Fishing Report

[Phil Lilley]

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1845" title="Nice Brown on Taneycomo - OzarkAnglers.Com" src="http://www.ozarkanglers.com/lake-taneycomo/files/2011/11/Nice-Brown-on-Taneycomo-OzarkAnglers.Com_.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="233" />

It's Thanksgiving Day and are the fish biting?  No, they're taking a holiday.

No, fish don't take holidays, especially from eating.  And they will probably eat today.  They do most days.  Question is what are they interested in and where the best place to find hungry trout?

Generation:  Pattern changed yesterday (Wednesday) from running 24/7 to periods of no generation.  <a href="http://www.swpa.gov/generationschedules.aspx" target="_blank">SPA's schedule</a> says water will be off Thanksgiving morning till mid day and one unit will run in the afternoon.  Friday's says it will run a little in the morning and off in the afternoon.  I expect this pattern will continue for the foreseeable future.  So you'll have some opportunity to drift and still fish; wade below the dam if you like.

Water quality is poor when the water is off though.  Dissolved oxygen levels plummet to near zero according to the <a href="http://ozarkanglers.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=17240" target="_blank">Corps chart</a>.  When the water is running, the Corp injects liquid oxygen into the turbine and keeps the levels high.  When the water is off, the only oxygen that is released is through the hatchery outlets, which is very significant.  It's enough to keep trout alive.  As I've mentioned before, this is an every year occurrence and this will continue till Table Rock turns over which should happen sometime after the first of December, depending on temperatures.

What this means for fishing--trout may be sluggish and not fight very hard.  They may not take the bait very aggressively.  It may cause them to not feed at all.

Water clarity is fair, not clear, so you can use 4-pound line for about anything when using lures and bait.  For fly fishing, you should be able to get away with using 5x tippet for most flies.  Water temperature is 57 degrees.

Bait fishing below Fall Creek has been very good lately with the water running.  Our guides are finding lots of rainbows when drifting power bait from just above Trout Hollow down to Lilleys Landing.  Gulp eggs in orange or yellow are working best.  Also night crawlers are working good too.  When the water is off, air injected night crawlers are going to work best when still fishing.  Move the bait every once in a while to keep the fish interested.

When the water is running, we've been drifting and using a jig and float rig, using a 1/16th oz white, sculpin, olive, olive/sculpin, sculpin/peach jig under a float any where from 4 to 6 feet deep.  Also throwing a 3/32nd ounce sculpin or white jig and working it off the bottom.  We're still catching warmwater species up below the dam on jigs--smallmouth bass, blue gill, walleye and white bass.  Also seeing some crappie being caught down in our part of the lake around brush on white swim baits and jigs.

Small to medium sized crank baits are catching some nice browns lately too.  Work them along bluff banks and around brush and trees.  Rapala F-7 in the gold/black and rainbow style are best.

Darin submitted this fly fishing report yesterday:

Today was a great day for fishing.  I only fished about two hours but it was very productive.  Most of the fish were small but a couple were around 17-19 inches.  There was only 1 generator going and the water was perfect for streamers.

<img class="alignright size-full wp-image-1844" title="Gallup's Zoo Cougar" src="http://www.ozarkanglers.com/lake-taneycomo/files/2011/11/S1007small.jpeg" alt="" width="100" height="100" />I fished a white #4 Galloups Zoo Cougar on my 5 wt with 150 grain, 24 foot sink tip line.  I was casting as close to the bank, below lookout on the south side, as I could keeping the boat about 50 feet from it, stripping long and fast.  I had many fish chase it all the way to the boat.  Most of the takes were between strips, on the pause.

<img class="alignright size-full wp-image-1843" title="Hunt's Miracle Fly" src="http://www.ozarkanglers.com/lake-taneycomo/files/2011/11/480_miracle_pattern_as.jpeg" alt="" width="100" height="100" />I also fished a yellow 1/100^th oz miracle fly below a palsa.  I fished the same area as I did with the streamer but just about 4 to 5 foot deep and about 10 foot or less out from the bank.  Most of the fish came from the areas that had a good current break, behind rocks and trees, but still on the moving water side of the break.

[scifi]

NICE

[Phil Lilley]

A guest said he boated up with his daughter this morning and threw brown style Boyant spoons at the Riverpoint boat ramp. He was casting toward the bluff bank and caught a bunch of trout before the water started moving.