JestersHK

I knew I should of met ya at home for dinner... Lol Still jelly of the fish time you got in! Great trip report.

Love reading these posts JD! Thank you for sharing, we have a few hives around here at work, and I am starting to learn more about the keeping process. Very cool!

Nice day there buddy! Keep getting after them and enjoy that retirement! One day I hope to get there too... Don't think I'll ever get tired of fishing

That's called getting it done! Beautiful fish there, congrats guys that's very impressive.

That's an awesome weekend there man! Those are some very impressive numbers throwing sticks. No competition there lol you put a hurting on some nice ones. The bite sure was impressive wasn't it. I told Seth that under different circumstances if we weren't trying to go for huge numbers we'd likely of been up there with ya doing the exact same thing. Great times indeed. You'll have to fish the tourney with us next year. It's for a great cause, and ya can't beat the meal after either!

Looking forward to the next time we can fish together my friend!

Right back at ya buddy! My fish Karma was working pretty good this weekend . Blessed with a great weekend of fishing for sure. I do owe @Seth a 20in Brownie... I was hoping and praying it would happen for him. He did get catch a ton of really nice rainbows, and even a chunk brown just never got over the 20in mark on the browns. I also failed him on the Walter that got away LOL, and I owe him one of those too. Hoping I can get back down there with some slower water at some point with him so he can experience the whole night bite jerk bait thing. The past 2 times we've had heavy generation which stinks for wading at night...

So kind of a formal recap here. I must say this was the best weekend for me out of a boat on Taney ever. Fish we're hungry and we had a consistent bite pretty much all up and down the lake FOR 3 WHOLE DAYS! Trophy area fished well, albeit a bit slower down around the boat ramp. The sections after the trophy run and the clay banks both fished really well. Eddy fishing was on fire. Not just in trophy area but a little further down lake as well. Above and below the narrows also produced, heck pretty much anywhere there were eddys and structure you could find a bite or two. We doubled up 8 times I think when we'd find them? You'll lose some jigs in structure, but if you're not getting in there or down there you weren't catching em. I will say we caught a ton of smallish fish. We also we're targeting schools of fish for the tournament since you need numbers to get the length total up there. We'd find a school of dinks and just sit there and sore lip as many as we could. One small stretch I think we motored and drifted back about 5 times just in one small stretch but almost every cast we were getting bites. The upside to the above is that we also caught some really solid healthy bows and browns once you weeded past the schools of small stockers. The fish were healthy and had some really good fighters and colored up beautifully. I had a brown follow on my jerk bait that was a monster, and we had several other follows by some solid fish including one that followed a small 11in rainbow all the way to the boat and was ready to take a swipe at him till I pulled him up. Wish I would of let him take that one in hind sight... Night fishing was kind of a bust for me, but honestly with the amount of fishing we did and the numbers we caught it didn't bother me much. I need more practice fishing out of a boat, and had a great teacher who I got to watch put on a clinic Saturday when it comes to deep slow jigging. We fished white, but I think for me personally the darker jigs caught more fish for me anyways. I fished a tri olive zig jig quite a bit, and also a 3/32 grey on grey which put up some great numbers. I literally fished that jig till it fell apart... You needed 2 rods as well one with 1/8oz for the fast deep stuff and then 3/32oz for hitting the Eddies. Speaking of rods I did pick up a 6ft rod instead of my normal 4.5ft buggy whips. The extra length for sure helps out of a boat, and I got to break her in on a nice brownie Sunday. Appreciated having a bigger rod for that fish. Equipment wise I also found another great piece of gear in a pair of Huk fingerless gloves. My wife is always on me for good reason about sun protection and she bought me a pair of these. Not only did the tops of my hands not get burned, but they are fantastic for handling fish when you have to. I use the jig pop method when I can, but sometimes you have to get a hand on them to get them released. With the textured grip on these gloves you only have to grip them once, and you avoid when they go squirting through your hand and you are constantly trying to get a better hold on them. From a fish health perspective with trout I will be wearing these pretty much everytime from here on out. Really helps with conserving the slime coat when you do have to get ahold of them. Great turn out for tournament, great company, lots of laughs, and some fantastic stories. We lucked out and got a last minute room at Phil's and as usual just my favorite place to stay. Just overall a stellar weekend of friends and fishing that will be hard to beat on the fishing side of things!

I have to thank @Seth for being my trusty Captain and guide! He's a good net man as well! Plus he's got a wicked boat that just fishes great!

It sure is! Tips my hat to @duckydoty Biggest fish in it so far. Although I have it setup for wade fishing it really is a great boat net too.

That last pic made water come out my nose lol. Tell your kiddo nice job from me.

Finally got a 20in Taney brown. 24in and 6.5lb Grey 3/32oz jig on 4lb down past the narrows. Saw the bite and got a good hook set. Seth did a great net job and we got it on video too.

Thanks fellas. Seth put on a clinic today and was about out catching me 3 to 1. I missed over a dozen and he maybe missed just a few. Dark colors caught better than white for us today. I fished tri olive jig, and a solid grey 3/32oz for almost the whole tournament.

Nice Travis! I only caught 6 and lost a nice one at the boat. Seth caught a toad this evening 16.5in but just a football on the jerk bait

Tournament champ and I headed back out after an awesome meal provided by the Lilleys! It's been brown City and we are throwing jerks in the rain

We called it early last night... Just a bit too much flow for what we liked. Doing pretty good today, but bite def dropped of from yesterday. Lost a real nice Walter at the boat to boot..

Thanks buddy! Wish I could of gotten that brown in. A few more pics... We are heading out now to see what we can find!

Nice job guys! Saw you guys up there i believe! Awesome Walters. We're gonna try to get some tonight!

We experienced same thing with some moss and trash Bill. And yeah we worked jigs slow off the bottom for best results.

Seth smoked a 19in now that was tall and just a beast. He'll have to post a pic. Bite was still going this afternoon

Yes gates are still open

Seth and I made it down and in the water around 930ish. We boated up to the creeks and caught a few. Headed up to the dam and it was game on. White and sculpin in 8th oz or 3/32nd was the ticket. Threw a stick for a bit and had 2 nice browns follow but no bite. We boated 40 over this morning before heading in for lunch. Seth had big fish a nice 18in bow., And I had 2 small brownies. Fish are hungry though and had a good bite. I'll put some pics up in a bit as we're heading back up now to dam

We're 10 hours out! Hope it stays on fire till then lol. Thanks for the update.

Amazing video and story... Bonus to get it all documented is awesome. I would love to get a shot at a big shark like that... https://www.foxnews.com/great-outdoors/golf-legend-greg-norman-catches-monster-hammerhead-shark-after-it-eats-80-pound-hooked-shark

Some really beautiful wraps there! Nice job!