Phil Lilley

Never been to anything PGA. From the view on TV, no fans had any contact with the players that I've ever seen. This event is so different, may be because of the lack of space, especially at Top of the Rock, for spectators. I guess most of the fans left after the second rain delay today. Fred said the course was bare. If there's another delay, if you're thinking about going, that would be a good chance to go and really have your way- go where you want to (outside the ropes of course).

Naw- I try to hold everyone's fish. Better for the fish!

Get this- my good friend, Paul Clark, used to be the chaplain for the Sr PGA. He asked if he and 2 of his friends could stay with us this week. I said SURE! He brought 2 of his best friends, Bernhard Langer and Fred Funk. Tuesday and Wednesday we went to the course with Bernhard and went everywhere Bernhard went, ate where he ate and walked both courses while he practiced. Paul introduced me to every pro we met. I can't name all the players I shook hands with. It was surreal! And then every evening, we've all went out on the lake fishing. I'm here to say these guys are first class. They understand that they are truly blessed to do what they do and are eternally grateful. All I can say it ... unmerited favor and grace.

Evenings have been fun... These two guys are staying with us for the tournament. What a treat!

Yes. It's a nice, one room building with a great fireplace. Was told they "threw" it up in only 19 days. Bet you they tear it down after the tournament and build another one. As nice as it is, it's not the grand clubhouse that matches John L's pattern.

This morning- seems like some of the country- the internet is down. Forum is loading, some national sites but facebook is not. Even some of the icons on the forum are not. Google ads are just spinning. This sort of thing has been going on for a while- just not this bad. Anyone else?

Tracker Grizzly

I'm on the dock here the rest of the day. Stop by. Water just above my place is fairly good. Below, not good. Water is moving slowly and taking all the junk downstream but it's taking time. Nice thing about Taney is the "flush" factor. Fished last night at the Narrows. They boated some nice rainbows using a #16 red Zebra over a #12 gray scud, 6x tippet, deep enough to drag the bottom using spin cast. They were taking the scud only.

Play was canceled about 9 am.

I've spent the last 2 days there. I've played since I was young, watched on TV. It's surreal to see these guys in person. The event it great for Branson. Johnny Morris is spending an incredible amount of money out there at the old Branson Creek, now Buffalo Ridge course. Top of the Rock - hard to put in words.

Anyone going to come watch this!? This is an incredible event for this area. http://bigcedarlegends.com/

This is a fundraiser for the Missouri Chapter of the American Fisheries Society I'm participating in. I thought I'd post it here because I bet there are some of you that would be interested in donating and entering the drawing for a chance to win. Here's the deal... The following information is presented on behalf of the Missouri Chapter of the American Fisheries Society (MOAFS). We would like your help in supporting students as they work to become future fisheries professionals. By donating $50 you will be entered to win one of 23 Sage Fly Rods or 8 guided fishing trips all while helping MOAFS provide scholarships and awards to deserving students. That's 31 chances to win one of these great prizes. We will only be selling 620 of these raffle tickets which means that each entry will have a 1 in 20 chance to win. Entries are limited so go to www.moafs.org for your chance to win A winner will be drawn each day in December 2014. Prizes include rods such as the Sage Method Elite ($1325 retail), Sage Method ($800 retail), Sage One ($700 retail), and Sage TLX-F ($625 retail) and guided fly fishing trips ($325/day) from some of Missouri’s best trout guides. A complete list of prizes can be found in the “MOAFS Raffle Calender” attachment. The Missouri Chapter of the American Fisheries Society is a scientific and professional organization composed of persons dedicated to the conservation, enhancement, and restoration of aquatic resources. Should you have any questions about the fundraiser or MOAFS please do not hesitate to contact me via email. We hope you will consider purchasing a raffle ticket to help support future Missouri natural resource professionals. Andy Turner Student Support Committee Missouri Chapter of the American Fisheries Society moafsraffle2014@gmail.com MOAFS Raffle Calendar.pdf

Sure. Just have to know where the channel is. Just let me know next time you're here and I'll run up there with you and show you.

When the food supply here in the lake is good, rainbows can grow up to one inch per month. That's what MDC has reported in the past. Food- meaning freshwater shrimp. High in protein. Over the years, this population of scuds has had valleys and peak- mostly valleys. Not sure what causes either except for one thing - moving water. When the water is NOT running, bug populations drop. When it runs nonstop for long periods of time (like this year), bug populations go through the roof. We are seeing a big surge in big rainbow population in the lake this spring. One of my guides has seen big balls of shrimp in the bellies of rainbows he's cleaned for clients - these rainbows being caught from just below Fall Creek down to the Branson Landing. He thinks the shrimp population is on the upswing and the rainbows are taking advantage of it. I've seen big numbers of quality rainbows in the last month, not what we saw just 5 months ago during the early winter months. Did these fish go in hiding and just now reappeared? I don't think so. Most have grown 3-4 inches since the first of the year, in my opinion. Now we're seeing more down water, no generation. That's the cycle. We keep getting rain and we may see more generation - we'll see.

Hadn't been out on Taney very much the last week so when Ryan came in to relieve me from dock duties, I jumped in a boat and ran uplake. Bright sun and a little breeze, Water temp 54 degrees and clear. Didn't see much chop of the water till I got up to the Narrows- didn't see any above it so I stopped there. Very few people out fishing this afternoon- a couple of guides is all above Fall Creek. Steve Dickey has said that he's seeing a lot of scuds in rainbow's bellies when he cleans them- those caught just below Fall Creek. He thinks the scuds have made a comeback and the rainbows are gorging themselves on them. That's why we're seeing big, fat rainbows right now. He may be right! I tied on a big scud, thinking about what Steve had said. A #12 peppy scud, gray with a little antron mixed in. I also tied on a #14 squirrel, natural scud below it about 18 inches. Used 6x fluorocarbon tippet to both. Pinched a palsa about 36 inches from the first scud and started fishing the gravel flat up off the channel above the Narrows. Fish on. And so it was for the next 2 hours. Breeze would stop and the water would go slick- it didn't matter. There were schools of rainbows up there, moving up and down the lake. I'd say the biggest school numbered 500 trout- it was huge! I thought they would be fresh stockers, and they might have been, but the rainbows I caught when they'd move through my flies were 13 inches plus and colored up good, no stockers. So I'm not sure... Most of the rainbows I caught were older residents- been in the lake enough to have some color and a good size belly. It was only after I drifted below the Narrows I caught some real small rainbows. I saw several big bodied rainbows too. I missed one I saw swimming circles around my flies. I set the hook too early, not waiting on the indicator to move. Then I hooked one that took off- super! A nice one!! He made 3 long runs, then a short one. He'd come up to the surface and just pull sideways so I picked up my camera and started taking rapid shots of him, hoping to get lucky and get a good one (see 2 pics). Yes, I messed around with them in photoshop. Landed her, tried to get a picture of it- hard to do by myself. But did and let her go. I'd say 19 inches- not 20 though. Finished up and headed in.

Generation patterns lately fairly consistent. Water has been off most mornings, giving fly fishermen a chance to wade below the dam. Generation has been starting mid-afternoon with two units running full until after dark. The one deviation has been when a half unit has been running 24 hours or all day and into the night. Unfortunately, there's no way to know when that will happen. Our days have been pretty still this past week. Very little wind makes slick surface water conditions on the lake, which doesn't always bode well for fish activity. That's means they don't like to bite when there's no wind. It doesn't mean they won't -- it just means we have to work harder and smarter to catch trout. Scented bait like Powerbait hasn't yielded as many bites lately. Adding a night crawler to the hook does improve your chances. Use a Gulp egg to both attract a fish and to float the worm off the bottom by putting the egg on first and sliding it up the line, hooking a half worm once in the middle of the crawler and letting it hang off both sides, then sliding the egg back down on to the worm. Use two-pound line for more bites. I'd suggest Vanish two-pound. Fishing off our dock has been slow. It was good the first few days of the holiday weekend, but it seemed like the pool of trout just ran out, or got caught out. The Missouri Department of Conservation has been stocking rainbows on a regular basis, but of course, they rarely stock this far up in the lake. There seems to be more trout down below us, down around Monkey Island and the Branson Landing area. The section between Short and Fall Creeks has received a lot of pressure, too, so fishing has also slowed down up there. One thing we've seen is that there are some rainbows migrating down from the Trophy Area in to the bait area that are being caught on crawlers. These rainbows are much bigger than the stockers you usually find below Fall Creek. That's a nice bonus of having the Trophy Area. We're still suggesting using either a Trout Magnet/Zebra Midge or a marabou jig/Zebra Midge combo under a float. I just went out to prove to myself trout are still taking them. I boated to the old Riverlake dock and threw on the shallow side, setting the float at 5 feet deep. Within 20 minutes I had caught 6 rainbows, 4 on the 1/50th ounce brown/orange jig with an orange head and 2 on the #14 black Zebra Midge. We're still seeing some brown trout being caught in the Short Creek area. They seem to gather in this spot for some reason. I heard of a nice brown caught yesterday by someone fishing off a private dock on corn. It was released. Most browns have been caught on crawlers and then on white 1/8th-ounce jigs after the water comes on in the evening. Duane, our new dock manager, has been helping people rig up using a Trout Magnet with a Zebra Midge dropper under a float. That's been working as well as anything in these slick-water surface conditions. The Trout Magnet might lure them for a closer look, but the Zebra Midge is just too inviting not to taste. That's the idea. Fish this anywhere from four- to seven-feet deep, again with two-pound line. Report from the dam area.... Duane Doty, Lilleys' Marina Manager I've been fly fishing in the Trophy Management Area just about every day before or after working the dock. Fishing has been pretty good. Midge fishing has been great early in the morning or late in the evening if no water is running. I've been using 7x tippet and very small midges (size 18-22's) to consistently get fish. Many of them are in the 15- to 17-inch range with a few just over 19 inches. The white mega worm will also usually trick a fish or two when the water is off. Just dead drift it in the shallow, slow moving water and wait until it disappears. When it disappears, set the hook and you will have a fish. Before work, I've been fishing the flats between outlet #1 and #2. After work, I'm spending a lot of time down by Trophy Run and the boat ramp. This area is a lot less crowded than the upper end by the outlets. The chute just above Trophy Run is holding lots of quality fish right now. When the water is off, the night fishing is starting to pick up also. Stripping or dead drifting pine squirrels and white mink sculpins from the boat ramp down to Trophy Run has been very productive. I'm casting the fly out across the current and just letting it swing. The bite has usually been coming at the tail out of the swing. After the fly has completed its swing, I'll give it a few strips and then let it set for a few seconds. A lot of fish have been picked up doing this. When setting the hook, try a strip set instead of raising the rod to set the hook. This will help keep the fly in the strike zone if the fish short strikes you on the first try. I'm getting four to five takes on some swings by doing this. If one unit is being generated during the day, 1/125th-ounce jigs under and indicator have been catching fish, too. Set the indicator three to four feet above an all white, or sculpin-colored jig with the orange head. I've also been running a midge dropper under the jig when the fishing really gets tough. Just tie to the eye of the jig a 20-inch piece of 7x tippet and then tie a zebra midge to the other tag end of tippet. Several fish have been caught with the midge dropper on bright sunny days with no wind.

After Duane and company caught a bunch of smallies Saturday evening out in front of Chateau waiting for the fireworks, I thought I should run out to State Park last evening and throw some jigs and try it. That's what they were throwing- PJ's 1/8th ounce sculpin jigs and basically dragging them around the bottom off that major point. Asked Duane if he wanted to go after work and he said he did! We put in at 6:45 p.m.. Duane said he didn't have much experience on the Rock when I asked him some questions about what they were doing. I think he was surprised when I just backed the boat off the ramp there at State Park and shut off the motor and said, "We're here!". We started working that bank heading towards the dam (north), keeping the boat in about 16 feet of water. I threw a swimming minnow and Duane a sculpin jig with no results. As we got closer to the first point, Duane threw out the deep side of the boat and hooked a bass on that first cast. He did on the next one, and the next one. I relented and did the same but this time I threw a 1/8th ounce sculpin/orange jig. I think Duane had 5 bass on 6 casts to start. I started catching fish too but I don't think I ever caught up. We boated around 18 bass, spots, LM but mostly smallmouth. We might have had 3-4 keepers? Only measured one cause neither of us have caught enough bass to tell what's 15 inches and what's not. Of course, they all went back in the lake. The smallies especially looked rough and worn out. Most had hook marks in their mouths and sores from either the spawn or from being hooked. Toward dark, I tied on a Flicker Shad and threw it a couple of times. Caught 2 big blue gill on it out in deep water (20-25 feet). That was different! Duane's last fish was a nice white bass. I bet you someone could clean up trolling a Flicker Shad out there all day long, catching who knows what. Wish I had the time, I'd do it!

Too late to post a report- have to wait till the morning. But wanted to post the pics... pretty proud of them.

Cool...

Now you can make comments on articles posted on OA using facebook. I was using Livefyre but spammers were getting to me so I changed to facebook.

Yesterday was real slow for us- may be the difference was 40 feet instead of 25 feet. Crazy fish.

Arrived at http://www.happyoresort.com/ on Stockton Lake Wednesday afternoon about 4 p.m.. My fishing buddy, Paul Crews from Neosho, was about 30 minutes behind. Got settled, met and talked to Jim the owner of the place, put the boat in and headed to the dam. Slight breeze out of the southwest and partly cloudy, water temp was hovering around 70. Paul had fished this area quite a few times over the years so I let him pilot the boat, picked the spot. We found the edge of the old river channel on the NW side, 20 feet of water and dropped the anchor. It's as deep as 90 feet there with a rock pile in the middle of the channel that's about 26 feet deep. We fished on top of it too. We dropped night crawlers to the bottom and cranked up about 3 feet. First few fish we caught were big blue gills. Then a flathead, walleye, channel, bass, drum and a crappie. Paul cut up a gill and used it for bait. He caught the catfish on the cut bait. We ended up keeping a dozen gills, 3 keeper walleye and 2 catfish. Thursday morning started a 6 a.m. We decided to go back to the dam- thought may be we could catch more walleye. It was dead. Very few bites and no fish about a couple of hours of moving around that area. So we went brush pile hopping. First went to the west and hit a couple. Not much. Then went SE and found a couple more. Used the MDC App- it was easy. But no fish around the piles- that we could catch anyhow. So we decided to drift crawlers in 25 feet of water down this rock ledge bank. While Paul drug the worms, I tied on a pearl slider, 1/8th ounce jig head and started working the bank. I caught a bass on almost every cast! May be a few keepers but just 15 inches. Nothing huge. All went back- didn't want to keep any bass. We were after eyes to eat- but none caught on this bank. Used the trolling motor to run on out on the next point where there was supposed to be another pile. Think we found it- caught a nice eye on a crawler out there but that's all. We headed back south down lake and hit a few more places. Got tired of using worms myself. Pretty boring unless fish are going crazy for them. Rather throw something and not catch fish rather than sitting feeling for a worm bite. Went in, cleaning fish and went to Stockton for a mid afternoon lunch. Ate at House of Chong Lee. Nice guy. Good prices. Food was good too. Would recommend it. Back at the lake, we decided to troll. Paul had never trolled with Flicker Shad before. When he trolls, he puts the trolling motor on 1 and drags a jig or swimming minnows. It didn't work for us. So I told him we were going to trolling a #7 Purple Tiger FS. I had reports from zarraspook and Sac River Jim that the Sons Creek mouth and Googer Creek mouth were good, trolling in 20-25 feet of water. That's what we did. And within a few hours, before dark, we had 27 keepers in the boat with one keeper walleye to boot. I won't say who DIDN'T catch his limit but it wasn't me. We wanted to fish under the lights at least once so we went back up to the main bridge at Hawker, to the west end and started there. There's a nylon rope tied around the last pillar there you can tie to. We dropped a light and immediately started seeing bait fish dart through the light. It was about 30 feet deep there if I remember right. Paul fished minnows close to the bottom and picked up 2 more crappie. Still one short of his limit. I caught one white bass- the only one of the whole trip! Couldn't believe we didn't pick any up trolling. Headed in about 11 p.m.. Friday morning we thought we'd clean up again. Not so. Trolled the same area plus up in Googer and Sons and only caught 6 keepers and a few shorts. More short strikes than Thursday too. But the best walleye came out of Googer- about 20 inches. We quit about 11 am, cleaned fishing and headed home. Happy O is a good place for fishermen. They have access to the lake and a nice dock. And Jim fishes I think about every day so he can talk the talk and give good advice. I like Stockton. It's so different than Table Rock. Hardly no sign of houses, condos or docks on the shores. Has an untouched feeling about it. And full of fish... couldn't believe how many bass I caught and I wasn't even trying. Funnest time I had was sight fishing along a bluff bank/ledge rock close to point 6. Could see the bass and targeted them with a pearl slider. Bait disappeared and I set the hook. Caught one smallmouth- was as black as I've seen a fish. Should have taken a pic.

I do. Easy to catch if you can locate them. When I say locate- they're all over the lake. I fish for them in the dam area. Points and pea gravel bank coves. Question is how deep. I don't usually go till late June so not sure where they'd be right now. Drop crickets and pieces of worm down to them. Hold on to your rod cause we hook big bass and catfish too!

We caught a few- channel and flathead- at the dam. There's a rock pile just in front of the gates about 100 feet from the buoy line that jumps up to about 26 feet. We anchored over it and dropped night crawlers and cut perch down and caught a few along with a walleye or two. Did the same on the sides too. If you follow the sides of the river channel, you'll find the top of the ledge about 20 feet deep. That's where we'd anchor. Caught some BIG blue gill there too.