Nice Rainbow Caught This Am Up By Trout Hollow

[JONBOY]

Match the hatch! If they're eating fish guts, throw a fish gut fly! At the trout parks, I throw a little brown pellet cut from the foam of a flip-flop sandal. However, you'll only find the fish-gut eaters around the fish cleaning stations. I bet they are tasty though! - that fish looked fat! I'm still waiting for Lilley to take down his "no fishing in or behind the dock" sign...I'll be eating good that night!!

You say to match the hatch... what would the hatch be to match this time of year?

[Fly_Guy]

There's always a midge hatch at Taneycomo - when the water's down especially, using emergers can be effective. Small. (size 18 and up). The best way I've found to consistantly 'match the hatch' at Taney is by using scuds. Net a couple of rocks on the bottom and you'll see scuds crawling all over them. While people use all different colors, I typically use brown or gray. Use small scuds if the water is low (size 18-22) and larger (size 12-16) for high fast water. Getting your scud to sink in fast water is always a challange - use enough weight and a larger indicator. Also, in fast water, I've caught almost all of my biggest trout (and all my biggest brown trout) on san juan worms. I've found light and dark brown to work well, but some folks use red and bright colors.

In my opinion the most fun you can have at Taneycomo is wading the trophy area in the summer afternoon using drys. Griffeth gnats and ants, as well as small caddis patterns have worked for me. I generally am not bright enough to find the right fly, and if I can ID an insect, probably don't have the exact fly to match it in my box anyway. To make up for it, I downsize greatly. You'll see a ton of hits on a dark dry fly of any kind if it's size 22 or 24. Upsize if they are running water. I've switched to dries when everyone on the lake can't get a hit on a scud, and have caught fish.

People have luck with wolley buggers, but I've never learned to fish them properly.

Hope this helps. I'm a novice and there are many more qualified people on this forum to answer your question, but I've found these tips work.

And no, no tarpon flag or scale. so sad.

[JONBOY]

Thank you sir for the input. I am use to fishing at Montauk, which is nothing like Taney, I am guessing.

[zsmith62]

Just to add to what FlyGuy said, egg patterns and soft hackles have proven useful as well as things like cracklebacks or just about any pattern that looks "buggy".

90% of the time I'm down there I'll throw a scud pattern, but there have been times I've ran out of them and have been forced to use things like hare's ear and pheasant tail nymphs. Sometimes one of the best strategies is to experiment and see what works at different times. A lot of your more generic nymph patterns will get some strikes, however, in my opinion, scuds are the way to go.

Of course then theres always the streamer route, and then you can throw such a wide multitude of patterns that listing them would probably take forever. Generally speaking, the best time to use such flies is at night, but you can draw strikes all day if you get really dedicated to the whole streamer thing.

As far as the dry fly thing goes, some of the most fun I've ever had fishing would be with big hopper patterns in late summer.

[JONBOY]

I will update the thread when I get back to see if I found the the right fly or not. Thanks for all of the info guys.

[JONBOY]

Well to make a long story short, I never made it to Taney, I stayed on Table Rock, the fishing was pretty lame. I did have a blast killing myself on jetskis, and water skiing... my body now hates me. I will have to try again to fish Taney at a later date.

[Fly_Guy]

Skipped some awesome Taneycomo trout fishing to jetski!!?? Are you sure you're on the right forum? Shoulda been at taney - i went friday and took 15 or so - including a big rainbow and a decent brown.

[JONBOY]

I know I should have gone fishing... I am ashamed ... but in my defense we were staying 45 min from Taney, in an awesome house right on Table Rock. I had plans of going night fishing, but after a day of drinking beer I don't think I would have ever found the river. I will be going to BSSP on the 4th to redeem myself of not fishing!