Taney report

[Rolan Duffield]

What a great week fishing the lower trophy area. My brother Ed and I had a great time every day catching many rainbows from my boat. Most of our fishing was from Fall Creek to the dam. I was impressed with the Rainbows as they were fat and fought hard. We mostly used "Peppy" (gray scud) and a mink scud fly. Fishing doesn't get any better than this.

Most of the Trout were in the range of 11" to 14". My largest was 16". Where are the big Trout? I havn't caught many Rainbows larger than 16" in this section of water for a long time, yet many of you post catching 20+" Trout in the upper fly water near the dam. Any ideas why their arn't showing up here?

Phil joined us one morning when they were running one turbine. He fished his spinning rod and a jig and caught a Brown we estimated as being 23-24" and about 6 pounds. A really pretty fish.

One day I was having difficulty hooking a trout even though I was getting strikes on almost every cast. I would set the hook and feel the fish on for only a second or two. I changed sizes, though that didn't improve hooking the fish. Switched to a small 1/100 ounce sculpin jig and what a change. I had a trout on almost every cast for at least an hour. They were picking up the jig as soon as it hit the water.

-- A little observation. Saw a fellow in a very small boat probably 10' long powered by a trolling motor as we left Lilleys dock one morning.Their wasn't any water running all day. We next saw him later in the morning going past us up in the Trophy area below Lookout. As he passed by he asked "how far is it to the Dam?" That had to be at least 3 miles from Lilleys Dock area and another mile or so to the dam. He proceeded to go upstream though I don't know how far he got. Later that afternoon We saw him going back downstream with the trolling motor still operating and propelling him along.

On Saturday, we were checked by a conservation agent for our fishing licenses. In all the years I have fished Taney this was the first time anyone has checked my license. I have been asked for info from creel survey agents several times but never a license check. I commended the agent (he was from the Bull Shoals area) for being on Taney and making these checks. Hope this continues on a regular basis.

Rolan

[twosets]

Hi Rolan

On the hook set thing.

I only met you one time, but after hearing about your fishing expertise from Phil, Bill and my Mom & Dad, I could only conclude that you were fishing a scud with no hook at all and you just could not get them to hold on all the way to the boat. The jig actually had a hook on it and that made all the difference.

Seriously, thanks for your report. It sounds like you guys had a wonderful trip.

George Steffen

[Rolan Duffield]

George:

Where is Steph? Has he changed his email? Have him send me his email as I haven't been able to contact him.

Regards, Rolan

[twosets]

I sent him an e-mail and you should be hearing from him shortly.

George