Lake Taneycomo Fishing Report - Branson, MO 3/30/09

Boy, it's been tough figuring out our generation patterns lately. It looks like we're entering our first spring rain period where about every 3 or 4 days a front and shower move through the area. Man I feel for the people up in North Dakota... we were there just about a year ago. This year though our lakes are at power pool levels -- a good place to start out a possible rainy spring.

Our water has been running alot more than it has not been running the last week. Fronts and showers (and painful memories of April, 2008) are keeping the managers at the Corp second guessing whether they should run alittle today -- or alot! Just like today: their on-line schedule said 3 units in the morning dropping to one unit in the afternoon. In reality they ran 3 units all day... they must have thought, "We better run more water cause we may get more rain than what's forecasted for tonight!" Total speculation on my part. It is frustrating for us guides who have to try to make a plan for the day's trip but we make do.

With the water and wind, fishing- or catching- has been alittle tough. I've seen some anglers in boats anchored in the mouth's of some of our creeks doing rather well. Fall Creek has been a popular place the last few days. I'd say they're tight-lining night crawlers behind the boat. You can tie to or anchor in some of the eddies on the side of the lake or in the mouth of a creek but be extremely careful to think out any possibility that you could come undone and swing into the current. That or your anchor could drag and you could find yourself in heavy current, still with an anchor our. Fast current and anchors lead to serious possibilities. Drifting into downed trees in heavy current is equally as bad. Be very careful!

I have drifted flies on the bottom in the trophy area my last 3 guide trips including 2 full day trips Sunday and Monday and did fairly well. We drifted them two ways... one is straight-line using either a #4 or a 3/0 removable split shot 4-5 feet above the first fly and a second fly tied on in tandem 18 inches from the first. We're using a #12 scud, gray, brown or olive and a #14 red or black zebra. They hit the scud more than the zebra so sometimes we're using two scuds. The other method is under a float. We're fishing the flies 10-12 feet deep. We're also using a pink micro jig, chrome head.

There's only one good area we're finding fish that will bite. This is pretty weird considering I know there are rainbows all over the place in the trophy area. The best drift is over the flat at the Narrows. The Narrows is where the channel swings from the east to the west side of the lake, about a half mile above Fall Creek. There is major bank improvement work being done at this spot- can't miss it. Some of the construction guys cheer us every time we drift by and catch a trout. We drift on down to Fall Creek, picking up one or two on the east side of the lake, off the gravel bar. We're catching alot of rainbows under 12 inches -- so if you're having trout catching 4 to take home and eat, buy you a few scuds and head up to this area and drift a fly instead of power bait and you'll do ok. We did land several over 15 inches too but not many.

Over the weekend, our guests did catch trout below Fall Creek mainly on minnows, night crawlers and gulp power eggs- chartreuse best color. Roark Creek proved to be a great spot to go and get out of the current and catch rainbows too. Jig and float- use a jig head (1/32) and put an orange gulp egg on it and fish it 4 feet deep. You'll do well!

Lake Taneycomo Fishing Report - Branson, MO 3/19/09

Lake Taneycomo

Crazy fish. I still have to remind myself that it's call FISHING, not catching, for a reason. Sara, my oldest daughter, and I fished all day yesterday on Table Rock looking for white bass and crappie and hardly caught a thing. Everyone I know fishing yesterday on Bull and the Rock struggled. Trout fishing, though, was excellent on Taneycomo. It was sunny and mild yesterday. Today it's cloudy with alittle breeze and I guess fishing is awesome on Table Rock, at least. Report to follow after Babler calls me back.

Sorry for the delay in reporting. It's been a zoo here at the resort plus lots of extracurricular activities with NAIA basketball here at College of the Ozarks.

Generation, well, for the most part it's been off- none. Today however, the Corp is making themselves liars. On their on-line chart it says no generation today but they're still running 2 units as I type mid-day. So who knows. I'd say little chance of much generation through the weekend.

Trout fishing on Taneycomo has been fair up until yesterday. Fishing slowed down for most from Monkey Island through the Landing except for a few reports of catching larger rainbows around the 65 bridge and the Fish House structure at the Landing. The area in front of our dock has been alittle slow although some of our guests are catching a few from the dock. But the area between Short and Fall Creek is on fire, according to our guides who fished with night crawlers yesterday and reported catching some nice limits of rainbows.

Above Fall Creek in the trophy area it's been very good. Jig and float using either micro jigs or marabou jigs in olive, sculpin, brown/orange are the ticket. Lots of 10-16 inch rainbows being caught everyday. Alittle breeze helps- look for the chop on the water and go there! Use 2 pound line for more hook ups.

Below the dam, again HOT! A friend landed five, yes five! rainbows over 20 inches just yesterday. Small scuds- #18 in gray shades dead drifting them throw feeding rainbows. Sight fishing is possible now that the water is gin clear again. Midge fishing down by the boat ramp has been great in the afternoons and evenings using a crackleback or zebra midge.

The lake has been busy, to say the least. Spring breakers are enjoying incredible spring weather and the trout are cooperating!

Fishing Report - Branson, MO 3-10-09

Generation patterns changed as of last Saturday. For the past 3 days, the Corp has run about one units 24 hours a day. Not sure what that's all about! It's made wading below the dam challenging but fishing's great!

Bill Babler had a trip today (Monday). They drifted from Andy's (Williams) house down to Fall Creek with a float rig. I float rig is a jig or fly and float, set about 7 feet deep. The jig would be a pink micro jig and fly would be a #12 or #14 scud (gray, olive or brown). The jig needs no extra weight but the fly, unless it's weighted, needs a small split shot. Getting to the bottom is essential to get bit. That's why he fishes it 7 feet deep when the water may only be 4-6 feet deep.

They were also using an egg fly tied on a small jig head. Peach or roe was the color. Again, this was drifted on the bottom under a float, although you can also fish it without a float using a small split shot to get it down to the bottom.

Babler said they caught probably 70 rainbows this morning and missed that many more.

In the same area, while drifting, cast and work a small 1/16h oz sculpin jig off the bottom. Don't reel, just work the rod tip slowly up and down. They've been hitting the jig pretty hard.

Below Fall Creek, Gulp Power Eggs drifted on the bottom has been the easiest and best way to catch rainbows. Use a drift rig or just a hook and split shot, #4 lb line best. Use a white egg along with another color - pink, orange or yellow. Night crawlers also are a great live bait. Use a #8 or #6 bronze short shanked hook (#89) and hook the worm once about where the collar is,letting the worm hang off both sides of the hook. Don't have to hide the hook at all- trout don't seem to care about it. When drifting, hold the rod up high and watch the tip of the rod. The bottom will hold and let go, hold and let go. A fish will hold-pull and keep pulling. Don't apply too much pressure -- allow the fish to pull the rod tip down till it's close to the water, then set the hook. This lets the trout get the worm (and hook) in it's mouth well enough to catch him.

Stay in the middle of the lake when drifting. If you get too close to the sides, you'll lose alot of rigs to down trees.

Trolling with small crank baits or small spoons has been catching alot of trout too. Trollers usually stay down below Cooper Creek because the lake is much wider and their line isn't in the way of boat traffic as much. Casting spoons around the bridges and the Landing has been good too. Seems like there's alot of rainbows around the Fish House and Shorty Smalls lately.

Lake Taneycomo Fishing Report - Branson, MO 3/5/09

Without rain this past couple of weeks, our lakes are finally down to power pool and for the first time in more than 2 weeks, we saw a day of no generation yesterday (Sunday, 3/1). Today's generation schedule may look like days to come here on Taneycomo -- generation for half and no generation for the other half day... that would be a nice change for everyone!

The 12th annual Team Trout Tournament was held out of Lilleys' Landing Resort and Marina on Saturday, yes in the cold, wind and snowy conditions. And yes we had a good showing for the event.

It was a tough morning for everyone. The first place team had only 2 trout in the boat at noon. Some called it quits because of the poor fishing and conditions but those who stuck it out had a good afternoon of catching.

Snow early and some wind even kept a few teams from starting until after 9 am! But 34 teams showed up and fished our little tournament.

Stopped snowing about 9:30 am but started again about 1 pm and that's when the trout started to bite.

Gerry and Bob Dwiggins of St Charles have proven once again that they are the guys to beat here on Taneycomo. Gerry is a 4 or 5 time winner of the Masters including this year with his partner Bruce Wucher. At the RAW a few weeks ago, Bob won with his partner Bill. This weekend is was all Dwiggins- both Gerry and Bob teamed up to win.

They are jig fisherman- period. No bait-- no never. Even in the RAW where bait was allowed they stuck with their jigs and caught good trout.

"If it wasn't on the bottom, you didn't get bit", Gerry told me after the weigh in.

Two more jig fisherman who have shared the podium are JD and Jerry Dudley of Fayetteville, Ar. They took 2nd place with Jerry catching the big rainbow- 1.48 pounds. I was sweating the finish after weighing in 3 rainbows at 1.30 pounds, fearing a tie would cause a stir. No tie break rules were in place for a 3-way tie so when Jerry brought his 1.48 lb rainbow up I was relieved.

Chris Tettrick and Tony Weldele, both local guides, took third place.

Last week, trout fishing was fairly consistent -- I'd call it good. Anglers were drifting Gulp eggs from the old Riverlake Resort down past Lilleys' and as long as they kept the bait on the bottom, they caught trout. The size of rainbows are running smaller than in past weeks. As I was telling a friend yesterday, MDC stocks their trout in the downtown area on Branson. When they stock, their loads are the same size rainbows. For the year last year they averaged about 10.5 inches but averages mean some are smaller and some are bigger. These were smaller. Normal movement for a trout is to swim upstream and they seem to do that -- all the way up into the trophy area. It usually takes a few days, then I believe they cycle around the upper 5-6 miles of the lake until their either caught or find a place to settle. This is purely my guess -- nothing scientific about it.

So... generation patterns may look like today's generation for the rest of the week -- generation in the am and off in the pm. When the temps hit the 70's later in the week, we may see no generation at all during the day but don't hold me to it.

Fishing patterns: water on -- drift power eggs on the bottom or bounce jigs off the bottom. Fishing for bigger trout and especially brown trout -- medium to large stick baits worked against bluff banks and down trees and other structure. Minnows are still doing pretty good, drifting them on the bottom or anchoring in an eddie and fishing them out the back of the boat - but again be extremely careful when anchoring. Don't anchor in moving water because it is dangerous. Anchor can and will pull a boat under the water in current. Water off -- air injected night crawlers fished on the bottom not in the channel but just off the channel. Jig and float using an olive 1/100th oz jig under a float 4-6 feet deep.

Vince Elfrink, one of our guides, yesterday had a couple of gentleman out while the water was off and they did really well using this technique. Vince said they had multiple doubles on, catching dozens of rainbows on both olive and pink jigs. They were using fly rods but you can use a spin rig just as easy. Catch more trout -- use 2-pound line, but it's not necessary. They were fishing in the trophy area but you can use a jig and float any place on the lake.

Also in the trophy area, #16 or #18 tan or brown scuds fished on the bottom using a fly rod should be hot-hot-hot! Use 6x tippet and either a weighed scud or a small split shot and let it go to the bottom, twitching it every 5 seconds making the bug hope off the bottom. Fish it not in the channel but up on the gravel flats. Also is you see midging rainbows, toss a zebra midge at them, under an indicator 12 inches. The scud- also use an indicator but make sure you fish it deep enough to get to the bottom.

There are schools of small rainbows cruising the edge of the flats above Fall Creek, small, freshly stocked rainbows that are sticking together, swarming anything that moves. Throw a red #16 zebra midge in front of them using a palsa indicator and set the fly about 24 inches deep and watch them attack the zebra AND the indicator like banchies- it's fun if you just like catching fish after fish. We're doing this while the water is down, of course. We do catch an occasional nice rainbow who slips into the gang.

Night fly fishing has been very good this week, reports Duane Doty. They're fishing from the cable down to the point at Big Hole and catching alot of trout stripping leeches. He said they caught alot of small rainbows close to the cable but got into bigger rainbows down towards the point.

Fall Creek continues to work on shoring up their bank upstream from their boat ramp. Last spring, flood waters ate away at the bank under one of their condos, making it uninhabitable. It appears they are going to keep adding chunk rock to this road they've created until the level reaches above flood levels. Whatever their plans, it's going to be tons of rock at I'm sure a big expense.