Phil Lilley

This threw me too.... When you log in now, you use your Display Name, not your User Name. If you have trouble, email me at lilley @ lilleyslanding.com

Guns and Hoses Trout Fishing Tournament http://www.lilleyslanding.com/news/guns-and-hoses-2015-fishing-tournament August 22nd. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 3-night Special Stay 3-nights between August 16 - September 2 and get a full day jon boat rental free. Bring a boat, stall free. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We've opened up the weekend of August 28-29 to a 2-night stay/reservation. Normally we have a 3-night minimum through October. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1-800-284-2196

Don't know- worth a try. Haven't tried beetles yet but they should work.

Went across the lake and fished the bluff. I've never caught anything over there on a dry before ON THAT BLUFF but I had 2 hookups and 4 more strikes on a cicada, black/orange. One brown and one rainbow, both about 17 inches. This is getting fun!

I left my BVK up in Alaska so I can't shake 'em to see the difference... only going by memory. I prefer the TiCrX. I love it in the 7 wt for big fish.

I have used a BVK and I like the TiCrX better, but not by much. It's a 5 wt. I use it for almost all my fly fishing here on Taney. The spin rods we have made special for the resort in Harrison, AR. One piece.

Just sent out a couple of guys and gave one of them a couple of hoppers. We'll see how they do. I've always thrown them under the trees, closer to the bank but I've done better this summer putting them in the middle of the debry line - where the small leaves and "stuff" is moving down lake forming a line, sometimes close to the bank but most times out away from the bank as much as 20 feet. That's where the trout are holding- just under the surface inspecting the stuff on the surface. I caught a rainbow the other day that had a Japanese beetle in the roof of his mouth. I haven't tried beetles yet. I like fishing from Lookout down to the Narrows but have done well fishing both banks from the cable down too. I also picked up a few rainbows fishing the "grass beds" over the flooded area above Lookout Island and across. I caught a nice 19 inch, fat rainbow last night - but didn't have the camera running. Caught it on a red/gray #12 stimulator. Taney trout haven't hit hoppers like this since 2011... there is a common thread here. Our water temp is now at 56 and stained, not as stained as in 2011 but close. May be coincidence, may be not.

I've been having some fun throwing hoppers along bluff banks for the past week or so. Foam hoppers, any where from 8's to 4's - big ones. Tan and pink is what I've tried and the tan seems to work better. Had some fish come up and SLAM 'em tonight. One night brown hit it 3 times and missed every time. The first time he came all the way out of the water, hence I know it was a brown well over 20 inches. I know where you are! Tagged One Cast with a couple of clips tonight.

This?

Considering the water ran all night, that's an accomplishment! Thanks for posting, Tim.

I don't know.... I'm tempted to promote this to an article.

I think you'll like RR. You should at least try it.

It will!

I now understand a pic was posted and deleted, one that would have gotten the poster's membership deleted. I didn't see it. I know some are frustrated with the direction of some posts here lately--but this forum is approaching it's 10th birthday and believe me, it has seen worse days. People come and go... but the best members are still here. I appreciate that.

I'm not sure about that. I would think so. if they're going to go toe to toe with FB - they should.

If you're going to post catching and killing a nice bass or a nice trout anywhere on the public net - forum or facebook - expect to get hammered. It's just the way it is in the fishing www.

We're about to get an upgrade. The forum won't look much different but it will have some cool changes. To compete with Facebook, they've made some changes. The BEST change is that we will be able to upload pictures/files up to 32 MB in size. That means you can upload pics from your phone or camera directly to the forum without having to reduce them. Not sure when they'll get to OAF - says up to 8 days - we will see. I believe there's some cool things they're doing in regards to posting from your phone too. We will all see...

Thanks mojorig Excellent information.

Below Beaver Dam may be the best since they're not running a lot of water there. Roaring River is an hour drive. Crane Creek. Other tailwaters are running water. Hope that helps.

Excellent! Hope to attend.

Generation has remained about the same for the last several weeks. If nothing else, it's increased in volume. Table Rock continues to drop slowly and steadily--it's now dropped almost to 924 feet. Beaver Lake is still hovering around 1129 feet and Bull Shoals has dropped only a foot the past week to 689 feet. Reminder: Bull Shoals need to drop below 680 feet before they can work on Powersite Dam. Lake temperature is rising while the dissolved oxygen levels are falling. This is a common occurrence each fall season on our lake but the difference this year is the temperature is higher than normal. Here's a graph from today showing both levels. Note both are nudging up. Bill Babler reported he read the water at 56 degrees below Fall Creek. That's pretty high for the first week in August. We might be looking at water temperatures in the mid 60's later this fall. This will put a lot of stress of our trout, especially big brown trout that will be moving up in the upper lake to spawn in October and November. As soon as Table Rock turns over, which happens early in December normally, the situation will change for the good, sending water higher in oxygen through the turbines and into Lake Taneycomo. Currently, we are not seeing any affects of the higher lake temperature. It might even be helping the bite because the trout seem to be very active and strong. Starting at the dam, drifting with flies, namely a pink San Juan Worm and/or a gray #10 scud has been working very good but the best bite has been early and late in the day. During the middle of the day it's been slow. Steve Dickey says that the trout are on the bottom and won't move up for a fly but the exception is a jig fished 10-12 feet deep under a float, ginger or pink in color. He said either use a small micro or 1/100th ounce and a split shot or use an 1/132nd ounce jig that doesn't need any weight to get down. Twenty-one inch rainbow caught by a client of Bill Babler. Dickey said drifting the sides is better than the middle of the lake, staying about 50 feet from the bank. Four pound line is fine. Use only enough weight to get and keep you on the bottom. The same can be used with a fly rod and fishing the flies under an indicator 10-12 feet deep. The best bite stops just below the MDC boat ramp. From Lookout Island to Fall Creek, working a marabou jig against the bluff bank has been very good. The size of jig you use depends on how much water is running. If no water is running, I'd throw a 1/16th ounce jig using 2-pound line. One to 2 units, use either a 3/32nd ounce to 1/8th ounce jig and more than 2 units use the 1/8th ounce. Best colors have been black, sculpin, olive, ginger, sculpin/ginger, white or pink. Trout are starting to take flies on the surface. Hoppers are top of the list with other terrestrial flies doing well, such as Stimulators and Elk Hair Caddis. Stripping streamers are also producing. Taneycomo has never been a big streamer fishery but lately fly anglers are cashing in on pounding the banks with big white, articulated flies. White Sex Dungeons and white Circus Peanut are a couple of choices. Work them both sides of the lake from the dam down past Fall Creek. The action should be fast and erratic. With 2 units or more, work the inside bend from Fall Creek down past Short Creek throwing jigs. Don't pass by the shallow parts too quickly--that's where I've done the best. I think these areas aren't fished that often and these trout aren't seeing many lures. Below Fall Creek, drifting night crawlers is still the best way to catch your limit of rainbows. Add a Gulp white egg to the hook before hooking the worm to make it float and to add some color. Best areas have been from Fall to Short Creek and then from Cooper Creek down lake past the bridges. I've been catching some nice rainbows and browns fishing both banks, throwing either a white or sculpin 1/8th ounce jig, mainly late in the afternoon and evenings.

I'm sure it's a combination of all of the above... the influx of water in late spring and summer depletes the cold water from winter and the extra wood/leaves that was pushed into the lake both cause problems later in the summer and into the fall. It will just have to run its course. Below the dam, we're going to see the same thing. Probably very bad O2 levels and extra high temps. Will have to suffer through it.

From Shane Bush, MDC fisheries biologist: I went out to Big M last week after getting a bunch of calls about dead fish and I observed dead gizzard shad from the Shell Knob bridge all the way west to the MO/ARK line. I counted about 200 dead gizzard shad from 12-14” as well as a few scattered bass, bluegill, crappie, suckers, and white bass. I suspect that the gizzard shad are dying as a result of extremely warm water temperatures. The surface temperature was 90 degrees and when I did a DO profile, it was 84 degrees at 15-20 feet deep where the thermocline started. There is some literature that suggests gizzard shad have an upper temperature tolerance of around 83 degrees, which could explain why they are the main fish being affected. The thermocline is setting up rather shallow this year in the upper end of the lake, perhaps more than usual which could explain why this is happening this year and not others. The thermocline set up shallow during the last high water events we had in 2008 and 2011 as well. The DO profile by the dam shows cooler water at the thermocline (around 75 degrees), which would be cool enough for the shad on this end of the lake. This is probably why this event is isolated to the upper end. http://www.swl-wc.usace.army.mil/pages/reports/remote/profiles/tabpro.htm Fish start getting stressed and dying at DO levels below 4 ppm. I suspect that there may be pockets of anoxic water in the areas where the bass and crappie are being affected. As you know, the thermocline didn’t set up until just last month, so those sport fish could have been anywhere in the water column. Have you been catching bass deep? Have you caught them deep since the thermocline set up? I suspect that some of the bass, bluegill, crappie, and white bass observed dead could have been attributed to angling mortality, having been caught from very deep water. Their eyes were bulging out of their heads, which usually indicates barotrauma from no oxygen or being brought to the surface from very deep (see attached picture of a bass by Big M). There is a secondary thermocline set up in the upper end of the lake that starts around 45 feet and extends to the bottom. Dissolved oxygen levels were 5-6 ppm in this deep layer. I think the bass and crappie are being caught deep and when they're released into the warmer water it's tough on them. The fact that this is happening lakewide really suggests an oxygen problem, not pollution or other factors that might be killing them. Of course, these are just my thoughts based on what we know about how the dissolved oxygen sets up in these large hydropower reservoirs. This year has been very strange with water inflow and I really think the thermocline and oxygen concentrations could be doing funny things, especially trapping fish in pockets of anoxic water. This happened in 2011 in Bull Shoals Lake when all of the big striped bass and walleye were killed. It’s quite an interesting phenomenon to see how the secondary thermocline dissipates in the fall, trapping the fish that are down there. It could also vary from lake arm to lake arm as well.