The Tailwaters of Missouri, with Carolyn Parker

This week, my guest is Carolyn Parker of River Run Outfitters in Branson, Missouri [51:39]. Carolyn is a 20-year veteran of guiding tailwaters and a recipient of the Orvis Endorsed Program's Lifetime Achievement Award. Her specialty is fishing tailwaters, and you'll learn a lot about how to deal with fluctuating water levels and how to fish a river that has mostly midges and crustaceans instead of mayflies and caddisflies.

In the Fly Box this week, we have lots of questions and some long-winded answers, including: Why don't more people use furled leaders? When you say "don't land your fly line on the fish", does that include your leader and tippet? Why do you recommend fishing worm patterns in high, dirty water? How can I land striped bass in the surf? For two-fly rigs under indicators, do most guides prefer the second fly "in-line" or on a separate tag? How do you rank various considerations when picking a fly? When you are on new water and don't know what bugs are around, how do you pick a fly? Is a 9-foot 7-weight a good rig for fishing bass and streamers for trout? Why do some rods like the Superfines have cork reel seat inserts? Why does my leader kink when I use the Dorsey indicator method? What would you do if rain started and the trout stopped feeding? What rod should I pick to start fly fishing in smaller streams in West Virginia? If I want to upgrade my rod collection to some higher-end models, how should I prioritize my choices? Are centipedes a threat to fly-tying materials? A suggestion for removing epoxy from the eyes of flies with micro drill bits (with a caution from Tom) Suggestions for fishing for striped bass on the rocky shoreline in Rhode Island Why does my dropper connection always break instead of my tippet-to-fly connection? Why can't I catch any trout?