Labor day stay

[MNtransplant]

Hey OA crew,

Hope everyone is having a great end to their summers. Part of our new tradition is a labor day stay at Lilley's! I'm getting pretty excited and was wondering what bite has been best around the resort area? Is the hopper bite still a thing?

I will have a bunch of family with me so i will only have a chance at throwing off the dock early in the am and late at night but we do have a boat rental Saturday morning and i think it would be awesome to put my 5 year old on his first trout. Any suggestions on areas to target with worms or powerbait would be greatly appreciated. Of course I'll ask the staff when I'm there as well.

Hope everyone has a great fall season!

[trythisonemv]

Good luck Tyler!

[JestersHK]

Good luck buddy,  I might try to sneak down for an evening if I can get this schedule figured out...

[Phil Lilley]

Hoppers are a thing... but not all the time and not everywhere.  I haven't been out enough to figure out the pattern but I've best fishing the bluff down from Lookout to the Narrows when they're running at least 2 units.  Other times, not as good but still draw some takes.  Off the dock - mix up some dough bait using tuna oil and wheat bread.  And oh, gold glitter. 

[netboy]

32 minutes ago, Phil Lilley said:

 mix up some dough bait using tuna oil and wheat bread.  And oh, gold glitter. 

Oh my... match the hatch???😀

[Ryan Miloshewski]

I went back and looked and I fished the hopper 20 days from July 8th-August 20th (thanks for remote working). The bite was best for me in the morning with less than one unit running. I'd average 6 fish in a couple hours, with most being 18-inches+ and a lot of trophy fish, including a 24-inch brown. You can really dissect the bank when you aren't flying by. And if you do get to do it, make sure you are on the bank..like under 12" away from the rocks. If you do that, most of your hits will come within 2-3 seconds of the fly hitting the water. Make calculated casts so you aren't wasting your time, which can be very easy to do. If you land 2-feet off the bank, pick up and throw back in to get closer. I rarely had to work the fly but if I did I'd just wiggle the rod tip. If I got a good drift, I'd let it ride until it started to drag. I caught a few with it drifting, but most of the bites were immediate. 

I caught them in the evenings with 2-3 units running, like Phil said, but not like the mornings. I had my best success on a size 6 Fat Albert, Chuck's Big Ugly, and a size 8 Hippie Stomper I tied. That being said, the morning of the Fireman's tournament (8/20) it really tanked..typical. We caught 6 fish the entire day, two being over 20-inches, but it was rough. I lost a really big rainbow on the albert around 2:15 pm when his tail slapped my tippet. But before then I think we went 2 hours without a rise. I tried a few other bluff banks but the Lookout bluff was the only place I consistently caught them.

It's not a numbers game by any means, but I'm not sure there is another way I'd like to fish on Taneycomo. It was a blast. 

[laker67]

All I can say is if they stop eating scuds, I'm screwed for bait.  I wouldn't have a clue how to fish anything else

[Seth]

I missed this but I was going to suggest crawlers and staying with in 100 yards of the trophy zone. Good way to watch some nice fish. If you want numbers, the flat in front of the dark grey house about halfway between Short Creek and Fall Creek tends to always hold stockers.

[trythisonemv]

On 9/6/2022 at 8:00 AM, laker67 said:

All I can say is if they stop eating scuds, I'm screwed for bait.  I wouldn't have a clue how to fish anything else

Sandy you can fish zebra midge very similar to scud ... Maybe not quite as deep but similar. Egg fly works same way. Same with san Juan worm.