Night Fishing Report

[Jeremy Hunt]

October 4th 2007 Night Fly Fishing Below The Dam

Ok, before I go any further. This has to be one of the best days in my life as far as fishing on Lake Taneycomo. I have had fish on this big, but never landing one until now. I hope everybody is sitting down while they’re reading this because this story is a good one. From having trips pretty much everyday for the last couple of weeks I have been watching and hearing these big browns jumping in the same spot. My goal was to finally get a night where I could get out there and try to fish for one of these big browns I keep hearing and seeing during the day. While we were gearing up at home getting ready to go night fishing. I was talking to my fiancée about these fish and how I really thought we were going to get one. It was her first time night fly fishing and for those who know me then some of you already know that my fiancée is six months pregnant. Yes, we have a baby boy on the way and his name is River Kingston Hunt, but to be pregnant and want to go nighttime fly fishing your first time ever told me this was the right girl for me. You know as I’ve been working on getting her up to this level I thought she was ready to give it a shot. One thing about Summer is she has some luck on her side. About four months ago I took her to Rim and her first time fishing there she plugs into a 24 inch brown being her first brown ever caught on a fly rod. So as we were on our way to the river I told her since she had all this luck on her side she could come down here and stick a nice brown. We were really making small talk and like most people wishing that story could come true, it did.

The first thing I wanted to do is take her down to the boat ramp and stand on the edge and watch her cast and try to help her feel the load so she could get the hang of her cast before we made are way up top. She was doing really well right off the bat so we didn’t stick around long before we decided to park up by the chutes and hope we could fish the big hole starting off. Well we didn’t get that lucky and for some reason I’m glad because we probably wouldn’t have got the fish we did. It’s really about being at the right place at the right time. Or should I say this night it was everything. As we were walking down to the point I noticed two people at the end of the big hole and a few people just past the rebar hole. So the only spot we had was in between the two. So we walked out just past the gauntlet hole and started fishing. I tied her on a black wooly with a gold bead and I was fishing my go to night pattern the electric blue boogaloo. I started out fishing with her behind me so she could understand the presentation and what to look for when a fish strikes. I really wanted to emphasize to her how important it was to get the hook set down right or she was going to lose every fish. After making a few casts and swinging my fly with slow strips she was ready to do it on her own. She walked up about twenty feet from me and started fishing. We both had two different flies tied on trying to see which ones were going to do the trick. We both had a few hits missing them, but one good thing was it wasn’t the one that counted. So I’m glad she got her practice down on the little ones. After about ten cast working the same water I decided to switch up and throw another one of my patterns that I had a lot of luck on. This one was a wooly bugger tied on a TMC 5263 with a black tail, black hackle, and tinsel flash chenille in olive for the body. The second cast I hooked into something big and I knew it was because of the weight of him I was feeling on my 6wt Sage XP I was throwing that night. It really never ran to hard just hanging around in the water swimming back and forth. It took about ten minutes to land and I didn’t use a net. I think it’s easier to beach these bigger ones. This fish probably went between 10-11 pounds with a 20 inch girth. One of the biggest rainbows I’ve seen in a long time with a girth that big. You hear people say that fish looks like it swallowed a football and in this case it clearly shows. All I can say was what a fish and I would’ve been content with that fish the rest of the night if I didn’t catch another one.

After releasing this fish I wanted to tie on the same pattern for Summer to see if we were on to something. I actually gave her my hole that I just caught that rainbow in so she could have a shot catching her first trout at night. I recently bought her a new Sage SLT 5 wt and it was her first time to fish it. So I walked down about twenty feet and started fishing again and I heard a splash and asked if it was a fish on the end of her line and as I was talking to her she told me it got off. So I told her to make sure she sets the rod down toward the water to turn the fly in the corner of the fish’s mouth. I would say her next cast she told me she had a fish on again and it felt big. I immediately started to real in my line to get it out of the way and while I was walking out of the water coming her way she again told me it felt big and if I would take the rod to see if it was big. Once I grabbed the rod this fish takes off and goes into the backing within a few seconds. I knew this fish was big I just didn’t know how big. I knew there were two guys still down at the big hole and so I hollered to them and told them to move because this fish was heading downstream. I actually was running downstream with this fish as I was telling them. I didn’t want this fish to get too much distance between us or it would’ve been ten times harder to land. And come to find out it was Leonard guiding a client. I’m glad it was because he was very understanding. So I was standing at the end of the point where the water drops off into a deep pool and new this fish was mine. I wish Summer would’ve landed this fish but she was scared and panic when she hooked and needed help and that is my job to take care of my honey. It was a team effort and it took about twenty minutes to land. It only ran hard once and hung out there fighting to the bitter end. One thing is if we would’ve caught this fish during the day it would have done twice the damage. They’re a lot easier to land at night that’s for sure. Once we caught this brown in we took measurements got a few pictures of it and released it to see another day. This brown was caught on 3x Rio fluorocarbon and it measured 29 inches with a 18 inch girth. I guess you could say Summer has something on her side when it comes to these big fish. That’s a good thing and I think I’ll take her more often. I am so proud of her and I don’t know any girl who has ever caught a fish this size in Taney or should I say in a public river system here in the Ozarks. I also think this is the biggest one I’ve heard being caught this year at night. I would say these fish went between fifteen and eighteen pounds. What a fish and what a story. One more thing these fish were caught within ten minutes of each other. We ended the night with this because it needed to end with this one. I don’t think we could’ve caught anything bigger and who wants to catch a dink after something like that. We wrapped it up around 12:30 am. I’m going out tonight with one of my clients who caught a six pounder with me about a month ago. He also has luck on his side so we might have another story to tell. I’m heading to the conclave tomorrow so I’ll let you know how we do on the White. I plan on fishing while I’m down there.

[Danoinark]

Now that is a bruiser. Very nice report Jeremy and excellent photo's.

Dano

[jjtroutbum]

Wow great fish and report! Thanks and congratulations to both of you!

[WebFreeman]

Those are 2 awesome fish.

[Kansas Fly Fisher]

Excellent fish! Thanks for sharing the pictures. I'm on my way!

John

[vanven]

Congrats Jeremy, nice fish and awsome report!

-Jerod

[Wrath]

Nice catch! Both the lady and the fish!

I hope you released the fish though cause I want to catch that badboy in a few weeks!

[tippet7]

WOW! Great fish for both of you!!

[Center Punch]

awesome fish jeremy!

congrats

[drew03cmc]

Nice fish...that's a night to remember!