1st Annual Guns and Hoses Fishing Tournament

What: A fishing tournament on Lake Taneycomo in Branson, Missouri sponsored by Lilleys' Landing Resort and Marina

Why: To raise money for the Branson Fire and Police auxiliary funds to help support our community. Where: Lilleys’ Landing Resort & Marina, 367 River Lane, Branson, MO A free lunch will be provided after the weigh-in!

When: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, August 29th, 2009 Enter your two-man team by emailing Megan@lilleyslanding.com for an entry form. Then drop off or mail in your completed copy of the entry form and your $75 entry fee to Branson Fire and Rescue attn: Kory Klein, 110 Crosby Street, Branson, MO 65616 Prizes will be awarded for 1st through 3rd places and big fish. Each boat that enters will get a raffle ticket, and additional raffle tickets can be purchased for $5. If you register before the tournament day, you also get an extra raffle ticket! 50% off boat rentals will be provided by Lilleys’ Landing for tournament teams. 

To reserve a boat rental call 417-334-6380. If you need any assistance contact Kory Klein (417) 294-3319

Lake Taneycomo Fishing Report 6/28/09 - Branson, MO

Another glorious week has passed here on Lake Taneycomo. It's been hot! Temperatures have hovered close to 100 each day but I can honestly say the trout fishing has been equally hot as well.

Doesn't matter what part of the upper lake we're talking about, fishing has been good this week. Can't say as much for the boating skills, or may be I should say etiquette, on the lake. It's amazing how some boaters don't have a clue what boating rules are, rules like we have on out streets, roads and highways. Rules, if you break them, can cause damage and injury, tickets and citations. If everyone practiced one thing, just one thing, they'd improve their safe boating skills by 100%. That simple one thing is watch your wake. That and steer clear of fishing lines. Wakes cause boats to rock, cause some boats to actually take on water. They throw people around in the surrounding boats, they knock fishing gear from their perches, they cause stress. And it all can be avoided. The bigger your boat, the bigger your wake. Going slow actually does more harm than going fast but that doesn't give you the right to fly by boats in close quarters. Idle speed means just that, put it in gear and don't accelerate.

Yes, there's a reason I'm bringing it up. Yesterday I had a group of boys out fishing above Short Creek. There were three jon boats with an adult and 3 boys, most of them under the age of 10, in each boat. We were anchored well off the channel, allowing boats plenty of room to boat by. There were other boats up and down the lake pretty much doing the same thing. Most boats heading up and down the lake were safe boaters, moving through at slow speeds as to not to throw big wakes at us. But there was one boat that didn't slow down and he didn't keep a safe distance from our first boat in line. He buzzed by within 20 feet of our boat. He even had a small boy with him. I yelled to slow down and I got a hand jester like, "what's the big deal"? Put the shoes on the other foot- had someone did that to him, he'd be ticked. Bottom line, he put those boys in danger by his boating practice and the awful thing about it he knew no different.

Fishing... sorry for the soap box episode.

We did catch trout yesterday. We floated night crawlers and did real well. All nine of the boys caught at least one rainbow and some caught their limit of 4 rainbows. We used 4 pound line, #6 short shanked #89 hooks, #7 split shots set 18 inches above the hook and used half a night crawler, hooked once in the middle, letting it hang off each side. Don't worry about hiding the hook. Shoot some air in the worm using a blow bottle or a hypodermic needle. This floats the worm off the bottom 18 inches. You'll get more bites, faster bites using this technique verses no air at all, just letting it lay on the bottom. Night crawler fishing between Fall Creek and Short Creek has been excellent early in the morning.

Oh yea- did I mention generation? The only generation we've seen has been from about 2-3 pm till dark, running up the lake about 6 feet or 3-4 units and then dropping out about the time they get it up and rolling. Up slow and then back down slow. Interesting pattern. Now this coming week, we might see a bit of a change. With temperature dropping to the upper 80's and low 90's, we may see days with no generation at all.

Lincoln Hunt, a good friend of ours from Dallas, is up for a visit. He likes to wet wade below the dam (no waders, saddles or just wading boats). He's been up there almost everyday this week hammering the rainbows. He's using mainly #20 black zebra midges under a dry fly indicator about 12 inches deep. I got up there one day this past week and caught a nice 18 inch rainbow on a #16 olive elk hair caddis but it was the only taker on the caddis. The best area, reported Lincoln, was below Rebar.

I've also heard using small scuds - #20's - have been working well in the Rebar Hole but you got to get there early - 6 am - to get a good spot. If you get there too late, you might be referred to as a slob for not getting out of bed before dawn. Sorry- inside joke.

Get out in a boat and run above Fall Creek into the trophy area for some great jig and float action. Best jig is still the tan 1/256th oz micro jig although that little brown jig Vince tied for me has done well too. It's a jig he tied himself but he got the jigs from an online store - http://heartlandflygear.com. I ordered and received some of the jig heads and they look marvelous! I've already tried a few, using just a bit of marabou. I think that's the key to these small jigs... you can use too much and these jigs lose their effectiveness. Heartland Fly Gear has an incredible inventory of all sizes of jig heads... plus he's a member of our forum to boot. Check it out.

Again, I'm tying on 2-3 feet of 2 lb Vanish as a tippet. Water is clear and most mornings it's real still. Need that smaller line to attract more bites! And oh yes... the talk is you have to use 7x fluorocarbon below the dam no matter what wet fly you're using. 6x won't cut it. Although I did catch my nice rainbow on 6x but that was a dry. When using a dry, you have to match the size of fly to the size of tippet or you're going to have a twisted mess.

If you catch the water running, don't be scared to throw a medium crank bait like a rapala F-5 or F-7 against the bluff banks below Fall Creek.