Travis Swift

Good Luck DJ and crew! There are more big trout in the lake than I've ever seen in my 30+ years fishing it. You guys are in for a super weekend!

We caught them good up at the cable for one pass till the sun got up then it got tougher than I've ever seen it in 30+ years. We drifted from the cable all the way thru monkey Island and then even went to the goldmine down lake all for about 6 or 7 trout. It was brutal Saturday!

Final report for this trip we ran up to the landing for 45 minutes before we have to leave today. Caught 17 on jigs. Not great but alot better for sure. Can't wait to be back in a month, was great to get a quick weekend in though for sure!

Well this morning was totally different up there. Despite the 400 boats it was fishing really good today. Sculpin ginger jigs were the ticket for us today.

Fished an hour Thursday night and we caught a few stockers and a nice 19 inch brown. Friday we started at the cable and to be flat honest it was brutally tough for us. First time we've ever made that drift without a fish. Drifted all the way to monkey island throwing jigs and dragging baits and throwing jerkbaits picking up a few here and there but nothing very consistent at all until we got past Cooper creek. Went back to the cable in the afternoon and again it was terrible for us. Started drifting back again and I finally caught a big brown that was 21 inches and weighed 5 even. It's been as tough of a trip as we have ever had so far. We will see what Saturday brings but the big fish make up for the missed numbers!

one thing that must be of note is that they shocked the first 3.5 miles of the lake and the brown numbers look really low. There is still 18.5 miles of deep water that have gone untested, also in late August I would venture to guess most of the browns haven't began migrating up for the spawn yet either. So this is a great sample and a great read but there is a ton of deep and wide water that is unsampled and it's harboring who knows what in her depths?

I really like the Winn Grip rod tape myself.

i thought this sometimes included warm water species on the list but didn't see them this year? I know the article said only the upper 3.5 miles were checked though. Thanks for posting this, it's always a good read.

Can't see your picture but your story is awesome Seth. Good on you my man! I find the absolute hardest part of getting guys to use jigs instead of bait down there is that they want to throw them on 6 pound test and look at you like your nuts when you tell them they really need 2 pound. 2 pound is way stronger than it sounds. Good job man!

I did some of my 3-2-1 Ribs on the Traeger the other night. I prefer baby backs but these spares were awful tasty!

indeed my friend, I try to give an accurate and honest report even if i sucked

I would like to follow this up if that is okay. I was there last week for the entire week, saturday thru sunday. I've fished Taney for 30+ years and multiple trips a year and I honestly thought the trout fishing was as tough as I have ever seen it. The last two thanksgivings i'm pretty sure they haven't stocked (atleast not down lake). The previous thanksgivings up until the last couple years they put tons of fish in. I heard from alot of different people that it was as tough as they had ever seen it so I didn't feel terrible bad. Regardless it was tough enough that I went down river and had quite a week on the bass. I was averaging a dozen nice bass in a 2 hour morning. I posted some pictures in the Lower Taney forum. I did run to the cable one day for trout and caught several nice ones but it was alot tougher than I was used to and the lower lake trout bite was non existent for some reason. Even the fish house which is about the easiest place on the lake to find them usually I had a hard time getting a hit. I threw jigs only when trout fishing. Hate to report a bad report or that I sucked but just wanted to give an honest report from myself. Boy we had a great week though for bass fishing and family time and that's what is most important. I took my 8 year old daughter on the trail up by the hatchery one day and that was a blast. There are some really cool hiking trails in the Branson area!

My kind of black Friday!

It was a good run this morning in the rain. Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Been a pretty good week so far from Rockaway down. When it's warm I can't catch crap but the cold days have been pretty good!

I'm really curious about that week of thanksgiving as well! It looks to me like it's dropping around a half foot a day and if that held true we would be at 915 towards the middle of next week. But who knows what that level will do with Beaver.

I make "crab" cakes out of crappie and catfish alot. I have several places over run small crappie. I just filet them out, boil them and put them in the fridge. Then crumble them up and make a "crab" cake out of them. They turn out very well that way.

looks like it washed out or almost washed out part of the road across from the branson landing last night and snapped a power pole.

dude that's no joke. i think my bow was $610 or something like that. i think it would of been like 200 bucks cheaper to do a skin mount but it wasn't worth killing the fish to me. i'm scared to think how much your brown mount was but hell it's worth it with all the time and effort we have put in to catch these fish.

wish i would of seen his work in person, i bet his shop is really cool. how about you get a bow big enough to take to him this year, and i'll get a brownie and then we can each have one of each?