Should Money Be Spent On A Put-and-take Trout Lake?

[ozark trout fisher]

Well two thoughts immediately come to mind. The sampling came from the lower end. Aren't there less trout in the lower end? Isn't the water a little warmer also?

Yes it's warmer. That's why Taney is one of the best of both worlds... cold and warm water.

Those numbers do look good but, I would like to see what the numbers of native fish are per acre. And how those numbers compare to other lakes? Other lakes of similar size? Those numbers just look to me to be a little funny. Numbers like that would look to rival some of the best bass lakes. I don't know just thinking out loud. I would tend to think that actually very few samples were found, as compared to lakes of similar size, but that few that were found, were of nice size. And then that makes me wonder what the age of the samples were? Were they young, large fish, meaning a fast growth rate? Or older fish with a slow growth rate? Are the growth rates the same as other lakes?

Exactly. If you look back, people have mentioned for years Taney is a well kept secret. One if not the best for trophy bass. The flood of 08 did some damage but they will come back strong. I've seen bass in some of the creeks here, schools of them between 5 and 12 pounds. You heard me... 12 pounds. Pigs! I couldn't believe me eyes. This was probably 12 years ago though and haven't seen it since. They were in pre spawn and staging in fallen trees close to gravel banks. And no, they wouldn't even look at what I threw.

Taney has always been known for it's big blue gill, always.

I'll try to get the full report. Like I said, I didn't know they shocked on the lower end till now.

I won't disagree that as written those numbers look good. Hell they look amazing but, there are also a whole host of questions to go with them to get the real picture as to the health of that lake.

How many trout are there per acre of water?

Per acre on the upper end? I have trout studies posted for the last 20 years here on the site. Not per acre though. MDC pretty much puts all their reports in the same format, fish collected per hour.

BTW - don't Brown trout love to eat Rainbows?

Oh yes. So do big bass.

I would have never guessed Taney was a good bass lake... Learn new things everyday. Do most of them live up in the creek arms, where the water's a bit warmer? I'm assuming 5-12 pounders are largemouth right? If they're smallies that'd be crazy

[laker67]

I would have never guessed Taney was a good bass lake... Learn new things everyday. Do most of them live up in the creek arms, where the water's a bit warmer? I'm assuming 5-12 pounders are largemouth right? If they're smallies that'd be crazy

My uncle caught a 8.75 LM out of Roark a few years back.

[Phil Lilley]

I really don't know the lower lake that well but there are coves and creeks that flow in. Points and quite a bit of wood in the water. Largemouth, yes. I don't think there's many if any K's and yes there are smallmouth but again, don't seem to be that many. Blue gill- very good. And a decent number of crappie and whites.

[Wayne SW/MO]

You can't think in human terms when it comes to fish. If a Bass lives in Taney, he's going to live in Taney, he has no place else to go. I suspect the numbers aren't great because of the lack of spawning areas. They also have one more predator to guard the nest against, the trout.

[Phil Lilley]

Remember Trav talking about the lower lake after the 08 floods? He said it washed a ton of trees and debry in the lake and it was sitting on the bottom all over the place. Wonder if it's still there. Might have created great habitat for bass and we may see big numbers- or may be already seeing good number reflected by MDC's 08 report.

I'm going to ask for reports from the last 10+ years and see what it tells us, like I have for Upper Taney.

[Wayne SW/MO]

To the best of my knowledge there is only one creek that has enough volume to make an impact on the lower end, and it doesn't flow into the main channel. It does probably produce the best water for spawning of warm water species. Half of the lower end, below Rockaway, doesn't get any real input from the North side, it flows into Swan. The south side watershed isn't that large either, so aside from heavy rains, there isn't tha much input to change the temperature that drastically. In fact in normal water levels on BS, trout do fine below the Powersite dam because of the cold flow through the dam.