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.
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