Seth

I just got back from a four day vacation down there. I got to meet Leonard Thursday night as I was getting ready to leave. He was a great fella and gave me about a half a dozen flies to try. Right before I left I was catching quite a few on a #8 olive wooly by outlet 2 and throwing across the river. I went night fishing again on Friday night from 9-11 and was using an unweighted squirrel or bunny leech in black that Leonard gave me the night before. I was swinging it in the current and stripping it back and the trout were blowing up on it. I caught one brownie that came almost out of the water like a bass and gave me an awesome fight, he was about 17". Thanks a lot Leonard, you got me hooked on night time fly fishing. That was awesome seeing those trout smoke that fly off the surface in the moonlight. I can't wait to come down in the fall when the browns are up and try stripping some big unweighted streamers on the surface and see what I can dredge up.

GRRRR....don't even mention the cardinals right now....they are ticking me off

funny guy lol

I seen this boil last year also. I thought it was a monster trout flopping on the surface at first, but then when I got closer I didn't know what the heck it was. Micro jigs are just really tiny jigs on jigheads 1/80 down to 1/265 or something. The microjigs you buy that come in the little plastic tubes are put together with a shrink wrap process to hold the marabou. I just tie up my own and use thread, they still work pretty good when the water is running. I have had my best luck on pink usually.

I tied up some last night and I left out toe copper wire ribbing. I will give them a try this weekend when I get down to Taneycomo and see if the fish care. JoRob, have you fish with Brett before or stopped in his shop?

My first one was 18 lbs with a 10.5" and 4" beard and my second one was about 18 lbs with an 11" beard. It was tough this year to get the bird to work in than in years past, except for one bird that my girlfriend should of killed the last two Saturdays. He came in both days but she couldn't get a shot from where she was sitting.

I would probably say a #18/20 ginger g-bug becuase I have caught more fish on it than anything else I have tied up.

I've just stood on the bank before and cleaned my trout and tossed the guts in the lake again for the trout and suckers to eat. When your done, just swish the fillets around in the water a little bit and clean them up better when you get home.

His scuds are great also. His soft shelled scud is another pattern I try to copper but they never turn out anywhere near the quality of his. I say and hope I get to stop in at his shop everytime I get down to Taneycomo, but some reason or another I never get a chance too. Probably becuase I am too busy fishing the whole time hehe.

Hmm i thought there was copper wire for ribbing on that G-Bug. I have been putting copper wire over my ostrich herl but I guess I will stop doing that. I guess I shouldn't ask for a pattern that hasnt been published, I dont want to upset Brett, he is one of heck of a trout fisherman and guide.

It is sad that these family resorts are vanishing. We have always stayed at Lazy Valley Resort a time or two every year since I was a little boy (sorry Phil for not staying at your place). It is so beautiful and relaxing down there and everybody is really nice. Hopefully things looks up for place like yours soon.

I can wade in Maramec Springs without waders, but oh boy is that Taneycomo water cold. My legs can't take water that cold.

Thanks alot guys. I will mostly be fly fishing up at the dam, but later in the evening or really early in the morning if I am at the resort then I thought about motoring across the lake and throwing something like that around those big logs. I also thought about gettings ome chicken livers and throwing out around there too since I have seen and heard of quite a few big browns being caught on chicken livers before too. I guess anything thats meaty and an easy meal would attract the pig browns.

We are heading down to stay at Lazy Valley Resort next Thursday and do some trout fishing on Taneycomo....woohoo!!!. Anyhow, I have a couple big rogues and rapalas ( like 6 or 7" long) that I used for bass quite a bit and I was thinking about trying them out on the banks across from Lilleys and see if anything big would come out and take a peek. What kind of tackle would you recommend using for these kind of baits? I was thinking about just using my regular bass rod with 14 lbs stren. I figured that if a big trout wanted to eat it bad enough then the line wouldn't make that much difference. Let me know your opinions.

The kid that works with Ron is named Phillip and he is one of my best friend. Ask Ron about Seth and Cari if you are down there on a Saturday. I would hope he knows both our names by now, if not then Phillip will know us for sure. I will try to remember to ask Ron or Phillip about you next time we go there, which is probably going to be this Saturday. I need to practice tying jigs a lot more, I always get the tails uneven when I tie in more than one bundle of marabou and end up having to trim with scissors.

I like 1/32 or 1/64 oz jigs down at the springs.

I never have messed with putting eyes on my jigs, but a lot of people swear it makes the jigs work better. The micro jigs I buy and use always seem to outfish my home tied ones, and the only noticeable different are the eyes on the store bought ones. Do you guys glue eyes on or do you paint them on yourself? I never have found eyes small enough to put on those little 1/80 and 1/100 jig heads, so I am assuming they are painted on.

G-bug and soft shell scud

A buddy of mine I was fishing with Sunday was using a size 14 or 16 copper john and getting bit every cast. I don't know if it was the copper or what but they sure did like it. I finally caught a few on my flyrod on a black #20 g-bug, but nothing like he was catching them.

Well I know I am late to notice this becuase I never check this section much, but.....THANKS!!!

How was the water clarity? Did you see any lunkers caught?

I haven't been on that site in a long time. I always thought it was the "lazy" hole, or I just call it the bathroom hole. I would love to catch one of them big ones out of the springs. I was hoping the water would have been clear so I could sight fish for them lunkers. Thats my only reason for going on days after like kids day is for the chance at some of the remaining lunkers. I've caught 3 lunkers in my time fishing there, two were about four pounds and one was about 18 or 19".

Fish cooperated very well for the kids on Saturday. It took less than 2 hours for my girlfriends cousin and sister to catch 9 fish between them. My father took out three of my little cousins and they caught there limits within an hour after the buzzer. All the fish were caught down in the Lazy Hole or Bathroom Hole, whichever you call it. One kid pulled a 25.5" rainbow from the Lazy Hole on a green/white rubber legged jig. He said it only weighed 6lbs on the scale, but I believe it would have been pushing atleast 7, maybe 8. It wasn't that skinny of a fish, and my ten pounder I got on the wall was only 27". Surely there would not be 4lbs of difference between a 25.5" and 27" trout? Sunday, we all headed back down there again to do some fishing. We decided to start in the pond hole and it started off kind of slow. I caught 7 or 8 and they caught two between them before we moved down to the lazy/bathroom hole. Dad caught his limit pretty fast down there and then we helped the little guys catch there limit. I stayed down there till 4:10 fishing and ended up catching about 70 fish total I am guessing. A buddy from Cuba got down there about noon and we fished together in the Lazy Hole and caught lots of fish on white rubber legged jigs and beadhead nymphs. The trout hit white rubber legged jigs and orange trout worms the best throughout the day, but I caught some on bait. I broke out my flyrod for the last hour I fished and caught 6 on a black "G-bug" pattern. Was a wonderful day to spend 9.5 straight fishing haha. Some people may think that's crazy, but I love every second of it . One of the guys that works down there told me that they stocked three 10 pound plus trout in for kids day, but none were ever checked in. Whether this is true or not I don't know, but just a little something to know incase you are trying to target a lunker.

......I really hope the water is not up and muddy this weekend for kids fishing day I have such a blast helping the little guys out and its so much fun when they can see the fish hitting there lure/bait.

36 hours straight ......