Phil Lilley

I'm going to try tying in a colored section of line, just to see if I can "see" the bite better. I would think adding floatant wouldn't be a bad idea in that case.

If I could ask a question on his video, which I can't because the comments are turned off, I'd ask if he's putting floatant on his butt section because he said he's letting the jig sink till the "sighter" section is vertical. But your butt section will sink to unless it floats, and 15 lb mono doesn't float. When is a jig a streamer? A "streamer" is a jig when it has a lead head. A jig is a streamer when the material is left long? Interesting.

I didn't follow them... one right decision at least. I have a lot to learn!

These were moving too fast to get anything to them. By the time my jig sung to the depth, they moved on.

Crappie?

Put in at River Run about noon. Headed down and hit Barker and the flats below there. Saw a few schools of what I think were crappie but no takers. Saw more fish on the bottom in 18 to 22 feet of water - again no takers. Jigs and soft plastics. About 12 boats out, mostly trolling real slow. I didn't see any action. Nice to to be out! Water temp 46.

That's Duane Doty's design.

I try to force feed fish when I go to other waters, including Florida's backwater. Most times they work but not all the time. ALOT of people are putting marabou jigs out there, even in this area. PJ's, Zig Jig, D2 Jigs to name a few. Our nitch was to guarantee the quality and try to keep them tied right by local tyers. We've honestly been too busy to expand the product but we should. We're making a micro jig which mimics the Turner but that hasn't really taken off although I think we got it real close to the original. I think we will make heavier jigs, as well as breaking into or colorful, brighter colors in the coming months. I think brighter colors will do better on crappies. We're open to ideas.....

Back by popular response, we're hosting another art class by Duane Hada of Cotter, Arkansas. The flyer has all the details. Duane Hada Art Class 2023.pdf

It was as strong as the one the fall before. Better if nothing else.

Again, all I have to offer is a comparison to Taney. Here's another thought. We thought Taney had somehow lost a lot of our big trout a year ago. Starting in November, fishing was slow. This continued through March. We convinced our biologist to do a shock survey. Even before they actually did it, the fish came alive and we started catching them again. The spring, summer and fall season proved to be even better than the year before, which was a record, according to our c/r records.. I still don't know what happened for those 4 months of slow fishing.

One other thing I just thought of. Wouldn't the increase in the walleye population affect bass growth? They certainly compete with bass for the same food. More fish, less food.

I'm not a bass anglers, nor do I fish TR enough to have any intel. But I have a couple of thoughts. Old fish are smart. They get caught multiple times in their lives and I'd think become wise to a lot of baits. When the Alabama rig came out, lots of big bass were being caught all of a sudden. It was so good tournaments banned it. We're seeing the same thing on Taney with big trout. To a point, they're getting wise to our lures - stick baits and jigs. Some flies. It's getting harder to catch them and the guides seem to come out with new stuff to catch them every season. The other thing that has turned Taney around is less fish and more food. They're stocking a lot less trout so there's more food -- that's the theory. Seems like it's working. Not sure how you address that on TR - that would mean keeping more bass and that's not a popular subject.

I googled that and didn't see anything. Do you have any news articles you can share links? Sounds interesting.

I know this has been discussed in the past but there’s allot of new products out lately. I’m in the market for both. Screen mount- I think I want something that elevates the screen up front on the bow. Right now I have the transducer pole mounted separately, not on the trolling motor but I’m thinking about changing. What I’ve found is if you’re fishing for open water crappie, the trolling motor route is best. If you’re fishing structure, you want the pole. Thoughts?

I need it heavy. I’m shipping one of my G3’s to Naknek in Alaska this spring. It will sit outside stored in the winter so it has to be tough. Thanks for the suggestions!!

Does anyone have suggestions where I should get a cover made?

Nice- thanks!!

Today was a good learning experience. I’m not a crappie fisherman. Can’t wait to get back. I think I need some ice jigs.

I have a few old ones. They're not necessarily beat up though. I'll never use them. I'm not a bass fisherman - those baits really look great! Display Case Worthy.

The year 2022 will go down in the record books as one of the best lunker trout years in recent history. It may not have surpassed the "good ole' days of the 60's and 70's" but I think we gave them a run. Just that we recorded so many trout longer than 20 inches compared to the past 40 years is impressive. I'm just not sure if this streak will continue. Our fishing pressure really dropped off in December. Fishing continued to stay good for most anglers who braved the cold and rainy days. But for us, we didn't see a lot of bigger trout. We did not, though, fish below the dam where I know a good number of big fish live. I believe the pattern for Taneycomo is when the heavy generation starts, the trout tend to scatter over the upper half of the lake. Then we'll see the lunker numbers increase for all parties fishing the lake. When Table Rock Lake turns over, which it did in mid November, our water becomes dirty with silt flowing from the dam. Our Dock Manager Blake Wilson noticed that when that happened, our jig bite really took off. Since the last week of December though, our water from Table Rock has really cleared up considerably. This should help with overall fly fishing in the whole lake. I believe our trout see smaller flies a lot better in this clear water versus the brown, silted water we had experienced. Generation has been sporadic. Even during our cold spell, dam operators didn't run much the first couple of days, then ran it full blast the last couple of days. If they run water now, it's the first few hours of the morning and/or the last hour of the evening and into the night. But there's no pattern at all. Lake water temperature has dropped from the 50's to the 40's in the last few weeks. Last time I checked it was about 47 degrees coming from Table Rock. I have been fishing on Table Rock and have seen its temperature as low as 39, but mostly it's about 44 degrees. So we should see our water temperature continue to drop in the coming weeks. I have some personal fishing info from doing One Cast lately. I've been catching rainbows on the white mega worm under a float -- probably my best producer overall. Second would be the zebra midge under a float. The scud has been slow except that I do know that some of our guides have drifted it in running water, with an egg fly, and done well from the dam through Short Creek. Jig fishing turned on after Table Rock turned over and our lake got silty. White jigs have been the best followed by ginger and then sculpin. Olive and black have been good, too, at times. I've been fishing mostly when the water isn't running so I'm throwing 1/32- and 1/16th-ounce jigs on mainly two-pound line. If the water is running, I'm increasing the size of jig and going with four-pound line. Night crawlers have been the best bait, injecting them with a little air and adding a split shot 18 inches above the hook. Or you can float the worm with a marshmallow. I took my grandkids out a few weeks ago and fished strictly with a marshmallow and did very well. I did have to watch the kids to make sure they didn't eat the bait. I've also suggested using red Pautzke's salmon eggs with gold glitter off the dock. That's producing good catches. Our rainbows are really gaining color right now. Most of our rainbows are winter spawners, although very few successfully spawn. View full article

We need to go fishing.

Not sure if Covid knocked this event out but haven't had it for a long time. Should bring it back. May be next year.