Lilleys' Lake Taneycomo Fishing Report, October 3

[Phil Lilley]

Generation patterns on Lake Taneycomo have stayed the same for months.  Most days the water is off for most or all day, but some days it's running a half unit to one full unit all day until midnight. Which days that will happen is just a guess, so it's best to check the SPA online schedule before heading to the lake.

Our trees are starting to turn a bit on the big bluffs along the lake.  It looks like we're going to have a pretty autumn season.  Leaves in the water means trout are looking for bugs around them.  You'll see schools of rainbows midging the surface along the lines of leaves that form as the breeze picks up during the day.  We used either a spin or fly rod and throw a zebra midge or a micro jig under a float anywhere from 12 to 36 inches deep.  This pattern will continue through November.

I got out and fished with my grandson, Jeriah, yesterday.  We used night crawlers, injecting them with air and floating them off the bottom, with four-pound line and #8 hooks.  I anchored the boat in three feet of water right in front of the mouth of Short Creek and tossed our bait out no more than 25 feet ("Snoopy" rods  -- Jeriah's actually features Mater from Cars --  can't cast very well).  Jeriah caught eight rainbows and one brown trout in a short amount of time.  I didn't realize he wanted to keep and "eat" his fish, so we threw back the first few before I caught what he was saying.

Our guides report doing very well using the jig-and-float method using micro or marabou jigs or a trout magnet.  There's been a few days when the wind has really kicked up and created a good chop on the water for just this type of fishing.  The best micro jig colors have been olive, olive with orange head, gray with chrome head, ginger and black.  Marabou colors that have produced are brown with orange head, sculpin or olive.  With Trout Magnets, the favorite colors have been pink, sassie or bison.  Berkley Powerbait Gulp eggs have been good, too, using white and orange or white and pink.

Fly fishing below the dam has been fair.  We have seen a few small browns moving up but mainly males.  I fished less than an hour this morning and was surprised to see a lot of male rainbows sparring in the Rebar chute.  I caught a few on a #18 rusty midge and a #12 mink scud.  Didn't see any trout longer than 20 inches, though.

[crazy4fishin]

How blessed you are to be able to take your grand son fishing and it looks like he has the knack to be a good fisherman!

Great report also.

C4F

[Gatorjet]

Great video Phil. Can't wait till Pawpaw can take Kaylee fishing!

Many years ago when I took my daughter fishing for the first time on Taney after a little while she said "dad, I don't want to fish any more", and handed me her rod. Then I felt the tugging, and figured out she was afraid to reel in the fish! Last year when I took her, and her fiancee Sam fishing she said "dad, I think my line's hung up on the trolling motor" She handed me the rod, and as I took the line around the front of the boat I again felt the tugging of a fish. As I looked back at her she smiled, and said "gotcha!" Of course that was after she out fished both me and Sam!