Seth

and fish parts. Phi'ls pet brown they call Frank rarely ventures too far away from the cleaning station from what I've seen. That thing would crush the current state record. He pays zero attention to night crawlers and anything else that you can legally throw in front of him. My father in law caught an 18" rainbow that was just shy of 3# off of Phil's dock last year and he just had to clean it and eat it. That trout had multiple sculpins and a fresh trout tail in it's gut when I cleaned him and he was caught on a night crawler. Trout are as bad as an old channel cat for being scavengers.

I agree with you on that when it comes to bass. After watching Oliver Ngy throw that 10" Megabass swimbait for two days straight on LoZ and only catching two bass and still winning 100G's, the proof is in the puddin! When it comes to trout, I think the best tactics is to just sore lip all the little stupid ones and then hope the bigger ones eventually get dibs. Stocker trout will eat anything, even when it's almost as big as they are. Besides, it keeps you occupied in between quality bites.

I did catch an 18” and a 21” rainbow on back to back casts with a hair jig I tied up for bass last year. I’ve caught a pile of stockers rainbows on 4-5” jerkbaits and still don’t have a 20” plus brown to show for it. Trout are one of those goofy fish that have no problem trying to eat lures nearly as big as themselves. My best brown is 19.5” and came on a size 20 ginger gbug by the Rebar hole, which is a far cry from that big jerkbait. I think it is more about just getting lucky and putting the lure in front of the right fish. There are probably more big trout caught on little scud flies than anything else each year on Taneycomo. I think you can definitely increase your odds of hooking up with a big brown with big baits around wood cover, but I don’t think rainbows are as easy to focus on aside from sight fishing. They aren’t as cover oriented as the browns.

I might learn my lesson one of these days, but I’m gonna have to stop catching my biggest fish year after year on my spinning rod and 8# line first. 😁 The difference in 4# and 8# is pretty drastic though.

What a heart breaker Al!

Most if not all of the tourney guys will be fishing below Fall Creek anyways so you would be fine.

Just avoid Fall Creek down to Short Creek and the water treatment boat ramp and you should be OK. Those areas get absolutely pounded! There's way too much area with plenty of fish to be fighting all that mess!

Tell him to hang around there for ten more days. I could use him for the Boswell.

I think several of us here need to make a road trip to Taneycomo and pair up for a 2# vs 4# contest and see who catches the most fish! We all fish with the same color/weight lure for a certain length of time and then tally up the total fish count at the end. The losers buy the winners a Cakes and Creams supreme.

I wish it worked on the big trout as well as it does on the big bass. It’s definitely a numbers bait for trout.

Upper Taneycomo is flies and hard baits, no soft plastic or scented lures. I couldn’t imagine how many trout I would catch up there if I could drift a pink power worm through there!

Line size is dependent on lure choice. If I am throwing a 1/16-1/32oz jig then I will use 2# test. Sometimes I will fish a 1/8oz jig on the 2# test as well, but prefer 4#. For small jerkbaits, I use 4-6# and 8# for a bass sized jerkbait. My pb rainbow (27" 10#) was landed from a dock on 2# test.

I actually just remembered that we did fish together last year when we went on Tommy's wild goose chase. Longest drive I've ever been on just to go fish the Gasconade! 😂

Win one of Lilley's winter trout tournaments End @duckydoty's unbeaten streak at the CAM tournament (nobody said these had to realistic goals, right?) Try and get the fiance to fish one of the warmer weather trout tourneys that Lilley hosts on Taneycomo Fish with @Hog Wally! Float my local streams more instead of always dragging the jet boat to bigger water Catch a 20"+ brown trout Catch a money fish in the Fall Big Bass Bash

There's nothing flashy about it and it's hoosier as all heck, but catching those dinosaurs makes for a heck of a good time! Everybody should at least do it once.

Those how most of those lower Osage fish are though. I think the competition for plankton with the Asian carp has something to do with it. Then again, I remember them being like that before the Asian carp were an issue though too so I'm not really sure why they are so skinny. The reservoir paddlefish are usually much healthier looking. Those skinny Osage fish are the best eaters though! A guy will hang in to a big spoony down there every now and then though. @Hog Wally found one a few years ago that broke 60# if I recall correctly. Biggest one I've seen from there. We've caught some 40's, but never broke 50.

I ate the tenderloins and tried out a burger after getting the elk processed up and ready for the freezer. For the tenderloin, I cut it in half and seasoned one with salt/pepper and the other with greek and seared in a cast iron skillet with a little olive oil and then baked for 12 minutes at 350. It came out rare to medium rare and melted in your mouth. Yesterday I had an elk burger for lunch. It had zero of that "wild" flavor and tasted like extremely lean beef to me. I've ate a lot of whitetail and do enjoy it, but this elk beats the pants off of it when it comes to table fare!

I know it's probably not your bag, but you should go with me or @Hog Wally one of these days to the James or LoZ and tangle with a big one! The one you caught is just a little guy.

If you want to catch some paddlefish, just head up to the Bagnell and throw or troll a crankbait around. It's basically impossible to do anymore up there without hooking one of the darn things.

Awesome bucketmouth @Hog Wally! I'm so ready to get back on the water. I put the new Ultrex on the boat and then went off to Colorado chasing elk. I've been cleaning up my boat and tackle today while boiling some deer skulls for euro mounts so hopefully I'll be ready to roll starting next weekend. Ol Tommy has been pestering me wanting to head up to Thomas Hill for some crappie. I think that might be game plan number one.

I literally do this all year long on the rivers (when it's clear enough) with a light wire 4/0 worm hook and a pink trick worm. It's my favorite way to catch fish when the water clears up.

As for the other elk, Dad and my brother in laws dad killed both of their elk with dads 7mag using 150gr Federal fusions. Dad hit his once at 325 yards and BIL’s dad hit his twice around 150-200 yards and all shots were pass throughs. My BIl used 150gr Remington Cor-Lokt’s out of his .270 and had similiar performance to my Swifts on 200-225 yard shots. Bullet stuck under hide on side opposite of entrance.

I was hunting with a Browning AB3 in .270 win paired up with a Nikon Prostaff 3x9x40 scope. Nothing fancy. I think I got the gun new for around $400 and the scope for $150. The ammo used was a reload that a buddy made for me using Winchester brass, CCI large primers, 58.0gr of Reloader 22 powder and a 130gr Swift Scirrocco II bullet. My original plan was to use the tried and true 150gr Nosler Partition, but my buddy talked me in to trying the Swift reloads and I prefer the 130gr rounds for the .270 so I bit. They performed flawlessly! One of my shots was recovered from the hide on the opposite side shoulder and it retained 69% of the bullet weight. The factory advertises 60-70% retention. The Swifts are one of the most expensive bullets you can buy, but it still ended up being about half as cheap as if I had bought a couple boxes of premium factory ammo. I've very happy with how they have performed and will continue them in my .270. I may play around with the powder type used next time I reload after hearing others talk about the Reloader 22 (IMR 4350 seems to be the go to for the .270) having some issues in colder weather, but the stuff worked great for me this year in temps ranging 20-40 degrees.

I have to turn them on everytime I see it on the channel guide.

1. Smokey and the Bandit 2. Jaws 3. Forrest Gump 4. Rocky IV 5. Grumpy Old Men