Taneycomo Trout Fishing

LakeTaneycomo in southwestern Missouri might well be considered the world's finest trout fishery. Its popularity mostly relies on the approximately 700,000 rainbow trout stocked per year. This causes this twenty-two mile riverine lake to be positively loaded with stockies at all times. They are stocked once a month, and even towards the end of each stocking period the lake holds many trout. Due to these easy to catch fish, few people come up empty handed here.

However, there are many fisheries around that hold lots of easy to catch rainbow trout. What sets Taneycomo apart is the enormous brown trout it produces. Twenty inch brown trout are routine, ten pound brown trout aren't at all out of place, and each year several larger than twenty pounds are pulled from its icy waters. All this was capped off when a Missouri Department of Conservation agent who was sampling the lake found a thirty six pound brown trout. There is little doubt that some day this lake will produce the world record brown trout to some lucky angler.

The lake can be effectively broken down into three sections. The first would be the section of lake from Table Rock Dam downstream to Fall Creek. Legal fishing begins a few hundred yards downstream from the dam. This section has special trophy regulations for both rainbow trout and brown trout, and this is where most of the largest trout in the lake live. Flies and lures only are allowed in this section. This part of the "lake" is for all intents and purposes a river, and can be waded if Table Rock Dam is not generating.

The next section of the lake worth mentioning is from Fall Creek to the Highway 65 Bridge. The upper part of this section looks like a river, but the further downstream you get, the more it becomes a lake. This entire part of the lake holds many trout, both rainbow and brown, and it can be effectively fished from the bank with bait, as that is legal below Fall Creek's mouth. Another popular method is to get a boat and troll spoons and spinners. Trophy regulations remain in effect for brown trout, but not rainbow trout.

The finalsection of the lake is from Highway 65 to Powersite Dam, which is Taneycomo's lower boundary. This far downstream, Taneycomo is indeed a lake, although it is quite shallow. Effective bank fishing can be done with worms and Powerbait, but it is more of a boat fishery. Both rainbow trout and brown trout respond to the same trolling methods as above Highway 65, and that is probably the best way to fish. You won't need downriggers, or other special equipment due to the lake's shallow depth. This section also boasts some pretty good largemouth bass fishing in the creek arms, and gigging for non-game fish is quite popular in this part of the lake.