Seth

A few years ago I caught several smallies on a green pumpkin chatterbait, but have since opted to fish a swimbait instead. Not really sure why, just have. They'll eat buzzbaits too, but the green bass seem to prefer them over the smallies from what I have seen. Chatterbats and buzzbaits tend to produce a better quality bite for us than a lot of other baits when they do get bit by smallies.

If you ever want to fish one of these, I highly recommend it. They are a blast! I now look forward to January and February since I started fishing these a few years ago.

He was a fresh one and fairly weak so it wasn't hard to land him on 4# line. I just happened to snag him with my jig right where his bill had broken while reeling in to make another cast.

I'm always amazed at how many fish hang out right by the dam near the surface when the water is this cold. I guess that dam is one giant heat sink so it probably holds heat fairly well.

We all know we can't count on @Phil Lilley. He couldn't even post pictures of today yesterday!

I'd say the gates are open. Looks like tail water levels hit 703.36 when generators first went down and then jumped back up to 706.68 within a few hours. Generators still show zero though. Time Elevation Tailwater Release Generation Date CS/CDT (ft-msl) (ft-msl) (cfs) (mwh) __________________________________________________________________________ 05MAR2019 0800 914.90 709.62 11436 174 05MAR2019 0900 914.91 708.39 8137 123 05MAR2019 1000 914.90 705.72 3151 50 05MAR2019 1100 914.93 703.36 20 1 05MAR2019 1200 914.94 705.68 20 0 05MAR2019 1300 914.92 706.54 20 0 05MAR2019 1400 914.93 706.63 20 0 05MAR2019 1500 914.92 706.68 20 0 Hopefully Phil and Duane have some good reports of trout gorging on shad in the next few days.

I think we posted at the same time so I had not seen your post when I made that post. It was meant for Ryan and laker in regards to the fish shocking.

Are we talking like gigging with a generator loud or worse? I've seen a lot of nice game fish just stay put as we cruise over them with a generator running full tilt in our search for suckers.

With all the boat traffic Taneycomo gets, I'm sure they don't think anything of it. I think it would interesting to see what they dredge up between Cooper Creek on down to Roark Creek. Lots of 20' deep water and brush for them to hide in and that isn't very far down lake.

The current world record lake trout weighed 72lbs and it was 59" long.

Yep. That was the one caught on a tube out of the Pot Hole.

Hopefully it will at least run through the weekend. If so, I am hooking the boat up and heading that way!

Said they stocked 7000. Water was pretty dingy though so you couldn't see much.

Maybe Frank has made it back down there by now and you'll get to tangle with him since that's the area that Paul hooked him.

We usually throw right up on the bank with our jigs and jerkbaits when fishing that stretch and get most of our bites up shallow. Don't feel like you have to get out as far as possible to get bit. I'd think swinging a streamer and letting it swing all the way until it's directly down stream of you and then stripping it back close to the bank would produce bites. I'm not sure which dock you'll be able to fish off of, but we catch a lot of fish all the way from Fall Creek down to Short Creek up next to the bank in between the docks.

My hands usually start hurting after catching a few fish when it's that cold. One thing I started doing this year that helps a lot is to wear nitrile or latex surgical gloves. They keep your hands dry, which makes a HUGE difference in how long you can hold out when it's cold. You can even stick a little hand warmer between the back side of your hand and the glove to help keep them warm.

I'd rather be in a boat than stuck on the bank regardless of the temperatures. Fished plenty of times when it didn't break the freezing mark. Dress warm and wear a Save Phace, motorcycle helmet paintball mask or good set of ski goggles to block the wind while running and you're golden. Best day I have ever had on Taneycomo was during a shad kill is January 2016 when the temperatures never broke the freezing mark. When the fishing is that good, you don't even realize how cold it is.

I went down Saturday with a buddy who really brags about it, but the fishing was very slow. He said that was definitely not normal. Others who fish it a lot were saying it was the worst opening weekend that they had ever seen. We left and headed to Maramec and pounded the trout pretty good on jigs, trout magnets and orange worms. Judging by the lunker board, Montauk definitely stocks bigger lunkers than Maramec. I don't think anything over 5# was caught at Maramec and there were several 6-8# and one over 10# already on the board at Montauk.

I buy most of my jigs heads from flatheadjig.com or stock up on the new Lilleys jig head when I get down to Taneycomo. Powder painting is preferable, but I've been using Sally Hansens nail polish on my jig heads for years. I like a collared jig for anything 1/32oz and heavier, but collarless for anything smaller.

If I didn’t have to constantly deal with ice in my guides, I wouldn’t have a problem fishing in the teens and 20s. I fished Friday and the ice in my gyides was driving me crazy.

I mostly fish them straight on 2# line and just bounce the rod tip while reeling. Try to keep the lure just slightly above the fishes level. I have done decent fishing them beneath a float in the faster water below the dump offs though.

Dad and I got down at 6am and found our usual spot to be full so we started across from where the water trickles out of the concrete wall between the river bend and the bathroom hole. I started off with a 1/16oz orange head sculpin/olive and caught 4. Dad caught 6 and kept his fourth in the first 30 minutes. A friend stopped by and I quit fishing to shoot the bull for a little while. Afterwards, I moved down toward the bathroom and setup under the big trees and caught 9. It was about 9am so i headed up river and stopped above the bend riffle and caught two more and kept my fourth fish. Caught most on trout magnets in white and black/green, orange head sculpin/orange jig and one on a white mega worm. I went back today around 10pm for a few hours after a lack laster start at Montauk and caught 20+. Orange power worm and trout magnets were good and also caught a few on green/white rubber leg jig.

Awww man, I am sorry to hear about that. The thought of not being able to fish would be very difficult for me to handle. I truly hope you are able to get back out there and wet a line one day soon.

Ever heard of this thing called a replica? No reason to kill a big fish at all these days if you can help it. Has it been so long since you have fished that replicas weren't even a thing yet? What kind of injury did you sustain that prevents you from getting out and fishing at all? I've seen some pretty crippled up people who still manage to get out and fish.

MoCarp and that whitesnoop guy bumping in to each other on the water.