Big One Got Away

[laker67]

With the invent of flurocarbon,  line diameters are not as important as was the case with monofilament. Color was sometimes important with mono as well. I have used alot of 8x and 7x mono  in years past. It will make you a better fish fighter and increase your odds of landing big fish in general. Now i rarely use anything but 6x fluro. 

[Phil Lilley]

Just to clarify...

Rio 6x tippet is .005 and Trilene XL 2-pound is .005 inch.

[Seth]

I think several of us here need to make a road trip to Taneycomo and pair up for a 2# vs 4# contest and see who catches the most fish! We all fish with the same color/weight lure for a certain length of time and then tally up the total fish count at the end. The losers buy the winners a Cakes and Creams supreme.   

[Mitch f]

1 hour ago, Seth said:

I think several of us here need to make a road trip to Taneycomo and pair up for a 2# vs 4# contest and see who catches the most fish! We all fish with the same color/weight lure for a certain length of time and then tally up the total fish count at the end. The losers buy the winners a Cakes and Creams supreme.   

Not that I have time to go fishing at Taneycomo anytime soon....

I would say forcing people to fish the same weight jig that wasn’t matched to the line weight would be going against the intention of the contest. The rules should be more like.

1. Any size jig and line you want

 2. No fish under 14” counts

3. Total weight of best 5 fish wins

4. Fried Walleye and Cheesecake to the winners!

 

[BilletHead]

                    Reading this got me to thinking some of what I used to do with line and jig sizes. First of all you can catch some pretty big fish and small jigs and flies. Smaller jigs need to be thrown on light lines IMO. You can get deeper it just takes a bit longer. My first encounter with Taneycomo came in the early eighties. My cousin and I went both not knowing what we were doing. Bought ultralights with small reels and 2 lb. line. When we got there bought 1/80 and 1/100 oz. I think they were bassapper jigs. We launched at the main street ramp in a 12 ft. boat with a 2 horse Neptune air cooled outboard. Like an eggbeater on the back of that boat. Right off we about got swamped by a bass boat throwing a roostertail. This was a winter January trip. We had a blast and caught some mighty nice trout throwing those little jigs. Got home and found a person with a tax number and ordered a bunch of those jigs wholesale. I actually have a few left. Went back the next month and had upgraded to a four horse air cooled martin outboard . Ah the good old days. You needed 2lb to throw those jigs. No floats used and a few years before my first fly rod. So this started my fascination  with ultra, ultra lights.  So Cousin Mike and I began our quest for catching larger fish on smaller jigs. Lots of pond bass up to five pounds fell to those little jigs and ultralight spinning gear. We than discovered upper Truman reservoir. The Osage arm from Osceola all the way out of the lake proper towards the Kansas state line. If you could catch that arm and river clear, when I say clear I mean a couple foot visibility  because you are dealing with a flow out of farm ground. So the Osage Bluff marina used to be at Osceola. We launched there and bought some roadrunners 1/16 oz. By now we were using 4lb. line. White roadrunners with a red stripe on the head and body of red chenille, white marabou tail. Went to the split of the Osage and Sac Rivers. Right after the split on the South side of the Osage was a rock steep bank. Some of you may know it. We would bounce those little roadrunners down the rock and caught all kinds of fish. My first limit of walleye came from there. Big channel cat and white bass, black bass, crappie, drum, gar you name it in Mo waters we caught it. Light line and light rigs we had a ball. Repeated this pattern up that arm to Roscoe and even towards Taberville. In March 8th of 86 we were fishing up from Roscoe. Again light gear 4 lb. and the red white roadrunners I got one on. It took forever to get the fish to where we could see it. Fought like a walleye and hoping for a walleye that is what it was. I about freaked when I saw the behemoth. Here we were, no net and a bent rod about doubled over what was I going to do? Not going to lift it out and I am not about to try to cradle it. I grabbed it like a bass and as it wriggled I felt pain as blood began to flow I got it into the boat. Got to be tough when you are stupid. Needless to say I try now to match line with lure weight and size.  9lb. 8oz. Only fish I have mounted 28 inches long. Back in 86 Bass pro would mount a fish under 30 inches for 69.99. That was a lot of money for me back then,

   About a six pound mono leader on nanofil is so far the lightest I have used and that was at Jigfest last year. Would try four lb. maybe. Then again I may need jig lessons from Phil . Fly rod tippet I will go low if need be but I get away with a lot on 6X.  I have caught a ten lb. walleye on the Bates County drainage ditch near where the Osage breaks off close to Pappensville. I think I had graduated to 8lb mono by then. That fish got eaten.  I am too old and not so agile to climb up and down muddy banks to the hot spot spawning run areas now but miss those days a bunch. 

   BilletHead

[Deadstream]

33 minutes ago, BilletHead said:

as it wriggled I felt pain as blood began to flow

Nice job. Ice fishing in Michigan I have done the same, also below Stockton early spring, muddy banks etc.   I can go down the banks still, my fat arse can't get up them.

[BilletHead]

1 minute ago, Deadstream said:

Nice job. Ice fishing in Michigan I have done the same, also below Stockton early spring, muddy banks etc.   I can go down the banks still, my fat arse can't get up them.

                    Oh man yes,

  Sometimes the trip down the banks go quicker than it should be. Hitting the bottom hurts more than it used to and  getting wet happens. More than one place on the Bates county drainage ditch I have slid a small boat down the bank on a rope. Getting it back up attached a block roller to a tree and used the truck to pull boat into the air above the ground and pulled boat over the bank backing truck to let it down on top. Got me to places I would never got to fish.

  BilletHead

[Terrierman]

10 hours ago, Al Agnew said:

I've never seen a need for 2 pound line.  I match my line diameter to the size of the lure or fly I'm fishing, but have never in my life gone thinner than 6X fluorocarbon tippet, which is about 3.5 lb. test.  Most of my fishing, even on highly pressured waters, is with 5X fluoro or heavier.  In fly fishing I keep it simple...nothing but Rio fluoroflex no matter what kind of fly I'm fishing, and I carry 6X to 1X.  I think I catch plenty of fish.  There are reasons for thin diameter line as far as sink rate, wind resistance, current resistance, attitude of flies or lures, and how deep crankbaits run.  But the difference between true 2 lb. test and true 4 lb. test is not significant enough for me to ever opt for the 2 lb.  It is certainly insignificant as far as the fish seeing the line, in my opinion.

You have an opinion?  Golly I would have never guessed.

[Mitch f]

1 minute ago, Terrierman said:

You have an opinion?  Golly I would have never guessed.

Same goes for you.

[Terrierman]

1 hour ago, BilletHead said:

                    Reading this got me to thinking some of what I used to do with line and jig sizes. First of all you can catch some pretty big fish and small jigs and flies. Smaller jigs need to be thrown on light lines IMO. You can get deeper it just takes a bit longer. My first encounter with Taneycomo came in the early eighties. My cousin and I went both not knowing what we were doing. Bought ultralights with small reels and 2 lb. line. When we got there bought 1/80 and 1/100 oz. I think they were bassapper jigs. We launched at the main street ramp in a 12 ft. boat with a 2 horse Neptune air cooled outboard. Like an eggbeater on the back of that boat. Right off we about got swamped by a bass boat throwing a roostertail. This was a winter January trip. We had a blast and caught some mighty nice trout throwing those little jigs. Got home and found a person with a tax number and ordered a bunch of those jigs wholesale. I actually have a few left. Went back the next month and had upgraded to a four horse air cooled martin outboard . Ah the good old days. You needed 2lb to throw those jigs. No floats used and a few years before my first fly rod. So this started my fascination  with ultra, ultra lights.  So Cousin Mike and I began our quest for catching larger fish on smaller jigs. Lots of pond bass up to five pounds fell to those little jigs and ultralight spinning gear. We than discovered upper Truman reservoir. The Osage arm from Osceola all the way out of the lake proper towards the Kansas state line. If you could catch that arm and river clear, when I say clear I mean a couple foot visibility  because you are dealing with a flow out of farm ground. So the Osage Bluff marina used to be at Osceola. We launched there and bought some roadrunners 1/16 oz. By now we were using 4lb. line. White roadrunners with a red stripe on the head and body of red chenille, white marabou tail. Went to the split of the Osage and Sac Rivers. Right after the split on the South side of the Osage was a rock steep bank. Some of you may know it. We would bounce those little roadrunners down the rock and caught all kinds of fish. My first limit of walleye came from there. Big channel cat and white bass, black bass, crappie, drum, gar you name it in Mo waters we caught it. Light line and light rigs we had a ball. Repeated this pattern up that arm to Roscoe and even towards Taberville. In March 8th of 86 we were fishing up from Roscoe. Again light gear 4 lb. and the red white roadrunners I got one on. It took forever to get the fish to where we could see it. Fought like a walleye and hoping for a walleye that is what it was. I about freaked when I saw the behemoth. Here we were, no net and a bent rod about doubled over what was I going to do? Not going to lift it out and I am not about to try to cradle it. I grabbed it like a bass and as it wriggled I felt pain as blood began to flow I got it into the boat. Got to be tough when you are stupid. Needless to say I try now to match line with lure weight and size.  9lb. 8oz. Only fish I have mounted 28 inches long. Back in 86 Bass pro would mount a fish under 30 inches for 69.99. That was a lot of money for me back then,

   About a six pound mono leader on nanofil is so far the lightest I have used and that was at Jigfest last year. Would try four lb. maybe. Then again I may need jig lessons from Phil . Fly rod tippet I will go low if need be but I get away with a lot on 6X.  I have caught a ten lb. walleye on the Bates County drainage ditch near where the Osage breaks off close to Pappensville. I think I had graduated to 8lb mono by then. That fish got eaten.  I am too old and not so agile to climb up and down muddy banks to the hot spot spawning run areas now but miss those days a bunch. 

   BilletHead

BassNapper jigs.