Lake Taneycomo Fishing Report 12/3/08

Seems like the Corp is settling into a pattern of generation this week of running water early in the mornings till about 10 am, then shutting it down till 5 pm and running it a bit into the night. This is a pretty typical pattern- they are generating power during peak power demand times of the day/night. On colder nights/mornings, people are kicking their heaters on to warm up the house or office, then cutting them back during the day. Makes sense I guess. The water they're running in the mornings isn't that much and it doesn't take long for it to drop out once they shut it down.

These darker days seem to make the trout bite a bit better. Today, the wind has laid down though so the fish are going to be a little hard to fool and easier to spook. If there's just a little breeze, our trout get active and start looking for stuff to eat. That's why I tell people to seek out choppy surfaces along the lake.

Up below the dam, wade fishing was been great. There's alot of rainbows up there for the catching. Stripping leeches and buggers in earth colors (brown, olive, black, purple, dark red) #10's to #6's in deeper pools (from the cable half way down to outlet #2, between #2 to the top of rebar, the big hole area down thru the KOA).

Stripping soft hackles in red, olive, black or yellow #14's and #16's where there's a little current and/or where there's a chop on the surface of the water; stripping a crackle back in lighter colors (white hackle/red, yellow, orange body) #14 in same areas and conditions as soft hackles.

Dry flies #8 stimulator in yellow or orange, #12 olive elk hair caddis, #14 renegades, #14 black ants worked against the banks, especially a bluff or high bank.

Midge larva and pupa fished where rainbows are feeding on midges, either on the surface or under the surface- #20's to #24's thread midge or emergers in cream, brown, olive or red. Either grease the line or use a small indicator but it must be small and light like a palsa not to spook the trout that are feeding. They tend to be either in shallow water or close to the surface when feeding on midges to the line or indicator will scare them easily.

Zebra Midge #14's to #20's in red, black, olive, rust, pearl using a variety of heads, mainly tungsten, fished below an indicator targeting feeding rainbows. Depth of fly depends on trout activity. If they're feeding close to the surface, set the indicator about 10 inches. If not, set it at 2-4 feet.

Scuds and sow bugs #12's to #20's but mainly #16's and #18's in olive, varied shades of gray, tan and brown. Some have been tying a bit of orange in the dubbing imitating a pregnant or dead scud. Either use weighted flies or use a small split shot. Areas- anywhere from the cable down to Fall Creek.

Tippet - 5x-6x for most nymphs (scuds, sow bugs), 4x for most woolies and leeches, 6x for most zebras, and some midges but when using the smallest midges, use 7x, dries- depends on the size of the fly.

Micro jigs, mainly in olive, black and brown. Set the indicator about 4-5 feet deep and seek out choppy water. Marabou jigs will work too. one-eighth to 1/125th oz in sculpin, sculpin/orange, sculpin/ginger, black/yellow, olive, sculpin/olive have been good colors. Areas- anywhere on the lake basically but the best areas have been from Lookout down thru Fall Creek, Fall Creek thru Cooper Creek and even further down to the Landing.

Marabou jigs worked straight-lined without a float, sizes from 1/32nd oz to 1/8th oz, depending on tackle (line size and rod size) and conditions of water and weather. If it's windy, it's hard to work a small jig. Four pound line is standard but some use 2 pound. Six pound it way too big.

Cranks baits like rapalas, pointers and rogues have been working fair. Work them against bluff banks around fallen trees and structure for browns and open water for rainbows. Windy conditions or during generation is best.

Live bait- air injected night crawlers are best. Either drift them on the bottom when water is running or anchor and use them still fishing. Best to anchor close to the banks and off the channel and throw into the channel or up off the channel on the sides. Don't anchor and block channels- will just cause frustration to you and other boaters. Best areas are from Fall Creek to Short Creek.

Gulp Power Eggs are working good too. Use one white and one other color- pink, orange or yellow. Use 4 pound line, preferably green or clear. Use a small split shot to get the bait to the bottom.

Winter fishing on Lake Taneycomo

We're at the end of a very unusual year here in the Ozarks, one that hopefully won't repeat itself any time soon.  Spring flood waters made our fishing season a tough one, continuing into the fall months and disrupting our fall brown trout spawning run.  

Warm water plus low dissolved oxygen issues put alot of stress on our trout, especially up close to the dam but all that is now behind us and we have winter to look forward to.  Cold water heals alot of wounds.

Our trout are in good shape though.  We've seen healthy rainbows caught and released here in the last couple of weeks all over the lake.  Some good stringers of trout have come into the dock for the supper table too.  Most anglers have had good fishing trips here of late.

Our midge population looks to be in great shape.  We've had some awfully good hatches almost every evening and our trout are responding in a big way.  From Fall Creek to the dam on most days, all you can see are trout dimpling the surface of the water, picking off tiny midge flies as the hatch in the film.  Scuds or freshwater shrimp are doing well too.  We observe alot of trout up in the shallows nosing around in the gravel for a bit to eat.

December marks the beginning of great winter trout fishing here on Taneycomo.  Cold yes but fishing is great.  Whether it's a fly rod or spin rod, anglers of all skills can come out and enjoy a day on Taney's water and catch some trout.

Fishing Report

Lilleys' Landing Resort & Marina Fishing Report Nov 08

Lake Taneycomo Fishing Report
Boy, has this been a year of ups and downs . . . well mainly ups -- up in water, that is. Record rainfall and record levels and releases into our area lakes have paid a toll on our fisheries in many ways. Each lake in our system here in southeast Missouri has seen different results, positive and negative, on structure and fisheries, and all of it has been out of our control, for the most part.

Backing up to this past spring, heavy rains sent warm water runoff from all different directions into Table Rock Lake, churning and pushing water around even in the deep depths of the lower lake, mixing the winter cold water on the bottom with the warm spring rain runoff. That’s proved to be the main factor for our water here on Taneycomo now 10 degrees higher than normal, registering in the lower 60s instead of in the lower 50s. Add warm water to the low dissolved oxygen levels -- which we encounter every fall -- and that makes trouble for our trout. How much trouble I’ll address a little later in this article.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has down a stellar job lowering Table Rock’s level back down to power pool. Actually, it’s more than a foot below power pool right now. The question we’re asking is why the need to keep running water during week daylight hours. This past Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the water was off for at least part of the day but not during the week. Anglers who have waited patiently all spring, summer and now fall for a chance to wade the upper end of the lake are still waiting.

We’re hearing mixed reports on fishing and our trout’s condition right now split between two areas – from fly fishermen just below the dam and down farther from anglers in boats below Lookout. Below the dam, we’re seeing pockets of trout that have died either from the adverse conditions and/or from the stress of being caught, handled and released. Some of these trout don’t have a lot of fight to them and are skinny. But anglers report some rainbows and browns look good, fight powerfully and swim off easily. Down farther in the lake, below Lookout, our trout seem to be taking flies well, fighting great and looking very healthy. Quite a contrast.

Our brown trout run has been almost non-existent this year for the first time ever in my memory. No one really knows the reason, but I think the high spring had to have affected the browns. Our rainbows, on the other hand, are already up below the dam spawning in some places. I don’t think spawning is in full swing, by any means, but there are some rainbows up there making beds. We usually don’t see this until December and January.

When the water is running, anglers are doing very well using night crawlers, drifting from Fall Creek to Short Creek and down farther. With the water running so slowly, many are just using small split shots instead of bell sinkers. They stay close to the center of the lake to avoid snags on trees that have fallen in the water off the bluff bank. PowerBait Gulp eggs in white, pink or orange are also doing okay. Actually, eggs and San Juan Worms flies have done well, too, rigged and fished just like worms. Down

farther in the lake, anglers are trolling small spoons and crank baits and catching a lot of freshly stocked rainbows. The Missouri Department of Conservation is still stocking rainbows from the Branson Landing to Lilleys’ Landing, so you’ll find a lot of trout in this area.

Above Fall Creek, we’ve finally started to see some midge action with the lower water. On windy days, stripping soft hackles and wooly buggers up on the shallow flats has produced a lot of rainbows this past week. With the water running or not, rainbows have been keying in on hatching midges and dimpling the surface as far as the eye can see. Drifting a San Juan or scud with a split shot or under an indicator in this same area will also catch a lot of fish.

I’ve been throwing 1/8 to 1/16-ounce jigs from the dam down past Fall Creek and faring well. I switch around to find out what the trout are hitting each time, starting with white then moving to an earth color like brown, sculpin, olive or black.

With the water off, a red San Juan worm fished up below the dam in fairly fast water has been very effective. Scuds size #18’s in gray, tan or olive, have been a close second. Leeches and woolies have produced bites, too.

I’ve seen a lot of anglers taking boats up into the trophy area, beach them get out and wade the shallow flats below Lookout. This is a great way to get away from the crowds and go some fishing. I’ve been seeing rainbows in as little as 6 inches of water along the gravel banks in this area gorging on midges and probably scuds. Being stealthy and making good casts with small midges can be great fun, nailing these trout in these conditions.

For midging or dimpling trout, throw a zebra midge #14 or #16 in reds, olive or black under a small indicator in the area of a rise and give it a few seconds. I love fishing this way- targeting a feeding trout.

I look for Table Rock Lake to turn over the first part of December this winter. This will send cold water to the bottom of Table Rock along with much needed oxygen that we’ll receive in Taneycomo. I look for fishing to be very good throughout the winter.

Fishing Branson

While music shows and amusement parks have drawn vacationers to Branson for decades, the original pull for travelers was the peaceful Ozarks outdoors. Today fishing in the Branson area continues to be a year-round enticement, be it an afternoon off for a traveling businessman or those annual rituals to reunite with family and friends. Because there are three lakes in close proximity -- all part of the old White River system -- the "Tri-Lakes Area" invigorates anglers with daily and seasonal variety.

Lake Taneycomo

Lake Taneycomo is the most diverse fishing lake in the country, sporting world-class rainbow and brown trout as well as bass, crappie and blue gill angling. And the river-like body runs right through the heart of Branson to boot. The upper lake gets its cold water from the bottom of Table Rock Lake -- ideal for trout -- but the water warms enough in the lower lake to host warm-water species of fish.

Between the Missouri Department of Conservation and the federal trout hatchery in Neosho, Missouri, more than 700,000 rainbows are stocked in Lake Taneycomo each year, along with about 15,000 brown trout. These trout are stocked throughout the year, depending on fishing pressure. That puts almost 90,000 rainbows in the lake during each of our summer months. In 1997, the Missouri Department of Conservation designated the upper 3.5 miles of the lake as a trophy area, assigning rules to protect rainbows so that they had time to grow to real trophies. And it has worked! Brown trout lake wide are protected until they are more than 20 inches in length. Rainbows average a whopping 16 inches in the trophy area. N umerous big browns hit the fall spawning run below the dam. Just a couple of years ago, the state record was broken by an angler from Camdenton, Missouri, with a trout weighing in more than 27 pounds.

Lilleys' Landing Resort & Marina, located midway from the dam and downtown Branson, rents bass boats, pontoons and the special White River jons for fishing or boating excursions. Local fishing guides can also be hired out of Lilleys' Landing. The tackle shop carries a full line of tackle including flies and fly fishing gear, lures and line just for fishing Lake Taneycomo. http://lilleyslanding.com

Lake Taneycomo is enjoyed by thousands of anglers each year. From novice to the avid fly fisher, she offers lots of opportunity to catch abundant, quality trout.

Table Rock Lake

There's one word for Table Rock Lake -- fabulous! It boasts incredible scenery along 800 miles of shoreline and even better fishing! Its bass fishing has been called the best in the land by the finest anglers. Its 52,300-acres of smallmouth and spotted bass fishing is second to none.

There are more bass tournaments on Table Rock Lake than any other lake in the Midwest. Why? Because it has some of the best bass fishing, that's why. B.A.S.S. makes a stop here every year. Whether you like blacks, kentuckies, smallmouth or meanmouth bass, Table Rock is the place to come any time of the year.

It also sports great catfish angling, spoonbill in the spring, crappie, white bass, goggleye, walleye and really good blue gill fishing. In the upper reaches, below Beaver Dam, try out the trout fishing!

See http://ozarkanglers.com for more information on Table Rock Lake and its surrounding tributaries such as the James, Kings and Roaring rivers, the Flat and Long creeks and the Beaver Lake tailwater.

Bull Shoals Lake

Bull Shoals is known for its undeveloped shores and serene quiteness . . . except during the white bass run in the spring! Its appearance in the upper lake is that of river, but it quickly turns into a lake in travel downstream. Walleye are plentiful but a little hard to catch. During winter months, walleye move up to the head of the lake and spawn in March. This is the best time to chase a trophy walleye that can weigh up to 20 pounds. White bass and crappie aren't far behind. Feeder creeks fill with spawning whites in April and May, and summer offers crappie and blue gill as well as bass. Most locals like to fish for crappie under the lights at night in late spring and all summer.

Just recently, the new Missouri state record striper was caught below Powersite Dam at the top of Bull Shoals. Bull Shoals isn't know for its stripers, but they are there and there some some big ones!!