Phil Lilley

Conditions haven't changed much... white jigs, shad flies and crank baits. Spoons may be. Stay in the middle.

The downtown ramp and Cooper Creek ramp are open and in good shape. Taney's level is 710 feet. That's 9 feet high, so you won't have any issues boating to the dam. Good luck!

The release dropped from 20,000 to 13,000 cfs this morning when Table Rock's level hit 927 feet. This dropped the level 2 feet below the dam, about 6 inches here at our dock. But there's a big difference in current on our portion of the lake, is much less. They shut 5 gates off, leaving 5 open. Duane had a trip this morning. I'm sure he'll post it late. They did well in the trophy area, then dropped down and caught some eating fish. The big school of rainbows that were down close to Monkey Island are now centered at Cooper Creek -- they're catching them pretty good drifting out in front of the resort with Gulp Eggs. We'll get out later today and tomorrow and see just how good (or slow) it is and report back.

Presented by Sam Potter TightLine Fly Fishing Montauk Park is a sand box... well almost a sand box. They have done a great job of cleaning up the upper area where you come down the hill and around the dam. The camp ground is closed for maintenance while they get all the sand, trees and logs out of there. The lodge is open and the cabins are being rented. A lot of the trout were lost, but not all of them as reported on FB earlier this week. The carnivorous animals in the area will put on weight in the next week or so feeding on dead trout. You will find considerable changes to the stream and riparian area. New holes were made and old holes are gone, with more to be discovered as the stream recedes and the water clears. The “wire” at the end of the park is gone. I didn’t go looking for it, so it may still be there, but it isn’t hanging across the river anymore. The cabins just outside the park took on a lot of water. A Garage/shed collapsed at the new cabin and the LP tank was dislodged and lodged again against the garage/shed. The lower cabin has a partial roof collapse. I did not go down there to check on it as I didn’t want to invade the privacy of them cleaning out the cabins. If you cussed that huge walnut tree that was across the river at the cabins, you won’t have to worry about it anymore. It is difficult to see, but looking closely at the roof of the cabin in the distance shows the collapse of the roof. TanVat parking lot probably had 4 feet of water running over it and now there is a 6 foot high gravel bar where the creek and river meet. The swimmers will be happy with the results, because they now have a very deep pool next to the gravel bar. The big tree in the river upstream is gone leaving new runs and channels. View of the signs at TanVat Parking lot showing the debris washed up against them. The debris in the trees is about as high as the pick nick table sign. A new 6 foot tall gravel bar washed in where the creek and river meet Baptist camp circle drive remodeling done last year will have to have some resurfacing and sidewalk work done to it after they remove all the gravel and sand. A huge tree with the root wad caused the current to cut under the parking lot and buckle the pavement. The walkway going down to the river is buried under a couple of feet of gravel. Where the former retaining wall used to be along the road near the river, there was a line of boulders and willows growing. Now the river is going over those boulders and through the willows. The entire curve was bisected by the river leaving huge cuts in the soil and depositing gravel all the way across the point over to the handicap access area. The trees in the water, is where the old road and retaining wall used to be as the road curved along the river. The road ran parallel to the trees in the water and made a curve to the left where canoes were launched. Remember how high that wall was? This is the path going down to the Handicap access at Baptist Camp. Now there is probably 4 feet of gravel over the path and parking area.

Cooper Creek, just up the road from us (Fall Creek Road). Bad place... you go off the road it's 10-12 feet down to a gully and I guess it was really rolling over the road. Five people in a van. They were here for a basketball tournament. Two men (both coaches and 1 was a pastor) and a 17 year old girl. Two got out ok. One of them are missing. Water Patrol and a private pontoon are looking on the bluff side of the lake this evening. Guess we got 5 inches in 2 hours. These "creeks" are just short ditches that carry water off the ridge to the lake. That spot in the road is a bad one. Needs to be lit with a couple of LED street lights.

We are going.... should be a great time!

http://www.confedmo.org/springfield/ Letter from CFM: As you know, citizen awareness of the Conservation Federation of Missouri’s statewide efforts to conserve our natural resources through advocacy, education and partnerships is increasing rapidly. We attribute much of our recent growth to hosting educational and entertaining events around the state. Now, the Conservation Federation needs the help of passionate conservationists, like you, to launch the Explore the Outdoors series in Springfield. The event is at Bass Pro Shop’s White River Conference Center on June 17th. Doors open at 5 p.m. A private, behind the scenes tour of the Wonders of Wildlife Museum, which doesn’t open to the public until September 21st, is at 6. Dinner is at 7. The auction begins at 8. The Wonders of Wildlife Museum is incredible. I have had the privilege of a sneak peak. This event provides a unique opportunity to see the Wonders of Wildlife Museum on a private tour before it opens. Your participation in the Explore the Outdoors: Springfield event will help grow the membership of CFM and expand our geographic reach. The money we raise from the event will ensure CFM continues to expand our critical work of protecting the forest, fish, wildlife and wild places we all cherish. And every attendee becomes a CFM member. I am really up against a time crunch on this inaugural event. Our events manager resigned to focus on other business opportunities and little had been done to prepare for this exciting event. We have room for 150 attendees and are currently sitting at about 60. I do believe we will sell out the event, but it is going to take help from our friends, like you, to do so. Springfield has become the Capital City of Conservation in America, so it is critical for CFM to establish a much greater presence in the region. I am hoping you can please help me make this inaugural event a success. A sponsorship table for 10 includes: · A great dinner for 10 · A private tour of the Wonders of Wildlife Museum for 10 · Individual CFM memberships for 10 · Listing as a sponsor in the event program · Recognition of your sponsorship in Conservation Federation magazine · The chance to connect with like-minded conservationists in your community This sponsorship package costs $500. Can we count on you and nine guests to purchase and fill a table? Individual tickets are also available. Registration is simple. Simply click on the following link: http://www.confedmo.org/springfield/ CFM has been at the forefront of conservation leadership in Missouri since 1935. Nearly every piece of conservation policy in place today, including the Conservation Commission, the Conservation Sales Tax, and the Parks, Soil and Water Sales Tax, exists because of the Conservation Federation of Missouri. Please help us grow so may continue our efforts on behalf of conservationists across Missouri. I know you are real busy at this time of year, but maybe this would be a great way of treating staff and guides to a nice relaxing night out during the busy season. Please let me know if you have questions. I hope to see you at Explore the Outdoors: Springfield. Thank you very much -- Brandon Butler Conservation Federation of Missouri Executive Director

Need some work done on the river jons... so it's not finesse work. Slap it on and paint it. Any suggestions?

Lake Levels and Generation: Probably the most important part of this fishing report is, "What is the water doing?" That's been the emphasis of my reporting since May 1st when we saw the third highest water release from Table Rock Dam - 63,000 c.f.s (cubic feet per second.) Table Rock is at 928.25 feet. It dropped .42 of an inch the past 24 hours. The ideal level is below 920 feet, but the power pool level is 917 feet. They are releasing 9,800 cfs of water through the spill gates and 9,745 cfs through the turbines at Table Rock Dam, totaling close to 20,000. Taneycomo's water level at the dam is 712.20 feet. Power pool, or the level with no generation, is 701.3 feet. The water temperature below the dam varies, depending on which side of the lake you're on. On the spill gate side (south), it's about 63 degrees. On the turbine side (north), it's about 52 degrees. Downlake, we're seeing water temps about 59 degrees. Of course, this temperature will only rise as summer days approach. This weekend marks the fourth week of spill gates being opened at Table Rock Dam. There has been a large number of fish that have washed over the dam and into Taneycomo, warmwater fish. We've seen, and caught, gar, crappie, white and black bass, spotted bass, blue gill, walleye and smallmouth bass. As a matter of fact, if you drift on the south bank you will catch mainly smallmouth and white bass, very few trout! It's crazy!! If you do drift the south side of the lake from the dam (cable), you MUST watch out for the first island of trees. You don't want to drift into these trees!! There are a lot of ways we've been fishing in this area, many have not been conventional ways to fish for trout. One way would be to drift a crank bait on the bottom. Duane Doty found that if he cast out a Bomber Fat Free Shad (or something close to this bait) towards the dam (while drifting), cranked it down to the bottom and then let it just drift, it would stay there, digging its bill into the bottom as it ran down lake. This has caught some big trout, mainly brown trout. A more conventional way of fishing this stretch is drifting white jigs, shad flies and small stick baits. We've also done well throwing sculpin jigs, too. While they're running 20,000 cfs, a double jig rig is good to get to the bottom, and you have to be on the bottom to get bit!!! The current is so fast up there, the fish are either along the banks or on the bottom where the current is much slower. We're tying two 1/8th-ounce white jigs 18 inches apart using four-pound line. You can jig this rig a little, but it's mainly just drifted. The strike is pretty hard. Using a drift rig with a 1/4-ounce bell weight, tie one or two of these flies: Shad fly, #12 - #16 gray scud, pink San Juan Worm or an egg fly (Y2K). Use 4x or four-pound line. Duane has been drifting from the cable all the way down to Fall Creek. The last couple of days, the stretch from Lookout Island to Fall Creek has been the most productive. But the warmwater fish have been closer to the dam on the south side. The current at Fall Creek is really fast, too fast to drift, in my opinion. If you want to fish that area, I would start drifting closer to the Riverpointe boat ramp and drift down lake. Actually, the best catching has been just above our place (Lilleys' Landing) and drifting down to the Branson Landing. But the hot spot has been drifting from the powerlines above Monkey Island down through the bridges using Berkley's Power Eggs - white/pink or white/orange. And the rainbows we've seen caught are nice ones! There's been very little fishing pressure on these fish for weeks. This has given them a chance to grow. Again, you need to be on the bottom to do well. If you want to throw jigs and lures, work the slow side of the lake using white or dark 1/8th-ounce jigs, stick annd crank baits. The Flicker Shad has been a good lure lately. It's caught several big browns and rainbows.

If you're throwing crank or stick baits, line size hardly matters at all as far as the fish seeing the line. Unless you're throwing something real small and it's going real slow. Jigs - can use 4 pound line. Our water is not as clear as it usually is this time of year.

They're running 20k and will till TR is down to around 927 feet. Then it'll decrease some but I don't think we'll see hardly any flows low enough for wading for a long time. Rain is still in the forecast too. Wading at 2 units or 705 feet is not the best but doable. Anything more is tough.

With this flow, there's is hardly no wading oportunities on Taney. There's room for may be 6 people between the cable and outlet 1, 2 spots at outlet 2. That's it. And these fishing spots are not ideal. 30k cfs flow just isn't conducive for wading on Taneycomo. Sorry. When it drops to 20k, it will be better but still limited and tough wade/bank fishing.

My back button used to work too but it stopped working months back. Does it work on other sites?

He rebooted the server... try again.

Sent a note to Rick. He reset the limit to 20 mb so... something is off.

Uploading image problem should be fixed.

Some members haven't been able to access the forum/site. This server move has caused some problems but my host is working hard to fix everything. Keep your comments coming - it really helps.

Not many small browns. I haven't seen one less than 17 inches.

Babler says he can't post. Anyone having problems, like not posting, send me a pm. If you can't do that, an email lilley @ lilleyslanding.com

A little late posting but this brown was caught by Adam Bennett last week on a shad rap.

It's not as much BS getting down... it's when will they be able to shut Table Rock down to make the repairs. That's going to be a while. It took 3 weeks to get TR down from 934 to 927 feet and that's not dropping Beaver at all. Now both are dumping at 20k cfs... more water in the system. It's going to be well into August before these lakes see normal levels, if then.

This too will pass...

Saw this on FB... Corp sent me a text saying it will be 20k at noon. They should coordinate what they release to the public better. I'm sure it will be 20k - it's at 14k now.