zander

yeah to both of those questions. There are several different species of trout in Europe. The marble trout is thought to be related to brown trout and were isolated from each other by the different Ice Ages. Unfortunately the marble trout is restricted to one or two rivers in Slovenia now as it has been genetically washed out by the stocking of brown trout over the last hundred years across Italy, Croatia, and on down the Adriatic coast. The brown trout in Europe being largely native tend to have distinctive phenotypes in different river systems, some around from where my wife is from have very few spots but the spots they do have are very large and are brilliant blue or red. And then you get the hybrids with the marble trout and browns that look really unique.

I'd love to fy-fish for marble trout in the Soca River in Slovenia which is a country wedged between Italy and Austria where the Alps taper off. The fishing permits approaching $200 per day here it is so popular in Europe.

yeah i could do that, i'll just make a spread sheet for them so i won't get confused.

thanks. The glare off the black is kinda annoying to look at. I am hoping you guys like it.

To all of those folks who responded to my last thread with my brown trout painting, I thought I would let you all knwo that I have finally got the youngster to leave me alone enough to finish my rainbow trout painting. There will be one more in this series of a brook trout and all will be 6 3/4 inches wide by 17 inches tall. The brown trout painting made it to San Fransico this morning to the printers. I am going to do 150 of each print, all numbered. Each print will be $45 and done as a gilcee on archival paper. Should have the brown trout prints back in a few weeks, if you would like to order send me a pm. Once I get the master image back from the printers I'll post those. My digital camera and paintings don't make for the best advertisement I know. But if you like the way this picture looks, you'll love the painting. Let me know.

Yep, we were as far away from the trophy management area as you could get and still be on Taneycomo, in about 35 feet of water.

We were fishing in Taneycomo right up from the Powersite from about 4:30 to 7:30pm tonight. My father was tearing them up outfishing me 4 to 1 on yellow powerbait trout nuggets, I was using the same thing and I was hardly getting a bite. Eventually I convinced him to tie on a spoon and we went trolling and caught our limit in three passes. Nice hard fighting rainbows on a small simple silver spoon. It was nice to catch a limit for the first time in a while.

thanks for the appreciation. it means a lot. other works are in progress (slow but progress) and i like the idea about the calendar, it never occured to me

i understand about invasive species, but aren't rainbows and browns exotic species themselves in our waters? not to mention muskies in Missouri stripers etc etc. so while that arguement holds some water, it has holes in it tooall I am saying is it could be studied.

I can see what you are saying about it seems like they have little fight, I don't know first hand but I have have heard from my brother in law and some of his uncles that they fight quite well. The remote mountain lakes of the west without a doubt have less fishing pressure than Taneycomo on its worst days. This fish's cousin Huchen taimen is the species that causes people to fly all the way to Mongolia to fish for, and there is probably a reason for it. Unlike lake trout these are fish that require a riverine environment, they are not found in large deep lakes in Europe. With the output of the hatchery into Taneycomo I doubt that it could impact the trout population significantly. If I win the lottery I'll commission a study.

If you ever wonder what brown trout had to worry about in the native waters of Europe it was the Danubian Salmon (Hucho hucho). It is a primitive salmonid that is land-locked and lives off of small trout and grayling in the waters of of the Danube River drainage (they do not go to the sea). My wife is from Croatia where I first learned of this fish and although I have tried and tried, I haven't been able to catch one yet, although people with better luck routinely do. This would be a perfect species for Taneycomo in my opinion. If browns are there and a million small rainbows, why not something else that would eat them? Here are some pictures of the fish locally known as "mladica" and a couple videos from youtube. Wouldn't that be incredible?

where is the trophy section?

I would think it is probably a mink. Taneycomo has more minks than any other place I've seen, there have only been a time or two I've been to Taneycomo and not seen one, on the other hand I have never seen an otter there although I'm sure there are a few in there. Minks eat the same stuff otters do. Just my guess.

We are heading down to Taneycomo from Springfield tmw morning and was wondering what the best boat ramp on the lake is? I went to the Rockaway Beach last time but that long steep hill down from 176 got the brakes a little hot (sniff sniff). I am concerned about the Branson traffic too. What would you guys suggest?

I like fishing Lake Springfield. Plus you never know what you are going to catch, I caught this smallmouth in January fishing with a live bluegill for catfish in the hot water outlet. It was 19 inches.

I went out to the powersite last night and threw lots of lures with some of the most tempting action you could have last night and for the most part had no takers. The same thing happened a couple of nights ago. Out of boredom I tied on a little 2 1/2 inch rainbow trout colored rapala on my trout rig w/ 4 lb test and within two casts (very short ones at that) caught a little walleye. It made me think maybe my line on my other poles is too big to use there. On my spinning rig and bait cast I have ten lb berkley line on there. Is that line too big to use at the powersite, what line do you guys use out there? Being the optimist that I am I don't want to skimp out on the line if it isn't going to matter fishing, but what is the point of using heavier line if there won't be any fish on the end of it anyway.

I have always used the match trick too, much to the horror of onlookers at times. I do one thing different then what I've read here. Instead of rolling the fillets in milk or buttermilk, I roll them in French's yellow mustard and get them good and completely yellow, then I roll in the fish fry mix and cook. It makes them really tasty but the mustard is not overwhelming at all. In fact, a lot of times, you'd never know it was there unless you were told or saw me preparing them. Give it a try sometimes.

Thanks for the input brownieman, I see your point about it looking kinda flat. The flash on my digital camera is to blame there. The actual painting has a lot of metallic paints in it, and reflects light and that reduces the amount of depth visible on the picture. Under a 100 watt bulb it looks a lot better. You are right about being your own worst critic, most of time, except for when I was painting on it at work (I work a phone job so my boss lets me) someone came by and said, "Ooooh, look at the frog he is painting!" That got my blood pressure up a little bit. Once again I appreciate the feedback and if people thought the digital picture looked good, then I would feel comfortable making prints of the real deal since it looks better than the digital pic. Started on the rainbow today.

Went out to the Powersite tonight with a bunch of new Rogue's and high hopes of big walleye. The bite was fast and furious but it was from mosquitos. I stayed out there the longest. Something blew up on my yellow perch colored rogue as it sat still on the surface but missed it, never did hit it again. The fellow fishing next to me was using a weedless white grub twisty tail about 3 1/2 inches long and he caught the only fish I saw. It was a 2 1/2 to 3 lb bass. He called it a smallmouth, but it was not a smallmouth, maybe it was a Kentucky as it was not a largemouth either (it was dark). He flipped it back. Skeeters ran me off around 11 PM. The water is still too high to go up by the generator side. Maybe when it drops back down I'll go out again. Phillip

I know you weren't being critical, and I appreciate the info on you guys wanting a set, as soon as they are ready, I'll post them up here, might be a while. The fish was 19 inches couldn't turn it into 20 to save my life and it was released of course back into Taneycomo. I was born in Branson and lived there until 83 when I moved to Louisiana, moved back up here in 2003 and I'm trying to catch all the different kinds of fish that we didn't have down there. I'm gonna try fishing the powersite dam tonight to try to catch my first walleye if I don't get rained out. Maybe I'll get lucky. Phillip

I appreciate the feedback, and I'll put together a set. As for the reason just to do that part of the fish, I've always been the most mezmerized by the eyes and faces of fish, the color changes, the contrast, and painting scales all down the body can be a lot like hanging out with your mother-in-law, gets old quick and soon becomes nothing but a pain in the neck and full of reminders of short-comings, so I avoid it if possible . Once again I appreciate the feed back, the model for that trout was my first brown I caught, incidentally in a boat rented from Lilley's Landing. Phillip

Thank you for that. I do have plans to do a rainbow, not sure on brook trout yet. I did this painting to pass time when my wife and son were visiting her parents in Europe for a month, but when they returned i a started on another painting there is something about a 3 year old crawling all over you makes painting a little more difficult:) . Once again thanks for the input and I look forward to input of all kinds from all people. Phillip

I painted this a month or so ago and I am trying to get feedback on it to see if I should make prints of it to sell. It is 6 3/4 inches wide by 17 high. Picture does it pretty close to real life, not quite as vivid though, please leave feedback good or bad. Thanks. Phillip