Lilley's Lake Taneycomo Fishing Report, October 1, 2024

[Phil Lilley]

I can safely say that the fall brown spawning run on Lake Taneycomo has officially begun.  We're seeing a lot of brown trout below the dam, as well as double the number of anglers chasing them.  Fishermen are reporting big crowds even during the week around the outlets.  I think they call it "combat fishing."

First, the water generation pattern continues to be pretty consistent, with the water  off in the mornings, coming on anywhere between 1 and 3 p.m. with one to two units running until dark or a little after.  Then there has been no generation all until the following afternoon.  Our temperatures have finally dropped to seasonal levels, which is awesome!  But we're still in need of rain.

There is some great trout fishing away from the outlets.  Darren Sadler, one of our fishing guides, is really doing well fishing very tiny midges.  He's crafted his technique over the years, using midges as small as #30's.  We are planning to produce and publish an instructional video this month featuring Darren.  We've also ordered a full line of his midges to carry in our fly shop.

There are basically four stages of midge flies he uses - bottom pupas, mid column pupas, emergers and dries.  He fishes mainly the first three with great success.

We visited over lunch this past week.  One thing he mentioned is that midges generally move off the bottom to the surface mid morning as the sun gets up and warms the water up a bit.  Until then, he fishes his midges close if not on the bottom.  Once they start hatching, he'll use the mid column and emergers.

We use zebra midges, soft hackles and cracklebacks quite a bit.  Tippet size is pretty important if there's not much wind and a high sun -- I'd go to 7x fluorocarbon. 

In a One Cast video I did the other day, I fished the shallow side of the lake above the Narrows using a #22 thread pupa midge and caught some nice rainbows.  These fish will be fairly spooky to a cast but usually don't go far, then circle back and inspect the fly.  You'd be surprised how big some of these rainbows are in less than a foot of water.

I also tossed one of our sculpin football jigs the other day and found some really nice trout along the bluff bank in the trophy area.  It was the 3/32nd-ounce golden variant jig.

I'm also starting to chase rainbows midging around the leaf lines on the lake.  Each fall when the leaves start to drop, leaf lines form when wind pushes them across the surface -- and the trout love to pick off bugs in and around the debris.

I generally use a #14 zebra midge in various colors, 6x tippet and a small float.  I target midging fish around leaves in all areas down to the Branson Landing.

We're still fishing a black jig under a float and catching fish.  Now that the weather has changed, we're getting more wind, and that means fishing the chop with a jig and float!  Two- pound line and either a micro, 1/25th- or 1/32nd-ounce is working.  The sculpin/orange head is a good one to try, too.

Berkley's pink worm is good, especially in the choppy conditions.  And the mega worm. . .  can't forget about the mega!  Either a spin or fly rod.  White, black, cream or chartreuse colors are good.

Oxygen was been pretty good, especially when the water is running.  Fish fight strong.  It does seem like our trout are more active and feeding when the water starts in the afternoon.  And it is slower in the mornings unless there's a chop on the surface.

Our guides are still fishing night crawlers early in the mornings, or yellow Powerbait in the paste (Steve Dickey's favorite.)  Use two-pound line for best results but four-pound is okay, too.

 

 

 

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[trythisonemv]

Yep combat fishing. . . Especially in the outlets . Tons of fish both rainbows and browns up there. It was the busiest I've seen the dam area on a Wednesday this time of year. Can't imagine what next week will be like. 

[snagged in outlet 3]

2 hours ago, trythisonemv said:

Yep combat fishing. . . Especially in the outlets . Tons of fish both rainbows and browns up there. It was the busiest I've seen the dam area on a Wednesday this time of year. Can't imagine what next week will be like. 

Nice fish!   What’s next week?

[trythisonemv]

5 hours ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

Nice fish!   What’s next week?

First week of October is the week I generally get down when the browns really take off

[snagged in outlet 3]

18 minutes ago, trythisonemv said:

First week of October is the week I generally get down when the browns really take off

Thanksgiving is a zoo.   But I don’t go up to the outlet area anymore unless they are generating.  I don’t think the area is as good since they put in the “habitat enrichments”.   

[trythisonemv]

1 hour ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

Thanksgiving is a zoo.   But I don’t go up to the outlet area anymore unless they are generating.  I don’t think the area is as good since they put in the “habitat enrichments”.   

Yeah the fast spot across from outlet three was unproductive for me this go round except one rainbow. Then moved to outlet to find fish and sandy . Once water came on there was a good bite. I'd prefer there be only me 😂 

[tjm]

Oct 1 report on Sept 27? time travel?

 

[Phil Lilley]

On 9/28/2024 at 10:12 PM, tjm said:

Oct 1 report on Sept 27? time travel?

 

I write reports for our newsletter, sometimes ahead of time. But I don’t like to let it sit for days because it becomes outdated.