Cold Weather Trout Fishing

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by Bill Babler

Explain this. Why is Lake Taneycomo crowded during the slowest fishing months of the year and almost devoid of human life during the very best fishing months of the year? COME ON FISHERMEN, don’t let these next 3 months go by without a visit to one of the best tailrace fisheries in the world.

Let me splane this Lucy. When the weather is cool Taneycomo is on fire. A couple of factors are involved here. Heavy stocking, spawning fish, concentrated fish and very little pressure. Throw in hatches coming off everyday and a possible shad kill in January, February and March and you have the receipt for fantastic winter fishing. Let me also point out that this is not the North Pole. December, January and February days will most times be not more than light jacket weather. Cold spells very seldom last longer than 24 hours. It is not uncommon to be fishing in 50-degree weather in January. Most winter days in Branson will run 5 to 10 degrees warmer than the high plains of Springfield. The Ozark Mountains shelters us and for the past few years it has been extremely mild.

With the cool nights power generation is usually heavy in mornings and slows to 1 or 2 generators in the afternoons. With these conditions, drift fishing is at its best. Either spin or fly fishermen using the right equipment and in the correct locations on the river can have incredible days.

With the rainbow spawn going on and the browns filtering out of the restricted area, this is the time to catch lots of fish in the 17” plus range.

In the past few weeks I have had the pleasure to take fishermen that have fished Taneycomo during its so-called hay days of the early 70’s. One guy commented, “I’ve fished Taneycomo for 20 years and never caught such quality fish.” Let me tell you, I’ve fished it for the last 30 and never had the day in day out quality catches that I am having now.

Yes, I fish everyday, so I should make quality catches. We see people everyday on the water that are not making these types of catches. Most think that the fishing is just slow. There was a gentleman fly fishing the lookout area last week and commented he had only caught 6 fish for the day and that the fishing was pretty slow. Before I could comment that it was kind of tough one of my clients blurted out that we had caught about 70 fish in 6 hours. I’m sure that the fishermen thought it was a fish story but we had indeed caught a large number of quality fish.

It’s never one huge factor that dictates the number of fish but lots of little things that we have learned by constantly fishing these waters on a day to day basis. It may be location or just a small adjustment in your equipment setup that can make the difference in 10 bites or 100 plus bites per day.

If you want to experience some great fishing and have already stowded your gear, it may be a great time to come and see our set-up. Use our equipment and our techniques you may pick-up some tips for future tailrace fishing.

With the number of quality rainbows in Taneycomo, if you know who, what, when, where, and how, the next 3 months will make you say the hay days of Taneycomo are here right now.