Phil Lilley

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. View full article

My buddy in Neosho said the whites moved up, way up in the Spring last week. Not sure if it was a false run or where they are now. He's done well some days and can't find them others. Has done well on crappie too.

Found it

Oh... I was playing around with the settings and accidentally left it like that. Sorry Now if I can only find that setting...

Put in at Old State Park around 7:30am...water was definitely stained at the ramp. Ran to clean water which started at mile long bridge...started down by the darn with a jerkbait and it was pretty slow for the first couple hours...water was around 44 deg. Moved to around mile long bridge and started fishing secondary points and started catching fish...they were definitely stacked on some steeper points...would catch 3-5 fish on each point that had bigger rock and a drop off. Decided to run up to sons creek and the water was dirty running up there...it cleared a little bit in sons but still stained up by power line cove. Did catch a couple shorts up there on a rock crawler but wasn’t feeling it and ran back down to cleaner water. Ended with a rough total of 20 bass with 6 keepers...nothing big just basic 15-16” fish. Almost all caught on jerkbaits with a couple on rock crawler. Got off the water around 4:30...water had warmed to 46 deg. Found 49 deg water in the dirty water. View full article

I almost posted you wouldn't have to have a permit but... I don't know. I don't think you would if you were in Missouri and caught it. Arkansas I don't know. I doubt it though.

Could not have asked for better weather for this time of the year. Cloudy morning, light wind, turned into a sunny afternoon with temps near 70 at the weigh in. I believe I heard some of the folks say water temps were in the 49-50 range, the water has cleared up considerably in the Eagle Rock area. Saw quite a few boats moving up and down the channel in front of Eagle Rock during the course of the day. Pretty decent fishing overall, heard numbers in the 10 to low 20's of bass caught per boat. Mid-depth crank baits, Rock Crawlers being mentioned the most, caught the most fish. Also heard of some being caught on spinner baits, ned rig, and a few on jigs. All fish being weighed in were subject to intense scrutiny. OK, to cut to the chase, the winner was Kbillb - Kbillb's son one the first OA One Bass back in 2015, so another trophy to place over the family fireplace. Very nice plaque made by Ducky Doty. It will have the winner name added to it and then sent to Kbillb. Here's the winning fish, 4-15 was the weight. I believe this fish held by Shark Bait was the runner-up, I was running back and forth between taking pics and flipping burgers, so I may have this wrong, but it was a fish in the 3.5 range. Had a great time, already looking forward to next year! Thanks to all who provided food and fellowship! View full article

@cheesemaster caught the 3/6 and took second.

Babler took me around to all his good spots, at least he said they were all of them We caught a bunch of bass but no big ones. I think we had 3 keepers out of 20+ fish. Fished a wiggle wart, rock crawler, a ned and a grub. I'll let Bill give the proper, bass lingo names. I think I'll bring my trout rods, 2-pound line and white marabou jigs next time... show you guys how to catch those stinkin' bass

Have heard they're in Beaver... and Swan Creek. Lots of fish.

nope

Watch One Cast and you'll know each day what the water is doing. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwcRHlU-7RKUvIVq7IhWHOw

Wind was gusting so hard here that it was picking water up off the lake and whipping it way up in the air. Worried about the dock... and guys out fishing but had no issues. They even caught fish.

We're catching a lot of very dark rainbows. Never seen them this dark.

Lilleys' Landing will host 2 spring trout tournaments this year. The first is the C.A.M. Benefit Contest on April 7th and the second is the MOAFS Benefit Contest on May 19th. The following is a run down of each tournament: 2018 C.A.M. Trout Tournament Lilleys' Landing will again host a benefit tournament for Christian Action Ministries on Saturday, April 7th here on Lake Taneycomo. Lilleys’ Landing will again host a benefit tournament for Christian Action Ministries on Saturday, April 7th here on Lake Taneycomo. Each year, Christian Action Ministries food pantry distributes more than 700,000 pounds of food and grocery products to struggling families in our area, serving more than 1,000 families a month on average. C.A.M. also guides people to other service ministries in Taney County to help them with finances, job training and counseling. This ministry is made possible by businesses, individuals, churches and civic organizations who believe in the C.A.M. vision of providing people in need the basic resource of food, encouraging self-sufficiency and independence and bringing together churches, businesses and individuals for meeting these needs. For this year's tournament, we are adding a new concept: Divisions. Each contestant will chose in which of the three divisions he or she wants to fish - Professional, Intermediate or Novice. Each division's top three place finishers will earn a prize. ~~TOURNAMENT FORMAT~~ Time: Start 8 a.m. and check in at 3 p.m. Lilleys' Landing will provide fish rulers to be returned after the contest. We will also provide a small notepad and pen to record the length of each fish caught by each contestant. EVERY TROUT caught will be scored, regardless of species or legality. In another words, brown trout less than 20 inches will be scored, as well as rainbow trout caught in the trophy area that measure between 12 and 20 inches. All trout MUST be released immediately after being measured. Each trout is measure by placing the fish in the measuring tray with the nose against the head of the rule. You may pinch and/or swing the tail. Lengths will be scored up to the half-inch. If a trout is 14-1/8th inch, it's scored 14.5 inches. Each measurement will be written down in the notepad provided along with the time it was caught and the initial R for rainbow or B for brown trout. At check-in all notepads will be turned in for tally. All measurements will be added by the tournament director with total recorded as the angler's final score. SCORE - The total of the lengths of all trout caught and recorded is the final SCORE of each contestant. If you catch 48 trout, the length of all 48 combined is the final score. Ties will be broken by the longest fish, second longest and so on. The tournament fee is $25 per person. Prizes will be given to the top three finishers of each division. All proceeds from entries and boat rentals will go to C.A.M.. Other rules- *NEW* DIVISIONS: Participants sign up for the division that best fits your fishing skill level - Professional, Intermediate or Novice. Move Up Next Contest: The top finisher of the Novice and Intermediate divisions must move up one division for the following year’s tournament. All contestants will fish from a boat OR from Lilleys' Landing's dock. No wading will be allowed. There is no limit to how many anglers can fish out of a boat. It is an individual contest, so each angler measures and scores his or her own trout. This is an artificial- only fishing tournament. No live bait is allowed, nor scented, soft plastic baits, Powerbait, corn, or dog food, etc. No chumming will be allowed. All Missouri Department of Conservation rules apply. We are looking for sponsors. We would ask sponsors to donate product and/or merchandise gift cards for the winners. Contact our office - lilleys@lilleyslanding.com or call 417-334-6380 and speak to Lisa Henderson. Lilleys' Landing will provide a meal for contestants and spectators after the tournament. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ MOAFS Benefit Trout Tournament, May 19 Lilleys' Landing Resort & Marina in Branson will host the first Missouri Chapter of the American Fisheries Society's benefit trout tournament on Saturday, May 19th. The format will be nearly identical to other trout tournament held at Lilleys' Landing, on Lake Taneycomo. It will be a two-person team contest, with each team weighing in six trout. It will be an artificial-only tournament, catch-and-release contest with all trout released immediately after weigh-in. Tournament hours will be from the 8 a.m. launch to 4 p.m. weigh-in. Tournament fees are $70 per team with an optional $10 biggest trout pot. Cash prizes will be 35% of the purse for first, 25% for second and 10% for third. The Big Trout Pot will be divided with the two top finishers - 70% for biggest and 30% for second biggest trout. Plaques will also be awarded to top winners. All Missouri game and fish rules apply. Click the flyer below for tournament rules.

Our lake conditions have changed dramatically this past week. A big rain last weekend brought both Beaver and Table Rock lakes up more than eight feet. Beaver continues to inch upwards, although some water is being released through the turbines at Beaver Dam. But Table Rock is starting to drop ever so slowly. Table Rock crested yesterday at about 916.49 feet, 1.49 feet above seasonal power pool. Officials have been running anywhere from 12,000 - 14,000 cubic feet per second of water, or four units, since Monday morning (2/26). Even with that much water flowing from Table Rock, it has only dropped to 916.13 feet. That means there's still a lot of water running into Table Rock. I'm looking for a slow-down of generation, may be by this weekend (3/3). It is good that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been releasing this much water simply because we're in the beginning of our rainy season, and we sure don't want a repeat of last year's flooding. Keeping the lakes down to around seasonal power pool is a good thing. I reported on Wednesday, Feb. 28th, that we had seen threadfin shad in our lake just below Table Rock Dam. These shad are in distress and dying on Table Rock Lake because its water temperature has dropped into the lower 40's. Threadfin shad cannot live in cold water and start to die off when the lake water gets to around 42 degrees. They subsequently get sucked through the turbines at Table Rock Dam when this happens. Our trout will generally gobble up these shad as they float down Taneycomo. They get a good dose of protein, producing a big growth boost. That makes for a great fishing event because the trout become very aggressive, hitting about anything white -- spoons, jigs, flies and hard baits. My fishing report, though, isn't the normal - "Get out and join the fun!" kind of report. We've boated up there several times, drifting from the cable down to Fall Creek and haven't found the trout hitting our white jigs, or shad flies. We are catching a few but not the numbers of the size of rainbows and browns we'd typically see in a "shad hatch." Why? I think it's because they're not seeing many shad come through. These shad run in big schools on Table Rock, and I don't think we've had a big school of shad get close enough to the turbine intakes (130 feet deep at the dam face) to get sucked through. We've seen a bunch of shad floating on Taney but not big numbers. We need to see more -- well, the trout need to see more shad to improve their bite. What's been working? Drifting scuds, eggs and shad flies below the dam is good, but no great. Sinking the flies to the bottom is a little tough with four units running. Using a drift rig with a 1/4-ounce bell weight is the best. We are catching a few on white 1/8-ounce jigs, but I've done the best using a 1/16-ounce white jig under a float and setting the depth at eight- to nine-feet deep. I believe when the water slows down to -- say to three units or 9,000 c.f.s. -- we should see a vast improvement of catching, mainly because we'll be able to get the flies and lures to the bottom better and keep them there. The same will be true for drifting bait below Fall Creek. Boaters have been struggling with the volume of water that's been flowing -- that and the wind. The coming days should be much better. The creeks have been the hot spots the last few days. Fishing in the mouths of these creeks, as well as up in the creeks, has produced some good catches. Short, Cooper, Turkey, Coon, Roark and Bee creeks to name the upper creeks. I bet Bull Creek would even be good, too. Trout are looking to move out of the current, plus, they like the warmer water in those creeks. Our lake water is now 43 degrees, and both rainbows and browns would prefer upper 40's to lower 50's. You'll even fund some blue gill, crappie and bass in these creeks! They're catching trout on spoons, small stick baits, jig-and-float (white and pink) and baits like night crawlers, minnows and Powerbait. Anglers report that these rainbows in the creeks are good sized trout, too! As of today, Saturday, March 3, dam operators they have backed off generation this morning to three units at 10,000 c.f.s, with the lake level at 708.5 feet. This should make fishing much easier for drifting and even better for fishing off a dock. We'll see what the reports are after today. View full article

Cooper is a good ramp. You shouldn't have any problems. Traveling from there to Fall Creek is good unless you get too close to either bank - logs and shallow water. Stay in the middle and you'll be fine.

The Corps sends out emails if there's a high water event, like flood gates, but not when there's water running like now. I thought they'd cut back today and they did. 3 units this morning should be pretty manageable. TR is starting to drop pretty good now. With no rain in the 10 day forecast, we should see flows slowing down and lake levels dropping real slow. Still, would love to see them drop both lakes down... as far as they can go. Don't want to see another 6-8 inch rain over 2-3 days again this spring.

Lilleys' Landing Resort & Marina is hosting the first ever Missouri Chapter of the American Fisheries Society's benefit trout tournament this year on Saturday, May 19th. The format will be nearly identical to other trout tournament held out of Lilleys' Landing, on Lake Taneycomo. It's a 2-person team contest, weighing 6 (six) trout per team for winning weight. It will be an artificial only tournament, catch and release. All trout will be released immediately after weigh-in. Tournament hours will be from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (weigh-in). Tournament fees are $70 per team with an optional $10 biggest trout pot. Cash prizes will be 35% of the purse for first, 25% for second and 10% for third. Big Trout Pot will be divided with the 2 top finishers - 70% for biggest and 30% for second biggest trout. Plaques will also be given to top winers. All proceeds will go to student scholarships for those who are seeking fisheries biologist degrees. All Missouri game and fish rules apply. See flyer for tournament rules.

Lilleys' Landing will host a benefit tournament for C.A.M. on Saturday, April 7th here on Lake Taneycomo. Christian Action Ministries is a local food bank providing food for families who are in need of a hand-up. Each year Christian Action Ministries food pantry distributes tens of thousands of pounds of food and grocery products to hungry and needy people in our community. This distribution process is made possible by companies in the food and grocery industry and individuals who regularly donate surplus, distressed, and damaged food and grocery items to us so we may help those Taney county families who need it most. C.A.M. serves over 1,000 families per month on average. C.A.M. also guides people to other service ministries in Taney County, dealing with finances, job training and counseling. This year we are adding a new concept: Divisions. Each contestant will chose which of the 3 divisions he or she wants to fish in - Professional, Intermediate or Novice. Each division's top 3 place finishers will earn a prize. ~~TOURNAMENT FORMAT~~ Time: Start 8 am and check in at 3 pm. Lilleys' Landing will provide fish rulers to be returned after the contest. We will also provide a small notepad and pen to write each measurement to each individual. EACH TROUT caught will be scored. Note: All trout regardless of species or legality. In another words, brown trout less than 20 inches will be scored, as well as rainbow trout caught in the trophy area that measure between 12 and 20 inches. All trout MUST be released immediately, after being measured. Scoring is by measuring each trout caught by placing the fish in the measuring tray with the nose against the head of the rule. You may pinch and/or swing the tail. Length will be scored up to the half-inch. If a trout is 14-1/8th inch, it's scored 14.5 inches. Each measurement will be written down in the notepad provided along with the time it was caught. Also initial R for rainbow or B for brown trout. At "weigh-in", notepads will be turned in for tally. All measurements will be added by the tournament director and a total length will be the angler's final score. SCORE - The total of the lengths of all trout caught and recorded is the final SCORE of each contestant. If you catch 48 trout, the length of all 48 combined is the final score. Ties will be broken by the longest fish, second longest and so on. Tournament fee is $25 per person. Prizes will be given to the top 3 finishers of each division. All proceeds from entries and boat rentals will go to C.A.M.. Other rules- *NEW* DIVISIONS: Participants sign up for the division that best fits your fishing skill level - Professional, Intermediate or Novice. Move Up Next Contest: The top finisher of the Novice and Intermediate divisions must move up one division for the following year’s tournament. All contestants will fish from a boat OR from Lilleys' Landing's dock. No wading will be allowed. There is no limit to how many anglers can fish out of a boat. It is an individual contest and each angler measures and scores his or her own trout. Each boat will have one measurement ruler. This is an artificial only fishing tournament. No live bait is allowed. No scented or soft plastic baits are allowed. No Powerbait or corn is allowed. No chumming will be allowed. All Missouri Department of Conservation rules apply. We are looking for sponsors. We would ask sponsors to donate product and/or merchandise gift cards for the winners. Contact our office - lilleys@lilleyslanding.com or call 417-334-6380 and speak to Lisa Henderson. Lilleys' Landing will provide a nice meal to contestants and spectators after the tournament.

Kris Nelson, owner of that new shop, will stock his shop and run it like I have mine. He's been a guide on Stockton for quite a few years and is successful on those walleyes... he's shown me pics. But he will carry what works in his shop- baits that catch fish at Stockton. He and his wife have worked hard since buying the resort. Hope they do well. I've been trying to get him to write fishing reports on the forum... he's been too busy but I'll keep trying.

MDC encourages community support at MoNASP state tournament in Branson March 23-24. JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) and the Missouri Conservation Heritage Foundation are hosting the tenth annual Missouri National Archery in Schools Program (MoNASP) state tournament on March 23-24 at the Branson Convention Center, 200 Sycamore St. About 2,500 student archers from schools around the state will compete in the state tournament. New this year, the bullseye and 3D archery tournaments will be at the same venue this year and on the same days. Be sure to register for both tournaments while registering at nasptournaments.org. The public is welcome to attend to support the participants. This year’s tournament will have a gate fee of $10. MoNASP is coordinated through MDC and the Conservation Federation of Missouri (CFM) in partnership with about 620 participating schools and numerous supporting organizations throughout the state. More than 170,000 Missouri students participate in the program. MoNASP is an affiliate of the National Archery in Schools Program (NASP) and promotes education, self-esteem, and physical activity for students in grades 4-12 through participation in the sport of archery. "Missouri is a great place to hunt and fish, and a great place for shooting sports such as archery," said MDC MoNASP Coordinator Eric Edwards. "MoNASP not only teaches students the lifelong skills that come from archery, but it also helps them excel in the classroom." More than 12,000 student archers around the state have competed so far this winter in local tournaments with the hope of qualifying for one of the 2,500 spots at the state tournament. Student archers, who shoot qualifying scores at the state tournament, will earn spots at the NASP national tournament this spring in Louisville, Ky. For more information on MoNASP, including participating schools and communities, visit http://bit.ly/2FzQo9E. Student archers from around the state will compete in the MoNASP tenth annual state tournament on March 23-24 at the Branson Convention Center. MEDIA CONTACT: Lucas Bond News Services Coordinator 573-522-4115 x3243 Lucas.Bond@mdc.mo.gov