Seth

I keep a hand full of white mega worms on hand just for that purpose. Was looking for a replacement to the pink worm that I could use in artificial only tournaments and they serve that purpose. I think the reason you see more big browns caught on less "erratic" baits is because they don't want to expand a lot of energy on a fast moving meal. There are fish guts and stocker bows everywhere in the lake for them to eat. A jig just makes an easy meal if you make that perfect cast that lands right in front of a big brown. Its like waving a tader chip in your face. Even if you're not hungry, you'll still eat it. I'd imagine if you are drifting a worm or minnow and it comes right in to the face of a big brown, he is going to eat it. Dad hooked a giant last winter the day before raw on a big minnow just above Short Creek. Had we been 5' or more off to the side, that fish probably wouldn't have bit. That stretch that Paul Crews caught Frank in was beat to death by us and plenty of other boats all day long, but Paul was the one who made that perfect cast that landed right in his face.

I'm sure Frank, Frankie and Carl appreciate the folks that do this. Instead of just eating guts, they get the entire and don't even have to work for it.

Oh smallies love it too. In fact, that is when the biggest fish of the warm weather season are caught is when the river is 5-6' high and mud. I can catch fish in the high, dirty stuff but it's not the way I prefer to fish.

I know this rain sure did a number on the Gasconade. It was starting to get low and clear up and now it's 6-7' high and chocolate milk and dropping hard. Looks like my hopes of getting in some low, clear water fall fishing is lost again this year.

The weigh in tournaments work best in the winter when surface water temps are cold everywhere and the oxygen levels are really good. The guys running way down the lake this past weekend were pulling fish out of deep water that was still pretty cool and then throwing the fish in a livewell filled with 73 degree water. Those boats brought in a lot of dead fish. I keep my livewell pumping in fresh water off and on all day long and the trout are annoyingly frisky when I bring them to the weigh in. Phil usually has to wait a while before the fish coming from my boat calm down long enough to get an accurate weight.

MDC loves to leave those gray areas. We pestered them for years about whether we could catch and release paddlefish since it states "taken" instead of snagged in the limit description. They could make things so much easier to understand by changing a single word and yet they refuse to do so. I'm very pro MDC, but I will hammer on them for gray areas and badly written regulations every day.

This video does a good job showing how it all works. He's using his own brand of circle hook so you definitely don't have to use Gamakatsu's. I did see some Owner mosquito circle hooks at the Landing Bass Pro in that smaller sizes that I think would have worked well. They were almost half the price of the Gama's.

Ol chunky butt Frank is still in there and growing so he may be there in a few years barring he doesn't get caught and killed off. I was told that a fish bigger than Frank was supposedly shocked up at some point this past year, but I've only heard it from one source so who knows if that's even true. You know Frank, Frankie and Carl aren't the only three giant browns roaming that lake. Surely there are some mega diploids still around.

Last winter we started experimenting with the Gamakatsu octopus circle hooks for drifting crawlers and minnows for trout on Taneycomo. After doing this for several trips, I have to say it is 100% the way to go. After seeing 100+ trout boated while using them, I think we've only had TWO that swallowed the hook. I like using the #8 for crawlers and the #6 for minnows. I've not played around with sculpins enough yet to have a concrete answer, but I think the #2 would probably work best for them. Anything smaller and I don't think you would have enough hook showing for them to work effectively. During the tournament this past weekend, my buddy was fishing two rods with crawlers and the #8 Gamas. I have rod holders in my boat and he would leave the rod in it until the fish would start fighting and then reel them in. There were several times when the trout would "nip" the ends of the crawler, but not get hooked up. Since he wasn't trying to set the hook and ripping the bait away from the fish, the fish continued to bite until it finally got the hook in it's mouth and became hooked up. Keep in mind that this is ONLY when there is flow and you are drifting. If the water is off, I don't think the circle hook would prevent the fish from swallowing the bait as effectively. I'm sure they will still help though.

The fight may have killed the fish regardless of what care it received after it was landed, but the 10 minute ride back to the dock out of water darn sure didn't help. A lot of boats aren't equipped to handle something like that. Personally, if I had caught a fish like that without a livewell to support it, then I would be calling Lilley or flagging somebody down to try get another boat down there that can handle the fish while keeping it in water with a net. It such a freak thing though that it's hard to be prepared for it if it does happen to you. I'd bet a lot of the people fishing the tournament didn't even have a net capable of handling a fish like that either.

@Phil Lilley there is no penalty for dead trout, correct? Having a weight reduction penalty of say 1/2# per fish would probably help deter some of that as well. It falls on the anglers to decide whether they want to run down that far and risk killing their fish. Then again, if it's catch and release, that means we can go up to the trophy area and fish during the tournament. You could still go by total inches for your best 8 fish. That's how the kayak guys do their bass tournaments.

Ours did, but the big one died. The luck of others at catching big browns in my boat is ridiculous! This is the second time somebody with less than 50 trout to their name has boated a keeper brown in my boat on Taneycomo.

We had a good day. Fishing started off slow, but picked up as the water came on and as the day went on. The last couple hours were by far the best. I threw white and black jigs all day and caught plenty of fish, but my buddy whopped me on quality drifting crawlers in the back of the boat. Our entire day was spent between Fall Creek and Trout Hollow. My buddy caught the 21" 3.84# brown at 2:30pm on a crawler. At that point I figured we had this thing in the bag until we got back and heard about the giant brown. Not much you can do to compete with a fish of that caliber. This was the second time my buddy has been down to fish Taneycomo. The first time was during the Elfrink this past February when Frank was caught. He's 2 for 2 on showing up to see mega browns brought in to Lilley's. Also, he had about 20 trout to his name before fishing with me today. He caught between 30-40 trout today and landed his first keeper brown. Time to add another check mark to growing list of people that I've had catch a legal brown out of my boat before me. 🤣

If you have your ducks in a row for the most part, they are usually pretty cool IMO. I've been checked a few times and can't recall every having one act like a jerk. I'm sure they appreciate it though too because I have a buddy who does water patrol and he deals with some humdingers.

Hmm..I swore I had set my team a while back, but apparently not. Oops! There goes my good season.

I'm trying to talk my buddy in to taking off Thursday so we can head out that morning. If that doesn't happen, we'll head down Thursday evening after work. Probably not a bad idea anyways as it will give me time to restock the jig supply before we start fishing.

I'm bringing a bass fishing buddy of mine down with me to fish the Firemens Benefit tourney at Lilleys next week. He is used to heavy tackle fishing so I'll be curious how he adopts and handles using 2# line. I've taken a few of my bassin buddies trout fishing and they struggled. It definitely requires some finesse.

I never use back reeling and I couldn't tell you the last time I broke a fish off on 2# line due to a drag issue. My Pflueger President drags have never let me down yet. The only time I break fish off with 2# line is on the hookset, but that is because I hadn't retied my jig after catching a bunch of fish. That's just laziness on my part.

Are you fishing that tournament? I'll be down for that one along with a few buddies and staying in one of Lilleys' 3 bedroom units. I'm having Taneycomo withdrawal and can't wait!

W'eve started using size 6 and 8 Gamkatsu octopus circle hook in the past year when using crawlers and minnows on Taneycomo and deal with far less gut hooked fish. Most are hooked in the corner of the mouth. It works really well for those who have a hard time detecting bites too since the fish hooks itself when the rod loads up. No need for a hook set. Just start reeling. I've not tried this type of hook with power eggs, but i think it would also work well for them.

I get plenty of bites on the smaller sized ploppers, but I have such a hard time hooking up with smallies on that bait that I have stopped using it. That's been my luck with pretty well any treble hooked topwater though on the river. They'll knock it clear out of the water and never get stuck more often than not it seems. I've had luck using the 130 sized plopper in the fall on green bass too.

The only time I've ever done well on jerkbaits was when the water was high and dingy. It was probably the best day of fishing I've ever had down there too. Spinners just get a bunch of follows and not many bites in my experience.

I've caught a few fish on Cleos and Kastmasters, but I mainly just use them as locators to draw fish up and show themselves before throw jigs at them. Last year I started using a black rooster tail with a gold blade on occasion and had some success, but jigs were still a lot more productive.

Dad was down last weekend and echoed Bill's report on the location and quality of the fishing. Do you think a bunch of these fish came down out of the trophy area? They have to be in the lake a while eating scuds before they get that pink flesh, right? As hard as that area gets fished, it's a wonder that any rainbows last very long at all.

Feeding windows play a large part IMO. I've seen it too many times where you fish a stretch and don't catch diddly, but then come back and hit it again in a few hours and hammer them. I'm sure they were around a few hours prior, they just weren't in a feeding mood. Personally, I always do better in the early afternoon versus the morning, but there are always exceptions to the norm. Other guys fishing the same days have a totally opposite experience.