Questions On Taneycomo

[Amish Bill]

If I understand this right... they call the water by the hatchery the tail waters... with the water flowing from Table Rock thru Taneycomo to Bull Shoals wouldn't that make it the head water?

I am new to trout fishing... I went on a guided trip on the White using 3 to 4" Rapallas. And I was hooked! (The trout hitting and shore dinner did it for me) Can you fish Taneycomo using the that type of river technique?

Can you use regular crappie jigs under a float?

What in the world is a carrot float... I stumped the fellows at Bass Pro when I asked them.

I have a 19 ft G3 Jon Boat with a 115 Yamaha. Do you drift fish or anchor? They say not to anchor but we anchor below the dam at Warsaw when the water is running there and have no problems. Is it due to boat size or what?

We are planning on staying at Lillies after the new years, so more questions in person. Beware.. thanks in advance...AB

[Phil Lilley]

Rapalas work just as good here as on the White for the most part. We sell/use more jigs here than most lake use crappie jigs. They work great. A carrot float is a hard foam float shaped like a carrot. We carry about 30 kinds of floats including several carrot floats. There's not much water running right now but that could change. Drifting is the best way to fish. Anchoring in eddies is ok and not so dangerous if you're careful.

[Thom]

Amish Bill:

Lake Taneycomo is actually a dammed up stream which is formed from the damming of Table Rock. So at the base of the dam you are fishing the tailwaters of Table Rock and at the base of the dam below Bull shoals you are fishing the tail waters of Bull shoals which again is called the White River. Between the two lakes is another dam called the powersite dam at Forshite. Below it is again a small tail water habitat that holds Trout but the release is not necessarily as cold as with the huge dams below the large lakes.

BTW. There was a post yesterday of a guy using a 2 1/2 inch silver Rapala just below the cable above outlet #1. He caught several nice trout by teasing it just below the surface.

Brown and olive green jigs work great fished below any float and dead floating them in the current. Tease them a few times and then let them sit. I usuallly use the smallest float that I can get away with. If the flaot even bearly moves or makes a dimple around it.....SET THE HOOK. And then let the fun begin on a fly rod or spinning rod...great fun.

[Trav]

Raps and shallow diving cranks work great. I actually catch 7 out of 10 of my brownies with deep divers and vertical jigging RatTraps. Caught a 5.4 pounder just last Friday jigging a Chrome bleeder RatTrap. The key to brownies is to size up and sacrifice quantity for quality. And work cover. Like Bass. Invest in a lure retrieving telescope. Unless you want to decorate the lake bottom like an Xmas tree. Could get expensive. Haha... Have to fish the knarly stuff to get the big browns.

[Amish Bill]

I appreciate all the info. My wife told me to quit talking and go try it, but I think its going to have to be after Christmas.