June 2Nd Thru 6Th Report

[Travis Swift]

After a quick trip down to Branson on Memorial weekend and catching 30 off a dock at the Landing I had high hopes for this past week since i was bringing my boat. We arrived on Monday and honestly the week was basically a struggle. Most mornings fishing from 6 to 9 we only caught in the 20 fish range which isn't what i expect from Taney. We usually average closer to the 60 range in a 3 hour morning trip. We stayed from Short creek to Cooper creek the majority of the time. We caught our fish on trout magnets and crappie magnets. Some with a float but the majority fished straight.

When they did flow some water in the evenings we caught several nice browns on the bluffs between sun valley and cooper creek. The browns have really made a nice come back and we got lots of nice follows from some really good sized browns which is what i remember from the 90's. I'm really happy to see that, even when they won't bite it's still a blast to watch big ones swim right up to the jerkbaits. Then midweek the rains came and turned the lake to complete mud. To my suprise I think it actually made some bigger fish bite as we caught some nice ones off the dock at night. Friday i had enough of the small numbers and decided to try something different. We ran by Phils place and bought some jigs and headed for the Trophy area. I hadn't been up there in nearly 15 years so i shut down just before fall creek dock and idled in. I went right the first time and we fished the deep water bank next to the condo's and drifted back to fall creek. The second time i idled on the left side all the way up to the island past Andy's house. We started on the slack water at the island and caught a few nice fish then started drifting the bluff back. Action wasn't as steady I would of liked so i hit the trolling motor and went to the shallow flat and fished the drop from shallow to deep and that did the trick. We caught fish almost every other cast for the last 2 hours of daylight. When we got back to the narrows I felt comfortable enough to run my boat on plane so we ran back up to Andy's house and by this time the water was off and we just hammered fish non stop from there all the way back to the narrows. It was amazing and those fish seem to be a different breed from the rest of the lake. They fight harder in my opinon, they are full of awesome color, they have big full bellies and are as thick as they can me. I caught my 2 biggest rainbows ever and my friend caught his biggest as well. We caught them all on 1/16th ounce jigs from Phil's place on 2 pound test line. I almost couldn't sleep that night waiting to get back up to the Trophy Area. My buddy ran down to Cooper to try jigs for a half hour that morning while i was waiting for momma to wake up and he caught just a beautiful pig of a rainbow down there. Right as I was getting ready to leave to head to the Trophy Area the phone call came that my basement had flooded back home in kansas due to a failed sump pump so we had to leave in a rush. So the week didn't start t well fishing wise but we sure ended it on a high note! I will be back in Sep and again at Thanksgiving and i'm already counting the days!

[Mbrown2858]

Thanks for the report Travis! I can't wait until I get to go down in August. You have some nice bows their!

[Travis Swift]

Thank you. I can't wait to get back down there either. I use about 80% of my vacation each year trying to get the family there as much as possible. I would give anything to move their but not sure about jobs in the area...... It's a dream of mine to one day live their for sure. Taney gets in your blood and inbeds in your soul. No place like it in the world in my book.

[Seth]

We did really well on the same area on white and sculpin/orange 3/32oz jigs. We also got a few drifting scuds, pink jigs, San Juan's, and jerking a 4" gold rogue. The jigs seemed to be the best option for us though. Sculpin/orange was best when it was cloudy and the white took over when the sun was out.

I am hoping to get back down there for some more fishing later this summer or early fall.

[Travis Swift]

Sculpin/ginger and sculpin/orange and white were our best. I threw 1/16 my buddy threw 3/32. Below fall creek was trout magnet in white, candy corn, sassy and cotton candy

[Seth]

I caught some down by Monkey Island on a white jig but couldn't get nothing going on a pink trout magnet. They were the ticket last year when I was down. We also only caught three browns. I kind of wish I had thrown that jerkbait around rock and wood between short creek and cooper creek in hopes of catching a decent brown. Like you said, watching them nice browns charge a jerkbait is awesome even if they don't hit.