Lived there for a decade and only left a year and a couple months ago. You may want to go check the old Ozarks Angler columns here on FAOL. I assume they're still there. I penned a few articles there that you may find useful including my article on fishing the Zebra Midge, my article about Winter in the Ozarks, and a few others. At Ozarkanglers.com you will find an article I wrote about winter fishing on Lake Taneycomo in particular, but it is an overview of the entire lake and not just the tailwater section.

This time of year in the tailwater section there are 4 distinct possible fishing conditions: low lake levels and cold weather, high lake levels and cold weather, low lake levels and warm weather, and high lake levels and warm weather. From what I've heard recently, you will not have low lake levels. So you can expect fishing conditions to be predicated on air temperature, modified only by very heavy precipitation that might occur right before or during your trip.

If it gets really cold, a few things will happen. People will use more electricity and the dams will generate more power. That means high, fast water in the tailwater will be much more common...perhaps non-stop. That usually wipes out all of the wade fishing access and can blow out most of the fly fishing. Of course, the whole ice in the guides thing and bitter air temps are usually enough to keep me from fishing anyway. But if you just must fish Taneycomo's tailwater during these times, you will need a boat. You can hire a guide (I strongly recommend River Run Outfitters or Michael Kyle...to the exclusion of all others) or rent a boat from Lilley's Landing (owner of OzarkAnglers.com). You will also need to think big streamer fishing with sink-tip lines on 7wt rods, or chuck-n-duck rigs drifting egg patterns, heavy nymphs, or even microjigs below big indicators on the dead drift alongside the boat.

If the weather warms up (into the 40s to low 60s is not all that uncommon of a warm spell), then generation will become sporadic unless the lake is extremely high and needs to be drawn down. This will provide good walk-in fishing access in the tailwater section, opening up about 1.5 to 2.0 miles (depending on who you know) of the Trophy Management Zone. It will also bring out the fishermen...especially on weekends and even weekday afternoons nowadays. Back when I started writing for FAOL, weekdays when temps climbed into the 40s and low 50s were a great time to fish Taneycomo! You could have large stretches of the walk-in section to yourself. Not anymore. Far too many retirees have taken up the fly rod for that to continue! SWMO is one of those rare areas where fly fishing is growing steadily and the business is healthy. People are still buying and opening fly shops there. And even really bad guides can find customers to pay them to take them wade fishing on 1.5 miles of easy-to-fish water.

During these wade fishing times, think MIDGE or SCUD. Zebra Midges in rust, black, and olive in sizes 16-18; a tunsten bead blood-red D-rib midge pupa in size 16-18 is a killer if they're on red; partridge or pheasant tail soft hackles; and size 14-18 ginger, tan, and gray scuds are the things to fill your fly box with. Throw in some size 16 beadhead Cracklebacks for good measure and you're all set. Feel free to take some size 8-12 Wooly Buggers and/or Bunny Leeches if you like stripping leech patterns. Stick with olive and black. They cover all the light conditions there. Tie in just a tad of flash in the tail of the WB's. Skip the beads and weight on the flies themselves. Use a sink-tip in faster water or add split-shot about 18" to 2' up the leader to get the fly to sink some if need be. This will give the fly a more enticing action. And the fish on Taney see tons and tons of weighted leech patterns stripped by them. Also, don't go bigger than 4X fluorocarbon even with the leech patterns or streamers! Use a soft hookset so as not to break them off and keep your hooks sharp. I usually can tell a difference between 5X and 4X fluorocarbon tippet there. 5X is sort of the "magic number" if you want to maximize the bite. But a lot of folks break off too many flies on 5X when stripping leeches and streamers to 14-24" trout. Let the fish hook themselves.

Personally, I would stick to nymph fishing this time of year anyway.

Get some Palsa type foam indicators or small (medium for fishing from a boat on generation) Thingamabobbers to use as indicators. Set your depth on the Zebra and Blood Midges at about 2' and fish all types of water near the slower pools and flats with them. Rust is usually KING in the winter, but sometimes it's red or olive. Black can get good toward sunset or when it's cloudy. Fish the scuds by bouncing them along the bottom everywhere that is "fishy." Use a split shot to get them down to the bottom and put it about 1' to 18" up the leader. Set your indicator (if you're using 1) 1.5 times the water depth in the faster water and just over the water depth in slow water...that's to the split-shot, not the fly. You can fish soft hackles and Cracklebacks below an indicator w/split-shot (soft hackle) like a nymph or midge pupa, or you can fish them using a classic wet fly presentation (quartering downstream in riffles and slow water and such). Fishing nymphs and pupa, I strongly advise using 6X fluorocarbon tippet...maybe even 7X if you have bright sunlight on low water.

Finally, there is another great tactic you can try. You can sight fish using small (16-1 scuds, 7X fluorocarbon tippet, no weight, and 1/2 a palsa foam or no indicator to cruising fish in shallow water along the banks when they aren't generating. Don't get in a hurry. Rig a long leader (11-13'). Stay out of the water. Cast only to moving fish (cruisers). Time your casts so that the scud has time to sink in front of them before they get to it, but ideally not settle into the gravel (this will take just a bit of practice). Watch the fish closely (polarized glasses are a MUST). If it opens its mouth or turns its head near your fly, lift the rod tip. That is usually all the indication you will get of a take. Hook one this way and it will probably RUN! This is a good way to trophy fish Taney on low water and increase the "sport" of it all. You can do this right in behind the less astute anglers standing in hip-deep frigid water casting into the depths with over-sized nymph rigs or stripping Wooly Buggers. It tends to irritate them just a tad, but not enough so that you are being rude...just enough to make them think that perhaps they're standing where they should be fishing. This particular tactic works best on overcast days using bleached ginger or tan scuds. It is my favorite tactic for fishing Taney on low water. And it produces some of the best fish that come out of there on the fly rod during daylight hours.

Have fun!