Editors General Comments: Since September 12 the water has been off first thing in the morning. This has provided an excellent opportunity for wade fishing below the dam. 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 21- At 0500- 0 generator(s) on, Table Rock is at 913.8 and Taneycomo at 701.6.
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)- Fishing continues to be good. Had a couple out yesterday for 1/2 day. She had very little experience fly fishing and she boated at least 20 fish. Her friend caught a beautiful 18 inch Rainbow and boated 20 or more fish. With two generators going, all our fish were caught on the size 16 red midge. Monday had another new fly fisher out. Sister treated him to a birthday trip. With the water off Monday, they were both catching lots of fish on the size 18 dark olive soft hackle. Around 11:00 a.m. they turned on one generator, followed shortly by one more. After that we drifted and fished the red size 16 midge. While the water was rising, fished the red San Juan worm and caught 6-8 in about 15 minutes. Once the second generator increased the water flow, the fish turned off the worm. Weekend fished well on the olive and/or black size 18 zebra midges. If the water is off for a period of time, the terrestrials should still be doing well. Actually have seen some caddis coming off the water every day this past week…probably size 12-14.
Fly Fishing and Spin Fishing By Chartered Waters Guide Service and Fly Shop – September 20th – My buddy Rudy from St.Louis came down for a half day trip today. Wading below the dam and it was another really nice day. While it was dead calm in the morning it got pretty gusty by quitting time. Rudy wanted to do some midge fishing sometime and I suggested later in the day when I’m typically seeing more midging activity. We walked the banks, sight casting with Bit Scuds and G-Bugs until then, searching for some trophy’s. Some really nice rainbows were on the far shore out from outlet #2 and we hooked several. Notice I say hooked and not caught. We broke off a bunch of fish today. I say “we” as I fished on and off at Rudy’s encouragement and I broke off a bunch as did Rudy. 7x fluorocarbon was definitely better today than 6x but we paid the price in lost fish. My excuse was a bad batch of tippet as both Rudy and I fish 7x a lot and don’t have problems breaking off. They never seemed to break at the knot but clean in the middle somewhere. I stopped putting a surgeons knot on to keep the weight from slipping to see if that helped. Maybe a little but not really. After the breeze kicked in 6x worked pretty well so I had one rod set up with 6x all the time while the other had 7x. Sometimes in calmer water we needed the 7x. After we worked a few good sight casting haunts and catching quite a few we saw a pod of some big browns and we threw a few to them with no success. I tried stripping some sculpins a few times and only a couple of hits from smaller fish. We caught small browns but not the big boys we saw. One fish looked around 10 pounds with several in the 4 -7 pound range. I wanted to show Rudy some midge fishing so we went down near the MDC ramp and put on an olive MTBB Soft Hackle with a gray midgabou in front of that. I like to midge fish from outlet #4 on down. Rudy hadn’t done any softhackle fishing and that is my favorite way to midge fish personally so it was a nice diversion from just “catching fish”. We fished a couple of runs with scuds earlier where you hook a fish nearly every cast but Rudy’s done that and likes to try different things so we did the midge thing. Soft Hackles imitate an emerging midge when you swing them through the current and the emerger in front will hang in the film and help you search for a good size and color. We hooked up a lot, at times on every cast but bringing them to net wasn’t as successful. Typical soft hackle fishing. Lots of hits and few fish in the net. If you fish soft hackles much you know how hard and fast the hits are and that always stays the same with soft hackles. Not the soft and subtle taps you get with scuds but usually a hard, running hit. Yes, we snapped a few off there too. Just one of those days I guess. Pictured is Rudy with a nice 18″ class rainbow. He lost a few bigger fish too. A nice day to be out there.
Gary‘s Current Report: September 20– Fishng was excellent. Picked up Duane (MAC) McCammon on the shore line near Point Royale at about 0700 under water off conditions.. We drifted on the the shallow side, casting back toward the middle into 4 1/2 -6 feet of water. MAC was using a fly rod with 6x Fluorocarbon tippet and a a size 22 Black Zebra Midge and I used a spining rod with 6x Fluorocarbon tippet a 1/100 ounce River Run Peach Jig. We both had our strike indicators set between 3/12 and 4 feet. The Peach Jig was the lure of the day getting hits about every ohter cast. Only hooked about one out of four but what fun!Between us we caught about 30 fish before quitting at 0815 with the largest in the 16″ class and lots between 12-15 inches.
Guide Bob Klein: On September 19, Bob Klein, of “Bob’s Guide Service“, reports
Water On Conditions – Orange and Chartreuse Power eggs with the Chartreuse on shank of hook and the Orange on tip, white Power Eggs, or inflated night crawlers bounced off the bottom using the standard “Lake Taneycomo Drift Rig.” which is readily available at all Marinas and most resorts on the Lake.
Get Your Lake Taneycomo Questions Answered:Bob, Gary, Brett, and Stan will be monitoring the Outdoor Activities Forum on the Branson.Com Message Board . If you have any fishing questions on LakeTaneycomo just ask.Use the word “Taneycomo” in the Search Function and enter it in all your posts so they’ll show up.
