Phil Lilley

http://naknekrivercamp.com is where I stay. Also have a friend in Talkeenta who has remote cabins and guides those river- does float trips too. https://alaskawildernessriverfishingguides.com/

I don't go down there but the pond weed up here is gone. I think it all goes away in the winter because of lack of sunlight.

Super, thanks! We're headed to SE KS next week for a couple of days to start the barn there. @duckydoty

Headed back out to Greensburg, KS Sunday late to chase some birds around again. Four of us hunted Monday and Tuesday, private ground north and south of Mullinville. Conditions were better for the dogs (2 labs) because they had had some rain - last time we were out there it was super dry. But our labs just aren't bird hunters, they're bird chasers. With our small numbers, we hunted some smaller spots, mainly quail spots, and got up a dozen coveys in the 2 days, may be more. Again, I let the young bucks shoot at their heart's content and we ended Monday with one quail, 2 pheasants. Tuesday was better - we had 2 pheasants and 7 quail. Duane and I had to show them how to knock 'em down. We had lots of good laughs over all the shooting and missing. The quail population wasn't hurt by this hunting season... still lots of birds in every covey. And we saw a good number of rooster and hen pheasants too so hopefully we'll see a good number next season. The trip, though, revolved around a business mission... to find and bring back a trailer load of old barn wood to build furniture with here at the resort. We were in hopes of oak... but there's no oak in Kansas. Lots of pine. Pine is ok if it's in good shape. The barns out west we found were built with a type of tongue-and-groove siding that isn't good for furniture but would be good for covering inside walls. But we did find a barn in SE Ks that was awesome... very old and in good shape structurally. We'll go back and raze it at some point. We're still in search for old barns built with oak lumber. They're in big demand! Talked to a guy in Grove, OK that razes barns and sells lumber and rusted metal tin for big bucks to ppl out west. He said he gets $1.75/lin. foot for the tin roofing... crazy.

Beautiful day to be on the lake... mixed reports on fishing though. One guy (who placed in the contest), said he didn't catch a trout until after 11 am this morning. Another team said they caught most of their fish in the morning but struggled in the afternoon. Fishing is interesting. Had some good rainbows, and one legal brown. Right at 20 inches, 3.70 pounds. Male. Caught on a jig. Nick Brandon, fishing with Seth Turner. It was the first time fishing Taney for Nick. I'll let Seth tell you the rest. Interesting bags... very few limits at 8 and over. In the Boswell 2 weeks ago we had 10 teams over 8 pounds. Just a different day. Here's some pics.

Cool. I think we're going to have a good turnout. That 17 pound brown stirred a lot of interested a couple of weeks ago.

Generation patterns haven't changed much in the past few weeks. They're running water from 2 to 4 hours in the morning when the temperatures are at or below the freezing mark, and then again in the evening. But on weekends, all bets are off on that pattern. They usually don't run any water on weekends unless we have a big cold snap. When the water is running, fishing seems to be the best. Anglers are drifting bait mostly and doing well on Powerbait (Gulp eggs and paste) as well as night crawlers. Some people are using minnows and doing ok too. Best fishing has been up close to Fall Creek and then down at and below the Branson Landing. With the water off, catching slows down a bit for most people, even if the conditions are good for fish feeding. We've had a lot of cloudy, breezy days which is usually good for catching trout but they're being a little hard to get. But afternoons have been better than mornings lately, best time being after 2 p.m. most days. Jig and float using a dark colored jig has been good, especially if there's a chop on the water. Sculpin/peach or ginger with an orange head, 2-pound line under a float 4-5 feet deep has been pretty good. The pink Berkley's power worm is still doing ok for our guides. Throwing a jig, dark colors are still best but they are starting to pay more attention to white, which is usually our go-to color in the winter months. I'm sure we have had any shad come through the dam yet - just not enough water running to pull them through. Black, black/olive, brown, black/brown are still good colors as well as the usual sculpin and sculpin combos (ginger, peach, burnt orange). We're still throwing small jigs when the water isn't running and doing the best. The 1/16th ounce jig is my favorite and Duane's been throwing a 1/32nd ounce and catching fish. You have to be REAL patient to throw such a small jig because it just doesn't fall very fast. Plus when you're retrieving it, your "jigs", or when you lift the rod, can't be very extreme because you'd jerk the jig out of the water. Fly fishing continues to be good with midges and scuds best for catching mostly rainbows. I'd still stay with 6x tippet when using nymphs but go to 5 or 4x tippet if you're throwing small streamers like a wooly or pine squirrel. If you find yourself in a midge hatch and trout are taking midges off the surface, throw a soft hackle or a crackleback and strip fast.

These guys know how to do it!

Those jigs are PERFECT. Jet up to Lookout and sight fish up there - on the shallow side. Get up past the island (only in a jet) and fish just above the island, still in shallow water. You'll do very well, unless it's windy. Then you're throwing and not seeing anything but still can do well. Might have to go to bigger jigs.

How do you fish at Montauk?

If we get that all at once - yea you'll see flash floods and floating stuff. But over 2-3-4 days, it'll be a nice, well needed rain. Doubt if it raises the lakes much at all. Most will soak in.

Looking at several national weather centers and their forecasts for the next 5 days, I don't see where we're supposed to get a lot of rain. The most I see over a 7 day period is 4 inches and that's not really over SW Missouri but more towards Kansas. Where's everyone getting their weather news?

There are all kinds of people in this world and that's why you have lots of different formats for anything on TV - fishing included. This will appeal to some, not to others.

I've beat up a small bass boat with a prop on the White before... you got to be careful, and lucky. Lots of water... no problem. But even then you have to plan your exit strategy in case the water shuts down.

The Branson TU meeting scheduled for this Thursday has been canceled.

http://www.hannibal.net/news/20170107/new-state-park-named-after-outgoing-governor

I assume you're gigging suckers. Most guys go to the mouth of Fall Creek and start there. Can't go above and gig. Then there's the creeks but not sure they'd be in there. Trout- O2 is good regardless of generation. We'll just see what kind of rain we get and where the lakes are at that time.

That was him...

I have a lot of articles on ozarkanglers main site. Hard to say what the water will do that far out. Unless we get a lot of rain between now and then, I don't think we'll get a lot of heavy generation this winter.

@knuck you need to post a pic of the Rap... that's an incredible story in itself.

Buster Loving

I can't do that

Had a lot of pretty rainbows brought in. Most anglers said afternoon was much better fishing than the morning. Bait is allowed in this contest. The biggest rainbow, 2.22, was caught on a crawler. A lot of guys threw jigs all day.

The nest above Fall Creek should be active. That's where we always see one.

I'm checking my schedule