Quick report *updated 1/23*

[cracklebak]

Fishing has been off and on since we got here Thursday night. Have caught a few nice rainbows, one at 19 inches. Will post a pic soon, getting back in the water! Good luck to all in the tourney tomorrow 

[cracklebak]

A few pics from our trip last weekend, exception being a couple from a couple weeks ago.

The last pic is a bow that measured 19 inches, had a slender profile and large fins all the way around. Next best fish is the last brown pic, 18 inches and THICK at the shoulders.

The first brown pic had a weird injury to his lower jaw. There was actually a hole in his lower lip as well as what I initially though was a hook, but was just thin bones protruding out of a growth sticking out of the hole. We thought maybe someone stringered him up through the lip, then was told not to keep since it was in the trophy area and let him free.

Overall the fishing was TOUGH. The only pattern we could establish was after you caught a fish or two, and each of us change to that fly, there were no more hits/catches until someone tried something different. Black, white, grey steamers/mohairs/bunny worked at different times, possibly due to changing cloud cover. Also a muddler was working well in spurts when you could hear fish breaking the surface. Slower retrieves produced more, however the final night one of us started catching them on fast retrieves, including the biggest brown which was 18 inches. Between the three of us, there was also likely 20+ cranks/jerks thrown with no luck, so we stuck to fly rods most of the time. I don't want to know how many different streamers/leeches/home-made concoctions were tried. We definitely have put in time and variety this year.

One of us caught 20+ fish the final night with the thought being a very specific retrieve making the difference, but we have "thought" we had something figured out on Taney before only to be proven wrong in the following hours/days. This place has really proven tough to night fish wading in the trophy area, but we keep coming back! The three of us put in 30-35 hours this trip, and was our 4th trip down since last October. Still no sign of a fish over 20 inches, but it will happen at some point. Wondering if we need to venture out of the trophy area more. There seems to be less good habitat after the previous flood, especially below the dam where some good runs are flattened somewhat. After seeing results of the tournament last weekend, one begins to wonder if 40 boats or 80 fisherman fishing all day produces one good fish, if the floods spotted over the last 15 years have caused some suffering to the more mature fish population.

[JestersHK]

Looks like you guys tagged a few nice ones, and I think anyone who fishes there will tell you 20 fish at night is a pretty great night. 

Taney for me is always hit or miss LOL.  What was the water like was it all the way off?  Surprised you didn't hit any on the sticks.  Night time is my favorite time to throw them and the fish we do land are usually solid ones.

Nice job and thanks for sharing!

[cracklebak]

@JestersHK

Let me clarify- one of the three of us caught 20+..... on one of the three nights we fished. I got skunked the final night and gave up early. I blame my aching elbow  and likely crappy presentation!

The first night, Thursday, water was on earlier in the day and we got on the water around midnight. Water flipped on an hour earlier than projected at I think 7am Friday morning... we caught a few when that happened, but not as fast and furious as in the past. I caught some on a Griffith's gnat with a black midge dropped under it. From that time on there was no water running, the stream was really low by the time we took off around 1am Saturday night.

I really don't have much confidence in throwing sticks as I am new to that method. The trip before this one, my brother threw a rainbow color Rapala and hammered fish from about 5am to 7am (he threw it as a last ditch effort as we weren't doing well on the fly rods) then threw that and other cranks the rest of the day to no avail. We were near what we call the pancake house, I think it's trophy run? Just upstream from the long straight rock bank, where those stinking vultures roost... man those things smell the place up!