I have been coming down to fish Lake Taneycomo for 25 consecutive years, sometimes multiple times in a year, many of which have been bait fishing trips because it’s the type of trout fishing I enjoy and it is a nice break from Tournament Bass fishing. While this may earn us the title of “tourist” this in no way means that we don’t practice good conservation and follow the letter of the MDC laws. Over the years we have caught dozens of fish (brown & bows) exceeding the 20” mark and all of them were turned back into the lake with only their photograph being kept. We do, admittedly, keep a few bows for the dinner table during each trip but target the lower end of the slot limit when doing so. If the goal is to improve the quality of the fishery why don’t we look harder at all the pollution (construction, run off, etc.) that comes into this lake and the impact it has had on the indigenous forage rather than suggest we change the restrictions on the lake to meet the needs of only one segment of Taneycomo’s fishermen & women.
