Phil Lilley

I was looking at rainfall amounts and saw this spot near Memphis...

I landed another trophy rainbow yesterday. This rain, not sure how the lake will look in a few hours when it gets light. Hard rain... not sure how much. But 2 units running should push the muddy water out pretty quickly.

I have seen quite a few trips, but neither of these were. Heard of another 30+ caught today. Haven't seen the pic yet.

Ive been catching a lot of browns in the 17-20 inch range this week.

2 big browns caught yesterday. 29 inch and 34 inch. 11 pounds and 21 pounds. White jig.

I think I can handle a pretty big fish.... but this one was scary right off the bat. I knew...

Uploading now. This is unlisted...

Saw a huge brown bottom/backside of Lookout Island last night. Swiped at either my jig or the rainbow that was going for it. 20 pounds plus. This morning, I hooked one I never saw but the head shake was unreal. A faulty fly reel caused the break... mad I was upset! Was using 4x and had all the time in the world to fight it. Still running 15,500 cfs with TR's level dropping well below 917. I'd think they should shut it down soon. BUT there's 3-5 inches of rain in the 7 day forecast.

Gates will either shut all the way down or partial tomorrow - is my guess. Table Rock will be down to 917 feet by tomorrow.

Just having the gates open - if any fish get close enough to get sucked over, they make the 200 foot fall. That stuns, kills a lot of them but many survive. For days, we didn't see many come over. Then, they came and they really haven't stopped for, what, 5 days now? What we have to do is find something to use that makes them eat.... they are still eating scuds. Our white jigs tend to get lost in the hoards of real shad. I didn't color jig works sometimes. Blake found that dragging a small stick bait on the bottom works good - did at least last evening. I drift a 1/25th ounce jig, 2 lb line, last evening below Fall Creek and actually did real good. Threw it out to the side and let it just drift, no working it, no reeling. I did stay close to the inside of the bend, close to the docks. Browns - there was a fungus that killed a good number of mature browns and some rainbows. Not sure how many, what percentage... We are catching some browns and they will show up now the shad are running. Time will tell. MDC may do another spring shock survey...

I know the whites are there, or have been a couple of days ago. I assume the ppl are being so close to Forsyth. Alot of Forsythians are fisherpeople and word gets around that place pretty fast.

At first, I was complaining we we're seeing shad come over the spill gates. Now we're ready to see them stop coming over. They've flooded the upper lake.... continuous flow of shad flowing through. Good thing I think they should shut down the gates tomorrow, Tuesday at the latest. It's been tough fishing for most people, not really because of the shad but the amount of water being released. It's just tough to get the bait to the bottom, handling the boat and getting things just right for a good bite. Caught 2 trophies on One Cast yesterday - I think we're going to see quite a few big trout caught in the coming weeks because of the shad. It's giving them a good boost of growth too. Shad and the hoards of scuds - they're getting some good protein every day.

Guess the whites are in Swan Creek.... so are a thousand fishermen.

Huge schools of shad came over this afternoon, live and stunned. But fishing was tough mid day. Good early. This high sun kills the bite.

Lots of shad came over late yesterday and I saw some today. But I didn't get bit much this morning.

No fish in Roark so don't even bother. At least right now. They should be... Did find a bunch of stockers down from the Fish House. Use about anything under a float 6 feet and cast to the building and let it drift away. Bite every cast.

I guess there was a bunch of shad come through this morning.

Threw a white jig late afternoon today and caught 3 including this 23"ish brown. They aren't seeing many shad if any but they are hitting a white jig... some. Scuds still the #1 thing to use.

I'd say the first 1/2 miles of BS - below Powersite Dam.

I waited until April 7th to write this report because of the big rain event we had over the weekend. I wanted to address how six inches of rain water would affect our fishery. Now I know. Beaver and Table Rock lakes rose several feet and both have crested. Now we know about how much water will run and for how long. Beaver rose from 1,121 to 1,127 feet, and its top of flood pool is 1,130 feet. Operators are not releasing water from Beaver yet. They usually hold Beaver until Table Rock can handle the extra water, or if the level reaches 1,130 feet. Table Rock rose from 914 to 919.9 feet. The power pool (normal) level is 915 feet right now. Operators are running 16,000 cubic feet per second (cfs.) Of that amount, 6,350 cfs is going through two turbines and the rest is coming over the top flood gates. There are two units down for maintenance. My guess is that 16,000 cfs will run until Table Rock is back down to 917 feet, when the flow will slow to 12,000 cfs. I don't know how long the turbines will be off-line. When we have these kind of flows, we want emphasize pointers for fishing on Lake Taneycomo. First, be extra careful when boating. Wear a life jacket. Watch your wake. Watch where you're drifting. Second, in fishing -- if you're drift fishing -- your bait has to be on the bottom. Fish are going to either be on the bottom, or along the banks or up in the creeks. All three places have one thing in common -- the water is slower in all three places. I visited with Guides Rick Lisek and Blake Wilson after their trips Monday. They both drifted scuds on the bottom and caught good numbers of rainbows. I watched Rick clean his clients' fish, and they were were packed full of scuds (freshwater shrimp.) You see, with this heavy flow, gravel starts rolling, dislodging the scuds and moving them downstream. Our trout always take advantage of this and pack their bellies with these high-protein bugs. That's why we're drifting scuds on the bottom. It's good fishing these from the dam clear down to our resort (Lilley's Landing.) We're using a 1/4-ounce bell weight to get the fly down; four-pound line is fine. Use either one or two flies about 24 inches apart. Number 10 or 12 scuds are the best, gray in color. Egg flies and San Juan Worms are also catching fish but not as good as scuds. If you're drifting down past our resort, I'd switch to Power Eggs or night crawlers and fish them on the bottom. Down at the Landing, you can fish with a jig-and-float using a 1/32nd-ounce pink or brown jig or a Berkley's Pink Power Worm on a jig hook. Before the rain, we were catching fish in the mouths of the creeks downtown, Turkey and Roark. While I haven't talked to anyone yet, typically trout will go up in the creeks when there's this much water running. They'll chase spoons and spinners, jigs and eat power bait on the bottom or on a jig hook under a float. We're still hoping for a school of threadfin shad to find their way over the dam and get pulled into our lake, but we have not heard of any yet. I've heard a few fish caught on white jigs but not many. They will hit a white jig, but until we see anything different, I'd throw a sculpin or black 1/8th-ounce jig and get it close to the bottom. View full article

Not munching yet. No shad. Caught one on a white jig, one on a sculpin jig. Blake's catching them on scuds real good. they're already fat but from scuds. Temp 48

They opened 9 gates @ one foot each plus 2 units. Two units are down for maintenance. 15,000 cfs total.

I don't think this is up to date. But it doesn't look like we're going to get much.

I thought maybe since we hardly got any rain today it may have changed the long range forecast but….. nope