2016 Elfrink Trout Tournament

[Phil Lilley]

Forty four teams competed in yesterday's contest and most said it was a tough day of fishing.  It matched Friday's fishing day.  But one thing happened that's never happened in my memory of any day on this lake, tournament or not -- we had 5 legal browns weighed in.

While most anglers saw small rainbows after small rainbow, a few good rainbows were caught including a 2.20 pound rainbow caught by Cooper Cox.  But the dink federal rainbows ruled the day, grabbing the lure before the big one got to it (that's the way I like to look at it).  Conditions were ideal with the exception of a high sun.  But surprisingly, the browns were active, especially the big ones!  

There were many stories of the "big one that got away", and those trout were all brown trout.  But 5 were landed, 2 hitting or surpassing the 24-inch mark while the others were just over 20-inches.

You could have heard a pin drop as I weighed the second large brown in.  The first, caught by Gerry Dwiggins of St Charles, Mo., had already tipped the scales at 5.74-pounds.  They were both male trout and both very similar in girth.  The scale rested at a solid 6-pounds flat.  Jim Rayfield had taken the first brown trout pot in 6 years of this contest.  It paid $1,200.

Jim's brown came on an 1/8th-ounce sculpin jig in the Short Creek area--plus it was his first fish of the day!  He had a nice brown on the cast before and the hook pulled out on it.  Next cast was the trophy.

Gerry's brown also came on a marabou jig but his was brown, 1/8th-ounce and he caught it down below the Branson Landing.  It was caught after lunch, yes in the middle of a sunny day.

Many anglers think the lack of trout caught on lures is caused by the off color water Lake Taneycomo has had since the flood back in January.  It won't be clearing any time soon seeing Table Rock's water is in the same shape.  But it could also be explained by an old saying... "It's fishing, not catching."  Those bigger trout don't eat every day.

Leaderboard

Cooper and Chris Cox, 4th place and biggest rainbow

Merrick Meyers and Brad Beach, 3rd place

Paul Crews and Jim Rayfield, 2nd place and biggest brown

Jim Rayfield with his 6 pound brown

Bruce Wucher and Gerry Dwiggins, 1st place.

[sms_alum]

Sounds like a great tournament, it's awesome to see that many legal browns caught.