Phil Lilley

You gotta catch one on one of my jigs.... Any fish will do.

Or the easiest way would be to somehow get the original cast or mold.

First thing is to acquire one and look it over. Again, I know nothing about bass jigs - what makes one better than the other. I know our "trout" jigs are made to drop in a circle in the water column. It's not my design but copied from Jerry Dudley's jig. The jig mold would have to be carved out by our cnc machine which involves hours of programing and trial and error. When we get it up and running, and have time, we can give it a shot.

We are purchasing a full line of jig making equipment from a guy that lives in Crane. He has hundreds of mold casts and a ton of stuff (hooks, racks, paint, lead), along with the casting machine and vulcanizer. We'll take possession of it in June but won't be setup to use it for a while. It's a long term investment. I know he makes jigs for a lot of local guides and shops. We will ease into it slowly but eventually make a business out of it. First thing we need to do is figure out a place to set it all up. We have no room for it presently. It would be cool to develop a line of jigs just for this area - jigs like you guys are talking about. And you guys could help create them.

Love jig fishing! I got out this evening. White 1/16 oz jig against the bluff from the resort caught 10 in 30 minutes. Stockers mainly. Scuds definitely is the ticket if you can stand to just drift.

Water looks great. Thanks for the report!

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You guys still concerned about sugar in gas.... slashed tires? I assume you're talking about 10C bridge.

If you're down from the landing it should be too bad off the dock I'd think. Shad - may be. Debris - not really.

I thought they'd be shutting down the 2 gates this week but instead they turned off a generator and opened 3 more gates. Same flow - 15k cfs. Table Rock is almost down to 917 ft. I'm not complaining... I want them to drop the lake before April and May get here. Looks like they're running Bull Shoals too - may be someone finally got to the Corps and told them to quit flooding everyone. Yeah - I know there's more to it. No shad seen this am and the white bite was slow for me.

Sorry to hear. Was looking forward to seeing my bass fishing friends.

The white bite continues to amaze. I lost a hog this afternoon. Hook pulled out.

Probably colder - a little. Ours is 45 up here.

But the scud bite should get better and better with heavy flow. It’s super good below Fall Creek.

It will. I don’t think they’ll shut the gates off esp if we keep getting rain. Half inch last night. More tomorrow and Saturday. Crazy thing about these shad- you just never know if they will come through. But they are trickling over enough to keep the fish looking for them.

Out of one rainbow. Caught below Fall creek

I can verify that the threadfins and flowing... I saw dozens in the water below the dam this morning. It was reported to me last evening that one of our guides saw them yesterday late in the dam as far down as the narrows. I saw them down below Lookout. Caught a dozen rainbows in the 17-20 inch range - their bellies packed with shad this morning. The shad are crowding the south bank. Some have managed to get towards the middle but hit that south bank with white jigs. This is a 20-inch rainbow caught after One Cast.

Blake's jerk bait report Dragging smaller 2 to 3 inch floating jerk baits on a drift rig can be an effective method to catching trout on Taneycomo. Not only can it produce numbers of fish it can often times lead to landing some of the larger trophy class trout that call our headwaters home. This method is most commonly effective in generation patterns at 2 units or more all the way through floodgate stage waters. Most of the time, the more generation the better. To set this method up you will need a size 12 snap swivel, size 12 barrel swivel, 4 to 6 pound monofilament or fluorocarbon line, an 8th ounce bell sinker (in most water 8th oz suffices, only at floodgate levels will I switch to 3/16.) and of course your small floating jerk bait. The jerk bait can be many different color patterns, try what you have. We have found that patterns imitating shad, minnows, sculpins or baby rainbows tend to work best but have had success on other wild color baits as well. Start by removing the belly hook from the jerk bait leaving only the tail hook. This will help reduce snagging on the bottom. Then take the line coming from the rod (line on your reel also 4 to 6 pound is the range your looking for) and slide the size 12 snap swivel onto the line, do not tie the snap swivel on leave it free sliding. Then at the end of your line tie on the size 12 barrel. Take an additional 2.5 feet or so of 4 to 6lb line as a leader and attach to the other side of your barrel swivel. At the end of your leader attach your small floating jerk bait with belly hook removed. This completes your jerk bait rig. We have a wide selection of these types of jerk baits available in the fly shop and online store, ranging from the custom painted signature series(little higher priced) down to a wide selection for only 5 dollars per lure. We have tested them all and they all produce. Note that just like any other method there are days where it is more effective and days where it is less but nevertheless a method worth giving a try on any day the water flow is right for it. Application is simple let your bait drift with the current, cast the rig upstream and drag along the bottom just as you would any other drift style rig on the lake always making sure you are keeping your drift consistent with the current and lines straight upstream. We have tested this, given strong enough flows 3 or more units from Table Rock Dam all the way to monkey island and have caught fish all along the way, so this method leaves good room for long drifts.

We get minnows from Oklahoma. I'll check

Then we'll see flood gates for sure.

One of my goals this spring is to hire you to take me and my grandsons fishing. They live in Lowell.

We found some whites and one hybrid last week above twin bridges where the docks are. I don't know the names of the places. They were moving around pretty good so we didn't stay on them very good. Caught some nice 2 pounders. The hybrid was about 3 pounds. We were really looking for crappie... and a few of them too.