Christmas can come any time of the year. There can be a gift exchange in July; exactly what took place after fishing Lake Taneycomo in Branson last summer during a one-day vacation.
There was an interview that day at Lilleys’ Landing with guide Duane Doty. After handing Doty a fly box with the midges – my midges – that had worked in the trophy area below Table Rock Dam on a solo trip earlier, we got down to business.
We talked about how Doty got into hand tying jerkbait lures to catch big trout on the same waters. He explained the process that eventually led to selling them at the dock’s office shop.
They are part of his deal with clients. They are given a set of custom Doty lures at day’s end, just like the ones they probably caught a 20-inch brown on.
A few days after the interview, Doty texted to ask for my home address. I assumed a hand written thank you note was coming, a rare event these days.
No, in a few days there was a package in the mailbox. There were two of Doty’s lures, signed by the artist. It was Christmas in July.
Probably to Doty’s disappointment, the lures have not been fished. My son-in-law, an elite fly fishing guide, marveled at the lures with treble hooks dangling everywhere. Neither he nor I fish such lures. We try to fool fish with flies tied on single barbless hooks.
“You aren’t going to fish them are you?” he said.
I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to say at first. Should I profess to be repulsed at fishing such hardware? That wasn’t the thinking at all.
“You better put them in a shadow box and display them above your fly tying desk,” he said. “They are art, flat out gorgeous.”
Agreed and that’s what happened. Doty can paint a jerkbait better than anyone involved in trout fishing. It is art.
Described simply as “our handy man” on the staff directory at Lilleys’ Landing Resort and Marina, Doty can also make about anything with wood, too.
But what he does best is paint the picture with words on how to catch massive trout on the wonderful trout fishery in Branson, Mo. You can sense his love for fishing with a visit to his website (OzarkTroutRunners.com).
It’s a passion that consumes Doty, a wood working magician by trade but an elite trout guide in his mind almost all of his waking moments. Yes, he works the dock or answers questions in the fly shop to help newbies to the lake.
It’s a perfect job for someone who has “the fire” for fishing, guiding or just standing in the water at Taneycomo.
You understand the fire as he explains coming up with the jerkbaits. He didn’t like what was on the market.
He painted fine detail, using the “stipple method” with dot patterns. It’s a 22-step process with nine colors. They are perfection.
Then, there is the definition of the perfect vacation trip as relayed to his wife.
“It’s one of the best tailwaters in the world right here,” he said. “I told her going on vacation somewhere else is not an option.”
That’s coming from someone who for several years was an Orvis-endorsed guide in Alaska.
“I went out to Alaska when I was 40,” said Doty, now 51. “Those are 18-hour days. I was running around with 20-year-old college students.
“I tell people that if you want to learn how to be a guide, go to Alaska. I did and I loved it. I did eight summers there, but it’s for a young man.”
The rest of the year there was some construction work between Springfield and Branson.
“That job was ending,” he said. “I was working for a friend and he gave me two weeks notice. My friend thought I’d be mad.”
Phil Lilley found out and offered him a job at the dock the next day.
“I started before my two weeks were up,” Doty said. “That was about six or seven years ago. I wasn’t mad. Going to work here was just exactly what I wanted to do. He did me a favor letting me go and I told him that.”
Doty works at the lodge doing an assortment of tasks, including building furniture or making repairs. But the highlight is guiding.
“My biggest deal now is the jerkbait trips,” he said. “It’s caught fire on our fishery. About any day you go out on Taneycomo, you are probably going to see four to eight boats fishing jerkbaits.”
If they are smart, they have one of Doty’s hand painted lures.
“It took me about three years to perfect the stipple method,” he said. “I wanted a juvenile rainbow and then I came up with a sculpin.
“There was not a jerkbait pattern on the market for a juvenile rainbow. That’s what the big browns are eating. So that’s where I concentrated.
“I’ve got some patterns that are 120 dots, some others that are 450 dots. I started with the juvenile rainbow after a saw a big brown spitting them up. Then, I did the sculpin pattern.”
Some of his early efforts were met with skepticism.
“It started with heckling,” he said. “Slowly, there was encouragement. It was a long process.”
Now, it’s the rage of Taneycomo.
“Those painted jerkbaits have caught 32-inch browns,” Doty said.
Jig fishing is a great way to catch big fish on Taneycomo, but Doty doesn’t think it will match his hand painted jerkbaits.
“I was averaging about 15 to 20 big fish a year while I was guiding with fly fishing or jig fishing,” he said. “A big fish is over 20 inches.
“Over the last couple of years, that’s jumped. I’m boating between 150 to 200 big browns a year now with jerkbaits.”
Going after the big browns is what it’s all about. And, it’s always catch and release. That mystifies some, especially the young.
“One day we had a big brown almost eight pounds in the minnow tank (for oxygen) trying to revive it,” Doty said. “An 8-year-old boy walked up and saw the release. Why?
“I told him, ‘We are not eating it. Tomorrow I’ll take you on the water and you can catch it.’ The light bulb went on.”
And, another fire was lit.