Fishing Report- Lake Taneycomo September 5, 2004

Editors General Comments: Very little affects the fishing on LakeTaneycomo like the generation of power at the Table Rock Dam. Call 417-336-5083 for up to the moment information on generation and lake levels or click here. September 5- At 0514- 0 generator(s) on, Table Rock is at 914.4 and Taneycomo at 701.5.

Trophy Trout Area: Special Regulations apply to the Trophy Trout Area running from Table Rock Dam to the mouth of Fall Creek. Click here for an overview of these regulations.

Fly Fishing Only by River Run Outfitters (Dam to Fall Creek)- August 31-Fishing has been very good. Had a group fish for a while Saturday after the rain and everyone was catching fish on zebra midges and soft hackles. Only fished for 2-3 hours. Sunday was a beautiful day. A group of nine of us fished the Rocking Chair area and caught fish till we dropped. Black zebra, rust zebra and red midge were working great. One 22 inch Brown on a size 18 rust midge. Almost all the fish were 14 inches or better. However, every once in a while we would hit a run of 6-8 inch fish. Not certain where they were coming from. If we had to order a perfect day fishing, it would have to be Monday. Weather was perfect. Not too hot. Just enough wind to ripple the water. Hit the water about 11:00 a.m. and the fish were working the banks. Four of us fishing and two put on dry flies while the other two fished the black zebra. Everyone got tired catching fish on the zebra so we all switched to dries. Catch of the day was a 23 inch Rainbow on a 3 weight rod, 7X tippet and a size 14 LeTort Hopper pattern. Other great dries were a size 16 Elk Hair Caddis, a size 14 foam and hackle black fly. Caught nothing under 13 inches and several in the 16-18 inch range. We don’t get this much dry fly action very often….better get out there and fish.

Fly Fishing and Spin Fishing By Chartered Waters Guide Service and Fly Shop – September 1- Marlin and I took another drift yesterday since I had that trip cancel. After he finished school we motored up to the dam with two units going and took one drift down to Short Creek. We started around 3:00 I’d guess, both using fly rods. A good bite was on and my reliable #16 pink and peach Soft Shelled Scuds were hot again. Two units is great boat water and we found the fish very active as they always are with rising water. We decided to have a little contest to keep things interesting. We decided to keep a few small ones for dinner and whoever caught the fewest fish had to cook them. Now, I had to clean them regardless so I wasn’t going to win no matter how you sliced it but…it made things fun. Marlin took an early lead but spent a bunch of time battling this nice 17" rainbow (beautiful colors) so I slipped in a few small ones while he did that. I netted all his fish but he had to unhook and release them. Snags didn’t count (and I think we snagged about 5 – 6 fish surprisingly) and the fish had to make it in the boat. I caught 3 nice browns around 15 – 16". I snagged one of them in a way that I thought I hooked a big one. We upped our fly size to #12’s as we lost one rig each. I had two flies on (pink and black) and Marlin just one pink. He doesn’t like two flies as it gets a few more tangles. That is true but I probably had an unfair advantage on him for the contest. I caught half and half on the pink and black. The browns liked the black. It was Marlins idea to go fishing today and I will ALWAYS go with him any time he wants to. He also brought his rc boat so when he had enough fishing (about half way down) the contest ended and he played with his boat. He boated 10 and I had 12 when we called it quits. We finished the drift down to Short Creek and I caught another 10 – 12 before Marlin drove us home and docked the boat for the first time. A really nice afternoon out there with my buddy. Just gorgeous temps and partly sunny…not too windy…beautiful! For the record….Mom had some home work ready for him when we got back so I ended up cooking the fish anyway.

Guide Bob Klein: Bob Klein, the not pretty half of the former owners of Main Street Marina, Bob and Jackie Klein, is still guiding as "Bob’s Guide Service." As of September 4, 2004 Bob reported that Fishing good from Cooper Creek to Rockaway Beach using pink and white power eggs and night crawlers. As always the following standard default techniques are producing fish.