[Editors Note: As used in this report "Upper" refers the portion of Branson’s Lake Taneycomo between Short Creek and Fall Creek. The difference between "Mid" and "Upper" is subjective and is based primarily on the average water depth throughout the defined area. "Trophy Area" refers to the area of Lake Taneycomo between the Table Rock Dam and the mouth of Fall Creek.]
It’s cold!! The bright side- only a week left of January. That’s a week closer to spring and warmer days of great fishing. Last year about this time we were all having the same dreams only when April rolled around it brought records rains that wash most of our dreams away. The way I see it, we got the worse spring behind us… this spring will be much better!!
Of course, cold weather doesn’t bother trout, it just hinders trout fishing (for some). It hurts the hands when they get wet, then cold, then add wind and they’re throbbing. The face stings and then goes numb on the boat ride up lake but the sinuses keep building in pain. Does it keep the die hard from their appointed fishing trips? Nope!
There’s been no generation this weekend, none Saturday or Sunday,but I bet they’ll crank it Monday morning as cold as it is. The generation charts says 4 units early but water should be shut down by noon for the rest of the day. I wouldn’t depend totally on the generation chart but it’s been pretty close most days.
The weekend of the 9th of January, we had a trout tournament in which some pretty nice rainbows and one real nice brown were weighed in. Comparing last year’s weights with this year weights we see that this year was a little off. Close but still there weren’t as many bigger rainbows caught.
Rainbows stocked in December and January usually come from the Neosho federal hatchery and these rainbows generally are small, much smaller than rainbows from our state hatchery, Shepherd of the Hills. Neosho rainbows average 9 inches and Shepherd’s 11 inches. I say all this to say something interesting has happened. This weekend our clients caught some large, freshly stocked rainbows. I saw numerous 12-13 inch, stocky bows at the dock.
Fishing has been very good the last 3 weekends for our guests. Most are fishing bait, namely Gulp Power Eggs and night crawlers but a few are fishing artificials like inline spinners and jigs. Saw quite a few trolling real slow between Short and Fall Creek with something small like a rooster tail. It’s good to use a swivel if you’re going to troll about anything to keep your line from twisting. If even trolled a simple marabou jig and caught fish. I’d use a dark colored 1/8th oz if I were to do it again and troll pretty slow.
I got out a couple of times and did well using the old tried and true technique, jig and float. I fished from my boat below Lookout to the Narrows which is located about a mile above Fall Creek. Both days the wind was stiff out of the north so it was tough throwing a jig without a float. The first day they were working the shallows, feeding very aggressively as the water was rolling in the wind. Tied on an olive 1/50th oz jig and set the float at 30 inches above the jig. Set my boat is 2 feet of water and fished 2-3 feet of water where most of the trout were holding and feeding. they weren’t spooky because of the waves action. But strangly, I could still see under that water well enough to see rainbows slashing and digging in the gravel for bugs. They reacted positively to my jig- best technique was to hop the jig close to on right off the bottom and they’d attack it. It was too cool. And the size, color and quality of the trout we caught Friday was incredible- best rainbows I’ve seen in many months. Very encouraging.
Saturday, I had a guide trip and fished the same area. The wind wasn’t blowing as hard so I had to change it up. Still using jig and float, we fished deeper and moved more towards the channel. The trout were too spooky to stay in the shallows. We switched jigs and depths till we found out what they wanted- about 4 feet deep and a 1/50th olive jig with an orange head. Did not find the quality rainbows I did the day before. That’s not unusual though. I’ve found there are days the big ones bite and days they don’t. The small ones bite every day.
Now with generation starting in the morning, I’d head to the dam by boat and drift white 1/8th oz jigs, IF I was going to get out but I think it’s a little too cold.
Fly fishing later in the day after generation stops- that may be a different story. Depending on wind, I’d look for feeding rainbows again on or just off the flats below Lookout. This time I’d try a #16 green or red zebra midge under a palsa indicator 12 to 18 inches, depending on water depth. If not, I’d try a #16 tan scud again under an indicator and make sure I had it close to or on the bottom, hopping it off the bottom.
If the trout were as aggressive as they were Friday, Id tried stripping an olive #14 wooly bugger or an olive leech or sculpin. Make sure you change tippet size to 4x or even 3x if you’re throwing larger flies or you’ll break off on the hook set.
Submitted by Phil Lilley, Ozark Anglers
