Excellent trout fishing awaits at Missouri lake

Submitted photo/ Fred Wright, Branson, takes advantage of last weeks weather to fish for trout from a dock.

With the temperature in the 60s and even 70s for the first Missouri Conservation Federation's Media Camp at Lilley's Landing Resort on Lake Taneycomo Jan. 26-29, the trout anglers took advantage of some of the best winter trout fishing in the country.

Late January and February is an excellent time to catch a lunker trout. For more than 30 years some of the largest trout of the year have come from this lake, that is more like a river as it winds its way through the heart of Branson on the 23 mile stretch from Table Rock Dam to the start of Bull Shoals Lake near Forsyth.

Like the start of the season at the Missouri trout parks on March 1, the weather is unpredictable, but veteran trout anglers know that this time of year is usually the best time to catch big trout. The catch rate of trout in the upper section of Taneycomo ranks among the highest known for special regulation trout fisheries in the nation.

Submitted photo/ Phillip Stone with one of the many rainbow trout he caught last week on Lake Taneycomo.

Some 90 percent of trout anglers catch are rainbows, with brown trout adding another six to seven percent of the catch. Around 700,000 rainbows and 15,000 brown trout are stocked into the lake each year. Natural spawning success for both species is very limited.

Fishing with guide Phillip Stone of Harrison, Ark., in the waters above Fall Creek, we caught dozens of both brown and rainbow trout by using a shallow running crankbait. This area of Taneycomo is trophy trout water where there is a 12 to 20 inch protected slot limit which has maintained a higher fish density than the other part of the lake below Fall Creek.

In the trophy water, anglers are required to release all rainbows between 12 and 20 inches. Nine percent of the rainbow trout in this three-mile stretch were greater than 13 inches when the regulation went into effect back in 1997. By September of 2014, the percentage of rainbows in the same area had increased to 60 percent. Only artificial lures and flies can be used in the trophy area. As long as an angler releases trout caught, they may catch as many fish as they can.

Fishing guide, Phillip Stone, Harrison, Ark. nets a rainbow trout. It was one of the many trout he caught during the unseasonable weather at Lake Taneycomo last week.

Stone has fished lakes Taneycomo, Table Rock and Bull Shoals for 36 years. His grandfather got him started fishing on the three lakes.

Stone said, "The most fun I had fishing was when we went to Table Rock while the white bass were running. I was using a Zebco 33 reel and I remember having a bruise in the middle of my stomach from reeling those fish in with the rod butt against my stomach.

"The trout fishing for me started in the mid- 90s while I was in college at the School of the Ozarks. I started guiding 12 years ago on all three lakes. Some fishing friends encouraged me to get my license. They said you have a bass boat and you have the ability, so get your license and we will help you out. I have been going strong ever since."

Brandon Butler, executive director of the Conservation Federation of Missouri displays a rainboe trout he landed from Lake Taneycomo last week.

Stone said that trout fishing on Taneycomo is year-round. Winter is one of the best times to catch a big trout. He said, "One thing that sticks out for me is that so many times I hear people say we have to drive a hour and a half or more to get to a lake or the nearest fishing hole, but around here within an hour you can catch just about any freshwater species of fish you want."

Like other successful trout guides on Taneycomo, Stone knows there are a lot of trout in the lake, but catching and finding them depends upon the current flow, the sunlight and the wind.

There are thousands of trout here, but you have to figure out what they are wanting and where they are from top to bottom or in between. The largest trout the guide has taken on Taneycomo was an eight pound brown. Stone said his favorite area to fish and catch trout is from Lilley's Landing to Fall Creek. After fishing there last week, we can see why.

At this time of the year, fishing for trout is another way to beat cabin fever until Spring arrives.