Lake Taneycomo — January 1 – 2, 2006

Craig and I took off for Taneycomo at 7am on 1/1/06 – after collectively having about 5 hours of sleep between the two of us after some New Year’s Eve Partying. We were to meet up with a member of the
FFAM forum for an afternoon of fishing, and ended up meeting him at 11am at River Run Outfitters near the dam (big plug for a NICE SHOP near a great fly fishing destination). We didn’t have any hotel reservations or plans other than to fish. We accessed the lake from the old boat ramp on the KOA side and fished from about noon until dark. Leonard was absolutely knocking them dead with a “Roo Scud” (tied out of kangaroo) and was content with the smaller fish (the size was smaller than an average trout park fish) and those were not the fish that I had come to catch, so Craig and I went to look around and try our luck at sight fishing in the skinny water. Craig did extremely well with a small renegade right at the end of the day, but I only brought 2 to hand and they were dinks. I did snap off a “decent” fish above Outlet # 1 (near the point above the outlet towards the cable) that I never saw and made 2 runs on me and then snapped me off but the fish had shoulders.

We grabbed some dinner at a TexMex place in Branson (not recommended) and because the weather was so unseasonably warm we ended up throwing sleeping bags on the hillside near the parking lot at Outlet # 1 on Sunday night. It was a great night to be out under the stars — and not too cold. We grabbed some shut-eye from about 7pm until 11pm and then suited up to night fish. That night had the makings of a great night, as Craig and I both hooked up within minutes of getting to the water, but then the wind turned on. And man did it blow. Craig and I both think that we have never fished in wind as strong as it was blowing. We toughed it out until about 2am and then we conceded to mother nature. I ended up with 2 browns (both over 16″ and one closer to the 18″ end) and a nice rainbow of about 15″ or so all on a white rag sculpin during the night fishing session and craig ended up with 2 rainbows (1 about 16″). We headed back to the parking lot to get some shut eye (I opted for the front seat of the Blazer, to get out of the wind — but Craig toughed it out sleeping out under the stars. We woke up Monday morning and the wind was howling worse than on Sunday night, so we decided to head home. Was hoping to run into some of the big bows that are going through the motions, but I guess we were too early….

We did stop by Bass Pro Shop on the way home (Craig had never been) as well as checked out Roubidoux Creek — didn’t spot a single trout (but lots of bass and a deer leg or two for good measure).

–Tucker