Fishing Report

[Phil Lilley]

<p><img src="http://forums.ozarkanglers.com/images/2010/4-30aa-250.jpg" width="250" height="188" hspace="4" vspace="4" align="right">Sitting here watching the Cardinals beat the Reds (again), I thought I’d jot down a fishing report for our lake, Taneycomo.&nbsp; Although very little has changed since my last report, I feel the need to catch everyone up on what’s going on.</p>

<p>Generation patterns have not changed.&nbsp; Dam operators are still running less than one unit at 20-35 megawatts of power all day and all night.&nbsp; Still don’t know why—Table Rock rose a little bit after some rains but not enough to be affected. The generation is still aggravating anglers who want to wade, but fishing from a boat is another story.&nbsp; Then it’s nice to have slow current when fishing, no matter how you like to fish.&nbsp; I think the fish like it, too.</p>

<p>In my last report, I stated that our fishing was the best I had ever seen it – and it still is!&nbsp; Now catching these nicer trout takes more than fishing with Power Bait. Not that there’s anything wrong with fishing Power Bait, but you just don’t catch the bigger rainbows, on average, as you do with night crawlers, minnows or jigs.</p>

<p><img src="http://forums.ozarkanglers.com/images/2010/4-30c-250.jpg" width="250" height="190" hspace="4" vspace="4" align="left">To qualify this statement:&nbsp; Big trout don’t bite all the time . . . and they don’t bite every day. Guide Bill Babler may take two trips on two successive days.&nbsp; The first day his clients catch large rainbows in the trophy area.&nbsp; The next day they fish the same way under basically the same conditions, but they only catch small rainbows.&nbsp; I’ve seen this play out many times and so do all who fish for more than one day in a row.&nbsp; Why?&nbsp; That’s fishing.&nbsp; Pat answer but true.</p>

<p>This evening . . . I helped some guys from the gym catch some rainbows for a little cookout we planned.&nbsp; We went almost to Fall Creek and started our slow drift down.&nbsp; I thought they would absolutely eat up night crawlers.&nbsp; It was cloudy, with no wind and just a little bit of water running.&nbsp; By the time we got up there, the sun was out big and bright and we didn’t do that well.&nbsp; It took quite a bit longer to catch enough trout to feed seven hungry young men . . . even my jig wasn’t working as it had the past few evenings.&nbsp; The trout just weren’t interested in eating.&nbsp; And most were small rainbows, too.</p>

<p>That’s fishing.</p>

<p>I did switch them to the jig-and-float method, and we finished our drift by the resort. We used brown or black 1/50-ounce jigs six-feet deep. We caught several, but again, didn’t tear them up.</p>

<p>Something that worked real well for Babler last week was fishing a pink micro jig under a float nine feet down. I thought that was too deep but can’t argue with his success.&nbsp; Then he dropped a gray #14 scud below the jig and drifted it from Andy’s down to Fall Creek.&nbsp; He said they also did extremely well throwing my eighth-ounce sculpin jig from Fall Creek all the way to the Branson Landing on a couple of trips last week.</p>

<p>The water is running slow enough right now that anchoring from our place down is really ok.&nbsp; There’s no danger because of swift current.&nbsp; Anchoring and fishing with minnows, night crawlers or Power Bait is pretty easy for those who don’t want to mess with trying to keep the boat straight or off the banks.&nbsp; There seems to be enough rainbows in this part of the lake to catch without having to drift.&nbsp; But I wouldn’t spend much time in any one spot if you’re not catching . . .&nbsp; move around and try other areas.&nbsp; I’ve found that there are definitely good spots and there are bad spots.&nbsp; Trout do tend to school up, especially just after they’ve been stocked.</p>

[back2roots]

Just to add my $0.02....

Got to do some wading on Saturday and got into just a few 15"-18" bows that had some GREAT colors. Wish I'd had a camera. Caught them on a #16 tan scud as well as 1/64 oz white jig. Beautiful day...not too many people on the water and discovered a small hole in my waders. Oh well...no day is perfect! :~}

Blessings All!

Bill

[jstickley]

Just had to echo all the posts about how great fishing is right now... I don't get down but about twice a year, but I have NEVER had so much fun trout fishing as I did the past couple of days.

Operating mainly on blind squirrel theory (you know, even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then) and tips picked up browsing these forums, a friend and I fished the trophy area Sunday afternoon / evening and Monday morning. We caught more fish than we could count (I'm guessing 20 or more for each of us each day), almost all on white jigs. Each of us caught the largest rainbows of our lives... not huge by the standards of many here, but still very nice 16-19" rainbows that put up an awesome fight.

Let me tell you, fishing with powerbait, while fun... well... it simply just doesn't cut it anymore.

I can't wait to come back. I know there's a trophy waiting there for me to catch, measure, weigh, photograph, and have replicated to hang on my wall and brag about for years to come!

[Phil Lilley]

Just had to echo all the posts about how great fishing is right now... I don't get down but about twice a year, but I have NEVER had so much fun trout fishing as I did the past couple of days.

Operating mainly on blind squirrel theory (you know, even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then) and tips picked up browsing these forums, a friend and I fished the trophy area Sunday afternoon / evening and Monday morning. We caught more fish than we could count (I'm guessing 20 or more for each of us each day), almost all on white jigs. Each of us caught the largest rainbows of our lives... not huge by the standards of many here, but still very nice 16-19" rainbows that put up an awesome fight.

Let me tell you, fishing with powerbait, while fun... well... it simply just doesn't cut it anymore.

I can't wait to come back. I know there's a trophy waiting there for me to catch, measure, weigh, photograph, and have replicated to hang on my wall and brag about for years to come!

That right there is why I do this... thanks for sharing!

[jstickley]

That right there is why I do this... thanks for sharing!

No problem, Phil. Thank YOU for all the great reports and advice you share here. It's wonderful stuff.

Next time I'm down I'll be sure to drop by your place to say hi.

John Stickley