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- Kayaking, canoeing good way to spend hot summer days (7/27/18)
- Hot weather means hot catfishing (7/7/18)
- Boat buyers have abundant options (6/16/18)
- Warm weather invites camping (6/9/18)
- Topwater fishing is a blast (6/2/18)
February is once again the best month for trout fishing
Saturday, February 13, 2016
For more than 50 years I have found good trout fishing on Lake Taneycomo in February. For some reason, hooking the largest trout of the year has been happening in February.
Last year in early- February, Brandon Butler, executive director of the Conservation Federation of Missouri, who is the voice for "Missouri's Outdoors" whose members are citizens for Conservation of Natural Resources in the state and Protection of our Outdoor Heritage, started a Media Camp at Lake Taneycomo. We found the trout fishing good in winter.
This year, February started out the same way and even more-so. The second annual Missouri Confederation Federation Media Camp at Lilley's Landing on Taneycomo found outdoor writers from across the state pulling in big rainbows and brown trout from the cold waters of the lake. This year many anglers stayed away from the good fishing thinking the recent high water had turned off the fishing. However, Phil Lilley, owner said otherwise.
"At the time when the water was real high, no one was getting on the water, but as the water went down, we went out and found fishing was pertty good. There was a lot of threadfin shad flowing in from Table Rock, and when they came over the spillway they were just fluttering around.
"For about a month we had threadfin shad coming from Table Rock and the trout were gorging them themselves. The fish grew fast and are now hitting most anything white after eating all the shad. The trout hit white anyway, but after seeing shad for a month, it gets imbedded in their mind and anything white that floats by they hit."
Some anglers stayed away because they thought the trout might have been washed out with all the flooding. Lilley said, "The fish didn't get washed out at all. They find places in areas behind trees and other places where there is slack water. The fish find places to go and don't get washed downstream.
"Right after the flood gates were dropped, we were catching fish just below the dam so it didn't affect where they were, but it does affect how you fish for them. Now the water is back to around normal so we are catching them in the normal spots."
The high water caused many problems to homes and resorts along the lake. Lilley said, "We had water in three units, but we now have them back in use. We had water so close to the resort that we could catch fish without leaving the house. The trout were close to the bank where the water was moving slower."
On the first day of February, Brent Frazee, outdoor editor of the Kansas City Star, veteran Taneycomo guide Duane Doty, and I headed upstream to test the fishing. Using a white jig, it didn't take long before a nice rainbow was hooked followed by many others.
Not long before we caught and released a dozen trout, both rainbows and browns. All the fish fought hard and you could tell they had been feeding on the shad. The action continued all morning. In visiting with other anglers we found most all of them have been catching a lot of good sized trout. It was winter fishing at its best.
Our guide, works out of Lilley's Landing in winter months, and knows his way around Taneycomo. From June to October, he guides anglers in Western Alaska. He has caught many fish in both places. He has been fly-fishing and tying flies for 30 years. He knows the lake and where, as well as how to catch trout.
Part of the lake we fished most of the time was in the trophy area where there is a 12 to 20 inch protected slot limit that has maintained a higher density than other parts of the lake below Fall Creek.
In this trophy water, anglers are required to release all rainbows between 12 and 20 inches. Only artificial lures and flies may be used in this area. As long as the anglers release the trout they catch, they may hook as many fish as they can.
A first time trout angler I met before the Media Camp was Mark Coffey from Lee's Summit. He was one happy fisherman having caught lots of trout including a big brown and a big rainbow.
He said, "Dragging a shad fly on the bottom, I hooked a big brown trout that gave me a big fight. It seemed like it took more than 20 minutes to land it, but was less than half that time. I knew it wasn't just a regular trout.
Following catching the brown, I hooked a big rainbow. It was great fishing in winter. It was my first trip to fish Taneycomo as well as fishing for trout ever. It was my first, but it won't be my last. I will be back."