Lilleys' Lake Taneycomo Trip Report, August 12-13

[Phil Lilley]

Took out a couple of friends on the upper lake last evening.  Boated to the dam about 6 p.m. and fished till dark.  Three units and 5 spill gates at Table Rock dam, 10,000 cfs release.  I read 75 degrees on the south side and 58 on the worth.  Most of the water down from Trophy Run is about 60 degrees.



We drifted mainly down the middle of the lake using 1/8th ounce white jigs.  My 2 friends have fished with me before but I would still call them novice jig anglers.  I had them throw out to the side and let the jig go close to the bottom, jigging up and letting it fall as it worked to the upstream end of the boat.  When the jig gets close to the bottom, it's taken upstream because the water close to the bottom is moving slower because of friction--the bottom is slowing it down.



We boated may be 25 rainbows and a couple of browns.  We had a mixed bag of sizes--from 12 to 18 inches.  The browns were 12 and 17 inches.  We missed a lot of strikes and a bunch of fish got off on the retrieve.



This morning I took Ryan and his little brother Joey out.  We left the dock at 6:45 a.m. and headed to the dam.  Same flow conditions as the evening before.  On the first drift, the rainbows bit good, taking their #10 white wooly buggers.  It was going to be a great morning if they kept biting like this!  But the second drift wasn't quite as good, and it got slower as the morning went on.  Not sure if it's boat traffic that shuts them down or just a morning thing... but they had a good trip regardless.

We did switch to a Y2K and an egg fly and caught some on both.  Also taught them how to work a white 1/8th ounce white jig which they caught some on too.  We worked the eddies around Lookout Island and caught a couple.  I'd think they'd be all over that slack water and might be but we couldn't get on them.

I believe they ended up with about 23 rainbows for the morning, the biggest being about 16 inches.



In the past, we've seen some crazy fish come down the spill gates in to Taneycomo.  We've seen carp, bass, catfish, crappie, white bass, blue gill and more.  And we've seen spoonbill.  This time I didn't think the gates were opened wide enough for any big fish to come through but I was wrong!  This spoonbill was floating against the south bank just below the first island this morning.  The gills were ripped and it was dying.  We pulled it in the boat and took some pics.  Joey, I know, had never seen a spoonbill before.  It was a cool experience for both guys.









Rick Lisek had a couple of trips this morning.  They fished the same area and patterns.  His young client caught this nice rainbow this morning and the second pic is of another rainbow caught this afternoon.



Bill Babler also had clients this morning.  He said they drifted red San Juan worms and light peach egg flies from Fall Creek down to Lilleys' and did pretty well, catching 8 rainbows on one drift at the end of their guide session.  Bill also heard that other guides were telling their clients to throw out a 1.8th ounce white jig, not letting it sink but reeling it in slowly but quick enough to keep it within a few feet of the surface.  They were catching fish too.

Bill reported some of his rainbows, after being caught and while he was unhooking them, coughing up lots and lots of scuds, and big ones!  He said they were dark brown in color and as big as a #8.  That's something to try tomorrow!

[mikeak]

Thanks for sharing

Mike

[Bittle]

Have you tried fishing the warm water side for any of those fish?

[Phil Lilley]

I have but no luck yet. Will try again today.

[Dylan Cluver]

The bite is for sure better on the cooler side I would say!