Masters Trout Tournament 2011

[Phil Lilley]

It was an interesting few days of fishing here on Taney. Friday was a great fishing day- breezy and partly cloudy. Saturday was bright sun and not a breath of wind. Sunday was breezy and cloudy. The trout bit good on Friday and Sunday and not so much on tournament day. But it was a GREAT day to play golf, I bet!! My temp gage hit 70 here.

The rules are no bait - artificial only. Most used jigs-- jig and float and throwing a straight jig. The guys who did the best fished with 2-pound line, not because of water color (to hide the line so much) but because the trout were biting so light. They just didn't want to do much on Saturday, except later in the day, after weigh-in, I heard fishing really picked up and got good when the sun dropped in the sky.

The winning rainbows were caught anywhere from Turkey Creek to Fall Creek but most of them came in the Short Creek area, I was told. Most on earth colors- brown, black, sculpin, ginger, olive.

It seems this tournament, the Masters, has been a tournament of repeaters. The Wheelers, Bryan and Josh, father and son from Wichita, Kansas, repeated their performance from 2010 and took first place. They just didn't squeak in but took first with authority, weighing in over 13-pounds for their 8-trout limit. The next closest competitor weighed in at 9.09 and 7.64 pounds and all who followed were close behind.

I did hear several "fish stories" of the ones who got away but that's pretty typical for tournaments... big ones most times slip out of the net or pop the line on the side of the boat. Something always happens.

"Should have been here . . . tomorrow!" That's a different saying. But ask Pete LaBoube about it. I was told he caught a nice rainbow practicing Friday for the tournament and I saw what he caught on Sunday, a day after the contest.

Man, what a day makes! He caught it Sunday morning while trolling a Pointer along the bank down close to Monkey Island. It weighed in at 18.5-pounds, 33.5 inches long with a 22 inch girth. He released the trophy after a couple of pics were taken.

Now to slip in a fishing report from today (Monday, Jan 31).

John Johnson was up for a couple of days of fishing from Kingfisher, OK. with his friends Steve and Darcy. They fished hard yesterday and told me they caught over a hundred rainbows, mainly on red or black zebra midges under an indicator 18 inches deep, all in the trophy area. They catch and release all their fish. Said they had several in the 17-18 inch range.

This morning, after a game of pickup basketball at the college, I boated up to the trophy area and met up with the guys about 8 am. We went on up to the Big Hole. They had been running 2 units but dropped it to one as we pulled up there and after an hour, they shut it off. It was breezy- blowing upstream. Both boats struggled to feel the bite but we landed quite a few rainbows on white or sculpin jigs, both under a float and worked straight-line. After a while and with the water dropping on us, we decided to get out while we could so we boated down to the KOA and fished that area. They bit a white jig pretty good, like they'd seen a few shad. Nice ones too.

Went on down to the deep water below Lookout and continued fishing. I switched from micros to zebras to scuds and had trouble for a while getting them to take anything. The wind was till blowing but it was slowing down. There was still some current which was nice and after drifting down about half way between Lookout and the Narrows, we starting nailing rainbows again, mainly on a 1/125th oz sculpin jig. When the wind all but died, I switched again to a 1/32 oz sculpin/ginger jig and they liked it! Any time there came a breeze and small crop on the surface, I put the jig down and picked up the jig-and-float rod and caught rainbows on it.

At the Narrows, I picked up several real nice rainbows (pics) on the straight jig. It was noon and time to quite. The boys needed to get back to OK before the weather hit.

[Gatorjet]

Congratulations Josh. You and your dad did great . See you at R.A.W this weekend. If I can get out of this blizzard to get down there!

Glad to see it was a successful tournament, even if the fishing was a little tough.

Sure wish some of that temperature would have stayed around this week.

[bigdub]

Thanks Bob, it was a good time!! Fishing was a little slow in the morning, but the majority of the bites were "quality!!!!" The snow has finally stopped here and I think me and the "old" man will be there with bells on. It doesn't sound like I will be fishing in shorts like I was on Saturday though unfortunately. I hopefully the fish are still around and you all have an awesome turnout. As always we are looking forward to a good time.

[Gatorjet]

Nick and I will be at Lilley's in late morning tomorrow, Leaving here around 6:00 AM. Can't wait to get there. Cold or not!!!