Phil Lilley

DIXON, Mo. – The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) reports that 11-year old Maverick Yoakum of Dixon became the most recent record-breaking angler in Missouri when he hooked a river redhorse on Tavern Creek using a rod and reel. The new “pole and line” record river redhorse caught by Yoakum on March 4 weighed 10-pounds, 3-ounces. The new record breaks the previous state-record and world record pole-and-line river redhorse of 9-pound, 13-ounces caught at Tavern Creek in 2016. Yoakum was using worms when he caught the fish. MDC staff verified the record-weight fish using a certified scale in Brinktown. <Read More>

Moderate generation continues at Table Rock Dam despite the fact the lakes above Lake Taneycomo are close to or just below their seasonal power pool levels. Beaver Lake continues to release water and is at 1120.94, a little less than a foot over pool level. Table Rock's lake level dropped below 915 feet yesterday, which is its seasonal power pool level. Table Rock Dam has been releasing between 3,000 and 11,500 cubic feet per second of water -- yes it's been all over the place. The pattern has been heavy flow for an hour or two after dark and then again about dawn for another hour or two. Then it varies from one to two units, 3,000 to 7,000 c.f.s. of water. How long will this continue? It's so hard to say. I would think with the lakes dropping to "normal" that operators will back off and not run as much. Selfishly, we like it running for no other reason than to drop the lakes further to make room for any spring rains possibly heading our way. Our water temperature remains about 44 degrees and clear. Starting at the dam, the trophy area, Chuck Gries and Bill Babler (fishing guides) report drifting brown or gray #14 or #16 scuds on the bottom, either using a drift rig or suspended under a float, has been catching good numbers of rainbows but very few browns. There's a good layer of green algae on the bottom, so you need to check your flies quite often and clean the green slim off of them. They are also doing fair using a red San Juan Worm and an egg fly. Babler is using a Y2K. White jigs are still catching trout, too. We're using any where from a 1/16th-ounce to an 1/8th- ounce depending on generation, with the heavier the flow, the heavier the jig. The fish seem to like the jig moving quicker, too. I've been shaking the jig and then letting it fall, an action similar to a jerk bait. Other colors have been working, too. Sculpin/ginger, brown/orange, ginger and black/olive have been good colors. But white is still the best overall. There's been some anglers fishing a 1/16th-ounce jig under a float and catching well. All the colors I've mentioned plus pink. They're fishing it anywhere from five- to eight-feet deep, using four-pound line. This technique has been good in the trophy area as well as below the area. Chad Knight caught this 18-inch smallmouth bass last week drifting a sculpin jig under a float, fishing along the bluff bank across from the resort. Steve Dickey, another one of fishing guides, has been keeping his clients in trout, fishing a Berkley's Pink PowerWorm under a float eight-feet deep from Monkey Island down through the bridges. Guide Buster Loving's clients came in yesterday with a heavy stringer of two limits of rainbows weighing more than eight pounds total. They caught them on spoons down below the Fish House at the Branson Landing. Buster said it took him a while to find the school of rainbows but when they did it was "lights out!" White Berkley's Power eggs and white or yellow Power nuggets have been catching rainbows drifting them on the bottom from just above Lilleys' Landing down through Cooper Creek, then from Monkey Island through the bridges. Anglers are still hooking trout (and other warm water species of fish) in Roark Creek, but catching has slowed down a bit. This is an army buddy of Duane Doty's, Billie Welker. And this is the first trout he's ever caught . . . and it wasn't his last.

We drove over to the creeks last evening to check out the reports we've been hearing about. "Swan is loaded with fish. Beaver is on fire - whites and crappie". We didn't find much. First bad sign was... no cars. It would be the only one over there and catching fish but that's not how it works. If there's cars and trucks in the park, on the road, the fish are biting, right? Both creeks are clear - great looking water. Didn't take any temps. We fished in the park at Swan - Duane caught a couple of stinkin' bass. We drove to Beaver and drove through the field past the tin whistles - I think Duane caught another s-bass. Then we drove back to Powersite and fished from the bank below the dam. I caught a stinkin' trout. Here's a pic of Beaver and where the water is at this lake level. You may be able to drive to the creek up from the whistle road across the field - the creek level is real close to going into the field so it may be tough. But as the lake keep dropping, the creek should be more accessible. Duane thought the first riffle would be at the bluff down from the 160 bridge. Looking down the road. Looking up the creek from the road.