Trav

A point hunter? Nothing up bull to hunt but squirrels, rabbits, deer, and verman like coon, possum, skunk and otter. Havent hunted in years. Always fancied myself a bird man. Pheasant and quail.

Its just my personal experiance. Once I locate where the fish are staged and what pattern is key, I catch fish. The same at every lake I have ever fished. Tablerock is like any other lake. Subject to weather, water temp, clarity, and the most important factor, fishing pressure. The one thing that is always a sure bet is that the fish get hungry eventually. Might take me 6 hours to catch my first fish on some days but once I got the one, I adapt and others follow suit.

Caught a total of 6 today. All sport bass up in bull. Didnt see anyone fishing for those crappie I mentioned , guess they are safe for now..Haha Today I went way back in bull. Was looking for smallies that tend to prefer to be mile or so up. Didnt find any but I did manage to get wet. I beached my boat and walked the stream half way to F Hwy.

It seems that the concensus is consistant with relationship to concerns that a new species will effect the status quo. If you look at the results of the poll, smallmouths and walleyes(two species that have been confirmed already to exist) lead the list. With only stripers edging them. No way the lake could support stripers without a forage like threadfin being introduced as well and the forage fish would do more harm than the stripers. I again state that this is a hypothetical poll and that in no compacity are any introductions of any species being considered. Still would be nice to see some Channel Cats though....Haha

If you like Gar, just float the James River in early May. Thousands of them running up stream. I stood in about 2 foot of water just below crane creek and watch a school of gar swim right past me. Boths sides of me. Even brushing against my legs. Hundreds of them. Was kind of cool.

DC Next time you go out, try using some Johnson Sprites. 3 inches or bigger. Silver and gold works but my confidance is with silver. Or if you have some old school vertical jigs with silver dollar size tail-blades, try them. Sometimes I will take a blue or red Sharpie pen and draw pinstripes on my spoon or blade. Seems to absorb a little different light yet still letting the metal reflect. Jig them with a narrow figure 8 fashion 2 feet or so over those logs you found. If any of those logs lay in current those will be the best. No need to work them too long. No big brownie in 10 minutes move on to the next one. I never sit in one spot more tha 10 or 15 minutes at a time. Run and Gun. Fish for them like they were bass. Get the reaction bite and move on. You will definately loose your numbers but one 6 pound+ brownie is worth 10 stocker bows.

Thanks for the response guys. Seems that we were all thinking somewhat along the same lines. And Thanks Daddy Carp for confirming what I have been telling people for years. No one wanted to believe me. At least I am not the only one to recognize this phenom and see it first hand. Now poses another question...Has anyone seen this behavior in other waters? Surely Taneycomo cant be the only place the optimum dark/light/temps to provoke a fall spawn cycle. I literally see this every september. And I have lived on the lake for decades.

Just apples and oranges. I have no more trouble getting a bite in Tablerock than I do anyplace else.

Wouldnt the shortening of daylight trigger what is known up north as the hiber feed? Where fish eat everything to fatten up for ice over? I have cousins that live in Canada and they say that the walleye will run 60 miles a day in the Fall. Granted nothing freezes here. I am almost positive it has something to do with water temp somehow. Just cant see the pattern. Some questions might be, Are they really spawning again or are they waiting till fall to spawn at all? And, Is the fall spawn consummated or is it just moot hormones? Need to get some of those GPS tags and follow a few bass around for a couple years.

Some people voted for more tourist eating squid. They might not like the whale eating thier fun and games...lol

I aim to please! Of course I didnt put the fish on thier hooks. Got to let em do some of the work...Haha

I fished Lake Fork last spring, and for the hype, I did no better or worse than I would have done if I would have just stayed home and fished Tablerock. I live on Taneycomo. If Tablerock treats ya bad just jump the Dam and catch some trout. Haha

Always below Roark creek, mostly around mile 9 to powersite. In september the creeks and inlets are usually at thier warmest, mid to upper 60s. Unless the Bass are coming from the main lake wich is low 50s and get confused. But if that was the case we would have spawn year round....not just in spring and fall.

I keep a small waterproof camera on the boat. Use it when I catch especially colorful fish or when I have somebody with me. I fish alone 99.8% of the time. Forget I have it most the time. Plus I might go a whole year before I take all 36 exposures. Last couple times I developed film, none of the pics ended up on the puter. I dont have a digital cam(wouldnt carry it on my boat if I did) and my stone-age scanner hit the computer boneyard years ago. I never got around to buying a new one. I know excuses excuses, I will look around and see what I can find in a way of a waterproof digital cam. Then I dont have to wait on using up film before I develope. I just dont want to spend alot of money on something thats exposed to the elements so much.

Fished a spinnerbait along the hydrilla in front of rockaway beach this morning. I fish that awful stuff all the time and I dont know why it attracts me so much. I think I may have caught maybe a dozen Bass and even fewer trout if I was to add it all up over time. Not the most productive place and even fewer rewards. but "oops" I did it again and wasted an hour speed fishing the entire bank of it. Today I didnt catch anything from it. Wich is par for that course. I ended up jigging tail spinners along long beach corner and picked up 3 bows there and then I headed to lost forest cove where I finished my morning with 4 sport Bass and a 10 inch goggle eye. I am not sure, but I do think that the goggle eye was the biggest goggle eye I have ever caught. Was impressed with it for some reason.

You guys are no help! Haha I have asked this question to dozens of people. No one has a logical response. I did read an article a couple years back that striped bass farmers in california could minipulate the timing of spawning fish with a combination of climate control and water chemistry. But that is all done in a controlled setting. Designed to stagger spawning fish to have hatches on a weekly/monthly calender. Asked a family member who is a bioligist for a texas catfishing farm and he said that if you pull females from one envirenment and subject them to stress right before they produce eggs they will spawn later in the year but he said it was moot since males rarely respond in like manner in the wild. None of that explains september bass sitting on beds and full of eggs in Taneycomo.

If I am correct, dont most paddlefish guys catch them buy dragging and snagging? I may be wrong. But if that is the case then Taneycomo would not be such a dream spot of them guys. Haha. From my exprience, the bottom of Lower Taneycomo is comprised of acres and acres of stick and log debris. May lose alot of tackle. Haha

Haha, well if you like them crappie soooo much I will tell ya where I seen them. just pass the island on the opposite bank of that old dock there is a fallen tree. just south(like 2 or3 feet) of the tree you will see an area that bottoms out to about 9 feet deep. You cant miss it, its only 4 feet deep in every direction of the hole. There is a log paralel to the bank. Find it you will find the hole. I usual pull sport bass out of there. First time I seen crappie. Most the crappie in bull are along the steep bank before you get to the island.

I use spinners when I am primarily pulling directly against the current or in zero current. Its performance is 50/50 in other conditions.

Try the Wind River in Wyoming. Half of it is an Indian Res. As far as colorado and its "private" land, I usually in the past managed to avoid it by camping Estes Park. Mostly brooks but there are a ton of them.

Over the years of fishing Taneycomo I have stumbled on alot of strange things but it never fails that in september and early October I will see female Bass full of eggs and even spot a few beds. Not alot, just a few every fall. Now I have looked up the phenom and asked around about it but nobody seems to understand(or they dont believe me) what would would trigger fall hormones. I even had one guy say I live on a wierd lake...haha. Has anyone else seen this before on Taney or any other lake? I have fished in 28 of the 48 and 4 foriegn countrys. Done tourney trails and even guided for many years and I have only seen this on Taney.

Lots of big bucket mouths down near powersite dam as well. Have caught dozens of them in the 4 to 6 range.

I would love to see a lake wide slot limit! Lets add on the "only artificial" lake wide as well. I could never understand why they limited it to just above fall creek. Brownies have lake wide limits, so should the bows. If I could only pick one fish to add to Taneycomo it would be the Channel Cat. I have Bass and Brownies now, give me some Channels and I would be content without the others. Has been fun debating over the others though. In a perfect world I guess. LOL

Im always out on the main lake when looking for brownies. Thats where they are. They always find some kind of cover in the current, like a rock or a dip on the bed, a fallen log that has drifted deep and away from shore. Then they sit behind it and ambush stocker bows. Those spots are hard to find and even harder to stay on in the current without spooking them. Keep in mind if your hunting big ones. Size does matter. Have to present baits over 3 inches and move the bait so they look twice as big when they flash or jig. Those big guys are used to eating 10 inch bows. Always thought that if the hatchery would sell us some 6 inch fingerlings............haha. But that would take all the fun out of it right?

Back up in bull again today. Caught 17 sport bass. Was tossing a Rap against the shore for more than half of them. No real size to them though. Did see a group of crappie chasing my lure. Maybe 6 or 8 of them. But no takers. I probably could have caught a couple of them if I really tried but crappie dont really do it for me. Was a pretty day.