Phil Lilley

At the bottom of the ride you'll be dunked in to the lake.

My place

@Toby from MO @Dave Cook May be you guys can fish it on this date...

No word

I don't know - may be someone else does. I know there's a decent population of them in here but if and when I do catch one it is a fluke.

They've moved a few things around on the lakefront...

ATTENTION: We are changing the date of this tournament FROM March 19th to March 26th. NEW DATE: SATURDAY, MARCH 26, 2016

ATTENTION: We are changing the date of this tournament FROM March 19th to March 26th. NEW DATE: SATURDAY, MARCH 26, 2016

With good fishing comes over harvest. I'm sorry to say we saw plenty of this all weekend. I just hope these fish are eaten and not forgotten, sitting in a freezer, burned and thrown away. I speak out of experience.

The weather forecast predicted 60-70 degree temperatures for midweek following President's Day. Perfect for our annual Father/Son fishing trip to Lake Taneycomo. My 81 year old father and I have been blessed that this particular week in February has been unseasonably warm the last three years. We arrived on Tuesday afternoon and as usual the staff at Lilley's was exceptionally helpful. We were able to call and obtain our slip number, allowing us to launch the boat at the Cooper Creek access before checking in. The resort has been changing since we first started coming. The remodeling of the cabins, even complete reconstruction of some has it looking better than ever. We had wondered how the December floods had affected the resort as well as the fishery. There is no indication that Lilley's was even affected although I know that isn't true. We attempted to fish on Tuesday afternoon, however after a couple hours on the lake the blustery conditions of that day sent us to the cabin to rewarm. We did observe some of the devastation upstream to the docks, boats and even decks of the homes below Fall Creek. Beware if you haven't been there in awhile, the channel may have changed since the flood. Big trees are hidden under the surface in places and rock bars have moved or enlarged. During our trip, generation was at approximately 1/2 unit leaving the water level low. Wednesday morning we proceeded up to Fall creek and drifted power eggs (1 white, 1 orange) on spin cast rods with 4 lb. test. We caught several fish 12-16 inches on this setup. We repeated the drift from Fall Creek to Cooper Creek with the same results. Several fish with amazing color but then some with hardly any. All were rainbows. The wind hampered our drift on a number of occasions when it countered the current and left us virtually still. That evening, at the dock, the guy in the next slip was showing off his catch from the trophy area. I wouldn't have believed it if i had not seen it myself. A nice Walleye about 17 or 18 inches. He released it after a few pictures. He was told that it is not that uncommon as quite a few were washed over the dam during the flood. Tomorrow we will try up there and maybe cancel our trip to Canada from later in the year. Just Kidding. Thursday we made the trip up the lake. Very hazardous navigation at the top of Trophy Run. We started our drift at the lower end of the Hatchery, again using spincast rods with 4 lb. test and 3/32 oz. olive and orange jigs. We caught a half dozen rainbows on our first drift back thru Trophy Run. We did this several times with the same results. All the fish were in the slot, but great fun fighting them. Dad had his rod set up with a spincast float for extra weight to help cast the light jig. This float would let the line slip through and had no effect after it hit the water. We did notice that he caught less fish with this setup however. He took off the float and immediately improved his hookups. I literally wore 2 of these Jigs out. All of the paint was beat off the heads and very little maribou left on them. When we lost a couple more, we were out of the olive and orange so we switched to 3/32 oz. white jigs and had the same success. All rainbows though, no browns, walleye or the elusive pike. We finally drifted out of the trophy area and continued to catch on the white jigs. We kept a couple fish for dinner that evening and went to bed tired but happy. All in all a very good trip. Thanks, Lilley's. Lorn and Lawrence Dennis

I wish I could too... but that water hasn't shut down plus you still can't see more than 3-4 feet down. So I can't tell, not to mention taking any pictures of it.

That's funny!

Boated to Lookout about 1:30 pm and got out with only my Muck boots on. Fished the back side using a #14 hot pink Copper John under a float and caught a half dozen rainbows. Tied on a #14 ice gray scud and it was on. Brought 14 more rainbows to hand. Walked up to the top of the island where the water splits and started throwing the scud there. Fishing in less than 12 inches of water, caught a dozen small "silver bullets". Got bored and really wanted to throw a black wooly bugger so I switched. Still working the fast, shallow water at the top, those trout were slamming at the fly, mostly out of the water. I had to hold it still just so they could try for it 2 or 3 times before getting a hold of it. It was a bite every cast and 20+ more rainbows to hand. I could have stayed there the rest of the day and caught them. Crazy. The deeper I'd throw out and worked down, the bigger the rainbows. Back to the boat, I motored to the top of the backside of the island and threw a small anchor out. Stayed close to the mud bank and worked the pockets as I drifted down slowly. This is where I caught the good rainbows- several in the 17 inch range. I threw a 3/32nd oz mottled brown jig, orange head, 2-pound line. Wanted to get out and fish a couple more banks but only got to one. At the Narrows, there's about 130 feet of gravel bank on the channel side. I got out and fished the gray scud under a float with quite a bit of weight. Caught another 10 rainbows there, mostly 14+ inchers. Crazy catching day - I really love this flow too.

Incredible fish... thanks for posting!!

Keep an eye on conditions (generation). We may see a change between now and then.

Sure - you can swim! Sorry- bad joke. It is only accessible by boat. Also- we'll see what the generation is doing in 2 weeks. I can't imagine we'll see this pattern for another 2 weeks... with no rain. 30 mw of water 24/7 is very unusual.

Got out on Lookout Island this afternoon and did some walking and fishing. If we had waders I think we could have made a day of it - so much great water to fish with this flow (704ish feet). Front side or back side - lots of fish and ideal water. I threw a 3/32 oz brown mottled jig, orange head / 2 pound line and caught the dickens out of them. Ryan did the best on a small egg pattern, dead drifting. We also boated to the cable and made one drift to Lookout. Caught some nice rainbows (I was still using the same jig and Ryan an egg/scud combo). Nothing large - biggest 16 inches. Here's some pics:

You too, Pete

Come by, Pat. Would love to see you.

I've never had a good ratio of fish-to-hand when fishing soft hackles. Never heard anyone that has. Most times they set themselves. I think the issue it how they take the fly and where it ends up in the mouth-- the bottom. I end up hooking most in the tongue... that's why I think so many pull out.

Give it a another day or two after that and it'll be 75 and sunny!! I love wintertime!

It seems the lake level reading below Table Rock Dam is not working... I'm going by what Bill Babler told me today. He said it's read 704.36 today- both on the Corps App and on their phone recording but the lake appears to be much shallower- not as much water running as they're saying. So beware. It's very shallow, especially from Fall Creek up lake today.

Every time we get high water events like this, there are minor changes to the upper lake. When I say "minor", I'm referring to the main channels not moving from one side to another but slight changes that need your attention when boating. If you run the same route today as you would have last year, you wouldn't have any issues. But you may not be able to cut a corner... There is at least one tree or root wad about a half mile below Fall Creek in the middle right of the lake that at 704.5 feet is just under the surface of the water. This will be sticking up out of the water if the water is shut down. It is troubling that we are seeing more and more wood coming into play for boaters in the main boating lanes between our place and Fall Creek. We will try to remove or move them once the water is off - or at least mark them with a buoy.

They are running 30 mw today with a level of 704.3 feet. From what I saw the other day with the lake at 704.8 feet, if you're running uplake in a boat, several places will get you if you're not in the channel. Fall Creek - I still haven't figured it out but staying to the left, then shooting back to the right just past the creek mouth should be ok. Narrows - STAY IN THE CHANNEL. Stay left. I think there's going to be DRY gravel on the right edge of the channel when they shut the water down. That's how shallow some spots are. At 704.8 feet, my motor drug in a couple of places close to the channel edge the other day. Lookout - Stay right and STAY ON PLAIN. Watch for the big logs on the right - they should be out of the water. Chute above Trophy Run - STAY ON PLAIN and look for green water. There's some holes but they quickly shallow up at the head of those holes. Should be fine as long as you don't cut the corner at the top - stay right. Stay in the middle to the bottom of Big Hole - avoid the boulders. Rebar - without going up there this morning, I'd say go real slow and see if you can get up there - find the channel - if there's one. If you have the guts, blow past the root wade just on the right and veer off to the right. Stay in the middle to the cable - again, avoid the boulders.