Phil Lilley

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There hasn't been much change in generation and fishing patterns since my last fishing report for Lake Taneycomo. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been turning on their turbines at noon every day and running water through the afternoon, shutting it down about dark. They've been running four units full during the week and two to three units on weekends. Water temperature is holding steady at about 53 degrees and water quality is good. The dissolved oxygen content is good (see chart). It's been foggy on the lake, sometimes not clearing up until late morning. And on cloudy, rainy days, the fog hangs around all day. Boating in the fog is tricky at best. When the water isn't running, you can make headway just moving slowly without getting up on plane. But if the water is running, it's tough without running fast to stay on top of the water -- but then you're running too fast to see someone coming at you. Then there's the fog banks, those dense clouds that look like everything else. You think you can see far, but all of a sudden, you can't. And if someone is just on the other side of the outer cloudy wall, you're in trouble. Then there are the kayaks that now frequently float Taneycomo . . . need I say more? You really can't be a hurry on this lake in the summer. And for the most part, people have been really wise and courteous. Our fishing guides continue to bring in nice limits of rainbows for clients, morning and evenings. And it's the same refrain -- night crawlers and the pink worm. Duane Doty is still throwing his stick baits early in the mornings and catching nice rainbows and a few brown but no monsters in the past couple of weeks. Read my last report for a detailed account on why you should be using two-pound line with our clear water right now. Stitch and Jim frequent the resort spring, summer and fall and are serious about their fishing. Jim told me they started "blowing up" their night crawlers this week and it made a huge difference. Just ask Stitch. She caught this 25-inch brown off the dock one night while fishing with an inflated worm, using two-pound line. Man, what an angler! Not many people have the skill and patience to land a fish like that on two-pound. I fly fished a couple of times this past week, catching fish on small flies - #18's and #20's. I'm using midges and scuds mainly, 7x tippet. I'm not "tearing it up," but the trout I'm catching are good size and in very good health. I'm fishing mostly the trophy area, but early the trout are feeding on midges, so using a zebra midge under a small indicator 12- to 48-inches deep is working around actively feeding rainbows. Target those fish that are rising if you can. Again, 7x tippet is a must. I'd use fluorocarbon, too. And I would stay small --#16 to #20-- and brown has been working good for me. One other thing I wanted to mention pertaining to being responsible for rules and handling trout. Rules: If you put a trout on a stringer, in a basket or in a live well, it's yours and counts toward your daily limit. It is illegal to "cull" or release trout and replace one fish with a bigger fish. Possession limit means how many fish you can have in your possession at any one time. Possession means in your ice chest, in your freezer. Your possession limit is a two-day limit or eight trout. You cannot legally fish for a week and keep your daily limit each day and store them in your freezer. An agent can ask to inspect any place he/she suspects there are illegal fish stored, so no place is exempt from inspection. Last thing. Don't catch, kill and release. If you're bait fishing, most likely the trout you catch will swallow the bait. If you are not going to keep a fish that has swallowed the hook, cut the line and let it go back without touching the fish. It has a much better chance of survival if you do that than to try to dig out the hook. And if you have to handle a trout, use a damp rag. Using a dry rag wipes off the protective slime on a fish's body, exposing it to bacteria in the water. Good Luck! View full article

3 people No license, stamp. No boater's license. Driving a boat under the influence. Over limit. 2 browns under 20 inches. Fishing with bait in the trophy area. Possession of slotted rainbows. Outstanding warrants out of state. I think that's all they got them for...

I thought we had an option to "ignore" someone. I don't know...

What about the fishing?

We need more bass pictures from Taney... might even lure me down there.

I usually start my fishing report by talking about the generation pattern, which really dictates how we chose to fish at any given time. But there's one thing that at least right now is more important if you want success in catching trout on Lake Taneycomo . . . and that's line size. Our water is presently gin clear which means the trout are line weary. Using the right line size in whatever fishing application you're using is very important. For instance, I was fly fishing yesterday morning, using 6x tippet (Rio Powerflex 3.4-pound .005 inch diameter), fishing with a fly called a zebra midge (#16 under an indicator) in the trophy area. The trout weren't having it at all. I switched to 7x tippet (Rio 2.5-pound .004 inch diameter) and immediately started catching fish with the same presentation. You'll see the same results fishing, say, with a pink Powerworm under a float using two-pound line versus four-pound line. And I venture to say, you'd see the same thing using bait fished on the bottom. We talk to anglers all the time, fishing from the dock and in boats, who are having difficulty catching fish. Most have read my reports and watch One Cast but still have not tried two-pound line. It makes a difference... just ask Daniel Sauers. He caught trout off our dock every day last week using Pausky's salmon eggs with gold glitter, a #16 treble hook and two-pound line. He arrived at the dock early, which is another key to catching trout. This beauty was caught off our dock using a night crawlers and was successfully released. The water has been off from basically 9 p.m. through the night and morning each day for the past week. This has given anglers a chance to do some wading and fishing below the dam as well as fishing off any dock or bank. There's no current to deal with. Then generation powers up to four full units in the afternoons until dark. Guide Bill Babler with a client's 27-inch brown caught on a night crawler and then released. Night crawlers continue to be the best live bait. When fishing with crawlers with no generation, throw your line out with a little weight and let it sit on the bottom. We use half a worm, hooking it once in the middle and letting it hang off the hook naturally. We're not balling it up on the hook as done to entice catfish. They bite by smell, but trout mainly bite by sight. We are also injecting the worm with air to make it float off the bottom. This is not essential BUT you will get bit quicker and catch more fish if you float the worm. I've already mentioned the pink Powerworm. Use a small jig head hook and thread the whole worm up on the hook, letting it hang off the hook straight. Straight is important. Use a little super glue to help stick the worm in place; otherwise it will want to slide off. Use two-pound line from the worm to the float. We use a weighted float to help throw the line. Fish the worm anywhere from five- to 10- feet deep, depending on where the fish are hanging. Generally they are up in the water column early in the morning, but as the sun rises, they tend to go deeper. Adjust the depth if you're not getting bit and move around. Fly fishing up in the trophy area by boat yesterday, I did well using a #16 root beer zebra midge under a float three- to five-feet deep using 7x tippet. The other boats up there were also catching fish using flies under a float, probably some kind of midge or beaded scud. I'm still catching trout on a small marabou jig using two-pound line in the mornings in various places. Black has been the best color although I'm throwing sculpin and brown, too, and doing well. When the water generation starts, you'll have to go to a heavier jig -- plus four-pound line is probably necessary. When the water starts running, the trout are not as line shy. Same for drifting bait on the bottom. View full article

One laying on the ground... they should have photoshopped that one out I think

Popular show... I like the way he doesn't take it too seriously. Mya be I need to go down there and see if I can beat his weight. HAHA

I fly fished yesterday afternoon while they were running 3.5 units - lots of water. Sure different now that the water is back up. I like it the way it was. Tried some dries - stimulators, elk hair and emergers. Nothing really looking up yet. Outlet #4 below the dam is usually a good place to find rising trout. I caught 3 there on the emerger - #20 green. But I consider that cheating. And an emerger isn't really a dry either. I'm looking for fish looking up along bluff banks and in eddies. Hopefully this will be a good dry fly season.

We don't have a sign on our dock yet... so you wouldn't know I guess. Our banner signs blew off in a storm this spring. We're slow getting our wood signs made. Fall Creek Marina is the last dock heading upstream on the lake - period. Right or left, there's no docks above it. Fall Creek comes in on the same side of the lake above it about 200 yards. There's a slew up and across the lake from FC's mouth that some people think IS Fall Creek. It is not... it's an island.

Lake Taneycomo is "back to normal" again after Powersite Dam repairs were completed Monday from damage in a high water event back in the spring. An airline was severed by floating debris that connected to one of the gates across the top of the dam. That caused the gate to remain in the down position, putting Taneycomo's lake level about four feet lower than normal. Many areas on the lake were impacted, including Rockaway Beach, and the very upper end of the lake. But now the lake is back to normal with docks that were grounded on mud now floating and stumps and rocks now covered again. Today, our generation pattern is the same it has been these past few weeks: A half unit running during the night and through the morning with up to three units coming online after noon and staying on into the evening. We had anticipated some periods of no generation after the lower dam was fixed -- and we still might see that in the near future -- but not yet. Trout fishing pretty much remains the same as it has been, minus the stress of navigating a boat in certain areas of the lake. If you're in a boat, with the present water running in the mornings, you can boat all the way up to Fall Creek, running mid-lake, with no problems. You can continue all the way to Lookout Island the same way as long as you stay on plain. But going up past Lookout, you'll need to stay in the channel and avoid some boulders up above the Missouri Department of Conservation boat ramp to the cable below the dam. If you don't know this area, I would suggest not venturing past Lookout Island. Our water temperature is holding at about 51 degrees and clarity is very good. There has been some discussion on social media about low dissolved oxygen affecting fishing, but that is not the case at all. Our trout are very active and fight extremely hard when hooked. Here is a chart from the U.S Army Corps of Engineer's site showing real time D.O. levels and water temperature. Fishing off our dock continues to be slow, but if you get out in a boat in front of the dock and up and down our area of the lake, fishing is pretty good. I'm not sure why that is, but it could change at any time. There's one thing we've learned about trout and fishing Lake Taneycomo is that good fishing areas change and move on a daily basis because schools of rainbows move up and down the lake all the time. Freshly stocked rainbows will generally stay together in a big school and eventually break off into smaller schools as time goes on. Trout are stocked on a weekly basis either by truck off a boat ramp or by pontoon boat in various areas of the lake. I believe most of the rainbows stocked are released in the Branson area while some are stocked down at Rockaway Beach and others at Ozark Beach when water temperatures allow it. When fishing from the bank or dock, morning is the only good time due to generation in the afternoons. After the water starts running, it's almost impossible to catch fish in a stationary position. The best fishing starts at daybreak. A boat ride last week proved there are good numbers of rainbows in all these areas as I saw dozens of trout rising to the surface feeding. And throwing a 1/32nd-ounce small black jig around these rising trout produced strikes and hookups -- yes, even down at Ozark Beach at the very lower end of Lake Taneycomo. The water temperature was quite cold even down there. If you're new at catching trout on Taneycomo, one of several easy ways to fish and catch rainbows, from the bank or from a boat, is to fish with a float and something below it. Line is very important - add a two-pound piece of "tippet" to the line on your reel. Our trout will see heavy line and will not bite. Use a small jig head and a Berkley's pink powerworm under the float. That's what most of our guides use to catch trout for their clients. Early, when the sun is not up over the water, they're fishing it four- to five-feet deep. Then when it gets lighter outside, they'll go deeper -- up to nine-feet deep. Night crawlers are still the hot bait for either still fishing or drifting. Two-pound line is again essential for anything fished while the water is slow or off. When drifting, four-pound is okay to use. Use only a half worm at a time and hook it once, letting it hang off the hook naturally. Don't ball it up on the hook -- make it look like a worm. Inject air into the worm using a fill needle. That will float it off the bottom making it more visible to the trout. We continue to catch a lot of trout on our marabou jigs, throwing them straight or using them under a float. Black is still the best color but white, sculpin, brown, sculpin/peach are also been hot. When the water is slow, we're throwing 1/32nd- and 1/16th-ounce using two-pound line. Work the jig close to the surface and half way down early when you're in the shade -- and on the bottom when the sun is over the surface. Do the same when fishing under a float. The Turner Micro Jig is working as well, under a float using two-pound line. Good colors have been olive and brown in the half-micro. In the trophy area, jigs are working very well. In the mornings, drift a scud under a float and set the float as least as deep as the water is -- even deeper. The scud needs to be fished on the bottom since that is where the scuds live. You can use this technique either with a fly rod or spin rod. If we get any time in the near future when the water is not running, I would try fishing a zebra midge under a float in and below the trophy area. I can't say for sure what color and size, but I would try several different flies to see what they like. Red, black, green and brown with copper or black bead heads are staple flies to use on Taneycomo. I'd stay with small sizes -- #16 and #18 should work. And you may have to go to 7x to get bit . . . I don't like using 7x but if the fish are that picky, then you must try it. I don't like using 7x because it takes way too long to land a fish. I don't like to tire them out like that. View full article