Travis Swift

I really have been tossing around the idea of a trying a rainbow trout colored swimbait this summer. maybe a 6 to 8 inch one, thinking the bluffs across from lilleys or even lower taney. I have zero doubt in my mind the monster browns, say 15 pounds and over eat small rainbows.

trout magnets under a float, small jigs, powerbait, worms or small pieces of shrimp.

Hey Bill I want you to throw maybe a smaller modified Arig on Taney on the bluff bank across from Phil's place and see maybe if some giant brown trout would want to play?

when I've used a 2 pound fluro leader to tie to the jig I just used an improved clinch knot and you need to make sure it's wet when you tie it and you need to tie it slowly. Fluro will burn and weaken. I no longer use the fluro though, its just straight 2 pound test SOS line for me and never looking back. Not saying that Fluro isn't good, it is, I just don't think it's necessary in a lot of instances and it's FOR SURE not needed right now with the water being dingy down there. I think the main time that Fluro would be an advantage would be in the trophy area, no water running, sun shinning and no chop. Then it would help for sure. Water running it doesn't make a whole lot of difference in my experience. Hope you guys have a good trip, post pictures for those of us living vicariously thru these posts!

I LOVE the trout magnet SOS line. I use the 2 pound test about 90% of the time and 4 pound test the other 10% of the time. It's inexpensive and very strong and I like the color that it is as well. I have tried the 7x tippet fluorocarbon tied to it but I haven't noticed an increased catch rate and I don't trust my abilities of tying the 2 lines together very well either so I stick to the 2 pound test SOS all the time.

Did any of the teams declare and fish the trophy area?

some of it is 3 or 4 inches long I think. I'm talking on the inside of the back leg where it meets the belly. it's very soft feeling.

I am just learning to tie my own trout jigs, just kind of learning as I go. I have one nice last doe hanging in my garage for the year and last night I was looking at that long beautiful white hair on the inside of the legs of that doe. I thought about trying to tie up a few jigs with it. Has anyone ever tried it? it's long and soft and a really nice white color.

praying for all you guys.

what's your guess on how long they will have the gates open? I come down next Tuesday for about 5 days trying to decide to bring the boat or not. did you fish last evening?

I love the idea then you could fish the whole lake no having to declare up or down. sounds fun as heck, got a couple Kansas boys that would come down for that!

I've always wondered. ...is there some giant bass in lower taneycomo eating trout like in California? Better question is why wouldn't there be? Some creeks down there are warm, plenty of vegetation and tons of small trout.

Thanks for the compliments. Those big heads have been popular in texas (I sell my shakey heads on the Texas fishing forum to fund my taneycomo trout trips). Guys down there use them for big worms but I have a group that have bought a ton of the 7/0 and put big swim baits on them. They claim it looks like a baitfish feeding nose down. I sell a ton of the stand up football heads to people on Lake fork though...go figure. Ivery had 3 fish over 10 pounds and 1 fish over 11 pounds that I know of caught on my jigs heads. I may never be able to do that especially here in kansas but it's pretty darn gratifying to just play a part in it. One thing I like about the stand up footballs is I make them either to stand straight up or at an angle either one. I'm usually on the taneycomo board but watch this one alot to, good chatting with you guys.

if you wanna get really crazy on a shakey head that's beefed up, check these bad boys out. I make them in 1/2, 3/4 and 1 oz all the way up to a size 7/0 hook. Please excuse the lousy picture.

I'm pretty partial to my stand up football head's I make.

That was a great video. Kinda made me feel like I was there, really made me feel like I wanna be there. Thanks for sharing Phil.

If a big Brown would of been down in the gold mine or bull creek area would it of had a chance withstand that flood by chance? I know one thing, there are alot of nice browns in the lake again which bolds well for the future.

Think we will see one this big again? How many browns do you think are in the lake over 30 pounds? There are some really deep holes that I think could harbor these guys, especially down stream from the landing. I would think once they get over 20 or 30 pounds they just lay in these deep holes and feed on little stocker rainbows anytime they want to. Man I would love to see one in person sometime!

i always ask people I'm bringing to watch a couple of Phils video's on jig fishing before we get there. It helps the learning curve a bunch. After day 1 I watched some again myself at dinner time and it helped my catch ratio a ton on day's 2 and 3. They aren't just entertainment but also educational. I found out I wasn't reeling down with the jig therefore missing half the bites. Thanks again Phil!

Got to Taney last Thursday in time to get some afternoon fishing in and then fished most of the day Friday and Saturday. We caught a few fish drifting from short creek to lilleys dock on the slow side of the current, usually 6 to 9 per drift. There were some fish down at the bass pro fish house but they were on the small size. We spent 90% of our time in the trophy area though. We fished a few back water areas that had produced well for me in July, there was still some trout in them but they were more spooky than July, it looked to me like they had been pressured more, we caught a few out of these spots. By far our best stretch was from the Cable to the start of the old KOA. 4 units running the fishing was good, 2 units running the fishing was phenomenal. We threw 1/8th ounce jigs exclusively. With 4 units running white was the king, when they backed the flow down to 2 units more natural color jigs were the best for us. I even managed a couple baby bass in the back water sloughs. Stopped in at Lilleys for a nice visit with Phil, to congratulate Morgan on that big brown last week and for a bunch of his great jigs! Will be back down at Thanksgiving, but trying to find a way for another quick weekend between now and then, can't ever get enough of Taney! Here's a few of our pictures.

We are headed down Thursday for a long weekend so I'll try to stop by for a shake and a howdy and to stock up on a few more jigs. I will also try to have a report or 2 as well.

Dumb question. .What's a triploid? It's a beautiful monster fish! Loved your story on Facebook to. Morgan has helped us several times this year when we stopped in the resort for baits or to rent a boat and she's really friendly and great to deal with. Congrats to her! You had a pretty big smile on your face to Phil your usually ppretty serious looking so I can tell you were really happy for her.

way to go Morgan!

Stupid question but since I read the article on Tablerock basically not being able to support aquatic life below 20 feet of water because of no oxygen how is that going to effect Taney? I presume the water going thru the generators at the dam is from close to the bottom of Tablerock so I would assume there's no oxygen in it since the thermocline is 20 feet on the Rock. I know Taney gets low on oxygen this time of year anyhow. So my stupid question is, how does no oxygen on the rock affect taney if at all?