Taneycomo Troutfest

Guide Bill Babler with a pretty Taneycomo brown trout, one of
many browns and rainbows that couldn't resists a Rebel Tracdown
Ghost Minnow today.

Yesterday I talked about my excitement about the return of the Rebel Tracdown Ghost Minnow and mentioned that I had one tied on for today's fishing. Well, when I got off the water this afternoon, the same bait was tied to the same rod (as was a larger Tracdown Minnow I had tied on another rod). I fished those two rods and two baits exclusively today and caught rainbows and browns all day. No giants, but plenty of stout pretty fish like the brown in the photo, which is being held by guide Bill Babler.

Babler, who has been guiding in this area for more than three decades, definitely knew where to take Lawrence Taylor of Rebel Lures and where we needed to aim our casts. We covered a lot of water today, but he took us to very specific stretches of bank that Babler considered right for our jerkbait approach or where he felt like we had a better-than-average big fish opportunity. I fished the Tracdown Ghost Minnow exclusively after lunch and was thrilled with the way it darts and with the way the small barbless trebles hook and hold trout. Ironically, the one best fish I lost today was on the larger Tracdown Minnow, which has regular barbed trebles. A 17- or 18-inch brown did two big jumps and on the second jump we had a parting of ways.

I've really enjoyed a couple of days of fishing at Lake Taneycomo and my stay at Lilleys' Landing Resort & Marina. Taneycomo is a special trout fishery, with tremendous numbers of fish, good overall quality, and the ever-present possibility of a genuine giant. It's somewhere I hope to get to know far better over time.

Ghost Minnow Return

I have to tell you that I'm pretty excited about the return of the Rebel Tracdown Ghost Minnow. There may not be another single lure that I've caught more trout on than a Ghost Minnow in its original form, and it has been out of production for several years. The returned version is slightly modified and has enhanced new colors.

Most notably, though, it comes with barbless hooks, like some of the other lures Rebel has come out with lately. That means I can use it in barbless hook/artificial lure streams, which is important because my 10-year-old and I are making a huge western swing, the #RebelTroutTrek, this summer, and many of the best streams in much of the West allow only barbless hooks.

I admittedly got caught up in the Taneycomo jig craze today and was enjoying learning the proper technique, so I waited too long to tie on my new Ghost Minnow. I did get to see it in the water, though, and it looks great, and you can bet it's in tomorrow's starting line-up. The Ghost Minnow is a slow sinker with a tight wiggle that darts erratically when you twitch it, and it's an absolute gem for catching trout!

Arrived & Trout Ready

After 900 miles of driving from Pennsylvania, Lilleys' Landing Resort & Marina was welcoming, and I can't claim that I minded the 60-degree air that helped with the greeting. A beautiful resort on the banks of Lake Taneycomo, Lilleys is the host site of a writers event that I'll be part of this week. After a bit of settling, the crew took a short ride to Shepherd of the Hills Hatchery, at the base of Table Rock Dam, where we toured the hatchery and enjoyed barbecue.

It was cool seeing the starting place for the 700,000 or so trout that get stocked into Lake Taneycomo every year. The hatchery takes the trout from eggs all the way to 12-inch stockers, a process that takes about a year and a half, so we got to see the specialized inside tanks where they carefully control conditions and feed teeny weeny trout.

Tomorrow we fish, and I'm very ready. I have baits tied on three rods, ideally to spare tying in the morning when the air is cold, but we'll see how much water is flowing, what type of water our guide takes us to and what he thinks about my "starting line-up."

Now I should rest. Reports to follow!

Complicated Packing

My next two fishing trips are to Pennsylvania to ice fish for crappie and various other species and to Missouri to fish for trout on Lake Taneycomo. Consecutive trips that are dissimilar in character happen a fair amount for me, and I'm used to those. What complicates these trips is that they are aren't quite back-to-back, but they are close enough to one another, date-wise, that going home between trips kind of doesn't make sense. Geography doesn't help either. They are neither near one another, so it would be obvious that I should stay in the area, nor in the opposite direction where home is in between anyway. Instead, home and the two locations make a giant triangle.

As of now, I remain undecided about whether to just link trips and fill the days in-between with other fishing or drive home for a couple of days. One giant trip is my leaning today, but it might be different tomorrow. However, if I want to make that an option, I need to tote along stuff for both trips and enough clothes to last me a week and a half. So today, along with filling a duffel very full with a big variety of stuff, I've been gathering everything from ice gear to trout fishing waders. Because the trips are so different in character and gear needs, the car will likely look like it's packed for a month of travel.

Of course any time I'm packing, even for a single trip, I wonder what important thing I will forget. And naturally I figure it out about the time I need it. Two trips in one equals twice that risk. I guess I'll find out eventually how good (or bad) a job I did!

To Branson & Back & Branson & Back

Tomorrow I hop on a plane out of Atlanta to fly to Branson, Missouri for a writers' event at Big Cedar Lodge on Table Rock Lake. This is a fun and productive event that I've attended before, where I get the opportunity to do interviews and photo work with top pros like Kevin VanDam, Rick Clunn and Edwin Evers, using the beautiful backdrop of an Ozarks lake and enjoying the comforts of an outstanding resort. The weather forecast looks good, so I expect to get a lot done in only a few days.
I get home from Branson on Wednesday night, and then on Sunday morning, Nathaniel and I hop in the truck and begin driving back toward Branson! Actually, we'll drive first to the Buffalo River in northern Arkansas, where we're looking forward to a couple days of float-fishing with friends. The main objective of the trip, though, is to attend the Southeastern Outdoor Press Association's annual conference in Branson.

While we're in Branson, Nathaniel and I are looking forward to trout fishing on Lake Taneycomo. I've long heard about the fine trout fishing on these waters, but I've never fished there.