Another TR placeholder for this weekend 3/2 -- 3/4

[JestersHK]

Post report recap.

Another trip in the books.  More consistent bites though than 2 weeks ago.  This was also a 1st timer trip with one of my new neighbors.  Never fished with him before, and he'd never been trout fishing as he's primarily a Bass fisherman.  He did have some ultralight gear, and a nice little pfluegger combo that turned out to be a nice jigging setup.  He was also a trooper with power fishing, although I am 9 years older than him .  My wife warned him that we fish hard and that I'd try to kill him with fishing non stop, but he hung in there great through the evenings.  He looked a little worse for wear on Sunday, but we actually slept a bit more on this trip LOL.  Was a great time and watching him set the hook was always entertaining!

Friday Night 4 units running, a bit chilly, but we layered up good. Tough wading in that flow and you're almost bank fishing at that point.  I stuck to my familiar spots up between outlet one and the cable, and we explored a bit past outlet one 2.  I explained the jigging and jerk bait basics to my buddy and after a few casts I hooked up.  Took him a minute of getting used to the heavy flow but he got it figured out and caught his first rainbow ever.  We wandered down and I showed him outlet 2 and there were 2 guys standing on the stairs with a flyrod.  One guy was swinging and the other was shining the light on his indicator.  We didn't stick around too long to see if they'd hook up.  Its tough fishing 4, and it was a pretty slow bite so we headed up to get checked in and get ready for Saturday.

Saturday was awesome.  They kicked down to 3 units at midnight, dropped it enough we could get to a few more spots wading, and it was a bit warmer with the sun out.  Got out after a quick breakfast and my buddy was excited to actually be able to see what he was fishing.  Funny moment as this was his first time wading and he actually startled when a trout swam down by his legs.  I hit my biggest fish of the weekend pretty early into the morning and felt a little remorse that he wasn't fairing as well.  He was missing the bites and hookups trying to feel the difference between bottom and bite.  I got him slowed down a bit and using a bit more finesse and thats when that big bow hammered his jig.  That made my weekend for me when we finally got her in.  It was a big confidence boost for him too, and after that he started connecting more, albeit still a bit slow by my standards.  We fished almost the whole day, I took him by Phil's place to get some jigs and chit chat for a bit and thought we might fish off the dock for a bit.  Thanks to Victor for hooking up my buddy with his trophy release certificate.  Made my buddy's day.  Phil and Duane said the dock bite was slow so we headed back down in the afternoon and was super tough there before dark.  Lots of boats up that way, but less people so not sure what was up with the bite.  We did turn in that evening pretty early as the forecast said 2 units for Sunday.

Sunday arrived and we overslept a bit due to my phone dying... We got on the water around 7ish and I started getting bit real good on white.  Most of been some shad come through as I had 4 hookups right off the bat.  Nothing huge, but bigger than some of the dinks we ran into 2 weeks ago.  Sicne the water dropped a bit I took him back down past the last outflow out onto the little grass bump down there and we started whacking them on white and olive and ginger jigs.  All males and they were fiesty in the fast water.  We had to get home though and shut it down a bit early.  Always hurts to leave when they are turned on, but thats fishing and gotta keep the Momma's happy.  

I think I planted a pretty good seed with this one!  Can never have 2 many fishing buddies, and this makes twice now I've brought 1st timers down that catch an over 20 inch fish...  Lucky ducks...

[Seth]

48 minutes ago, JestersHK said:

this makes twice now I've brought 1st timers down that catch an over 20 inch fish...  Lucky ducks...

Sounds like my luck when it comes to catching those bigger trout. Everybody I have taken for the past couple years has caught a bigger fish than me during the trip. I always put it to them on numbers, but one of these days I'll be the blind hog that finds the acorn and hook a good one. 

Me and a couple buddies are heading back down that way after work on the 14th. The plan is to snag the James when its dark, power nap and then trout fish on Taneycomo during the daylight. We'll probably cut the snagging short that second night and get a decent night of rest as we will be feeling it by that point. Snagging wears a guy down a bit more than trout fishing.

Hopefully we can catch a few of those stinking walters! That wouldn't hurt my feelings at all!

[Johnsfolly]

And to think the only 20 incher that I caught when fishing with you last year was a walleye. Now its my PB walleye so I'm not complaining! Sounds like you're now becoming the Taney guy that folks will want to fish with assuming that they survive their first trip .

[JestersHK]

3 minutes ago, Seth said:

Sounds like my luck when it comes to catching those bigger trout. Everybody I have taken for the past couple years has caught a bigger fish than me during the trip. I always put it to them on numbers, but one of these days I'll be the blind hog that finds the acorn and hook a good one. 

We are heading down to snag the night/morning of the 14/15th on the James for a marathon fishing event ourselves. The plan is to snag when its dark, power nap and then trout fish on Taneycomo during the daylight. We'll probably cut the snagging short that second night and then get a decent nights rest as we will be feeling it by that point. Snagging wears a guy down a bit more than trout fishing.

Hopefully we can catch a few of those stinking walters!

Yeah I'm the same usually with finding big ones, I'm to the point where unless the bite is on fire I try to not stay out all night every night of the weekend... Catches up to ya too.  Good luck with the snagging, and the Walters are still in there,  We generally catch at least one on the jerk baits most trips. 

I may need a partner too for the CAM tourney April 7th?  You gonna fish it?  With both our lucks one of us could stick a big one LOL.  

6 minutes ago, Johnsfolly said:

And to think the only 20 incher that I caught when fishing with you last year was a walleye. Now its my PB walleye so I'm not complaining! Sounds like you're now becoming the Taney guy that folks will want to fish with assuming that they survive their first trip .

HAHA, I still owe ya a Taneycomo Brownie Buddy.  No Browns this weekend at all... Not sure where they wandered off to.  Didn't see any around the outlets during the day either, but we typically stay away from the outlets unless we are messing around or slump busting in the kiddie pool.