Seth

If I did not live three hours away, I would love to come down there and meet some of you guys.

We always fillet out our trout and deep fry them in Andy's fish batter. It's delicious.

That is the tip I was needing Wayne, thank you. I always cut my marabou a little too short when I am working with it and it makes it really hard for me to get it on the hooks. Do you make a loop around the marabou with the thread before tying it down, or do you skip that step and just tie it straight onto the hook?

Yes, I know what you mean by RUDE people down there. Once March 1st gets here, there will be a whole lot more of them down there too.

No, they arent North Hog Suckers or "hog mollies" as we call them. We only killed one of those. Did not see many of them either for that fact. Phil....we ate a mess of them tonight deep fried in Andy fish batter with some fries and tader tots. We got a lot of people we know that want a mess of fish so they will all get ate. I am sure there are many different ways of eating these fish, but all we ever do is fry them. Just fillet them out, cut out the red meat, and then score them up nice and good and then fry them nice and crispy. They are definetly better if you eat them before freezing them. Fish never taste as good after they have been frozen.

Thanks for the link, I will check that out ASAP and try out some of those tips.

Fished from 1pm to 4pm. Fish bit good on white G-bugs, white thread jigs, white jigs, and a brown globall. Only landed one fish though. They weren't biting very aggresively at all. I hooked a lot of fish that I just "rolled" and then they came off. It was frustrating but the weather was gorgeous and I had a great time. I would of just had to throw them back anyhow I seen the most fish in the long stretch below the pond hole and just above where that big log or w/e goes across the stream before it bend to the right. The bathroom hole had quite a few fish in it also. I only seen one other guy catch a fish while I was down there.

It's the hole besides the handicap fishing area. The first hole you see when you drive down from the lodge is the pond hole, it has little if any current at all.

Four of us went and we got 80 fish. We killed a a bunch of buffalo, drum, common carp, redhorse, one big head carp and one grass carp. We killed a bunch of sucker/carp looking fish too, not sure exactly what they are. We got into schools of the big heads right underneath the bridge. Down river where it is a big shallow riffle, we did the best on the redhorse and buffalo. Seen two nice walleyes while gigging too. Both probably 4-5 lbs. The paddlefish were everywhere above the bridge. They were in big schools and the boat would go right over them and you could see them swimming with there mouths wide open, it was pretty neat. It was a blast and I took a pic of the mess of fish and the two biggest ones we got.

I have a hard time managing the marabou to the correct size and position on the tails of small flies. Any tips you guys have for sliding it into position and tying it down? Also, I always seem to crowd the hook eye on my flies and it makes it really hard to thread the line through. Will my flies not be near as effective though if there is a little bit of gap between the thread and the hook eye? Thanks for any help Seth

I feel people should be grateful that you take the time to post reports. A lot of people don't get a chance to fish these bodies of water as much as the locals and find it nice to get an idea of where to start when they show up to do some fishing. I definetly cram all I can in before I head down to Taneycomo to do some trout fishing since I only do it a few times a year as I live 3.5 hours away. I sure do appreciate everything you do for fishing Phil. Thank you.

Anybody have these for sale or know of a place where I can buy a bunch of them in bulk?

Have you guys been down lately fishing? I was wanting to know if there are any good smallies in there right now. Last year I watched a guy catch a 19" in the long stretch below the pond hole. She was a dandy. I am planning on sneaking down there with the fly rods this Saturday if I am not too busy and thought about just fishing streamers to have a chance at catching a good smallie along with the trout.

Now that bow season is over, I will hit the springs a couple times during the C&R season. I will try to get you a few pictures taken and sent to you. Do you want any pictures of scenery or landmarks there?

I seen the cardinal logo in your avatar and I thought that it was going to be a picture of a Scott Rolen home run

I usually catch a lot of fish at outlet two when the water is up, but you have to fight everybody else too. It aint as fun as when the water is offf either. You just keep drifting the same 4 foot stretch over and again thats it and then try to keep your cool when the other goofballs standing besides you snag you or your rod.

Is that cam just right below your doc ??? That place is loaded with fish.

Common or Grass??? I take it your talking about grass carp. I have tried to catch grass carp on a fly rod but never got any to take. These fish were pushing 50lbs probably. I shot one with my bowfishing rig that weighed 45lbs. I've watched them do it on TV and it just looks like a total blast. I know carp sure do put up a heckuva fight on regular fishing tackle, even the small ones.

Just get rid of the red meat out of carp, suckers, or other "trash fish" as people like to say and that will make them taste delicious. I like to score mine up pretty good on both sides, but not so much that the fillets fall apart. Fry them good and crisp and that will take care of most of the problem with bones. a mess of carp and suckers along with some hot grease and some Andy's make for some darn good eatin!!!!

A few years ago while fishing below bagnell we found about a 10-12lbs walleye floating dead on top of the water. It might have came through the turbines though and that is how it died. Sure was a dandy though.

I went to Pomme one time with my grandma and grandpa like 6 years ago or something. It was alot of fun and I want to go back up there again sometime. We caught mainly crappie dropping minnows and jigs besides the stumps and sticks. I think I had a muskie attack my float too while fishing too. I was using one those orange cigar looking floats and we cranked the trolling motor up and started moving and something big came up and nailed my float. It was pretty awesome. I need to study up on muskie fishing and go try to catch me one

Well the guys that I snag with always call it Walnut Springs. It is up river from Flat Creek a little ways I know that. The only way I know how to explain it is you there is a little old boat house on the left of the river below walnut springs. You go past that and then the river turns to the right again and there is a lot of stumps and brush in the area. The easiet way to describe it is when the water is really low, there is a line of trees on the left side of the river if your coming up from flat creek. I'm not very good at giving directions Duckman....how big is that spooner is your picture????? Here is one I caught last around 2 or 3 am on opening night. She weighed 74lbs, which is my biggest to date.

Well the way I see it is that if somebody keeps a 13" fish in the trophy are, then they are breaking the law and that is no different than keeping too many fish. I know it wouldn't destroy the whole fishery or anything, but still rules are rules. On the other hand, if you catch a 20" trout and somebody recommends you release it and get a replica and you choose not too, well there is nothing wrong with. It's legal and your choice to choose what to do with it. If you let the people who make suggestion to you bother you, you need to lgrow up and learn to worry about yourself and not what others think of you.- It is nice to see a big fish released I will agree, but not everybody releases them and there are plenty of them in Taney to make up for it due to how awesome this fishery really is.

We usually do best up below Walnut Springs just throwing towards the rock banks and jerking back. Most guys troll but we seem to have better luck casting to the banks. I guess it is how the fish swim along the banks, becuase we have hit alot of them on our first or second jerk many times. We have nailed a few at the mouth of flat creek snagging around the point and up into flat creek a couple hundred yards also.

Well everytime I fish there I seen a ton of stocker size trout in there and sometimes there are so many that you can't get to the nicer fish before they take the fly. I think people should start keeping a stringer of under 12 more often. There are lots of nice fish in there to make up for the stockers you take out. Most of the time it's hard to catch four fish that are under 12". It's legal so there isn't any reason to feel bad about taking what is legally yours.