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LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JULY 25th
Awesome day on the lake today.  I had Eric in the morning and Tyler in the evening.  Both were first time fly fishermen and both really enjoyed themselves.  Teaching them was a lot of fun because they caught on so fast. They casted, they set the hook, they let go of the line when the fish made a run and they led them into the net. Taneycomo is a great place to learn how to fly fish.  You get a lot of bites and have a lot of opportunities to learn a good, quick hook set.  You don’t have to make a far cast in order to get bites and that really helps getting novice fishermen to start catching fish right away.    

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JULY 24th
Chris and Steve from Oklahoma were here for the evening bite.  They were running a lot of water, four units with a tail water of almost 710.  We got out the fly rods.  This was only Chris and Steve’s second time to ever fly fish. They did a great job and picked it up really quickly.  But I have to give credit to Darryl from River Run Outfitters for taking them out the day before and teaching them so well.  We headed all the way up to the dam and started drifting scuds and sow bugs.  All of our big fish were in deep water, 10-12 feet deep and on the channel edge.  We went shallow a few times and fished the bank but never caught any big ones, so we just stuck to the deep water.  It was a nice evening and we pretty much had the whole trophy area to ourselves.  

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JULY 22nd
This morning Logan, Lily, Laura and Shannon came up for a trip to the trophy area.  Logan was really excited to get out on the water and had been looking forward to this for a while.  No water running today so we stuck with a jig ‘n’ float above Fall Creek and all through the lower trophy area.  It took Logan a bit to warm up, but when he did, he caught one fish after another all morning. Six year old Lily liked reeling them in and especially netting the fish.  The morning bite has been really good on the entire lake, whether in the trophy area or the unrestricted area.  

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JULY 20th, p.m.
Tonight six year old Cade and his friend Rylan came out with Cade’s dad for the evening bite.  They had four units running pretty hard and a tail water of just over 710.  We weren’t going to be keeping any fish, so the kids bottom bounced flies in the trophy area from the cable down to Fall Creek.  It was a good steady bite and we caught some really big trout.  It’s not easy bottom bouncing because you really have to set the hook quick when you feel the bite, but Rylan and Cade picked up on it pretty quick. 

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JULY 20th
Nine year old Miles showed up today ready to fish.  Miles is absolutely crazy about fishing and it only took a couple of minutes for him to have his first fish in the boat.  We fished a jig ‘n’ float and stayed around Fall Creek, catching one fish after another.  Miles is a really good hook setter and never took his eyes off the float.  He caught fish all morning, making his grandfather proud.   

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JULY 19th
This morning I fished with Brent, Andrew and Brian.  We went up to the trophy area and started with the jig ‘n’ float and also fly fished with micro jigs and midges.  The fishing has been excellent early in the morning and there is fog on the lake almost every morning which extends the morning bite.  These guys fish quite a bit and did very good on our trip, catching a bunch of fish. 

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JULY 16th
Today I picked up Chris, a lifelong friend, and a couple of his friends who had never fly fished before.  Chris and I hadn’t seen each other in a long time.  Since we last saw one another, he has done a lot of fly fishing all over the world and is very good.  Chris held back and let his friends go after it.  We had awesome conditions with two generators running, overcast skies and fog which kept the morning bite solid, one fish after another.  Some big ones too, including a brown  Jason hooked that got wrapped around the trolling motor, but we still got it into the boat.  We also did a pontoon trip with some more of Chris’ friends and fished another morning on the float ‘n’ fly.  It was a terrific three days. 

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JULY 14th
Kelly was here for an eight hour fly fishing trip.  But like the last several eight hour trips, we called it good at about six hours.  The fishing has been so good in the morning that there has been no point in staying out in the broiling sun  to catch one more fish when we have already caught forty or more.  Kelly fly fished all morning with midges, scuds and jigs and stayed bowed up the whole time.  We had light water generation all morning and that really kept the fish biting.

Kelly was good at fly fishing and had no trouble keeping his flies far from the boat and setting the hook.

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JULY 13th
Jay, Mike and Jake came out with me this morning and weren’t keeping fish, so we headed up to the trophy area.  The water was off so we stuck with the jig ’n’ float.  We had our first fish within one minute of throwing our lines out.  We didn’t catch any giant fish, but we caught a lot of fish.  We joked around, having fun, and decided that whoever caught the last fish would be deemed the coolest.  Eleven year old Jake caught that last fish, so Jake is the coolest!

LAKE TANEYCOMO, JULY 12th
Kevin and Tom from Normal, Illinois, showed up for an eight hour trip that proved to be anything but normal.  Kevin and Tom had never trout fished before and wanted to keep some fish from the unrestricted zone and then go up to the restricted area and try some fly fishing.  We started with night crawlers on a custom drift rig below Fall Creek and on our first drift down to Trout Hollow we picked up five good keepers.  Half-way down on our second drift, Tom hooked into what we thought for a second was a snag.  Then his line came ripping out of his spinning reel until the "snag" swam sideways.  After ten minutes we got a 23 inch, 8.06 pound brown trout to the net.  We put the fish in the live well right away and let it rest for quite a while and then headed down to Liley's Landing to weigh it on their digital scale and take pictures and measurements.  This brown had a girth of 17".  We put the fish back in the live well and took it up to the trophy area and released it.  Tom got his pin and a certificate of merit from the Branson Chapter of Trout Unlimited for releasing his lunker unharmed.  We grabbed the fly rods and fly fished for the second half of our trip.  Two units were running with a tail water of 705.8.  We started with egg flies in peach and apricot with scuds behind the eggs and then after a short drift switched to #10 OMG sowbugs in front of a #14 gray scud and caught a bunch of fish.  Just before it was time to go, Tom hooked, landed and released a 20" rainbow caught on a #14 gray scud.  Not a bad day for two guys who had never trout fished or fly fished before!   

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JULY 10th
The water was off this morning when Debbie and Richard got here.  We changed up our rods and switched to sculpin jigs and also a jig ‘n’ float.  Those two lures got us bit all morning.  Richard and Debbie have fished all over the world.  They had a lot of great fishing stories and tips.  We caught a big bunch of fish by the time our trip was over. We stayed above Fall Creek the whole morning and only saw a couple of boats. 

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JULY 9th
Thirteen year olds Tanner and Seth got on the computer while here in Branson, looked up some fishing guides, compared prices and chose to go with me.  They had their grandparents drop them off at my dock to go trout fishing.  These two guys are crazy about fishing.  They reminded me of myself at that age.  And man, I’m here to tell you that these two kids are excellent fishermen!  They picked up the float ’n’ fly like they’d done it a hundred times before.  It was obvious that even though they were only thirteen, they both had thousands of casts under their belts already.  A light two units running and cloudy made for perfect conditions for an awesome bite.  We lost count after the first half hour, just catching one after another.  Egg flies, scuds and sow bugs were the ticket.

We fished from the dam down to the mouth of Fall Creek, then stayed in the trophy area.  These kids were a lot of fun to fish with. 

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JULY 8th, p.m.
David and Susan came out for the evening bite.  We hit the water at 4:00 p.m. and managed to fish for thirty minutes before the rain set in.  No lightening or thunder and the trout were really biting good,so we put on the rain suits and stuck with it.  We fished from Fall Creek to Cooper Creek and caught all of our fish on night crawlers.  We’ve had a lot of rain the last few days and the worms are always good in the summertime after a big rain. 

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JULY 6th, p.m.
Tonight I had the Wilson family out.  We had boat full of people and a boat full of fish by the end of the evening.  Two year old Cannon sat there all evening and watched everyone fish without a peep.  I couldn’t believe it—two years old and not one blow-up!  We fished below Fall Creek all evening and had our best luck on night crawlers and gulp eggs. 

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JULY 2nd, p.m.
The Wiley family was here for an evening trip.  With three units running and the tail water at 708, our fish were pretty deep.  We started with night crawlers and eggs around the Branson Landing and Monkey Island area.  We did pretty good there for a couple of hours until the sun got behind the trees.  After that we started fishing from Fall Creek down to Cooper Creek and did good there as well. This evening family trip was fun for everyone.

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JULY 2nd
This morning Ed, eight year old Graham, Garrett age twelve and fifteen year old Graydon joined me for an awesome family trip.  The water was off and since we had so many people in the boat, we decided to anchor fish which is something we don’t do very often.  We set anchor and started fishing night crawlers and gulp eggs.  The kids did great. It didn’t take long before they had their limit and were returning the rest of their catches to the water.  After the sun got over the trees, the fish quit hitting on the eggs; they just wanted night crawlers. These kids were a blast to fish with and we had a terrific day on the water.

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JUNE 30th

Jimmy and his friends from Texas joined me today for a pontoon trip.  They had rented a boat a few days earlier and only caught a couple of fish.  They were at Scotty’s Trout Dock when I returned to the dock from another family pontoon trip.  Jimmy and his buddies saw that we had 24 fish, everyone’s limit. So they asked me to take them out.

I picked them up at Cooper Creek Resort and down the lake we headed.  We fished eggs and crawlers around the Landing and also below Fall Creek and found the slower, deeper water to be a little better than up by Fall Creek.  By the time to go, everyone had caught his or her limit.

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JUNE 28th
Kevin and Tyler arrived at 6:00 a.m. this morning.  I thought the water would be off because it has been off every morning lately, but there were already three units running with a tail water of 708.3.  It was dark and foggy, but we put bright egg fies on in tangerine and orange with big #10 and #12 scuds as our tail flies.  Fifteen year old Tyler came out of the gate running--this kid was good!  He landed fifteen fish within the first half hour of our trip and kept this pace up for the rest of the day.  Tyler had already caught a nice brown trout when at 11:00 a.m., he hooked into and landed a 22 inch rainbow on a #14 OMG sowbug.  It took over 10 minutes to get this fish to the boat, but Tyler took his time and played it out perfectly.  After netting the fish we took pictures, measured it and released it unharmed back into the lake.  Tyler received a pin and a certificate of merit from the Branson, Missouri chapter of Trout Unlimited for having fairly caught and released unharmed back into Taneycomo his trophy fish.  Tyler's dad, who's a Missouri hunting guide, was a good sport about Tyler's success, cheering him on.  Below Fall Creek gulp eggs in yellow and orange have been very good on drift rigs and, after the sun gets up over the trees, night crawlers pinched in half on a drift rig have been outproducing the eggs.  Remember, no live bait, scented bait or soft plastic bait is allowed above Fall Creek to the dam and all rainbows between 12 and 20 inches must be released.  The game warden was out recently and wrote several tickets for illegal fishing up in the trophy area.

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JUNE 27th, p.m.
This evening I had Kathleen and her son, Nick, out.  They drove several hours just for their fishing trip.  They had fished on the White River before but came up empty-handed.  Naturally, they were concerned that they might not catch anything on their trip with me either.  I told them that if they didn’t catch any fish with me, it would be the first time ever that someone didn’t get any fish while out on one of my guide trips.  Within one minute, Nick had his first fish on.  He had a very quick hook set and both he and Kathleen had no problem casting. They were kept busy catching fish for almost the whole evening until the worst storm I’ve ever seen on Lake Taneycomo rolled in at 70 miles per hour and that ended our trip!  Nick and Kathleen caught a lot fish and took some special memories home with them.

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JUNE 26th, p.m.
A big pontoon trip out of Scotty’s Trout Dock this evening.  Ryan, Corey, Eric and Tom were out with me tonight.  They wanted to keep fish, so we fished eggs and crawlers around the Landing area. The fishing was good and steady the entire evening.  Ryan caught the most and Eric caught the biggest.  Both Ryan and Corey did a really good job setting the hook and caught a lot of fish.  It was a great way to spend the evening, bobbing down the lake in a pontoon. We never even broke a sweat; it’s really cool and mild on Taneycomo in the evening.  

Four units were running when Bill, Isaac and Jenna arrived from Georgia.  We used the float ‘n’ fly, and we also bottom-bounced flies in the trophy area.  We did better bottom-bouncing than on the float ‘n’ fly rods because the water was so deep and the float ‘n’ fly just wasn’t getting down deep enough.  Jenna and Isaac caught a lot of big trout.  We only caught four that were stockers.  The rest were between 14 and 18 inches—not a bad average! The fog set in early and really cooled things down.  But not the fishing.  We had a great trip and a great time.

Dave and Cooper got here at 6:00 a.m. this morning.  The water was off and they weren’t keeping fish, so we headed to the trophy area.  We threw jigs on the spinning rods for the whole trip.  We hit a couple of spots and picked up several fish before they would shut down.  On our third spot, they never shut down.  We spent two hours in one spot and the fish just kept biting. It was a little feeding frenzy!  By the time we wrapped it up, Dave and Cooper had caught over 70 fish, with some real nice ones too.  Cooper’s big fish was an awesome 19” rainbow that he caught sight fishing.  He caught several sight fishing.  Both Cooper and his dad were very good fisherman with long casts and fast hook sets; they were really able to make things work for them.     

Tommy, April and Colton, long-time customers of ours, were here from Arkansas for their annual fishing trip.  Colton is really into baseball, so they have to wait until the baseball season is over before they can go on vacation.  They had a light one unit running this a.m., with a tail water of 703.2.  We headed up to the trophy area and started fishing with the float-n-fly.  As usual, the morning bite was excellent. Right off the bat, Colton started getting fish to the net.  Shortly after 8:00 a.m., he caught this awesome rainbow, just over 20 inches, on a #16 sow bug.  On our very next drift, Tommy caught a fantastic brown on a #14 OMG sow bug.  The fish bit really fast today.  There was hardly any water running and by the time the sun got over the trees, the bite was really fast.  Light line, small flies and getting far from the boat makes a world of difference.  Colton ended up out-fishing his mom and his dad.  Baseball had a lot to do with that.  The second his float twitched, he had his rod up to 11:00.  It was fun fishing with this family again and I hope we are able to go out together again next year.

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JUNE 20^th

Robert, Haley and Cole were back today for the second time this month.  They came through for a trip on the 12^th before the kids were due to be at Camp Kannikuck.  Unfortunately, Leona was under the weather and couldn’t make it today.  They had a $30 bet riding on today’s trip.  $10 for the biggest trout, $10 for the most trout and $10 for the smallest trout.  Haley won $10 for the most trout; she caught 19.  Cole won for the smallest fish.  Like our last trip, just before we were through, Robert caught a whopper.  A 22 inch rainbow that put up an awesome fight.  We had to chase it down with the motor because that fish pulled so much line out.  Robert caught his big one on a #14 OMG sow bug with 2 lb. line on the float-n-fly.  The water generation has been light and small flies #14-#16 have been the best for us.  1/8^th oz. sculpin jigs in olive or ginger from the trophy area past the Branson Landing worked from the shore back to the boat  just off the bottom have been very good also.  Out of the restricted area from Fall Creek down to Scotty’s Trout Dock, pink and yellow gulp in the early morning on a drift rig have been good and after the sun gets over the trees, night crawlers have been out-catching the eggs.

Dickie was here for the sole purpose of catching a trout on a fly rod.  He recently started fly fishing but as yet had not been able to hook a trout on his fly rod.  So we headed up to the trophy area with 3 units running and a tail water of 708.  We had a #12 OMG sow bug in front of a #16 gray scud. Within minutes Dickie had his first trout ever on a fly rod.  For his first fish, it was an awesome rainbow.  We caught a ton of fish.  The evening bite has been excellent and we have been catching a lot of fish.   

Sandy, David, Michael and Anna were here for a family trip.  They had done some dock fishing at the resort without much luck, so decided to go fishing with me.  The water was off, so we headed up to the trophy area.  It was a tough bite with the fish biting very fast, but we managed to catch several nice fish.  Anna caught the biggest fish on a #12 zebra midge.  After a couple of hours, we decided to head on down the lake to deep water near Scotty’s Trout Dock.  We started out with yellow and pink gulp eggs and began catching fish right away.  Michael wanted to try worms, so we set him up with some night crawlers.  He caught a bunch right off the bat, so it wasn’t long before everyone else was ready to switch to a night crawler.  After the switch, it was steady fish all day long with most of them coming from 17-18’ of water off the bottom.     

Steve and Elizabeth were here for their long-awaited trip.  Steve is on active duty and has been over in Iraq from where he scheduled this trip by email months ago when he found out he was going to have a two week leave.  Elizabeth caught the most fish.  She was using a 1/100^th oz. micro-shad and Steve was using a micro-sculpin and a #16 midge.  We kept these baits five feet under a float up in the trophy area.  We fished the trophy area for a couple of hours and then headed down below Fall Creek with the same baits and finished out our trip there.  2 lb. line is all we’ve been using when the water is off.  Anything heavier and you just don’t get as many bites.  Steve only has 4 months left on his tour of duty.  I will be thinking of him and sending my best wishes that he returns home safely to his family.

 Jason and Jordan were out with me along with a couple of their other family members for an evening trip.  They were running a lot of water, 3 units with the tailwater at 708.5, so we started bottom-bouncing flies on the spinning rods and Jason was fly fishing off the back of the boat.  We caught a lot of big fish bottom-bouncing this evening.  Even when they shut the water off just before dark, we were still catching them one after another.  Jason caught the most off of his fly rod.  He was very good at fly fishing.  Apricot eggs, Y2K eggs, and peach eggs in front of #14 olive scuds, gray scuds and brown scuds were the flies we used successfully all evening.  Jordan caught the first brown we’ve seen in a while, a really nice fish.  

Lorraine and Debbie were here for a fly fishing and spin fishing trip today.  The water was off so we started with the fly rods with small micro-jigs under very small strike indicators.  The bite in the trophy area and below Fall Creek was very fast.  Having a small indicator helped catch more fish.  Lorraine had been on a losing streak and had not caught any fish on the fishing trips she’d been on at different lakes over the last couple of years.  This was her first time on Taneycomo and her first trip out with me—fortunately, we were able to totally turn her luck from bad to good.  Both Lorraine and Debbie caught fish steadily on the fly rods until about 10:00 a.m.  Once the sun got over the trees we switched to the spinning rods, went to 2 lb. line and kept our flies quite a distance from the boat.  As we got our lines away from the boat, the bite started picking up again and both Lorraine and Debbie were bringing them to the boat. 

This morning Robert, Leona, Haley and Cole got here at 6:30 a.m. There was a lot of fog and quite a few boats on the water already because it is free fishing weekend in Missouri, which means no licenses are needed for the weekend.  They were not keeping fish, so we headed up to the trophy area.  Two 1/100^th oz. micro-shads, one 256 oz. ginger jig and a micro-sculpin is what we started with.  The micro-shads were the best until 9:00 a.m. and then the micro-sculpin took the cake.  Cole was the first to start putting fish in the boat and Haley was right behind him.  Leona caught the most and Robert caught troutzilla, an awesome fish that went just over 20 inches.  He caught that fish on a micro-sculpin five feet  under  a carrot float.   

Larry and Audrey were back again for their annual fishing trip.  Last year it was the whole family, so we got a pontoon boat from Scotty's Trout Dock to accommodate everyone and spent the day in the trophy area.  Audrey caught the most trout and Larry caught the biggest.  On today's trip Audrey  caught both the most and the biggest.  One unit was running when we started at 3:00 p.m. today, so we started  below Fall Creek where we could fish some deeper water. We used a 1/100th oz. micro-shad set 7 feet under a float and caught our limit in the first hour.  By the time we had our limit, the water was up to three units, so we chopped our rig and went to the float 'n' fly as we headed up to the trophy area.  Audrey picked up the cast in no time and was catching fish right off the bat.  It's not easy throwing around a 14 foot leader, but she had no trouble.  A #12 OMG sowbug and a #16 gray scud kept Audrey busy with fish.  Larry had an apricot egg with a #14 gray scud on.  We caught fish pretty steadily until around 7:00 p.m. when the fish really turned on and we were getting bites just as soon as our flies got to the bottom.  Next year when Larry and Audrey come back, we are planning to go bass fishing on Table Rock

Dave, Dave and Dave went fishing with me today.  Yes, that's right--a family of Daves!  After an hour of saying Dave and having everybody look at me, I asked the youngest Dave if people called him "Junior."  He said "no", but on another fishing trip everyone got fed up with three people saying "What?" every time someone said "Dave", so they started calling him "Steve" instead as a joke.  I happen to be partial to the name "Steve" so for the rest of the day I called the youngest Dave, "Steve".  These guys were expert fishermen.  Very good casters and hook setters and within the first hour we lost count of how many fish we had caught.  Dave the second caught the first brown trout we have caught in over a month.  It was a beautiful fish that came out of a seam below Lookout Island.  They had enough water to get up to the cable at the dam and we fished from there down to the mouth of Fall Creek.  We used a float 'n' fly and our best flies were a red shami worm in front of a #16 micro-sculpin and a #12 OMG sowbug with a #16 light or dark gray scud as the trailer. 

Walt, Wes and 12 year old Jake came out for an evening trip from 4:00 p.m. until dark.  I have been doing quite a few evening trips.  The bite has been awesome and you basically have the entire lake to yourself.  The bite from 3:00 p.m. until dark gets better by the hour.  When the sun just starts getting behind the trees is when we start catching the big ones.  Wes caught this enormous trout, over 20 inches, just above Fall Creek on the rock bar on a #16 gray scud.  He had not caught a fish that big out of Fall Creek in a long time.  But they kicked the water up to 4 units by 6:00 p.m. and we were the only boat around when that big fish pulled up on the shallow rocks to feed.  We were right there at the right time.  That fish took a long time to get into the boat, especially considering it was on two pound line.  Jake was a fantastic fisherman.  He caught more trout than his dad and Wes.  Jake did all of his own casting, mending of his line, and hook setting.  Kids often do better than the adults; they are quick and pick up what a good hook set feels like very fast.  Fishing with a float or a strike indicator really helps keep kids involved for the whole trip.  It's a lot of fun when you can see the bites.    

Today I had a pontoon trip out of Scotty's Trout Dock with the Vorsilli family from Chicago.  We had the opportunity to go up to the trophy area because they weren't keeping any of the fish.  In the trophy area you cannot possess any fish between 12 and 20 inches.  That restriction gives people the opportunity to catch a big fish and it works because we catch big fish all of the time in the trophy area.  The conditions were perfect for bottom-bouncing, which is what you need to do when you have a pontoon full of people.  You can't throw a float 'n' fly out of a pontoon boat with five people in it .  We had lots of water running, 3 units to be exact and it was cloudy with a little bit of rain.  We caught two 20 inch fish; 12 year old Daniel caught one on a #12 gray scud and Vicki caught one on a tangerine egg fly.  It's not every day you can catch two 20 inch fish out of a pontoon boat.  Two days later, Tom, Jim and Daniel Vorsilli came in my boat and we fished with the float 'n' fly on the spinning rods from 4:00 p.m. until dark and did great. Both Vicki and Daniel got a pin that Scotty's Trout Dock has from the Trophy Trout Release Program offered by the Branson chapter of Trout Unlimited for releasing their lunkers.  These 20 inch fish are hard to come by; there just are not that many of them.  It is very important to release them back into the lake.

Today's fishing was totally different from yesterday with a light three units running when Kevin and twelve year old Connor joined me.  We hit the lake at 6:30 a.m. with a tail water at 705.3.  We started with the float 'n' fly and it was just crazy how many fish were in the trophy area.  We got bit as soon as our flies got to the bottom.  An apricot egg with a #14 and a #12 gray scud was all we used for the whole trip.There was no reason to change flies because the fish didn't let up for one minute.  Connor picked up on the float 'n' fly within ten minutes and could throw it as far as he wanted. By the end of the trip he had caught 31 trout by himself with no help from me or his dad except to net the fish.  The trout fishing has been awesome all spring.  Big, hearty, hard-fighting trout--what more could you ask for?

The water was off this morning when Doug and Ryan from Texas joined me for their fishing trip.  Ryan is the most well-mannered 12 year old plus big and strong enough for his age to be a football coach's dream player. These are pictures of Ryan's first trout on a fly rod.  He picked up on the roll cast very quickly and had no problems getting his line out and setting the hook.  We had a great time.  Doug and Ryan were a pleasure to fish with and I hope I see them again next year.

Today I had Aaron out.  We were going to do some boat fishing and some wading, but the boat fishing was so good we never put waders on.  The water was off for the second day  in a row.  The last time we had the water off for a full two days the fishing was incredible and this time was the same.  The fish were fighting over which one could get to our flies first.  By the end of the trip Aaron had caught 91 trout.  I even made a few casts myself and caught a nice 22 inch rainbow.  We used micro-shads in the morning and when the sun got over the trees, we switched to a 1/100th oz. micro-sculpin and a #18 blood or zebra midge 5 feet under a strike indicator. Aaron had been looking forward to this trip for a long time and we had a terrific day.   

Today I picked up Curtis, Dusty and three year old Brock for their first trip ever fishing for trout.  The water was off today,so we went up to the trophy area and, on his first cast, Brock caught his very first rainbow trout on a 1/100^th oz. micro shad.  After that he decided he liked manning the net for mom and dad, which kept him busy for the rest of the trip.  Dusty caught the big fish of the day, a beautiful 19 inch rainbow.  We threw some zebra midges #16 and #18. We also caught fish on an olive 1/100^th oz. micro sculpin set about five feet under a float. 

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, MAY 5^thToday I was with  Gary from Overland Park, Kansas, the place where I grew up.  Gary wanted to catch a trophy, so we started early in the a.m. throwing big 1/8^th oz. sculpin jigs in deep water trying to get a big fish to bite.  But the water was running a little hard and the fish weren’t willing to chase a jig down, so we switched to a float and fly on the spinning rods and headed to the upper end of the trophy area.  On our second pass Gary hooked into a big rainbow just above outlet #2.  It took a long time to get this fish into the net; it just didn’t want to come off the bottom.  Using 2 lb. line, we couldn’t pull it up off the bottom.  Finally, we got it into the net—a 19 inch rainbow that was as fat as they get.  We took some pictures and released it.  Gary is planning to have a replica made of this great fish.  We caught that fish on an OMG sowbug #16.  We have been using eggs as our lead fly in the morning and when the sun gets high we switch our eggs to a big scud as the lead fly.  They are still running very light water generation.  The water is really clear so your flies have to be as far as possible from the boat to get the big fish to bite.

Today I fished with Andy from Wichita.  We fished together last year and had a blast.  Andy is 75 years old and man, this guy can fish!  If he needed to do a back  flip to land a fish, he would.  We fished the float and fly on the spinning rods all the way through the trophy area and the trout really bit good today, despite the water rising and falling all day.  We started with egg flies in front of a gray scud and, after the sun got high, we switched to #12 and #14 scuds in brown and gray.  In the late afternoon we switched to a #12 brown scud in front of a #16 micro sculpin and Andy hooked a giant fish that took about 20 yards of line off his spool before it came out of the water and we saw how big it was.  Andy played this fish out perfectly and it took him just over ten minutes to get the fish to the net.  A 22 inch, 6.2 pound rainbow that bit the micro sculpin on 2 lb. line. Pictures don’t do justice to the size of this fish.  Up to this point, Andy’s biggest fish was a 14 inch rainbow that we took a picture of.  When you look at the pictures side-by-side, you get an idea of how big this 6.2 lb. rainbow was.  Andy is a true sportsman.  After several pictures, he released the fish unharmed.    

Today I had Jim from Florida out for a four hour trip.  We are finally getting some light water generation and we are catching a lot of fish with a lot of different techniques.  With the lighter water, the fish aren't stuck on the bottom as they are with the heavier water generation.  The fish are all over the water column right now and will come several feet to get your flies if you are giving them what they want.  There are fish deep, shallow and everywhere in between.  Jim caught several nice fish from the trophy area all the way down to the Branson Landing on a float and fly and on sculpin jigs in olive. We also used some eggs in pink and yellow successfully.  There's just a whole lot of different things you can do to catch fish right now and they all seem to be working pretty well if you just stick with them.      

Today Ryan and Lyman joined me for an eight  hour trip from noon until dark.  When we set out they had three units runnng with the tail water at 708.6 that fell quickly to 706 by 2:00 p.m .  We started deep drifiting with the fly rods all the way through the trophy areaa and caught a lot of fish on a peach egg fly and a #12 brown scud.  We then went down the lake by Scotty's Trout Dock where we drifted for a while and caught several more fish.  For the evening bites we went back up to the trophy area and switched to the float and fly on the spinning rods so we could get farther from the boat.  We caught some really nice fish.  Ryan caught a beautiful rainbow on a #16 brown scud just down from Lookout Point.  Ryan and his dad did a great job keeping up with all of the different techniques we had to use today in order to keep fish on our lines.  We couldn't just use one thing and expect to catch fish all day, so we had to do a lot of changing.  Our timing in our changes was correct for the conditions and we never went five minutes without a bite.

Today I had Glen, Justin age 13 and Joe age15 from Springflield, Mo.  The water was off when they got here so we headed up to the trophy area where Justin and Joe started throwing sculpin micro jigs.  Glen was throwing a 1/8th oz. sculpin jig.  We had caught a few fish before they turned the water on and then the moss chased us out of the trophy area.  So we went down and fished around Scotty's Trout Dock for awhile and caught a bunch of fish on drift rigs and pink and orange gulp.  This was the boys first time trout fishig and also the first time they had ever used a spinning rod.  They did a great job casting and paying attention all day.  We had a lot of fun and I think they learned a lot. 

Tina, Rita, John, Bob and Chuck are here from Louisiana for their annual fishing trip.  Last year we were wading when the water was off and we were hoping to do the same thing this year.  Unfortunately, they were running too much water to wade.  So we got a pontoon boat from Scotty's Trout Dock and decided to drift fish with eggs and throw some spoons.  We drifted from Monkey Island down to the Branson Landing.  Gulp in pink and yellow were definitely our best colors as we caught our limits pretty quick.  We had a great time and enjoyed the perfect weather.  Hopefully, next year we will be able to wade again.

Today I was with Dave from South Carolina.  When we got on the lake they had just started up two units after leaving the water off all night.  The amount of moss coming down the lake was unbelievable.  You couldn't make a single cast without a bunch of moss coming back with your lure.  They ran two units up to a tailwater of 707.8 and the moss finally pushed on down the lake.  We got to catch several fish on sculpin jugs and a float and fly.  Then they shut the water off.  They haven't shut the water off in a long time and to shut it off at 10:00 in the morning is pretty unusual.  When the water falls that quickly, it displaces a lot of sculpins, bugs and sow bugs.  They retreat to deeper water so they don't get stranded on the drying rocks.  The big fish follow the water line down.  The micro jig bite really picked up after all of the water had drained out of the trophy area.  We caught fish on every single cast, one after another, for several hours.  Dave is a guide in South Carolina and is a very good jig fisherman.  His web site is www.pamlicotackle.com if you are interested in a fishing or sight-seeing trip in South Carolina.

Today I had a trip out of Scotty's Trout Dock.  I picked up the Luck family from New Hampshire at the dock and we headed up to the trophy area.  They were running one unit so we started with sculpin jigs and on Josh's firtst cast, he landed an awesome 18 inch rainbow.  We continued to throw the jigs for a while and Dad picked up on the bite very quickly and started loading the boat.  Fishing jigs can be kind of tricky sometimes because the fish will usually only take the bait on the fall; you have to continually lift the jig up and let it fall very lightly so you can feel the bite.  At the same time you have to keep it right off the bottom.  They boys were getting tired of watching their dad catch all of the fish so I put them on a float and fly. In no time at all they were out fishing their dad!  The weather in Branson is perfect right now and we have been catching a lot of big rainbows and also some browns. 

Dustin and Cameron were back for their annual trip and also brought Chris, who was on leave from the U.S. Army.  Light generation today, one unit with a tailwater of 704.3 that slowly fell all day.  We started with the fly rods but the water was too clear and the fish were easily spooked, so we switched to the float and fly to get further from the boat.  The bite was pretty steady and we caught several fish, but the wind picked up really srong and boat control became an issue.  So we scrapped the float and fly and switched to 1/8th oz. sculpin jigs and caught fish consistently from the trophy area all the way down to Lilley's Landing.  It was great to fish with Dustin and Cameron again and I'm glad they brought Chris.  As always there was no charge for Chris as an active member of the military. 

Larry came down from Detroit to fish with me today.  He had never fished Lake Taneycomo before and he had never used a fly rod before.  We started early in the a.m., fishing shallow in the trophy area with a float and fly on the spinning rods and found a really good bite close to the bank.  After the sun got up over the trees, the fish moved progressively deeper and closer to the channel.  By lunch we were using the fly rods and deep drifting in 9 to 12 feet of water just on top of the channel.  We had some wonderful weather with heavy scattered clouds and switched fly colors a lot to keep up with the changing light conditions.  Egg flies in peach, burnt orange and chartreuse and also red shami worms worked well for our lead flies and OMG sow bugs and rusty brown scuds from #12 to #16 kept us on the bite.  No giants caught today, but Larry caught 50 fish or better by the time we wrapped things up.  Larry did great on the float and fly and also the fly rod.  We pretty much had the whole upper lake to ourselves today, a big change from this last weekend and a great way to introduce Larry to fishing on Taneycomo.

Today I picked up Randy and Jason from Scotty's Trout Dock; they were here from Louisiana.  This was the nicest Saturday, as far as weather goes, since late last year and the lake absolutely blew up with boats and fishermen trying to shake off the miserable winter.  They ran a light 2 generators all day with a tail water around 704 to 705.  Early in the day I was concerned that the heavy boat traffic might hurt the fishing, but we couldn't tell one bit of difference in the trophy area.  We steadily caught fish in the trophy area all day, including some pretty big ones.  Randy caught a 19 inch female full of roe on a #16 rusty brown scud at 3 p.m. while we were right in the middle of three other boats and Jason caught his big one on a #16 gray scud.  For lead flies we used quite a few different things depending on our depth, including peach and chartreuse egg flies, red San Juan and shami worms, and an OMG sow bug.  The bite below Fall Creek did appear to be affected by all of the boat traffic.  We got very few bites going through that area.  Although the ones we did catch were good size, we didn't get enough bites to stick around.  While at Scotty's Trout Dock this weekend I noticed a lot of people were catching some really nice trout on power bait in orange and chartreuse and white around the Branson Landing and Monkey Island

Today I fished with Randy and Sharon from Arkansas.   We concentrated our time fishing from the cable at the hatchery all the way down to Lilly's Landing, drifting with the current.  We used the fly rods to deep drift and fished pretty much the same depth all the way down the lake, keeping our baits in the 9 to 12 feet depth range.  We tried fishing a little shallower and a little deeper, but found the most consistent bite at 9 to 12 feet deep.  We had 4 units of generation all day and a tail water from 708 up to 710, so we had to keep our baits on the bottom to get bit.  Our best baits were a peach or apricot egg fly followed by a #12 brown or gray scud.  Our bigger fish are still being caught below Fall Creek.  The morning bite has been really good if you don't mind the cold air temperatures.  With the water running though, the bite is good all day long with noticeable periods when the trout are really aggressive and hold onto the flies longer.  Then you will have a period where they are biting really fast and short and you start catching 1 fish for every 5 bites.  Randy and Sharon had never fly fished before and both did a really good job getting their lines out and setting the hook as soon as their strike indicators left the surface.

Today I fished with Joe from Iowa and I'm glad he brought his hunting clothes because it was below freezing the whole day.  We started with the spining rods to cover water quickly for the morning bite, throwing stick baits, but the eyelets on the spinning rods would freeze up solid after just a few casts.  Luckily the water was runnng pretty hard already so we went straight to deep drifting with the fly rods in the channel and since you don't have to cast, we didn't have to put up with eyelets freezing anymore.  Despite the cold weather, the trout fishing was great.  We pretty much had the whole lake to ourselves and caught fish all day from the hatchery down to Lilly's Landing.  We drifted the channel edge and the channel flats with a red shami worm and a #16 brown scud for most of the day.  We tried some other colors of scuds and eggs, but none of them were as good as the red shami.  Tom caught this beautiful rainbow just over 18 inches right above Fall Creek and man did it have some shoulders!  It took Tom more than ten minutes to get this fish to the net.

My friend Gary, (a.k.a. “The Ole Seagull”) and his brother-in-law Galen came out to fish this morning. The water has not been off in the mornings for a while, so I expected a pretty good bite with the water being off today. The bite was on but it was extremely light and fast. The trout would very slightly shake our indicators and that was it. We only had a couple of fish actually take our indicators underwater. We started with a white micro jig and a ginger micro jig; the trout were definitely preferring the white over ginger. We also used an olive jig and a couple different midges with not much success. We caught one big fish and 20-25 average trout. It was nice to get out and fish with Gary again.

Chuck was here from North Carolina.  We hit the lake early at 6:30 a.m. and made our way up into the trophy area.  There was already one unit just barely trickling, putting the tail water at 703.4.  The fishing was tough, tough, tough.  The fish were coming up behind the bait and just taking a quick nip at it.  This happens a lot on low water and usually you can keep your flies close to the boat and watch the fish bite a fly, but we already had 15-20 mph winds coming through the valley so we couldn’t see below the surface.  We stuck at it for a while, but finally conceded and agreed to go out again at 3:00 p.m.  Chuck showed up right at 3 and we headed back up into the trophy area.  It was still one unit running with 15-20 mph winds.  But now the fish were biting hard and holding onto the flies as opposed to the quick nips of the morning.  Within ten minutes Chuck had four fish in the boat.  We were getting hits and fish to the boat about every two minutes until around 4:30 p.m. when they turned on one more unit, which really got the fish fired up.  By the time we wrapped things up, Chuck had caught dozens of fish with the bigger ones coming after the second generator went on. 

Today was all about me.  I had my much-anticipated fishing trip with Brian Snowden, a top-notch  Bass Masters Elite tournament angler.  I’ve really been looking forward to this opportunity to fish with one of the top professionals.  If you’re a doctor you have to observe new surgeries and read medical journals to stay on top of the game.  If you’re a lawyer, you have to second chair the high profile trials and read the law journals.  As a fisherman, you need to spend time with one of the best in the business working on new techniques.  Thanks, Brian, for a great learning experience and an enjoyable day on the water. 

Today was Mike and Barbara’s third trip.  We were planning to fish Bull Shoals for walleye, but because of the recent rains the boat ramp and low road were under water.  So we decided to go trout fishing instead.  It was a good thing we did, because the big fish were really biting today.  We used the float and fly on spinning rods and drifted from the hatchery to the mouth of Fall Creek in the trophy area.  Our best flies today were #12 OMG sow bugs behind a red shammy worm.  We also caught fish on an apricot egg followed by #14 and #16 gray scuds.  Barbara decided trout fishing was definitely her favorite and she caught some really big fish to prove it.  I can’t imagine any couple I’d rather go out on multiple trips with.  We had a great time and I certainly appreciate their confidence in Anglers Advantage.

Mike was back for his second trip and this time, was joined by his wife, Barbara, who was feeling much better.  We decided to go to Table Rock, so we put in at the State Park Boat Ramp at 7:00 a.m.  It was cloudy and breezy when we set out down the east gravel bank by the Branson Belle showboat, throwing spinner baits.  Mike caught a couple of small-mouths but by 8:00 the spinner bait bite was over, so we went out deep and fished some points in 25-30 feet of water.  We caught a few more small-mouths and a couple of Kentucky's dragging centipedes and worms and Barbara even caught a catfish.  About 10:00 a.m. the white bass started schooling shad to the surface in every pocket on the west side of the lake across from the dam, so we tied on ½ oz. white spoons and started following the bass around.  The fish would only come up and bust the surface for less than a minute before going back down 20-30 feet.  We would run over to where they were blowing up on the surface, drop our spoons down to 20-30 feet, jigging them up and down, which let us catch white bass for the rest of the afternoon.  Unfortunately, I forgot my camera—so, sorry, there are no pictures of this great catch.

Scott and his nine year old son Connor came down from Fort Leonard Wood this afternoon.  Scott has been fly fishing his entire life and wanted to get Connor interested in the sport.  The stakes were high as Scott promised Connor $100 if he caught a trout on a fly rod as opposed to a spinning rod. His dad had done a great job giving Connor lessons in the back yard, so that Connor already had a good cast.  Unfortunately, the water was off, there were a lot of people fishing up in the trophy area and the bite was extremely fast and light.  After Connor missed four or five bites because of the light hook set, I told him to go ahead and try to break off the next fish that bit and that did the trick. On his next bite, Connor let it rip as hard as he could and got a nice trout into the net and into the boat.  We had a great time, drank a lot of root beer and Conner not only went home with $100 in his pocket, he suckered me into letting him drive the boat back to the dock at the end of our trip!  Our best flies were a #16 tungsten blood midge and a 1/100th oz. olive jig. 

Mike and Barbara from Indiana wanted to make sure they got plenty of good fishing in on their trip to Branson, so they booked 3 days of trips.  It was really interesting to see their picture reviews of the restaurants they liked best.  Unfortunately, Barbara was under the weather today, so just Mike and I were out on Taneycomo, which was still very dirty from the heavy rains yesterday.  We had to go through the entire gamut of colors to find out what was going to work best in the dirty water.  We went from white to black to yellow and finally settled on hot pink.  A hot pink anything kept the attention of the fish all morning long.  The water was off so our best flies ended up being a hot pink 1/1000^th micro jig with a hot pink micro San Juan worm as a trailer.  Mike got off to a great start with a big net of fish to show for the day.

Gary and David were here from Tennessee for today’s torrential downpour.  The lake emptied of fishermen and guides by 10:00 a.m.  Since there was no lightening, these guys decided to tough it out.  We had the entire lake to ourselves.  There were two units running.  We got started early up in the trophy area and caught over 70 nice fish.  By the time we quit at 3:00 p.m. the lake had turned to mud, due to all of the overflowing creeks. Our best flies were a red San Juan worm and an orange San Juan worm followed by #14 gray and black scuds. 

Lake Taneycomo Fishing Report, August 28^th

Richard and Becky from Oklahoma arrived for an early a.m. trip. We hit the water about 6:00 a.m. to get that early bite.  We were using the float and fly with micro sculpins and micro jigs 1/80^th oz. in hot pink and white.  It was a good bite and most of our fish came in the six-seven foot range.  We primarily stayed between Lookout Point and Fall Creek.  A lot of big male rainbows have been showing up and congregating below Lookout Point. Once again the ladies reigned supreme as Rebecca caught the big one on a micro sculpin.

Another evening trip, this one with Jim and John deep drifting with fly rods on 4 units generation.  These guys managed the whole trip without a single tangle.  It’s really hard to hurl a 16 foot leader around without at least a few tangles that you have to cut out.  Jim started out drifting with a spinning rod and quickly switched to a fly rod.  He had such a good time, he stuck with the fly rod the nest of the trip.  The bite from Lookout Point to Fall Creek was definitely the best.  We made several drifts up top from the cable down to the boat ramp, but the bite there was mediocre.  John caught the big fish of the evening on a #14 ONG! sow bug; that fish took him about ten minutes to get into the boat.  Jim wasn’t far behind with a nice male pink, also caught on the ONG sow bug. We caught fish after fish until the sun got far enough behind the trees we could hardly see down the lake.

Steve, Tommy and their daughter, Anna Lee, went for an evening trip from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m.  We have been doing a lot of these evening trips lately.  The weather only gets cooler as the evening wears on and Taneycomo is cooler by 20 degrees than the other lakes and up on the strip.  It works out well for folks who have plans for afternoon shows or those who want to avoid the heat.  The fishing has been fantastic and we pretty much have the whole lake to ourselves.  We have caught more brown trout in the last two weeks than we have in the last three months. They are starting to show up just below Fall Creek all the way up to the cable at the hatchery.  The fishing was good from the cable down to Fall Creek using red and pink San Juan worms followed by ONG! sow bugs.  Anna Lee did a great job fishing in the high water.  It’s not easy fishing with a 16 foot leader, hooking the fish and getting them to the net in this high water.

The water was off today and Ed, Hogan and I went up to the trophy area to do some spin fishing.  This was Hogan’s birthday present and it was a good birthday because today the big fish decided to bite.  I can’t find any rhyme or reason as to why on certain days the big fish just show up ready to eat.  Both Ed and Hogan caught fish that were almost 19 inches and as big around as a football.  We also caught a nice brown on an olive micro jig.  Other micro jigs we used were yellow and white 1/100^th oz.  After Hogan caught the big fish of the day, I snapped the picture with his phone and within only a couple of minutes he already had it uploaded onto Facebook.  I also snapped a photo with Ed’s phone and he emailed the picture to his wife from the boat.  It’s pretty neat what you can do with a phone these days while out on a boat in the middle of a lake!   

Scott, Mark, Marissa and Kevin were here to do some wading and first-time fly fishing.  We were supposed to have the water off until 2:00 p.m., but by 8:00 a.m. they had two units running already.  They have a projected water schedule to go by on Lake Taneycomo of when they think they are going to generate water for hydroelectric power.  For the most part, they stick to it, but sometimes they don’t follow the schedule at all.  So since the water was on, we went and waded behind the island at Lookout Point.  Scott and Kevin did really good fishing in the current with a red micro San Juan worm and a #18 olive scud.  Marissa and Mark were fishing #18 red and rusty dun midges in the slack water.  The water was only on for an hour and then they shut it off.  So we had to change all of the rods again for water-off conditions and went back to fishing at the gravel flats.  Everyone was catching a lot of fish and then they turned the water back on again an hour later.  Despite challenging conditions everyone still caught plenty of fish and had a good time.

It was a special day because I had the opportunity to talk with Mark about his recent military tour in Afghanistan.  Like any active duty military personnel, Mark’s trip was free.  As a fishing guide in Branson, that’s my way of supporting out troops and it was great to find out that a lot of other Branson businesses also comped his meals and entertainment tickets to show their support.  It makes me proud of our community.    

The water was off this morning when Pat, Mark and I headed up to the trophy area to do some spin fishing.  White micro jigs were all the trout wanted this morning.  We also tried some different colored jigs and midges, but as soon as we switched to white we were getting bites every couple of minutes.  The fish bit non-stop until 10:30 a.m. when the sun got up from behind the trees.  Like a light switch, the fish shut off.  From 10:30-11:00 we only got six bites, but it didn’t seem to matter too much because we caught dozens of fish during the rest of the morning.  Pat and Mark did a good job picking up on the subtle bites.  When you are using a spinning rod, you have to use a carrot float to get a long cast and the fish don’t pull it under, they just slightly shake it or stand it up.

More trout madness this morning!  Nick, Calvin, Carl, Kayla and Brenda were here from Omaha for Nick’s golf tournament and a family vacation.  I picked them up in the fog at 6:00 a.m. by boat from Point Royale.  We all got our waders on and headed to the gravel flats under the power lines in the trophy area.  It was dark and cloudy with a storm front moving in and usually the fish over-commit and pull your indicator under making for an obvious hook set in that type of weather.  But today it was just the opposite.  The fish were biting so light we had to switch to a 5/16^th white strike indicator, the smallest one I use.  Even then a lot of the strikes were just a slight pull sideways.  This was everyone’s first time fly fishing and it was really neat to see all of these great kids away from the video games and the text messaging and see them on the water learning something new.  The water on Taneycomo is so clear that you can see fish swimming everywhere; it’s almost like fishing in an aquarium!  Everybody caught a bunch of fish and did a great job casting and setting the hook despite the light bite.  Our best fly today was a #20 burgundy midge.

Today we fished with Johnnie, Seth and John who were up here from Texas.  They were here on a big family vacation and had rented a boat from Scotty’s Trout Dock for several days.  But the guys needed a break from the girls, so Lamar, owner of Scotty’s, recommended they get away for an early morning fishing trip with me.  Although Johnnie had his own rod, a very nice sage combo, he and Seth had never caught a trout on a fly rod before.  So we remedied that problem today.  They were looking forward to a wading trip, but by the time we got to the boat at 6:00 a.m., there was already one generator running and by the time we got up to the trophy area they had two generators running.  So we went to butchering everything we had tied on for water-off conditions and re-rigged the rods for deep drifting.  You never know what they’re going to do with the water.  The schedule they give out for when the water is going to be on or off cannot be relied on.  Today the water was scheduled to be off until 10:00 a.m., but by 6:30 a.m. there were two generators running.  Our best flies today were a red San Juan worm followed by a uv gray scud #16.  We started out using a #14 brown olive scud which got us bit early on, but after the sun got up over the trees, the trout definitely preferred gray.  The best fishing was from the cable down to the first boat ramp and from Andy Williams’ house down to the power lines. It was a great day as usual on Lake Taneycomo for trout fishing.  We caught a bunch of fish and the guys one-upped each other talking a lot of smack and we had a lot of laughs!

Lake Taneycomo fishing report July 14, 2009

Today Brian, Jim, George and I had to contend with Mother Nature.  Several  storms blew through during our trip today.  Fortunately, the lightening stayed in the distance all day so that we got to fish our full 8 hour trip.  Our best fish came on spinning rods using micro-jigs 3-6 feet below an indicator.  We spent the whole day in the trophy area and the fishing was fantastic!  The water coming in from the creeks from the heavy rain put a nice stain in the water and kept the fish biting. Because of the stained water and the dark clouds, bright colors worked the best for us.  1/100 oz. jigs in yellow and peach were the colors the trout could see the best.  George ended up catching the big fish of the day on a peach fur bug. We finished out the day doing a little bit of wading with spinning rods until they turned the water on and forced us back in the boat.    

Today Todd, Zack and Hunter were here from Iowa to fish with us.  Although Zach was only ten years old and Hunter was eight, they sure didn’t fish like it.  These kids stayed focused on their indicators the whole time and very few trout got a free bite.  It was a dark and cloudy day and we started out using white and black micro jigs with no success. So went through the entire color chart and the trout blew up on us once we landed on yellow. Usually when fishing with three or four people you don’t want everyone to have the same color on, but today the trout wanted yellow and that was all they wanted.  More specifically a 1/100^th oz. yellowjacket-imitating micro jig.  Zach caught the big fish of the day, a beautiful 18 inch rainbow that he caught by being patient and giving the fish time to bite. On most days the fish don’t want the micro jigs to move.  They want them to sit motionless just above their head.   

Adam and Lee were down from Iowa.  They left the kids at home and the wives were shopping. These guys wanted a much-needed day of R&R on Lake Taneycomo.  The water was off so we headed up to the trophy area.  That's not to say that the fishing hasn't been excellent below Fall Creek, because it has been.  Folks have been catching a lot of fish.  I tend to not fish below Fall Creek when the water's off because it is usually a throw-your-bait and wait situation.  I'm not opposed to fishing like this at all, but clients like for the boat to keep moving and to cover different water and to see as much of Taneycomo as they can.  Nightcrawlers set 2-3 feet from a quarter oz. weight have been working really well, also a cricket set 3-4 feet below an indicator or a carrot float.  The best bite with crickets has been against the steeper banks where the trees hang over.   We threw micro jigs and 1/16 oz. sculpin jigs across the gravel in the trophy area.  The trick is to get your jig to come through the ditches hidden in the gravel.  Most of the gravel is pretty flat but if you look closely, you'll see small ditches everywhere.  If you can get your bait to come through those ditches, you're going to catch fish.  In between the depressions in the gravel, fish the roll-off where it goes from shallow gravel into the channel.  Today Adam definitely had the lucky pole, catching fish both in front of and behind Lee.  Lee is a patient fisherman and his patience paid off when the sun got high and we switched to midges.

Lake Taneycomo fishing report, July 3rd

Same song, second verse as Gloria and Sarah outfished Don all day today.  The water was off again this morning which has been the general trend as we are getting into a steady summer generation schedule.  We fished micro jigs while the sun was still behind the trees and after the sun got over the water, we switched to midges.  #18 midges in primrose and pearl and also burgundy were the hot colors around Lookout Point.  Gloria's parents were here to visit her, as she is also a Hollister resident.  It was fun fishing with someone from my same town since usually everyone I fish with on Anglers Advantage trips is from outside the Branson area.  Like most residents, Gloria had a great hook-set and casting stroke.  Come to find out, Gloria works at a local resort and within just a couple of days had them add me to their list of recommended fishng guides.  Thanks, Gloria!

Mike and his son, Garrett, showed up at 11:00 a.m. to start fishing with the water off and no wind  to speak of.  The best bite was definitely to go wading with ultra-small flies and 6x-7x tippets.  Garrett was unsure if he wanted to get in the water and go wading as this was his first time, but like me and everyone else who fishes Taneycomo, he was mesmerized seeing trout swimming all around him and sipping bugs off the water surface.  Taneycomo is so clear that when there's no wind, you can see fish from twenty feet away.  It's an absolutely wonderful experience for any kid to get away from the video games and get out on the water and enjoy the lake.  This was both Mike and Garrett's first time fly fishing and they had no problem staying hooked up.  #22 olive and gray scuds behind a #18 copper dun kept the fish biting steadily for us.  We got to wade for just over three hours before they turned on two generators, which forced us back into the boat.  When the water has been coming on there's a quick flurry of activity and then the moss starts washing down.  It takes about 45 minutes to an hour for the moss to clear out.  The closer you get to the dam, the sooner you can start fishing without the moss building up on your flies every two seconds.           

Lake Taneycomo fishing report, July 2nd

Today was a girl power day.  Mallory ruled!  9 year old Mallory brought her grandpa and her dad to Taneycomo to show them how to trout fish.  Mallory outfished the guys five to one all day long.  We fished micro jigs with the water off in the trophy area in white and olive, 4-6 feet below an indicator.  A lifetime of fishing for bass is what left Gary and Jason in Mallory's wake.  When the trout bite you have to snap the rod to twelve o'clock just as fast as you can.  If you try to reel up the slack or lean into your hook-set, by the time you actually set the hook, the fish are gone.  Everytime Mallory's indicator shimmied or went under, she snapped the rod to twelve o'clock and hooked the fish.  We took several great photos today of Mallory with her fish, but the best photo of all shows she and her grandad reacting to a big trout with lots of teeth taking off on its own while they were holding it!  

Skip and his 10 year old son, Charlie, came up from Louisianna to fish with us today.  We got off to a rocky start to say the least, as a 20% chance of rain turned into a long line of thunderstorms. That wasn't enough to stop Charlie, so we fished off our dock until the thunderstorms passed.  We ended up catching a trout and a couple of sucker fish.  The water was scheduled to be off until 3:00 p.m., but by 7:30 a.m. they already had two generators running.  We re-rigged the spinning rods and headed up to the trophy area for some deep drifting with flies. We got one drift in catching several fish and then they shut the water off.  So we decided to break for lunch and get our waders to go wade fishing.  We strung up the fly rods and headed up to the gravel flats under the power lines.  Within two casts Charlie had on a trout and that's pretty much how the rest of the day went. Skip and Charlie stayed bowed up for the rest of the afternoon and by the end of the day, Charlie had amassed enough fish to win the kiddie competition. He even caught a nice brown trout.  Congratulations, Charlie--way to stick with the fishing no matter what the weather and generators are doing!  

The Noble family arrived bright and early this morning--well, maybe not so bright, as we headed out about 5:30 a.m. before the lake got busy with boats and the fog lifted for the day.  If you can stomach getting on the water at 5:30 a.m. while on vacation, you have a really good chance of catcing a 20+ inch fish and if you are wanting to catch a brown, this is when we've been catching them.  Once the fog lifts, the browns have been out of sight unless it's cloudy or raining.  We still catch big rainbows later in the day but they are a lot more spooky and not as apt to over-commit and pull your indicator all of the way under. ( I have to put in a small disclaimer here because this month's biggest rainbow, which was over 22 inches, came about 10:30 a.m. on a white micro jig.)  Scott, Cody and Stewart all did a great job setting the hook on a really fast bite.  The indicator would just shimmy or slightly stand up and that's all there was to let you know there was a fish at the end of your line.  After a couple hours of fishing micro jigs and swimming 1/16 oz. sculpin jigs on the bottom, we switched to #18 midges in brown or burgundy and went after some fish in the gravel flats. 

Lake Taneycomo fishing report, June 22nd

The water was off again today.  The mornings have been pretty predictable with the water staying off until 1:00-2:00 in the afternoon and then they have been running two to four generators until late evening.  The water-off bite has been very good, both wading and in the boat.  When they turn the water on, you have a period of about an hour to an hour and a half for all of the loose algae and sea weed to wash down and then the deep drifting bite is really good.  Most of our trips have been in the early mornings with the water off because we have had a little heat wave going on, but next week the termperatures are supposed to be back in the mid 80s. Taneycomo stays quite a bit cooler than on Table Rock Lake or the Branson strip because of the cool water and the fact that it is in a valley.  Steve and Charles had a great fishing trip today and caught a bunch of rainbows using white and olive micro jigs under indicators on spinning reels.

Lake Taneycomo fishing report, June 21st

Marsha and her grandson were here from Louisburg, Kansas, to fish with us today.  I picked them up by boat from Blue Haven Resort and we headed up the lake and started fishing micro jigs just before the trophy area.  But the bite wasn't there, so we moved just inside the trophy area and started with a white 100th oz. jig about five feet under an indicator.  We had a short flurry of activity until 9:00 a.m. or so, then the sun got above the trees and the fish were getting too good of a look at our bait and turning away from it as soon as the bait got right in front of them.  Up in the gravel flats in 1 to 3 feet of water all the way up the lake the trout were rising, so we threw midges in burgundy and pearl #18 for the rest of the day and cleaned up pretty good.  It's amazing when the water is off just how shallow some of these fish will get.  There were a lot of big rainbows in a foot or less of water.

Today the Harris family came up from Louisiana to do some wading, but it was not meant to be.  The water was already on 1 generator by 6:00 a.m. and 2 generators by 7:00 a.m.  Chuck from Anglers and Archery came with us today.  Chuck took one group to wade around the hatchery and I took a group to wade at the gravel flats below Lookout Point.  I quickly realized that the water level was rising and we were not going to be able to wade around like we had hoped.  We decided to go deep drifting in the boat and after lunch were going to join Chuck in wading up by the hatchery.  But after only 30 minutes fishing from the boat, we saw Chuck and his group coming up the lake fishing out of his boat.  They ran a steady 2 generators all day without much fluctuation; although everyone was surprised when they briefly opened up one flood gate.  We speculated they needed to do maintenance or test a flood gate, as it was only open for about ten minutes. The boat fishing was outstanding today with both Chuck's group and my group each catching close to a hundred trout.  This was Jeff and Melissa's first time fly fishing and they both handled it like pros, setting the hook and casting a 12 foot leader.  We all had a great time and I also got to hear some French words I'd never heard before!&n

Today Frank came down from Nebraska to fish with us. Once again the water was off this morning, so since the micro jig bites have been so good, we decided to fish micro jigs.  In fact the bite was so good, we never even made it into the trophy area.  We fished in between Lilly's Landing and Fall Creek keeping our jigs in 5-7 feet of water on the bank roll-off.  When the bite slowed down, we just switched  colors.  In the morning the best color was white and as the sun got higher olive and brown micro jigs were preferred.  If you're out fishing with jigs and the fish are chasing them back to the boat or you can't seem to set the hook on one, try switching to a small float and a micro jig.  What I like to do is splice into my line 2 lb. fluorocarbon and if the water is really flat or it's a bright, bluebird day, I'll splice in 5X or 6X tippet to get the skittish trout to bite.  Fishing with Frank was a lot of fun--I hated to see him have to leave and head back home.  

LAKE TANEYCOMO FISHING REPORT, JUNE 6th & 7th

Monette, Myron, Clay, Lori and son, Ryan, came down and fished with us both Saturday and Sunday for some much-needed rest and relaxation.  The water was off Saturday morning so we fished micro jigs from Lookout Point down to the mouth of Fall Creek.  We caught fish on both the white 1/100 oz. and an olive micro jig.  With the water off, micro jigs have really been doing well set 4-6 feet below an indicator.  The water was off Sunday also, so we opted to go wading above Fall Creek on the gravel flats.  Size #18 and

#24 scuds in olive and gray were definitely the ticket.  Everyone stayed hooked up so that we had several doubles and even triples before we called it a day. A special treat was watching a bald eagle come down and eat a trout we laid out for him below his perch. 

The Ro-Trock family fished with us today in a pontoon boat from Scotty's Trout Dock.  We can always accomodate large groups and still have good fishing.  Everyone caught fish today, but the girls definitely outfished the guys!  When we left the dock there were 0 units running and by the time we got to the bottom of Table Rock Dam there were 4 units running.  The water has been off in the mornings lately with heavy generation in the afternoons.  Today the best flies were apricot egg flies and a #10 gray scud.  A lot of fish were also caught on red and hot pink San Juan worms.  After fishing in the trophy area for several hours, we decided to go down below Fall Creek and fish with worms and power bait.  Although we caught several fish on night crawlers, orange and white power bait caught the most fish. Family fishing trips are always special, especially the kids; it's great to see a new generation of fishermen growing up.       

The water was off today, so we decided to go wading.   We headed up to the gravel flats just above Fall Creek.  The bite was absolutely fantastic today on sow bugs and scuds.  We started off throwing midges to rising fish but that was short-lived with few takers.  So we switched to #18 scuds and caught more fish than we could count for the next two hours.  After the sun got above our heads the bite slowed down, so we switched to a 7X tippet and #24 gray scud.  That did the trick and we started catching fish left and right again.  Don and Miles, here from Mississippi, opted for spinning rods over fly rods and even though the hook set can be a little tricky with the spinning rods, they both did a great job.  The proof is in the pictures--  you can see Don and Miles both hooked up at the same time, which they did all day long.  

1 unit running this morning when we got on the water and by 8 a.m. the water was off. It has been a long time since we had a whole day with the water off. When Cory, Tyler and Mike showed up, I told them “Instead of fishing in 4 units with a 16 foot leader and #14 flies, we are going wading with a 6 foot leader and #22 flies.” The trout were as excited as I was to finally have the water off. We went wading between Lookout Point and the mouth of Fall Creek with most of our time being spent under the power lines. Too many fish were caught to count; these guys were bowed up every few minutes!  Tyler had never fly fished before but he had no trouble casting and setting the hook. The best fly was a #22 olive brown scud. We also caught a bunch on our lead fly which was a #18 copper dun and a #16 grey scud.

Today Trevor and I got soaked to the bone in an absolute downpour. We had most of the morning without rain but come early afternoon it was quite the cloudburst. We didn’t have any lightning, so we just kept on fishing. It was dark and cloudy so we used bright colored flies and went up in size. Our best flies were a hot pink San Juan worm and a #14 jumbo gray scud. All weekend and including today everyone caught some really big rainbows and Trenton caught a nice brown trout. Trevor and I fished the upper end of the trophy area and did very well on an apricot egg followed by an orange San Juan worm. When we got up to the cable by the hatchery they turned on another unit and that’s why we put on the orange San Juan worm. When the water is on the rise, orange is usually a good color to tie on. When the scuds get left high and dry, they bake in the sun and turn bright orange; then when the water washes over them, they float down the lake and the trout love them. It’s always a good idea to start fishing shallow when the water starts coming up. The trout slide up with the water and pick off the insects and worms that are getting submerged and washed out of the rocks.

Excellent fishing today with the low water generation; the morning started with 2 generators and by late afternoon it was up to a strong 3 units running. Lots of trout caught between Lookout Point and Fall Creek. When 2 generators were on, the fish were a lot more concentrated in the lower trophy area on the gravel and the channel break. As the water got higher and moving faster, the better concentrations of active fish were from the cable at the hatchery down to the boat ramp. There is a big scud hatch going on right now and the trout are full of tiny pink and red scuds in a size # 35 or smaller. The best flies were a red shami worm followed by a #22 pink scud and also a #14 gray scud. Lots of kids out fishing with us this weekend and they all caught a bunch of fish.  Matthew was spin fishing for the first time ever and he blew me away with how quickly he learned to cast a 10 foot spinning rod with a 12 foot leader. No birds’ nests and no tangles!!! I couldn’t believe it. This was his first time trout fishing and I think he’s hooked for life.

Only 2 units running today, finally!!!  The fish were as excited as we were!  We caught a ton of fish in the trophy area using the float and fly rods. It has been so long since two units were running that I had to pay attention where I was driving the boat. With 4 units running you can pretty much drive wherever you want, but with 2 units and a tail water of 704 to 705 you have to be very careful to determine where the channel is or you will hit bottom or a tree stump or a boulder. I hate to say it again, but the best fly today was a red San Juan worm and a #16 scud; we caught them on both. I fished with John and Matt, who were on their way to Houston for summer break from college. We had a blast today and caught every size trout Taneycomo has to offer. The best bite was from Lookout Point down to the power lines, but we also caught a bunch from the cable down to the boat ramp. We didn’t get to fish on two generators past 11:30 a.m. when they went to 3 generators and then to a strong 4 units. The tail water was back up to 710 by afternoon. Matt and John had a great time and so did I.

Took off from Cooper Creek access with about 7 other guides today for a large group that comes to Branson every year for a conference.  I was fortunate to fish with Dave from northern Missouri, an avid and very talented fly fisherman. We hit a lot of water today  and ended up catching some nice fish. Of course there had to be “the one that got away” as well. Two really big fish, one around 19 inches, and another 20 plus inch fish, after several jumps and two long runs, broke off in front of outlet #2.We used a lot of different flies and most of them caught fish for a bit; then we would switch to something else and that would work for awhile. The best bite was from the cable to outlet #3.

Fished with Denny again today in the trophy area from the cable down to Fall Creek. Same situation with the water flow, 4 generators and a tail water around 709 to 710.  Egg flies in apricot ,red , yellow or orange as the lead fly are catching a lot of fish and they are also working good as the tail fly in the early mornings and evenings. The best tail flies have been red or hot pink San Juan worms and grey or tan scuds in uv grey or tan #12 to #14. The constant flow of  generated water has brought a lot of fish up into the trophy area from further down the lake, so there are plenty of big ones being caught.

Today I fished with Robert and his son, Jaden, from Lousiana. We used the float and fly spinning rods in the trophy area from the cable down to Fall Creek.  Jaden picked up on the casting really quickly, throwing a 14 foot leader with no problem at all, and did a fantastic job on the hook sets and getting the fish to the net.  At only 8 years old, he out- fished a lot of adults and caught on quicker than most of them! He’s proof that fishing really is a sport for all ages and a great family activity.  Robert caught the big fish of the day on a hot pink razor scud in uv grey #14 and pretty much the rest of the fish came on a red San Juan worm. The most active fish were from the cable to outlet #3 and under the power lines just above Fall Creek. We caught most of our fish in 6 to 7 feet of water and also had a few come out of 3 to 4 feet right off the bank.

Jean and Wilson were here today to fish with us after just getting back from trout fishing in Bennett Springs State Park. Jean, who usually fishes with a Zebco,  picked up the spinning reel with no trouble at all and was casting a 14 foot leader like a pro. Wilson brought his Sage 9 foot 6 line and stuck a bunch of trout. I hate to sound like a broken record but today again we had high water and cloudy conditions with 4 units running.  The best flies were a hot pink San Juan worm and a #14 grey scud, an apricot egg and also an orange San Juan worm. Very fast bite today--the fish will pull your indicator down about an inch and then let go. There are a lot of nice fish above outlet 1 and by the boat ramp. All of the upper end trout we caught from the cable to Lookout Point came on the San Juan worms.

We went bass fishing today on Taneycomo looking for bedding large mouth bass, but it was too cloudy and rainy to see anything. We just blind casted to areas where the bass should be and I caught the biggest small mouth bass I have ever caught in the back of Bull Creek--18.5 inches. I couldn’t believe it, right here on Taneycomo!  I fish for small mouth on Table Rock all the time and right by the steering console I had a smoke grub with a 3/8 oz. darter head that’s been laying there for about 3 weeks. So I tied it on and threw it at some timber laying down in about 7 feet of water and that bass came right out and ate it. I took some measurements and let her go. On Sunday Dave and I did some fly fishing in the trophy area and from Fall Creek to Lilly’s Landing. High water and cloudy conditions again and like the last 8 reports, in these conditions the hot pink San Juan worm was the best fly. In fact Dave went ahead and tied on two pink San Juan worms and did pretty good. With 4 generators going we have been using a 14 to 16 foot leaders on both the fly rods and the spinning rods and most of the trout are being caught in 6 to 8 feet of water. We used two whites and a hot pink power egg from Fall Creek to Lilly’s Landing and caught several nice fish.

Bill came up from Alabama to fish with us today in the trophy area. Cloudy and heavy water generation again today; it’s been this way for about two weeks now.  Fortunately, most of the rain has been going to the south and north, so Table Rock is only a few feet above power pool. Three to four generators is the norm right now and it will probably stay that way for at least several more weeks. The bite was a little fast today, but Bill was on top of it and at the end of the day he had set a personal record for the most fish caught on a guide trip.  The best flies for this high water, dark clouds situation are still anything big and bright. Hot pink and orange San Juan worms; orange, yellow and tangerine egg flies and #14 grey scuds. The same goes for below Fall Creek--bright colored gulp eggs are catching some big fish. The trout are having trouble seeing anything else.  You will still catch some on natural colors and night crawlers but definitely not as many. If the sun ever finally comes out, the natural colored baits will take charge again.

Today I went crappie fishing with Wayne, who was referred to me by Lilly’s Landing. It was a toss up between Table Rock Lake or Bull Shoals Lake.  The crappie were a little farther along on Table Rock as far as the spawning goes compared to Bull Shoals, which still has main lake temperatures in the low 50s, but the creeks in Bull Shoals are in the mid to upper 50s.  If you want to catch a trophy of any kind, Bull Shoals is the place to be, so I decided we would take a chance and go for the big dogs on Bull Shoals. A lot of folks don’t realize that Bull Shoals is only 15 minutes from Branson. It is an incredible lake that gets half the fishing pressure of Table Rock Lake and has absolutely giant fish.

We went up Bull Shoals to Beaver Creek and fished the mouth with slip floats and minnows set at six to nine feet deep and caught enormous crappie staging for the way-late spawn that should happen any time now. We didn’t catch a single crappie under 13 inches and most of them were 14 inches or better. Once the crappie spawn, they disperse back into the clear deep water and can be hard to stay on top of. We caught crappie, white bass, large mouth bass, Kentucky bass and a perch all in a 4 hour trip. That’s Bull Shoals for you; all these fish are backed up on top of each other waiting to spawn. There’s no telling what you could catch and when you do it might be the biggest fish you have ever caught. A special thank you goes to Lilly’s landing for the trip.

Kyle and Murph drove all the way down from New Jersey to do some bass and trout fishing. These guys went to a park to see if they could fish a small stream and as they pulled into the parking lot, a car sped off leaving behind a bag full of puppies. One of the puppies was so starved and dehydrated, it couldn’t even stand. So these two young men, who have never even been to this part of the country, started making phone calls until they found a shelter that would accept the puppies after being turned away from several other shelters. I was really glad Kyle and Murph happened upon those pups before they scattered into the woods and died of starvation.

We started the day fishing Table Rock Lake for bass up in Long Creek making our way into Arkansas throwing wiggle warts and after more than an hour had nothing to show for it. Kyle tied on deep diving Rapala jerk bait and within 10 minutes had his first bass.  After catching several more bass, we switched all the rods over to jerk baits. Murph had an Aurora black lucky craft pointer 100 and Kyle stuck with the Rapala. The water was 58 degrees and dirty and those bass still wanted a jerk bait. It just goes to show you never know what those crazy fish want until you run through the whole gamut. We used several different baits and the only one we got bit on was a jerk bait. At 1:30 we headed back to the boat ramp and trailored the boat to Taneycomo for some trout fishing. Both Kyle and especially Murph said they love to fly fish and they weren’t kidding. These guys hit the ground running and put a serious whopping on the trout. The bite has been really fast lately and after each missed a few fish, they put an end to that right away and went on to catch so many fish we lost count. Both of them hooked some giants that never made it to the boat. Twice we had to start the big motor and give chase up river after their fish and after a really good fight, both fish managed to shake off. Although there were a lot of boats fly fishing in the trophy area, the fish hadn’t seen my scuds yet that day and it really made a big difference. I tie all the flies we use on our guide trips and those fish just aren’t conditioned to them like the other flies they see all day long. It makes a big difference, especially in the summer when the fish get a lot of pressure and keep seeing the same fly over and over. Kyle and Murph were very skillful with a fly rod both in presentation and in hook setting and the trout rewarded them for it. That’s what makes Taneycomo so great--if you’re a beginner or fly fishing for the first time, you’re going to catch fish and that’s how you get good. By catching several fish your first time out you learn very quickly versus fishing somewhere all day and catching maybe one or two. But if you are a skilled angler with the right flies and the correct depth, Taneycomo is the best lake in the Midwest hands down.

Many thanks to the good folks at Bear Creek Bed and Breakfast for sending Kyle and  Murph my way. I had a great time fishing with these guys and it’s been a while since I fished both Table Rock and Taneycomo in the same day. What a blast!

Today Brandon and Andy joined me for a morning trip of trout fishing .Brandon had just gotten back from a long stint in Iraq and needed some R&R.  I was told Andy didn’t really have any experience with a spinning rod but you couldn’t tell; she picked it up in about 10 minutes and caught fish all day. In fact she held on to the big fish honors all day until Brandon made his last cast of the day right before we got to the mouth of Fall Creek and  he hooked into a gorgeous big rainbow.

They are still running three to four generators every day with no end in sight. When they first stated running water several weeks ago after we had seen a month with light or no generation, the fish weren’t happy and really spread out. Now they are back to where they should be and the deep drifting is excellent. Today the red San Juan worm and a peach or yellow egg did really good followed by a #14 light olive razor scud.

Today we had a full boat. Denise, Jackie, David and Tippy came for a full day trip.We started out bait fishing with night crawlers below Fall Creek. With the recent rains and heavy generation, night crawlers are hard to beat. The trout were picky and didn’t really want anything to do with a big worm; it was the small river worms that did the trick.  Usually I think the trout prefer a big worm over a small one, especially when there is a lot of water running. David and Tippy did really good letting the trout take the worms for a few seconds before setting the hook and by lunch time were quite a ways ahead of Denise. So after lunch we went up to the trophy area with the spinning rods and drifted flies under an indicator from the dam to the mouth of Fall Creek. This was definitely more Denise’s cup of tea and she quickly overtook the guys and got more attention from the net. It was cloudy and cool all day and a hot pink San Juan worm and a #12 gray razorback scud did the best.

Sorry it has taken so long for me to update the fishing report.  I had the Lake of the Ozarks bass tournament and a lot of fishing trips out so I got really behind. Thank you to everyone for emailing and calling me to find out how I did in the tournament. I didn’t do well at all! I had a great practice and thought I had the fish pretty well dialed in and then a huge rainstorm came in the night before and lasted all through the tournament and my bite fell apart. I thought I had a good chance of getting a top 10 finish in this tournament but when the weather changed dramatically I just didn’t do a good enough job of adapting to the new conditions. Now back to Taneycomo.  The water has been running hard for weeks and it took a couple of weeks for the fish to realize it’s going to stay like this and start moving into their normal high water haunts. For a while when the water started up, the 14 to 18 inch fish just disappeared and we were catching a lot of 12 inch fish and catching some 20 plus inch fish, but the in-between fish just couldn’t be found. The sizes of the fish have gotten bigger the longer they run this heavy generation. Now with the recent rains they are pushing the water even harder and we are starting to catch fish again on hot pink San Juan worms and using a bigger scud; sizes #14 and #12 are getting noticed a lot more.

Phil, James and Joe came down for a late day and early evening fishing trip. We spin fished with a float and fly and did really well. Typically 2:00 to 3:30 is the toughest time of the day and you see the number of bites go down for awhile especially when it’s sunny with little wind. As evening nears the bite really gets good and that last hour or two before dark is fantastic unless it’s dead calm and there is a big midge hatch; then the trout are very picky near the surface and you really have to match the hatch both color and size. James and Joe talked a bunch of smack and went back and forth with each other for awhile and ended up catching about the same amount.  Phil caught the big fish of the trip.

Today the water was running pretty hard, so Mike from Kansas City and I did some deep drifting from the boat in the trophy area from the cable down to Fall Creek. The bite was kind of slow and it seemed the trout couldn’t make their minds up on what they wanted. We went through a lot of different flies but none of them really got the trout fired up. The best combination ended up being an apricot egg followed by a #14 scud in gray or olive. Mike was after a big fish and he did catch the biggest trout he has ever caught, so mission accomplished!  The weather was great and we caught fish; you can’t ask for much more.

Today I fished with Jerry and Hilda from Katy, Texas, and we had an absolute blast. The rainbows bit for us all day long and we lost count of the number of fish we’d caught by an hour into the trip. Our party wade fished in the trophy area on the gravel roll offs. We just walked waist deep following the channel and threw #18 Scuds in gray, black and tan in UV dubbing. The tan was definitely the best color followed by gray then black. In front of the scuds we tied on #18 copper duns and gold and black zebra midges. As the day wore on and the sun got high the bite dropped off, so we switched to #22 flies in the same colors and that did the trick. Jerry and Hilda had me as their guest for dinner the following night at The College of the Ozarks. The entire operation is done by the college’s students from food prep and service to clean up. The food was absolutely fantastic and so was the company. We talked and drank coffee until we were the last ones left. If you’re looking for somewhere different to eat while visiting Branson, give the college a try.  They have a more reasonably priced Sunday buffet that is excellent as well.

Jerry and Hilda invited me to come to Texas and fly fish for red fish on the coast this winter.  I have never gone fishing for reds before, so I can’t wait!  Hopefully, we’ll catch as many reds as we did trout!!!

The water has been off quite a bit and the wade fishing has been excellent from the hatchery all the way down to Fall Creek. We have been avoiding wading by the hatchery in the afternoons because of the crowds of people; but if you like meeting and talking to people from all over the country, then give it a shot.  You won’t be disappointed in the fishing and you will probably have someone to go to lunch or dinner with at the end of the day. We have been successfully fishing very small flies. Today I fished with Jerry and his two sons who were here for spring break from California. Jerry also has a third son who will be coming to fish with us next week over his spring break. We started our fishing trip in the trophy area with a 20 minute fly casting lesson and then went after the trout with an assortment of flies from size #18 to #22. The best flies were a #18 tungsten midge in dun, black, and burgundy and a #22 scud in uv tan.

I had Bob and Laurie from Erie, Kansas, out today fishing from the boat. We started the morning fishing in the trophy area with micro jigs and spinning rods and caught several fish but couldn’t get the bigger fish to bite, so we made our way down the lake casting and swimming 1/16^th oz. jigs in sculpin-colored patterns and eventually ended up at Rockaway Beach. Happily, we did catch bigger fish -- caught several of  those fish by hopping gold 1/6 oz. spoons we got from Scotty’s Trout Dock.

Midges, midges, and more midges--the recent warm up in air temperatures has brought out huge hatches of midges and other larvae. The trout have been gorging themselves on the new gummy and slow moving larvae which are trying to make their way to the surface film to sprout wings and fly to safety. Whether you are fly fishing or spin fishing, if you're not fishing midges you are missing out on the best bite on the lake right now. Pretty much any midge from size #16 to size #22 will get you a tight line. The best flies for my trips have been Copper Dun #18, Red Midge #16, Holographic Midge #18, WD-40 #22 black or tan and the old standby, Brassy #18. Find the gravel or slack water anywhere on the lake or in the creeks and just look upstream for a ways. If you see the surface of the water getting dimpled or any ripples in the water, those are trout feeding on the midges on the surface or just below. Set your fly anywhere from 12 inches to several feet below your indicator or bobber and make sure you know that you're not touching the bottom with your fly and if your indicator even twitches, set the hook. We have been catching a lot of big fish on midges. If it’s too windy to see the subtle surface activity, then just find the still water where there is no current and there will be midges hatching and the trout will be there also.

The water generation is still going strong;  4 generators every day for the most part. Table Rock Lake is now our power pool and there have been some brief periods with the water off. With this much water generation the best fishing has not been in the trophy area. Lilley’s Landing to just past the Branson Landing has had much better fishing both in numbers and size. There are a lot of trout in the creek mouths and also in the creeks. 1/8^th ounce jigs in brown and olive have been working very well. Let the jig sink to the bottom and then do a lift and fall retrieve; most of the strikes are on the fall, you just feel a slight tap or it will feel a little heavy. Gold spoons have also been doing well but not as good as the brown and olive jigs. Bottom bouncing in the trophy area is the way to go if you’re spin fishing. An apricot egg ahead of a #8 scud was the best combination I found. You have to stay right on the bottom if you’re going to get bit. When the boat drifts over a deeper pocket of water, open your bail and let a few feet of line out which will allow your flies to follow the contour down to the bottom of the lake and that’s usually when you get your bite. Fly fishing in the heavy current requires a little different set up. Normally I use 1 triple A or two BB’s and a 13 foot leader, but the water has been running too fast and the flies weren’t getting to the bottom. So I have been using a 16 foot leader with 2 BB’s and a # 4 shot and keeping the boat in the 7 to 8 foot depth contour. Had several trips out lately and everyone has been catching a lot of fish, but the weather has been very cold. This coming week we are supposed to see temperatures in the 60’s and 70’s.

 Tail water level 710.4, four units. They have been running 4 units for several days now from 7a.m. to 11 p.m. and it has definitely been affecting the fishing. The trout fishing has been poor since they started pushing so much water. Normally the tail water level is around 708 or less on 4 units of generation but they have been running it wide open. I have seen the tail water higher on 4 units but not very often. Dave and Loraine were down from Iowa to fish with me for Monday and Tuesday. We hit the fishing hard on both days but never found that 20 plus inch fish we were looking for. Which was totally opposite from just a week earlier when on another trip my party caught several fish in the 20 inch class and many 16 to 18 inch fish.

Dave and Lorraine started with the float and fly Monday morning and caught a handful on the hot pink San Juan worm and also fared okay on the apricot and cream egg fly. We finished out the day bait fishing below Fall Creek and that was mediocre also. Night crawlers and orange and white gulp eggs produced fish equally, which was strange because night crawlers always outfish eggs for me both in numbers and especially in size. I’ve caught a ton of giant trout on crawlers, but I can count the number of big fish I’ve caught with eggs on one hand. Now up in the trophy area I have caught a lot of big fish on eggs; Mcfly foam in apricot, peach and cream are my favorite colors.

Tuesday morning we started out with the float and fly in the trophy area.  After about 30 minutes with just a few bites, we switched to a bottom bouncing rig and fished deep. Our bite picked up real quick with most of the fish coming out of the 10 to 14 foot range on a hot pink San Juan and an apricot egg in front of a #14 grey uv scud and a #14 burnt orange scud. All the flies were about equal, one fish on the egg the next fish would be on the scud and back and forth. Although the fishing wasn’t at its best, we had a lot fun talking and laughing about everything under the sun .Every pole Loraine touched caught fish; she outfished Dave 10 to one both days and most of the time they had on the same flies, same weight, and the poles are all the same brand. The fish just liked Loraine better whether it was bottom bouncing ,fly fishing or bait fishing! I do have to mention Dave reeled a real nice ultra light rod and reel combo off the bottom. I have never had anyone catch a fishing pole before! It was a nice St Croix combo and it wasn’t on the bottom for very long because there was no moss growing on it yet. My guess is that someone lost it off a boat in the last couple of days.

Beautiful weather today in the mid 60s with a mild breeze. Clayton, Ryan, and Josh were down from Kansas City and we did some late afternoon trout fishing in the trophy area. Hot pink San Juan worm was the best fly today and we all had a lot of fun. We fished a float and fly with spinning rods and caught a lot of fish. We saw a blue heron with fishing string and a stick tangled in its wing, so I am going to try and catch it and cut the line out of it. I dealt with blue herons when I was field agent for the Animal Protection Agency and you have to be very careful when dealing with them.  You need to throw a blanket over the bird or you could lose an eye or get a bill through the neck. Their beaks are so sharp and fast.  When they get scared and are defending themselves, the blue heron start stabbing. People have lost an eye and 5 years ago a lady in Florida died helping one when the blue heron stabbed her in the throat. If I can catch it,  I will take some pictures and post them.

Today I fished with Judy, Bob and Felicia from Blue Springs Mo.  They were here in Branson for Judy’s birthday and she wanted to trout fish. The water was scheduled to be off but somewhere around 7:00 am they turned on 2 generators so I went down to the boat and cut the midges and scuds off everyone’s fly rods and retied them with sculpin colored 1/64^th  oz micro as the lead fly and then trailed the jig on one rod with a #16 black uv scud with a burnt orange head and the next rod with a grey #16 uv scud and the last rod with a hot pink San Juan worm. When my guests arrived we headed up to the trophy area with the intention of going all the way up to the cable by the hatchery but the generation was very light and combined with the fact the water had only been on for an hour we were only able to get past the KOA building which is now the Trophy Run clubhouse. It’s red now, so you can’t miss seeing it. Right off the bat, Bob threw his flies into about 3 feet of water on the north bank and his indicator went down just after hitting the water so the chase was on.  I turned the trolling motor on high and we chased his line about fifty yards up the lake where he pulled in a 20 inch male rainbow trout with a huge girth and a really pronounced hook jaw.  It was an awesome fish! We got to fish for about 10 more minutes and then they shut the water off. They ran 2 generators for an hour and  that was it, so I cut the rigs off everyone’s fly rods and tied on 2 sculpin colored micro jigs 1/100oz and on the other rod a #18 copper dun and a #18 uv grey scud. We fished from Lookout Point to Fall Creek for the rest of the day staying on 4 to 6 foot roll offs in the gravel and fishing under an indicator.   Everyone caught a lot of big fish. The wind by 10 a.m. was probably pushing 20 to 25 mph and I think that brought the bigger fish out of hiding and up on the flats feeding.