JestersHK

It was cold this past jigfest, but nothing a good spread of walleye cheeks and massive amounts of side dishes loaded with carbs and good company couldn't overcome! Somebody said don't come to Jigfest to fish just come for the food. They were't lying LOL. 20 degrees is about my cutoff too... Just too hard on the hands. I've fished in colder weather, but try to avoid the teen temps and below.

My sis owns a party bus... Just sayin if you guys need a donkey mule to haul all your gear around... <stares at Marty>

Stinks it was cold and rainy, but looks like you guys still got after them. Just some amazing fish and scenery there. I'm super jealous, well minus the bear part... Cool to see them that close, but glad she didn't have little ones with her. Can't wait to see your videos.

Man look at the spots on that fish! Beautiful, and thanks for sharing as always! Hopefully you can make it to jig fest with us this year? I'd love to chase some browns with ya!

Glad you are ok and were able to see where it was coming from and get it put out. Thats scary for sure.

Glad to see the Walleye bite on the Rock was as good as the one on taneycomo! Must be something in the water lol

Was just out there and fished the big Thompson. Was tough fishing for me, but lots of nymph fishing or stripping streamers. You can fish Pretty much all around the area. Paging @motroutbum as he guides out there still I believe and he gave me a ton of great info.

I'll be your pack mule any time buddy! In exchange for goose fajitas or fries of course lol.

Buddy if I didn't have to be back to work today I was thinking about throwing my gear in the car and heading your way... Once this crazy summer is over maybe me and there oldest will head there for the weekend. 14 hours is about my limit for driving... Safety wise anyways. I've done the Florida drive a bunch, but I think the week finally took its toll on me as I'm exhausted lol. Yes Marty I run out of gas sometimes too!

Well my trip is over... Had to leave yesterday morning as we had a little cousin from New York staying with us and his mom needed him back home for some family stuff. I ended up driving to Columbus Ohio and back today and just got home a bit ago lol. No more driving for me for a while. I left @Haris122 hanging which I'm sorry about buddy, but we'll get hooked up for sure. Can always use more buddy's to night fish with! Oh and @grizwilson did you make it down? How'd you do? Overall was a great trip. I'm beat though as usual when we do the family trip... Already can't wait to get back down!

Sounds like the bite was good out of the boat as well. Glad you got into them. Wish you could of gotten that brown in. 2lb is tough to land those bigguns on.

So got a late start this evening. After a long hot day at SDC I almost slipped tonight, but glad I didn't. Made it down around 11 and started down from outlet 2. 3 little stockers came quick on my first handful of casts with the xrap. I missed a huge hit, and on the next cast got hammered again on the slow retrieve with just a twitch now and then. Fish was way out and staying low so I had high hopes it was a brownie. After a few drag peeling back and forth runs I saw the eye in my headlamp and it was one of those stinkin Walters again lol. Nice one though, 24.5 inches and thick! I did catch something brown, but turns out it was a bat. Little guy got his wing Tangled up in my line and almost drowned before I got him to shore. He costs me about 20 yards of braid but I was able to get him untangled after I cut everything off. He flew off ok so guessing he was alright. After a quick retie I got a great hit which turned into a nice chunk of a bow that was 18in and a beauty. We worked our way back to outlet one. Things went pretty cookie cutter for rest of the night. Lots of 12 to 14in fish... Fun to catch but not the monsters we were hoping for, and still no brownies... Overall a good night though with a pretty consistent bite. I caught a few on the jig rod too on a 32nd oz sculpin pattern worked fast.

Fished last night from around 10 til about 2. Had to take it easy as it's SDC this morning... Fish hit both the husky jerk, and the x rap. Caught a bunch but nothing if size ... I did finally see a big brown. He swam right in front of me and I'd guess he was around 8lb or so. This was up between 1and the cable. I stuck a few chunky rainbows. I'll throw some pics up when my phone comes back to life. Lots of little stockers mostly though.

She said thanks for the replies guys. Marty she gets mad at them, but isn't quite as mad at them as me lol. At SDC today but gonna try to go back out this evening again with her.

Haha we just got done talking to him about that before he hooked himself... Lol

My oldest made me proud yesterday afternoon. At 13 she's come a long way as far as fishing goes. She's already quite the jig fisherman. She also gets mad at them and will fish with me even through the slow stuff. Yesterday we had a great 3 hours together, and made some awesome memories. We got down at 6 yesterday so she could try her new waders out. Grabbed both fly rod and ultralights and headed up by outlet one. Not much going on up there so we headed up by the cable. As the water was dropping out it wasn't long before she got hit on her white and gray jig. First fish was a white bass, followed by another one. Then her rod got hammered. I looked over and the little ultralight was bent way over. She remembered to keep her rod tip up and played the fish like a pro on the 2lb test line. Finally she was rewarded with a chunky 24in walleye. Biggest fish that she has ever caught. At first we we're going to eat him, but we let him go as it was a special fish for her and she did not want to harvest him. After that the rainbows she was catching lacked the excitement, but she continued to catch and outfish her dad lol. I'll add to this thread of we have time to get back out again as well.

Thanks guys, hook came out fine. ER actually had to borrow my multi tool as the first guy showed up with bolt cutters lol. We called it quits after that didn't get back till after 130. We rented a big pontoon this morning and just got off the Rock. Had a great day swimming out there. Gonna get a nap and some grub so we can get back out there tonight again.

Fished earlier today with my kiddo but I'll start a new post for that. We started back out around 8 into the flats again. Fishing a trout pattern xrap I picked up at Phil's place. Working it back slow still seemed the trick. We picked up a few rainbows there then decided to move down to between outlet 2 and 3. Finally hooked into a decent rainbow, but my BIL hooked into something even bigger... Himself... So at the Branson ER now waiting for some hook removal. Sucker is buried all up under his nail... We tried to pull it out but it wasn't budging. Early night for fishing. Unless we can get this sucker cut out quick.

Nice job! Glad you were able to catch fish despite the conditions and that terrible heat wave!

Dang QB, could of synced up. Not sure if I could find ya though lol. Could barely keep track of the rugrats. And John I should of taken your advice. I myself needed a snickers or 3 to ward off the hangriness!

Little Walter. This one also was released. To tired to clean fish tonight lol..

Night #4... Well I'll start with day #4. We took the whole family to wonders of wild life museum this morning. I've been to a bunch of museums and aquariums across the US and I must say this one is fantastic and ranks right up there with the best of them. The attention to detail is phenomenal and they really did not spare any expense. A quick tip to those that haven't been, eat a big breakfast as you're likely going to spend 4 to 5 hours there easy. We skipped past lunch and had some hangry kids by the time we were heading out lol. It's a bit pricey like most top museums, but none of us felt like we didn't get our money worth and then some. Now onto fishing... Got back out tonight around 930 or so and fished till around 230. We went back down past rebar again, but it was a lot slower tonight vs last night. At least for the jerk baits it was. I wanted to try down by the boat ramp and thought instead of driving down we'd just walk the bank, on the slick rocks, in the fog lol... Not my brightest decision and I'll blame it on sleep deprivation. After finally getting down there about the only thing worth mentioning was the crazy amount of sculpin that were all over the place. I mean thick! They were literally everywhere. After one dinky little stocker, we hit the trail downstream to the last little set of stairs by the narrow stretch down there. Haven't really wade fished that since 2015 so we were pretty blinds going at it. We found the channel and caught a few here and there. Again mostly small stockers. By this time it's already 1 so we started our March From the boat ramp back to the pavilion. I'm a glutton for death marches apparently. Finished the night between out let 2 and 3 and caught a few more bows and a small Walter. Slow night for us, but it happens. Threw jerk baits all night and probably should of switched it up, but we were both pretty tired after a full day on our feet...

Night #3. Fished from about 8 till 230. We started by outlet 2 and my BIL and I both got hit by big Walters on the jerk bait. He got hit again on his next cast and we had 3 walleye in less than 10min. Being we just started, we didn't want to be dragging fish all over the lake we let them go for somebody else to get em after a picture. We decided to go down lake this night, and went way down past rebar. I'm glad we did as we started hammering them in the flats down there. We could see fish working and we just stopped mid lake and started catching. Again the jerk bait was king. Fished super slow almost letting it sit on the surface, and twitching it on the retrieve. They would hit from below and just crush it. Landed some really chunky healthy fish that were just great fighters.

Don't have a yak... We'll likely be by rebar and the narrows. If you need a shuttle or ride though just let me know. Hopefully the night bite is as good as last night.

Finished up at 8 this morning. Took a nap in the car for a little bit, and went back out at 430 up to rebar. Once it got light out I had a pretty good pink SJW bite on the fly rod for about 20 min... Caught a few jigging too, then once the sun was up they shut off for me... I was worried I might catch on fire, but apparently I haven't fully turned nocturnal yet as I witnessed a beautiful sunrise today! Fish were just normal stockers so no pics either. I'm a bit lazy and tired lol. Gonna sleep for a few, then maybe go back out later this afternoon.