Travis Swift

Those look awesome man! What a story and big beautiful brownie!! Don did an unreal job on my rainbow replica last year too. His work is stunning and i was thrilled with mine as well!

you can buy an insulated blanket for the Traeger but truthfully i've never had to use one. I've used them in single digits before with no issues. They have "P settings" which allows you to change what smoking temp you use based on the conditions like air temps and wind. mine sets on a covered deck but is 100% exposed to wind and cold temps and i've never had an issue at all. hope that helps some?

i'm very partial to my Traeger or pellet grills but not sure if that's what your looking for. I cook on it probably 4 to 5 nights a week 52 weeks out of the year and we have plenty of wind and cold in kansas. it's fool proof and is an amazing cooking tool.

3/32nd ounce jig on 2 pound test line and spinning rod fished straight.

how you fish that mega worm Seth? i have a bunch tied up but haven't used them for some reason or another.

A friend is wanting me to fish right below the Powersite dam at night during the week of thanksgiving. What kind of fish will be available then and willing to bite? Are stripers and walleye and bass there or trout or what is there that time of year?

that looks amazing on the Alfredo!

Just got back from Taneycomo with 4 of my great friends. We enjoyed fried trout as appetizers and giant ribeyes as the main course for 4 straight nights and washed down with some cold Busch lights. Good times and great food.

We caught several very small rainbows.. This one was.. Well what was he thinking???

We just got back from Taney and had a great trip. The fish are so thick, healthy and beautiful colored right now. Taney is in great shape! Our best fishing was in the restricted zone between look out and fall creek all week. We caught fish on sculpin Peach jigs in the morning till the sun got high then had to go to natural colors, sculpin and ginger, sculpin brown, sculpin wine etc. One day they got off the jig bite big time so we switched to micro jigs on fly rods and it was hammer time all day long doing that and it was a blast. We are still pretty new to fly rods and stuff but goodness we caught alot of fish and had a blast doing it. Shallow side was our best but the big fish of the trip came on the bluff side. It wasn't all roses this trip as the jerkbait bite was WAY off for us. We caught plenty of smallmouth and Kentucky bass on it, quite a few rainbows on it but only one brownie and I threw it ALOT. Something was just off and I can't figure out what it was. The fishing from the cable to look out also wasn't as good as we have come to expect either. The stretch from look out to the narrows was for sure the best stretch this time around. An interesting note is we had a half dozen nice smallies on the bluff across from lilleys this trip. This post has been promoted to an article

Mr Babler I'm sure I saw you on the water this weekend right above the narrows and I sure wish I would of spoken up because I wanted to congratulate you sir!! I have a question, what size of Daiwa do you use? I'm in search of a replacement for all my Shimano trout reels as they are plum wore out. I fish jigs straight on mine if that helps answer the question. Congrats again! Travis Swift

Hate to post this after Bablers monster but I did catch a really nice rainbow this morning. Gonna go to Phil's for a certificate this afternoon. 22 inch, scales were broke, guessing 5 to 7 pounds, just fat and thick all the way thru. New color of jig I'm tying that's a Sculpin/Wine color. We hammered nice rainbows this morning before the sun came up in the 15 to 18 inch range.

Congrats Bill! What a giant beast of a fish. This is less than 2 pounds from the WORLD RECORD. You better believe taney is going to hold that record soon!

I'm sure someone will be along soon but looks like Bill Babler has caught a brown this morning that is estimated to be in the 40 pound range. Congrats Bill!!!. Pics are HUGE. We are headed that way in an hour or two, wish it was still around to see by the time we get there but i bet it's released by then.

the day in april that we caught like 22 browns in one day on jerkbaits they were biting it on the pause like you would bass fish in the winter. Let it set for like 5 seconds between jerks and that's when they would hit it. I figured it was cause the gates had been open and they had been seeing dead shad but maybe not? I know it was the first time that they wanted it that way instead of the constant jerks. You gotta experiment for sure to see what they want. And they wanted a specific color that day also, that made a big big difference as well.

Can you get past look out with that 35 mw half unit running?

agreed, it's just hard to take time to go try off the wall new stuff when your limited to a few precious days a year and you know what works. perhaps we should meet down there some weekend and try nothing but stuff we have never done or used in spots we have never fished and see what we figure out.

me and you have talked and i think a jerk bait is great for fish to 10 pounds but for the mega giants a jerk bait might move to fast for them? or perhaps they don't want to come that high in the water column? I know we both have had 20 pound plus fish follow a jerk bait to the boat though without committing so who knows? I'm like you, i'll keep on throwing it cause it's to dang fun not too! A crank bait might be a really great way to catch a mega giant. I've also thought about big trout imitating swimbaits and perhaps a bigger 6 inch flutter spoon jigged vertically under the boat?

And for what it's worth I still believe in my mind that 20 pound plus brown trout live on stocker rainbows, sculpin and (when available) shad. I just think when they reach that size that they mainly feed on stocker bow's. I have no science to back that up, just my personal belief.

I would guess if someone was to log hours of a jig vs a jerkbait for brown trout specifically the number of 20 inch browns caught on a jerkbait is astronomically higher per hour fished than a jig would be. But a jig will catch you more fish of both species and sizes and it's not even close. Limited on time and want a shot at a 20 inch or bigger brown, throw a jerkbait. Want to catch as many fish as possible with a shot at a trophy of either species mixed in, throw a jig. Or do like a lot of us and throw both

A couple thoughts from me on this. A jig is by far the most thrown artificial lure on the lake that's not bait or a fly so part of it could be a numbers game.....a lot of jigs are thrown and they can imitate anything from a shad to a sculpin depending on color or how they are fished. The second thing that hits me is, alot of guys that fish jigs know what they are doing, simply put they are good fisherman and are in the know on how and when to use them. One cast each night has educated lots of people on how to throw them and the proper technique as well. You can also fish a jig in deeper water easier and by boat easier than you can say a fly, unless it's spawn time alot of these fish are being caught by boat down from the restricted area. Lastly i don't think either of the last two monsters were targeted so they were just random fish caught by experienced fisherman. Best thing a guy can do is tie on a jig and fish it anywhere from one dam all the way to the other. They work up and down the lake no matter where you are located, fished the same way. Also a jig is versatile, you can fish it straight, fish it on a float, fish it with the water off, fish it with flood gates open. All play factors into their effectiveness.

Phil the guy in the video is Jeff Williams and he lives in Grove OK so he's not to far. He has several hunting and fishing brand companies over there and makes and sells great products. Everything I have seen about him is that he's a great guy. Might be a good guy to get in contact with and try to carry the new hooks he had in the video.