Phil Lilley

Been some discussion on Facebook about how Taney's doing as to dissolved oxygen and temperature. In 2015, we had some horrific water conditions that caused serious problems both in the lake in the hatchery, causing us to lose quite a few fish. This year, we're seeing some of the same indicators but it's still not known if it will be equal to or worse than 2015. Steve Bays, USACE Little Rock, sent me this chart showing DO marks since 2005. It shows 2015 as a bad year, but shows 2017 as much worse, so far. He shared some good information with me. He thinks the overall year, especially the winter and spring, dictate what kind of fall season we have on Taney. We had a relatively warm winter and spring this year so Table Rock didn't get as cold as normal, at deeper levels especially. He also thinks that other point source pollution adds to the problem, ie. septic tanks, fertilizers. I think Steve is right saying there's so much more to what happens on our tailwater than just the "normal" stratification of Table Rock and how it affects Taneycomo, especially in the fall months. One thing I see as a positive this year is that Taney's water temperature hasn't risen all summer. It's still about 57 degrees coming out of Table Rock. I've seen a lot of brown trout pics on FB, caught below the dam but then see where some haven't been catching any browns. I guess that's typical. Trout fishing below Lookout continues to be very good. I've noticed the fish's fight isn't like the spring but not too bad. Some have said the fight is very good. All are indicators (to me) how the DO is in the lake in those areas. I generally am optimistic about everything, especially when it comes to fishing. I balance facts and opinions and come out on the positive side while not being unrealistic in my deductions. I once gave a BAD fishing report to someone on the phone... he came anyhow and did very well. He called me back and kinda chewed me out because he would have missed out on a great fishing trip if he had listened to me and not come. It is... fishing. By the way, the new thousands of fingerling rainbows in the upper lake are from the hatchery. A raceway was flushed that had trout in it by mistake over the weekend. Some have died causing some alarm. Could be O2 related, or just mortality since there were so many released. Not sure. Might think about rainbow streamers...

Who is your MDC fisheries biologist? I bet he'd be helpful if you ask him. You also have to consider lake condition during spawning weeks, with each species. On Table Rock, I know population/year class vary depending on spawning conditions. It cycles from year to year. If fishing pressure is increasing, MDC needs to (or will do) a creel survey I'd think to find out if they need to adjust their management plan. That's what they do on other lakes. They're doing one on Taneycomo right now.

This might help.

I directed Muddler to join and post here for help. Thanks

We have quite a few more styles in the shop. These were in my box.

Sure do!

We started at the cable and fished the bluff or south side to the island. The lake level was 705.4 feet and the release was 4,000 cfs (60 megawatts). This is just over one unit of water. Duane tied on a #10 hopper and I tied on a smaller #12, just to give them a little different look, both pink though. We drifted down stern first, me on the trolling motor to the fish saw D's hopper first... that was my undoing, so to speak. He said he was picking all the good spots, thus he caught most of the fish. Note to self: Make him run the trolling motor next fishing trip. We both had lots of looks and tastes. Duane caught on skating the hopper across the surface - they wanted to chase. When we fish hoppers, or any dry fly for that matter, we generally see larger fish but this time most of the rainbows were on the small side - 13-14 inch. He did have a couple pushing 16 inches though. No browns. We fished both sides down to Trophy Run and the south side from the cable to the island was the best run. The last drift, we threw jigs - 1/8th ounce gray/white and 1/16th ounce sculpin/ginger. Both caught fish, better than the hoppers. View full article

Moving away from our lakes area...

Broken lower jaw - classic boga fail, especially if it's a larger trout. You put the boga in the lower jaw to hold it up and the fish flails causing the jaw to break and split. Unfortunately, I learned this the hard way on big Alaska rainbows. I'll never use a boga on a trout ever again. Other big fish with tougher jaws.... may be. How big were the trout with the split jaws?

Sweet!

Note: The maximum color is 20 inches... they need to add another color over 20 inches. I hope people take heed of the warnings and get out of the area... but how many million live down there? Man what a mess it may be.

It's also why Taneycomo lost a lot of it's browns in 2009. Flood gates in September. It's moving towards us...

I feel for the guys in Texas. I have relatives who probably are evacuating. But those pretty colors are moving toward the Ozarks too... this is a bad time to get a lot of rain, especially for a cold water fishery.

The flood pretty much blocked the entrance to the hatchery's fish ladder with gravel. They are now dredging it out.

There are a lot of rainbows in our lake now that have red markings under the throat. People call them cuttbows which they are not. Those of us that can tell the difference would but most Taney anglers wouldn't know the difference. So stocked cutts would be cleaned with all other rainbows... so nix any kind of special limit on cutts if added to the stocking list. Missouri has always said brooks and cutts are problematic before of growth rates and costs. They've never budged on considering them for any water in MO.

I like this post.

Moved to General Chat.

You are correct.

You've been dotified...

Me and Duane went fishing too.

http://www.ozarkanglers.com/lake-taneycomo/files/2011/09/2011-taneycomo-lake-map-of-upper-5-miles-of-the-lake-72-dpi.pdf

I don't know of any studies involving rainbows at this time...