Lilley's Lake Taneycomo Fishing Report, June 21

[Phil Lilley]

This is Phil Lilley with the Lake Taneycomo fishing report. "What a day makes," is an applicable saying amongst our trout guides lately. Every day's "catching" has been different the last couple of weeks. Sometimes there's no rhyme of reason to it either. The rainbows are always there -- just some days they're just not interested in eating.

Night crawlers are the best live bait going right now, especially for larger trout. The U.S. Corps of Army Engineers has been running small to medium amounts of water through Table Rock Dam, a little in the mornings but mainly in the afternoons, so drifting is the best presentation with one exception. Guide Bill Babler said he's been anchoring in slow current and fishing his crawlers off the back of the boat. He's done well when the wind keeps him from making a good drift. "The wind has been out of the north some days, blowing straight down the lake. It keeps you from drifting so we've been anchoring."

But you have to be very, very careful when anchoring in current. Make sure your boat is the type that is safe for anchoring. Always anchor off the front of the boat, the bow. Always keep a sharp knife handy if you have to cut the rope in an emergency. Never anchor off the side or back of any boat. Strong currents can pull the sides of the boat down and swamp the boat in a matter of seconds. If you're not sure, ask someone or just don't try it.

Gulp PowerBait eggs will work, too, when drifting but probably not when anchoring. The eggs tend to spin in current, and you'll end up with a mess.

Trout Magnets have been working along with Turner micro jigs. Our guides have been switching between the two lures on trips, fishing one and then the other to find out which ones the trout are favoring.

Linc Hunt, one of our guys in the fly shop, says some of our resort guests have been catching nice rainbows fishing from Cooper Creek to Monkey Island using cotton candy Trout Magnets, fishing them straight with no float and jigging them like a jig. Now I think they must be fishing them using a heavier jig head than TM provides with their packs because they're too light to throw. I think you could use them with sixteenth-ounce jig heads or heavier. Other colors working are bison and sassy.

In another story about using fluorocarbon instead of mono filament, Linc said a guest fishing off our dock this week switched his line to Vanish two- pound and started catching immediately. He had not been doing very well prior to changing. Not everyone on the dock was having the luck he was having with the new line either. The difference was noticeable. Now you don't have to change out your whole reel. All you need to do is tie on three or four feet of "tippet" to the hook and use a simple triple surgeon's knot to join the two lines.