Lake Taneycomo fishing report Taneycomo Report

[Phil Lilley]

<img title="Taneycomo Brown Jan 18 2012" src="http://www.ozarkanglers.com/lake-taneycomo/files/2012/01/Taneycomo-Brown-Jan-18-2012.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="298" />

Our weather cycle has been pretty nice so far this winter here on <a href="http://www.ozarkanglers.com/lake-taneycomo/">Lake Taneycomo</a>. Mild temperatures have dominated January especially on weekends which is a nice change. Remember last January? Three out of 4 weekends we had snow and very cold wind. Last Saturday we almost hit 70 and this Saturday's forecasted for the 50's. Warmer on Sunday.<!--more-->

Our trout have liked this nice weather too. Fishing, or catching, has been better than normal. <a href="http://mdc.mo.gov/regions/southwest/shepherd-hills-fish-hatchery" target="_blank">Shepherd of the Hills Hatchery</a> is doing their part stocking rainbows, and good sized ones too. <a href="http://www.swpa.gov/generationschedules.aspx" target="_blank">SPA schedule</a> say the Corp is running water most mornings during the week, some mornings pretty hard--4 units worth. But they're been shutting it down by noon. Weekends might be different. Generally they leave the water off Saturday and Sundays. Looking at the weather for this weekend and what they did last weekend, I'd say no generation this Saturday and Sunday.

Trolling with spinners, medium crank baits and jigs is working well. I would troll starting below Cooper Creek and do down past the Landing. There's more room down there plus that's the area where Shepherd has been stocking their trout. Freshly stocked trout tend to stay close to the surface for a few days. Trolling lures run through this layer of water. Jig and float works good for these rainbows too.

Live bait is definitely catching bigger numbers lately, or I should say it's been easier catching your limit using bait. Gulp Power Bait using a white and another color either drifting down the lake when the water is running or still fishing. Four-pound line is the right weight line to use right now. You don't need to drop to 2-pound. If the water is running, try minnows on a <a href="http://forums.ozarkanglers.com/?showtopic=30562">drift rig</a>. Water off--fish with air injected night crawlers.

On calm days, no wind, I've been fishing jigs straight line and using 1/8th oz if the water is running and 1/16th oz if it is not. I'm using white, sculpin/orange and olive below the dam during generation, then dropping the white and using brown and sculpin below Lookout. Try a 1/16th oz jig under a float if the water is running and fish it about the depth of the water you're fishing or a little deeper. Go to micro or marabou jigs in same colors and experiment with the depth of the jig till you find that happy level where the trout will bite.

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-2139" title="Lookout on Taneycomo" src="http://www.ozarkanglers.com/lake-taneycomo/files/2012/01/Lookout-on-Taneycomo.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="270" />

Fly fishing has been pretty good below the dam when the water is shut down in the afternoon and evenings. Midge hatches continue to come off especially later in the day. Cracklebacks and soft hackles stripped when the water is a little choppy is working - #14 and #16 green and red. I've done well using #16 red or rusty zebra midges under a palsa indicator around where I see trout rising later in the evening in the Narrows area but to be honest there are a bunch of small rainbows here--lots of action but not much size.

I got out on Thursday late afternoon. Generation ended at 1 p.m. and the water was dropping out as I got up to the top of what we used to call KOA, not Trophy Run. I found a few trout off the end of the island there on the south side of the lake midging and caught a half dozen on a red #16 zebra under a palsa indicator set 12 inches deep. First one was a decent brown, others were all rainbows, small ones.

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-2140" title="Taneycomo Brown Top View" src="http://www.ozarkanglers.com/lake-taneycomo/files/2012/01/Taneycomo-Brown-Top-View.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="217" />

[duckydoty]

Those are some great pictures Phil.