cracklebak

A few pics from our trip last weekend, exception being a couple from a couple weeks ago. The last pic is a bow that measured 19 inches, had a slender profile and large fins all the way around. Next best fish is the last brown pic, 18 inches and THICK at the shoulders. The first brown pic had a weird injury to his lower jaw. There was actually a hole in his lower lip as well as what I initially though was a hook, but was just thin bones protruding out of a growth sticking out of the hole. We thought maybe someone stringered him up through the lip, then was told not to keep since it was in the trophy area and let him free. Overall the fishing was TOUGH. The only pattern we could establish was after you caught a fish or two, and each of us change to that fly, there were no more hits/catches until someone tried something different. Black, white, grey steamers/mohairs/bunny worked at different times, possibly due to changing cloud cover. Also a muddler was working well in spurts when you could hear fish breaking the surface. Slower retrieves produced more, however the final night one of us started catching them on fast retrieves, including the biggest brown which was 18 inches. Between the three of us, there was also likely 20+ cranks/jerks thrown with no luck, so we stuck to fly rods most of the time. I don't want to know how many different streamers/leeches/home-made concoctions were tried. We definitely have put in time and variety this year. One of us caught 20+ fish the final night with the thought being a very specific retrieve making the difference, but we have "thought" we had something figured out on Taney before only to be proven wrong in the following hours/days. This place has really proven tough to night fish wading in the trophy area, but we keep coming back! The three of us put in 30-35 hours this trip, and was our 4th trip down since last October. Still no sign of a fish over 20 inches, but it will happen at some point. Wondering if we need to venture out of the trophy area more. There seems to be less good habitat after the previous flood, especially below the dam where some good runs are flattened somewhat. After seeing results of the tournament last weekend, one begins to wonder if 40 boats or 80 fisherman fishing all day produces one good fish, if the floods spotted over the last 15 years have caused some suffering to the more mature fish population.

@hillbillyflyshack I was joking... eating a big brown would be about as "distasteful" as perhaps my joking around was..... Looks like a decent turnout for the tourney from what I saw on FB. We sure had a tough time last weekend finding out what they wanted whether it be fly rods or spinning rods.

Fishing has been off and on since we got here Thursday night. Have caught a few nice rainbows, one at 19 inches. Will post a pic soon, getting back in the water! Good luck to all in the tourney tomorrow

I originally planned to fish the tournament, but due to a change in personnel, myself and two others will be wade fishing likely between the dam and lookout. Heading that way in a few hours and will stay until Saturday. Plan is to do some night fishing as well. May swing by for the weigh-in. Hope to see some big fish brought in for the tourney.... or in my own net, that would be OK too. There's just nothing better than one of those 5lb and up Taneycomo brown trout in my frying pan!

I have witnessed an Eagle pursue and snatch a snow goose out of the sky, was incredible to see! I would guess they would hit a bird on the water as well. You sure it wasn't a great big hungry Brown nipping on their toes? Your fishing sounds similar to our last trip. You really had to find what they wanted or they just weren't having it. Guessing the water was off while you were out?

Ah... I see. so the fish DO follow the good water (or at least those fish where 02 is higher are more willing to bite) Thanks!

Use aluminum props rather than steel to lessen the chances of severe damage to the internals of the motor in the event of a stump or rock slapper!

bump for ideas/answers

Phil, another question... @Phil Lilley When I look at the charts that you have sticky posted in this forum it says that DO is way worse at the dam (2-6ppm), but great at college of ozarks (5-8ppm)? Is there a conclusion to be drawn from this? Will fish evacuate to the better water quality downstream (outside of maybe the outlets?) I realize I may be way off base but....Trying to learn... thanks for any input!

@JestersHK @duckydoty Caught this guy up between outlet one and two a few weeks ago. Just getting this picture posting figured out.... wouldn't post a jpeg but would for a jpg? Saw a few others glowing eyes in the stream that night too. I've caught a smallie, two largemouth, one huge crappie, and this walleye in the last month or so.... Not the species I am going for!

@duckydoty @JestersHK I couldn't catch a brown to save my life, but snagged this guy on my fly rod one night at Taney a month ago or so! Duane, catch all those trash fish out of there!

Am I close in thinking that 35-50 megawatts is something like 2000-4000 CFS if calling in to the automated number?

Thanks for the explanation. Fishing sure has seemed to be sluggish for us- we have been fishing from the dam to trophy run several weekends in the past six weeks. Hoping that when the lake finishes turning over (and O2 goes up, sounds like) that the fishing will pick up for us. It's been super tough. We fish mainly at night, hoping to drop one in front of a big brown. One night I actually caught more non-trout than trout! 2 largemouth, one small mouth, a BIG crappie and a walleye!

Nice fish! I hate to hear the big one got away. He's probably back under Phil's dock 'til next year now lol! Seems being near the bottom is a recurring theme. I just fly fish, what do you all consider stick baits or jerk baits? I picture a bass lure when I hear that?

Phil, can you translate that for us? Guess I haven't heard what the vents do. What I am hoping this means is the big spikes in generation may slow down a little- makes it tough! Been 2500 cfs up to 10,000 cfs seems like daily. Trying to plan our next trip down but haven't done well in the last six weeks down there. I did find this on Wikipedia- " Nameplate capacity, also known as the rated capacity, nominal capacity, installed capacity, or maximum effect, is the intended full-load sustained output of a facility "