Abuss55

Thanks guys! hahahaha Bluebasser you would have made the right choice, like Yakalong said the weather was just not wanting to cooperate this year and it was tough fishing. I can't complain too much I have been going to this four about 8 years now and this is the first year where I have truly had a hard time finding and catching fish. They were running all three units at the dam, between the wind and the water moving so fast it was hard to anchor up anywhere and the trolling motor was basically just to keep you from being pushed into stumps or docks. The heavy rains made for muddy creeks on Saturday, the fish seemed to be spread out and just did not want to hit like normal, caught a few heard fishing at the dam was pretty good but I prefer to get in the boat and try from Fall Creek to Roark Creek on this trip instead. All in all its the toughest trip I have had for this time of year but as always we had a ton of fun, the water temperature was still in the mid 40's and I believe that was a pretty big factor as well. If anyone ever wants to use em here are my three maps I use there for reference between years

Wellp we leave today for our annual trout bash with friends and family today! If anyone is interested once we get back ill try to get some good pictures/video and a fishing report for the weekend

Those rope lures work really well I like to use a 1/4 oz Joe's fly, the seem to prefer the black and red or brown where I fish for em during the summer, I don't know why but I have a pretty good hook up ratio with the inline spinners with a treble hook on the back. Like everyone said they are just a blast to fight, very aerobatic and they'll try to throw the hook on you every chance they get. I got this one that Joe's Fly

Hey guys! I hope spring is treating you better than it is us here in St. Louis, the weather has been crazy it snowed on Easter and tornado season is here. In two weeks ill be headed down to Lake Taneycomo near Branson MO and thought it would be fun to see if anyone had any favorite trout baits/lures they use anywhere or favorite spots on Taneycomo. I have a few already like Roark and Turkey Creek, Money Island and the I-65 bridges If anyone hasn't been and gets a chance its a great place to fish, right above it is Table Rock Lake and right below it is Bull Shoals/White River.

I have several trout setups but I really like my Avid series St. Croix in 6'6" Light action, it has a great backbone, the tip is not overly whipy and is my favorite trout set up, I also use it to pond hop for bass

I have two St. Croix's and I am a really big fan of my avid series rod and the trout series rod is great too, I have a Pfluger President Supreme XT on one and a President XT on the other.

I have been lucky enough to win two St. Croix's in trout tournaments and I really do love em, the last one was a 7' trout edition but I find that I really prefer to use that for presentations with a float, I really like my 6' 6" avid Series, its also an ultra light but it has a great back bone and to me it feels more like the power of medium light to light action rod with the sensitivity of an ultra light, I use it for pond bass fishing too. I pair both of them with Pfluger reels, before winning the President Supreme XT, and a limited edition President XT which are both great but a little pricey, I always liked the standard president series, all of my president series reels from trout sized to bass sized have been going for 7 years with no problems. Before that I used the President series Bass Pro combo and I recently gave them to my grandpa who will be joining us this year. I bring three set ups with me and my last setup is the one I have been using down there for 7 years, the same ugly stick you have with a standard President series reel

Im not sure if your fishing in a lake or on a stream, I agree with bluebasser I prefer the eggs to the paste usually in both, I think trout are the finickiest fish I guess that what I love about em hahaha. I also like to throw a similar set up with a trout worm in water with current twitching it every once in a while to keep it from hanging up in the weeds and just let the split shot weight bounce on the bottom. Another set up i like is a orange and yellow power nymph under a float with a 16th or 32nd oz jig and twitch it back at whatever speed you like. My all time favorite is throwing a joe's fly in 1/4 oz I know that sounds big but its worked really well for me. Good luck!

Welcome!

I'm a righty and use left handed baitcasters, its my uncles fault he was big on preaching do you throw a baseball with your left hand? Hahahahaha, so that's how I got into using them but like many have said here its much more about what you're comfortable with. It might sound dumb to a lot of other people who use the right handed ones but I just cannot get a good action out of my spook using my left hand on the rod.

Trout are where I really started with fishing when my dad invited me to a small tournament on Lake Taneycomo in Branson and I fell in love with fishing. For the first two years of that funny enough I used a Wal-Mart special for $15-$20 rod and reel combo I think it was a 6' Shakespeare which got me 3rd my first year and first my second year. The second year I won a Pfluger President Limited Edition Series reel and a St. Croix rod which I cannot remember specifically which one, one of their trout series rods. I'm a huge fan of the Presidents, I use both the 20 and 25. I agree with BlueBasser if its just for trout go with the 20, if you want to be able to go for the big ones and also want to be able to use it for some other things, which I do for pond hoping then go with the 25. I still have that Shakespeare rod the reel finally went out on me but I put one of my Pflugers on it and that's the combo that caught my winning fish last year point being you don't have to break the bank to get a decent light or ultra light set up, before you buy I would recommend feeling the actions for yourself in store, one of my favorite things to throw is one of the Joes Flies 1/4oz inline spinner and I like a little bit of a less whippy tip for that. Oh and I use an 8' i think Berkley steelhead rod in baby puke green lol which I think ran me about $30 or $40.00 for my float rigs. Good luck and happy fishing.

Thank you guys again! As is tradition I was wrong on the dates hahaha, I was a month behind it is April 30th and May 1st. Sounds like a plan, its 12 degrees here and its supposed to get down to -1 here in St. Louis New Years Eve, I cannot wait to feel that FL sunshine on my face!

Thank you guys very much I really appreciate the help and insight I cant wait to try out your Florida waters I'll have to let ya know what we did and how it went I think we'll be there April 3rd and 4th.

Thank you very much "moretolife" I really appreciate it, the lakes that I have fished from a boat, even in Canada, I can always see shoreline from and with as large and as shallow as this lake is that was a big concern of mine. Hey whatever it takes to catch em I have heard that your FL bass can be a bit harder to catch on artificial baits, would you happen to have any recommendations or know any guides in the area?

Hey guys I already knew it but I have the best girlfriend a guy could ask for and for Christmas she is taking me from St. Louis MO to Florida to fish Lake Okeechobee for a few days! Looks like she saw how many Scott Martin videos I watch online hahahha. We will be staying at J&S Fish Camp at the beginning of April, which is on the North East side of the lake, and are renting a bass boat for a day and I was wondering if anyone could give me a few tips. My fishing experience in FL is a handful of trips, all were deep sea and all occurred before I had such a passion for fishing. I wanted to make sure that we both have a fun time, especially because now she has to put up with me for a 16 hour car ride :), she would be using one of my spinning set ups and I would be using spinning/baitcaster setups. Thank you for all of your help, this is the absolute nicest thing anyone has ever done for me as a gift and I cannot explain how excited I am to experience this with her!