Travis Swift

As our last casts were ending last night the horror of calls from panicked wives set in. This tornado missed both our houses with our families huddled in the basement by less than a mile and a half. Wasn't our most fun ending ever setting on the dock of Lakeshore Resort talking them thru this. It was a horrible helpless feeling.

Thanks Marty!

Myself and my Brother saw the rain in the forecast and decided it sounded like a great time to chase some Browns. We decided about 7 the night before to throw stuff in the boat and drive from Kansas the next day. We fished Thursday and Friday and landed 23 browns up to 19 inches (the fat rascal weighed 5.2 pounds!) we hooked and lost another 15 or so as well so we hooked close to 40 browns in two days time. The only bad part is we lost our 3 biggest fish, 2 of them were 7+ pound fish that we lost at the boat and goodness I lost what I'm even scared to think of. I had a brown shoot up out if 26 feet of water and smash my bait and dove for the bottom. First time in my life I thought I might get spooled. The fish stayed on the bottom and went for the middle of the lake, I had to kick the trolling motor on high and chase it then after awhile it made its way back towards a bluff and I applied all I thought my 8 pound test could handle and it simply ran me in a tree and the rest is history. There was nothing I could of done differently, I never even got a reel handle turn on the fish it was in control the entire time. I'll never know how big but i'll never forget it either. We caught fish from the dam to the landing. There are a bunch of beautiful healthy browns in thr lake from 16 to 19inches and there are still some real tanks as well. Wonderful fast trip can't wait for the next one! Here is a handful of pics of some beautiful colored fish.

this is atleast the 3rd year it's been at the landing, it always looks like that.

I love my Force, it's one of the best pieces of equipment I have ever bought for fishing but the spot lock sucks, it's gotten way worse and yes I had updated thru the app and wished I hadn't. I'm not sure what to do at this point. Hadn't thought about what Bill said with the repairing them, does that take it back to the original state Bill? Did it help on the spot lock?

Good luck to you on that. That's the worst TV show in the history of outdoor TV fishing shows. If you really wanna know how it fishes go to YouTube and type in oh Ivie bass fishing and get ya some popcorn and a Busch light cause your gonna be entertained. And you won't have to listen to them talk about their Honda motor for 10 minutes and then talk to some random school kids that literally have no clue who they are for the other 20.

That's going to be a big loss for alot of us that look up to you but a hardy congratulations to you also Bill! When do you retire and where are you going if you want to share, hopefully not totally out of fishing and will just get to fun fish a bunch more? congrats again, travis

Beautiful fish, congrats to both of you. That smile is worth a million bucks to!

If you go on Garmins page and look at the specs the LVS34 (New) and the LVS32(Old) both only have the 20 degree beam. I wish it was the 40 like was posted originally up above but it's only the 20 degree still. Which really shows you where to cast but it honestly takes some serious practice in boat control and casting ability. Some guys make it look EASY......trust me it's not. But it's a ton of fun when it works out no doubt but if you haven't tried it and think it's cheating etc you haven't used it especially in current or windy situations because boat control is the #1 challenge with it. I have had it for over a year and love it but admittedly I'm not good with it......yet, but it's a work in progress and alot of fun to use and play with.

I stand corrected and will stand down. Just seems to be a ton of traffic on the lake compared to alot of years but that was just my observation.

I like where those numbers are headed. I'm not saying this out of arrogance just being honest in saying that 20 inches are becoming normal enough I know I quit getting certificates and I suspect many others are doing the same so you gotta think the numbers are even better which is assounding!

I guess in a nutshell from my opinion is I feel like MDC has done an excellent job of trying to take angler input into account and have created and maintained a wonderful fishery for anyone and everyone. They will do what they have always done I'm sure and that is tweak things here and there but there is no doubt they are always trying to make a great fishery that has a mix of sizes of fish and opportunities from catching numbers to potential world records. I applaud them for their work, we are all excellent arm chair biologist no doubt

In having a good convo with my brother about this a lot of it came to light. They did the survey several years back when taney wasn't quite as popular. They cut the stockings down around the first year of Covid I believe. Which to no fault of their own Taney and fishing became even more popular. In our unscientific opinion there are probably 25 to 30% more boats fishing Taney the last couple of years that we can ever remember, perhaps even more (it's been stupid at times). So the perfect storm created where you have say (guessing) 20% less fish being placed in the lake and 30% more people fishing it with the majority of them keeping fish and or bait fishing and we know the mortality rate of bait caught fish and the picture of seeing why the number are so low in the lake right now lie. I think they put less fish in but none of us knew the "Covid effect" would mean that much more pressure and hence why they will need to look at numbers in the future. If they had a crystal ball they might of almost left stocking numbers the same knowing the "taking" part of the put and taking was going to increase drastically.

One thing we can all agree on for sure is that the size and quality of the fish in the lake right now is amazing. And you are 100% right, I got stopped many times during that two years. MDC listens and they care and they try and that's all we can ask for. Without a doubt this is the best time for big fish I've seen in my 35 years plus of fishing the lake and I really hope that continues into the future.

I've been staying down lake the week of Thanksgiving for the last 8 years directly across from the dock that they keep the stocking boat on. In previous years they would take the boat out multiple times that week AND stock right off the ramp. You could set your watch by it. I watch it the entire week, it's easy to tell if they have been there you can see the froth on the water or the tire tracks coming up the ramp or twigs broke on the ramp etc. This year they stocked one load and that was it. I watched them go down to rockaway and back and they stocked very few fish. These fish are dumb and easy to spot the water boils, I've seen it many times. They would drop maybe 10 in a group. It was lousy. Sad actually. I'm not interested in stockers so I didn't even cast and didn't care. They are nothing but snacks for what I'm chasing ahahah. So I guess what I'm trying to say with almost a decade of experience on the lower lake (which is probably more than most on here as I've dedicated some serious time to learning it) in the fall and winter the last 2 years have been the absolute leanest and worst years for trout fishing I've seen there and I've heard from multiple guests that they won't be back. Not my words, it's there's. I saw people down there that fished 5 days and caught 3 total trout using bait off the docks and in boats. There were families that anchored at the fish house and bridges for days and only caught 10 or fewer fish for the week. And yes they are bait fisherman but they have been doing it for years and know exactly where to go for easy limits. I don't know what the right answer is as I've stated I like the bigger fish but if they are supposed to of stocked the most fish in Nov and Dec lord have mercy cause it was the dead sea down there the last two Novembers! I fish that lake from Dam to Dam for multiple species, with Livescope, knowing what midging looks like, knowing where fish hold in current etc and I can unequivocally say it's not the same numbers wise and it's not even close. But the size is worth it to me personally without a doubt but I think we are in the minority as opposed to people that just wanna catch a limit and have a good time, those folks are frustrated. So after saying all this I have never in my life seen the lake as busy as it has been the last two years. Way more people fishing for way less fish (and keeping them) means a lot less fish left in the lake and the ones that are left are really pressured and getting smarter. But boy are they getting bigger :). In my mind these are the glory days for Taney if you are after quality fish.

That's why I wondered if you had a different take on it. Really interesting, could be bait, presentation where they were presented who knows. I had a 22 inch bow my last trout trip down and absolutely murdered my jerkbait and it was a tank of a fish. Interesting observations both ways no doubt.

I'm thinking your right DJ on the 100 fish days. Any of you "regulars" that have fished taney the last couple decades realize that 50 to 100 fish days were the norm for the most part but those days appear to be over. I'm sure there will still be some magical days but it's not going to be the norm anymore by any means. I'll take size over qty any day though.

And the crazy thing is Milo, like it's not even the length but the freaking girth and thickness of these fish is insane. I caught not only some of the longest rainbows I've ever caught last year but the sheer size structure of how they are built is like a totally different fish then what we had in there even 5 or 6 years ago. To that point, I started throwing jerkbaits there back in about 1989 or so before jerkbaits were the "cool" thing to do. From say 1989 to up to about 5 years ago I would say I caught about 95% browns when throwing them, you almost never caught a rainbow on them and when you did it was a dink. Now in the last 3 or so years it seems I'm down to about 60% browns and 40% bows on the jerkbait (not dragging but actually working a jerkbait). To me that is a testament of the size structure of these bow's in the lake now, they are big enough they are going for much bigger baits. I know you fish jerkbaits as much as I do and maybe your observation is different then mine but that's my observation the last 3 or so years.

I personally don't mind catching less because the size has gone WAY up which is exciting but I do agree with Seth. For instance one of our trips down is always the week of Thanksgiving, 5 years ago it was pretty easy to catch 100 fish a day that week if you knew what you were doing at all fishing jigs and trout magnets etc. The last two Thanksgivings the fishing for trout was tough enough I spent all my time chasing other species which was fine with me. However I have some friends that have come down two years in a row that are pretty decent experienced taney trout fisherman that vow to never come back that week ever again. There were several boat loads of anglers staying at the resort we were at during Thanksgiving that said their entire boat load was only catching 1 to 3 fish a day and that was fishing high percentage places like Roark, The Fish House, the Bridges and Monkey Island. I always strike up conversations on the dock with folks to be friendly and I've heard more "I've been coming here for the last 30 years and have never seen it this tough" comments in the last year or two than I ever have. Many dock anglers that used to catch their limit are struggling to catch 10 fish in a weeks time it seems. I know they did a survey etc. Like I said it's no complaint on my end as I'm dumbfounded and thrilled with the size of fish I'm catching but the families that come down and fish with powerbait, spoons, worms etc each year off the dock or boat rentals are really seeing a hit now it seems. I'm not sure what the right answer is.

In the world we live in right now I would go see your family, especially if it's been that long. Life is to short, you can always go to your cabin and fish anytime but I would go see them while you have the chance.

Nice fish Pete, congrats buddy!

2 units is by far my favorite Jerkbait water. My ideal is they had the gates open for a week and then close them and crank it back to 2 units. So the fish are used to seeing shad but the water is much more manageable to fish and they are on the prowl more for a jerkbait. I caught 22 browns in one day a few years back on this exact scenario. For throwing jigs either straight or with a jig and float I like 1 unit going and a light misty rain with a slight chop and all you other turkeys at home under a warm blanket

Congrats Phil. That's a tank! Man this lake is in good shape these days! Nice to see you smile to

Sold them all. Sorry.

Lot #1 is a mix of Lucky craft, Strike king, Norman, spro and 6th sense. A couple are used, most are new and in good shape. $40 tyd Lot #2 is Rapalas. Couple thrown, several new. $30 tyd