just behind the head. You could also add a red band if using red thread. Thim thread.
I fish this as an anchor fly in a EuroNymph rig or the top nymph in a dropper rig under an indicator, It will also work as a heavy soft hackle style fly if you use a smaller bead. I like the red color, but also like copper, chartreuse, copper brown, and all black.
Mike Ott