Fishing Report

[Phil Lilley]

Well last week my neighbor and I decided to try something different and fish up on Lake Taneycomo for a few days, and despite everything seemingly against us, we managed to have some productive time on the water. We are both fly fishing guides on the White River and Norfork in Arkansas, and we enjoy using some techniques at Taneycomo that do not work as well down here (this time of year, especially). Anyway, we finally got on the water in the afternoon on March 22nd. The weather was cold and nasty all morning, but the sun peeked through right when we started wading. We met up with a friend by the dam, and the fishing for all of us was good from the start. We were using #14 and #16 scuds and getting a bite on virtually every cast. The fish were decent size, with many hard fighters in the 13 to 16 inch range. When the breeze died late in the afternoon, I did well on a tandem midge pupa combo, while the scud was still working on my friend. On this day we just wanted to catch some fish just in case the weather made fishing too uncomfortable over the next few days.

The next morning was indeed chilly, but knowing there was no hurry, we didn't get on the water until 10:30am. It was just my neighbor and I, and he started with some cracklebacks and I used scuds and midge pupa patterns. We were near the boat ramp. I started out catching some nice fish (and some dinks) with my nymphs, and when the sun came out it really got good. The dry fly presentation was working alright for my neighbor, but nothing crazy. Around lunchtime we were sitting in the boat and I enjoyed seeing him start getting rises in 6-inches of water. So to get away from the "normal" nymphing we do day in and day out, I fished a small crackleback on the surface all afternoon. We both caught countless fish (which seemed to run bigger on the surface) and missed many more. Sometimes the wind was too strong to get the fish to rise, but for the most part conditions were perfect.

Unfortunately the winds and cold temps would not elude us so we decided to come home Friday instead of fishing. It had been a fun trip for all of us, and we know we can jet back up when the weather looks better. Still, it was nice to see some nicer fish on upper Taneycomo, although it does seem like the numbers of trophy fish is down from what we could see. But the crowds were fairly light and like always on upper Taneycomo, we didn't have to move much to stay on hoards of fish.

Gabe Cross

http://arkansastrophytrout.com