Lilleys' Taneycomo Fishing Report, February 25

[Phil Lilley]

 

Generation patterns on Lake Taneycomo have remained about the same.  They follow our weather, or at least our night time temperature range.  If it's pretty cold at night, in the mornings, they're running 3-4 units until about 10 a.m..  If it's not too cold, they run 1-2 units will about 9 a.m..  Weekends are a crap shoot.  Water could be off or could be running a half unit all day, and night.  No way to tell until Southwest Power posts the online schedule on Friday.

 

Trout fishing has been pretty good, really all winter so far.  There's a good number of good sized rainbows in the lake, above and below Fall Creek but we've noticed lately there's a ton of smaller rainbows, what we call "silver bullets".  My guess is that they were trucked over from the Neosho Federal Hatchery.  We get a load from Neosho in the winter and they are usually smaller with little color to them, unlike the rainbows stocked from our local state hatchery.

 

Early mornings while they're running water, if the water is high enough and you can boat to the dam, start fishing at the cable (upper boundary of Lake Taneycomo) and throw an 1/8th ounce jig and work it off the bottom.  I cast out to the side of the boat toward the bank and work the jig sideways to the current.  Good colors have been sculpin, brown, black, olive, ginger, white, sculpin/ginger or brown/orange.  Four-pound line is plenty light for working these jigs.

 

 

I'd fish these jigs all the way down to the mouth of Fall Creek, staying either on the deep bluff side or the middle of the lake.

 

When the water is off, jig or fly under a float is working as long as there's some chop on the surface of the water.  If there's not, go with something pretty small like a Zebra Midge or Trout Magnet.  Fish seem to hit these fairly well when there's no surface movement.  But if you see chop on the surface down the lake from where you're fishing, pick up and move!!

 

Colors:  Pink, white, pink/white, chartreuse or purple Trout Magnets.  Sculpin, brown, ginger, pink, black/chartreuse, ginger for marabou jigs.  Sculpin, olive, gray or ginger Micro Jigs.  If the water isn't running, use 1/125th or 1/50th ounce marabou jigs and micro.  If the water is running, use 1/32nd ounce marabou and full Micros.

 

Add a Zebra Midge as a trailer below the jig for a better chance to success.  I'd try a #16 or #18 P&P, red, black, rusty or ugly (green) Zebra.

 

 

Below Fall Creek, minnows have been hot this past week, either drifting them on the bottom when the water is running or just straight line when it's not.  Night crawlers are good too along with garlic scented Powerbait, orange, sunrise, salmon or white color.

 

Good areas have been around Short Creek down to Cooper, Monkey Island down through the bridges.

[Phil Lilley]

Here's a report video I did yesterday afternoon.

[Bill Babler]

Fished a full day on the 25th. starting at about 8:30, and made 3 passes on the dam prior to shut off at about 9:40. Caught several very nice Brown Trout in the 15 to 19 inch range drifting a small rebel crankbait. Surface temperature at the dam was 47. Quite abit warmer than downtown Branson where surface temps were at 42.

Looked in the creeks for fish but most had Ice and did not see any fish moving. Had a report of several being caught in Turkey Creek, but it was frozen just past the mouth for what looked like about 100 yrds.

As the water drained we fished just below clay banks to fall creek, throwing Rainbow color small stickbait patterns Leeland Lures suspending stickbaits. Had quite a few rainbows and several more brown trout and lost 2 really nice ones. The fish would just slam the bait and sky rocket out and spit it back at us.

Fished the remainder of the day drifting ginger 1/2 micro jigs under a float from fall creek to Trout Hollow, and continued to catch fish on a regular basis. We also messed with a straight line 1/32 oz olive jig and they were on that deal also. Only thing that has seemed to have really slowed down is the trout magnet. I threw it repeatedly today and did not have a fish on it or a take. Seemed to want the smaller micro.

Lower restricted area thru Lilleys' is completely loaded with silver bullets. There are also some very nice bows in with them, so lots of fun fishing. We were seeing schools of dozens following in fish that we had hooked, and the midge activity was amazing, as Phil mentioned a size 16 black midge about a foot under the micro and really you could just guess the number you would catch and release.

Good Luck

[dtrs5kprs]

Ned sent out an Finesse News Network Taney report from a gentleman from Shawnee a day or two ago. In addition to the more conventional techniques, they did pretty well with the varmint. Will check with him about re-posting it here.

[Phil Lilley]

I saw that. He listed the lure as a ZinkerZ. Is that what everyone calls a varmint?

Caught 17 rainbows in 17 casts.... that's quite a feat!

[dtrs5kprs]

I saw that. He listed the lure as a ZinkerZ. Is that what everyone calls a varmint?

Caught 17 rainbows in 17 casts.... that's quite a feat!

Yes it is, on both points. The Zman ZinkerZ or Zero is the 5" stick we have been cutting in half for the Ned/Varmint. The TRD is the slighlty altered, made to size bait.

[dtrs5kprs]

From Ned, with permission:

Feb. 20-22 log

Walt Tegtmeier of Leawood, Kansas, fled the frozen waterways of northeastern Kansas and headed to a 2,080-acre riverine reservoir in southern Missouri where he used a tactic we call bass fishing for trout, which is accomplished by wielding a 1/16-ounce Gopher jig affixed to a 2 1/2-inch Z-Man’s ZinkerZ on spinning outfits. Here is a condensed version of the report that he filed on the Finesse News Network about his and a friend’s endeavors:

On Feb. 20, they fly fished instead of bass fished for trout. They plied the upper reaches of this 22-mile-long reservoir, and the area that they fished was 3 1/2-mile stretch that is demarcated as a trophy area, where anglers cannot use live, scented, or soft-plastic baits, and all rainbow trout between 12 and 22 inches must be released, and all brown trout under 20 inches must be released. Their fly rod undertakings yielded 75 rainbow trout, and Tegtmeier described it as a delightful four hours, but those four hours were all they could tolerate because it was so cold and windy.

On Feb. 21, they were plagued by battery woes in their boat, and they didn’t get afloat until noon. Once they were afloat, they fished a little more than four hours, and they about probed seven miles of the reservoir that lies below the trophy area. They worked with the following baits: a variety of 1/8-ounce marabou jigs, 2 1/2-inch Z-Man’s PB&J ZinkerZ on a red 1/16-ounce Gopher jig, 2 1/2-inch Z-Man’s green-pumpkin ZinkerZ on a red 1/16-ounce Gopher jig, and their flyrod setups from the previous day. The ZinkerZ combos produced the bulk of the 60-plus rainbow trout and half a dozen brown trout that they caught. Tegtmeier said: “In the past, I have found the 2 1/2-inch ZinkerZ to not be a great numbers trout bait, but a producer of bigger fish. It was also the first time the ZinkerZ has done well for us when they weren't running water. But alas, no big ones this trip.” He presented the ZinkerZ with a variety of retrieves, depths, and locales.

On Feb. 22, Tegtmeier said he wielded the ZinkerZ and Gopher jig the entire morning in hopes of catching one big trout, which he failed to do. However, he said, “I caught a very nice brown on my first cast, and two casts later had something destroy my leader like it wasn't even there, without me even setting the hook. My partner stubbornly stayed with a sculpin/ginger marabou jig all morning. At one point, I caught rainbows on 17 consecutive casts on the ZinkerZ. It was difficult to keep count, but we finished with at least 60."

Although they were bass fishing for trout, they failed to catch a largemouth bass. One of the reasons why they didn't tangle with a largemouth bass stems from the fact hat the preponderance of the largemouth bass reside in the lower portions of this reservoir, and Tegtmeier and his friend plied its upper-third portions.

“It is a lot easier to deal with winter when one has open water and biting fish nearby. I've been demoralized ever since we got back into town. Hoping for a thaw soon, as I know we all are.”

If my memory is correct, this same group of anglers also used the varmint/little rig last year with good success-Dave.

[Phil Lilley]

Babler is supposed to get me some of those to try. I guess I know how they'll do now.

Wow, more tackle to carry in the shop. The girls are going to kill me!!

[steven tolly]

Interesting method. Any idea what size hook you would want on the jig head or if you need the specific gopher jig head? I guess I would assume a smaller hook, but senkos / zinkerz as they used are pretty thick. We are headed there in a few weeks and I always like to try something new.