Lunker Report

[Phil Lilley]

Today's fishing was tougher. We didn't get to the dam till 8 am and only caught a handful on a couple of drifts. Took the kiddos out this afternoon and still slow for us. They did catch some nice rainbows- started below Cooper and drifted just past Monkey Island with white/orange Gulp eggs. Babler did real well though- fished most of the day and they caught alot more rainbows.

[Trav]

What a beautiful brown. People who say stocked trout are poor fighters obviously haven't caught a Taney brown of that size. I've had several run me right up to the backing too.

Greg

Taney Browns have improved in the Upper since the Lower was skimmed and polluted in 2008.

I think the rainbows have less to eat these past couple years in the Lower. The area smells different, less fishy and reeks of an aquatic vegetation thing.

I have seen similar changes in Iowa when they started dredging after the floods of 1993. Of course now the fishing is better than ever there. So, I guess the Lower has a ten year window of improvement.

It is obvious the browns eat bows so they go where the food is.

I am still convinced every time they open the gates the upper gets better nutrients.

Maybe they should open one or two gates for a month out of every year while the water in Table Rock is still at 45 degrees or so? Let some of the top water hit the ecosystem instead of a constant deluge of bottom fed lake water through the generators.

I am just thinking here.

I am not a biologist.

I have read many articles of the various effects river systems go through. Some described by Mr. Agnew as well as others who take streams and their ecosystems seriously. I would love to hear some input on this.

It makes sense to saturate a stream with as much natural stimuli as possible. And there is nothing natural about water running through a generator from hundreds of feet below a water table and injecting it with oxygen.

You have to admit the stigma given to those farm raised trout has taken a curve. The Rainbows have better color and the Browns are more prevalent. I suspect more Lower fish have given up on the big water.

The fight given by fish in the Lower has always been better than the upper prior to its stir fry in 08. The upper has benefited from it.

Is it because of management or environment?

I think fresh water off the top of Table Rock has something to do with it. Am I wrong?

I am interested to hear some facts from those who might know better than my own 30 years of experience with trout and this lake.

I didn’t even buy a trout stamp this year. I don’t fish for trout unless I am fishing deep water for big long term residents of a lake. It breaks my heart to think I have to float some skinny water under a dam with twenty or thirty other boats to be successful.

I am just saying it could be a good idea to pump the lake with some surface water when the temp is appropriate to reestablish the deep water quicker. I want to think deep water trout fishing isn’t lost to me. I love it.

Do I have to wait ten years until the nutrients on the Lower can sustain them? Let’s be honest here. It is the Ozarks. Outside of the Lower Taney, where can you find big browns who act like hardcore cover addicts?

Floating feather jigs in 10 feet of water isn’t me. I prefer a soft plastic trailer behind modified spinner baits. I think plastics give the most natural profile and feathers get dirty. I think watching a graph and bouncing lay down timber in thirty feet of water is what guarantees a fish bigger than 20 inches. This is what I am good at. It is what I prefer.

Oh well. It doesn’t matter I guess. Time is on my side. The Lower is pretty dead.

I did notice that soft plastics were taken away as a tourney option on the Lilley tourneys. I do commend the catch and release though. Not that I will do a catch and release tourney for trout. By the time I trekked 8 miles to the weigh-in my fish would be dead. And I won’t kill a fish over 20 inches. Maybe I can get photo proof with a ride along observer? Too much trouble, even if I was allowed to fish my favorite plastics.

My gram does keep asking for more fresh trout for her dinner though..so…maybe.

I am just playing.....…wink.

But I am serious about the idea of fresh nutrients......…it might do wonders for the dead end of the lake.

[Greg]

Interesting thoughts Trav. Being primarily a fly fisherman I know very little about the lower bigger part of the lake.

Greg

[champ187xr6]

Nice weekend Bill and Lill!

[Trav]

Interesting thoughts Trav. Being primarily a fly fisherman I know very little about the lower bigger part of the lake.

Greg

The true fighters used to be in the Lower out of 30 feet.

Big Browns are my passion. Fishing them like bass behind river current cover. I Love those babies. And plenty of winter bass were caught the same way. I have caught more browns between 5 and 8 pounds than anyone I know this way.

Not to knock your skinny water fly fishing but that was the game for over a decade.

What has it been? Three years since the flood? Last year really sucked down in the Lower.

Maybe with the gates opening this spring we will see if the food is back. I doubt it though.

I will try it this fall but I am not seeing the nutrients for trout being there.

One good thing though, the natural fish have thrived. A buddy of mine says the white bass are running the show in the shallows, big time right now. Little ones in the 5 to 6 inch range are more prevalent than trout or large mouths.

The carp and gizzard shad might have hurt the largemouth though.

White/sucker carp used to be the dominant carp species in the Lower but we now have a similar population of the buffalo. Oh, and the gizzard shad have schools of close to a hundred in a group now. I used to complain a lot about the coontail but now I hate them. They keep the water warm and help these guys thrive.

As I reported a year ago...the gills are plentiful and big. We need more guys fishing for those this year. It is lopsided how the bait is over running the bass. The Gills are so aggressive they are eating the bass fry. They run the lake with the little white bass.

I am sure someone will confirm this but I will state that when it comes to a cold water fishery and keeping the balance of native fish it is next to impossible. The trout did a great job of keeping the gills in check but since the crash and the change of food the little fish have run amuck.

I used to advocate other species in Taney, such as channel cats and muskie but seeing the decline of food for the Brownies I have to say I might want to take it all back.

Or should I? Can they be the key equal balance?

I would rather see the Browns hiding as the dominant species. Too bad there is something missing. Too bad the Lower has a problem holding them.

You would think the Browns would eat the natives but they don’t like them. They want farm raised rainbows and for that they go to the hatchery. My guess is they are not willing to venture into warm water to find those sunfish/baitfish/shad/carp..

Maybe another species will help?..

A warm water species that will eat the carp, shad, and gills, something that will hunt the coontail and help the bass survive?

The trout never messed with the bass population but what we have now is hurting both the trout and the bass.

Is it possible the trout and the bass in this lake are closer than we think? Is there another species that might cut the butter in the middle? Muskie works in Pomme…but I see that as a problem in Taney. Like the Channel Cat, we don’t need another species that has very little spawning area.

Maybe instead of a new species, we need an introduction on food, something that will thrive in cold water.

I am not a biologist…I am just brainstorming.

Anyone have any thoughts?

[laker67]

Maybe instead of a new species, we need an introduction on food, something that will thrive in cold water.

I am not a biologist…I am just brainstorming.

Anyone have any thoughts?

I would like to see them re introduce the fresh water shrimp from the 60's and the 70's. They were 3 times the size of scuds and sowbugs. We tied patterns on #10 and #12 hooks and the fish grew huge in a hurry. Lilley and the other oldtimers like me can recall the tremendous grow rates. 10 pound rainbows were plentiful back then, unlike rare as of now. You could turn over a rock the size of a football, and literally hundreds would emerge. I have even seen them swimming in schools of several hundred at a time. If any of you have seen George Girth's fishing hat, then you have seen a history of fly's that we used in the past.