It’s been a couple of weeks since my last report. At the beginning of last week, water and fishing conditions had not changed at all, so there was no need to update it. But a big change happened midweek — the dam operators decided to shut the spill gates off plus a turbine. That left only two units, or about 6,800 cubic feet of water, running from Table Rock Dam. This is has been the flow ever since.
About the same time, operators shut down Beaver Dam’s gates and started regulating the flow from Beaver. Its level is still 8.5 feet over the seasonal power pool, but that’s where they’ve held it for a month now.Â
Table Rock’s lake level sits at 915.7 feet, just a tad over its season pool, which is 915 feet.
Bull Shoals Lake, on the other hand, is dropping a whopping six-inches-plus per day. Its level right this minute is 666.45 feet, 7.45 feet over its seasonal power pool. More than 24,000 cubic feet per second of water is being released through turbines and gates there. My guess is that officials aim to release as much water as possible now because very soon the lower White and Mississippi Rivers will be inundated by recent flood waters in the state of Mississippi.
Yesterday’s rain dumped a couple of inches in an area north of Joplin, while most of the White River basin received less than a half inch. This amount will not affect any lake levels here, and the forecast is for very little rain in the next seven days. This will allow our lakes to be drawn down even more to make room for spring rains, which are just around the calendar!
What all this means for our lake — Lake Taneycomo — is that we should see slow flows and even a chance of zero generation at times during the day or night. But that remains to be seen.
Lake Taneycomoâs trout fishery is in great shape after more than 12 months of constant generation.  Our rainbows and browns are very healthy, sporting fantastic growth rates because of an abundance of food available.  Our freshwater shrimp, sculpins, creek chubs and other minnows thrive in current much better than they do in still water.  Now that weâre seeing less generation, our midge hatches should increase.  Weâre already starting to see that happen.
We held our fourth trout tournament of the year Saturday, the Vince Elfrink Memorial.  Like a lot of our contests, we host some really good trout anglers, some who have fished Lake Taneycomo for over 40 years.  Surprisingly, the overall weights were lower than the last tournament, but most contestants said they caught big numbers of small rainbows.Â
I had reported last week that thousands of rainbow trout were stocked from the Neosho Federal Hatchery, which typically are smaller than our state-raised fish.  These Neosho rainbows seem to be very aggressive, and if thatâs the case, they will beat the bigger rainbows to the bait or lure.  Thatâs my theory.  We do have to âthin throughâ small ones to get to the big ones right now.
With the slower current, we are changing a few of our spools from four-to two-pound line, not because the water is getting clear (itâs not a sight thing), but because weâre wanting to throw smaller lures.
When thereâs less generation, slow currents, thereâs less churning and swirling, especially from Trout Hollow to the dam.  The current is gentle, allowing a smaller lure to drop without having to fight its way down.Â
When youâre throwing a jig from a boat drifting down a bank, you want that jig to drop pretty fast because the boat will move you out of that strike zone pretty quickly.  So we use a heavier jig to drop through all the currents in the water column.  If youâre throwing a light, 1/32nd-ounce jig in that situation, the jig really wonât sink and, at times, would be lifted up by the swirling currents.
Now that weâre seeing slow, gentle currents, a small 1/32nd-ounce jig will fall nicely, and can be worked in deep water, if thatâs where the fish are.  And, of course, weâd rather use two-pound line when throwing small jigs simply because we can cast them further!
Hereâs One Cast from Sunday, February 23rd where Duane and I are fishing six to eight feet of water using small jigs.  Duane is using a 1/16th-ounce, and I am using a 1/32nd-ounce jig.  Although Iâm fishing four- to five-feet down, and Duane is fishing closer to the bottom in eight-feet of water, weâre both finding plenty of bites.
Minnows and night crawlers are going to catch bigger trout below Fall Creek, if youâre using live bait.  The Berkley Pink Worm will catch almost anything.  If youâre drifting it, hook it wacky style.  The water is slow enough to fish it under a float six- to eight- feet deep, too.
If youâre throwing jigs, throw the size your tackle allows.  In other words, if you have two-pound line, youâre going to be able to throw small 1/32nd-ounce jigs along with bigger jigs but if youâre using four-pound line, youâll have to stay with 1/16th-ounce and bigger.Â
I had several fishermen tell me they did best on white jigs over the weekend while others said the Tri-Sculpin Olive, Dark did the best for them.  With the sun coming out more often, Iâd try black and black combos.
Our trout have moved off the banks with the water slowing down.  Youâll find them mid-lake now; before  the water was down, youâd find them closer to the banks in eddies.
Drifting scuds and San Juan worms on the bottom should be good, too, although after some time we might be using smaller versions of these flies.  With the higher water, we were using #12 scuds and big, poufy worms. Now as trout will get a better look at these flies as we drift them a little slower, weâll drop to #14 or #16 scuds and a medium or micro San Juan worm.  Colors:  Gray and olive for the scuds, and cerise, pink, brown and red on the worms.
Regardless of what you want to try, our fishing forecast looks incredibly rosy heading into March and weâre all excited!!  Come see us if you can!
