[Editors Note: 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. "Upper Lake" refers the portion of Branson’s Lake Taneycomo between Cooper Creek and Fall Creek and “Mid Lake” the area from Bee Creek to Cooper Creek. The difference between "Mid" and "Upper" is subjective and is based primarily on the average water depth throughout the defined area.]

Lake Taneycomo [Trophy Area – Fly Fishing] By Carolyn Parker

Fly fishing in the special management area continues to be very good.  The best way to beat the heat is to stand in the water and catch fish.  Despite the scorching sun last week, we had lots of boats on the water.

Friday Stuart from Arkansas used his Father’s Day present, a full day float with Stan [Owner Guide].  They worked on hook setting and landed fish on the Primrose & Pearl midge.  Another HOT DAY!

Dana [Guide] introduced Terry and her son Tristan from California to fly fishing on Friday. They did a lot of wading, caught a few fish, stayed cool and learned a lot about fly fishing.

Carolyn [Owner Guide] had Dick and Marie from Ohio on the water again.  They had been out with Gina on Tuesday.  Still needed to catch some more fish, and did they ever.  We boated lots of fish on the holographic green crackleback, P&P midge and the black wooly bugger.  Dick thinks the holographic green crackleback should be outlawed!   Dick’s daughter, Alice, is a guide at a lodge in Montana.

The guide reports were very consistent with what was catching fish.  The best midge patterns were the zebra midges size 18 in the copper dun, burgundy and primrose and pearl.  The other flies that worked well were the holographic green crackleback size 12 and the black and olive wooly buggers size 12 stripped cross current and on the swing behind an intermediate sinking leader.  Generation has been off in the mornings until mid afternoon when the units begin to kick on up to full generation.

Submitted by Carolyn Parker, River Run Outfitters

Lake Taneycomo [Upper to Trophy – June 28] By Phil Lilley

Another glorious week has passed here on Lake Taneycomo. It’s been hot! Temperatures have hovered close to 100 each day but I can honestly say the trout fishing has been equally hot as well.

We did catch trout yesterday. We floated night crawlers and did real well. All nine of the boys caught at least one rainbow and some caught their limit of 4 rainbows. We used 4 pound line, #6 short shanked #89 hooks, #7 split shots set 18 inches above the hook and used half a night crawler, hooked once in the middle, letting it hang off each side. Don’t worry about hiding the hook. Shoot some air in the worm using a blow bottle or a hypodermic needle. This floats the worm off the bottom 18 inches. You’ll get more bites and faster bites using this technique verses no air at all, just letting it lay on the bottom. Night crawler fishing between Fall Creek and Short Creek has been excellent early in the morning.

Oh yea- did I mention generation? The only generation we’ve seen has been from about 2-3 pm till dark, running up the lake about 6 feet or 3-4 units and then dropping out about the time they get it up and rolling. Up slow and then back down slow. Interesting pattern. Now this coming week, we might see a bit of a change. With temperature dropping to the upper 80’s and low 90’s, we may see days with no generation at all.

Lincoln Hunt, a good friend of ours from Dallas, is up for a visit. He likes to wet wade below the dam (no waders, saddles or just wading boats). He’s been up there almost everyday this week hammering the rainbows. He’s using mainly #20 black zebra midges under a dry fly indicator about 12 inches deep. I got up there one day this past week and caught a nice 18 inch rainbow on a #16 olive elk hair caddis but it was the only taker on the caddis. The best area, reported Lincoln, was below Rebar.

I’ve also heard using small scuds - #20’s - have been working well in the Rebar Hole but you got to get there early - 6 am - to get a good spot. If you get there too late, you might be referred to as a slob for not getting out of bed before dawn. Sorry- inside joke.

Get out in a boat and run above Fall Creek into the trophy area for some great jig and float action. Best jig is still the tan 1/256th oz micro jig although that little brown jig Vince tied for me has done well too.

It’s a jig he tied himself but he got the jigs from an online store - http://heartlandflygear.com. I ordered and received some of the jig heads and they look marvelous! I’ve already tried a few, using just a bit of marabou. I think that’s the key to these small jigs… you can use too much and these jigs lose their effectiveness. Heartland Fly Gear has an incredible inventory of all sizes of jig heads… plus he’s a member of our forum to boot. Check it out.

Again, I’m tying on 2-3 feet of 2 lb Vanish as a tippet. Water is clear and most mornings it’s real still. Need that smaller line to attract more bites! And oh yes… the talk is you have to use 7x fluorocarbon below the dam no matter what wet fly you’re using. 6x won’t cut it. Although I did catch my nice rainbow on 6x but that was a dry. When using a dry, you have to match the size of fly to the size of tippet or you’re going to have a twisted mess.

If you catch the water running, don’t be scared to throw a medium crank bait like a rapala F-5 or F-7 against the bluff banks below Fall Creek.

Submitted to multiple sources by Phil Lilley, Ozark Anglers

Weekly Lake Taneycomo Fishing Report sponsored by: Branson Tourism Center

[Editors Note: Branson, Missouri’s Table Rock Lake’s 43,100 surface acres has 857 miles of shoreline. This report covers that portion of Table Rock Lake that most people staying in the Branson area would typically be fishing. The level of Table Rock Lake as of 0500 June 22 was 916.75 up from 916.28 on June 15. Its normal “Seasonal Conservation Pool Level” is 917.

It should also be pointed out that on a given week different guides may be submitting fishing reports. All guides are actively involved in guiding on almost a daily basis and are members of the Central Pro-Am Association. Each may give a different perspective depending on when, where, and how the guide was fishing.]

Dam Area

The deep bite is dominating the lower end of the lake; drop shots with Chompers worms in plum or brown / purple, robo worms in MMIII, Aaron’s magic or oxblood and Zoom finesse worms in watermelon/ purple or watermelon / red will all produce fish on main lake and secondary points from 30’ – 40’ deep. Most of the fish will be on or near the bottom through out the day but you can work them up as you catch a few. Up Long Creek the Carolina rig and deep crankbait bites have started to turn on. Look for points and ledges to be holding most of the fish.

Kimberling City Area

The water has warmed considerably over the last week, low to mid 80’s are common place and with forecasted air temperatures in the 90’s all week the fish will stay locked in a summer pattern for the near future. Early and late in the mid lake area top water will still produce several fish. Spooks, sammys, pop-r’s and chug bugs have all drawn strikes from black and white bass. Look for fish chasing shad on the surface off points and flats. Once the sun comes up fish will move toward the bottom, Carolina rigged french fires and lizards and Jewel Spider or football jigs fished from 20’ – 30’ deep on pea gravel and mixed gravel points will produce.  Drop shot rigged Chompers or Robo Worm baits will work on these same points from 30’ – 40’ deep. Most of the fish will be close to the bottom.

James River

The bite up the James has moved deeper as well, several fish are being caught on Jewel Football jigs in brown / purple flash or orange craw either with a green pumpkin Jewel jig trailer, Carolina rigged brush hogs and lizards are also producing. Look for gravel or mixed gravel points from 20’ -  30’ deep and work either presentation slowly along the bottom to draw strikes. DD-22’s, DT-16’s and Fat Free shad crankbaits are also producing fish, look for isolated cover on points and ledges to be holding fish and make contact with the cover to draw strikes. In the major creek arms the dock bite has also turned on; Eakins’ jigs and Ultra tubes fished in the shade of walkways will produce both quantity and quality.

White River

The bite in the White River has been very good over the past week. Much like the mid lake and James there is a good topwater bite early and late, as the day progresses Carolina rigs, Jewel football jigs and drop shot rigged Chompers worms are all producing. Further up the river and into the Kings there is a good jig bite developing on channel swing banks. Both major creek arms and the main lake will produce fish on the channel banks; Eakins’ jig and craw combos, Chompers ultra tubes and Lake Fork ring worms will all produce on these banks. Look for broken rock, wood cover or ledges to be holding most of the fish, bites come as the bait is falling so pay close attention to your line as the bait falls.

Submitted by Eric Prey for Central Pro-Am Association

[Editors Note: 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 treated separately because of its unique topography, it’s a trophy management area, and the special regulations and limits in effect within the area.]

Cool water on a hot day feels good, but if you add some good fishing on Taneycomo, you have got a close to perfect day.  This past weekend the generation schedules held true to form.  The water was off both days with a little bump late in the afternoon, and so you could wade all day and night.  We had a couple of guides out helping clients get a fisherman’s suntan and catching lots of fish on zebra midges.

The best colors for the zebra midge (size 18) were the primrose and pearl and the copper dun.  We have been telling you for months to strip streamers in the high water, but even in this low water the olive and black wooly buggers are still pulling up good fish.  If you are out after dark, you might strip in a trophy trout on your bugger.  A customer just walked into the shop with a story about the big one he missed last night.  Holographic green and the blondie (an orange with light hackle) crackleback have been working too.

Reports from the outlet area tell us that all of the above are working there and also scuds in a variety of sizes and colors.  Size ranges from 14 to 22 and colors reported working are orange, tan, grey, and olive.  Some flash or use of UV dubs seems to be increasing success in drawing hits.
Submitted by Carolyn Parker, River Run Outfitters

[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.]

Not much change in the fishing, catching and fishing conditions on Lake Taneycomo this week. Generation, if anything, has lessened in the past few days. Water has been off most mornings and staying off into the afternoon. They’ve been bumping the flow up to 2-3 units by 4 or 5 pm but dropping it in late evening and off by dark. This is a surprise to me really… unseasonable hot temperatures I would think force the Corp to run lots of water to meet an increase of power demand but they evidently have other sources of power they are drawing on, ie. coal burning plants. We’ll see if this generation pattern continues.

It seems like MDC is keeping ahead of anglers demands for trout. Fish keep being caught and kept and nice ones too. We’ve seen lots of nice stringers come in to the dock this past week, most caught below Fall Creek on Gulp Eggs and worms. We’ve been boating up past Fall Creek and fishing the trophy area where we’re finding an abundance of rainbows to catch. And the number of rainbows below the dam is very good too. We’ll see if these numbers hold through the hottest part of the summer- July and August.

Above Fall Creek, we’re still catching big numbers of trout, mainly rainbows, on small jigs under a float. Micros in the 1/25th size in tan or olive under an indicator 3-4 feet deep- best! I learned from Bill Babler to keep a spool of #2 lb Vanish line in my bag. I use 4 lb XL Trilene green line on my spin reels but when I’m using this jig and float method and especially using small micro jigs, I find it’s best to add 2-3 feet of #2 lb Vanish to the end of the 4 lb. I get more strikes adding the tippet to the line. I use a triple surgeon’s knot to connect the lines. The link points to a double knot- I just add another loop-through for the triple knot.

My fishing buddy Vince and I went fishing the other evening. He had these small jigs, about the size of a micro jig, but these were lead-ball head and he tied just a bit of marabou onto the body. We used brown jigs and man the rainbows really loved them. We sat in the Narrows about 3/4 miles above Fall Creek and caught trout after trout for over an hour before dark. He said a friend of his found them on the internet… I’m looking for them now!

Same guys fishing last week caught some great rainbows while the water was running on small crank baits thrown against the bluff bank below Fall Creek. We usually throw Rapalas F-5’s or F-7’s and use several colors including black/silver, black/gold and rainbow.

Power bait colors… well that has varied quite a bit this week. Had some guys come in and say they really caught them good off the Cooper Creek Public Dock on yellow nuggets. Most anglers are using a combination of white and pink Gulp Egg off our docks and up near Short Creek. I’ve seen some people trolling small crank baits, rooster tails and jigs and doing pretty good. And been selling a lot of spoons- Colorado gold and rainbow styles.

Fly fishing below the dam has stayed very good over the past week. Down water has given waders access to the upper end most days which is nice. Grey scuds #16 and #18, san juan worm, cracklebacks have been hot I’m told and thread midge in black and tan #20 and #22. Zebra midge under an indicator 12 inches fished from the Big Hole area down to the boat ramp-excellent- especially when rainbows are actively feeding on midges in the film. Also soft hackles in #18’s reds, blacks and yellow stripped quickly if there’s a chop on the water.

Submitted to multiple sources by Phil Lilley, Ozark Anglers

[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.]

Fishing continues to be great on Lake Taneycomo. We had two groups Saturday, that have been coming for years, that said these were the best Trout they’ve ever caught. No matter what method you use, the conditions are favorable.

Jigs do well all up and down the lake. The higher you go toward Table Rock dam, the smaller they should be. 1/8 oz works well down the mid lake area, and 1/16 or 1/32 will work just about anywhere. Olive/ Ginger, White, Ginger, or Black are the ones we do the best with.
Spoons, the Thomas line, whether Colorado or Buoyant, as long as you stay below the 1/4 oz, they’ll work well. Gold or Gold Red , and Copper are the three best colors in spoons.

The only live bait doing well is Nightcrawlers. We are seeing lots of minnows on the lake, with the warmer water.

Here’s the tip of the week, as hot as it is, make sure to take plenty of WATER with you. Take a couple of breaks if you’re going all day… don’t overheat.

Have a great day on the lake

Submitted by Lamar Patton to multiple outlets, Scotty’s Trout Dock & Marina