Lake Taneycomo Fishing Report
May 10, 2010

Taneycomo is a model of steadiness and consistency:
How long will this trend last?

For the last three days, I have been guiding on Lake Taneycomo. It’s hard to believe, but water conditions, fish activity and the weather were virtually identical on each trip. Considering how these rivers like to make liars out of guides, I will refrain from speculating about how long these steady conditions will continue, but I am hopeful that the month of May will truly be one to remember because of incredible action and manageable fishing flows.

Midges Were the Ticket on Taneycomo

The water was ‘off’ the last three mornings, and it would not start coming up until early afternoon. Midges were the ticket during low water – we worked deep holes with black or brown Zebra-Midges under a small strike-indicator. Change your depth according to how the fish are behaving – if you see quite a few trout feeding near the surface, it’s time to set very shallow. The action was pretty much non-stop on chunky rainbows the last three mornings.

When the horn would sound, I would row as hard as I could to get up to the dam, and that is where we would start. Flows have rarely been above the 1.5-unit level, and this is excellent water to slowly work down river using “light” nymph techniques. San Juan Worm and Miracle Flies are the ticket during the rise, and once the water stabilizes, pretty much anything and everything subsurface is producing fish. We spent the entire afternoon working our way from the dam to the boat ramp – there was never any reason to go further downstream.

Taneycomo is a model of steadiness and consistency:
How long will this trend last?

For the last three days, I have been guiding on Lake Taneycomo. It’s hard to believe, but water conditions, fish activity and the weather were virtually identical on each trip. Considering how these rivers like to make liars out of guides, I will refrain from speculating about how long these steady conditions will continue, but I am hopeful that the month of May will truly be one to remember because of incredible action and manageable fishing flows.

With my work schedule being heaviest on the weekends, I am going to take advantage of some ‘down time’ this week by adding quite a bit to the fly tying section on the Web site – look for several new “how-to” steps and videos very soon. I have also added quite a bit of new content to the articles page, so if you haven’t been to this section in awhile, there is probably quite a bit for you to catch up on.

Although there has not been as much dead-low water on the White and Norfork of late, flows have been generally light, and the fishing has been great. Prolonged rain events are not that common this time of year, but it is possible to get excessive precipitation during intense thunderstorms, and one major event could put the lakes back into flood stage at the drop of a hat. Hopefully, most of this year’s major flooding is over, and it would be nice if reservoir levels would stay steady from now until the middle of June. I’m not expecting that to happen, though, but we can all dream, right?

Check out the video on how to tie soft hackles for our tailwaters.

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