Phil Lilley

No, we're not cream puffs...

I just clicked the blue heart and that's it. Didn't hold it down at all... moved on. It's the default setting. I didn't add it. I'm not crazy about all the lovey-dovey stuff either.

Generation has been consistent the past few weeks. Dam officials have run "fish water" from about midnight until noon each day and then up to three or four units until late at night. With temperatures in the mid 90's, Table Rock's turbines are turning out much needed electricity. I call "fish water" the generation to the tune of 20 megawatts, or less than one unit. The top of the spillway at Powersite Dam is still damaged from the May flood, so it's letting more water through than normal, dropping Taneycomo's level below 701.3 feet. This causes major problems, exposing a lot of gravel flats uplake that normally are covered with water, so the water is run to keep them covered until the dam is fixed. Navigating the lake above Fall Creek is extremely tricky, so much so that a lot of our guides can't get their boats above the Narrows, a shallow, narrow spot in the lake about three-fourths a mile above Fall Creek. But it's makes for some interesting wading and fly fishing! The cars . . . the drama of the cars in the lake continues. But there is word that they are to be pulled out Friday and Saturday morning, July 21 and 22. Long story short, a local wrecker service is pulling them out at no charge. We'll see if he gets it done since it won't be easy. Our lake temperature is holding at 57 degrees, not increasing for a month now. Dissolved oxygen levels remain at good levels, too. There is some concern about the amount of water moved out of Table Rock over the last three months due to the flood in May. Cold water is pulled out of Table Rock at 130 feet, and when too much is pulled out too early in the summer/fall season, the water that's left becomes stagnate, not good for our trout. So we are thankful the water is looking pretty good in this hot part of the summer. http://forums.ozarkanglers.com/topic/17240-quick-link-lake-levels/ We've seen and heard of a lot of big trout reports all this week, both browns and rainbows. Most have been caught on bait but some on jigs. Almost all have been released to be caught again. Night crawlers has been the hot bait all summer. I took a couple of friends and their kids out this morning fishing. They were running less than one unit as we headed up to Fall Creek, mainly to see the cars in the lake. But that's where we started drifting. I had four-pound line on the reels, using a small #7/0 split shot (about 1/16th ounce) 18 inches above a #8 short shank hook. I wanted to use the smallest weight needed to throw out the line, letting the bait sink to the bottom. The kids were novice anglers, so I didn't want them confused between the feel of bites and the feel of bumping the bottom. I pinched a worm in half and hooked it once in the middle, letting it hand off each side (I don't hide the hook). It didn't take long to hear, "Fish on!" Lily hooked her first trout! Gavin was the second, but his attention turned to being the net man for the rest of the morning. Keagan wasn't far behind, catching two in a row. It was hard keeping all the lines in the water. All and all, they caught their limits plus a couple and kept four for lunch. Randy and Tracy Kemp are regular guests of ours who have been here all week. Randy started fishing with jigs a few summers ago -- may have been last summer when he started. He told me he showed Tracy how to use them this trip and she's been out fishing him. "She hasn't asked to use Powerbait at all this week." And they've caught some nice trout. Below is a brown she caught on a sculpin jig. The stretch from Fall Creek to Short Creek has been pretty good, but a lot of people have been going down as far as the Branson Landing and doing well. Beside night crawlers, orange and chartreuse Powerbait Gulp Eggs have been enticing bites. The size of rainbows has been up this summer, too. We're not seeing many really small rainbows as we did in summers past. Above Fall Creek, if you can get above the Narrows in the morning, trout are really starting to take zebra midges under an indicator early, before the sun hits the water. Also working are fishing a Miracle Fly (egg fly on a jig head) and a San Juan Worm dropper (bacon and eggs as Duane calls it) under an indicator six- to seven-feet deep. I've been testing out my dry flies fairly often -- a beetle, ant or a hopper -- with limited success. It may be too early, but they should be producing bites shortly. In the afternoons, fishing has been tough with three units running. I've tried throwing jigs with limited success. I did find some warm water species in slack water close to the dam. Yes, they're still up there. Crappie, red ears, smallmouth bass and spotted bass. I'm catching them on a sculpin 1/8th-ounce jigs. Also catching a few nice rainbows in the same places. View full article

It will be low, but fast.

It's only on the home page.

Well, they did appear to be PM's so I deleted it. Not sure what's up with that.

I'm playing with it... the PM's aren't PM's, they are status updates.

Why? You know they'll run water, right? They draw it down, then run about 30 mw while pulling the same at Powersite. It keeps the upper end watered.

The forum got a major upgrade this morning. It's supposed to have some new whistles... one of these days I'll find out what they are and use them. Please let me know if there are issues. It came out of beta a month ago so it should be pretty solid.

I bet in the next 2-3 weeks. They'll give us at least a day's notice

Facebook post?

22 inch brown caught this morning on night crawlers, released. with @Bill Babler

Ryan says that 3 more out today.

According to a Facebook post, they got 2 cars out after I left yesterday.

Yea... not today. But we'll get it done. We're heading to KC to visit the kids today.

No, they hadn't at 11 am.

I gotta do a whole piece on the Narrows pretty soon. The water has really cleared up and you can see the bottom now. The Narrows is NOTHING like it's ever been before. There's a series of gravel bars running across the flat, the first one is very long and the hole below it is fairly deep. Then there's a bunch of others down further. That's towards the top. The old channel isn't really the channel, at least like it was. There's now gravel bars coming out of the left bank (going up lake), making the channel push out towards the flat. There's almost an "S" curve at the last tree. With a little current, all the bars on the flat are wadeable, perfect for fishing.

I'd like to see them at least try... throw water all over the spectators.

Bumpersticker material right there...

I re read your post. The first cable that let go - the loop only had one clamp on it and it pulled loose. The second, looked like the hook just came out. The need a diver to get the hook in a good spot. Or a chain around something solid. DNR was positioned uplake of the scene... they couldn't see the gas and oil coming out of the cars. May be they didn't want to see. The spill wasn't that bad though. No more than they've already released I'm sure.

I left at 11 am. They seemed to have given up. The wrecker company, my understanding, was doing this as a favor to the owner. And yes, they were not prepared to be on water - at all. I helped for a while. I ran out of trolling motor juice so had to go back for a new boat and batteries. When I got back, they were still trying to get the same boat - in a deep hole. I looked and couldn't even see it - and I had polaroids on. They need a diver, a couple of recover boats (or at least boats that have bow trolling motors so they manuever) and a bigger cable... and good connectors. Funniest thing was all the gals yelling at everyone from the bank in boats trying to get through. No water patrol. Couple of DNR guys in one boat. Several kayakers and guides got stuck above Fall Creek till they were done - John Sappington, Bret Rader and may be Chuck Gries. Babler bluffed his way through... they yelled but he just came through. Bob- did you say they had pulled a couple of cars out? Can't believe they would have after I left. Unless they got the one in the middle, closest to their rig. That's where I thought they should go first, not the furthest. They had to drag that one over 2 other cars just to get it out of the hole.

Water is supposed to be off again tomorrow starting at 6 am. But it takes over an hour to drop out. I hope they start with the closest cars first this time.

The score after one day - Wrecker Company - 0 Cars - 7 (or 10, depends on who you talk to) I think they were in over their heads... literally. I did leave at 11 am and it looked like they had given up. But they may have given it another chance and tried to get one of the easier cars out. They had time to I believe. They picked the hardest car first... had to pull it over another car, then it ran into another in the deep hole. That's when the cable failed.