2015 Taneycomo Sampling Survey

[Phil Lilley]

 2015 Lake Taneycomo Trout Sampling Summary.pdf

Attached is the trout sampling summary from our sampling efforts on August 19.  The fishery looks great!  Fish were fat and happy, though not as fat as this spring, but still very healthy.  The big spike in 11 inch brown trout is a result of surplus brown trout in the hatchery stocked early this summer.  That brings the total number of brown trout stocked in 2015 to 20,217.  Next year will be the last year for stocking triploids and the 15,000 per year commitment.  Unless future sampling shows we need the additional 5,000 each year, we will likely return to stocking 10,000 annually in 2017.  The bottom line is that the brown trout fishery is back to where it was before the floods and anglers are beginning to see the benefits of that.  

Starting after Labor Day, SWPA will probably start scaling back the flow a bit at Taneycomo because Table Rock is getting back to normal.  I have requested that they attempt to run as much water as they can throughout the daylight hours because there are still gates broken at Powersite Dam.  If they were to stop generation, Taneycomo could drop to 4 feet below normal which would mean drying of the gravel bars and trouble for dock owners.  The problem is that they can’t repair the gates at Powersite Dam until Bull Shoals gets down to 680 (it’s still 684).  Once they are able to fix the dam, SWPA should be able to shut the water down when they don’t need the generation.  If we don’t get a ton more rain and they get the dam fixed, hopefully we will have some lower flows for brown trout fishing this fall.

Shane Bush, MDC Fisheries

 

2015 Lake Taneycomo Trout Sampling Summary.pdf

[jtram]

Run it all day, just give us some low flow at night