Phil Lilley

The last 2 evenings I've gone out and fished from Fall Creek Marina down throwing a black/sculpin 1/32nd oz jig 2 pound line and really had good success. I took 2 friends Wednesday evening - both novice anglers - and they both caught 15+ trout. Ricky lost a nice 20 inch rainbow at the boat. Last evening I took Marsha and she kicked my butt the first 30 minutes. Both times we caught 1 brown to every 3 rainbows, all smallish 11-13 inch "stockers". But boy did they fight! I did see 4 different fish come up along the bluff bank chasing - I assume big browns chasing other trout.

I believe that reading comes from the house unit that runs all the time. 20 cfs. I think when they shut the units down, they boost the liquid o2 injection to insure there's plenty of DO when the water shuts completely off. Then the outlets are high in DO - that's where the extreme upper lake gets it's o2- that and sunlight and wind. Personally I haven't seen any effects of low DO, either in the bite or the fight of the fish. I think the cooler water really helps hold the DO levels.

Yes sir. It's going to be a fantastic tailwater fall season.

Just browsed thru the comments. You're really arguing about nothing. There are all kinds of jobs. Some work harder than others. You could say the same thing about baseball players. They're PLAYING baseball - that's a fun sport! But it's not real hard work. Yeah you could tweak a hammy or pull a groin. Lots of similarities actually. Study, practice, prepare equipment... You're arguing about the DEGREE of work. The DESCRIPTION of the word "work". And I guess what started this conversation - the description of what an ATHLETE is. Both are arguably up for discretion. Top Dollar, you obviously feel pretty strong about it. But you have to admit there's room for other's opinions to be reasonable too.

We're heading into the fall season here on Lake Taneycomo, and trout fishing has been fairly decent for the most part. It does seem like there are days when they just don't eat and then there are days they can't get enough food. Who knows what triggers either mood, but it's sheer fun when they do bite. I'm not going to harp on the hot weather. Everyone has been in the same boat. Even venturing out on our lake on these hot days has been pretty tough, even when the water is 51 degrees. But we hope those days are about behind us -- at least enduring triple digits every day for a week or more. The high humidity has caused the lake to fog up mornings and evenings, which has made navigating a boat difficult. But that should improve with milder temps and lower humidity. The last few days of August we enjoyed cooler days, so the generation pattern has changed up a bit. Cooler days means less water flow. The generation has started later in the afternoon and stopped about dark. As the days cool, my guess is that we'll see less and less generation. Less power demand and low lake levels spell less water flow. Mornings should see no real change since there has been no generation in the mornings all summer long. Opera tors have run water most afternoons and evenings, so that is when we'll see the changes. Black seems to be the color of choice, when it comes to jigs at least. I've done very well using black, combining it with olive, sculpin and purple. We've also had some reports that sculpin/peach is working pretty well, too. I've been on a quest to fish areas of the lake that I don't routinely fish. I started in the Cooper Creek Flats area and have worked my way down to Monkey Island, which is just above Branson/Hollister proper and the U.S. 65 Highway bridge. The other part of my quest has been to use the lightest jig possible, which is a 1/32nd-ounce most of the time. Of course, I'm had to use two-pound line ( Trilene Sensation ) to throw and drop the small jig down to the bottom, sometimes in as much as 24 feet of water. I have rediscovered the Monkey Island Flats, an area just above the island that extends almost 500 yards. The lake is about 20- to 24-feet deep before you get to the flat, where it shallows up to 7 to 10 feet. Both rainbows and browns are schooling on those flats, and they really bite when the water is running. I've found two big browns there, caught a couple of days apart. I'm wanting to work my way down to the Branson Landing using this technique, as well as work bigger jigs around the docks. You never know what I might find! Maybe even a big bass! There's a lot of pond weed breaking up and flowing down lake when the water starts running in the afternoons. This can be pretty frustrating, especially when you're fishing off of a dock. The best time to fish from a dock or the bank, of course, is when the water is not running. Otherwise, take a nap! Or tie jigs. Night crawlers have been good for catching trout. If the water is off, pump some air in them to float them off the bottom. If it's running, no need. I'd also suggest using two-pound line if the water is off. Our water isn't real clear, but fishing something stationary in the water means the fish get a good look at what you're using. Two-pound line will give you a better chance at getting bit. Guide Steve Dickey is putting his clients on fish early in the day by using a black micro jig under a float in the trophy area. He's using 6x tippet. I don't know that he's using our micro jig, but I'd think ours would work fine. Also working early in the mornings is the white mega worm under a float. It caught this nice brown trout the other day. The mega is made of a fluffy yarn material that really breathes and moves with the slightest touch. That's why it works well when there's no water moving. And the pink Berkley's power worm under a float is working below Fall Creek. I've said this many times -- our guides make their living on the pink worm. It flat catches trout on Taney! When using these baits under a float, start by fishing them about four-feet deep. Move the bait deeper when needed. With the weather changing somewhat, cooler and less humid evenings mean less fog and enjoyable, short trips out jig fishing. There are a lot of trout just below Fall Creek down to Short Creek, and I have been catching them on 1/32nd-ounce, two-pound line or 1/16th-ounce , four-pound line black jigs. And it doesn't seem to matter whether the jig is on the bottom or not. "Where have all the browns come from? " is a question we're hearing a lot last month. On some of my evening trips, I'm catching as many brown trout as rainbows. There does seem to be an abundance of smaller browns between 11- and 13-inches long. They are aggressive and fight really hard! Last evening I caught one that had its adipose fin clipped, identifying it as a triploid. That's a trout that was artificially made sterile to enhance its growth rate. Remember, going into the fall season, dissolved oxygen levels are low on our tailwater, although the lake water temperature is a little cooler than normal at 51.5 degrees. Fish, especially big fish, will get stressed by long fights and time out of the water. It is most important that you KEEP YOUR CATCH IN THE WATER immediately after being caught. Don't take it out to unhook it, admire it, photo it. Leave it in the net, take it out to get a quick photo, put it back in the net till it's ready to swim off. Photos courtesy of Facebook/Ozark Trout Runners. View full article

Beautiful.

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