Lilleys' Lake Taneycomo Fishing Report, November 26

[Phil Lilley]

Cold weather has come to the Ozarks just like most of the Midwest. Do fish like the cold? Yes they do! Not just trout but warm water species like colder water temperatures, too. The change triggers a big feeding binge before hard winter sets in, just as a bear gorges before he hibernates for the winter. Taneycomo trout like colder water temperatures simply because they cause Table Rock Lake to turn over, sending water high in oxygen into the lake. That energizes both rainbows and browns to start their own feeding frenzy -- a dream come true for us fishermen!

The annual event that we all look forward to has happened -- Table Rock Lake has turned over. Without going into a lot of technical jargon, let me explain a little: Table Rock's layers of water, separated by temperature, density and varied levels of dissolved oxygen have mixed together, all throughout the depths of the main lake (over 200 feet deep at the dam face), sending good oxygenated water down to the depth of 130 feet where Taneycomo gets its water. Now the U.S. Corps of Army Engineers can release water through the dam and not have to inject liquid oxygen into the flow because O2 levels are good coming from Table Rock. They will be until later next summer when Table Rock's water will start to separate again, and we'll start this process all over.

Fish pic courtesy of Steve Dickey.

With the turnover a couple of things happen that affects our trout fishing. First, the O2 levels are very good and our trout can now breathe easily. They are also free to feed without having to pause to get their breath, literally. We see a big increase in our trout biting, aggressively. Second, the lake's water temperature rises a few degrees. Third, the water we're getting now from Table Rock has a lot of dark silt in it. Visibility lessens for about a month until the silt settles back down to the bottom of Table Rock. Silt is kicked up by the turning of the lake. Cold water from Table Rock's surface sinks (cold water is heavier than warm water) causing the warm water below to rise and the mixing action causes turbulence, which disturbs the bottom of the lake. This silt doesn't really bother our trout, but we do have to present our lures, bait and flies with this in mind. We tend to use bigger and brighter flies during generation, the same for lures and live bait.

Generation the last few days had been non stop but now has slowed, with only one unit running or less all day. Now that Table Rock has turned over, it's hard to say if this pattern will continue. As I said, the Generation can make it tough on wading below the dam, but it does make boat fishing pretty sweet.

Fishing pressure has been minimal the last few weeks, giving our trout a break from the pounding of anglers up and down the lake. In the little I've fished, the rainbows have been hungry and aggressive, taking small jigs I've thrown under a float. We ventured out last evening for a couple of hours, boating up below the dam and drifting back down.

Fish pic courtesy of Steve Dickey.

We started throwing 3/32nd-ounce jigs straight, with no float, but the wind was making it hard to see or feel the bite which was soft. So we put a float on and dropped to a 1/32nd-ounce jig. White worked real well, but so did a brown with an orange head. I set the float any where fromfour- to five-feet deep and drifted without dragging it. That's important. If you see the float dragging at all, it means you're jig is riding up and not working as it should. I had to make a conscious effort to keep the boat moving at the same speed as the current, which was blowing up lake.

The bites were pretty hard, taking the float under, but some were slight so we really had to watch the float closely. We caught quite a few rainbows, hardly none below 12 but nothing longer than 14 inches.

Leonard Keeney was fishing out of the back of the boat and throwing small crank baits. He was using a Live Target Rainbow lure. He caught as many rainbows as we did on jigs but again, nothing very big.

I boated up to just above Riverpoint Estates this morning to make one short drift to see what they trout were doing. Pinched a night crawler in half and hooked it on a #6 hook, in the middle letting the worm hang off both ends, and pinched a #7 split shot 18 inches above the hook. They're running 80 megawatts of water at 706 feet which translated to 1.5 units. And yes it was brisk! Kept the boat in the middle of the lake to avoid the snags on the bottom on the bluff side of the lake. First bite took my crawler. . . I'm out of practice drifting with crawlers. Second try -- fed another trout. Third try I timed my hook set right and hooked a nice 13 inch-rainbow. Fought hard, dogs were excited. Darby (Jackson's mom) is visiting for the holidays and loves to fish. Jackson, of course, does too. They both went into fish-pointing mode when the rainbow broke the surface.

Next I put on two PowerBait Gulp Eggs, orange and white. Hooking fish on this rig is easier than crawlers, and it didn't take me as much time to hook my second and last "picture fish."

Beautiful morning... two deer and one fox on the bluff bank and lots of herons and two bald eagles.

[Geoff]

Sounds good. We leave tomorrow. im hoping I can catch some browns with some big streamers. All this talk of murky water and big flashy flies has me excited.

[Gatorjet]

How's the fishing off the dock? We're coming down next weekend, but more of a Branson trip with the family than a fishing trip. The Gator is getting droped of at Gatorboats in Cuba for some upgrades, and a minor makeove on the way down. Nick and I probably won't have enough time to justify renting a boat, but you know we will spend some time fishing off the dock.

[Phil Lilley]

Fishing off the dock has been fair. Did have a big rainbow caught 2 days ago and a spot! A kentucky bass about 17 inches! Both on a brown 1/32nd oz jig. Both released.