JestersHK

We started at 8. Pretty slow, but we've caught 7 bows so far all on white maribous. First fish was a 3 foot gar. That's my luck. We are heading back out here in 20 min or so. A bit chilly tonight.

Dang, 2 trophy class browns(trophy to me anyways) in one trip. And 2 of the prettiest I've seen come out of there. Testament to his guide, but that guy needs to buy a powerball ticket. I'm sure he'll be talking about this trip for a while. Way to get it done.

Ha! Well my ugly mug is posted up here somewhere in one of my Taney trip reports. Also a medium husky sized(aka fat) bald guy with a beard . I'll be the guy out there buggy whipping an ultralight with heavy jigs across the lake LOL. Likely wearing some form of cardinals gear(proabably a stocking cap for my bald head at night) or Ozark Angler shirt and attire. If we don't get a chance to meet up good luck to ya!

I'll be heading down this weekend as well. Plans are to start fishing Friday night when we get down there. Hope the bite is still on and we can get into some of these browns that keep showing up in these reports. dnj21 if you are out and about shoot me an IM if you'd like, always enjoy meeting up with fellow forum members.

Curious to see how you guys did. My buddies were down and said it was a decent weekend all around.

Looks like this weekend they are running 40 all day Friday till Sunday? If they do end up running that, should end up leaving plenty of places in the trophy area that is wadeable right? Or will it still be pretty deep across? Thanks,

Thanks Phil, Was planning on heading down to Bennett Springs this weekend, but with these latest reports, I think we may just pull an all nighter and come on down to Taney!

Agreed, that's a beautiful fish. Also curious to what he caught him on.

Dang, thats a nice one! I'm guessing the browns are getting thick up there in the trophy area?

Nice report! And great fish!

UL spinner setup with 2-4lb test is optimal as Noluck said up at Zone 2. If you don't mind getting your feet wet the far side of the darn where theres a bench is a great spot to start the morning as you can stand on the landing and cast out with just your feet in the water. 1/32 jigs in black and yellow or anything olive colored usually works well in the morning. Occasionally a white jig with a red neck will get them going too. I'll second Weavers when you get down there to find out the best colors. Just keep them jigging at a nice rythm and figure out what speed they are biting at on the retrieve. The little platform right below the bridge is also a good spot if you can make the cast far enough out to hit the second bridge hole. Good luck!

Looked like some nice slabs you were bringing in. Thanks for sharing Phil. Always enjoy the vids.

Glad this got bumped as I missed it as well. Thanks soo much for sharing this! What an Awesome Adventure full of what looked like some great memories. I'm jealous and hungry all at the same time. You guys definitely are living right!

I learned to drift fish for trout with a spinning setup. Been mostly a jig fisherman exclusively in this just my 3rd year of Trout fishing addiction. Fished a fly rod a few times, but have not started that addiction yet... Best thing I did this year was take all 3 of my girls out fishing all at once. At 10, 7, and 3 it was like herding cats, but all 3 of them caught fish including the little ones first bluegill. As a parent I finally realized the level of patience my father had teaching me to fish. As I cut out knots and retied lines for the younger 2 I was proud to watch my 10 year old go down the lake from us a bit, bait her own hook with worms and proceed to catch fish without my guidance. Was a great moment and right up there with her landing her first trout on her own.

Made it down Friday afternoon for a quick trip at the start of my Labor Day weekend. Stream was in great shape, just a bit murky, and a tad lower than it has been, perfect for fishing. Fished Friday night starting around 4pm and caught around 10 fish total all coming on a 1/32 Brown head maribou with a cream and orange tail. Threw the usuals first with bumble bee and black maribous and the old Olive drab wooly bugger for almost an hour with just a few follows and nibbles, but caught all fish on the Brown and cream combo. Fish were a bit on the small side, but we had a hot grill and needed to catch some dinner for Friday night. Got up Saturday and made it down to the stream around 8:30 or so. Was pretty surprised that it wasn't shoulder to shoulder being holiday weekend. It was busy but nothing crazy. Fished with my camper buddies and we caught a few below the dam and off the apron. Moved further down stream and finally got to the bluff wall and started drifitng a peacock pattern mini about 4 feet under a float and the bite immediately picked up. Did really well sore mouthing them at the wall before we moved on down to the outlet. The outlet was pretty busy, and the fish were stacked up deeper than I ever seen them before. My buddy started jigging through them and was catching them left and right. I stopped drifitng and switched over to a big 1/8 oz black and drab jig and started chucking it across the stream. Saw a few nice fish come up from the bottom and follow, but then my line would get into the mess of fish all stacked up like cord wood at the end of the riffles and would screw up my retrieve. We fished here for a bit until the bite slowed, and then headed back in for some lunch. Went back out around 2:30pm and we headed up to the first set of falls after the spring head. The Brown and cream maribou was putting fish on the line consistently and seemed to be the color and pattern to beat. We also saw a "lunker"(Taney has spoiled me with lunker size trout) hanging out right by the edge of the falls. Fish was probably close to 3.5-4 pounds. Nice to see fish that size in the spring acting fishy as its usually a rarity unless they are gorging on the gut piles. Flipped a few things at him, but he wasn't budging. Finished up on the apron drifting a glo-ball and catching a few here and there. Again mostly just average to below average fish, but they were biting so can't complain. Finished off the day with over 20 fish landed. Nothing spectacular, but overall a good trip. Again no pics this time... I'm slacking and honestly the fish were just the average stockers. Caught a few off the Apron who had decent color on them and looked like they had been in the stream for a while. I'll be sure to break out the i-potato on my next run down if I make it before my next Taney trip. Tight Lines guys,

Nice! Those first fish are always special.

Amazing! Thanks for sharing. I am very jealous, I got to get out there soon...

Made it down Saturday night. Had not been to Bennett since the flooding, and had to check out our camper for some water damage. Luckily leak was minimal, but still have some repairs to do so it cut my fishing down to just Sunday. Sunday turned out to be a beautiful day weather wise. A bit warm, but nothing too bad, and the wind stayed away for most of the day. My internal alarm clock woke me up early at 6:00, so being I was flying solo this trip and nothing better to do I geared up and went down to wait for the whistle. Started above the dam in my usual spot by the bench. Caught a few fish here and there on the olive wooly bugger, 1/32, gold head. Fish were a bit smaller, although with my fishing recently at Taney I am a bit spoiled on the size of the fish. I moved on down stream and noticed the water was pretty clear and about normal depth, a definite improvement from some of the pictures I saw from a few weeks ago. It had a bit of a murk to it as you got down past the riffles on the other side of the bridge, but still pretty decent visibilty. I switched to a white 1/8 maribou and started rolling fish up off the bottom of the deeper holes. I continued this down to the bluff wall with good success just jigging and retrieving low and slow. I fished the big wide section before the whistle bridge and caught three filet size fish. I threw them on the stringer and headed back to grab the cutting board and get them cleaned. After dropping my filets off in the freezer and grabbing a quick bite I set out to work on my drifting skills. I used a black ant pattern and started getting some consistent bites down by the bluff wall. I had 3 on 3 casts in a row at one point. As usually happens I got broke off on my only ant pattern so I switched back to jigging and headed up towards the whistle bridge. On the far side of the bridge it was pretty cleared out so I started jigging a black 1/8 oz maribou up by the big overhanging tree there. Caught a couple decent size ones there, and missed a bunch more. I finished up fishing by the spring hole. It was late afternoon and being a Sunday the stream was starting to empty out of anglers. I ended catching 28 fish total for the day. Not a bad day and scratched my itch to get back in the water. My plan was to fish the Niangua or Montauk on Monday, but work called and I had to head back early... No pics this time out... Batteries were dead or dying on the phones, and fish were a bit smaller and just the usual stockers. Good luck out there. JestersHK

Man love seeing those top water explosions. That 2nd fish smoked that hopper. Thanks for sharing, gotta get back down there!

Nice report and Pics!

Funny I came across this. I just finished our weekly trip with the kiddos to the library. Usually the wife takes them, but I was along for the ride this time. My oldest 10yr old daughter suggested I find some good fishing books, and now I have an excellent list to load up on. Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

Nice job! Only fished a few times at night down there. Where did you guys put in at?

My 2nd Taney trip has come and gone. It was an amazing trip and I continue to wish I only lived closer and could experience these waters with more frequency. It was definitely a slower trip fishing wise than back in June. I caught fish, but nowhere near the numbers I did on my last trip. I also got to sync up with fellow forum member KansasFly09. It was a pleasure meeting and fishing with you and your buddies, and Saturday sure was an awesome time wasn't it! Also made it down to Lilleys and picked me up my new favorite fishing shirt! Shirts are nice and very well made! On to the report. 2 units were running pretty much all weekend minus a short window on Friday morning where I could wade out a bit and explore before they turned it back on at 7:00AM I jigged mostly and did some drifting when the water came up. Dominant lure was the old faithful Olive Drab woolly bugger gold head in 1/16oz variety. Caught majority of my fish on that and also some small scuds and green zebra midges when I was drift fishing. The orange head sculpin pattern jigs seemed to have slowed down, and there were times I threw just about every pattern of maribou at them with very little success. I stuck this fish on Saturday wading out from the bank down by the first outlet. Fish was strong and made 2 great runs almost out to the main channel and even gave me 2 nice launches straight up out of the water like a missile. And heres a few in the net. Including a little Brownie Overall a great trip still, caught around 20 or so total fish. Only fished the outlets for a little bit as I prefer to jig and get a bit further out, but there were some folks there literally catching them as soon as the fly hit the water almost. On Saturday they schooled up at Outlet number 1 so thick that you could have walked across them... Never seen so many fish in one place. It was crazy. Sunday it slowed down and I am guessing the fish moved a bit further down. Caught a few then sadly had to make the drive back home. Until next time, Tight Lines everyone.

Congrats! That's an amazing fish!