jstickley

Hey, just wanted to chime in here with thanks for you and everyone else that post reports on this forum. I check in periodically, sometimes just because I love reading about fishing, but especially when I’m planning to be fishing Table Rock and feeding my bass fishing addiction. I skunked Thursday and Friday fishing the waters closer to the dam I normally hit when I’m on Table Rock, but decided to give the Big M area a shot Saturday based on reports like yours, seeing some very interesting structure on maps, and figuring there might be warmer water and more active fish further up lake. (But yeah, largely the reports). I threw a Ned, which fits my finesse fishing preferences well, and landed 33 bass over a nine hour day. All but one of them spots, the outlier appearing to be a meanmouth. Only three over 15”, and then just barely, but a great day of catching nonetheless. Anyway, don’t mean to hijack your post! My trip ended on a much better note, and I wanted to make sure you and the other active members of this forum heard a little appreciation for your work here. Keep it up!

I use a Canon EOS Rebel T3i. Most of these were with the stock lens (18-55 mm), with the exception of the doe / fawn photo (taken with a 55-250 mm zoom). Best part of the doe / fawn pic was that my 7 year old daughter was with me that morning. She was VERY excited to see them, and I sure wish I'd have been ready to catch her reaction on camera!

It may almost be blasphemous to say this on these forums, but I think I had as much fun snapping photos last week during my Taneycomo trip as I did fishing.

Are the Trout Magnet baits legal in the trophy area, given that the bodies are made of soft plastic?

No problem, Phil. Thank YOU for all the great reports and advice you share here. It's wonderful stuff. Next time I'm down I'll be sure to drop by your place to say hi. John Stickley

Just had to echo all the posts about how great fishing is right now... I don't get down but about twice a year, but I have NEVER had so much fun trout fishing as I did the past couple of days. Operating mainly on blind squirrel theory (you know, even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then) and tips picked up browsing these forums, a friend and I fished the trophy area Sunday afternoon / evening and Monday morning. We caught more fish than we could count (I'm guessing 20 or more for each of us each day), almost all on white jigs. Each of us caught the largest rainbows of our lives... not huge by the standards of many here, but still very nice 16-19" rainbows that put up an awesome fight. Let me tell you, fishing with powerbait, while fun... well... it simply just doesn't cut it anymore. I can't wait to come back. I know there's a trophy waiting there for me to catch, measure, weigh, photograph, and have replicated to hang on my wall and brag about for years to come!