hookinear

Couldnt remember what it was called. Definitely not rubber

F&F. Me and my old man were there the 9th-11th. Threw a trout magnet rainbow trout colored sinking rapala and threw them at the cable down to the boat ramp and landed 17 browns that were 15"-19.5" and I know I lost another 10+ at the boat. Fast retrieve close to the surface at the cable and let it sink the farther you get downstream. Over the flats next to outlet 3 and behind the island was good too. Never caught that many big browns that quick in my life. Amazing trip

I will be heading down either the 19th or 20th of November. I mainly fly fish any open water below the dam, anything from stripping sculpins down to casting any choice of size 20 midges to sipping trout. This year i still fully plan on doing the forementioned both wading and boating. However, i want to try something a little different. My father and I want to give casting rapalas and other mixes of crankbaits and swimbaits for (hopeful) larger trout. Ive never really given it too much of a chance and i know that the odds of hooking/landing a large caliber trout with all the crowds that week will be slim, but i still think itd be worth a try. Plus i can wear gloves and keep my hands warmer with the spinning rods. unless im night fly fishing with a lighted indicator i dont wear gloves while stripping big streamers. for some reason i dont have a good feel with gloves on while fly fishing. especially if i cant see my line as i would during the day. I will be mainly trying the spin fishing at night. Almost all of my larger trout that i have tangoed with have come between dusk to just after dawn. My main question is what type of rod and line should i bring with me. Any advice would be more than helpful and greatly apprieciated. Thanks, Hookinear

Wouldnt this depend on what midge dropper you are refering to? If you were going to use a scud i would say put the san juan on top and drop the scud to the bottom. However, a migde (say a zebra midge or something to that effect) would be put above the san juan. Just a thought. And i agree with troutringer on using two san juans. It can be a killer combo if you cant find what color they are keying in on. Just make sure to get them both to the bottom

Dont forget to use some big streamer patterns, even during the daytime. With the fishing pressure being as low as it has been, the fish seemed to be more incline to hit those big flies when they usually may not. Olive woollies and olive pine squirrels have been making a big hit for me when the water is off/lower. Hookinear

Went down to Lilleys Landing for a little winter getaway. Got there around noon on Monday checked in and down to the water I went. First thing I noticed was the lack of people. Second thing I noticed, the reason for the lack of people: HIGH WATER! It could just be that it was a monday and not too many people were out and about. Fished above and below outlet 1 for the most part. Tried throwing a grey scud under an indicator but the water was moving pretty fast and when I finally got the indicator to slow down they didnt seem too interested. So I switched to an olive woolly and threw it out into 1 and let it swing over the ledge in front of 1. Did fairly well. Had lots of quick takes, probably landed 15 or so smaller fish in about an 2hrs. Decided to call it a night and get everything ready for the next day, when the water was supposed to be off for a couple hours. Water report tuesday morning said the water was going to be shutting down around 1230, and then be completely off until 6, so I was hoping to get some good wade fishing in. Got to the parking lot at 1, right as the water was dropping. Started off at outlet 1 throwing the woolly again and the fish wanted nothing to do with it. Decided to change color and tied on a red pine squirrel. Only had 6 fish to hand in an hr, but every fish was pushing 18 inches with the biggest being right at 19 inches and really thick. Had a lot of follows with the red one but not the action I was looking for. Decided maybe the olive color would work out better so I put on an olive pine squirrel. That seemed to do the trick because the fishing was red hot the rest of the day ( even though the weather was the exact opposite) Fished the flats between outlets 1 and 2 mostly and didnt have to move the until the water came on. They were hitting on short strips, long strips with pauses, even dead drifting and letting it swing in the current. Between 2-6 that afternoon I would say I brought around 50-60 fish to hand. Most of them were in the 14-16 inch range with only 2 or 3 pushing 18 inches. Next morning met up with some friends and decided to brave the cold and take out the boat and try and combat the high water up by the dam. Got up to the dam and started off by drifting a peach egg with a grey scud trailing it with our fly rods. Fishing was really good and active by the dam, but the size of the fish werent there so decided to drift down a little farther and see if we could pick up some bigger fish before the water started dropping. Floated down behind the old koa and drifted micro jigs under small floats. Nothing too big until we drifted down past Andys house. Got into 3 fish on 3 casts. All rainbows hitting 19 21 and 22 inches. Only the 22 inch one was thik though, the other two were really skinny and almost looked like snakes when they were at the surface. Yet again another good fishing trip at Taneycomo and I cannot wait to go back soon. Maybe even hit up one of the tournaments in Jan or Feb. My advice would be to head out to Taney whenever you get the chance. It may be cold out but the lack of fishing pressure sure makes for a very active fishing trip. Hookinear

Ive fished the chamois worm down there several times with decent luck. Mostly when the water was up and drifting it around the banks under an indicator. And most of the fish caught on that worm were decent size. With the water off are you using an indicator? Or just sight fishing it?

Just adding on to this to confirm Taneys great status. Havent been down in quite a while so we rented at Point Royale and mostly fished the water just below the dam between outlet 1 just below 2. Dad caught this one on an ice shrimp above outlet 2. Took dad night fishing for the first time in his life. We worked our way from the cable to just above outlet 2. Hooked this fishing on the island across from 2 with an olive wooly. She measured at just under 17 but was think and strong. The picture does it no justice. Dad was throwing a small olive mohair leech and landed a nice rainbow. Our net is 20 inches long and it was an inch or two bigger than the net. I would say it easily was 4+ pounds and made my fish look like a minnow.That was his second cast of the night. I then decided we might need to go get the camera and tape measure. Needless to say i think he is hooked on night fishing now. I hooked into this 19 inch beast in the flat water just below outlet 2. Im not sure what the fly is called. Its grey fur and has a heavy double lead eye front on it. Looks like a small minnow or sculpin scurrying along the bottom. I picked it up from Anglers and Archery after talking with Adam (i think thats his name at least) The fish wouldnt leave this fly alone. And im not talking about little fish. I caught 20 fish in 2 hours with this fly and every one with the exception of maybe 2 were at least 15 inches long and fat. Great weekend at Taneycomo again I cannot wait until I head down there again.

Got up around 2:30am and made the 3+ hr trip from southern illinois for the montauk mens trout tournament. Ive never fished in a trout tournament, but if it got too complicated i figured id just fish like i normally would. Went to the dam to fish the fly waters all day. Started the whistle off fishing with my ultra light and a small black/yellow jig. Nothing. Switched to white, then ginger, then pink with the same result on all of them. Didnt even have a follow for the first hour. Not the way i wanted to start off the morning. So i got out the fly rod and headed upstream a couple yards and tried out a tandem rig with a BH prince nymph 6 inches under and indicator, and i had a chamois worm tyed a foot below the BH. Didnt have a single hookup with the BH, but they seemed to like the chamois worm on the bottom. Picked up 5 or 6 12 inchers, nothing to brag about but it was better than getting skunked. Got out and walked upstream. Fished between the blue hole and hudson corner with a few small trout here and there. The take was very soft and i was getting a little tired of missing fish. So i decied to try something a little different. I took off the indicator and out on a small pheasant soft hackle and they couldnt resist it. I would take it and throw it perpendicular to the current and get it as close to the bank as i could. Letting it dead drift in the current i got quite a few strikes, but it was hard to feel them. So i would let it hit the water, drift for about 5-10 secs and then start to slowly strip it back upstream. It was fish after fish for 5 straight hours, and on the same hackle. I was a lot of fun stripping the hackle for a change, instead of dead drifting all day. The strikes were hard and the fish seemed to have more fight in them when caught with the hackle. Didnt do too bad in the tourney. If i heard right i finished in 2nd place by 6 or 7 ounces. There was only 1 big fish caught all day at 6 lbs. My biggest was 2.5 lbs. The rest of the entrants said that most fish were dinks. Cant wait to go back down for an entire weekend in June. Until next time, good luck and tight lines. Hookinear

I dont think it was orange. I think it was a burnt orange with some dots on the jig head itself. If i remember right i got them when taney was flooded. It may have been ginger though. All i know is that it worked for dad and myself.

Just got back from another amazing Taneycomo trip. It just seems like it gets better everytime i go down there. Me and the family got down there around noon on friday and i couldnt throw the luggage out of the cars quick enough so i could head down to the dam. They were running 1 unit when i got down there so i figured id just head up above outlet 1 and work my way down. Had only 5 takes and one fish to hand with a BH olive woolly. Decided to switch up and go with a rusty midge w a pink/yellow egg dropper and they started biting like crazy. Caught 16 decent rainbows in the 14-17 inch range between outlet 1 to just below outlet 2. All but one were on the egg. Then the rains really set in so i wrapped it up for the day. Saturday my father and i went out in the boat and ran up above fall creek and tried working the banks and swallows with some jigs. We had plenty of follows, but only managed one fish to the boat in about an hr and a half. We tried white, brown, olive, and tinsel jigs, even some cleos and mepps and they wouldnt take. Finally i reached in my vest and got stuck with a hook. Pulled out what i believe was a pumpkin marabou colored jig that a got from lilleys landing a while back. Decided what the heck and so we tied them on. Non stop action! We brought in 35+ fish to the boat in about 3 hrs. Only reason we had to quit was the trout tore all the marabou off the jigs. Well that and the cold rain chilled our cores. All in all, another great taneycomo trip. Everytime i head down there, especially with my father by my side, it is always a great experience. Cant wait to go back in April! Hookinear

sounds good. i just dont want him to go down there and try and put the boat in and ruin the prop/boat. But i also would rather not put in all the way down at coopers creek or farther down and have to boat all the way up to the dam. Its not that far of a ride but when the temperatures start dropping it can be a little nippy heading into the wind upstream all day. Hookinear

I will be down tuesday night and will be staying until sunday. My dad is already down there with our 18' bass tracker and was wondering if with all the generation it would be high enough for him to put in at the ramp by the dam or if it would be too low Hookinear

Yeah, i think that im going to be down at taneycomo from the Nov 20th to the 29th. Hope to get some good wade fishing done down there but if its too high im bringing the boat just in case. I hope to be down again to maramec again soon. Its the closest trout fishing park near my place in southern illinois. About 2 hrs. Its a long drive but its well worth it. Hookinear

I was there saturday afternoon as well. Thought itd be a good idea to take the gf down and try our luck. She didnt fair so well. She cant use a fly rod very well yet so i hooked her up with my ultra light w 2lb test and 7x tippet. The fish were barely hitting her copper john and she was having trouble setting the hook in time. Needless to say, she got skunked. I was well on my way to getting skunked until i found the giant pod of trout that were barely under the surface. Problem was they were hardly rising and i couldnt get them to take any of my normal dries. I finally switched over to my trusty olive and yellow cracklebacks and the bite was on. Just threw it parallel to the current and let it swing to them and used short, fast strips to turn them on. Caught 8-10 from 245-4 and that was about that jist of the day. Saw Bman and his son Ohmz stalking the opposite side but i didnt get a chance to introduce myself. Talked with JJ trout bum and shared "the lane" in front of the pod. It was nice chattin with you. Hope to see you all around again sometime soon. Hookinear On a side note, i dont think she will ever understand the meaning of "one more cast"

I actually should change it to hookinlip. Last time i was at Taneycomo i was trying on a chamois worm and had the edge of the hook in my mouth as i was pinching on a split shot. This 10-12 year old boy was casting wildly in front of me and when i finally decided to move back his backcast hooked my floating line and put the hook straight into my bottom lip. Snapped my 6x tippet right off and left me with a lip ring. Neither the boy or his father said a word to me and walked away and fished downstream. Interesting day though. Hooked into a 6+ lb brown sight fishing with the same chamois worm.

I am still a little new to the idea(s) of dry fly fishing, but i am very interested in learning how to. It I have tried dries on taney before during the summer months. . . parachute adams, griffiths gnat, and something they called "the big ugly/nasty" and did fairly well. To me it is amazing to see a trout come out from the depths and explode on a little size 20 dry. Even when they just come up and suck it down, barely making a ripple, it is an amazing feeling. Just typing about it gives me chills of excitement. I have never fished in the winter time of C & R at any state parks. I have only fished around Thanksgiving and Christmas at taney. And even then i only used sub-surface flies. Is there any good pattern, or ANY pattern for that matter that i can use dry fishing at any of the state parks. Just wondering if anyone has any good experiences with this during C&R when hatches are at a minimum. Any advice is welcome and Thank You all in advance. Hookinear

I am still a little new to the idea(s) of dry fly fishing, but i am very interested in learning how to. It I have tried dries on taney before during the summer months. . . parachute adams, griffiths gnat, and something they called "the big ugly/nasty" and did fairly well. To me it is amazing to see a trout come out from the depths and explode on a little size 20 dry. Even when they just come up and suck it down, barely making a ripple, it is an amazing feeling. Just typing about it gives me chills of excitement. I have never fished in the winter time of C & R at any state parks. I have only fished around Thanksgiving and Christmas at taney. And even then i only used sub-surface flies. Is there any good pattern, or ANY pattern for that matter that i can use dry fishing at any of the state parks. Just wondering if anyone has any good experiences with this during C&R when hatches are at a minimum. Any advice is welcome and Thank You all in advance. Hookinear

I am still a little new to the idea(s) of dry fly fishing, but i am very interested in learning how to. It I have tried dries on taney before during the summer months. . . parachute adams, griffiths gnat, and something they called "the big ugly/nasty" and did fairly well. To me it is amazing to see a trout come out from the depths and explode on a little size 20 dry. Even when they just come up and suck it down, barely making a ripple, it is an amazing feeling. Just typing about it gives me chills of excitement. I have never fished in the winter time of C & R at any state parks. I have only fished around Thanksgiving and Christmas at taney. And even then i only used sub-surface flies. Is there any good pattern, or ANY pattern for that matter that i can use dry fishing at any of the state parks. Just wondering if anyone has any good experiences with this during C&R when hatches are at a minimum. Any advice is welcome and Thank You all in advance. Hookinear

I am still a little new to the idea(s) of dry fly fishing, but i am very interested in learning how to. It I have tried dries on taney before during the summer months. . . parachute adams, griffiths gnat, and something they called "the big ugly/nasty" and did fairly well. To me it is amazing to see a trout come out from the depths and explode on a little size 20 dry. Even when they just come up and suck it down, barely making a ripple, it is an amazing feeling. Just typing about it gives me chills of excitement. I have never fished in the winter time of C & R at any state parks. I have only fished around Thanksgiving and Christmas at taney. And even then i only used sub-surface flies. Is there any good pattern, or ANY pattern for that matter that i can use dry fishing at any of the state parks. Just wondering if anyone has any good experiences with this during C&R when hatches are at a minimum. Any advice is welcome and Thank You all in advance. Hookinear

I am from Red Bud. Sure you know where that is seeing as you are from Waterloo

Just got back from montauk, and boy was it cold. The fishing was hit and miss Monday and parts of tuesday, but all in all it was a pretty good time. Opening day we started in the White Oak hole because my buddy had caught a lunker there last year and was hoping to have the same luck this year. Well, there were plenty of lunkers in the hole, but none found our lines. Started with Multi-colored and Gold tinsel jigs and they would just kill once it got into the lower half of the water column. Decided to head up to the springs and try our luck out there. Had a beadhead brown prince nymph on top and a chamois worm on the bottom. I wish i would have brought more of the chamois worms bc they tore the two that i brought with me to pieces. Now these are chamois worms that i had brought back from Anglers and Archery. The lodge and Reeds cabins had worms that were somewhat close to the same but were all white instead of yellow like AAs. And it sure did make a difference. The trout wanted nothing to do with the white ones. So i just tied on two prince nymphs and do ok, but nothing like the worms. Monday was really slow and the fishing seemed to go in spurts. They wouldnt hit anything for an hr then all of a sudden BAM! Anything and eveything you threw in would get slurpped. It went like that for most of the day and for tuesday. The BH prince nymph seemed to be the go to fly. Did have a little luck throw a parachute adams and stripping an olive soft hackle in the seams behind the rocks. All in all it was a good weekend, and i cant wait to get back there when the weather finally warms up a bit. Never a bad day at Montauk. Hookinear

Ok, i was wondering where it went. Kinda new on here and didnt even see this was here. thanks phil.

I am heading down to Montauk State Park this coming weekend for opeing day trout season. I have camped down there during the summer and mostly i just sight fish with jigs in the bait areas and help my family catch fish. However, this time it will just be me and my friend heading down there, and i was hoping to strictly fly fish the whole time. (which is something i dont do there much) I have fished at taney many times before and can usually do pretty well. Scuds, sowbugs, dries, and love to throw leeches and woolies at night. My main question is. . . Does anyone know if the same flies and everything work like down in taney? Or is it something totally different? Im up for any and EVERY piece of advice that anyone would like to throw my way. Thanks everyone! Hookinear

When u click the link above that Phil posted, go to that page and click on 2009 Masters Trout Tournament and/or the 2009 Team Trout Tournament and it will pop up and tell you. And Phil, how many entries have that last tourneys been getting? Just a thought Hookinear