Phil Lilley

I should have removed these. Site had some trouble Saturday morning and I was seeing what I could and couldn't do. It's fixed.

Yes the site was down. There was an issue with the server and it was messing with the database. All have been fixed, I hope.

Moved topic to Conservation Forum.

A topic was started on the Stockton Lake Forum about feral hogs around the lake on Corp ground. I'm starting this topic to continue that discussion.

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Here's John Berry's report sent today. During the past week, we have had no rain, warm temperatures and heavy winds. The lake level at Bull Shoals fell one and four tenths feet to rest at five and nine tenths feet below seasonal power pool of 659 feet. This is forty one and four tenths feet below the top of flood pool. Upstream, Table Rock rose two tenths of a foot to rest at five and nine tenths feet below seasonal power pool and nineteen and nine tenths feet below the top of flood pool. Beaver Lake fell four tenths of a foot to rest at five and nine tenths feet below seasonal power pool and fifteen and five tenths feet below the top of flood pool. On the White, we had heavy generation in the afternoon with lower generation in the morning and no wadable water. Norfork Lake remained steady at one and two tenths of a foot below seasonal power pool of 553.75 feet and twenty seven and four tenths feet below the top of flood pool. On the Norfork, we had low levels of generation all day with wadable water every day. Seasonal power pool has been reset for the lakes in the White River system. All of the lakes on this system are below seasonable power pool. With cooler fall weather and lower lake levels, we should see more wadable water. The Catch and Release section below Bull Shoals Dam is closed from November 1, 2016 to January 31, 2017 to accommodate the brown trout spawn. The State Park will be seasonal Catch and Release for the same period. All brown trout must be immediately released. In addition, night fishing is prohibited in this area during this period. On the White, the bite has been spotty. Some days have been excellent and some poor. The hot spot has been Wildcat Shoals. We have had no wadable water. The hot flies were olive woolly buggers (#8, #10), Y2Ks (#14, #12), prince nymphs (#14), zebra midges (black with silver wire and silver bead or red with silver wire and silver bead #16, #18), pheasant tails (#14), ruby midges (#18), root beer midges (#18), pink and cerise San Juan worms (#10), and sowbugs (#16). Double fly nymph rigs have been very effective (my current favorite is a cerise San Juan worm with a ruby midge (#18) suspended below it). The best bet for large trout has been to bang the bank with large articulated streamers delivered with heavy twenty four to thirty foot sink tips (350 grains or heavier) on bigger water. You will need an eight or nine weight rod. This is heavy work but the rewards can be great. The Buffalo National River and Crooked Creek are navigable. The smallmouths are still active. My favorite fly is a Clouser minnow. Carefully check the water level before entering Crooked Creek or the Buffalo River. There are no dams on these streams. They both have large drainages and are prone to flooding during and following any rain event. The water can rise very quickly. There has been wadable water every morning on the Norfork. The lake has turned over and there is a sulphur smell on the upper river and with lower dissolved oxygen, in that area, the bite has been slow there. The most productive flies have been small midge patterns (#18, #20, #22) like ruby midges, root beer midges, zebra midges (black or red with silver wire and silver bead) and soft hackles (#14, #16) like the green butt. Egg patterns have also been productive. Double fly nymph rigs have been very effective. Try a small bead headed nymph (zebra midge, copper John or pheasant tail) suspended eighteen inches below a brightly colored San Juan worm (hot fluorescent pink or cerise #10). There have been reliable hatches of small midges (try a size 24 Adams parachute) and caddis (try a size 18 elk hair caddis). The fishing is better in the morning. My favorite fly has been the ruby midge. Dry Run Creek has been less crowded with school back in session. A large number of brown trout have moved into the creek. The hot flies have been sowbugs (#14), Y2Ks (#12) and various colored San Juan worms (worm brown, red, hot fluorescent pink and cerise #10). While you are at the creek you should visit the Norfork National Fish Hatchery. It is fascinating. Be sure and remove your waders before entering to prevent the spread of aquatic diseases. The Spring River is fishing well. This is a great place to wade fish, when they are running water on the White and Norfork Rivers. Canoe season is over and there are fewer boats on the river. Be sure to wear cleated boots and carry a wading staff. There is a lot of bedrock that can get very slick. The hot flies have been olive woolly buggers with a bit of flash (#10), cerise and hot pink San Juan worms (#10) and Y2Ks (#10). Remember that the White and Norfork Rivers and Dry Run Creek are infected with didymo, an invasive alga. Be sure and thoroughly clean and dry your waders (especially the felt soles on wading boots) before using them in any other water. Many manufacturers are now making rubber soled wading boots that are easier to clean and are not as likely to harbor didymo. John Berry is a fly fishing guide in Cotter, Arkansas and has fished our local streams for over thirty years.

DJ let me fish with them today and allowed me to catch this pretty rainbow. Just shy of 20 inches. Narrows. #18 red soft hackle fished with a #18 P&P Zebra Midge under a float.

Fun stuff...

My family built a house east at Parsons, KS on Adam's Bluff, wooded area, in 1972. The builder was a hillbilly... big guy. And all I remember is him singing that song at the top of his lungs while framing the house. Strange how our memories are...

OK... I emailed my doctor and told him. Cat's out of the bag. Ordered some old man tests too. At 58, I guess they should look inside to see if everything is working ok.

Interesting... I've had some kind of irregular heart thing all my life too. Never have gotten it checked. It's intermittent like yours. Might be caffeine... I drink a cup a day. But I can go 4-5 months with nothing and then get them a few times a week. Feels like a gush, hard beats, then makes me cough a little, like a tickle. I think it could cause strokes-- blood pools and throws a clot. It's one of those things, if I go get it checked, they'll try to put me on medication and that's not going to happen! I figured I've lived with it this long, I'll be fine. Funny how things affect us... have a friend who's battled sinus issues for most of his life. They've always tried to eat healthy, very fit. Found out he's allergic to greens... spinach and the like. Crazy.

Test. Should be back online now. Database crashed last night.

For the most part, there's been very little generation on Lake Taneycomo the past couple of weeks. If operators run the turbines, it's early in the morning for an hour or two (70 megawatts) and in the afternoon beginning 2 to 4 p.m. and running either for an hour or until dark. I know that sounds arbitrary, but there really isn't a pattern. We count on some water running every day but with extended periods of no generation most of the day and all night. Speaking of night time, fishing after dark has been good below the dam, wading and throwing a variety of streamers. Brown trout activity has slowed, but there are still a lot of nice trout up there to be caught. Flies that will do well are leaches, Hybernators, wooly buggers, Cracklebacks, Pine Squirrels and sculpins. Some of the guys who regularly fly fish below the dam say fishing has really been slow until they start generating, and then it's good around the outlets. But fly fishing from the Missouri Department of Conservation boat ramp down seems to be pretty good. I've fly fished a couple of times around Lookout Island and have caught a few very nice, colored up rainbows on scuds -- whether the water was off or running. I fished both sides of the island. I've also been throwing a 1/16th-ounce olive or black marabou jig from Lookout Island and down lake and have fared better than I did earlier in the fall and even in the summer. Of course, I am using two-pound line when fishing a small jig. I use Trilene XL clear. I have heard some fly fishers are catching a few trout on dries on the upper lake. Jeremy Hunt, a fishing guide, says his clients are throwing #16 and #18 black ants and catching big rainbows and a few browns. He said it's best to find chop on the water for the ants to work. For the past week, I've been fishing a scud in an area below Fall Creek, not above in the trophy area. I got the notion to throw a scud after fishing a flat over a week ago. Zebra Midges weren't cutting it, and as I was fishing, and not catching, I noticed rainbows cruising around in front of me nosing the gravel trying to kick up bugs. I know there's a good population of scuds in that area, so I tied on a #12 peppy (200R hook) and pinched on a palsa indicator four feet above the fly, 6x fluorocarbon tippet. That day, I was out about 1 p.m. and it was sunny with very little wind--not the best fishing conditions. But the trout were actively feeding, and they liked my peppy scud. I've gone out several times since at all times of the day. Saturday I went out at 9 a.m. and started fishing the flat. This is the east or inside bank from the Riverpointe boat ramp up to the first dock somewhat across from Fall Creek Marina. It's a stretch that was formerly dotted with a dozen docks, but all have been taken out since the last flood. Because of the trajectory of the sun right now, this water is in the shade most of the day, and that's where I was keying in on, the shade. But it was slow . . . one rainbow and few bites. So I boated on up into the trophy area and tried some deeper banks and set the scud at eight- to nine-feet deep. After striking out on the deep bank, I trolled over to the shallow side, the bank below the Narrows, and started fishing some water where I knew I'd catch fish. And I did, sight fishing to some rainbows cruising in less than a foot of water -- that was fun. Then I fished the water just above the mouth of Fall Creek. By this time, the wind had really picked, blowing down lake or out of the south. That, I believe, really turned the fish on and I was rewarded with a bite on every cast. I wanted to again hit the bank where I had started before heading in, so I boated back down and started at the log below the log house/dock. This log is about 50 feet from the bank and runs long ways with the root wad sticking out of the water. I set the boat as close to the bank as I could get it without bottoming out, (although I did many times.) So I was fishing 50 feet or less from the bank behind me in no more than three feet of water. Most of the time I was throwing to 18 to 24 inches of water and set the scud at five feet from the indicator. This is what I have determined: These rainbows are taking a scud in sunlight better than shade. I've fished this area enough in both conditions, and every time I fished in sunny conditions, no matter what the surface looked like, they were much more active in sunlight. Of course, Saturday's chop on the water really helped. I caught more than 20 rainbows in that small stretch of time. One rainbow took me to my backing, twice! It was only 17 inches long, but he thought he was 23! I'm going to keep experimenting with scuds below Fall Creek because I know it's an untapped resource. These trout haven't seen many scud flies, but at the same time they're seeing lots of live ones. Bill Babler, one of our fishing guides, reports he's using a ginger micro jig in the trophy area and catching well. His clients caught and released 60 trout Saturday morning. But it hasn't been like that every day for the guides. I'd say at least three days last week, they were struggling to find trout that would bite. Some days were better than others. The same can be said about trout fishing in general. Anglers using bait are having some great days catching fish and some not-so-great days, especially off our dock. White is back as the hot color. Last week was yellow paste. View full article

Beautiful birds, thanks!

They must have gotten permits before the moratorium.