How Long Fishing Taneycomo?

[OnTheFly]

Rolan,

Your comments and memories mirror mine to the letter. I do remember using a fiberglass fly rod with a Martin automatic real, all of which I still have and purchased from and Otasco, when I was 12 catching big rainbows on fly that now days would be called a Pistol Pete. By the way, I don’t remember seeing too many fly fishermen back in those days and catch and release…well you didn’t see much of that either and as a matter of fact we really didn’t know about it then.

[Wayne SW/MO]

Not sure, but it was early 50's I think. I made a trip down here with my dad and we fished the White above and I believe we did a day on Taney at Rockaway before heading to Bull Shoals. I know I was here again in '62 with some buddies when we were in uniform. We fished TR, Taney, and Bull Shoals on a furlough. Siver Dollar City gave silver dollars in change on one of the trips.

[Fozzy]

Love the stories, very intersting...

I've been coming to Taneycomo since 1995. I was always the person who owned a boat, either a old paid for Lowe 16 footer back then, now a fancy Cobra 18 foot fiberglass model...very blessed.

I was introduced by my dad, stayed at Tanglewood lodge and went out caught 5 trout and limited out in 1995 in about an Hour. I was Hooked.

Currently I go there alot since I'm living in springfield, also use Stockton lake alot.

The thing I love about Taneycomo is an expert can catch fish on flies, and lures etc....or novices can catch a fish or two on power baits. Yearly my Aunt/Uncle up in Kansas City come down to their Time share at Roark Inn (next to Scaggs hospital) to catch trout. I take them out on my boat and use the Power baits. My aunt who hasn't caught many fish will limit out there very nice for the family. She screams "i got one i got one..." when she hooks in, we start laughing cause of the act she puts on...."oh gosh don't loose that fish, don't let him get off" haha...etc...

Great Lake we have here....we are VERY lucky in Missouri...

[tclubbs2]

I have been going to Taney with my dad ever since I can remember. My fondest was when I was ten years old (31 now). I was allowed to go on the annual trip with my dad, my uncle and some of their friends. It was the middle of January and was so cold we were breaking ice as we were going down the lake. We caught lots of fish. I have been back down there almost every year since with those old coots and our party keeps growing. Sometimes we catch lots of fish sometimes we struggle to boat 1 each a weekend. No matter what, it is still a great time.

[Robert]

I'm a newbe to Taney. I started fishing right after the schools opened last year. I have been fishing in the lake/river at least once a week since. The regulars are very helpful. I watch and observe, and catch/release my fair share of fish. I perfer stripping flies and do most of the time. One of the reasons I moved here was to trout fish. My wife and I moved to Springfield last July after living in Virginia for 26 years. We are from New Hampshire origionally. While living in Virginia my fly fishing skills were an anual trip to The Forks in Maine for native Wild Brook Trout. I'm looking into a trip to Newfoundland for big brookies and Atlantic Salmon. Just looking at the moment. The Airfare is a killer. The fishing is reasonable. I'd like to go to the Stephenville, NF area.

I Moose hunted there in the early 70's with great success. The fishing season was coming to an end that time of year. We did see some nice trout in the remote lakes and ponds. The Atlantic Salmon runs are some of the best.

Springfield was a compromise and a good one. I fish and my wife shops.

My wants at Taney are few. I'd like to see the trophy area fly fishing only, and catch and release. The Lake/River is 21 miles long as I understand it. Three miles for fly fishing is very little.

Thanks very much to those who have been so helpful.

[Danoinark]

Great to have you here Robert...maybe we will hook up with you one of these days on Taney....Dano

[Fitz]

Well I started fishing the parks from the time I could walk. My dad would always make special arangements for the family to go to benett or mon tauk for some part of the summer. I can remember seeing him fly fish around 1991 and trying to imitate him with my spinning rod and jig. boy did that lead to a lot of hang ups in trees and a couple close calls with passer bys. It seemed like i fell in the water and spent most of my time changing clothes rather than i did fishing. (looking at my dads fishing journal this seems to be true- the ruel was 3 changes of clothes and we headed home somethimes no one got to fish as we headed home before the buzzer sounded).

Sooner or later my dad gave me a fly rod and I was hooked. Started tying and fishing alot, but when i came to school i thought this was all over, where am i going to go and fish living in springfield. then i met this kid that was always talking of these great days on taney, telling me of catching huge numbers of fish. although i had fished the parks i never really seemed to get them figured out. Ill be frank i didnt believe any of the stories that this kid was telling me. 20 fish in a day sounded like a strech of the imagination- and what he was saying like 50 fish in a day seemed like a down right lie.

He fianlly coned me into going with him and fishing at night. boy was that the best time ever. we both caught so many fish that neither of us even said anything, we just laughed our tails off. by the end we just decided that we should pack it up and head back so we could go to class the next moring. this started a great friendship and a lot more fishing trips, although it did lead to us doing some stupid things like skipping parties and driving to taney to fish for an hour or leaving at 2 in the morning climbing through trees around point royal deciding wether or not to jump in when they are running 4- how deep could it really be right?, or just driving there several times knowing that they were running 4, but knowing that we might get there and it would be off- or at least knowing that we needed to check and see if the recording wa right, or the time we decided that colorado wasnt that far of a drive and we could fish for 15 hours if we drove straight trough both ways- these were the great times when we could fish 4 or 5 times a week and the only repercusions were some pissed off girlfriends, a skipped class, or the great expense of fuel on a college budget.

thanks to BK (kctroutman) I've been fishing since 2002 and will be fishing there for years to come.

Nathan Fitzgerald

[Stuartwp]

I went to Tanny for the first time in March of 1985, my one and only college spring break trip. I was a senior at NWMSU in Maryville and it only took eight hours of driving to get to Branson.

They where running water below the dam bank full and after two days, I caught my fisrt trout on a zebco 33, four pound line and a red and white daredevil spoon. It was a ten inch stocker rainbow. The next day the water was gone and I got to try out waders for the first time in my life (borrowed from girl freind's Dad). I waded out in the area of what I didn't know at that time was big hole; standing in waist deep water because I could, fan casting with a black and gold rapala minnow. I wasn't catching anything until they sounded the horn at the dam. All of a sudden I caught my first brown trout. A four inch fingerling that had been stocked because they where just starting the 20 inch trophy restrictions. I caugt three more small 7-8 inch rainbows in as many casts and was having a great time when I decided I had better head back to shore because the water was starting to push me around. After a couple dozen steps I realized the water wasn't getting any shallower and I had better pick up the pace. That was my first and last trip to Tanneycomo until 1998. I have been every year since.

The only other fisherman I saw back then where in bass boats drifting with the current, except for the last day. As I was walking back to the car after the horn sounded there where three or four people fishing flyrods in a spill way (outlet #2) with what looked like peices of orange sponges. They probaly where too, most likly homemade strike indicators, but I didn't know that at the time either. All I know is, I had lots of fun, and that I never forgot it.

[FRENZEL]

My first memories of Taneycomo are from around 84 or 85. I'm not really sure but My dad and I stayed at Lilleys. It was late January and I thought I was neat because dad let me take off school to go on a fishing trip. I believe it wasn't Lilleys for too long before that. At night I would fish until dad made me quit and then go to the room and rest my feet on top of the heater. One trip we took Phils TROUT MACHINE out on a guide trip. We stayed at Lilleys every year right up until I moved here for school in 94. I remember bait fishing up at the dam and using corn and salmon eggs off of the dock at night. One night we went to the Farmhouse restaraunt and saw Whitey Herzog. I'm origionally from St. Louis so I'll always remember that. Oh, and I ate the fried chicken.

Here are some pics I've kept from my first trips.Thanks for all those great memories Lilleys.

[damselfly]

I love these stories! well, i've only been fly fishing since 2001. I fished previously as a young girl on the lake where we lived in Massachusetts for bass with jitterbugs....then we moved to Florida after my Dad retired from the Army and I gave up fishing for boys....humm....now that I've been married for almost 30 years, I took up fishing again and had my brother teach me a bit about FF while visitng him in Wyoming.....(my husband doesn't fish).....so being from Springfield the natural thing to do is to fish Taney. I caught a few fish my first time there and go there as much as possible. I've caught a lot of nice fish there but brown trout eluded me there until my last two trips where I caught a nice one around 17-18'-- a beautiful fish.. Hearing the stories about how the fishery was in the 70's, it would have been great to experience it. I fish warm water as much as cold water and recently purchased a kayak,,,,,I wonder how that would do on Taney??? Don't think i'm up to that yet...