Phil Lilley

We carry a one piece Templefork, 7 foot medium light rod now that I really like for the smaller jigs. I have a love-hate relationship with the fog. It is cooler, but getting around is a pain, morning and evening. I think because of the fog there is very little traffic on the lake in the evenings but I’m sure it will pick up in the next couple of days for the weekend.

See if you can upload images now. Please. Let me know.

Spoiler - it's not he one in on the thumbnail.

I use AWS for image storage. I got an email a week ago about some changes. I forwarded it to my "guy", Rick, and he said he'd work on it. "it wasn't an easy change". I sent him another email.... I'm sure it's on AWS.

Obviously you guys don't like each other. But I do take exception to someone trashing another member's product he introduces here on the forum, senselessly. I'm unlocking but deleting some posts. Be careful what you post.

Seth and Becky Garrison are attempting to do the slam in 6 days (?). They did Barren yesterday or the day before. I know the resort has shared his posts. They're only using jigs. I tried to get him to join and post here... maybe he will soon.

Thanks for reporting.

Tony W. has been throwing Rapalas from FC down and hooking some really big browns lately. Late PM evening when the water is running.

This past month or so, we've seen a trend that I think is interesting. We're seeing almost as many trophies (20-inches-plus trout) being caught outside the trophy area compared to in it. I believe this indicates a sort of maturing of the fishery. I don't think the food base has changed (I'd say most times fish migrate besides during spawning weeks is when they need to move because their food is moving)... I believe if this is true, our trout are maturing and graduating to eating bigger things. What do I mean by bigger things? Mainly smaller trout. Lately, we've seen alot of big browns caught between Fall and Short Creeks on night crawlers on morning trips with guides. I've heard of big browns being caught on the Cooper Creek flats as well as down at Monkey Island. There aren't as many big rainbows being caught below Fall Creek as browns but there are some. This is just my observation. I thought it was worth mentioning.

Our seasonal low DO (dissolved oxygen) levels have dropped to below 4 parts per million. The Corp is now and has been injecting liquid O2 into the turbines when generating to keep the levels above 4. They're actually peaking about 7 ppm during afternoon/evening generation, according to the Corp site gage. I'm getting 4.5 ppm at the dock consistently, day and night. The Corp site says the lake water temp is just above 50. It's imperative that you handle trout in a proper way to keep from killing a trout that you intend to release. Think of it this way -- you run hard and fast at high altitude (the top of Pike's Peak) and you're out of breath. The air is thin already and you're trying to get your breath. Then someone shoves your head underwater. No air. No air for a minute.... two minutes. You may revive a bit when returned to thin air but really you're done. Brain dead. So you catch and land a big trout. Hard and long fight, may be on 2 pound line or 7x. Net the fish. Take it out of the water (don't want to lose it!). Admire it. Take a picture. It's probably too late to release it. Even if it swims off, it will go to the bottom (trout don't float) and lay in the silt and mud. Its gills fill with silt, further choking it. It's dead. This happened to a 26 inch brown yesterday, although it wasn't released. It was brought in to the dock for us to revive. Its color had already started to decline. As we get further into the fall months, the lake water will get warmer and the DO will continue to drop. It happens each year--nothing new here. Lake water temperatures are cooler than normal which is a good thing. This will cause less stress on our trout. But one still has to be careful and be smart about handling our rainbows and browns.

Thanks. That's exactly what I was looking for.

When the forecast says 7 mw of generation predicted, that means there's really no water being generated, right? That's not considered "minimum flow", right? I would think the minimum flow would be 35 mw or something like that.

had this big girl come in this morning. 35.25 triploid. Caught early am trolling a jerk bait. Released. Swam off good.

If you notice, I hardly ever report on that, mainly because I don’t get up there to fish it and I hardly ever talk to the guys who do. I can guess… small scuds, big sculpins, and stripping crackle backs. Those are the staples. Vary size and color. Maybe when I give up morning basketball I’ll have more time to wade and fish up there.

Our fishing report for Lake Taneycomo could be a cookie cutter analogy of last month's report. Our generation pattern is exactly the same, our water temperature is about the same, and the bite is also the same as in June and July. The trout are locked into a daily pattern of eating and resting just like humans are. They know when the water will start and when it will end. It has not change day-to-day by more than an hour. Generation starts anywhere from 1 to 2 p.m. each day and builds to a full four units within an hour. Operators are shutting down at various times but fairly consistently from 9 to 10 p.m. late evening. The water is off the rest of the night and the next morning. If we get a reprieve in these hot temperatures during the day, they may lessen the flow a bit, but not much. Water temperature is holding at about 49 degrees which is pretty awesome for the first of August. It's usually into the lower 50's by now. Water quality is good, too, with dissolved oxygen readings around eight parts per million. I hope this means we'll have an easy fall season with no water quality issues in our tailwater. We're still seeing good numbers of trophy browns and rainbows being reported caught and released. The interesting thing is that they're all not being caught on the same bait. The list includes night crawlers, minnows, a few on Powerbait, pink PowerWorm, jerk baits, jigs, scuds and other various flies. The most have been caught on evening/into-the-night guide trips using jerk baits and jigs. We have a handful of guides who specialize in night fishing, targeting both trophy browns and rainbows. In the evenings, as the water is dropping, the jerk bait bite is still pretty good, but the jig bite starts to get better. Go from using an 1/8th-ounce jig to a smaller 1/16th-ounce jig in darker colors like black, brown, olive, sculpin, and the local favorite, purple. When the water stops moving, go to a 1/32nd-ounce jig and two-pound line. Let the jig fall to the bottom and then lift and drop it. The takes have been hard and solid. Lately, we've been sending a lot of people down towards the Branson Landing to fish. There seems to be a large number of rainbows in front of and down from the Landing. They are chasing spoons and spinners and taking jigs under a float. And, of course, the pink worm under a float is hot down there, too. Early morning fly or spin fishing using nymph flies, mop flies and small micro jigs under a float is working anywhere from Lilleys' Landing to Lookout Island. The white mop worm or the black micro jig is catching quite a few trophy trout, especially browns in the trophy area. I've been boating in the evenings and throwing a white 3/32nd-ounce jig against the bluff bank across the lake from the resort and catching small browns and a few decent rainbows. The browns, about 12 inches long and I presume from this year's stocking, are aggressive and hit hard. They're fun to catch. I've also been hitting the banks using hoppers and beetles (dry flies, fly fishing) and have had some success. Any bluff bank in the shade is where I've found both browns and rainbows interested in something on the surface. View full article

Jigs Jigs Jigs. That's a great area to fish off the bank when the water is off. #2 lb line and 1/32 - 1/16th oz black jigs will catch a lot of trout there. Let it go o the bottom and them lift and drop. They'll hit it on the drop.

I met Jim and Phyliss Johnson in 1985 when I visited their fishing resort on the Pere Marquette River in central Michigan. We became good friends. They sold their place on the PM in 2005 and bought Naknek River Camp in 2006. Bill Babler and myself went up and helped guide that first year and I've been going to almost every year since. Paul Crews and I arrived in King Salmon on Saturday, July 15. It was a typical summer day--temps in the 60's and rainy. The weather didn't change will Wednesday when the sun came out and it warmed up into the 70's. Sunday we hit the river for some sockeye salmon. Sockeye and king salmon start entering the river typically the last week in June but the main run starts the first week of July. Naknek is known for its big sockeye run and big rainbows. It gets a fair number of kings and silvers and chums and a lot of pinks on even years. We were lucky to still see good numbers of sockeye still running upriver and were able to get our limit of 5 each on Sunday and Monday. Tuesday we boated to Brooks Camp, a 35 mile trek across Naknek Lake. We walked to the bear viewing platform (about a mile hike) and joined people from all over the world to view a bunch of brown bears in their natural environment. Sockeyes were schooled up below the falls but hadn't started jumping yet but we did see a few get caught by bears on the falls. We boated on to Margot Creek, another 15 minute ride. It's a good size creek that flows into the lake from the south that's usually full of rainbows and dollies. We caught some dollies, mainly on jigs. Beautiful place!!! Wednesday we tried some king salmon fishing, boating up Big Creek, a creek where salmon run up into to spawn. We didn't have any luck so we headed back to the main river and drifted huge beads and did some good. Only caught one decent king and quite a few "jacks" which are small, 1-2 year old kings that come back to the river to spawn prematurely. Thursday through Sunday we fished for rainbows, throwing my marabou jigs, 6-6" medium light spinning rods and #4-pound line, working several boulder fields in the river where the rainbow hold and ambush passing schools of smolt (baby salmon migrating from the lake to the ocean through the river). Best colors - black and sculpin. They have both sculpin and black leaches in the river. Here's a video I put together -

Just got back... will be getting out may be this afternoon. Need to edit and post alot of videos.

Talked to a guest here who has a boat at Diamond City on BS. He said the same thing about the walleye he's catching there.

No it wasn't. Not sure what happened. O2 was good, Temp was good. May be it was the fight. It did fight hard and it took a while to land it. Big live well. Was never out of the water for more than 10 seconds. Waited till it was obvious it was dying to take the picture. He even said he didn't need pics if it meant a good release. I worked with it for an hour. It just never did right herself in the live tank. It may have survived if it had been release and not brought in but I'm not convinced. There's just hardly no way to land a big trout like that, take any kind of picture and get it released successively. What I'd do? And I did this once when I was by myself fishing- before even landing it, I'd call someone at the dock and tell them to head up to where I was. I'd land the fish and keep it in the net. Troll to the bank. Get out of the boat in to the water with the fish. Measure it if I have a tape. Lift it out of the water for a quick pic. Release the fish. We do this all the time in Alaska. The fish is out of the water for 10 seconds tops. Handling is held to a minimum.

Brian- You're blessed to be able to fish that area every day - be there to pick up trash - THANK YOU for that!! All of us appreciate your efforts. Thank you for talking to people about the regs and even helping anglers by showing them the right way to catch fish. You have years of experience - again - you are a blessed man for having that opportunity for most of your life. You know our situation - we have 2 agents per county. MDC isn't picking on us (Taney). It's how it is. It's a big machine - everybody wants their piece of the pie protected. Fact is when the water doesn't run, more ppl fish below the dam. More chances to poach. When the water runs, less chance. I've talked to the agents - they say when they're patrolling Taney below the dam with the water off, they can start at one end and write tickets as they go down the bank. And when they get to the end, they can go back up and start over and keep writing them. It's endless. It doesn't stop. That's the way it is and that's the way it's been since the dam was built. It's the way it was in the mid 70's when there are huge rainbows being caught on roe during the spawn. And we still have one of the best trout fisheries.