Lincoln

My mom and dad are in town this week, taking a break from retirement down in Texas. They really love this area, and fall is a perfect time to enjoy the weather and scenery. Dad and I took off yesterday to fish just below Cooper Creek. We fished there years ago and always seemed to do well in that area. I don't do much bait fishing anymore, but dad's an old pro at it. He takes me along to drive the boat. I had been a little distressed lately due to the low numbers of fish being caught off our dock at Lilleys'. In fact, I prepared dad for the fact that we may just be out enjoying the weather. Boy, was I wrong. The bait of the day was marshmallows. Dad loves 'em. They're cheap, relatively mess free, and a cinch to put on the hook. Say what you will about the "style factor" of using marshmallows, but after yesterday morning I don't think you can argue with me about results. (I don't think we have to worry about any diabetic fish, either. Very rarely do any of the fish get off, and when they do, we usually see the marshmallow float to the surface soon after.) We started catching pretty much right away, and continued catching for the next two hours. The only thing that brought us in was dad getting a little tired. We easily caught our limit, allowing us to catch and release for the rest of the day. We didn't catch any fish of any real size, but that wasn't our objective anyway. Yesterday was all about the numbers. So much for my forecasting abilities. Til next time.

I was able to get out fishing Friday around mid-morning. There was one generator running so I boated up to Lookout to drift one of my favorite sections of the lake. I'll usually start at Lookout and drift as far as Fall Creek, alternating between fishing the shallow and deeper water. I was far from alone. About five other boats had the same idea. Thankfully, it was one of those days that give you something to write about in fishing reports. I started off with the usual stimulator/midge rig (#10 Yellow Stimulator/#18 Black Zebra Midge) and began catching fish right away. I'm always a little nervous when that happens. How many times have you gone to your favorite fishing spot, caught a fish on the first cast, and spent the next 45 minutes trying to duplicate the result? Fortunately, on this trip all the fish were in a biting mood. For the next hour or so, the only thing that kept me from catching fish was the occasional line tangle or break-off. The rest of the time there was usually a fish on. It was a good day to have a stimulator floating on top, that's for sure. I probably caught as many fish on the surface as on the midge below. Gotta love it. After an hour, I wanted to try something a little different. I saw some nice size trout holding close to the bottom as I made my drifts, but none were taking me up on the stimulator/midge offerings. So, I switched to a scud dropper to see if I could pick up some action from the big boys. I had to lengthen the dropper length to around 4 feet. Then I attached a #16 grey scud. Bingo. It worked almost like I had planned it out or soemthing. I pulled in a couple of fish in the 15 in. range - nicely colored fish, too. Then, all of a sudden - nothing. The fish shut down like someone flipped a switch. One second, bites galore. Next second, I'm practicing my cast for the next half hour or so. That's the way it goes sometimes. I noticed shortly after that the current was moving more slowly and the water was dropping. No generation. So, I guess someone did literally flip a switch. Til next time...

I'm not sure when it happened exactly, but I'm going to hazard a guess that MDC stocked recently. All of a sudden, I'm seeing many of our guests do very well out on the water, bringing in limits fairly regularly. I've been sending most of our marina traffic downstream to Monkey Island and the bridges and seeing positive results. They report a ton of boat traffic in those areas so I'm not alone in sending people out in search of fish. Now, the $64K question. What's working? Air-injected nightcrawlers are working very well. Power Bait in various colors is working also. White seems a predominant choice, but other colors are working too. I'm so happy to see the guests doing well this week. I'd love to see the action continue for weeks to come. Now, if I could just get a little help up below the dam. I was up today with not much success, at least not up to the standard. The water was a little interesting today with one generator on to compensate for the drawn down. Slow going for me, but just getting out at all was a nice way to spend a couple of hours. It's not always about catching fish. Good to get that reminder on occasion. Best of luck to everyone. Til next time...

I want to put this out there and see who might have had similar catches recently... I got out to the tailwater yesterday and fished for a few hours. I caught fish, but they weren't pulling me in. Over the course of the day, I caught two rainbows whose heads were far out of proportion to their body size. Both had the head of a 15-16" fish but probably only measured 11". I've been fishing Taney for many years and had never caught a fish like that before. Very strange. I wish I had a camera. Please post your comments...

He was using a 1/32 oz. olive jig on a spinning rod.

A guest of ours, John Morris, caught and released this 7 lb brown just downstream from Fall Creek on Tuesday morning. He was using a 1/32 oz. olive jig on a spinning rod. The fight was approx. 10 minutes. Beautiful fish. Many times, browns that big start looking a bit ugly. Not this one. He followed it up with a 5lb rainbow the next evening around the same area, using the same setup. Sorry, no pic of that fish. He was out after closing time. Enjoy!

Update - Aug. 28 Had the day off yesterday. Decided I could do worse than spend the day fishing, so as soon as the rain let up, I was on the water. After all the rain over the last couple of days, I was very interested in trying my luck with the good ole San Juan. Surely there were more than a few worms washed into the lake. I started at Rebar and worked my way down to the boat ramp, with most of my time spend around rocking chair. I use two different colors on a regular basis: red and tan. Both caught a few fish, but overall it was not as strong of a bite as I was hoping for. Switched to a zebra after a while (what a complete surprise!?), and caught many more fish than on the San Juan. It was also a good day for the dry. Probably had 5 fish on and a few others either refuse or just miss. On another note, the fishing continues to improve off our dock. Again, not huge numbers, but most certainly more fish than what we had been seeing over a large part of the summer. Orange and Yellow power bait has seemed the ticket over the last couple of days. One of each on a #8 hook. Have your "de-hooker" ready. Most are swallowing the hook/bait completely. Nightcrawlers have been doing well...if you're interested in catching suckers. I'm sure that will change soon with the browns beginning to move up the lake. I've seen several cruising past our dock in the last week. Best of luck. Til next time...

I can speak to what I have experienced, which is that the fish I have hooked have fought as hard as ever. I would think that if the fish were unhealthy, I would not be experiencing some of the "fight" I've been seeing from most. I've just noticed that I've had to work a little harder on my end to get them to "take" in the first place.

Boy, I wish I had a good answer. I've been having this discussion all summer, and all I can come up with is an educated guess (and I'm not sure how educated). Due to a lack of generation, the surface water temperature earlier this summer was really high down at our dock (around 70)and throughout the lake (close to 80 downtown and below). I have to think that had an affect and maybe still is. The warmer water had to affect so many variables in the ecosystem (trout metabolism, availabilty of food, oxygen levels, etc.) Is it possible that there is so much "natural" food available that the fish are able to be more selective about what they "try?" Does that mean that the fisherman has to be even more deceptive in his presentations? (lighter line, more realistic food sources, etc.) I think all these have to be considered, and I've been recommending these ideas to our guests. I'd be interested in hearing others' take on the situation...

Perhaps things are beginning to turn. Many would agree that fishing on Taneycomo had presented a few more challenges this summer than in the past. I've had the conversation about slower-than-usual fishing with at least 200 guests in the last three months. Watching the last couple of days, I've been encouraged. Most of the catches seem to be coming downstream from Lilleys'. We've had guests fishing down between Taneycomo Acres and Monkey Island over the last number of days. They're bringing in a few more fish lately. Not huge numbers, but 5 or 6 per boat is better than what we have been seeing. I sure hope that streak continues. One set of gentlemen were doing very well on brown rooster tails last week. Most are opting for PB of one variety or another. Chartreuse and Orange seem to be the more effective colors. Cross your fingers. Better fishing = happy fishermen.

As was mentioned earlier, I have heard that MDC would prefer that more fish were harvested outside the slot. That's part of the point of having the slot to begin with. To the best of my understanding, Taney is managed as a put-and-take fishery. C&R is great, and I do it myself most of the time, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with taking a limit of legal fish below the dam.

I think this will qualify as a big fish... There was a 28 in, 17 lb brown brought into the Lilleys' Landing dock last Saturday. I think the people were guests down at Cooper Creek. Anyway, it was a monster. The man who pulled it in was fishing between Taneycomo Acres and Monkey Island using a Rapala-type lure. That's all the info I have.

Table Rock SP is a little closer to the hatchery than Compton. Also, it's tough to beat $8/night for basic sites for tent camping.

I'm new to the area, but my understanding is that 8 in possession means 8 in possession. So 20 in the freezer would be a violation. I'm not the definitive source on that, however. I'm sure someone will step up with a correction should I be wrong.

I guess that depends on how you intend to prepare the fish. I would agree that filets off a 11" fish wouldn't be very hearty. If you grill the fish whole, however, I think an 11 incher is a pretty good size.