Lilleys' Lake Taneycomo Fishing Report, November 14

[Phil Lilley]

The leaves have all fallen and we've had our first hard freeze. Yep . . . winter is right around the corner! I believe some great trout fishing is around the corner too here on Taneycomo.

Generation has slowed to a crawl. They are running almost 2 units early in the morning but it's been off by 10 a.m.. It has stayed off the rest of the day with a bump after dark for less than 2 hours. My guess this will be the weekday pattern for a while and probably less generation, if any at all, on weekends.

Trout fishing has been pretty good for most people going out in boats but dock fishing has been only fair. Most take most of the day to get their limit of 4 trout off the dock and they're catching rainbows on a variety of Power Bait and night crawlers. Our water is not real clear so 4 pound line is ok but 2 pound is better. That goes for the whole lake, not just off the dock.

We've had some wind which is good. Choppy conditions are always good for fish biting. Some have done well going down lake from the resort and fishing a pink Trout Magnet under a float 5 feet deep. Also putting a Gulp pink egg on a small jig head hook and fishing it 5 feet deep under a float.

A lot of people are boating up to the mouth of Fall Creek and fishing either night crawlers or Power Bait and catching quite a few rainbows. The few times I've been out the last couple of weeks, I've notice a lot of boats cheating past the line and using bait in the restricted area. Now I really don't know how much of a stickler our agents are on the line at Fall Creek but a $150 ticket isn't worth 50 feet I wouldn't think. Those trout just above the line aren't any bigger than the ones just below the line.

I've heard there's a lot of anglers mistaken where exactly Fall Creek comes in to the lake. I enters Taneycomo from the west or right side if you're looking upstream from Fall Creek's dock. There's a slew that looks like a creek on the left side and further up lake from Fall Creek which some boaters think is Fall Creek. That could be an expensive assumption.

The mouth of Fall Creek is marked by a big sign put there my the Missouri Department of Conservation identifying the bottom boundary of the restricted area.

Above Fall Creek, if you get up there when the water is running early in the morning, throw a 3/32nd ounce white jig from the dam down to the MDC boat ramp. There are still a few big browns up there. Also work a medium stick bait like a Rapala or Rouge. Also drifted an egg fly on the bottom. These trout are seeing quite a few eggs being laid by browns and now rainbows are starting to spawn.

When the water stops, fish a jig and float, 2 pound line and fish it 4 to 6 feet deep, depending on how deep the water is you're fishing.

I got out this afternoon for a couple of hours. Hardly anyone else on the lake today. Boated up past Fall Creek, past the Narrows and started there. I wanted to try a lot of things to see what they likes. I started with darker colors jigs under a float, 6x tippet. They didn't want any of it. So I put on a brown with an orange head jig and they liked it. Switched to a black/brown, black head and nothing. Then sculpin/ginger, brown head and they liked it. A pattern was emerging--they wanted something with a light or bright color. Ginger, sculpin/peach even pink was hot.







There was a fairly good chop on the water most of the time but when the wind died so did the bite. I caught most of my fish below the Narrows in the deeper water down closer to where the condos start.



Trout were midging on the east or shallow bank there so after catching my last jig rainbow, I tied on a #16 Ugly Midge (green body) and a palsa float only 12 inches from the fly and started working those feeding rainbows.









I had great action for the next 30 minutes. I didn't want to change flies because as soon as I casted the zebra in close to a rise, the float would take off and I hooked another rainbow. These trout were quite a bit bigger than the ones I was getting on the jig out in the deeper water too. But nothing over 14 inches.



This is the bank I caught them on zebra midges.  It's always a great bank because there's deep water close to this shallow gravel bar.  Rainbows come up on it and eat both scuds and midges.

I took pictures of the rainbows I caught on a different colored jigs and then a few on the midge. it's always hard to stop and take time to take pictures when the fishing is as good as it was this evening.

I have heard fishing below the dam, wading and fly fishing, has been very good. Like I said, there are still a few browns up there but the spawning rainbows are starting to show up in good numbers and very big in weight too. I was told they're keying in on egg flies real well. No weight, just let them sink slowly and let them drift in the slow current or if there's current, add just a tiny split shot. Around the outlets of course is the hottest but very hard to not snag fish because they're just so many stacked in on top of one another (I am talked about trout but anglers are stacked up in the outlets too).

[mikeak]

Thanks for the report

Mike

[timsfly]

Great report, I need to get back over there.

[BredMan]

Another great report Phil. Always enjoy reading them and seeing your pics. Your reports are a good learning tool which definitely helps me.

[ruthead]

Thanks for the report Phil. This will help subdue my hankerin to be fly fishin for a few more days. Only 2 weeks more to wait!

[Quillback]

Great pics!

[Phil Lilley]

The O2 is funny right now.

The O2 is running between 1 and 6 ppm. Compare to when they're running water -

The O2 is rising and so is the temperature. O2 rising isn't unusual but the temperature should be rising too if the lake is close to turning. I asked Clint, hatchery manager, and he said the same thing - weird.

Table appears to be close to turning. One more good cold front should do it (my guess). It's early but no one should complain!!

I fished around noon and the trout seemed to be more full of energy than past days. Good sign.

[Phil Lilley]

I went out again this evening. Wind was perfect- perfect chop on the water. Fished the east bank starting at the bottom of the Narrows for about 200 yards. They eat up a 1/125th ounce brown jig with an orange head, 3 to 4 feet deep. Wind stopped, so did the bite. No midge bite tonight- period. Did throw a 1/16th ounce sculpin/ginger jig and caught a couple before it got dark.

Again, fish are livelier than they have been. Good sign.

[perchjerker]

Always great to get in depth reports. I'm trying to get down this weekend. This will give me a good starting point. I also like that you include bank pictures so I don't guess where your trying. Thanks as always for the info.