Big One Got Away

[slothman]

.

[slothman]

1 hour ago, laker67 said:

Well if I extend it on out to 38.5 inches I can tell you exactly. 1,588.

😯 Wow! Holy smokes! That is a ton of huge fish. 

[duckydoty]

6 hours ago, slothman said:

😯 Wow! Holy smokes! That is a ton of huge fish. 

If every one of those 1588 fish were just 3 pounds it would equal to just under 2 and 1/2 tons of fish.  One of those fish was 27 pounds 10 ounces.  My guess would be close to 6 tons of  huge fish.  If you ever want to learn something about fly fishing, just stand back and watch Laker67.  He is the Jedi Nija Wizard.

[Johnsfolly]

10 hours ago, Mitch f said:

Agreed. 

I once read a story about a guy who would sneak up on small stream smallmouth by crawling on an overlooking bank and observing the school. He tried to obviously target the big fish. He had a live craw for bait. He stated the biggest problem he has was keeping the little ones from getting it before the big one was able to reach it. 

So how would you eliminate that problem? Maybe by a bigger offering.

Mitch fish for more solitary fish like big brown trout would be my suggestion. Don't often see a big brown surrounded by any other fish.

[laker67]

10 hours ago, Seth said:

I agree with you on that when it comes to bass. After watching Oliver Ngy throw that 10" Megabass swimbait for two days straight on LoZ and only catching two bass and still winning 100G's, the proof is in the puddin!

When it comes to trout, I think the best tactics is to just sore lip all the little stupid ones and then hope the bigger ones eventually get dibs. Stocker trout will eat anything, even when it's almost as big as they are. Besides, it keeps you occupied in between quality bites. 

You're right about the trout Seth. The little ones around a big fish I refer to as body guards. You gently hook and lead them out if they are restricting access to the bigger fish. 

[Johnsfolly]

9 hours ago, Mitch f said:

No Doubt

I believe the younger browns probably primarily feed on insects but the bigger ones primarily feed on other fish. 

I am only 1577 fish behind @laker67 in terms of trout over 20 inches😌. So far all mine came from a river and not a tailwater and all were caught with aggressive style baits, jerkbaits , countdowns, streamer, etc. All were caught off of structure where they could ambush prey. Those fish were not slurping scuds they mostly eating fish or crayfish.

When I used to keep legal brown trout they usually had guts packed with crayfish parts or fish. One 18" brown was well over 3.5 lbs had two 6 inch hog suckers in its belly. When I caught that fish I had cast upstream of a bluff hole. I was fishing a floating F11 rapala. I let it drift under an overhang then started twitching and pausing the bait. An 18+" brown was following that bait but was not committed. Then the other brown that I hadn't even seen yet torpedoed that bait. So it was full of those suckers and still went after a 4 to 5 inch bait😁!

[Johnsfolly]

11 hours ago, laker67 said:

I have only caught one big fish,  " over 30 inches", on a streamer pattern. Leonard's hibernator to be exact. The other 31 big fish, "over 30 inches", came on a #12 or smaller scud and one that I recall on  a white egg at night. The majority came on # 14 and # 16.  7x to 6x tippet.

1588 over 20 inches! My hat is off to you sir for the number of big trout that you have caught and landed.

Were the majority of those fish from Taney or other tailwater systems? I just don't see as many scuds in river like the 11 point, North Fork of the White, or Current rivers like I have in Taney.

[laker67]

10 minutes ago, Johnsfolly said:

1588 over 20 inches! My hat is off to you sir for the number of big trout that you have caught and landed.

Were the majority of those fish from Taney or other tailwater systems? I just don't see as many scuds in river like the 11 point, North Fork of the White, or Current rivers like I have in Taney.

Thank you. I always counted a lunker as 3lb or larger. The 20 inch thing is the new math I guess. Caught my first lunker in 1975. Most of my lunkers have come from the trout parks with bssp and montauk being at the top of the list. Not sure how many have come from taney and arkansas with out counting back in my lunker book. Less than 600 I would guess. I have only caught a handful on the current river but they have been nice fish. I use an occasional egg pattern but scuds account for 99% . And like SIO3 said earlier, it is best to know exactly where that lunker is. Fishing in the blind is ok but not as productive. 

[laker67]

I might add that there is at least one more OAF member on here that catches several lunker trout. Not sure he keeps count, but I can tell you that he might be ahead of me on totals. That would be Foghorn

[snagged in outlet 3]

I think there were more big fish to be caught years ago than today.  And a lot less fisherman. What we caught back in the 70’s and 80’s would blow your mind. Most people didn’t believe it and still don’t.   

You should have seen the fish in the outlets back then.