The month of July was a major game changer for Lake Taneycomo, not so much in the way of fishing, but in the topography of the lake itself. Two weeks ago, early on the morning of the 17th, Branson took on a massive, very localized downpour of rain, bringing 8 inches over the period of 3 hours or so. The first 2 hours brought 7 of these 8 inches. From our marina up to the dam, new obstacles flushed into the lake and settled on the bottom including a massive root wad directly in the middle of the lake across from the mouth of Short Creek. Also, each outlet pushed out new rocks and created gravel bars up to 20 feet from each creek, creating shallower bars with deeper holes behind them. This should actually create new holes for the fish to stack into. The storm missed Table Rock Lake entirely, so thankfully we did not see any rise in the lake level.
Let’s talk about the fishing in July. It has been fair to middlin’ on the bite. Just these last few days, fishermen and guides alike have seen a very slow bite, with lots of quick short strikes. Even the night bite has been slow, I would say, based on a report from Capt. Darren Sadler. He saw a heading of 2 parts per million of dissolved oxygen at the dam, which means lower oxygen levels for the fish. There still have been stretches of days where we see good consistent bites. It is just hit and miss. Big fish are still being landed consistently, which is nice to see.
Our generation pattern for the month held to a typical standard for July. Water off in the mornings, 2 to 4 units in the afternoon, then water back off at dusk.
Temperatures have been somewhat mild for the first few weeks. This week, however, has heated up to the 100º F mark. The trend seems to be that this is where we will remain for a while.
For the fly rod action, midges, scuds, mega worms in yellow or white, and small 1/50th to 1/100th oz marabou jigs under an indicator performed the best when the bite was good.
For spin cast, these same flies under a float also worked along with a pink power worm under a float. For bait fishing, the night crawler as usual was the victor for the bait world.
Night fishing has been 50/50. 1/25th oz jigs (black) free-line jigging them or the Signature Series 762 in the Plum Stupid, Star Slayer, & French Pearl have been doing the job.
I look forward to the month of August to see what it will bring. We should begin to see our brown trout start moving up the lake and staying for mating season. That is always exciting!
