By Silas Gray
sports@joplinglobe.com
The dam at Table Rock Lake supplies the water for Lake Taneycomo. The water that flows through the dam can be used to generate electricity or can merely pass through just to lower the lake level. Normally, once the lake reaches a certain level, the water is shut off. Once the water is shut off, the stream below the dam drops to a perfect level for wade-fishing anglers.
I like fishing Taneycomo at night, especially during the winter. However, so far this winter, the water has been running almost constantly and I haven’t had a chance to go. There’s a web site that tracks activity at the dam, and I’d been watching it closely. I finally noticed a pattern. For several days in a row, they’d been shutting off the water each night just before midnight and leaving it off for two hours. I had my opportunity!
I called Dan and Janette at the Parkview Lodge and booked a room for the night. In less than four hours I was at the motel with my thermals and heavy hooded coat laid out on the couch, my waders hanging by the door and my alarm clock set for just before midnight. Now I had just enough time remaining for a long nap before heading to the stream.
The sound of the alarm was disorienting. It seemed as though I’d just lain down. Eventually, I came awake enough to shut it off and immediately dialed the phone number to hear the computer generated message which tells the current dam conditions. According to the pattern of the last few nights, it was still early, and so I wasn’t overly concerned when the report indicated that the dam was still at full generation. I made coffee and finished getting ready. I called again just before leaving the room and conditions hadn’t changed — it was still 10 feet deep at the spot where I’d planned to wade.
The air was chilly as I climbed into the truck and started toward the access at the Shepherd of the Hills Hatchery.
I stopped first at the lot nearest the pavilions just beyond the hatchery. I walked to the high bank and looked out on the water. Unfortunately, the computer voice was right — the water was high and running fast.
Even with the water high there are open areas where an angler can fish from the bank. Three of these are the small man-made streams where hatchery water is discharged back into Taneycomo — outlet one, two and three. Another is further downstream at the hatchery boat ramp. All are great places to kill time fishing while waiting for the water to be shut off.
I started at outlet one, the one nearest the dam. I fished streamers first and moved on to scud imitations when those failed. I worked the seams formed by the fast hatchery water along with all of the surrounding water that I could reach casting. Finally, after 30 minutes, with the water flowing as swiftly as ever, I moved to outlet two.
Some may call outlet two “cheating” but I call it a great place to “warm up.” Many times, especially in high water, there are trout stacked in along the bank near the outflow of hatchery water, and often they are hungry.
I attached a large fluorescent float onto my line. Four feet below that I tied on an oversized nymph fly and 18 inches below that I tied on a red worm imitation.
There’s a set of wooden stairs beside outlet two, and the water was covering only its lowest step. I climbed down and stood along the rocky bank, staying near the ladder, and began casting into the fast water, watching carefully as the float was swept into the slower water near the shore.
The strikes were subtle. The float paused for just a portion of a second as the fish took it. I missed many, often feeling a tug for only a moment before the fish released the fly. Sometimes I set the hook and then felt nothing and was left wondering if there had been anything there at all.
However, there were times where I set the hook properly and brought in several rainbow trout. The largest was 14 inches long, and none were less than 11.
This went on for quite some time. However, at 2 in the morning, with still no sign of the water slowing, it was becoming obvious that the dam authority was not following the pattern of the last few days.
At about that time, one of my missed strikes ended up with both flies as well as the float tangled in a nearby tree. With the truck nearby, I decided that, after untangling my mess, it was a good time to go up and have a cup of coffee before moving on.
After my short break, I moved to the boat ramp and fished it for another hour before giving up and waving so long to the fast flowing water and returning to the motel.
I did check the web site the next morning and found that the water hadn’t stopped all night.
My plan may have not have worked out perfectly; however, it did get me back to Taneycomo again, and it’s always good to catch fish. This was just one of those times when I should have been there yesterday.
Address correspondence to Silas Gray at ifish@silasgray.com
