Lake Taneycomo Fishing Report 8/23/09 - Branson, MO

Since I'm writing this on Sunday, it's hard to tell what this week's generation patterns will be. Has this been a crazy month temperature wise or not!!?? And the 10 day forecast looks just as nice as this past week's. Low to mid 80's and sunny. In saying that, this past week's generation pattern was a bit puzzling. They ran one unit all day and most nights. This weekend, off all day and night with the exception of an hour late in the afternoon. All our lakes are at or below power pool. Cooler temps mean low power demand. So we may see a week of very little generation.

Keep an eye on http://ozarkanglers.com/forums/index.php?showforum=4 for updated information and reports.

Check lake levels here - http://ozarkanglers.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=17240

And you can see what the generation schedule will be a day ahead here - http://www.swpa.gov/generationschedules.aspx

Off the fishing subject, have to put a plug in for an event here on Lake Taneycomo coming up next weekend. It's a trout tournament held out of Lilleys' Landing Resort and Marina benefiting our local police and fire departments. Starts at 8 am and weigh in is at 4 pm. Check out http://news.lilleyslanding.com/1st-annual-guns-hoses-fishing-tournament for more information.

August is usually hot and the trout fishing is usually not. But this month has been the exception. Our guests here at Lilleys' Landing have caught alot of rainbows off our dock as well as drifting in this area in boats using both night crawlers and Gulp power bait. Had some wind this week which again is a little unusual. When it got windy, anglers switched to trolling jigs, spoons, spinners and crank baits and did well. Mainly trolled from Lilleys' downlake to the Landing. The rainbows being stocked are good sized trout too, averaging 13 inches.

I took a couple of girls out the other day for their first trout fishing trip. We drifted from Fall Creek to Short Creek and they caught their limits of rainbows plus a real nice 17 inch brown, which was released. They were running one unit which isn't much water. The current isn't fast and with the wind blowing upstream, it was tough keeping the line tight and the boat drifting with the current. But working the trolling motor and using less weight than usual, they learned a bite from the bottom and hooked enough fish to achieve their limits.

Trout fishing IS pretty easy. Just have to be patient!

I got out and fished alittle this week. I love fishing two things - jigs and dry flies. I did both this week. Since returning from Alaska, I've been on a dry fly kick. I caught so many nice rainbows, chars and grayling in Alaska on dries, I've tried to carry it over to here at home. And I've done pretty good too. I like fishing the bluff bank from Lookout down to the channel swing most days. There always seems to be a handful of trout holding along the bank waiting, looking for bugs to snatch off the surface. My stimulator usually does the trick. And these rainbows are usually larger than normal too. Great fights!!

My sculpin jigs are working great too. If they are running more than 1 units, I use an 1/8th oz jig but sometimes, like yesterday, I notice with no units or one units, the trout seemed to like the jig swimming more than the usual dropping and jigging. I switched to a 3/32 oz jig, thinking it wouldn't sink or drop as fast. I could get it close to the bottom and lift the rod tip slowly or slower than I usually do (I pop or twitch it normally)... they like that. I first noticed this when I'd throw the jig out and let it sink. When it's sinking, it's not sinking straight to the bottom but sinking at an angle. The lighter jig and different retreive got me more hits. But they are biting short. I missed many more than I hooked, but it's still fun.

In additon, I am posting videos and mid week reports on my facebook account so look me up! http://www.facebook.com/plilley?ref=name

Lake Taneycomo Fishing Report 8/11/09 - Branson, MO

This has been a strange August so far... but typical at the same time. Weather has been on the cool side with some rain thrown in. This weeks appears to be on the cool side with rain today. Should be good for fishing. On the typical side, our trout fishing is fair- only fair. It usually gets alittle tough in August. Our water gets real clear and the trout become picky, it seems. It's not the amount of rainbows stocked - MDC stocks the same amount in August they do in June and July. It's just typical late summer doldrums. That's not to say trout can't be had. Water has been off in the mornings and running starting about 2 pm till dark each day. This has been consistant for the past couple of weeks. It gives fly fishers a chance to wade below the dam as well as boaters time to still fish using crawlers and gulp eggs below Fall Creek. The clearer water means dropping to 2-pound line will get you more bites. I fished the earlier part of the week last week. One morning I threw 3/32nd oz jigs straight, no float, below Fall Creek for 3 hours and boated my limit of rainbows - four. I missed quite a few bites and lost several before getting them to the boat. I used 2-lb line and tried brown, sculpin, sculpin/ginger and brown/orange. At the same time, there were friends of mine fishing from a pontoon in the same area using crawlers and Gulp eggs on the bottom. They'd catch one or two in one spot and then I'd have them move downlake, not more than 400 yards. They started close to Fall Creek and ended the morning at Short Creek with 12 nice rainbows. Another good report - after the water starts, drifting from Short Creek down past Cooper Creek has been pretty decent using Gulp eggs, one white or yellow and one pink or orange. Stay away from the bluff side of the alke because of down trees and other looming snags. Only use as much weight to get you to the bottom -- you'll feel the strike better and not get snagged up as much. Also after the water starts, work a medium to large crank bait along the bluffs and snags for browns and rainbows. Later in the day is better for browns. Bill Babler- Fished Taneycomo several times in the last week with different degrees of success. As far as I have been up is Lookout. I have not been able to fish the lake on moving water, just under hot, bright, and very still conditions.  Lower restricted area to Mouth of Fall Creek has been producing some bites, but it also has had plenty of fishermen. I really have not seen schools of trout and with the current conditions, they would be visible.  Two flies for me are working with some degree of success over others. The first being a sculpin micro jig in 256 oz. With the low water right now I am fishing it about 3 ft. below the indicator. Best bite is occurring from Casket Rock, the Big Rock on the South East Shore across from the Tennis Courts, to the Fall Creek Ramp. With the low non-flowing water, fish this fly on a complete dead drift, only shocking the indicator very infrequently. Most takes are extremely light. Grey or Silver scud in sizes 14 thru 18 with a red tie at the head are the second choice. Again fish this scud a bit deeper, to drag it on the bottom or just above. The trout will pick it right off the bottom, no problem. Not much movement is required. Same locations.  In the afternoons when the water starts, size 14 and 16 peach eggs are reported to be the best bet. Fall Creek, to Short Creek; Bite early is very good on 256th. oz micro's in ginger with a gold head or sculpin with a orange or gold head. Fish these flies through the area of the old Fall Creek dock, just where the dock used to sit. I am using about 7ft. of tippet to an indicator here. If you see trout midging or any surface action, fling your fly in that direction, and you most often will get bit. Move the fly a bit more here than in the restricted zone on this deeper water. The trout are not well positioned and need the movement on the fly to keep contact with it.  As the sun hits the water in the same area, Inflated Night crawlers are working to some extent, and catching very quality fish in the up to 22 inch class, with stringers of 14 to 16 inch trout being the norm, rather than the exception. Numbers are not high however but patients will lead to a very quality limit.  Day before yesterday, We had two limits that I will guess averaged 16.5 inches, but the total for the 4 hr. trip was only 13 trout Keep your boat anchored on the shallow side and throw into the deeper bluff channel. Be prepared to be patient, and just wait. Boat traffic is your friend, as the fish are not moving much and when a boat comes by it repositions the fish. You get a bite on a passing boat most every time. Bob Kline is guiding the lower end and fishing the Corn Field, Bull Creek, and the mouth of Cedar. He reports about 30 fish in half day trips on orange and chartruse powerbait, but the fish are not near the quality as from Fall Creek, through Cooper Creek. I have had two reports in the last week telling me the Branson Landing area, from Monkey Island through Roark Creek, are extremely slow.  All it takes is the stocking boat thru there one time to change that as you know. Bill Babler White River Outfitters fishing guide service whiteriverbb@msn.com 417-332-7016

Lake Taneycomo Fishing Report 8/3/09 - Branson, MO

Haven't written a fishing report in almost a month. May be a record... not a good one I guess. Between traveling and home projects, I've only just gotten out on the lake the last couple of evenings.

This was quite a July, wasn't it? Sure love this global cooling. Fish do too. Generation has been different almost everyday. We check the charts every afternoon to see what they will do the next day - alot of our guests come in and check. It's been pretty accurate. Most mornings it's off and running in the afternoon - up to 4 units. I've heard the same thing everyone has heard about Beaver Lake being dropped resulting in more generation here but we haven't seen it yet. Table Rock is in good shape, not high at all, so we'll see what happens here in the next couple of weeks.

Fly fishing below the dam has been fair to good- depends on the day and time of day. Still catching rainbows on dries - beetles and ants, some midges. With all the rain we're having, san juan worms in brown and tan are working good in the swifter moving water and with the water running. Scuds in #18's and #20's in tan, olive and brown have been good but have to use 7x tippet to do any good, especially in sunny weather.

From a boat, they're using either micro jigs or small 1/125th oz jigs under a float when the water is off both above Fall Creek and below. No wind, the bite has been REAL light, barely moving the float so you really have to pay attention. And again, 2 lb line a must. Change colors if you're not getting bit. Vince reported NOT catching fish on olive but changed to sculpin and did good. There's not much difference in those colors... but it made a difference for Vince. If they stop hitting one color, don't keep fishing it, change. Change depths too.

Evenings are great to get out on Lake Taneycomo. Very little boat traffic and it's been great out there, very mild and little fog. The water starts to drop out about 7 pm. I've been fishing from Lookout to Fall Creek throwing 3/32nd oz jigs and working the middle to channel side of the lake. I tried a white jig and they ran from it. Best color has been a combo sculpin/ginger jig. There seems to be pockets or schools of trout holding here and there, not spread out throughout the area. I'd go for several hundred yards without a bite then get 3 or 4 trout in a row. The size of the rainbows I'm catching are still very good. Had one pushing 19 inches the other day. All are fighting real well. Now I have gone to using 2 lb line. I usually do in the fall months when the water gets gin clear and the trout get alittle fussy about the line size. I've been telling anglers who are fishing below the dam the same thing - go to 7x flourocarbon and you'll get bit more often. I did see some fish taking dries off the surface as the water dropped out last evening along the bluff bank. I didn't have my fly rod or I would have tossed a beetle or elk hair at them. It's getting time for dry fly fishing to get REAL hot. Fun times!

Below Fall Creek, Bill's been catching some REAL nice rainbows on night crawlers, water running or not. Anchor in the middle of the lake and throw to the channel when the water is not running. Inject the worm with air using a blow bottle. Four pound line is ok but 2 pound will catch you more fish. Also, I'd think you'd do well working 1/8th oz jigs along the bluff bank while the water is running. If these are rainbows that have come out of the trophy area, they should take a jig well. Dark earth colors the best- brown, sculpin, olive and combinations work best right now. Of course, jig and float will work in this area too. Best when there's a chop on the water but if it's slick, pay close attention to the float because they might not move it much on the bite. Water off, they've been catching rainbow on gulp power bait, anchoring on the shallow side and throwing to the middle from Short Creek up to Fall Creek. Anchor off the channel and you won't have boats running over you all day.

1st Annual Guns and Hoses Fishing Tournament

What: A fishing tournament on Lake Taneycomo in Branson, Missouri sponsored by Lilleys' Landing Resort and Marina

Why: To raise money for the Branson Fire and Police auxiliary funds to help support our community. Where: Lilleys’ Landing Resort & Marina, 367 River Lane, Branson, MO A free lunch will be provided after the weigh-in!

When: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, August 29th, 2009 Enter your two-man team by emailing Megan@lilleyslanding.com for an entry form. Then drop off or mail in your completed copy of the entry form and your $75 entry fee to Branson Fire and Rescue attn: Kory Klein, 110 Crosby Street, Branson, MO 65616 Prizes will be awarded for 1st through 3rd places and big fish. Each boat that enters will get a raffle ticket, and additional raffle tickets can be purchased for $5. If you register before the tournament day, you also get an extra raffle ticket! 50% off boat rentals will be provided by Lilleys’ Landing for tournament teams. 

To reserve a boat rental call 417-334-6380. If you need any assistance contact Kory Klein (417) 294-3319

Lake Taneycomo Fishing Report 6/28/09 - Branson, MO

Another glorious week has passed here on Lake Taneycomo. It's been hot! Temperatures have hovered close to 100 each day but I can honestly say the trout fishing has been equally hot as well.

Doesn't matter what part of the upper lake we're talking about, fishing has been good this week. Can't say as much for the boating skills, or may be I should say etiquette, on the lake. It's amazing how some boaters don't have a clue what boating rules are, rules like we have on out streets, roads and highways. Rules, if you break them, can cause damage and injury, tickets and citations. If everyone practiced one thing, just one thing, they'd improve their safe boating skills by 100%. That simple one thing is watch your wake. That and steer clear of fishing lines. Wakes cause boats to rock, cause some boats to actually take on water. They throw people around in the surrounding boats, they knock fishing gear from their perches, they cause stress. And it all can be avoided. The bigger your boat, the bigger your wake. Going slow actually does more harm than going fast but that doesn't give you the right to fly by boats in close quarters. Idle speed means just that, put it in gear and don't accelerate.

Yes, there's a reason I'm bringing it up. Yesterday I had a group of boys out fishing above Short Creek. There were three jon boats with an adult and 3 boys, most of them under the age of 10, in each boat. We were anchored well off the channel, allowing boats plenty of room to boat by. There were other boats up and down the lake pretty much doing the same thing. Most boats heading up and down the lake were safe boaters, moving through at slow speeds as to not to throw big wakes at us. But there was one boat that didn't slow down and he didn't keep a safe distance from our first boat in line. He buzzed by within 20 feet of our boat. He even had a small boy with him. I yelled to slow down and I got a hand jester like, "what's the big deal"? Put the shoes on the other foot- had someone did that to him, he'd be ticked. Bottom line, he put those boys in danger by his boating practice and the awful thing about it he knew no different.

Fishing... sorry for the soap box episode.

We did catch trout yesterday. We floated night crawlers and did real well. All nine of the boys caught at least one rainbow and some caught their limit of 4 rainbows. We used 4 pound line, #6 short shanked #89 hooks, #7 split shots set 18 inches above the hook and used half a night crawler, hooked once in the middle, letting it hang off each side. Don't worry about hiding the hook. Shoot some air in the worm using a blow bottle or a hypodermic needle. This floats the worm off the bottom 18 inches. You'll get more bites, faster bites using this technique verses no air at all, just letting it lay on the bottom. Night crawler fishing between Fall Creek and Short Creek has been excellent early in the morning.

Oh yea- did I mention generation? The only generation we've seen has been from about 2-3 pm till dark, running up the lake about 6 feet or 3-4 units and then dropping out about the time they get it up and rolling. Up slow and then back down slow. Interesting pattern. Now this coming week, we might see a bit of a change. With temperature dropping to the upper 80's and low 90's, we may see days with no generation at all.

Lincoln Hunt, a good friend of ours from Dallas, is up for a visit. He likes to wet wade below the dam (no waders, saddles or just wading boats). He's been up there almost everyday this week hammering the rainbows. He's using mainly #20 black zebra midges under a dry fly indicator about 12 inches deep. I got up there one day this past week and caught a nice 18 inch rainbow on a #16 olive elk hair caddis but it was the only taker on the caddis. The best area, reported Lincoln, was below Rebar.

I've also heard using small scuds - #20's - have been working well in the Rebar Hole but you got to get there early - 6 am - to get a good spot. If you get there too late, you might be referred to as a slob for not getting out of bed before dawn. Sorry- inside joke.

Get out in a boat and run above Fall Creek into the trophy area for some great jig and float action. Best jig is still the tan 1/256th oz micro jig although that little brown jig Vince tied for me has done well too. It's a jig he tied himself but he got the jigs from an online store - http://heartlandflygear.com. I ordered and received some of the jig heads and they look marvelous! I've already tried a few, using just a bit of marabou. I think that's the key to these small jigs... you can use too much and these jigs lose their effectiveness. Heartland Fly Gear has an incredible inventory of all sizes of jig heads... plus he's a member of our forum to boot. Check it out.

Again, I'm tying on 2-3 feet of 2 lb Vanish as a tippet. Water is clear and most mornings it's real still. Need that smaller line to attract more bites! And oh yes... the talk is you have to use 7x fluorocarbon below the dam no matter what wet fly you're using. 6x won't cut it. Although I did catch my nice rainbow on 6x but that was a dry. When using a dry, you have to match the size of fly to the size of tippet or you're going to have a twisted mess.

If you catch the water running, don't be scared to throw a medium crank bait like a rapala F-5 or F-7 against the bluff banks below Fall Creek.

Lake Taneycomo Fishing Report 6/22/09 - Branson, MO

Not much change in the fishing, catching and fishing conditions on Lake Taneycomo this week. Generation, if anything, has lessened in the past few days. Water has been off most mornings and staying off into the afternoon. They've been bumping the flow up to 2-3 units by 4 or 5 pm but dropping it in late evening and off by dark. This is a surprise to me really... unseasonable hot temperatures I would think force the Corp to run lots of water to meet an increase of power demand but they evidently have other sources of power they are drawing on, ie. coal burning plants. We'll see if this generation pattern continues.

It seems like MDC is keeping ahead of anglers demands for trout. Fish keep being caught and kept and nice ones too. We've seen lots of nice stringers come in to the dock this past week, most caught below Fall Creek on Gulp Eggs and worms. We've been boating up past Fall Creek and fishing the trophy area where we're finding an abundance of rainbows to catch. And the number of rainbows below the dam is very good too. We'll see if these numbers hold through the hottest part of the summer- July and August.

Above Fall Creek, we're still catching big numbers of trout, mainly rainbows, on small jigs under a float. Micros in the 1/25th size in tan or olive under an indicator 3-4 feet deep- best! I learned from Bill Babler to keep a spool of #2 lb Vanish line in my bag. I use 4 lb XL Trilene green line on my spin reels but when I'm using this jig and float method and especially using small micro jigs, I find it's best to add 2-3 feet of #2 lb Vanish to the end of the 4 lb. I get more strikes adding the tippet to the line. I use a triple surgeon’s knot to connect the lines. The link points to a double knot- I just add another loop-through for the triple knot.

My fishing buddy Vince and I went fishing the other evening. He had these small jigs, about the size of a micro jig, but these were lead-ball head and he tied just a bit of marabou onto the body. We used brown jigs and man the rainbows really loved them. We sat in the Narrows about 3/4 miles above Fall Creek and caught trout after trout for over an hour before dark. He said a friend of his found them on the internet... I'm looking for them now!

Same guys fishing last week caught some great rainbows while the water was running on small crank baits thrown against the bluff bank below Fall Creek. We usually throw Rapalas F-5's or F-7's and use several colors including black/silver, black/gold and rainbow.

Power bait colors... well that has varied quite a bit this week. Had some guys come in and say they really caught them good off the Cooper Creek Public Dock on yellow nuggets. Most anglers are using a combination of white and pink Gulp Egg off our docks and up near Short Creek. I've seen some people trolling small crank baits, rooster tails and jigs and doing pretty good. And been selling alot of spoons- Colorado gold and rainbow styles.

Fly fishing below the dam has stayed very good over the past week. Down water has given waders access to the upper end most days which is nice. Grey scuds #16 and #18, san juan worm, cracklebacks have been hot I'm told and thread midge in black and tan #20 and #22. Zebra midge under an indicator 12 inches fished from the Big Hole area down to the boat ramp- excellent- especially when rainbows are actively feeding on midges in the film. Also soft hackles in #18's reds, blacks and yellow stripped quickly if there's a chop on the water.

Large Rainbow Caught 6/2/09 - Branson, MO

John Boudreaux caught this 20 inch and 5 almost 6 lb rainbow trout on a white jig upstream from Lilleys' Landing on Lake Taneycomo in Branson, Missouri!