Could Taneycomo Be A Smallmouth Lake?

[Sam]

For all the reasons mentioned - silt, cold water, weeds, no rocks, no crawdads - I think Taneycomo is being put to the best use possible to maximize fishing entertainment and revenue in the area. It's a put-and-take trout hole supported by a hatchery - not exactly natural, but the best that can be done with trout around here. And just like the way farm ponds can produce bigger panfish than our lakes, trout can grow real big in Taneycomo, though they can't reproduce.

If conditions were prime for bass there, then bass would soon dominate the food chain and keep the small stocker trout eaten up. That's not happening, so conditions aren't right for them. If Taneycomo were left alone, I think the main fish species would be the one the lake produces naturally and in quantity - suckers.

[eric1978]

no rocks = no crawdads

smallmouth like to eat at Red Lobster pretty often

But lots of scuds. Smallmouth will eat whatever is available...I don't think forage is the problem, but the habitat and the water temp most likely are, as you mentioned before.

[fly2fish]

I think if smallmouths were stocked in Taney they would eventually find their way into one of the creeks that feed into Taney and spend most of their time there, maybe venturing out into the lower section if the creek temps get to high in the summer.

[Gavin]

I'm sure that they already ARE in the creeks that feed Taney...some in the Lake too....Its just hasnt been a good place for them since the river was dammed. You can still catch em on the Rock though. It looks like they have a great smallmouth fishery on that Lake....Might have to give it a try one of these days.

[Wayne SW/MO]

You can still catch em on the Rock though. It looks like they have a great smallmouth fishery on that Lake.

There's a very good, maybe great, population of smallies from Campbell Point on east, you just have to fish their habitat.

[ozark trout fisher]

For the most part the accepted range was 60f for smallies and 62 for largemouth to start and extending to about 65 for smallies and 70 for largemouth. There doesn't seem to be a consensus but those seem to be the most popular. Most sources point out that daylight has to also be right and not just the right temperature. Many give the smallie credit for spawning deeper at times. Most feel that smallies are more particular about the bottom makeup where they prefer small gravel, but will accept gravel and/or sand.

Thanks for that... I just researched it a little more, and also found a whole smorgasbord of opinions regarding spawning temps. Some would fit more into your original conjecture on the issue, and some mine. Based on looking at what I saw, it kinda appears they spawn at about the same temp. It seems for every 10 pages on the subject though, there are about 10 different opinions.

[Ned Kehde]

There is a difference between reservoir-strain and stream-strain smallmouth bass. Traditionally, stream-strain smallmouth bass have a difficult time recruiting in a reservoir, but Taneycomo isn't a traditional reservoir.

In eastern Kansas, we have a 5,000-acre power-plant reservoir that supports a significant population of reservoir-strain smallmouth bass, and during a calender year, the water temperatures in this lake range from 38 degrees to 90 degrees. In recent years, some anglers in Kansas have asked the biologists to raise reservoir-strain smallmouth bass until they are eight-inches long and stock them the way they stock wipers, channel catfish and trout in the small reservoirs in easter Kansas.

The Chinese fishmongers have shown the world that it is a relatively easy task to raise 12" to 13" largemouth bass, and Leonard Jirak of Hartford, Kansas, and Kansas Dept of Wildlife and Parks, has shown us that it is relatively easy to raise smallmouth bass in a summer to be six to eight inches long, and stock them in late September in a reservoir and allow them to become three- to five-pounders.

Perhaps in order to develop a decent smallmouth bass fishery at Taneycomo, anglers will have to convince the folks at the Missouri Dept of Conservation to periodically raise reservoir-strain smallmouth bass and stock them into Taneycomo. The obstacle to that idea is that the MDC has a prejudice against reservoir-strain smallmouth, fearing that they will adversely affect the stream-strained smallmouth bass in the Ozarks. Years ago before Beaver Lake was stocked with reservoir-strain smallmouth bass that was a legitimate concern

Some folks think that Table Rock's smallmouth bass population has been enhanced by the reservoir-strain smallmouth bass that have escaped from Beaver. And it is assumed the byproducts of Beaver's smallmouth bass bass have already affected the stream-strain smallmouth in the tributaries of Table Rock, and since some of Table Rock's smallmouth bass have washed into Taneycomo, it's likely that they have affected the stream-strain smallmouth in Taneycomo and Bull Shoal's feeder creeks.

[Wayne SW/MO]

That doesn't appear to be the case, at least in appearance. In the winter I would imagine that both occupy the lakes, given the fact that stream smallies will migrate to lakes in search of deep water during the winter. Beaver would be a good example of the fact that some smallies will not inhabit lakes to any appreciable degree. Beaver originally had the White river and War Eagle fish available, but the population never increased to any reasonable numbers.

At one time I remember reading that the MDC was looking at some Tennessee fish, but I don't recall if they brought any in or not, I'll have to do some searching. I believe Oklahoma may have used Tennessee fish.

As far as Taney goes, its had decades to develop a smallie population and it hasn't and you can't fight Mother nature.

[Ned Kehde]

We can contact Gene Gilliland at GGillOkla@aol.com, and he will tell us the history of reservoir-strain smallmouth bass stockings in Oklahoma.

So far reservoir-strain smallmouth recruitment at Taneycomo has been meager; thus if anglers want them, they will have to convince the MDC to periodically stock them. And perhaps they will eventually find a recruitment niche; the fisheries world is an inscrutable endeavor; thus pays not to give up hope. And you can fight Mother Nature; Leonard Jirak of Hartford, Kansas, and the Kansas Dept of Wildlife and Parks has fought her a lot and won some battles.

[ColdWaterFshr]

I think the whole idea is nuts on many different levels, and who started this thread anyway? Upper Taney is a premier trout tailwater desitination, the middle section is ugly Branson and the lower end is a forgotten and very marginal-bass water. Just leave it at that. Stock muskies on the lower end if anything, they'd probably do a lot better than smallies. I love smallies, but this talk is just plain silly.

Smallmouth eating scuds