Phil Lilley

I can do 50% off rooms, boats and stall rentals those days for the group. I can't commit to 50% discount if this continues to be an annual event but there will always be some discount to an OAF event here.

Blake and I are planning on being there Saturday for a day trip. Not sure what we're bringing as far as a boat - probably one of our jon boats with a prop. If you've watched One Cast lately, we've made a football jig / sculpin jig that we've done fairly well on and we're wanting to try it on the White. Give me your addresses if you want us to mail you a couple to try out this weekend.

https://lilleyslanding.com/Availability/avail_0124.htm

I could do something the last weekend - 1/26-27. We usually don't fill up that weekend.

There are 3 ingredients to this dubbing - Dog Hair (gray Shih Tzu), Gray Antron and gray Star Bright

by Blake Wilson The month of November is at its end. It has brought us cooler weather, and with that, more generation. On Lake Taneycomo these last few weeks, typically 50 to 75% of most days saw some type of flow. Generally only a few hours in the daylight experienced the water off. There were even a few days last week with some very slow flow, as little as five megawatts at 1,200 cubic feet per second. It was quite interesting. Phil's theory is that something broke, and the U.S.Corps of Army Engineers was not able to shut a turbine completely down. This happened a couple of years ago. But everything is back to normal. Fishing has been above par for me in terms of numbers of trout, and I've heard the same from other anglers. With flowing water it is easier to get a bite and catch more fish. Nathan Bolerjack, marketing manager here at Lilleys, reported 22 trophies were caught and released in November, about average compared to past years for the month. On the live bait side of the spectrum, the night crawler reigns supreme. There are periods of the year our trout lose their appetite for worms for whatever reason, but for the most part, they are the go-to bait for big and little trout. Use four-pound line, #8 short shank bait holder hook and a small split shot to get the worm down to the bottom. Inject the worm with a little air using a hypodermic needle to float it off the bottom or use a floating jig head. If the water is running, use a half crawler, same rig or drift rig, and drift it on the bottom. On the artificial side of the spectrum, a variety of things have been working. During generation, especially with two or more units, drifting a scud and egg on a drift rig has been great through the trophy area clear down to Short Creek. The egg fly seems to be more productive early in the morning than the scud does better later in the day. I have been primarily using a size 14 in gray, tan, olive or crystal gray colors. The egg of choice has been the eggstacy orange, or a 6mm orange bead pegged on the line 2-3 inches above a scud fly. When the water is moving slower, one unit or less, or when it's off completely, a number of lures and flies used under a float are working. Below the trophy area, the pink worm under a float is good before the sun gets up over the water. Use four-pound line and fish it four- to seven-feet deep. Black or tan micro jigs, as well as the megaworm, under a float are producing trout. You might consider going to two-pound line if you're not getting bit, especially on very still and sunny days. Captain Brett Rader has been very successful with his softshell scuds, his coral megaworm variation and a white micro jig. Here at Lilleys' Landing, we are currently in production of a new sculpin jig style streamer. It's a football style jig tied as a sculpin using rabbit fur strips. The football jig construction allows the jig to be retrieved hook up so it can be hopped or drug on the bottom without getting snagged on the rocks. In bass fishing, this jig is used to imitate crawfish. It's tied using the same colors we offer now in our fly section, namely the Leonard Keeney sculpin. The main difference is the football- shaped head is poured lead like a jig. It weighs much more than the Keeney sculpin and can be thrown using spin cast equipment. If you watch One Cast, you've seen us using this jig quite a bit lately, experimenting with the best ways to use it. Darin Schildknecht, our fly shop manager, told me that his first time fishing the jig was the most fun he's had fishing for six years! So far the jig has worked best in fairly shallow water where trout are actively feeding, worked about the same as you would fly fishing and stripping a sculpin fly. This is gravel flats in no more than three to four feet of water. Work it using quick, darting and fast movements, stopping and letting it lie on the bottom a few seconds. The Branson Landing area is holding quite a few trout including a lot of brown trout. The Missouri Department of Conservation stocked about 4,000 browns in early November below the Landing, and they've seemed to have found a home in that area. These aren't the normal stocker size of 9 to 11 inches. These actually are a year older and average 14 to 18 inches in length. They're chasing lures like spoons, spinners and jerk baits, as well as the other baits like worms and Powerbait. If you fish this area, stick to the deep side away from the Landing and fish Power Eggs, worms and the pink worm under a float. Trolling lures should also work well down there. View full article

I haven't read all this... but I will comment on Al's last post. I praise God for who He is... I thank Him In all things, good and bad. I trust Him regardless of my circumstances. I trust Him to give me the strength to go through whatever evil may come on me or people around me. And if it kills me, I trust Him for forgiving me for all the bad things I've done. And that's only through what Jesus did on the cross. You can judge a god or a religion by how people live, talk and act but you'd be so misguided. You can't judge the God of the universe by imperfect people. You have to deal with Him personally, just like you'll have to deal with Him face to face someday.

I believe that's the weekend of a tournament at Trout Hollow. Most of the guys here will be participating. I will not. But I can't confirm at this time. If I come it'll be just a day trip most likely. So don't count me in for a bed. Thanks guys.

So the dates are December 15-16, right?

What are the dates?

The White River minimum flow is 629 cfs.

Gray Shih Tzu dog - Peppy. It was Rolan's dog. He cuts the hair to 1/2 inch pieces and mixes it with gray antron and ??? another dubbing. I've asked Rolan.

This is interesting too. Note the DO level on the 16th and beyond. It doesn't drop below 4 ppm. I asked Shane about it. He said TR couldn't have turned because it hasn't been cold enough and TR's surface temp is still in the low 60's. But he also admitted this reading is very strange. I noted also that our water is still pretty clear - hasn't silted up yet. That's another indicator that TR turns. Overall, this fall season has been a pretty good year in regards to water quality and fish bite/fight. We've had alot worse for sure.

Beat me to the post... I've never seen it. It's a minimum flow rate they tested back in the 90's. They said at the time that this flow would be too hard on the turbine blades to maintain... but they've ran 35 mw alot since them which is pretty low flow. 5 mw is crazy. I fished the trophy area below Lookout yesterday and the flow seemed to be more than I would expect at 5 mw.

We're blessed with some nice trout.

Awesome! Making memories.

Yeah- if anyone gets stuff like this, let me know. This person joined recently. I should have nixed them but sometimes it's hard to tell.

If you like to fish Lake Taneycomo with no generation, then you've been loving the last five months. There have been a handful of days when the water ran all day. Most days, it has been off a majority of the time. These conditions are a favorite for fly fishers, especially those fishing immediately below the dam. I like it because I can fly fish a lot of places from my boat, in various ways, trying out dry flies, streamers, and stripping film flies as well as midges and scuds under a float. With the water off, dock fishermen have an easier time, too. They aren't fighting the current and catching trash floating down the lake on the lines. If you like trolling, I think it's more effective to do this when the water is off, although it's not exclusively done during these periods. Our water temperature is 53 and has remained steady for the past three months. The dissolved oxygen content is also good -- with no affects to fish appetites or their ability to fight. I haven't had any fish struggle to regain strength when released, but I also haven't caught any really big trout lately. I have seen a lot of big browns and a few big rainbows caught up close to the dam on social media. They have been caught mainly in the outlets, it appears, although I have seen a few anglers poising down by what I would call the old Rebar Hole riffle. Some have been caught on the Taneycomo Sculpin, designed and tied by Leonard Keeney. He sent me some images the other day that explained what he was fishing and why. Note the color of the sculpin he photographed in the water. Leonard claims, and I concur, sculpin turn various colors throughout the year depending on their environment and their life cycle. According to Keeney, sculpins just spawned in our lake and that is why they are a gold variant color. I've seen them in their dark green colors--almost a black. They also have an incandescent green lining at times. All these are considered when Keeney ties his sculpins as well as when fishes them. Sculpins sit on the bottom of the lake, most times motionless. When they move, they dart, fast, then come to a quick stop, motionless again. They sit up high on their pectoral fins when resting. We use this knowledge when working a sculpin fly. It's a stop-and-start retrieve with quick, short strips. In my experience, the trout will take the sculpins when they're resting, and the strike is very aggressive. We use sculpin flies in various colors and sizes. These flies are tied with lead eyes which makes them heavy, so I would suggest using at least a 6-weight, 9-foot rod with heavy tippet (8-10 pound fluorocarbon.) Keeney offers the following colors - gray, cream, purple, dark olive, light olive, black, gold variant, olive variant, sculpin, chinchilla, sand variant, ginger, red, white, brown and blue. There are two main sizes-- #6's and #8's. All are stocked in our fly shop. I am just now experimenting with throwing a sculpin. From my boat, I find water that's less then three feet deep and gravel bottom. Below the dam you'll find many areas that fit this description. The fly is tied with the hook up so that when it is retrieved, it doesn't tend to catch the bottom. I believe a jig can be used in the same way, using a spin cast rig. But the jig, at least the way our jigs are designed, will tend to get snagged on the bottom more often, as well as pick up green moss, which lessens the chance of getting bit. Speaking of jigs, we haven't been throwing jigs very much, but when we do we're using dark colors--black, sculpin/black, sculpin and brown. And maybe we should experiment with some new colors like gold (gold variant.) Jigs under a float are working, especially if there's a chop on the surface. Use micro to 1/32nd-ounce jigs on two- to four- pound line in the same colors I mentioned. Fish them at least four-feet deep up to eight feet, depending on where you're fishing. I've been fishing a combo fly rig, using a peppy scud under a zebra midge all under an indicator. I'm using 6x fluorocarbon tippet with a #12-#14 scud and a red or black #14 or #16 midge, fishing it anywhere from three- to seven-feet deep, depending on the depth of water. I am not fishing the scud on the bottom, but about a foot from the bottom in most cases. Most of the time I'm catching them on the scud, but there are some days they hit the midge just as often. The few guides who are working right now report fishing night crawlers from Fall Creek to Cooper Creek on the bottom using four-pound line. We've seen a few big rainbows caught this way, some longer than 20 inches. The Berkley pink worm under a float has also done quite well -- again with four-pound line and fished five- to eight-feet deep, depending on the depth of water. View full article

I had some trouble last week. Rick found something the first time but the next time he didn't. Then it worked. It seems to be sporadic. It's an AWS thing (Amazon).

Thanks!!

I tried to find a winter image to show less trees... but this isn't too bad.

It's changed a lot.

You know when you walk across the outlet, you're "kicking" up bugs for the guys downstream. Maybe he was trying to kick for himself.