Fishing Report 11-11 To 11-14

[King Fish]

I've been waiting to post my 2 cents of a fishing report.. but was going to wait until the violations thread ran it's course..

so here goes..

arrived @ Lilley's landing 3pm Wednesday put the boat in and went for more of a ride than tried to fish.. only seen 4 boats out Wednesday afternoon on such a Great day..

Thursday.. got out on the water @ 7:30am went to the dam,, they were running a lot of water so we drifted San Juan worms

#8 and #10 scuds all colors and the glo balls I use on the current river... threw some 1/8th jigs in various colors also.. the San Juan worms did the best.. used the ones from Lilley's tackle store with the flash tied in.. caught a lot of fish,, biggest being 19".. took nice pics of that before releasing it.. felt good to release a nice one.. Great day and I'll bet we seen less than 10 boats all day..

Friday.. same thing.. up to the dam drifting scuds/ San Juans/ globalls/ pheasant tail nymphs.. didn't do as well as Thursday but had plenty of action and a great time.. didn't catch anything bigger than 16" friday.. and I think we might of seen 10/12 boats again all day..

Saturday.. got out early as we could, made one run to the dam.. and drifted back to Lilley's.. cleaned our fish.. loaded up and drove back home to St.Louis.. home @ 4pm...

We had a Great trip.. didn't see a lot of boats for this time of year which surprised me..

I've been fishing Lake Taneycomo a min of 3 times a year since 1982.. I used to go 5-6 times a year back in the day.. but on this last trip.. I'll bet I fished for big fish more than 1/2 the time.. I get bored with drifting after a while.. I throw countdown Rappala's.. wiggle warts.. bigger jigs.. and crawdad style crankbaits.. but I didn't catch 1 fish fishing that way at all.. I caught a few on 1/8th size jigs.. but nothing on the count downs or other crankbaits.. on Friday mid morning I was throwing a #7 countdown.. and right as I started reeling in fast to make my next cast.. a HUGE!! Brown trout hit at my lure right as I was lifting it out of the water.. had me shaking and pumped me up to fish harder.. but to no avail.. It's been a few trips since I've even caught a brown trout on Taneycomo.. but I do give it hell.. I was almost rewarded Friday if I could of caught that one but not in the cards I guess.. Marsha @ Lilley's said she thought they lost a lot of the big fish from the flood..

is that possible? where would they go..? into Bullshoals ???... I just think the trophy fish are very few and far between.. and I can remember even catching sub legal browns often.. all year round.. dosen't seem that way anymore.. but I love fishing Taneycomo.. have turned many a friend and family member on to this wonderful fishery.. anyone have any thoughts on the browns.. thought with the new hatchery we'd see more.... not the case.. with me anyway..

Thx for your time this time until next time... who said that?... who else knows besides me...

Paul

[Brian K. Shaffer]

Sounds like you had a mighty fine trip. To not see many boats up in the upper end this time of year is strange... but with the water being so high.. it has put many people off.

Shame you didnt get that brown to ' hook - up ' with you and that Rapala. That would have been a battle for sure.

As far as seeing less browns that normal - I think its cyclical. These fish havent seemed to form a good spawning run for the last few years from what I see... and the hatchery is too new to be putting many fish in. They only stock 10,000 browns per year compared to 700,000 rainbows... so odds are... not in our favor.

Overall.. sounds like you had fun. Good on ya! Cheers, Brian

[Bman]

Marsha @ Lilley's said she thought they lost a lot of the big fish from the flood..

is that possible? where would they go..? into Bullshoals ???... I just think the trophy fish are very few and far between.. and I can remember even catching sub legal browns often.. all year round.. dosen't seem that way anymore.. but I love fishing Taneycomo.. have turned many a friend and family member on to this wonderful fishery.. anyone have any thoughts on the browns.. thought with the new hatchery we'd see more.... not the case.. with me anyway..

Paul

Not to worry they are still there. When the Browns show up in the fall, they show up quick! One week they aren't, next week BAM! If conditions deteriorate, they disappear.

[Bman]

For example, my first week this fall, I was catching rainbows. The second week my son joined me, and we started catching the Browns pictured early that week. By wed to thur that same week they (the big ones) started to appear. Browns 10 -15 pounds. Then the rains, and flood gates came.