Fishing Report

[Phil Lilley]

Generation patterns, as well as fishing patterns, have not changed much here on Lake Taneycomo in the past 2 weeks. Some days on the lake, the water runs all day at one to a half unit and some days they run 1 to 3 units in the morning starting early and only running it for 2 or 3 hours. There’s not any big rain events on the horizon it looks like and our lakes are still pretty low for this time of year so I don’t think we’re going to see any major changes to this pattern.

Trout fishing continues to be good for most anglers. The major key is still light line and small weights. If you want to catch more trout and you’re bait fishing, use 2-pound line and use just enough weight to get you out and down to the bottom. If the water is running, don’t think you need a lot of weight to get to the bottom and stay there, you don’t. Using big bell weights is over kill—you’ll only loose more rigs and you’ll miss more strikes because you won’t be able to feel the strike. I usually use split shots instead of bell weights because they’re easy to change out and they don’t hang up as bad.

I mentioned this in an earlier report but it’s worth talking about it again. We are selling weightless rigs in our shop. Instead of a weight, we’re tying a knot on the end of the line. When you add a removable split shot to the line, the knot keeps the weight from sliding off.

Minnows are doing the best right now below Fall Creek. We’re getting reports of some brown trout being caught on minnows as well as rainbows. Anglers report catching bigger trout on minnows and night crawlers compared to Power Bait. Inject air in the night crawler to float it off the bottom, whether you’re drifting or still fishing.

Bill Babler was out yesterday with a client. They were hog hunting. They were throwing Pointers against the bluff banks from Lookout down, early in the morning while the water was running. His client, Kevin from KC, on his first cast hooked and landed a nice 24-inch brown trout that they guessed weighed over 8 pounds. It was released after taking some pictures. They had several other browns and rainbows swipe at their crank baits but only caught a few rainbows, no other browns. Pics to follow… my card reader conked out on me and I’m going to have to buy another before posting the images.

We’re still doing well throwing jigs, when the water is running and when it’s off. We’re throwing 1/8-ounce when the water is moving and dropping down to 3/32nd or 1/16th-ounce when it’s not. I didn’t pretty well using white yesterday morning from Lookout down and working the deep channel but sculpin, brown, black and other combination colors are working just as well.

Most of the guides are using jig and float with the water is off. Turner Micro Jigs are doing the best in tan, olive and gray. Be sure to drop to 2-pound line when you’re using these small jigs. They’re too small to be using 4-pound. Fish them 4-5 feet deep most of the time but if they’re running water, go to a full micro and fish it 6-7 feet deep. Pink with a chrome head is the best when the water is running.

[Bill Babler]

Another really good tenique right now is using a 1/2 micro suspended under a carrot float using 2 pound line. Fish it pretty deep, about 7 ft. from Fall creek thru Trout Hollow, on the Bluf Branson Side Bank.

Day before yesterday my clients landed well over 200 bows with this presentation. They went back on their own yesterday and did the same thing with the water running. Use either a olive/copperhead or olive/flo-orange head on the micro. They are completely deadly right now.

In the restricted zone, with two generators I am using a full Pink wth Chrome head and dropping a size 14 grey scud under it. I am running the combo about 10+ft. Throwing it on a 7' spinning rod.

If you are fishing a flyrod, I would have the dropper a minium of 14 ft. on two generators. Chuck Grise has just been tearing them up with a scud/and egg combo.

[MaxDrown]

I've found #16 copper BH zebra midges to be super effective on Taney.