Firemen's Benefit today

[Phil Lilley]

I'm still in Mass. but can report another big brown was caught at the tournament today.

Gerry Dwiggins was fishing down below the Branson Landing mid day when he hooked a big fish on 2 pound line using a jig.  Not sure what color.  Fought it 45 minutes before landing.  Ran it back to the resort - their livewell wasn't big enough... and he has a big bass boat.

Measured 37 1/4 inches at 23.65 pounds.  It is a triploid.

This is the only pic I have at the moment.  The fish is still in our big tank reviving.

Seth Turner and his partner I understand took 2nd with 11+ pounds.  The rest will have to wait till I get a better report from the guys.

Duane told me it was a line-class record but again, it's not clear what agency he was referring to.

[Phil Lilley]

[ZigJigman]

Congrats to Gerry and I hope that big fish makes it back into the river. He caught it on a 1/16 oz black/brown Zig Jig!!!

[JestersHK]

Was taking to Seth earlier, thanks for posting the pics for us Phil.

Hope it can be released safely.  Congrats to the angler too.  Heck of a catch for sure.

 

[Seth]

We had a good day. Fishing started off slow, but picked up as the water came on and as the day went on. The last couple hours were by far the best. I threw white and black jigs all day and caught plenty of fish, but my buddy whopped me on quality drifting crawlers in the back of the boat. Our entire day was spent between Fall Creek and Trout Hollow. My buddy caught the 21" 3.84# brown  at 2:30pm on a crawler. At that point I figured we had this thing in the bag until we got back and heard about the giant brown. Not much you can do to compete with a fish of that caliber.

This was the second time my buddy has been down to fish Taneycomo. The first time was during the Elfrink this past February when Frank was caught. He's 2 for 2 on showing up to see mega browns brought in to Lilley's. Also, he had about 20 trout to his name before fishing with me today. He caught between 30-40 trout today and landed his first keeper brown. Time to add another check mark to growing list of people that I've had catch a legal brown out of my boat before me. 🤣

[Johnsfolly]

Congrats @Seth on a great day regardless of getting beat by a giant brown!

[JestersHK]

Did that brownie make it back in the water?  Seth you truly are a brown magnet.  Just for other people lol.

[Seth]

1 hour ago, JestersHK said:

Did that brownie make it back in the water?  Seth you truly are a brown magnet.  Just for other people lol.

Ours did, but the big one died. The luck of others at catching big browns in my boat is ridiculous! This is the second time somebody with less than 50 trout to their name has boated a keeper brown in my boat on Taneycomo.

[Phil Lilley]

We are seriously kicking around an idea for next year's tournament.

It will be an artificial only tournament - for sure. 

Because of the warmer water in the fall, we have quite a few dead fish weighed in.  We have anglers travel to the lower end of the lake and they can't keep their fish alive in their live wells.

So, we are considering making it a measure only contest, like some of the ones we hold in spring and the winter seasons.

We will undoubtedly lose some of the teams but I believe this is the only responsible way to hold a fall tournament.  Fish will be caught, measured and released immediately,  no exceptions.  Even if there's a large fish caught, like the big brown caught Saturday.  If it's killed, it will not count towards the team's results.

[Bgctrading]

Are some of these fish wild? If they are all stockers  not sure i see the big issue even if a big one is killed as long as the meat doesn't go to waste.