Lilleys' Lake Taneycomo Fishing Report, July 1

[Phil Lilley]

Generation schedules for Lake Taneycomo have been consistent this past week.  Most days the water has been off in the mornings then running, starting mid-afternoon until 9 p.m.  The difference is in how much water is run and when it is shut down.  For instance, four full  units ran yesterday for three hours.  Today only run one unit was running in the afternoon.  This pattern should hold true for the coming days.

Trout fishing continues to be somewhat challenging, although the last couple of days we've seen more rainbows caught off the dock and out in boats.  Our water is still very clear and staying cold with the water running in the afternoons.

One revelation about the fishing came through an email I received this morning from our Shepherd of the Hills hatchery manager.  I asked about stocking for the past month.  Because they've been running so much water, the lower lake's water temperature is colder than normal for a summer month so they've been stocking rainbows, not in the upper lake but down lake.  Some of these fish will make their way upstream, but not as many as you'd think.  Thus, our trout are spread out throughout the lake versus being crowded up where we are in the upper lake.

Some of our guides have been going down lake and finding rainbows in the Landing area and even farther down.  There's an area called the Old Corn Fields that's always been popular over the years.  It's the stretch just above the mouth of Bull Creek on the west side of the lake.  Even when four units are running, you can anchor and fish this area or drift the upper lake.  The same bait will work -- Gulp Eggs, Powerbait eggs and paste, night crawlers and even minnows.  Actually minnows should work better in the lower lake because there's more small forage fish down there.

I'd try a Trout Magnet in the mid to lower lake, too, especially in the Landing area.  Pinks are still working good, with the float set at five- to six-feet deep.

Trolling has been pretty productive lately.  Good baits to troll are hard crank baits such as a Shad Rap or Flicker Shad in small to medium sizes, inline spinners such as larger Rooster Tails and even jigs.

If you're throwing jigs, when the water is running, throw an 1/8th ounce white, sculpin, brown, sculpin/ginger or brown/orange out in the main lake or channel and against the bluff banks.  Work it close to the bottom.  Four-pound line is fine but two-pound is better.

From Short Creek and up lake, the rig I described in my last couple of reports is working fairly well.  That's a jig-and-float with a Zebra Midge dropper using 7x or two-pound tippet.

When the water is running water later in the day, our guides are drifting from the dam down using San Juan worms in pink and cerise colors, as well as #12 orange scuds.  We just had two shades of orange scuds tied up this week because most of the bugs we're finding in rainbows' stomachs are orange scuds.  Scuds turn orange  when they're first hatched or when they die.  We're also finding sculpin eggs in their stomachs, which are also orange.