Taneycomo trout commit suicide

[tippet7]

I fished Friday for a couple of hours with some success. Got to meet Stumbler and Ducky in the parking lot as they were headed to the Friday night strip club with Leonard. I got in the water Saturday morning around 1030 or so and the trout must have been talking to DR Kevorkian because they did not stop biting until I left for work around 3pm.

I fished above outlet #1 on the south side of the water fishing into the holes and worked my way to about 50 feet or so of the cable. I started off with a nymph I picked up from Anglers & Archers, not sure what it is called but it worked! They stopped hitting that around 1 pm so i tied on a chocolate colored midge and caught the remainder of my 50+ fish on it.

I had 2 brand new RIO leaders fail. I was using 6x tapered leaders and they both broke off about 3 ft from the end. Both times they broke, I was onto a fish that was about 30-40 ft out. I was making long casts but the fish didnt seem big enough to break my leader off. Anyone have any ideas?

Sunday morning i was in the water at 915, (same place as saturday) started off with the chocolate midge with only 1 fish landed. Lots of sipping off the surface so i tied on a grey wd 40 and had 3 on with 2 landed. then nothing until i tied on the fly from A&A and i got wore out. at one point i had 6 fish on 6 casts, then 5 on 5, and 2 streaks of 4 on 4. The fog was very dense and when it lifted i was AMAZED to see how many people were in the water and on the banks. i thought i was going to get smacked on a cast trying to get out of the water.

All in all it was a great fishing weekend, nothing over 18 inches but lots and lots of fish commiting suicide on my hooks!

This guy was fishing too.

Foggy sunday morning

[turkeyhawk2005]

yep thep trout were really hittin it hard ...i was down at the ladder well at #3? were the overhead lines are ...fog was sumthin huh green back scud and grey scud ..#18

[Rolan Duffield]

Tippet:

I have had the same problem with tapered leaders. I don't trust the end tippet size anymore and always replace the tippet with fresh leader to prevent this problem.

You might also consider purchasing a 4x tippet and adding 3 feet of 6x to ensure the tippet is fresh stock.

Rolan

[Bill Babler]

Rolan, you are exactly right. I don't care if its Rio, Orvis or what, it seems like the last several feet of these tapered leaders will fail.

Had it happen yesterday twice on a brand new 6X Mirage. Bite off the last two feet and tied 6X vanish on and the problem was solved.

Trout fishing in the lower restricted area on Saturday was unbelieveable. The Guide Boats were catching and releasing 60 to 80 fish on 4 hr. trips. Yesterday was ok, but not that fantastic. 30 to 40 fish in 4 hrs. But I'll take that kind of fishing anyday. Lots of fish in the slot, and several Browns.

There was flat no one in the zone all day on either day but the guide boats. I can't figure it. Yesterday I was at the Fall Creek Ramp for 6 hrs. and had only two boats come by me in that period, that were not guides.

I have been on Taney since the 70's and that is the lowest ammount of traffic I have seen.

Water Patrol was down there and doing a great job, but I think they were also suprised at the lack of boats.

Did notice lots of floating alge and moss, that I had not seen this year. It was slick and very nasty. I wonder if it was related to the draw down? Hope they generate today and clean it out, as we had to clean our flys after every toss. Didn't seem to matter.

Spoke to several people in the bait area, and all reported fishing just being so, so. Have a good friend staying at Lilleys' that has fished bait for years, and he only had 4 total all day. He also reported lots of guck in the water.

[Greg]

I was out yesterday too. Just a great day. One of the better days I've ever had on Taney. I started out at about 11 AM and fished until about 7:30 PM. I'm guessing 50+ fish for me too. They ran one generator for a couple of hours and I fished through that with some sucess. Started out at the rock - fished down past the old boat ramp. Then later moved to the upper river. Everything I threw at them worked to some degree.

Something kind of odd about yesterday was that just about every single fish I caught was in the 14 to 15" range. Very few dinks and only a couple that were larger than that. Last fish of the day was about 18" a beautifully colored rainbow. Wish I'd had my camera. Only one brown and he was about 14".

Regarding leaders: I've never had that happen. I use both Rio tapered leaders and the cheaper BPS ones. I've never had one fail like that. I generally buy leaders tapered to 5X and depending on conditions tie on several feet of 6x mono or fluoro tippet. But one time I did get a bad spool of Rio tippet. It was brittle and broke too easily.

One other note: As I was fishing up by the old boat ramp I saw what looked like a couple of otters. definitely not a muskrat and I don't think they were minks. Has anyone else seen them? I've never seen otters in the wild before.

Greg

[Terry Beeson]

Bill....

Question...

Do you then tie any tippet to the 6x Vanish or is that your tippet?

[Snow Fly]

Every leader I buy I will run my finger from the very end [smallest]towards the top end until I feel the diameter of the leader changing. Then I will cut and tie in a loop to attach my tippet either with a loop/loop or knot. It seems to work well, a good fishing friend taught me this trick

[Leonard]

I do the saame as Snow Fly...

If I have to buy a leader... No Matter the brand (but 1..I have faith in).. I break off the tips and tye in my own.. which is Maxima...

[Rolan Duffield]

Bill:

I'm glad to see that the water patrol is active and policing the Lake. They checked me last trip to Taney and I informed the agent that I was pleased to see action for checking fisher persons on Taney. It's been an issue that many of us approve of.

Rolan

[Jeremy Hunt]

In my days of fishing, I haven't had many problems with tapered leaders. Maybe a few of them, but not enough to convince me that they're bad. I'm sure they can go bad or there some bad ones in the bunch. One thing I always do when fishing a new leader is run my fingers down it. You can tell if it’s bad every time if you do this. And never buy leaders on sale because more then likely they are old and that's the problem right there. Just my two cents.

Another question… How do you not know if you threw a tailing loop and created a knot in the leader? That will create the break immediately. That would be the more times when I get broke off fishing leaders.

Also, What did your leader end in as far as the "X". If it's 7x or 8x, I would never fish a leader this small. Why? because you don't have to and that's to light of tippet for any fish. I'm over those smaller size tippets because that's when I find myself breaking off.