Better Day - Found some trout

[Phil Lilley]

Trying to find some catchable fish today.  Duane found them behind the big island above Lookout in the river right and in the big eddie in front of Andy Williams' house.  Caught them on dark jigs - he can report.

Babler's client caught them stripping a brown bugger against the slack bank before Lookout - he can report too.

I'm going out and anchoring (safely) in slow current along choice banks, usually where there's an eddie, and tight lining a minnow behind the boat.  Using minimal weight - split shot - #10 hook and hooking the minnow up through the lower and up through the upper lip.  Got to let the fish have it to hook it.  

I anchored in front of the lower C of O waterfall first and then anchored below the small point just below that.  There's good eddie water there.  If it stops raining, I'm going back to that eddie and try a couple of things.  I'm going to try some more spots too.

[Bill Babler]

I really don’t remember our fish even in this type of water event using the eddies  as much as they are right now. The fish we caught today stripping a dark Woolley and dead drifting a dark micro were very bright but really skinny

Yesterday the few fish we caught at the dam were extremely fat and full of scuds and sowbugs.  Their mouths were crammed with them and they regurgitate lots of them while being released   

Yesterday they did not want a dead drift for me, wanted it on the bottom on a drift rig. 5/8 oz lead just to get it down 

Challenging fishing to say the least 

[duckydoty]

We started throwing jerk baits in the eddies up by the cable and only boated 3 bass and two rainbows in the first hour.  Drug crankbaits on the bottom from the cable to the river right Island above Lookout with out a bite. Got in behind the Island over the grass flats and found some that wanted to play. Fished there and the Eddie in front of Point Royal with our new 1/16 ounce sculpin and peach jigs and boated over 40 in 2 1/2 hours. Drug cranks again down through the narrows and picked up a 19 1/2 inch rainbow. 

[JestersHK]

Thanks for the reports guys.  Guess we'll bring a little bit of everything down with us this weekend.  Looks like the waders are not going to see much use this weekend...

[Cantfishmywakeblake]

Possible shad bite on the rise. Dragging white crankbaits on the bottom of the upper lake seemed to trigger a bite on the bigger fish. Tried jig fishing from the cable down to lookout, caught a few decent ones on 1/8 ounce white and grey jigs but over all jig fishing proved to be ineffective for us. Managed to catch a few on white shad flys but nothing of addequit size.

[Johnsfolly]

Look like I'm missing some trout action .

[Johnsfolly]

15 hours ago, duckydoty said:

We started throwing jerk baits in the eddies up by the cable and only boated 3 bass and two rainbows in the first hour.  Drug crankbaits on the bottom from the cable to the river right Island above Lookout with out a bite. Got in behind the Island over the grass flats and found some that wanted to play. Fished there and the Eddie in front of Point Royal with our new 1/16 ounce sculpin and peach jigs and boated over 40 in 2 1/2 hours. Drug cranks again down through the narrows and picked up a 19 1/2 inch rainbow. 

A couple of those browns look like they have been filling up on shad. Great bunch of trout. Congrats!

[Quillback]

Yeah those are some fat browns, I have to wonder if once those triploids get big and start eating stocker rainbows that some monsters are going to start showing up.

[duckydoty]

We got into them again this morning dragging crank baits.  The group of us boated 4 browns with one being 21 1/2 inches and another 23 3/4 inches. Picked up a couple decent rainbows too.

[Ryan Miloshewski]

7 hours ago, Quillback said:

Yeah those are some fat browns, I have to wonder if once those triploids get big and start eating stocker rainbows that some monsters are going to start showing up.

I talked to Shane Bush, MDC Biologist for Taney, about this very topic while writing an article a month ago. We both agreed the state record could be broken within 2-3 years. The triploids are growing at 2-3 lbs a year. They shocked up a 38 lb diploid a few years back, too.