Travis Swift

Fished on a dock just down from fall creek this morning. Caught about 15 and missed twice that many. They weren't biting very aggressive. Probably caught equal amount on white and sculpin/amber. Nothing big at all but they are biting for sure

I will be down there this time tomorrow night. Pretty excited about the timing. Hopefully some of those floating fish are just stunned and will make it. Thanks for the update DD.

that's a good question. I do believe MDC just a month or so ago stocked a bunch of browns down around empire so who knows? I just assumed they liked a little warmer water and with the water quality and forage I thought they might thrive down there but I might be wrong?

come pick me up on that flat we talked about this morning Seth

any idea how long this will be for?

hey if he did I hope he's had atleast one sculpin or rainbow in his belly since last week ahahhaha

that's one of my favorite stretches as well seth when they are running water and your correct, they get up really shallow there. it's always good for bites. we are staying on the dock that has the treestumps/brushpiles that stick out of the water right in front of them. those are always hot spots.

I plan to throw a jig, swimbaits, jerkbaits etc also but wanted to try a catch a few on the ol' fly rod as well

Ryan would this be a good scenario to throw the mega worms that I tied up? just throw them up current and let them tumble back on the bottom with the current?

Thanks for the tips Marty. It's great to hear from you......I seen a picture of you on facebook from last week and you had a spinning rod in your hand.....wth? ahahahah

Good Morning I am coming down to Taney later this week and staying just below fall creek resort on the opposite side of the lake. I've fished it in a boat hundreds of times so i know there is a shallow flat over there that is only a foot or two deep and drops out to 4 or 5 feet. It is also a little slower water as the river bends on the bluff bank so this shallow flat is somewhat slower water. I'm hoping to wade a little bit even if they are flowing 2 units but i'm not sure if it will be possible or not. I have a dock i can fish off of regardless. My question is, what kinds of flies can i fish in that moving water, again it's going to be somewhat slower but still moving pretty good. Do i need to add some "shot" to the line and what sort of flies can I fish in that sort of water? lastly where is a good place to place the "shot" on the line? thanks in advance.

Very interesting read. Thanks for sharing Phil. I'm all for adding some more triploid Browns and also starting to add triploid rainbows. Bring them on

I think that jerkbaits will catch plenty of 20 to 27 inch fish but I'm starting to think that the true mega giants.....say 20 plus pounders wouldn't wanna come chase down a jerk bait to badly? I'm thinking the 20 plus pound fish, all they need to do is lay in the deeper holes and just eat dead or injured stocker rainbows that float by. Think how many stockers are mishandled or killed with bait on a weekly basis on that lake. All those mega giants have to do is lay there until a dead or injured one floats by and they have a 10 or 12 inch meal without putting out any effort at all.

There is so much deep water with tons of lay downs and cover along with stocker bows, shad, sunfish etc down from the landing to empire and gets very little pressure compared to above. There is no way that Frank is the only fish that size in there. He was just the most visible and obviously recognizable. I saw fish with my own eyes last sep that looked like submarines under the boat and not just one, I'm talking multiple 20+ pound fish, they were starting to move up lake at that time. I think there are more giants below the landing than above cooper creek but the amount of pressure is a 10th of what it is above. That being said it's a WHOLE different lake down there, just not even close to the same. It is deep and wide and there are tons more laydowns, brush piles and tons of grass flats. It's going to take years to learn but I'm trying. I also think the browns prefer the warm water perhaps? I just think all the ingredients for a world record are in lower taney. Maybe I'm nuts but that's my thinking anyhow

I'm completely convinced if the world record brown trout isn't in taneycomo it will be in the next 3 or 4 years. I truly think in the next 5 years at some point Taney will hold the world record title.

thanks for the detailed report! did you cut the TRD in half basically then length wise?

First off congrats to Paul and what a fish! Phil you really wrote this nicely. One thing that makes the special is how much it was documented including the catch on the water and keeping the fish alive! Lastly from the video you can tell Paul is a humble person and it happened to a great guy!

Photos courtesy of Ryan Miloshewski. Hopefully he's cool with me posting them.

I'm sure Phil will be long this evening but is tied up at the moment. Paul Crews caught the new state record brown in Phil's tournament today. I believe it was 40 inches long, 38 inch girth and weights officially at 34.6 pounds which smashes rhe the old record of 28.12. From what I'm hearing they are 99% sure it was "frank". Looks like at this point "frank" is doing really well and will be released alive. Congrats to Paul and all the hard working folks at Lilleys for doing all they can to keep him alive. It appears he was caught in the short creek area on a sculpin jig. It was captured on video and looks like it took their boat for quite a ride all over the lake to get him landed!

I'm not near as good as any of these guys but I do throw mine in Pline CXX 8 pound. It's super strong stuff, don't let 8 pound scare ya. Also I don't really jerk mine when the water is cold. more like a small twitch twitch and let it set instead of a pronounced jerking action if that makes sense. I hated jerkbaits till about 2 years ago when I discovered the Megabass 110+1. I'm stubborn in the fact it's one of the only jerkbaits I feel confident in and I have a box full of them now. I don't even own a regular they are all +1's.

That a boy Andy! Congrats my friend on that beautiful fish.

$16 tyd per lot

I did as well, a little pricey and might jam up in the wrong places when you reach down to net the fish

good info so far, thank you all.

they are big if that's what you mean