River Run Outfitter's Carolyn Parker with beautiful Lake Taneycomo Rainbow Trout
BRANSON, Mo., October 4, 2012 — The most comprehensive fishing report available Branson’s Lake Taneycomo submitted by people who fish the lake on just about a daily basis. As used in this report “Trophy Area” refers the portion of Branson’s Lake Taneycomo between the mouth of Fall Creek and the base of Table Rock Dam. It is the primary wade fishing area, a trophy management area and has special regulations and limits in effect within the area. Natural baits, Gulp and soft plastic baits are illegal in Trophy Area. but ok for the other 19 miles of Lake Taneycomo.
Lake Taneycomo Trophy Area – Fly Fishing – by Carolyn Parker, River Run Outfitters
Looks like cool temperatures are in the forecast for our area for the coming week after we get through Wednesday and Thursday. Also a chance for showers both on Friday and Saturday, although this don’t seem real high on the charts at this time.
Although the projection for this weekend was no water until late in the day both Saturday and Sunday, they turned on one generator early Saturday and earlier than projected on Sunday. Mondays are always up for grabs and they did generate all day. We expect to continue to see no or low generation in the mornings, but some generation in the afternoons so wading should continue to be an option.
The Special Management Area fished well over the weekend. However, we have noted on several days this past week that morning fishing has been slow. Once we hit around 10:30 a.m, it’s like a switch was flipped and the fish turn on. Several boats out over the weekend fly fishing and all did well on the red midge, the P&P, and when the water came on, the Big Ruby. If it was a bit overcast, the copper headed black zebra was best. Also still doing well stripping a CQ streamer, and, depending on where you are and the light, a golden variant or mouse gray sculpin pattern.
Getting close to the fall spawn and we are seeing signs of this, including female rainbows dropping eggs. With that in mind, don’t forget the egg patterns. Several colors have been working depending on where you are fishing, including apricot supreme, pink lady and chartreuse. They are also great to use as an attractor pattern from which to drop a midge. Fished this way last week and did very well on the midge.
Submitted by Carolyn Parker, River Run Outfitters
Lake Taneycomo – by Eric Prey, FocusedFishing.com
Generation has been either on all day or off for the past week, mostly off making Branson fishing guide trips a little tougher than usual. Early in the day Zig Jigs and small jerkbaits are still very effective around laydowns and boat docks. Make casts more or less parallel to the cover and retrieve either bait erratically to draw strikes from Taneycomo trout holding close to the cover.
Trout magnets and micro jigs continue to produce with or without a float. The best colors this past week on a Trout Magnet have been anything with pink or light orange in it. Subtle action has been much more effective than anything else with the limited amount of generation. More natural colors have been better on the micro jig, brown, black and ginger have been the top colors. Power Bait and Gulp eggs have been producing on a drift rig, the dominate color has been white mixed with just about any other color. Live crawlers injected with air have been working as well but not as well as Power Bait or Gulp.
Submitted by Eric Prey, FocusedFishing.com
Don’t Miss Eric’s Tournament Fishing Radio on ESPN 1400 AM Springfield
Mondays 5:30pm and Saturdays 5:00 am or on-line at www.espn1400.com
Lake Taneycomo by Phil Lilley, Ozark Anglers
Generation patterns on Lake Taneycomo have stayed the same for months. Most days the water is off for most or all day, but some days it’s running a half unit to one full unit all day until midnight. Which days that will happen is just a guess, so it’s best to check the SPA online schedule before heading to the lake.
Our trees are starting to turn a bit on the big bluffs along the lake. It looks like we’re going to have a pretty autumn season. Leaves in the water means trout are looking for bugs around them. You’ll see schools of rainbows midging the surface along the lines of leaves that form as the breeze picks up during the day. We used either a spin or fly rod and throw a zebra midge or a micro jig under a float anywhere from 12 to 36 inches deep. This pattern will continue through November.
I got out and fished with my grandson, Jeriah, yesterday. We used night crawlers, injecting them with air and floating them off the bottom, with four-pound line and #8 hooks. I anchored the boat in three feet of water right in front of the mouth of Short Creek and tossed our bait out no more than 25 feet (“Snoopy” rods — Jeriah’s actually features Mater from Cars – can’t cast very well). Jeriah caught eight rainbows and one brown trout in a short amount of time. I didn’t realize he wanted to keep and “eat” his fish, so we threw back the first few before I caught what he was saying.
Our guides report doing very well using the jig-and-float method using micro or marabou jigs or a trout magnet. There’s been a few days when the wind has really kicked up and created a good chop on the water for just this type of fishing. The best micro jig colors have been olive, olive with orange head, gray with chrome head, ginger and black. Marabou colors that have produced are brown with orange head, sculpin or olive. With Trout Magnets, the favorite colors have been pink, Sassie or Bison. Berkley Powerbait Gulp eggs have been good, too, using white and orange or white and pink.
Fly fishing below the dam has been fair. We have seen a few small browns moving up but mainly males. I fished less than an hour this morning and was surprised to see a lot of male rainbows sparring in the Rebar chute. I caught a few on a #18 rusty midge and a #12 mink scud. Didn’t see any trout longer than 20 inches, though.
Submitted by Phil Lilley, Ozark Anglers
As part of its continuing commitment to serving the community, Branson Tourism Center (BTC), one of Branson’s largest and most respected sellers of vacation planning services, Branson show tickets, attraction tickets and lodging is proud to sponsor this fishing report, the Central Pro-Am Association and K.A.S.T. (Kids Are Special Too). BTC can be reached by calling 800-785-1550 or by visiting their website www.BransonTourismCenter.com. The Central Pro Am Association, through such sponsorship and that of Ranger Boats and Mercury Marine,is pleased to participate in furnishing this report to those fishing the Branson Tri-Lakes area.
