Ryan Miloshewski

It's the trend in the hunting world, punishing out of staters. Arkansas is the worst about it. Seems it's bleeding into the fishing world. $40 for a trout stamp is ridiculous. $20 would have been a good bump. Surely they can reallocate our taxes to cover the hatchery issues instead.

Ads every time I visit. I use Google Chrome.

I do the same thing hahah. I feel medieval doing so, but it does work! Starlings are worse, too, IMO. They are like feral hogs or locusts.

I shoot at them, but when they're really thick I use smaller feeders so they have trouble. I also shoo them off when I can and use safflower seed. Cardinals/Chickadees/Titmice like (not love) safflower and grackles do not. Swapping from sunflower to thistle is not a good idea, as only finches prefer it. Others will eat it occasionally, but it's not preferred at all. I'd go to safflower gradually (half sunflower/half safflower), remove any platform or bigger feeders, and keep the pellet gun handy.

We missed ya, Rick!

You are correct. Don't stay there, ever.

Little more than a mile, but you are correct. It was horrendous.

Loose gravel is a fickle beast. Luckily I have AAA! Don't forget my absolutely ruthless sunburn (which I am still recovering from). Always a great time with you fellas.

Amazing, thank you for the pictures. I am a big history buff and stuff like this brings a tear to my eye. The one place I've been to that jerks you with that emotional, somber feeling you mentioned was Gettysburg. Even if you had no idea what happened, you stand there overlooking the Peach Orchard, on Big Round top, etc. and you have this feeling of "wow, something happened here." Amazing that energy stays for so long. I'm sure it's the same at Normandy, and even more so.

I do 6 or 8-lb for the main line. They don't see it and it's a lot easier to work with. Then 2-lb for the flies. But with the gates open, you'll be fine with 4-lb. User bigger scuds, too. Size 12 or 14.

@snagged in outlet 3 I saw five gates just opened. Better get out there! I need to live vicariously through you while I am slammed all week from work.

Sculpins I'd bet. Every walleye I've kept out of Taney has been stuffed to the gills with sculpins. I did see a 3giant brown eating a 17" rainbow once. That was wild. Looked like a shark, ripping pieces of it off.

If they are running water heavily, your best bet is any of the docks/areas down at the Landing and Cooper Creek dock. If no water is running, Fall Creek dock or Lilleys' Landing dock would be good as well. If you are using artificial lures and flies, below the dam at Shepherd of the Hills access is good with no flow or one unit running. Just make sure you read the regulations and be aware of changing water flows. It comes up fast. Just watch the flows. As Phil and others have said here, the USACE is holding Table Rock and right now, which means there will likely be some sustained heavy flows in the near future. Next three days they are scheduled to run 2-3 units constantly.

Don't remind me. It has been an absolute nightmare getting materials since Kevin shut down. Rainbow just isn't a good shop, sadly.

No kidding? Well don't read anything I said before. Now next time I will be down lake throwing my arm off. @Travis Swift let's try it out this summer

I agree with that for sure. But, you'd think with all the bass fishing that occurs a giant brown would be caught every now and then. Surely they'd eat a jig, swimbait, A-rig, etc. They do on the Great Lakes. I was in your shoes for years with the belief, but I just don't know anymore. There are plenty of people who fish down there (not like above the Landing, but still). The lack of evidence ever, really, beside Dwiggins catching the triploid by Kanakuk is just too strong for me. I hope I'm wrong lol

Theoretically they do not make the spawning run. But with anything, there are outliers. Lower lake there's just so much water. Even scanning with LS you'd need a week to find areas they frequent. My buddy and I scanned on his LS some of the bluffs past the landing and there were fish, but never really anything big. I think the idea there are giant browns lurking in the depths is just not that true. I'm sure there are some, but 40 ft deep bluffs do not have the constant supply of food the shallower water has. Kelly Galloup wrote a book about his diving on the Michigan rivers he grew up on. You'd be shocked at how many of the "big fish looking areas" held nothing. They pretty much hang out where everything else does, just in their own little space adjacent. Look at all the giant browns caught at night in 3-4 fow. They are up there eating sculpins, scuds, and rainbows like the 20-inch fish.

You and me both, buddy! Phil can correct me, but I think all of the really big ones that have been caught this spring have been diploids, which is an interesting trend. Not that they'll breed, but still cool to see 2N fish getting that size.

Went down with John Sunday-Wednesday for the floodgates. Naturally, they shut them off at 9am Monday. I fished Sunday evening for an hour and a half after turkey hunting and did well on jerkbaits from the dam to the boat ramp. Other than that, it was pretty eh. I got back to the dock early and Phil called me over to the tank "Milo, we got a big brown." And big it was. 30.25" and 17 lbs. Robert caught it on a Signature Series 606 in FP down from Lilleys out of a pontoon boat. I was going to fish that bluff but was tired from hunting. Amazing what has to go right to land a fish like that! Monday morning I started early at 5:30 am. Fog was a little bad so I stopped at the top of the bluff above Lilleys. Immediately I caught a 22" rainbow that was as fat as we has long. Next cast I threw a bit upstream and had a little drag so I started burning the jerkbait back to recast. I noticed a giant shadow following so I stopped it and started working it. It was a brown that was bigger than the 17 lb fish I saw the evening before. It swiped at it four times and missed each time. This is all 10 ft from the boat. I stopped it, burned it to where I had 18" of line left, 2 ft from the boat. It finally ate it. I really didn't set the hook, just kind of held on. I jumped down to get the net as it thrashed at the boat. As I grabbed the net it came undone and sauntered back to the depths. I grabbed my jerkbait and realized the middle hook he had was completely straightened out. I always change the back hook on these jerkbaits since it is the one that usually gets them best. I will be changing all of them now. Biggest brown I've ever personally had hooked/engaged with my lure. It had to be 20+ lbs. Pain! The rest of the trip was just meh. The fish were definitely adjusting to the flow change. We could have dragged scuds/eggs and caught a ton, I'm sure, but we stuck with jerkbaits and jigs. They just didn't want to eat, it felt like. Little to no engagement on jerkbaits and short strikes on jigs. We caught fish, don't get me wrong, but it was markedly worse. Our biggest Tues/Weds was a couple of chunky 19" rainbows right below the dam. I had on a 20" or so rainbow by the steps on a jig Tuesday evening but he came unbuttoned as well. One of those trips! Still a fun time and enjoyed staying at Phil's. Really is one of the best resorts I've ever been to in the country and they make you feel at home every time. Here is the only pic we took, a nice 18" rainbow John caught on a jig below Lookout. And a nice pic I snapped above Trout Hollow. Here is a pic of Robert's giant in the net.

How'd you do the enchiladas @BilletHead? I think that'll be my next foray

I was too busy doing the cooking! Next time I won't disappoint you or @Johnsfolly

Didn't take any pics because it didn't last, but turkey camp this weekend had my cousin, grandpa and buddy Dave down. Friday night we did prime ribeyes, asparagus and portobella shrooms on the grill. Breakfast was hog jowl, regular bacon, fried eggs, deer sausage gravy and homemade biscuits Saturday and Sunday. Saturday night I fried walleye and crappie I caught this spring with fried taters and onions. Dessert was a peach dump cake I made. Warmed it up on the cast iron fireplace. Didn't get a turkey (came very close) but truly a heavenly weekend with the food. I'll take pics next time!

It was within 5 min of me sending the pic that you shot yours, another buddy sent me a pic of his, and another 10 min later with his. It was like 8:30 hit and it was on. @Seth and I finally got to have our dinner date, too. We went to Rich's in Owensville. First time and it was darn good. Great job by all. Missouri sure is bouncing back nicely with it's turkeys. I would have no problem taking 3-4 birds total on the place I hunt this year. And even 2-3 years ago I'd say one was max.

Guess I'll add on. I haven't shot a bird on the opener since 2019. It's always second day or the hellscape of the last weekend with the ticks and other biting fauna. Sat up on the far east end of the property as I have been seeing a lot on camera there. It was windy as can be and cold for the first couple of hours. I finally heard a gobble on the far west part of the property. I called, but I knew with the west wind I could not be heard. So I left everything but my gun and mouth call and made the trek. I figured he'd head down the gravel road that leads into a nice, calm spot. I called sparingly, waited, and repeated a couple times. Nada. Finally got to where I thought he'd be headed, sat down and called. Nothing. As any good turkey hunter does, I stayed put, even though I was wondering if I'd bumped him. About 10 min later I hear "pffffttt" about 75 yds away. Then I saw the fan. He was strutting down the gravel road I figured he'd take, just being silent about it. I let him get to 35 yds. 11.5" beard, 24 lbs, and 1.25" spurs. Really a cool bird. Almost white spurs and a really light color to his fan in spots. Done by 8:35 am. Made a good lunch, napped, and listened to the whip-poor-wils at dark. Went this morning to listen and heard 6 different birds sounding off, and all appeared to have hens. I will be back the first weekend in May to try and tag out.

Really sucks. Started as prostate cancer in July 2023 and he was doing fairly well. He fell and hit his head while deer hunting this past season and when they did the CT scan to check they found tumors all in his brain.