Kayaks, wading, and a brown on a mouse

[Smallie Seeker]

I must say the fishing is as good as I’ve ever experience on Taney. 
Put the yak in at the hatchery ramp Sunday morning. Plan was to fish the trophy section and then catch the afternoon flow back to the truck at Cooper Creek ramp. Fishing was excellent. Size #18 black and copper zebra midge was the ticket. Landed over a dozen fish before the flow started around 4. All were healthy, chunky and swam away unscathed. 
With this minimal generation going on, it’s been an awesome opportunity to wade fish at night, and I’ve been out each evening, Sunday-Tuesday. Caught rainbows the first 2 nights on a black and purple slump buster and black leech patterns. 
Decided to strip a topwater mouse last night with the bright moon we had out, and it paid off. About 2 hrs into the evening at 11:30 this nice brown male smashed the mouse I was throwing on my 7wt, and the rest was history. 
Quick pic and was grinning ear to ear, heart still pumping as I watched him swim off. 
Haven’t touched spinning gear since I got here. Strange how things change. 

[Smallie Seeker]

[Phil Lilley]

Sweet !!

[BilletHead]

                Most excellent! Good report and good grin man,

BilletHead

[Travis Swift]

Great report and pictures!

[Smallie Seeker]

Wanted to mention something about tippet size. @Phil Lilley mentioned getting more bites on 7x with this low, gin clear water. I'm always torn between 6x and 7x during this time of the year. 7x gets more hits for sure but can be a task to quickly land a fish which can be daunting in the hot summer months. And I've lost a fair amount of big fish on 7x. Rio has a Fluroflex Strong tippet in 6.5x (3.1lb) that worked great and I haven't broke a single fish off with it, only a few pulled hooks. 

[fishinwrench]

You're throwing a mouse on 6x ?   

Woah 😳 

 

Nice fish for sure. 👍   The super-scooper and oversized eyeball on that one freak is pretty creepy.  😅

[Smallie Seeker]

48 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

You're throwing a mouse on 6x ?   

Woah 😳 

 

Nice fish for sure. 👍   The super-scooper and oversized eyeball on that one freak is pretty creepy.  😅

No 6.5x was for the zebra midges. 
mouse was on a leader of 12” of 20# then 16” of 12# 

And that fish was one mean lookin hombre. 😂 

[Guest rwolfe]

Does anyone know of a dock that allows a kayaker to dock their kayak for 30 minutes or so while I get a ride back up to my truck at the hatchery, then come back and pick it up? I'm willing to pay a reasonable fee. 

[Flysmallie]

21 hours ago, rwolfe said:

Does anyone know of a dock that allows a kayaker to dock their kayak for 30 minutes or so while I get a ride back up to my truck at the hatchery, then come back and pick it up? I'm willing to pay a reasonable fee. 

Chain it to a tree and Uber. I haven’t done the Uber part but I have left kayaks locked to trees, signs, other cars, etc.