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Phil Lilley
Phil Lilley

By Phil Lilley •

Lilley's Lake Taneycomo Fishing Report, August 31

Trout fishing on Lake Taneycomo has been pretty good lately.  One of our guides, Bill Babler, said his clients caught 77 trout in a 4-hour trip yesterday, both on the Berkley's Pink Power Worm and night crawlers.  I'd say that's pretty good "catching".

Our generation schedule has been consistent too, with no generation at night through the morning, then moderate flow in the afternoons ending about sundown.  But that changed today when problems at Bull Shoals Dam caused a shift in providing power from the group of hydro dams in our grid. 

Here's the jest of what happened, from an email forwarded to me this Friday morning from Southwest Power Administration via Missouri Department of Conservation, Fisheries Division.  "Bull Shoals regulation stopped working yesterday, and the plant was placed in manual mode."  Regulation means, "running water round the clock to adjust for the small fluctuations in power demand".  One dam in the system must be running water, generating power, all the time so there's no interruption of power when there's fluctuations in the grid.  Regulating shifted to Table Rock Dam so now Table Rock has to keep running at least 35  megawatts (may be less, I don't know for sure) of power 24 hours a day till something changes. 

This minimum flow isn't much water.  It's less than one full unit. The current at our dock is barely noticeable and it doesn't affect dock fishing at all.  I does, though, affect wading below the dam and there is pretty good current down through Short Creek to Trout Hollow.  Bottom line, we like this minimum flow because it helps trout eat more, and more often.  When food is moving down with the current, fish can't help themselves - they eat.

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We're still on 2-pound line watch!  We're telling as many people as we can - it makes a big difference!

Blake, who is one of our dock hands, told me yesterday that he's converted many guests fishing off the dock to 2-pound line.  After not getting a bite, he will offer to tie a short piece of light line on to their line, retie the hook and let them try again with 2-pound tippet.  Wallah!  They start catching trout.  All it takes is about 24 inches.

Why 2-pound line?  Our lake water is very clear and trout see the line.

I know I sound like a broken record, reading my fishing reports but I'm not going to lie, or try to sell you a different lure or bait just to sound different.  The Berkley Pink Worm is still catching most of the fish for guides and second best thing is night crawlers.

The go-to jig color last weekend at the Branson Firemen's Benefit was black and brown.  Just ask Gerry Dwiggins, long time trout tournament fisherman, who landed and winning trout - a 23.65 pound brown trout.  He hooked it below the Branson Landing and took 45 minutes to land.  He was using a 3/32nd ounce jig and 2-pound line.

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Our brown trout do make a run to the dam area in the fall to spawn, although they are not actually successful creating any young trout.  They go through the actions and lay eggs but because of water flow and temperature, none hatch.  Some browns are showing up early and are being caught on small scud and midge patterns.

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They are seeing some nice rainbows up there too but wade fishing will be limited to close to the shore because of the minimum flows for now.

Boating to the dam, though, should be easy.  There's plenty of water to get to at least the Big Hole and fish the area from a boat.  I'd throw a variety of jigs colors starting with black/brown, sculpin and even white.  Again I'd use 2-pound line and either 1/32nd or 1/16th ounce jigs.

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Seth
11 minutes ago, Devan S. said:

I'd be the first to admit we didn't/don't know what we were doing. We basically drifted more or less dead center and cast upstream to either side bank and worked them back to the boat. Trying to avoid letting the lure get way behind the boat and having to work against the current.We tried a couple drifts closer to the bluff side banks but really felt like with the short casts we weren't covering much water so we backed off and threw longer casts. 

If you're after browns, it's usually best to be in tighter to cover. Rainbows can be anywhere. I've caught some nice rainbows all the way to Lilley's on jerkbaits out in the middle of the river when it has been overcast and the fish were up closer to the surface. Great way to cover lots of water since you can fish a jerkbait fast. Personally, I prefer to fish the shallow side more so than the bluff side between Fall Creek and on down just below Short Creek. The exception is when they are moving a BUNCH of water. This will push the fish up tight to the banks in the eddies after the water has been on for a bit. That's when I've had my best luck fishing the bluff side. With that said, my buddy caught a 20" brown in the early afternoon on a 70 degree and sunny day with zero generation a few years ago during our first Masters tournament about 6" off the bank so you really just never know.

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Smallie Seeker
3 hours ago, Seth said:

With that said, my buddy caught a 20" brown in the early afternoon on a 70 degree and sunny day with zero generation a few years ago during our first Masters tournament about 6" off the bank so you really just never know.

Exactly how my 20" Taney brown was caught last year. Mid-day, sunny, no generation and cast a foot off the bluff wall. 

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JestersHK

Sadly I have not been able to fish Taney this year as much as I usually do with family and work stuff just burying me...  I will say the jerk bite at night follows allot of what others have said.  It's been very hit or miss.  They are either on fire or we are slinging all night for very little returns. 

Fishing jerks in the daytime I really only fish them on over cast crappy weather days, I will say you need to slow it down compared to how you fish them for bass.  Let them sit in the current and work the eddy lines.  As you're bringing them through the current let them sit and work when they hit the faster seams.  This is the most likely area I get bites.

As Seth stated you gotta get up in there too.  Allot of times you'll pull followers right off the banks, and if you do hook a smaller bow be ready to hang on as I think if I'd left that bow in the water for just a few more seconds I'd of had my hands full with a big brownie. 

Last thing is just a huge endorsement to @duckydoty and what he's done with his jerkbaits.  Book a trip with him and get your hands on some.  I've caught a bunch of fish on rapallas and others, but the 606 pattern he paints is money.  It not only catches more fish, but it's caught some big browns including our big one from last December.  It's a true matching of the hatch so to speak, and in my experience there's no competition out there.  I think the smaller size and the aggressive wobble set it apart from just about anything else on Taney.  Even a 606 not painted by Duane has been a great fall back lure so much so that I rarely will tie on a rapalla anymore...

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JestersHK
23 minutes ago, Smallie Seeker said:

Exactly how my 20" Taney brown was caught last year. 

On Jerkbaits only?  Not sure.  Duanes got some for sure.  I know I have at least one brownie at 24in but that one came on a jig.  Seth's tourney partner had a 21in but also on jig.  I think I have 1 or 2 rainbows this year on the jerkbait that were over 20, but will have to go back and look to verify... @Travis Swift had a few browns over 20 I believe and he had an awesome day during the CAM tourney where he lit them up with the jerkbaits!

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Devan S.

On Taney is the suspension or even depth of a jerkbait critical?

It seemed even with the 110 my lure was only maybe running 3-4 feet and due to the current there was no way it was actually suspending. All of my jerkbaits are bright colors. Maybe I need more dark colors(similar to the sculpin colors) that would be a little more realistic? 

Seems like unless theres shad present the darker colors tend to be the direction the big fish go. 

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JestersHK
2 hours ago, Devan S. said:

On Taney is the suspension or even depth of a jerkbait critical?

It seemed even with the 110 my lure was only maybe running 3-4 feet and due to the current there was no way it was actually suspending. All of my jerkbaits are bright colors. Maybe I need more dark colors(similar to the sculpin colors) that would be a little more realistic? 

Seems like unless theres shad present the darker colors tend to be the direction the big fish go. 

The pearlescent white J8 2 hook rapalla was always a go to if they had gates open and shad coming through.  I mostly throw jerks at night so I'm not a good judge of suspending type baits or even the larger baits.  I rarely throw a 3 hook jerk bait sticking to the smaller ones and fishing them allot slower at night versus during the day where you would fish them more aggressively.

For me anyways when I fished an aggressive retrieve at night we caught allot of fish which were not trout. The walleye, smallies, and white bass were generally on the ends of my line after speeding up the retrieve.

As for color, the darker sculpin and trout patterns work best on trout.  Super shiny exotic bright colors being the walleye to the table.  Again just my sample size and b my experience if you are getting out there in the dark.  The other guys who fish more from a boat and during the day can hopefully chime in.

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Ryan Miloshewski
15 hours ago, Devan S. said:

On Taney is the suspension or even depth of a jerkbait critical?

It seemed even with the 110 my lure was only maybe running 3-4 feet and due to the current there was no way it was actually suspending. All of my jerkbaits are bright colors. Maybe I need more dark colors(similar to the sculpin colors) that would be a little more realistic? 

Seems like unless theres shad present the darker colors tend to be the direction the big fish go. 

Best colors I have used by lure company below:

Megabass 110+1: elegy bone, ghost pro blue, ghost shad

McStick: table rock shad,,ghost table rock shad, normal flake, ghost norman flake

6th Sense Provoke: ozark juice, threadfin flash, spanish bone

Doty SS: any color--varies on the day which they prefer

I don't think you need just dark colors at all (sure, certain days dark is better). Those look like food, that's all that matters.

 

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