Lilleys' Lake Taneycomo Fishing Report, March 13

[Phil Lilley]

For the last three days, the U.S. Corps of Army Engineers has ran a couple of units for about 30 minutes in the morning and that's it -- no generation besides that. It's been pretty quiet on the generation scene. Table Rock Lake has risen a couple of feet this week from a two-inch rain we got over the weekend. It's now hovering at 910 feet which is still five feet below power pool.

It's been cold and windy; we can't seem to get past this long, winter season.  But it looks like there's some spring-like days ahead so we might be over the hump!  Regardless, trout fishing has been pretty good for most anglers who brave the elements.  Water color is good and temperature is about 45 degrees.

The breezy weather makes for pretty good jerk bait fishing as well as casting spoons and spinners.  Actually, bass fishing on the lower lake has been very good throwing jerk baits according to one bass club member.  He  caught quite a few black bass a couple of weekends ago over four pounds.  And speaking of warm water fish, anglers are still catching crappie along the wall in front of the Branson Landing trolling or drifting with minnows or small  jigs under a float.  You'll catch rainbows, too.

Fishing with live bait:  Anglers caught good rainbows and a few browns on minnows, straight lining them just below the mouth of Fall Creek this week.  Also fishing them close to Short Creek as well as down at Monkey Island.  There's a lot of small forage fish along most of the banks hiding close to fallen trees and pond weed.   Injecting air into night crawlers is another great way to catch a limit of rainbows and may be a brown or two.  Fishing them about anywhere between Fall Creek and Monkey Island.  One of our guides just came in and said his clients caught some real nice rainbows about 500 yards below Fall Creek on crawlers.  He said the key was to stay put and be patient.  He said most boats were moving around too much and not waiting on the fish.

White and brown or white and orange Gulp Power Eggs are also working good if you're using bait below Fall Creek.  When it's windy and there's a big chop on the water, they're taking a Trout Magnet under a float.  Best colors are pink, salmon mix and sassy.



Above Fall Creek, the jig-and-float technique is hard to beat.  Rainbows are taking an olive/orange head, olive/tan head, tan or black half micro jig under a float anywhere from three- to seven-feet deep depending on the water you're fishing.  Guide Steve Dickey found some nice rainbows in the deep water below Lookout, fishing his brown/orange head marabou jig seven-feet deep the other day.  Today he called in this FISHING REPORT.

I fished at the Narrows, about 3/4 mile above Fall Creek, yesterday and did catch quite a few rainbows, mostly small (less than 12 inches) but did catch a few in the 14-inch range.  They took a #14 red zebra or a rusty zebra midge under a small indicator 36 inches deep.  I used 6x fluorocarbon tippet.



Fly fishing below the dam, wading in, fishermen have done really well stripping a black or olive woolly bugger, size #8, working the flat from Big Hole clear down to Trophy Run.  Conditions have been best when the wind is blowing and there's a good chop on the water.  Also try soft hackles and cracklebacks, size #14 and #16.  Of course zebra midges are working well, too.   Rusty, P&P and black zebras size #16 fished from 6 to 24 inches deep.

In the Rebar chute, San Juan worms in brown and red, scuds size #12 to #18 in tan, brown or gray and egg flies drifted in the faster water above, in the chute and below the hole.  There's still several trophies up there to catch (and release).