April 17 Fishing Report, Taneycomo

[Phil Lilley]

Well, we've been through another rain event which, at least for us here on Taneycomo, has ran its course.  Table Rock is back to power pool, and the powers who have run water through Table Rock Dam have cut back flows to a minimum (as of today).  Beaver Lake, on the other hand, remains very high and show no sign of being dropped any time soon.  One good rain puts more water on us, but the 7-day forecast calls for less than 1.5 inches over the area.

Our lake water looks to be in great condition.  Water temperature is running about 46 degrees coming out of Table Rock Lake and I would expect our water to warm up with days in the 60's and 70's in our near future.  

Because fishing has been so tough, really for most of the spring so far, there should be a build up of rainbows in the lake, especially from Branson to the dam.  There simply hasn't been the volume of trout cleaned, at least at our cleaning stations lately.

Before the last rains, our guides and other anglers were catching a lot of rainbows on the pink Berkley's Powerworm under a float.  I saw one of them this morning fishing it in front of our dock and catching fish so I guess they're picking up where they left off.   The BPW should work - I'd use 2-pound line though - to catch more numbers of trout.

Night crawlers are still one of the hottest baits right now.  With only 35 megawatts of power running (3,000 cfs), I'd only use a small split shot for weight, just enough to get it to the bottom.  We sell drift rigs with 1/8th-ounce bell weights... unfortunately, those are too big for the current we're seeing right now.  Just tie on a #8 hook and pinch a small shot 18 inches above the line.  Two or 4-pound would work fine.

Don't wad the worm up on the hook... pinch the worm in half and slide the hook through the worm at the center point, letting the worm hang off both sides of the hook.  You don't have to hide the hook at all.  Inject it with air if you want but when drifting it, you really don't have to.

Jig fishing should be very good with the water as low as it is.  Either throw a jig straight of use it under a float.  The sculpin/ginger or sculpin/peach has been the best color lately with white and white/gray a close second.  I've been throwing black and black/olive a lot with little success, which is surprising.  That was the best color this time last year.

Fly fishing should be heating up too with the lower water.  We have seen big midge hatches the last few days and the barn swallows are back in big numbers.  You can tell when there's a hatch because the swallows are swarming all over the surface of the lake picking off bugs as they hatch off the water.  So midges - soft hackles and zebra midges should be good as well as cracklebacks.

I'm being pretty general in my reporting because we haven't been out enough to see how the trout are reacting to this new generation pattern.  But we are looking forward to doing some more scouting very soon!

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[netboy]

Are you seeing any caddis coming off? 

I fished the White river yesterday and today and the caddis were really swarming. Did well on Elk Hairs and soft hackles. Actually had to keep brushing them off my sunglasses. 

[Phil Lilley]

Caddis, no.  We don't have many caddis here.  Not sure why.

The guides caught trout this morning throwing silver spoons down around the Landing.  Nice ones.

[netboy]

Phil, check out this picture of the caddis on the White from Dally's blog....

https://ozarkflyfisherjournal.wordpress.com/2018/04/18/low-water-caddis-no-lie/

[snagged in outlet 3]

1 hour ago, netboy said:

Phil, check out this picture of the caddis on the White from Dally's blog....

https://ozarkflyfisherjournal.wordpress.com/2018/04/18/low-water-caddis-no-lie/

Beautiful!!!  I've experienced it many times.  Thanks!