Seth

I still go down to Maramec for the opener. Not sure why I do that to myself other than tradition. Watching all the madness is more entertaining than the actual fishing. Besides, there ain’t a better tasting stale donut than the ones they serve at the pavillion for opening day! 😂 Here’s a video from last years opener.

I've enjoyed watching the BPT streams. Today was a lot better than the first day as far as the bugs went. You get to see a lot of fish caught as well as some donkeys. I'm not the one winning the 100k regardless so I don't really care who actually wins. It's all just free entertainment for me.

Ish and Tharp were on some better quality fish. Tharp got 7th and only had 8 fish where as everybody around him had almost twice as many. You get see a lot of fish caught along with some nice fish. I enjoyed watching it myself. Looks like Hack Attack is in 2nd right now and has the heaviest average weight out of anybody in the top 10.

With all of the 20+ feet deep water and piles of wood, I don't know how there can't be some giants living there lives down there. That's A LOT of water to hide in! Member @Trav has several old posts in the Lower Taneycomo section of the forum about how he would target nice browns down lake in that stuff back before the floods struck.

There is definitely no shortage of stocker rainbows in Taneycomo. Throw in more triploids!

They do. There have been several triploids around 20# already caught, but Frank is well estimated to be well over 30#.

Wow! I was assuming Frank was a diploid since he was so big. That is a crazy growth rate!

@Phil Lilley @duckydoty I'm assuming Frank is too large to be a triploid, but I've heard you guys mention that he has been hanging around for over a year now. Does he ever vanish in the fall for the spawning run or just he just camp out around your area?

Great report! Dad and I are headed down this weekend for RAW. Hopefully I'll have a decent fishing report to share next week.

That's the only place I see the big schools of them anymore. The Short Creek area used to be full of them, but I haven't noticed many while drifting along the past few years. Dad and I did catch a couple during the Boswell tournament last year while fishing night crawlers just above Short Creek so there are still a few around. @Phil Lilley do you know if gigging is allowed in the trophy area or is it off limits? I haven't been able to find anything that specifically says you can't gig up there.

I have a bigger net now as well so we don't have any excuses for any botched net jobs this time.

Is that why Brady threw two interceptions and Mahomes threw.....none?

I'm really surprised that the game was a nail biter at all knowing how crappy the Chiefs defense is and the fact that they didn't score crap during the first half. The Patriots got to Mahomes with several big sacks and Brady threw multiple interceptions. Neither is typical of those guys. If the Chiefs could get some better defense, I think they could be the new Patriots. There offence is obviously loaded, but they are screwed if they don't put up a pile of points and even then it gets iffy.

I get your point. However, that single penalty cost the Chiefs a guaranteed win. Everything that had occurred up to that point really didn't matter as the Chiefs were in the lead and that turn over would have sealed the victory for them had it not been for the off side penalty. That's why I put so much emphasis on it.

The first half played out nearly identical to how their first meet up this year went when the Patriots beat the chiefs 43-40. The Patriots started out strong and the Chiefs came on strong during the second half. During the first half, the Patriots outscored the Chiefs 24-9, but the Chiefs came back and outscored the Patriots 31-19. Not having a strong first half doesn't take you out of the game. Remember when the Patriots came back from a 28-3 deficit at half time to beat the Falcons in OT two years ago during the Super Bowl? Coin tosses always seem to fall in the Patriots favor. I do recall one play where Mahomes tossed a floater to the end zone a little too hard and over threw his target for what would have been an easy TD in the first half. That sure would have been nice to have!

That's a big IF. I don't see how a guy being a foot further back has any difference on that play ASIDE from the fact that the Chiefs would have won the game by not losing the interception due to a ridiculous penalty in the most crucial moments of the game. Nobody except Brady knows if he knew that Ford was offside before the snap. It's really hard to not put most of the blame on Ford when the Chiefs had the game won had he not received that penalty. All they would have had to do was run the clock down.

I didn't watch the Saints/Rams game, but it sounds like the Refs played a big part in the out come of that game. The Chiefs and the Patriots game is the one I was referring to.

Dee Ford cost the Chiefs that game. Had he not been offside, that interception would have sealed the win for the Chiefs. You don't give the greatest comeback quarterback ever extra chances in those situations or you will lose. I saw bad/no calls for both teams last night so I don't think the refs really made THAT big of a difference in the outcome.

I'm near sighted like Al. Anything within a few feet is clear, but it gets blurry enough to be annoying after that. I've got contacts that I wear when I am fishing or hunting, but I just wear my glasses for the most part. Lasik would be awesome, but I'm a tight wad.

Creates a new account and makes one post pimping up some guy that none of the local Table Rock crew has even heard of. That's not fishy at all!

I pretty well just use pink because it always works, but I have heard of others using red and orange with success down there as well. I've got orange for Maramec though. Those park fish love those orange trout worms. Learning to slow down and fish deeper takes some practice. I grew up learning to fish jigs at Maramec just like you so it took some time to get adjusted. Unless fish are midgning, you will typically want to keep your jig down near the bottom at Taneycomo. When they are midging, you can chase down the midgers and fish just like you do at Maramec and catch them.

I don't throw the NED very often, but I have been using Swingoil Baits NED head with the 1/0 hook. My favorite thing about them is that if I forget to bring fresh glue, they have a bait keeper on the hook and it keeps the Elaztech on well enough to where I'm not constantly adjusting the bait after every cast. When I actually do remember to bring glue, I just nip the keeper off. The price is right as well, but he doesn't offer them in the really small sizes. I've always used 1/8oz anyways. Also, I believe they are a forum sponsor. https://www.swingoilbaits.com/NED-HEADZ-SKU-244.htm

Once you get the jig thing figured out, you will rarely be out fished by a baiter IMO. The ability to put your lure in front of a lot more hungry trout versus just waiting for one to swim by your bait really pays off. I started off watching Phil's videos and then just tried to mimic him. Learning to keep a jig down in heavy current is definitely the hardest thing to learn when jig fishing. It's much easier with 0-2 units of water running. My buddies that are fairly new to jig fishing are starting to get the hang of it in low generation, but still struggle when the current is heavy. Another tip is that if the wind is really whipping along, you may need to go to a heavier jig so you can maintain better contact with it. The other thing you can do is go to a fast jigging retrieve like @JestersHK mentioned. When fast jigging, I like to use a rod with a whippier action. My reasoning for this is that since you are constantly bouncing the tip, you risk the trout feeling the sting of the hook point when it bites before you can react and set the hook. A whippier rod lets you get away with this more so because the flex will absorb some of the shock when the jig doesn't give due to being in a fishes mouth. You're giving up sensitivity with the whippier rod, but if you watch your rod tip as it bounces, you will learn to tell when a fish has grabbed the jig by how the rod loads up. When fishing the jig the traditional hop and drop way, you want something with a good backbone to drive the hook home on the hook set.

Here's a few different videos I made last year of me fishing jigs, straight and micros under a float, as well as one of me fishing a pink power worm under a float. The pink power worm is my favorite technique for putting numbers of fish in the boat. It should give you an idea on where to begin. Lilley's shop can hook you up with anything you need for either technique. I'd recommend orange head/sculpin/peach, green head/sculpin/ginger and white for colors. Black and black/olive are also good, but I always start out with the first three that I mentioned. Rarely do I not catch them on the first two. White can be great or terrible. It's very hit or miss. Pink Power Worm Under a Float Micro jig under a float for midging fish (you can throw this on a spinning rod just the same) Water off fishing a 1/16oz jig Heavy generation + flood gates with a 1/8oz jig

Cue the Too Much Fun by Daryle Singletary You could be boat 20 at RAW and still beat everybody to the Landing with that!