Our last trout tournament of 2025

[Phil Lilley]

The weights at our tournaments this winter have been low.  Some have blamed low water, fast water, cold water... who knows for sure.  But I'm going to step out and say that may be the fungus that attacked our trout in the fall has taken a toll on our big trout.  Time will tell.

Note - 2nd place finishers fished "up" and weighed in 3 rainbows over 20 inches.  But their trophies didn't weigh over 2.5 pounds each which is unusual for a 20-inch trout.

The brown, as well as most of the larger rainbows, were caught mainly on jerk baits, either casted or drifted... or even trolled.  Also scuds were used to catch bigger rainbows too.

We did see some threadfin shad in the lake yesterday while the water was running.  Not many... and I did try a white jig and only got a couple of short bites.  But our water is now 41 degrees so I'm sure the shad are dying on Table Rock and it's only a matter of time we start seeing more come through the turbines.  Problem is, with warm temps coming and low lake levels, we may not see much generation in the near future.

[snagged in outlet 3]

6 hours ago, Phil Lilley said:

The weights at our tournaments this winter have been low.  Some have blamed low water, fast water, cold water... who knows for sure.  But I'm going to step out and say that may be the fungus that attacked our trout in the fall has taken a toll on our big trout.  Time will tell.

Note - 2nd place finishers fished "up" and weighed in 3 rainbows over 20 inches.  But their trophies didn't weigh over 2.5 pounds each which is unusual for a 20-inch trout.

The brown, as well as most of the larger rainbows, were caught mainly on jerk baits, either casted or drifted... or even trolled.  Also scuds were used to catch bigger rainbows too.

We did see some threadfin shad in the lake yesterday while the water was running.  Not many... and I did try a white jig and only got a couple of short bites.  But our water is now 41 degrees so I'm sure the shad are dying on Table Rock and it's only a matter of time we start seeing more come through the turbines.  Problem is, with warm temps coming and low lake levels, we may not see much generation in the near future.

How many trout do they weigh in?

[Phil Lilley]

15 hours ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

How many trout do they weigh in?

eight

[Seth]

Once the water shuts down, it just gets flat out brutal. Even the scud bite Saturday morning was a lot slower than we were used to. Luckily we were able to get a limit of quality fish while 4 units were cranking. After they shut the water down, we were just going through the motions and wasting time. We trolled flicker shads from Lilleys down to Monkey island with nothing to show for it. After that, we ran back up and my buddy threw a black jig while I used a 1/50th oz olive/orange head jig under a float and may have caught six fish in the last three hours. There were plenty of fishing of various sizes midging around us all afternoon, but we just couldn't get them to eat what we were offering. I wish I had brought some zebra midges to try.

[BilletHead]

1 hour ago, Seth said:

Once the water shuts down, it just gets flat out brutal. Even the scud bite Saturday morning was a lot slower than we were used to. Luckily we were able to get a limit of quality fish while 4 units were cranking. After they shut the water down, we were just going through the motions and wasting time. We trolled flicker shads from Lilleys down to Monkey island with nothing to show for it. After that, we ran back up and my buddy threw a black jig while I used a 1/50th oz olive/orange head jig under a float and may have caught six fish in the last three hours. There were plenty of fishing of various sizes midging around us all afternoon, but we just couldn't get them to eat what we were offering. I wish I had brought some zebra midges to try.

     By the way Seth congratulations on the win.