JestersHK

Cool, it's a nice rainbow, did not know any other part of the story other than what I read there... Thanks

I am genuinely curious to your opinions on this subject. I have a high respect of your opinions in regards to hunting big fish. I generally love to post up my trip reports, but there is always that nagging feeling that will I be contributing to more competition on in the grand scheme of things a small section of tailwater... I have noticed the past 2 years a huge increase in guys who are night fishing Taney, especially during the fall winter months. We can take it offline as well, no need to mess up Amery's post.

Laker this was the article I came across. https://news.orvis.com/fly-fishing/photo-of-the-day-possible-state-record-rainbow-trout-from-missouris-lake-taneycomo

Thanks Phil and man if they are open for weeks we are in for a treat with all those shad and Walters that hopefully make it through. Poor Duane you gonna be up to your eyeballs in those stinkin bass buddy lol

I would love to see this. Didn't a guy catch and release a potential state record a few years ago on Taney?

Obviously the warmer water coming over will warm things up, but will this have any negative effects with the DO? I'm sure smarter folks than me have already figured this out, just curious...

Marty I think at one point Brett, John, and myself all hung jerk baits in trees in like a 15min span lol. Mine resulted in an empty spool where my braid should of been. We at least recovered all the line and the lures...

Brett posted it in one of these threads. It's on his phone

Hopefully it lasts long enough for me to get back from Florida... Gonna be some good fishing for sure. Time to restock all those Walters!

I fished the Frying Pan river on the western side of the state as well as the waters around Estes Park last year and had great success both on the flyrod and with my spinning out fit. I fished primarily jigs on the spinning rod. Anything sculpin pattern worked really well. They seemed to like orange and olive or orange and brown out that way. Never got a look from the other fly rod anglers. I usually did have both rods with me though while I was fishing and would switch back and forth depending on the water. The rivers out there you almost want to carry both... Lots of swift shallow water for drifting then jig the deeper holes and run offs. Good luck and let us know how you do!

Oh the irony as John had just had a really nice fish come off (likely a big brown) then on his next cast Bam! A micro monster rainbow LOL... Many laughs were had in the boat as this was truly a JohnsFolley moment

Well it sure was a fun one this year guys! I agree with what all the others said in that this one really came together nicely for us all. Food was fantastic and we'll never be hungry down there LOL. Also a big thanks to the boat guys running me and my crew around. We really truly appreciate it fellas. Ham thanks for the local insider info. You not only told us knuckleheads who ventured out at night where to go, but kept us safe too regarding flows and water levels which is most important. On to the fishing since I really slacked on my live reporting style I try to do. Too much fun times and not enough internet . I started Thursday night wading at Cotter. We were fishing blind but managed to eek out two brownies before we went back in for dinner and to hang out. I avoided the skunk and its always nice to land that first fish of the trip. I told Brett aka @LittleRedFisherman that I was bummed we didn't get to fish together last time so we partnered up for Friday morning. We put in at Buffalo River access with the rest of the crew and motored up to the sholas in his super sweet BlazerSS. We got into an Eddy and spotlocked down and proceeded to put a whackin on some rainbows. After 30min and prolly 30 fish in the boat we decided to work the far bank and started in on catching browns out of the structure. Brett was putting on a clinic and whackin the brown trout. I tried to keep up, but he was dialed in. I think we had 6 browns over 17in that morning and they were all colored up and pretty. After lunch and some good story time with the others we headed to Bull Shoals tailwater. It was pushing lots of flow and we motored up to the Dam. We caught some bigger fish here but not in the same numbers as we hit them in the morning. We drifted further down to get out of some of the boat traffic and Brett continued to whack the brownies on a white and grey 1/8th oz ZigJig. While it was daylight I also did some scouting on where we might be able to wade fish that evening. After an awesome fish fry dinner myself, Brandon, and Geno made the trek back to the BS tailwater. We were greeted with the water being totally off, but now I was lost again on where to start fishing. Ham hooked us up though and gave us some info and to heed warning on watching the water if it starts to come up. We headed to the boat launch and I stuck a fat ol rainbow. Geno and Brandon both landed browns and then the horn blew... Once the water started coming up we headed back up to the dam and were greeted with another horn blast and then we decided to head back in. Didn't want to risk being in uncharted water at night with those flows... Saturday I fished with John and Brett again and we stuck with our plan from Friday and fished the Buffalo again. We started out up by the shoals and caught some here and there. then we headed down to the confluence and caught some more and got into some smallies too. After lunch we consolidated boaters and anglers and few headed out to beat the weather. Brett and I went out with Les taking the rest of my crew and we went up into the Buffalo a bit to find some cleaner water. At this point the White was roaring and it was getting trashy. At this point after a few more rainbows and browns I should of just sat down and watched as Brett put on a clinic on how to fish winter smallies. We fished a short section right at the confluence and he put a hurtin on the brown bass. I know he boated over 10 of them in just that little stretch and tried as I might all I could catch were rainbows LOL. We called it when some light mist started rolling in and the temps were dropping quick. It's almost like the weather knew our trip was winding down... I learned so much from other anglers this weekend, not just about fishing but sharing our life stories as well. It truly is a trip I will continue to look forward to and cherish my time with this great group of just awesome people. The filler as we discussed earlier really made this trip. The stories and laughs they weren't lying when they said tears were shed we laughed so hard and so often. Thank you to Jeff QB for all that you do putting this together. You are a true gentleman and take such great care in the planning and getting us all together. Thank you to Phil as well. Without you and this forum we'd likely never of even met much less got together like this. Such a great and special thing you provide us here and I know we're all really grateful for you getting us together through the forums. Looking forward to next year already... I know for me it can't come soon enough.

Few more of my BIL Geno. Got his new PB brownie, and a sucker too!

I think that would be fun Jeff. I know us non boaters sure do appreciate you host guys taking us out. And Marty I couldn't agree more. The laughs I had this weekend were just awesome. It's not always about the fishing... Wait did I just say that lol.

The fishing was excellent, but the filler was really the best part...

Gonna leave these here. Didn't take too many pics but Brett should have some better ones. Have a good video of him landing a really nice smallie we'll have to get uploaded. I'll do a full report tomorrow from work.

A few more from last night. Had water ups and down last night by BS dam. Just caught a few...

Missed ya too Rick. Netboy, the may be afew but allot of us are leaving tonight to get ahead of the weather.

Figure we can dump pictures here of all our amazing catches. I made it on the board with a small brownie last night as we attempted to wade heavy flows at cotter... BIL Geno stuck a better one before we headed back to cabin. Poor Brandon caught the skunk 😛 Didn't fish very long as we were pretty much fishing blind in heavy current. Can't wait to get out with Bret @LittleRedFisherman today and hopefully hammer them.

I know the fish Brandon and I caught in December is likely not the norm, but she absolutely crushed our jerkbaits on a slower retrieve. Two aggressive strikes occured minutes apart, but I also see your point about them just finding a spot to chill and eat. I still have it in the back of my mind she was possibly protecting eggs?... I know little about the brown spawning other than the time of year they make the runs, not sure if they are super protective of eggs or not, but to catch her and have her hit our baits back to back like that all while she had a 12in rainbow sticking out of her mouth to boot... Something had her fired up. She was a non clipped fish too.

Yeah Travis I think a trip this fall when they start the run up lake would be a great time to just plan a whole weekend to throw nothing but jerkbaits all day and night at em... Need to get that booked and just follow through on it. Maybe you will discover a whole family of sea monsters down that way. Surprised you haven't hooked one yet chasing those big bass!

I think Ol Frank could pack on 6 pounds or so over the next couple of years. Plus we know he's likely not the only fish from that year of stocking to survive. Theres bound to be a bigger one in there swimming around somewhere. Need to put together a good database of these monsters as they are caught and released. I know we discussed it a while back how it would be neat to track them as they are caught. We had a few browns who were caught multiple times months apart in different parts of the lake even. I also ponder what fish of these size prefer to eat? We know and have lots of photo evidence that they will eat 12in stockers even if they can barely fit it down their gullet. Frank obvious likes his on the leaner side minus filets as he learned that the dock stations provide a nice buffet. He obviously hit a sculpin pattern so apparently he still likes live food too. Would be awesome to tag and track them like they do the great whites LOL. Watch where they go and try to figure out what they are eating. With the clear water on Taney we could get one of those cool little submersible drones to follow around the tag tracker so we could watch him...

Me and my crew should be getting down around 5:30pm or 6pm traffic and weather permitting... I think we are going to head right to Norfork tailwater if there's any daylight left just for a quick bearings check and to get some ideas for Thursday night fishing. Then we'll head to Riley's from there so prolly be there around dinner time. I know cell service was a bit spotty down there so just wanted to throw our plans out there. Also I think most of you all have my cell numbers. Feel free to share if anyone needs to get ahold of us. Jeff I don't think I have yours in my phone, but I'll PM mine to ya

Duane buddy, I'm thinking a 606 in a brook trout pattern could work some magic down there! Glad you can make it.

Man thats a tank of a brown! Beautiful fish! Congrats and nice job on the release.