Beautiful Morning Fly Fishing Lake Taneycomo, Branson, MO

Fly fishing on the famous tailwater of Lake Taneycomo, near Branson, Missouri is a hidden gem in the midwest.  Fishing hear can be a bit tricky because it mainly depends on water generation coming out of the dam.  These fish also see a fair amount of pressure so they are wise to poorly presented flies.  Wade fishing can be excellent when the water is rising and falling, but tends to drop off a bit after the water stays at low levels for a long time.  Don’t get me wrong, you can still get a few fish to eat when the water has been off all night.  That was the conditions we found this morning.  The water had been basically trickling since around 8:00 the night before. 

 

Four Units Generating from The Dam, Table Rock Dam in the Background

 

I came into town to see an old friend of mine, Tom.  Tom owns a couple of condos right on the water and we needed to get out together to get his new El Jefe Combo some action.  I was able to make it out at night the evening before and did manage to land my largest trout from Lake Taneycomo.  We have a nice little write up with some photos on our last blog so check it out if you missed it.  The water had been low ever since that moment, now producing zero generators.  We decided to hit the water right at sun up in his neighborhood to check out the local fishing action. 

 

Lake Taneycomo Rainbow

 

It was fun helping Tom get his gear all ready for action.  We rigged up his 5 weight El Jefe with a 9 foot, 5X tapered leader.  Since the water was moving extremely slow, we added a small size 18 weighted scud as his fly, and placed an indicator around 36 inches up.  I would normally use a two fly system, but it’s been a while since Tom had fly fished, and we wanted to keep his set up very simple, and easy to retie if we ran into casting issues.  These trout see a lot of anglers, so I anticipated moving over to 6X if we didn’t see many strikes early.

 

Colorful Lake Taneycomo Rainbow

 

We began working the water and within a few minutes we were hooked up.  It‘s always great to get the skunk out of the air early on any little adventure, just a little peace of mind for me.  Not a huge fish, but the colors were fantastic.  

 

Rainbow Trout Caught on Lake Taneycomo, Branson MO

 

I had around four hours before I needed to head to my hotel for a shower, and toss on a suit to go meet clients for lunch so we worked the water methodically, and searched for some good holes for Tom to hit anytime he’s staying at his place.  

The gray scud in size 18 and the red zebra midge in size 18 were the most productive flies of the day, and we did hook up about 2X1 using 6X tippet.  It’s been so long since I’ve fished on Taneycomo with zero units generating, I think I had forgotten that this was one of my old tricks, and would start us out using 6X next time in similar conditions.

Tom and I landed a handful of healthy rainbows that morning before getting back to work.  

 

Size 18 Gray Scud Corner Pocket, Lake Taneycomo, Branson, MO

 

Until next time, tight lines my friend!

Jeff