Lilleys' Lake Taneycomo Fishing Report, January 29

[Phil Lilley]

Still having fun with the new cameras...

Winter keeps hanging on.  Single digits last night but warming towards the weekend.  Today's 40 degrees felt like the tropics.  And the winds were civil.  And, the trout bit!  No generation this afternoon.

The video is an attempt to show all the jigs and flies our trout are biting on today.  What didn't work?  What's NOT in the video--an olive micro jig or a ginger 1/100th ounce Bassnapper jig.  I was fishing close to Short Creek the whole time.  On the fly rod, I was using 6x tippet and fishing from 4 to 6 feet deep depending on the depth of water.  The spinning rod--was using 4-pound Trilene XL 4-pounnd line.

If you can't read the by-lines, I caught rainbows on a black half-micro jig, a purple half-micro jig, a pink half-micro jig with a chrome head, red zebra midge, a black zebra midge, orange head 1/32nd ounce brown/orange jig, 1/32nd ounce purple jig, and a 1/32nd ounce white jig.

My camera somehow did not film a catch with a 1/125th ounce sculpin jig (fly rod).

Point is they are really biting good when the water isn't running right not, especially on a jig and float.

By the way, you can see what the levels have been this past week by visiting Ozarkangler's Lake Taneycomo Levels Page.

I was amazed at the size of rainbows we're catching down at the Landing right now.  I caught 2 rainbows this afternoon that would have gone a pound at least.  That's for all you R.A.W. guys this weekend.

Oh yea- and release all the crappies please!

Just kidding.  The crappies are scattered all up and down the bank, out over the weed beds from Scotty's to the Fish House and even further down.  Don't be scared to get out 80 feet from the bank and fish 4 to 8 feet deep with jigs or minnows.  I think it's better if there's a little current.

Back to trout...

Same old bait is doing the best.  A Gulp white egg with another color on a #8 hook fished on the bottom or under a float on a jig head 4 to 6 feet deep is best.  Air injected night crawlers is working well too. Four-pound line is perfectly fine. Our water still has some color to it. Water temperature, by the way, is 43 degrees, down 2 degrees in the last couple of weeks.

Spoons are catching mostly stocker rainbows, not much to the size but jigs are catching a little bigger trout.

Last weekend, a lot of guys told me they caught brown trout, not just one or two but several.  Most of them were throwing or trolling medium crank baits and jigs.  No legal browns that I know of but some pushing 19 inches.  That's a good sign.

I have no report for wading below the dam during no generation but it has to be good.  We've been catching some real nice rainbows close to the cable down past Big Hole drifting and throwing white jigs so I know they're up there.

The shad run was small, and now more than a week has past since we've seen any signs of shad.  We only caught rainbows on white down about 1000 yards below the cable and didn't catch any trout with big bellies below the Big Hole.  That doesn't mean we've had our chance and it's over. . . we've had shad runs as late as May in past years.  Table Rock Lake is prime for a shad kill.  It's water is in the upper 30's in some areas.  We are waiting with baited breath!

If you're fishing a straight jig, no float, during this low water (no generation), I'd suggest throwing as small as jig as the wind will let you.  What I mean by that is when the wind blows fairly hard, it's tough to throw a small jig.  But if the wind is calm, you can drop to a 1/32nd ounce jig, although you would have to use small diameter line like 2-pound or even less.  You can get away with using 4-pound line with 1/8th and 3/32nd ounce line but I'd drop to 2-pound if using 1/16th-ounce and less.

Stay with the normal colors--sculpin, white, black, brown, sculpin/ginger or orange, olive, white/gray and purple.  Brett Rader told me purple was the hot color for him when I saw him on the water the other day.  He was right--I've caught good rainbows on purple the last few days.

[mikeak]

Thanks for the report

Mike

[Phil Lilley]

I was in a hurry when editing the video. I see I missed the last text edit.

[hknfsh]

Good report Phil. I was wading at the cable (dam) last Sunday....throwing a Cleo. You and a buddy were up there in your boat and I hollared at ya about the videos. Did you do any good that day ? Saw you picked up Richy.

[Phil Lilley]

We were experimenting with shad flies and floating indicator flies. Trout were coming up and hitting but not taking them. I got one hook up- small rainbow. Not much else happened. The water was dropping and that's never good.

You said you were doing pretty good...

[Quillback]

Thanks for the report!

[hknfsh]

Sorry for late.reply Phil. I was throwing a gold Cleo at that time and the trout couldn't get enough of it. Was casting at a 45° into the current and enough retrieve to keep a tight line. No big ones but would had strung a few if it wasnt the trophy area. Stayed up at the cable til I couldn't feel my toes anymore...sometimes the "pain" is worth it when the bite is on !