Phil Lilley

She was more colorful for sure. The one in 2012 was silver and much heavier. Yesterday's rainbow was average weight I'd say. But the one in '12 was thick, solid, a brute. And a bit longer. They both put up a good fight, although this one fought in less than ideal water conditions. I was glad Duane was busy -- it let her rest almost 45 minutes in the water before being released.

You can't match our trout eggs... but then you don't have to. I've been catching them on 10mm beads. They're huge!

Not sure how to title this one. Went out this morning to get a baseline for a fishing report - try some things. They are running one unit of water, lake level 705.3 feet. I didn't get out till about 9 a.m. - boated up to just above the Narrows in the trophy area. I threw some jigs -- black, sculpin and olive -- with only a couple of bites. The midges were hatching in clouds and rainbows were taking them along the current edges close to the bluff bank. I didn't have my fly rod in the boat or I would have been throwing a small dry. I wanted to try one more thing before heading back -- a bead. We use beads in Alaska to catch big rainbows during the salmon spawning season and I'd been experiment with them here. You peg the bead, which comes in various sizes and colors, to your line about 2 inches above a small hook. Then you pinch a small split shot above the bead about 2 feet. I was using 4 pound line. Throw it out and drift it like you would any fly or bait. Bump it on the bottom. I picked up 2 small rainbows and had 3 more good strikes. Both rainbows had the hook in its mouth, not outside of it. Then I thought, let's do a comparison. So I boated back up to the top of the Narrows and drifted a #12 grey scud (200R hook) using the same split shot. Caught one small rainbow right off the bat. Then got a good strike, then another. I thought it would be about the same result. But towards the end of the faster water, I hooked something that surprised me. Why surprise? Well, I wasn't ready for something to pull hard enough to break my line, plus my drag wasn't set for it either. Nor did I have my anti-reel switched so I couldn't reel backwards like I usually do. Luckily, my line held up as the drag started to slip a little. Then I was able to flip the switch and reel backwards. It was a good fish but the hard fast run fooled me. I didn't think it was as big as it was. It stayed deep for almost the entire fight, making 3 long runs and fought hard close to the boat to stay down. I grabbed the Gopro, turned it on and set it up on the bar. The video shows the fight towards the middle to the end, not the long runs. I netted the fish but kept it in the water. I called Duane at the resort and asked him to come up with the camera to take some pics. He was on a room repair mission so it took a while for him to boat up to where I was. I drifted down to a spot on the bank where I could get out with the fish. It's way too hard to get good, SAFE pics of a trophy trout while in a boat. I say safe for the fish, not me. I didn't want to raise the rainbow out of the water unless it was for a few quick pictures. The color of this big sow were incredible! I was blessed to have landed and released. I did get a measurement, marking my spinning rod against her length while in the net. I set it on a measuring board and was surprised to see it was 28.25 inches long. It didn't seem that long in the water. The release..... View full article

Water levels are running at 270cfs (350cfs avg) and water clarity has been clear. The river is low and clear and still tough fishing on sunny days and easy catching on overcast days. On the sunny days a Y2k down deep produces well and a Brownie can be really hot some days. There have been a lot of crawfish moving around. And a big nymph in olive or brown can be really good. Stripping the woolly or nymph upstream is the ticket. For spin fishers on tough days or even on a fly rod a hot pink trout magnet can be really hard to beat. On a windy day use a indicator to get down below the leaves floating in the water. Tight lines and good luck, Mark Crawford springriverfliesandguides.com

Boated to the red house above the Narrows last evening and started fishing a black 1/16th oz jig, this time under a float 4-5 feet deep. They were running one unit worth of water, about the same as Saturday evening. Drifted down to Fall Creek - nothing... I ended up throwing the jig straight below Fall Creek but still no bites. I quit before the water dropped out - that's when the fishing has gotten better the last few times out. Lots of leaves in the lake from the winds all day yesterday. Hopefully they sank last night and won't be a factor today.

Last summer black jigs were the color. This summer we caught more trout on sculpin/ginger and white more than any color. But lately it's been black or black/olive. I've been getting out mainly in the evenings and doing very well on black jigs. The best catching has been as the water is dropping out. Got out last evening when they were running the most water of the day - lake level was 705.12, 3852 cfs, 56 megawatts which is equivalent to one unit. Kelly and I boated to the dam and started throwing jigs, mainly 3/32nd ounce black, white or sculpin color. One rainbow right off the bat then nothing up there. Dropped down to Lookout and caught one more. Very slow. Then we boated down close to the top of the Narrows and started catching, all on black 1/16th ounce. The water had started dropping out too which seemed like to trigger the feed. We caught rainbows above the Narrows but not in the Narrows. Then started catching them again below. The second drift, we started further above the Narrows and had the same results. We sent ahead and drifted down past Fall Creek, catching rainbows the whole way down. They stopped about 100 yards below the mouth of the creek. We had to get back in so we headed back to the dock. Rainbows were fat for the most part. Had a couple in the 15 inch range but most were 12-13 inches.

Hope you stay inn touch and share your experiences on the mid lake... I'd like to know more about spear fishing.

Cooler weather has brought less generation to Taneycomo. The water has been running for an hour or two in the evenings and that's about all. That makes fishing off the docks and wading below the dam more enjoyable for sure. Below Fall Creek, we're catching trout in many ways actually. Fishing has been pretty good. The pink Berkley's Powerworm has been the go to bait for most of the guides... still! We've demonstrated that on One Cast a couple times this week and caught fish on both occasions off the dock. Night crawlers are catching fish too but so is Gulp and Powereggs and traditional salmon eggs. Still using 4-pound line for most bait applications but 2-pound when using anything under a float like the pink worm and small jigs. Look for the chop! Preached it many times and will continue to do so. The wind has been blowing fairly well this week but still, if you're in an area where there's no wind, go find it if it's around. Fish bite much better when there's a chop on the surface. I found out black is the color, at least it was the other evening. Black or black/olive marabou jig. This was late in the day into the evening and there was a little water running at the time. It's not that they won't change at any time -- you just have to keep trying colors until the right one is found. This isn't a trophy area only thing... it's lake wide. And colors will change with the time of day, brightness of the sun and even wind and current conditions. I mentioned in the video about line size and using small jigs. I don't think there's any question that lighter line like 2-pound will catch more fish than bigger line like 4-pound but it's more about the lure you're using. You can't throw a 1/16th ounce jig very far when using 4-pound line. I absolutely hammered them using a #16 red Zebra Midge the other day. I tied on a black and a red about 12 inches apart, 6x tippet about 3 feet deep and was fishing the flat below Fall Creek on the east back above the boat ramp. Never caught one on the black. It was towards evening with no water running. View full article

I sent an email to Trout Unlimited, Membership today: I sent out an email a few days ago through the TU leadership tool app. I was announcing a chapter meeting and in the email I put my cell number for anyone who had any questions. Later that day, I got a call from an unknown number. The gentleman asked me why Trout Unlimited was spamming him. He went on to: Ask what TU was... Why they insist on spamming him over and over after he "unsubscribed" to the previous emails. He said he saw my number and thought it was worth the long distance a call to find out. He had a strong British accent. He said he lives in Northern France. I explained who I was and what TU was all about. He told me he didn't eat fish. He didn't think fishing was right... abusing wildlife... I told him what I did, own and operate a family friendly fishing lodge. He actually thought that was cool, minus the fishing part. He was kind of huffy at first but I took no offense. I laughed and said this was an interesting phone call and I was glad he did call. We talked about traveling a bit... I'd been to Israel and Austria and may be going to Iceland next year. That was a place he wanted to go someday. So we parted new friends, and I said I'd look into the email thing. Then I looked at his address after he emailed me back - it was jerryjester@gmail.com. I thought - I know a Jerry Jester!!! Jerry Jester is a guy who lives 40 miles north of me in Springfield and is part of a trout group there. Iv'e spoke at their meetings several times - he's stayed and fished with us. So I emailed Jerry Badford back and told him I bet I knew what has happened and explained why. He thought that was a hoot! He even wanted to get in contact with Jerry Jester. I called Jerry Jester and asked him if he was a TU member. He said yes. Then I explained what happened. We laughed. Pretty crazy. I've given the gentlemen each other's contact info. I hope they correspond.

This has run its course. I'm not deleting it, I'm locking it. Let me put a warning out there: Posting about anyone's personal record, no matter what it is, will not be tolerated here, nor should it be on any social forum. We all are sinners in the sight of a righteous and holy God, and we all will have to answer for the choices we have made. We all have been deceived, thinking that we are good enough in our own merits and don't need God, and we get to determine what is right and wrong. But the Lord's heart is to restore us all, covering our sin and shame with the blood of Christ as we humble ourselves before Him and acknowledge Him as Creator, Lord, Almighty, I Am, the Eternal One, all in all. God is the only One who should be feared, and how we stand in His sight is all that matters. To condemn anyone else for their sin is ultimate hypocrisy. And, thus, it will not be tolerated here. God is the Redeemer. He takes the most egregious sinner and cleanses them whiter than snow, if only we yield our minds and our wills to Him.

I'm sure we're (Duane and I) are coming down Thursday night. In the past, we've had to go back Saturday but I'm not sure at this point. Right now we're good for all 3 nights.

Nothing on my calendar. Both weekends before and after are busy so that's a good one for me.

Speaking of... better be setting a date soon.

Stinkin's Bass... Buzz baits seem to be a favorite on the lower lake. Around docks.

The Branson Chapter of TU will have a meeting Thursday, October 26 at 7 pm at the Shepherd of the Hills Trout Hatchery Visitor's Center. We will be taking nominations for both officers (Secretary and Vice President) as well as board members at large. Bryan Bade will share with us the plight of our awesome river, North Fork of the White, and what he is doing to help bring it back from the flood this past spring. He started an organization called RiverStrong and has done some fundraising for clean up and restoration. https://www.facebook.com/events/655059681359997/

The Branson Chapter of TU will have a meeting Thursday, October 26 at 7 pm at the Shepherd of the Hills Trout Hatchery Visitor's Center. We will be taking nominations for both officers (Secretary and Vice President) as well as board members at large. Bryan Bade will share with us the plight of our awesome river, North Fork of the White, and what he is doing to help bring it back from the flood this past spring. He started an organization called RiverStrong and has done some fundraising for clean up and restoration. https://www.facebook.com/events/655059681359997/

Depends... Fly fishing? Bank? Boat? I don't cover much in my reports about fishing, wading the outlets but I do talk about catching big browns otherwise.

Generation is still constant during the day and night on Taneycomo. About a half unit night and most of the day with a shot of heavier water mid to late afternoon. Water quality remains good enough for the fish to eat, and fight. The fears about bad water and fish kills this fall have not materialized, but we have about 5-6 weeks left of low DO season. Just a quick report to show off a couple of nice trout. I took a family fishing Wednesday in the rain. Thought it would be excellent catching because fish usually like rainy, cloudy days. No so. It was tough. All the guides were calling each other trying to find the bite. We started with a pink worm under a float, then to a night crawler and finally boated to the dam and threw jigs. My party had never used spin cast gear... mom and dad were lifelong river and creek floaters, fishing for smallmouth bass in Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma. Now in their 80's and most of their fishing days behind them, they were trying trout fishing for the first time. I was wishing for better conditions and the fish to bite. Forrest caught a few rainbows on both crawlers and a jig. Thelma did too. I let their son Randy and wife Kim have the back of the pontoon and concentrated on the couple in front. At one point, we were drifting past outlet #2 when I casted for Thelma and showed her how to lift and jig the jig while reeling slowly. Of course a big rainbow just had to grab on -- I set the hook and handed her the rod. I knew immediately it was a good trout and adjusted the drag so the 2-pound line didn't snap. She fought it perfectly. I made one swipe with the net and missed, hitting the lunker instead. I thought for sure I'd knocked it off but to my surprise, it was till hanging on just past the net's edge. I lunged one more time and got it. Big male, spawning colors, big hooked jaw. We got a few pictures and back it went, didn't even measure it. The family shared with me that on the trip back to Oklahoma, Forrest shared that he thought his fishing days were behind him, and that he was so glad to get out on the river again. I'm hoping he and Thelma come back and go out again, even if the fish aren't biting. It was a wonderful trip! Yesterday afternoon, fishing guide Kris Nelson called the office and said they were coming in with a big brown. So Duane and I got out the scales and watched for them. Kris and his wife bought a small lodge on Stockton Lake last year and that's where he guides most of the time. But he makes trips to Taneycomo in the fall when fishing on Stockton slows down. Kris and client, Jack Slaughter, were throwing stick baits against the banks below the dam when Jack hooked what turned out to be a 25.5 inch big male brown. The brown was in great condition when it arrived at the dock so we took good care of it. We netted it in a large rubber net and set it in the basket to weigh it - it showed 6.76 pounds. Kris put it in our big minnow tank which is constantly aerated with fresh water. We showed Jack how to hold the fish without hurting it, but also to show the whole fish. But the light wasn't good and the flash bleached out the fish. We put the brown back in Kris's livewell and pulled the boat to the outside of the dock where the light was better. We kept the fish in the net the whole time to keep from handling it further. Jack pulled the fish out and up to take a couple of series of pictures, never keeping the fish out of the water for more than 20 seconds at a time. As a precaution, Kris held the big net under the fish so as to catch it if it pulled out of his hands. When it was released, it swam off like a shot. View full article

What kind was the indicator?

A lot of fish bouncing around in the boat... not good to post on social media. But we know you guys are forgiving... (haha) At least they didn't potentially kill more than their limit! I think they all swam away ok.