Phil Lilley

Lake Taneycomo generation patterns have not changed since my last fishing report. Dam operators are leaving the water off most of the day most days until about anywhere from 1 - 4 p.m. when 2-3 units then run until dark. On weekends, though, they are leaving it off until 5-6 p.m. and only running it for 1-2 hours. The dissolved oxygen levels and water temperature are holding the same, too. The water temperature is about 55 degrees and the D.O. is 4-6 parts per million. All in all, water quality has been fairly decent for this time of year. Water clarity did change about 10 days ago. It turned a stain color and just a tad cloudy. This has helped the bite a bit and now it's safe to say one can use 6x for most flies instead of 7x. You will still get more bites using two-pound line when using bait and small lures, but it's not as essential to catching trout. The one great thing our fall season has brought for fishing is wind. That has been the number one thing that has helped our fishing. Most days, the breeze isn't picking up until about 9 a.m. but when it does, I tell people to "chase the chop." It doesn't matter what you're using -- bait, jigs, flies or lures--our fish are biting so much better when there's a chop on the water's surface. Our fall brown trout run is well under way. With the water down, we have easy access to these trout directly below the dam day and night. The Fly Fishing Lake Taneycomo Facebook Page has blown up with photos of browns and rainbows coming mostly from around the outlets. Anglers are catching them mostly on small scuds and tiny egg flies, but I heard some are taking #14 cracklebacks and sculpins. At night, try stripping a dark pine squirrel or wooly bugger. Blake's been scoring big rainbows at night. Friday night he caught his best rainbow-- a 24-inch beauty -- on a pine squirrel. Then he trounced that record by landing a huge 28-inch rainbow on the same fly. He was fishing between outlets #2 and 3 using 2x tippet. I snapped a quick picture and both trout swam away hard and healthy. The boat fishing in the trophy area has been hit and miss but one thing is certain -- you always have a great chance to catch a trophy rainbow and may be a brown up there. Numbers aren't great but the size is awesome. On the last few trips for me above the Narrows, I have not found the rainbows up in the real skinny water feeding on scuds and sow bugs as a few weeks ago. They've been out off the bank in 18 to 30 inches of water rutting around in the gravel. I'm still picking them up on the unweighted scud, mainly #14's in brown or gray, but I'm using 6x fluorocarbon instead of 7x and getting the fish in a lot quicker. I'm also catching fish on the white or chartreuse Mega Worms and Zebra Midges fairly well. They're liking the "snow cone" midges the best -- #16 red or black with a white tungsten head. I will drop down to 7x tippet on the midges, especially if I go to a smaller #18 or #20 fly. We're also catching fish on the small Turner Micro Jig under a float in olive or black. Moving down out of the trophy area, I'm still using the jigs and Zebras and catching fish but maybe fishing a little deeper since I'm getting into deeper water. I'm also going to the PJ's 1/125th-ounce jig in sculpin or brown with an orange head. The guides are fishing night crawlers some, but the bite has been hit- and-miss for whatever reason. You'd think a fish would always eat a worm, but I guess not. The Berkley Pink Worm has made a comeback. They're fishing it on the flat above our dock, at Monkey Island and down at the Branson Landing. The jig bite is getting a little better. With the water off, we're using 2-pound line on our spin cast rigs and throwing 1/32nd- or 1/16th-ounce jigs. We had one report over the weekend of anglers doing well using white jigs below the mouth of Fall Creek. They brought in some real nice rainbows that morning, Blake said. We are still throwing dark jigs mainly though--sculpin or brown with ginger or peach. Someone asked me a couple of weeks ago about what pound test to use on a spinning outfit. I told them if they really wanted to catch more trout they needed to use 2-pound test. They asked if they needed to put 2-pound on their whole real or just tie some onto the end of it. I said to restring the reel with 2-pound test. If you think about it, you're spending a little bit of time and money restringing your reel with 2-pound but I guarantee you you'll do so much better at catching more fish on your trip. We recommend Vanish or Trilene XL clear but there are other good lines out there. View full article

Sounds good, Jeff. Thanks for getting it done.

Guys did good using white jigs just below Fall Creek yesterday morning.

@Bill Babler and Buster Loving gave me the info for the markings. Bill could write a book on fishing Table Rock and may after he RETIRES (haha) from guiding. It'd be one of the best fishing TR books ever, not that he knows more than other long-time anglers, but he's a great writer and usually shares more than he should. One thing that helps, I think, in asking for info on a forum is that the asker comes back and shares his or her experiences. I hope you become a frequent poster here on OAF.

Blake and Levi are in for 3 nights. Maybe Darin. I’ll check.

https://www.bransontrilakesnews.com/news_free/article_f9eea994-2b6f-11ec-add4-4f5ae65408f3.html?fbclid=IwAR0SganbGnaJ577D3DmOBSOQEkCrmEjj5U8Q4MFOHiKyeMqP4tGNEYlR5a0 Dark at 6:22 am.

Big trout still live in Taneycomo... they're getting educated. We registered almost another 100 "catch-n-release trophies" in September and that's not counting a ton of 20+ inchers that were not reported to us, mainly by people fishing below the dam, I'd say. Then there were the ones caught and kept. If you boat up above the Narrows you'll see them swimming all over the place. But with the water down, they're easy to get to and were easy to catch... till they weren't. I can't blame the slow fishing on just over educated fish... the little ones are being cagey too. Everybody wants to blame water quality but it's not that bad. Every time I check it it's over 4 ppm. Not great but they still gotta eat! Most of the fish I do catch fight hard, not as hard as they did this summer but they don't just roll over and come in. Had a couple take me to my backing this week so far. The water color and clarity is off too. Water temp is 55-56. There are good days though. The guides are catching most of their "eaters" on night crawlers and the pink worm under a float, mostly early - before 9 am. I've heard the fly fishers below the dam are having a hard time hooking numbers. They are getting big fish though. But nothing like they should be. I've been fly fishing mainly. Boating up to the trophy area and messing around with shallow fish feeding with fins out of the water. And targeting cruising trout on the flats. Mainly using #14 or #16 scuds with 7x tippet. We've had some days with good wind so the zebra midge is working. The other day when the wind REALLY blew I thought we'd clean up in the trophy area but not so. Disappointing, along with fly fishing, wind related frustration - you know what I mean! Fishing is tough, but rewarding. I don't have to have big numbers - just one nice trout to the net every hour. And a couple of misses and break offs. That's a good afternoon.

Babler is in. @duckydoty ?

I grew up with Doug Nygren... and he's coming to visit in a couple of weeks. I'll ask him about it.

I’ll be there Thursday and Friday for sure with at least one other person. We will pay for 3 nights regardless how many we stay. I’ll bring a boat unless the river is too low for a prop.

That’s Bakker. Not enough k’s.

Was thinking about it last week when Blake and I were down there. I plan on it. I bet we have a crowd this year.

Sorry. 14 scud.

Clint (hatchery manager) says brown numbers of good. Up the ladder.

No, the ladder has worked each year. I have an email in to see what the numbers are like presently. They have been running 7,000 cfs - that's plenty of rise to get fish to the base. Yesterday they can almost 10,000.

MDC is now housing a new brown strain. I believe they got the eggs early this year so we're looking at next fall for stocking. It's the same strain that are in the White River. They aren't as migratory as the strain we have here now.

It's Jeff's birthday today! Thanks for all you do for OAF and all us fish junkies!

Definitely less browns. We keep losing them to BS. But hopefully with the new strain of browns, that will change. That's going to be a while though. Water temp isn't bad. Last fall I believe the water temps were warmer. DO has been good below Lookout -- I don't know about below the dam. I need to get up there and gage it.

Love that spot!

I believe so

SOLD

Travel rod case. $20

This is the only place I'm posting them for a while... If you think some of these rods are priced too high, let me know. I'm going off Ebay and other sources. Not trying to get top dollar... just fair for the guys and their charities. I have lots of nice clothing in the shop, all XXL.

I have some items from 2 different estates that I’m trying to move for those families. I have them in the shop now and I think I have them priced to sell fairly quickly. Some items it’s hard to figure out how much they’re worth. I’ll be adding items so check back. Nice Orvis vest. It’s a heavy material so good in cold weather. xxl. $100 Simms vest. Mesh, nylon. xxxl $100 Orvis Vest xxl $50 Orvis HLS 2 powerhouse rod. 9’ 8 wt 2 piece $125 orvis trident TLS mid flex 9’ 6 wt. $80 orvis Clearwater 2 107-4 tip flex $75 Sage 586 ds 8’ 6” 5 2 piece wt $250 Sage 379 rp 7’ 9” 3 wt $250 Winston 9’ 6” 2 piece $500 ————— This one I can’t find out what it’s worth… rare find I think. Any help would be great.