Phil Lilley

In this Lake Taneycomo fishing report, I will talk a little about how the fishing has been and about lake conditions in the next few days, but everything will change by the end of this week because of the rains forecast . . . it's supposed to start raining later today and continue for the next week. We had some slow-to-no generation the last few days, which has been a nice change from the heavy flows. Beaver Lake remains just below its flood pool at 1,129.4 feet (flood pool starts at 1,130 feet) and Table Rock is a bit high at 917.2 feet. Its power pool is 915 feet. So any rain that falls above Table Rock will have to be released through Taneycomo. If Table Rock rises to or above 920 feet, officials will have to open some spill gates. Table Rock's spill gates have been opened more in 2020 than any other time in the history of the dam, partly because one turbine at the facility had been off awaiting repair, so releasing water over the gates made up for the shortfall. Now that that turbine is fixed and working, we're back to normal operation. Water coming over the gates will bring warmer water into Lake Taneycomo, averaging 60 degrees. This will make our trout happy -- since they like 60-degree versus 47-degree water. That flow will also bring in more warm-water species of fish including threadfin shad which, again, our trout love! The only downside is that fishing from docks and the bank will be very tough, if not impossible, especially in the upper end of the lake. Here's what we've seen here in the last week or two -- big trout! For more than a month, Blake and Duane have been experimenting and garnering great success using bait fish type lures to catch mainly big browns. Of course, Duane developed a jerk bait series of lures, custom painted and geared to catch big browns. But they also have zeroed in on areas that are holding these browns and have landed multiple trophies for themselves and for clients. Others have joined in on the fun. Rob from Kansas stayed here at the Landing for about 10 days and landed more than a dozen browns longer than 20 inches on a KVD suspending jerk bait. Other anglers, including out of town guests and even locals, have also landed browns on jerk baits. Then some fishermen have found brown trout targeting jigs; white has been good but so has sculpin/peach colors. And then there are the big rainbows. I personally have landed a 23-inch rainbow trout and a 22-inch rainbow on successive days, one on a jig and one on a zebra midge. Other rainbows were caught on jigs and flies (scuds mainly) in the upper end of the lake. On Saturday afternoon, there was no generation here for the first time since last fall. I understand locals and near by residents flocked to the area below the dam to enjoy wade fishing, and they were very successful catching numerous trophy rainbows on flies. The low water was unfortunately short-lived. Some observations of fish activity lately: Lots of surface action. Trout have been aggressively taking bugs off the surface early in the morning but more in the late evening. I've witnessed pretty big may fly hatches as well as midge hatches and big, mature trout are taking them. We've seen a good deal of big swirls in different areas of the lake by big trout chasing small trout, or something else. Earlier last week, we saw browns chasing shad on the surface on the Cooper Creek flats, but that has subsided. These swirls, although not new, are more frequent and witnessed over many parts of the upper lake. I've seen them in several places above Fall Creek but more just below the creek to down in front of our dock (Lilleys' Landing), and on the Cooper Creek flats on down through Monkey Island. The number of big takes is amazing. We are seeing more and more big mature rainbows caught, mainly in the trophy area. These rainbows, measuring from 17 to 20 inches, are healthy specimens with broad shoulders, wide girths and full of rainbow color. They are feeding aggressively, and when hooked, are giving the angler all he wants in a fight. And then there are the rainbows longer than 20 inches . . . they are in a class all their own. These fish have been in the lake since they were 11 inches old. They've survived the onslaught of hooks and bait, herons and eagles and otters. They have earned the right to be called wild trout, although technically they are not. But they move, feed and act like they are, so the angler has to consider that the Taneycomo trout he stalks are smarter than typical trout park fish. Less pressure. In this extraordinary time, there have been days when the unimaginable has happened -- in the months of March and April, only a handful of anglers, if that, fished the whole lake. Boats were not seen on the lake until way past 10 a.m. in the morning. The lake was never "shut down" but you might have thought so. All the while, trout were still being stocked as if nothing was different. Even now, here in mid-May, boat traffic is minimal during the week. All this to say that the fishing future of Lake Taneycomo looks extremely bright, thanks to a broken turbine, lots of rain and a world wide pandemic. How to catch fish? You've read a little about what we've tried. I did not mention that I went out this morning (Monday, May 11) and cast a big, white articulated fly on an eight-weight fly rod with a 400-grain sink tip down at the Cooper Creek flats. No takes today, but I think the right big fly should get some love in the coming days. It will be worth a try for sure. We're getting in a variety of jerk baits in our fly shop. Rouge makes several suspending jerk baits as well as Smithwick that aren't too hard on the pocket book. Bass Pro has their KVD series. You want a suspending bait that dives down from 5 to 10 feet. For colors white has been good but I'd try others also. Hard to know what they will take. I think it's more action that style. Keep watching One Cast. Blake and Duane will keep throwing their baits, so observe how they work them. I think that's the most important thing about fishing jerk baits -- how you serve them. We are selling Duane's signature series jerk baits, custom painted, on our website now. They are proven to catch trout. And that's not to say smaller, medium sized jerk baits won't work. Try what you have in your tackle box before buying a pile of baits. I've been forcing myself to throw a white 1/8th-ounce jigs where the guys have worked their jerk baits, and, so far, I've caught one 20-inch brown. If they're looking for shad, the white jig will work. Rob did catch one of his browns on a white/gray jig. And I caught the big rainbow yesterday on one so white is still a color you should be throwing. It's just not catching as many as it did back when shad were coming over the spill gates from Table Rock Lake. Jig colors that have been catching good numbers of trout have been black/yellow, sculpin, sculpin/peach, tri-olive dark, ginger and sculpin/orange. If you're using a jig and float, a sculpin/ginger/orange head 1/50th ounce (PJ's Jig) is working. I'd almost go to two-pound tippet when fishing a jig and float and fish it from four-six-feet deep most of the time. A Turner Micro Jig in brown, ginger or olive is working, too. Now I'd love to report bait fishing is pretty good, but I'm not sure I can. I took out some friends on Saturday when the water was off and tried a night crawler -- even pumped it up with air to float off the bottom -- and did not get a bite in two hours in three different locations! It was unbelievable! That doesn't mean they're not hitting them at all . . . but it means something. Powerbait hasn't been working too well either. What's been working extremely well is the Berkley Pink Power Worm under a float. Even if operators are running up to three units, fishing down at the Branson Landing area has been very good lately. Fish it with four-pound line and about five- to seven-feet deep under the float. You can also hook it on a #8 hook and fish it drifting on the bottom using a split shot or a drift rig. So now the scoop for when the water starts running again -- and when I say running I mean three-plus units. Those small jerk baits are still working pretty well from the dam down through Short Creek. At our shop, we really had a run on them, but we still have some in stock and more coming. You ca drift them on the bottom using a drift rig setup, but even better should be a carolina rig setup. You don't have to use as much weight as you think since the lure itself will take you to the bottom with its action. Speaking of action, the bigger crank baits will work if four units or more are running (15,000 cubic feet of water per second). The Bomber Fatfree Fingerling in shad colors has worked well for us. Just throw it out upstream and hold your rod tip just under the water's surface while cranking slowly until you feel the lure digging on the bottom. It should stay there. If we get spill gates, shad flies and white jigs will be hot. Fly fish using a white streamer or a small white jig or shad fly under a float six- to eight-feet deep. Spoons will work, too. Also try the bigger jerk baits (mentioned previously) in shad colors. Our trout have been eating a lot of scuds. When the lake water dropped out, some were stranded in pools of water off the lake. Here's a video I shot with my iPhone of those scuds swimming around in the pool. Drift a scud on the bottom anywhere from the dam down to Short Creek using a drift rig or carolina rig. A cerise San Juan Worm is working pretty well, too. You could use a tandem of the two flies, tying them about two feet apart. Four-pound line is fine this time of year. View full article

As I noted in the description, see the orange in most of these bugs.

Twenty inches was set back in 1997 as the brown trout keeper size. That set up what is considered to be a trophy trout on our lake. We've been giving out trophy catch and release certificates and pins since then. I think I have a record of all of them caught and recorded. And no, I'm not going to go back and count. I would be interesting to know how many we've registered over the years. But this spring, I believe, has to be the busiest we've been for recording big trout, mainly browns. This week - one guy landed 13 browns. Rob Dickerson from Kansas. I believe the biggest was 23 inches but he had many other browns either swipe or chase his bait that were much bigger - and smaller. I know of 8 other brown caught and released. And there's rainbows too. I have 2 in 2 days over 20 and Blake's friend had one this evening. And I see others on Facebook that were caught. Our trout are acting differently too, more like wild trout. They're chasing bait fish, other smaller trout. They're starting to take dries - bugs on the surface. Not just midging but being very aggressive about it. They're fighting very hard when hooked. It just feels different since they've dropped generation and we're seeing more activity.

Forecast is getting worse. 4+ for the whole basin and bigger rain just west. It’s trending bigger. We will see flood gates again for sure. Good for trout but not for business.

As most of you already know they didn’t water yesterday afternoon. The lake is chuck full of great fish. I’d come short of saying as good as the 60’s but not by much. May be the big browns make up for it. A guy here at the resort has caught 12 browns over 20 inches this week. While fishing yesterday afternoon and into the evening, I witnessed 5 different surfaces by huge fish chasing rainbows, in and out of the trophy area.

Rain = Generation Shall I say more. It was nice while it lasted.

https://youtu.be/MbrLQpn1bj8

My Edward Jones guy says we haven’t seen the bottom yet.

Good morning guys. Sorry I haven’t been part of the conversation. We’re trying to fix our sprinkler system ... digging in the dirt. Anyone else get hail yesterday? We got pounded.

You’re right... yesterday stunk! Sorry it had to on a Saturday.

Yes any small minnow jerk bait. I honestly don't know what to call them. They're more like a minnow to me and I guess you could jerk them back... I just think of a bigger lure when I say jerk bait. So I'm including both terms. A small flickershad should work too.

Four units full has kinda put the trout in a funk the last few days. Early and late are very good though. Duane has been hammering big browns and rainbows using his jerk bait on guide trips early. But the schedule says 2 units tomorrow - much welcomed news. Lots of boats on the lake today, more than we've seen since mid March. Dragging those small jerk/minnow baits has been the hottest thing going, and the new "hot spot" is Monkey Island down to 65 bridge. Bill Babler has been dragging these minnow baits for years but it's not till lately that we've seen them catch some nice trout. May be because of the flood gates and inflow of so many threadfin shad in to the lake.... who knows. I do believe there are more trophy trout in Taneycomo since the 60-70's hayday. When the water drops, it will be much easier to fish and get the bait to where the trout live. We'll see some good stringers in the coming weeks. More later.

Went late afternoon. Started close to the last dock on SE side of the lake and ran it almost all the way to the end. Fished a pearl slider, 3/16 oz head. Caught probably 20 bass, mostly K's, all short. Several LM, 2 keeps - 18 and 19.5 inches. Lots of fun.

Went late yesterday (Thursday). Put in at Long Creek. Boated to State Line Cove and started towards the back. TONS of shad... must have just hatched? Ended with 5 keepers and 6-7 shorts, all off the bank suspended maybe 4-6 feet deep. All were spawned out. 66 degrees towards the back, 62 on main lake.

Somehow they try to balance Beaver and Bill Shoals. In think.

It’ll be fine. But if they’re running 4 units like this afternoon, you’ll find some stretches harder to climb mainly in the upper lake.

You sure?!

And I like @N9BOW too. And yes I've fished with them both.

For what it's worth, @ColdWaterFshr is a pretty good dude. I'd trust my back to him any day.

Report came in this afternoon that a 15-pound brown was caught in the Branson Landing area today. No real other information. The call came in from a friend who works for MDC.

Finally . . . Table Rock Lake is down far enough that generation has been reduced on Lake Taneycomo. The last couple of days we've seen two units running at about 7,000 cubic feet per second of water flow. The flood gates were shut Monday morning. Wednesday more rain fell over the White River Basin in N.W. Arkansas and S.W. Missouri, but it looks like that precipitation won't raise the lake levels much at all. Thursday morning the rain subsided and all three lakes have only risen less than six inches. Water temperature is 46 degrees. Less generation means fishing is easier for most anglers no matter how they choose to fish. The current is less turbulent and the water isn't as deep. Big trout are still being caught on Taneycomo. I believe if there were more fishermen, there would be even more big trout caught. Captain Steve Dickey's client, Randy, caught two trophy trout Tuesday, a 25.5-inch brown and a 22-inch rainbow. Both were caught on a float and fly rig. The fly was a shad fly. Both fish were released. Since there are few fishing right now, it's hard to know what all is working. We can report, though, what's been working for us. We're throwing marabou jigs. Good colors have been white, sculpin and sculpin/peach, but those are just the colors I've been throwing. The size of jig depends on the conditions -- the wind, current and depth of water. We've caught trout on a jig and float using a white jig. This has worked best from the dam down to Short Creek. Dragging a small minnow bait on the bottom is catching some bigger trout. These minnow baits are those like a floating Rapala F-5 using a bell weight or even a split shot to get the lure to the bottom. Most of these baits have two sets of treble hooks, but we take the front set off and only leave the back set. This will still hook the fish but won't catch the bottom as well. A shad color/pattern has been the best. Some guides are still throwing the MegaBass 100+ and +2 in shad colors and catching browns. I've heard browns are chasing shad on the surface in the Monkey Island area on down through and past the Landing. Remember, there's an abundance of shad in our lake right now because of the gates being opened so long in March and April. Once the water down lake warms up, a lot of those fish will move further down but until then, they will be everywhere. Hardly anyone has been doing this, but drifting minnows and night crawlers, I predict, will be the killer bait when anglers show back up in normal numbers. We will see a lot of two-pound rainbows being caught below Fall Creek. We're seeing big midge and mayfly hatches all over the lake but I don't see the trout keying in on them . . . yet. The other evening on the lake there were a huge swarm of barn swallows feeding on midges on the lake's surface. I thought it was our resident birds come home after a winter migration, but the next day they were gone. Just grabbing a bite to eat on their trip south, I guess. I'm look forward to some fly fishing in the coming days. With lower water slows, we can drop a San Juan Worm and a scud under an indicator and fish the flats both above and below Fall Creek. We've tried to drag those flies using a spin cast and drift rig in the heavy flows with very little success -- which is surprising. We'll see if the slower water will change things. Watch One Cast, our daily fishing video, and you'll find out exactly what we are (and aren't) catching trout on. You'll find it on Facebook and on YouTube. Images courtesy of Captain Steve Dickey. View full article

Should but you never know. Check before you head up