Phil Lilley

Edited... I left out the last paragraph.

Big browns can be caught on just about anything, anywhere, any time of the year on Lake Taneycomo. The current state record caught by Scott Sandusky, weighing 28 pounds 12 ounces, was caught on power bait around Cooper Creek. The previous state record brown of 27 pounds 10 ounces caught by Rick Osborne, was caught on a scud (fly) up by Table Rock dam in the trophy area. Big browns are caught on flies, jigs, night crawlers, power bait, spoons and other lures all year long. Increasing chances at a trophy fish of a lifetime While big browns can be caught on anything, any time, you can increase your odds of catching one. Targeting bigger fish is a key way to make this happen. Browns, like all other fish, will take advantage of an easy meal. The bigger the meal the less energy they have to expend. Start presenting bigger meals. The bigger fish are looking for the most bang for their buck. They expend much less energy eating a good sized shad or rainbow rather than spending all day collecting midges and sow bugs to fill the hole. Start using a bait that represents something that would satisfy a big fish for a good meal. Make it big enough that a big fish would have to eat it, or a very aggressive smaller fish with a huge appetite takes it. Everyone loves the numbers game Catching 100 fish in a day has always made for story telling tails that last for years and make great memories. I still like to play the game of trying to catch 10 fish in 10 casts. Number games are fun! I also like catching trophy browns. When I decide to chase the big boys, it is not a numbers game. I do not catch them every time I target them, but I am catching them on a more consistent basis when targeting them. Committing to catching a big fish The idea seems simple, but it is really hard to commit to catching a big fish. Making the commitment means using lures that do not normally catch big numbers of fish. If they do catch fish, chances are, the fish will be big, or at least, be an aggressive fish with a lot of gumption to hit a lure that big. For me, at first, it was hard to keep throwing a 5 inch jerk bait or deep diving crank with out getting bites on every other cast knowing that if i was throwing a jig, I would be seeing that kind of action. Shad on Lake Taneycomo Bigger fish are keying in on shad. Proof of this is when catching bigger fish, they are spitting up shad. Bigger browns that are being brought in to be weighed are leaving regurgitated shad in the live wells. I have been noticing increased shad busting activity mostly in the early morning hours and later in the afternoon. This is not happening only when the flood gates are open, or in the trophy area. It is happening all up and down the lake. Baits When I am targeting big browns, I will use bigger baits that are normally thought of as being used for bass and walleye. Mega Bass 90’s, 110’s, 110+1’s, Bomber Fat Free Shad in the Fingerling and Fry sizes, and Berkley Flickershad in 7cm and 5cm are the main baits I like to use and each one is for different water conditions, time of year, and flows. I loose a lot of gear! On a four hour trip, I average loosing 4-5 lures, but I am catching a lot of big browns. I guess I have to look at it as, “What is a trophy class brown worth?” Five baits at about $7 each equals $35. Is that worth it to me? The answer is yes! Flickershad are relatively cheap and catch big fish. Do you have to throw $25 Mega Bass? No. I just like throwing them under certain conditions. Bomber Fat Free Shad are about middle of the range and probably my favorite. I started to make the change to targeting pigs two years ago during a high water event. The flood gates of Table Rock dam were open along with 4 units of generation with about 24,000 cubic feet per second of water flowing. Tons of shad were coming over the dam and jig fishing was incredible catching good sized rainbows and some browns. The problem was, the only way to get to the bottom was to be using two 1/8 ounce jigs. I decided one day to throw a Mega Bass that I normally used for walleye on Upper Bull Shoals in the winter. First cast I caught a 20 inch brown. I lost the lure on the second cast, so I knew it was getting to the bottom, but loosing $25 hurt. I had a Bomber Fat Free Fingerling in Bill Dance pearl white that I decided to try. While drifting in 24,000 c.f.s., I cast the lure back up towards the dam. I started reeling it down, and to my surprise, after about 8 cranks on the reel, it hit bottom. I stopped reeling to let it get off the bottom, and again, to my surprise, it just kept digging the bottom. Twenty seconds later, the rod was almost jerked out of my hands. After a good fight, I landed a 22 inch brown. I continued fishing that way and after 4 hours, I had landed 6 fish over 20 inches. I found after time that I could keep the Fat Free Fingerling down from the dam to Short Creek with 3 or more units of water flowing. That's almost 5 miles of water under the right conditions you can just drag a potentially big fish catching crank bait. During the summer months of July and August, the Corp began a pattern of running 4 units of water in the late afternoon. I took the Mega Bass 110+1 up to the trophy area and gave it a try. First time beating the banks in high generation produced 4 fish over 20 inches in two hours of fishing. That became a habit every afternoon. I think I had one or two trips that summer during flows like that where I did not boat one over 20 inches. I did loose 10 of those Mega Bass lures in those two months. That method of jerk bait fishing for big browns was productive from the dam down to Fall Creek. During lower water conditions, I still had been noticing big browns being brought in from all over the lake spitting up shad. Another phenomena that was happening was seeing big browns all up and down the lake busting shad on the surface. This is not just happening in the trophy area but I have seen it as far down as the Branson Landing area. Throwing the Mega Bass 90 has been a good way to target the shad busting browns during the heat of the moment. I have also started playing with the Bomber Fat Free Shad in the Fry size with lower water flows. I can get that bait on the bottom with 2-3 units of water flowing and keep it down by just dragging, from the cable to Fall creek. I have also begun trolling that bait along with the Flickershad from Fall Creek to Branson Landing and catching trophy class browns. In one 4 hour period, that method has produced 3 big browns to the boat. The results are in! Since making the decision to make a commitment to fish for big browns, I have increased my catch rate on the trophy class fish. I no longer go out fishing with hopes of catching a big brown every now and then. I now know its just a matter of time before I catch another. The change in technique, lures used, and the commitment to sticking with it has put several trophy class browns to hand and seems to only be getting better. Give it a try. on your next trip down to Lake Taneycomo, commit 2-4 hours hunting for that trophy class fish. You might be pleasantly surprised! View full article

Yea- I forgot to edit it. Thanks

I love storms... miss seeing them on the horizon in Kansas growing up.

Well... the Doty's thought they had a head start on the field and I guess they did. First keeper brown in the live tank. 22-inches. But Sue Oldham out did everyone. She and her husband Larry were throwing white jigs up by Fall Creek when Sue hooked a big brown. 30 minutes later she landed it. They told us that the who fight should have been on video... it circled the boat 15 times, exclaimed Larry. One guy on the dock asked if she was prepared tackle wise for such a big fish. She said she was using 4 pound line, as always. So the answer was "of course". 28.25 inches, 18.5 inch girth, 12.84 pounds. Adipose fin was clipped. They will have a replica made and the trophy will be swimming shortly. Duane's brother's brown helped them take 2nd place and husband-wife team Alan and Teresa Utterback took third. Everybody has good quality rainbows. The weights reflect a 6-fish bag.

We had only 7 teams go out this morning for the benefit contest. But I think they're getting treated to some good trout fishing. We have a live tank for anglers to bring in big trout they catch, to hold and rest until weigh in. We have had 2 keeper browns brought in, so far. Weigh in is at 2 p.m..

Duane caught this one this morning... trout were busting shad between Cooper and our dock from 6 to 6:30 am.

Lots of reports of trout chasing shad in the trophy area. I fished from 1-3:30 today, bright sun, white 3/32nd oz jigs and caught a dozen with these nice rainbows and one brown. There are only 3 trout total in 7 images.

I've been using a GoPro 4 for a while... it has it's issues but has worked pretty well. But I'm looking to upgrade, mainly for the WiFi and the ability to upload video files directly to cloud based storage. GoPro offers that... but reviews for the GoPro 6 aren't that good. So... looking for suggestions. Thanks

Yes it was a trip!

What did she change?

Plate. Melt butter. Sprinkle season salt and lemon pepper. Trout filets. Dip both sides in butter. Add more spice- to taste. Fill the plate. Micro for 2.5 minutes.

Camera angle

I think Jim is being facetious...

Centrocercus - Sage Grouse. I had to look it up. Interesting screen name.

All people are different. Different tastes, different values, different likes. Some like to release all fish, some like to keep a few, some like to keep their limit, some like to keep as many as they can. Some like to see others do as they do... that's when you see arguments. Why can't everybody think the same way??? Because it's just not so. I don't necessarily like crappie. It's a texture thing. I like white bass, for the same reason. I probably would like a largemouth or spot, for the same reason. Firm meat. But then again, it's all in the way you cook it. I've met more people who say they HATE fish because the times they've tried it - whoever prepared it should be put in fish-cook-timeout. I've won more people over to eating fish by my microwave trout recipe. So we can agree to disagree. I know, and everyone else should too, understand keeping some fish will draw arguments... but at least on this fishing board, it will remain civil.

Just got back in. Working a variety of jigs from well below FC to Trout Hollow and only landed 6 rainbows, had 4 more on. No best colors - sculpin/ginger and sculpin/peach I guess got more bites. White - 0 High sun though... Babler said 6-8 am was best bite.

Babler said he saw smallmouth busting on shad this morning between Fall and Short Creek... big smallies. May be time to swim a swimming minnow up there.

The early morning bite hasn't been that good. Most of the guides have been saying it starts after 8 am, after the sun gets up a bit... which doesn't make any sense. Come by and say hi if you get a chance!

We'd love to have more posts on the Greer's Ferry forum... hard to get a new one going! Thanks for posting!

2 units tonight... real slow water. May be you need to readjust again before you go to bed

I think it was a very good year for crappie on TR - and other places. The ones I got were very nice, not many shorts at all.

I knew as soon as I posted this, things would change. Duane just texted me and said they just closed the flood gates at Table Rock Dam.