Fishing Report on Lake Taneycomo in Branson 2/15/09

Rain, rain, rain... have we had enough of the wet stuff for a while? After last year's record floods here in the Ozarks, each rain event now has us all sitting alittle uneasy. By the looks of things, the Corp isn't going to let our lakes get much higher than power pool levels. All four White River Lakes jumped over power pool-

Beaver - 1121.8 ~ 1.4 feet over

Table Rock - 916.5 ~ 1.5 feet over

Bull Shoals - 567.6 ~ 3.6 feet over

Norfork - 555.7 ~ 3.7 feet over

It appears the plan is to get them down as quickly as possible thus lots of generation for the tailwaters. Beaver isn't running too much, Table Rock is generating all 4 units, Bull Shoals is running 7 units and Norfork 2 units during the day. We should expect the same till lake levels draw close to power pool.

For Taneycomo, that means heavy generation for at least 4 or 5 days. By next weekend, we should see a repreive to at least portions of the day seeing less than full tilt to no generation during the middle of the day. That's been the pattern at least. Just don't hold me to it. You never know with the Corp. In their behalf, they have a very hard job guessing what mother nature is going to throw at us.

I've been getting out pretty much everyday, boating to the dam and fishing the high water using, of course, white jigs. This isn't the only technique that's catching fish at the dam. Drifting a variety of flies is working too as well as small crank baits and spoons. Scuds, which is a freshwater shrimp pattern. When the water is down, we use smaller sizes but with this volumn of water, the size is bumped up. Scuds in #14's to #10's -- gray, olive and tan. San Juan worm in red, brown and tan. Egg flies in peach, yellow, white and fl. orange. Anything you use here has to be on the bottom - that's where the fish are holding. Sometimes they will come up for a floating shad but for the most part, they're on the bottom holding out of the current.

I believe there was a run of thread fin shad that flowed through the turbines at Table Rock dam late last week, a tasty meal for our trout below the dam. I don't think it was a big run but big enough to trigger a feeding frenzy, hitting anything white we threw at them. For the first part of this week, fishing was great. Lots of nice rainbows and a few browns all caught on white jigs. Now that they're running all 4 units, it's gotten alittle tougher simply because it's harder to get a jig down to the bottom and harder to feel the bite. Add cold wind and it really gets tough.

The frequency shad come through the dam is unknown. There's not a pattern or circumstance that we can watch and guess when this may happen. But there's a good chance we may see spirts of shad flow through for the next month or we may not see any more shad. We'll see.

Below Fall Creek, boaters are still doing well drifting Gulp eggs, night crawlers and minnows. But the best fishing seems to be down lake from Monkey Island down through the bridges. One good reason is the volumn of water we're seeing. That and this is the area where most of the rainbows are stocked. Bill Babler fished with a client the other day. They tried up below the dam for a couple of hours and did fair. It was when the wind was blowing uplake, making it hard for the client to feel the bites. So they boated down to the Landing and caught some real nice rainbows using a jig and float, setting the jig 5-6 feet deep. Bill likes using pink jigs... because the do work.

Rainbows are still running good size. We're still catching quite a few male rainbows. Not seeing many browns, even at the dam.

Lake Taneycomo Fishing Report - Branson 2/8/09

Can you believe this weather? What a reprieve from the bitter winter ice storm we all had just 2 weeks ago. Mild temperatures brought out the fisherpeople over the weekend, at least here on Lake Taneycomo. But our trout didn't mind cause they still bit pretty good.

Generation has been anyone's guess. Water was off for most of the week last week but lake levels rose an average of 2 feet as the ice melted so the Corp saw the need to run 2 units for most of the weekend. Anglers who were coming to wade below the dam Saturday and Sunday were not happy. They were confined to the outlets for thier fishing unless they gave in and rented a boat. Looks like this trend may continue this week with some water running most of the day until lake levels drop a bit (Table Rock).

I think our trout have seen some thread fin shad come through the dam from Table Rock Lake. I understand TR's water temp dipped below 40 degrees last week and that usually triggers a shad kill. Shad get sucked thru the turbines at Table Rock Dam and into Taneycomo and our trout absolutely LOVE them. Consequently, they will hit almost anything white and shiny. I prefer to throw white 1/8th oz jigs and I did this evening for a couple of hours before dark.

I boated to the dam about 4:30 pm today. The warm weather was way too inviting not to go out. Very little wind and I'd say less than 2 units running, I started with a white 1/8th oz jigs at the cable. Not much at first, broke off the white jig on the bottom so I grabbed my other rod which had a sculpin 1/8th oz jig on it and began throwing it. Caught a couple of rainbows on the first drift down... I noticed the water dropping so I didn't drift past rebar hole- boated back up to the cable to try that stretch again. I really like throwing a white jig simply because I believe I have a better chance to catch a brown trout than throwing any other color so I tied a white jig back on. Glad I did. The trout wouldn't leave it alone! Bites on every cast and fish-on on almost every cast.

As I drifted past rebar, I kept hitting the trolling motor to slow myself down. I wanted to fish as much as this water as I could. Pulled in behind the root wad that sits in the channel below rebar and casted out in the channel there for a while, catching 5 or 6 rainbows and one brown. I should have taken a pic or two of some of the trout- they were nice, 15 inch plus and colored up beautifully. But I couldn't stop fishing... just too good and I was hoping for a bigger fish to take the jig.

Drifted on down to the KOA (now Trophy Run Development) and kept hooking rainbows plus 2 more browns. Talked to Rich Looten before heading in for the night.

The water never did shut down like I thought it might. Kept running one unit which was perfect.

This weekend, the guys and gals were doing real well throwing "hardware", or spoons, spinners and crankbaits. "Lots of trolling going on", someone in our shop reported Saturday afternoon. That was part of our recommendation to our guests was to troll slowly with Cleos, Spin-a-Lures and F-5 or F-7 Rapalas. But don't limit yourself just to Rapalas... try whatever you have in your tackle box. Troll from Monkey Island down past Branson and even down around Rockaway Beach. There seems to be alot of trout in the lake right now... all over the place.

I reported last week that we had alot of really nice rainbows weighed in at our fishing tournament last Saturday. We hosted another fishing tournament this weekend but this time is was a private contest with a few more entries- 39 teams. Although I think the weather and water conditions were better for fishing (catching), the trout didn't agree. Better: water was running slightly, cloudy and some wind. Not as good: Sunny, no water and not much wind (the Saturday before). Everyone caught trout... still heavier trout than in years past but not as heavy as last Saturday's weights. Here's the top totals:

1- Bob Dwiggins and Bill Freise won with 8.94 pounds

2- Knopfel and Niemoeler with 8.34

3- Jerry Dudley and Colton Neel - 8.28

4- Gerry Dwiggins and Bruce Wucher - 8.24

5- Riffel and Whiteman - 8-12

6- Neel and Merget - 7.98

7- Greifzu and Johnston - 7.92

8- Greifzu and Regot - 7.64

9- Burckhardt and Biermann - 7.54

10- Wehnert and Wehnert - 7.46

Eight trout were weighed. No keeper brown trout were caught. Big rainbow was a 2.86 lb caught by the Riffel/Whiteman team. Five more teams weighed in over 7 pounds and 8 teams over 6 pounds.

Most of the trout were caught either trolling or casting lures although live bait was legal at this contest.

With the water running, Bill Beck reported drifted egg flies on the bottom from Lookout to Fall Creek and catching alot of nice rainbows today. Peach and yellow are the best colors. Just use a split shot to get it to the bottom. With only 2 units or less running, the current isn't that fast and it isn't that deep so you don't need alot of weight.

Same thing from Fall Creek down - drift a Gulp Power Egg on the bottom using a split shot. Use a white and another color on the same hook- pink, orange or yellow. Also try a night crawler or a minnow using the same rig. When the water stops, same rig, shoot some air into a night crawler and fish it tight-line on the bottom, casting it just off the channel on the flat side of the lake.

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Branson Trout Unlimited Chapter Meeting in Springfield Feb 10th

Our local Trout Unlimited Chapter is hosting an informative meeting 7 p.m. Feb 10 at the MDC Springfield Nature Center in south Springfield. Brian Sloss is a guide and outfitter on the Elevenpoint River. He knows the river like no other. OzarkAnglers is sponsoring the event.

If you're not familiar with the Elevenpoint, it's located in south central Missouri and runs through Mark Twain National Forest. It's fed by some of the largest springs in the state and has some incredible cold and warm water fishing. It's stocked with rainbow trout and also has a very good population of smallmouth bass.

Our next meeting will be at the Springfield Nature Center. At 7 p.m. Thursday, March 5, Bill Babler and friends will talk on bass and all other fishing on Table Rock Lake.

Lake Taneycomo Fishing Report 2/2/09

Guessing generation seems to be the biggest question we get here at Lilleys’ Landing Resort in Branson, Missouri. It’s hard but not impossible. We look at past patterns, like last week and this weekend. Last week’s temperatures were cold but not sub zero. Most of the time they were hovering around 30 degrees. Generation was moderate with a few down times but not many. The weekend- warm temps and no generation. This week- 50’s and 60’s starting Thursday through the weekend so I’d say very little generation and lots of down water. If there’s any generation it will be like from 7 am till 9 or 10 am and then a little in the evening.

Last week I reported seeing lots of nice rainbows. This past weekend, the Masters Trout Tournament proved the reports right on. We have never seen average weights at any trout tournament on Taneycomo like Saturday’s, never! Here’s the weights (8 trout):

Dwiggins/Wucher - 11.22 with a 4.12 lb rainbow (Gerry Dwiggins)

2. Lutz/Fitshenery - 10.92

3. Allen/Allen - 9.92

4. Canter/Canter - 9.40

Gregg/Peele - 9.04

Dudley/Neal - 8.96

Weldele/Cross - 8.70

Boswell/Kalkbrenner - 8.68

Burckhardt/Black - 8.64

Daniels/Hattfield - 8.54

R Dwiggins/Freise - 8.38

Backer/Godefroid - 7.90

Hittler/Dietl - 7.68

Beam/Topolsky - 7.62

Rasnick/Rasnick - 7.46

Slagle/Hunter - 7.16

Cartwright/Sullivan - 7.04

Hawkins/Hawkins - 7.04

Bracy/Bracy - 6.38

Steuck/Billings - 6.14

Ray/Fricke - 5.74

Fuhrman/Taylor - 5.56

Dressel/Kotomos - 5.12

Wheeler/Wheeler - 5.02

Shepherd of the Hills Hatchery must have stocked a bunch of nice trout here in the last few weeks downstream. Most of them are still down around the bridges but they are slowly making their way up.

Guys in the tournament caught a majority of their trout down. One team trolled crank baits and spoons (like cleos) all day between the highway 65 bridge and the business 65 bridge. Others threw an 1/8th oz jig straight, no float, and works the docks on either side of the lake around the bridges. But some of the good rainbows were caught further uplake - around Fall Creek and Short Creek and around the resorts like Cooper Creek.

In short, fishing was very good on Saturday.

Now today (Monday, 2/1/09), fishing was alittle slow. OK — real slow by my standards. Another blue bird day with little wind, but running water which I was looking forward to fishing. Two units this morning early (7:30 am) backing off to about 1.5 units by 9 am. Boated to the dam and started with, yes, an 1/8th oz white jig. Was catching trout on them a couple of weeks ago and heard there may be some shad coming through the dam so white jig was the logical choice. Water running perfect - white jigs - I’m excited! But the trout were not. Not a bite first drift, not until almost the boat ramp. Then I picked up a couple of rainbows before heading back up.

Second drift, nothing again till the Big Hole area where I picked up another rainbow, this time a nice rainbow (pic). Better drift but still not up to par. Drifted down to past Lookout thinking they might wake up and did fair. Nothing large but did see a couple of those big, dark males we’ve been talking about.

Back to the dam and tried a sculpin colored jig, then purple, then back to white. All they’d look at was a white jig. Just an off day. It happens.

If I were getting out and fishing below Fall Creek with bait, I’d for sure bring a minnow bucket and drift a minnow on the bottom right down the middle of the lake. I like a challenge and fishing minnows and night crawlers is a challenge — to me anyhow. May be I make it a challenge by the way I rig the baits. Using a minnow, I hook it through the lower lip and up in to and through the upper lip. The challenge is hooking the trout as he’s trying to suck the minnow off the hook. I hold my rod high while drifting so when the bite starts, I can let the rod down as the trout is tugging at the minnow. After letting the rod tip down most of the way, I set the hook. Same with the night crawler. I hook it through the collar and break the worm in half, letting the worm dangle off both sides of the hook. Letting the trout take the worm gives me a better chance at hooking it.

Power Gulp Eggs, you don’t have to let the trout have it at all. Set the hook immediately. Don’t wait a second.

Fishing with Phil

Vince and I boated to the Narrows about a mile above Fall
Creek. Water was off, temp dropping and wind stiff out of the north at 15 mph at 2 pm. The only thing we could do is use a jig and float. Vince had his fly rod and me my spin cast.

We set the boat up on the shallow flat in about 2 ft of water and cast to the deeper side but still not much more than 3 to 3.5 feet. Even with the waves almost breaking over, we could see rainbows all over the place slashing and jumping- they were very active. Vince started with an olive 1/80th oz jig and I with a white 1/50th oz. Vince had a couple before I got my first. It was a white bass- about 3/4 lb. I saw others but they schooled on by.

The wind was really moving us, too fast to catch fish so I threw out an anchor and we really started to nail them. We both hooked some really nice rainbows, lost several but landed a few along with other trout. All rainbows. All were very fat and healthy- lots of color. Caught some males, darken and yellow tinted. We ended it at 4:30- C of O had a couple of B-Ball games and Vince had to get back.

The wind was pretty crazy. It would blow hard and make the water roll, then tame down but the waves kept going. It was rippled so we could see down in and see the rainbow schooling around. We’d throw close enough to see them swarming under the indicator but the float wouldn’t move until, wait…, the float would finally dart. It was fun.

We also tried this- setting the float at 3 feet, we were fishing in less than 3 feet of water. That means the jig was laying on the bottom. I’d hop the float, hopping the jig off the bottom may be 12 inches. When I did this, I’d see one- maybe two- rainbows dart over toward where the jig was, seeing the movement and being drawn to it. I’d do it again and he’d hit it hard.

If we’d used a white jig (we didn’t cause they were on an olive), we would have seen the jig disappear into the trout’s mouth. That’s cool too.

I have to say I was very impressed with the size and fight of these rainbows. I saw others quite a bit bigger than the ones we hooked. I’m excited about our prospects this winter and spring.

Lake Taneycomo Fishing Report Jan 17

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.

Fishing Report December 30, 2008

Got out and fished yesterday from about 1-5 pm with Tom Burckhardt from St Charles. He's one of our tournament buddies. First we fished from Fall Creek to Short Creek, working both jigs on the bottom straight and jigs under a float. Didn't have much luck with the float but did catch a few on straight-lining... but it was slow. Tom and the other 2 guys, Bob and Gerry Dwiggins, also from St Charles, did well in the am in the same areas but the pm was slow. Quite a bit of boat traffic- not horrible but enough it may have kept the trout moving around.

Tom and I boated up to Andy's (lookout) and started there on the second drift. No water mind you, just working the trolling motor. We did much better and as the sun dropped below the trees, it got good. Didn't find a special color- I caught rainbows on white, olive, sculpin and purple. Tom stuck with sculpin/little bit of ginger and did better than I. The best was working a jig under a float there at the last 30 minutes of the day- they wouldn't leave it alone.

Tom ties a scud of sorts on a 1/80th oz jig. Dubbed body with a pine squirrel tail, brown head. He isn't a fly fisherman at all but is a very good jig fisherman. I've seen this pattern but Tom proved to me it's something to seriously experiment with in the near future. He used it under a float.

Water yesterday- lower section was colored. I could see a jig 18 inches down. At Lookout - 30 inches. But it will change today- they are running water as I type. Not much but it will push clear water down the lake. How far is yet to be seen.

I did see people catching fish on both gulp eggs and night crawlers below Fall Creek. It wasn't hot but at least they were catching some for the dinner table.

-Phil Lilley