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Rainy Day, Scud Day...


Phil Lilley

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I got out and fished this morning in the rain - perfect fishing day as far as I'm concerned. 

 

After I got back, I wrote this little article.  I'll expand on it later when I have time....

 

November Rainbow 1

Many anglers who travel to fly fish Lake Taneycomo, and don't have a boat, are discouraged when they learn the Corp is running water from Table Rock Dam. Is it commonly believed the only good place to fish from the bank is at the upper two hatchery outlets just below the dam. While these spots can be good, they lack the room for many anglers to wade. There are other possibilities, depending on the amount of water being released.

Today they are running one unit and Taneycomo's lake level is reading 703.5 feet. Normal pool, the lake level when there is no generation, is 702.0 feet so we're only talking about 18 inches of water. At this level, quite a few places come into play. In this article, I want to cover one of my favorite spots.

Park in the M.D.C. boat ramp/public access parking lot and start walking on the trail into the woods uplake. When you get to the tall, round tower, take the path down to the lake.

You can start fishing at that point. Don't wade into the water directly--start drifting your fly just past the green vegetation which isn't far out in the water. You'll find trout holding real close to the bank. Upstream, there's a lot of water to wade but not much downstream. Big rocks make it difficult to wade just down from the entry point.

There are a variety of flies that will work here. My favorite is a scud. If you're using a scud, you have to allow enough tippet below the float to make sure the scud is riding along the bottom. I use a 2-scud tandem with a small shot to get it down quickly. The water in this stretch isn't more than 3-feet deep so setting the float at 5 feet to the first fly is perfect.

I use 6x fluorocarbon as tippet but some people use 5x because of the current.

If you chose a midge instead of a scud, I'd set the float at 2 or 3 feet from the first fly. A Zebra Midge typically has a tungsten bead which will go to the bottom quickly and probably hang up, therefore, don't set it deeper than the water you're fishing.

Other good flies are San Juan worms, soft hackles and woolies.

 

 

I only fished for 90 minutes - had well over a dozen trout hooked with 3 big rainbows that came unbuttoned.   The leaves in the water were aggravating to say the least and the trees behind me ate 3 scuds.  But there weren't too many drifts I did not get a bite.  Lots of fish close to the bank and with this flow easy to get to and hook.

 

No browns.  The rainbows were really colored up.  Caught a couple of black rainbows- never seen them this dark.  They were males getting ready to spawn.

 

I'm telling you - Taney is in the best shape I've seen it in years....  this is going to be an incredible late fall, early winter season!

 

Did I say I didn't see another soul- wade or boat- all morning?!

 

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Pics are of the same fish.

Lilleys Landing logo 150.jpg

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