Has this been an unusual winter here in the Ozarks... Not really. It's pretty normal for us to have cold spells, even down in the single digits. the nice thing about this part of the country is that these spells generally don't last even long. In a day or two, it's back up in the 40's and 50's, long enough to get out and fish before the next cold front moves through.
On Lake Taneycomo, generation has been fairly consistent. About 2 units on at daylight till about 10 am, then off till dark when they kick on 2 units for about 3-4 hours. Weekends- they tend to leave the water off for longer periods of time, if they run it at all. BUT that's not always the case. Today, Saturday, they ran water all day to the dismay of I bet lots of anglers who made the trip to Taney to wade below the dam. Sometimes I think they just want to tick us off.
Out of boats, we've been drifting egg flies, scuds and san juan worms using a spit shot or drift rig to get them down, drifting them on the bottom all the way down to Fall Creek. San Juans- red or tan; Scuds- gray, olive, brown or tan; and egg flies combinations of peach and yellow. If the water isn't running too hard, using a fly rod set a float 6-9 feet above a fly and use a split shot to get the fly to the bottom. Drift the shallow side of the lake. Spin rig again- work a 1/8th oz jig off the bottom while drifting. Colors- white has been the best by far but should have an olive, sculpin, purple, black or brown/orange ready just in case. Wading with the water running- you're confined to the outlets below the dam. Use scuds, midges and egg flies and watch others to learn how to catch fish. It's really pretty easy if you can find a spot.
Below Fall Creek, you can use the same flies and jigs but you're not confined to artificials. You can use live bait. Some are throwing Rapalas, Rogues and Pointers both in the trophy area and below. Working the bluff banks where trees and brush are just like you'd work it for bass. Jerk the bait down and pause, then jerk some more. Little cloes and spin-a-lures are working too. We sold a bunch today out of our tackle store. Best colors seem to be nickel, gold, reds and blues. Most are casting the out and letting them sink a little, then reeling them back in straight. Some are trolling them slowly behind the boat.
Water off- by boat, the trophy area has been fishing great. Jigs again, either fished with or without a float in the colors mentioned earlier. Straight line- use 3/32 to 1/16th oz and work them off the bottom like fishing for crappie. Under a float use 1/50th to 1/256 in a micro and think about dropping to 2 lb line. Four pound is fine for everything else. Fish the jigs 4-5 feet deep. In the micros, olive with an orange head or pink with a chrome head. Marabou- brown or sculpin with an orange head. Look for the chop... a surface with a croppy surface catches more fish.
Fly fishing below the dam- below the dam, if there's a chop on the water, strip a soft hackle (#16 red, black, white, yellow or green) or a wooly (#12 olive, black, brown, purple, white) or a crackleback (#14 white, gray, brown) or a sculpin or leech in earth colors. My favorite is the san juan in red and I fish them anywhere there's moving water. Scuds (#14-#18 gray, olive, tan, brown or white) also in moving water or fished in the shallow flats where trout are nosing around in the gravel with their tails sticking out of the water. Moving water- between outlets 1 and 2, rebar and below rebar and the rocking chair has several areas where the water is moving fast enough. For stripping soft hackles, woolies or leeches you really don't need moving water.
The area below the boat ramp is seeing quite a bit of surface action and they seem to be taking dry flies pretty good here- even down through the KOA area. Elk Hair Caddis (#14-#18's in olive or yellow) are my favorite. Try dropping a midge under the dry anywhere from 12 to 36 inches.
From a boat, use a weighted scud (#14 - #18 in gray, olive, tan or brown) under an indicator so that the scud is very close to if not on the bottom. I use this technique mostly from Lookout down to Fall Creek and I usually stay in the middle of alittle on the channel side of the lake, trying to put my bug close to if not on the drop off from the flat to the channel. I'll work the fly, moving it 6 to 12 inches, making it jump off the bottom and letting it settle back down like a scud might.
Above or below Fall Creek, we use fly rods when fishing a jig and float all the time. Either micros or marabou jigs fished 4 to 6 feet deep. Again, I like to fish the channel drop down to Short Creek which is about in the middle of the lake. Don't be stick on one depth- if they aren't biting very well, change colors and change depths of the jig.
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