Phil Lilley

Nice!

Trout fishing has toughened up the last few days. Fairly heavy generation has made both getting to the fish and getting them to bite a challenge, most of the time. Then there's a few times during each day and places where the trout bite like crazy. That's what all of us keep coming back for. Problem is, the last week, those places and times are far and few between. Generation: They've been running 2 to 3 units first thing in the morning, then gearing back to one to even a half unit the rest of the day. There was one day this past week when they left the water off all afternoon. I don't see anything in the works that would change that pattern for a while. Water temperature is 44 degrees coming from Table Rock which is warmer than a few weeks ago. That's a good thing. When the water runs for so long, our trout tend to seek out places where they can sit out of the fast water. That may be along the bank, in creeks or on the bottom behind big or small objects. The way trout are built, sleek and slender, they don't need a very large object to sit behind. That's where we are looking to get our bait and lures. The creeks, Roark, Turkey and Coon, have been hammered pretty hard the last few weeks. Simply there's seems not to be many trout left in them. But there are some and they're being caught on either Gulp Eggs on a jig head, a marabou jig or minnow under a float. There's also come crappie and white bass being caught in Roark and Turkey Creeks. I have to interject something here at this point. I've owned Lilleys' Landing for almost 31 years and I have seen a pattern, a mindset, that frustrates me. First, fishing is fishing. If you take a trip to the same water, say once a year, you're going to have good years and bad years of "catching". When some anglers have good trips, where they're catching a lot of fish, they tend to "double dip" or catch and keep more than their possession limit, and at times, more than even their daily limit. In the last couple of weekends, I've seen groups of fishermen keep way more than their limit. It almost seems like they're "making up for those years when they don't catch many". What this does, quite simply, is rob the next guy who comes to fish. I see it happen on our dock quite often. Because most of this lake is "put and take", you'll only catch trout when they're there. If they've all been caught out, then fishing is poor. Over all the years, there have been times I have reported my own guests to the authorities but only after they've been warned. I have also encouraged other anglers who voice concern about this kind of activity to call an agent and make a report. Poaching hurts other anglers chances of catching their limit of trout here on Lake Taneycomo. It's selfish, it's illegal and it should not be tolerated by anyone. Morning fishing, when the water is running the hardest, has been slow, but when they cut the flow back, the trout seems to come alive. Drifting Gulp Eggs, one white egg and one either pink or chartreuse on a hook, has been the best along with night crawlers. Best areas have been drifting from Monkey Island past the bridges and Fall Creek to Trout Hollow. I still think the best live bait to use is one white Gulp Egg and a half night crawler. Slid the egg onto the hook and up the line. Pinch a worm in half and hook it once in the middle of the half, the worm hanging off of both ends. Then slide the egg back down on top of the worm. Works good off our dock too. There's been quite a few rainbows, nice rainbows, holding on the flat from Short Creek to Trout Hollow. They're catching them drifting and using either a pink or chartreuse Trout Magnet under a float 4 to 6 feet deep. I've tried this a couple of times the last few days and was surprised the size and quality of rainbows I was catching. I used my spinning rod one evening and my fly rod the next. Both worked well. I would think a marabou or micro jig would work too although I haven't tried it. Anglers who fished out of the resort this weekend struggled to catch trout but most caught their limits. One positive thing is that the size of our trout are still bigger than normal. Some of the rainbows I caught on the Trout Magnet in the Short Creek area were 12 to 14 inches. Still catching some dark males which usually average 13 inches or more. The wind has really hampered "catching" this week, yesterday being the exception. There's few remedies for wind when fishing out of a boat except finding a stretch where it's not as windy, getting along the bank and tying up or anchoring or going up in one of the creeks that's sheltered from the wind. Wind causes problems... it's hard to control a boat, especially a pontoon. Combine current with wind and it's hard to keep your bait or lure where it's supposed to be. It's best, I think, to get out very early in the morning before the wind starts and plan on staying out till dark when the winds start to die down. Some things I do in my boat when it's windy are: Try my hardest to keep the boat moving the same speed as the current if I'm drifting bait or flies on the bottom. Watch floating leaves on the surface as a gauge and move at the same pace. If I'm throwing a small lure like a jig of spoon, slow the boat down just a little and let the lure swing downstream of the boat with the rod tip low so the wind won't affect the lure's action. Watch the line, especially close to where the line enters with water and look for it to twitch or pop. That's a bite. It's harder but you really have to watch where your line is at all times in conjunction with the boat. If you're the boat operator, you have to be real good at multitasking to do that! Be aware of how the wind is blowing your line above the water. If it's putting a big bow in your line, drop your rod tip closer to the water's surface. In the trophy area, I believe we have some of the nicest trout we've had up there in a long time. They're just hard to catch right now. I think the cold water has caused them not to eat a lot. They're held up out of the current and biding their time and eating occasionally. With the water running almost all the time, they don't have to move far to eat something that drifts by them. I've been throwing jigs at them all week both in the trophy area and below and mixed results. I'm still catching quite a few brown trout, especially when I'm using white jigs. When I boat up into the trophy area (water running), I usually go all the way up to the cable below the dam and start there but lately I haven't because I just don't get bit till I'm almost down to the MDC boat ramp almost a mile below the dam. Couple of thoughts - we know there's been shad come through the turbines this winter. When that happens, the trout below the dam gorge themselves on the virtually free food and look for more. They usually hit anything white for the next month hoping it's another shad drifting by but this year isn't the case at all. It's not that I'm not catching fish on white jigs, it's the location I'm catching them in - and NOT catching them in. I'm throwing white 1/8th ounce jigs when the water is running along the bluff banks, close to the bank, and catching trout from the MDC boat ramp down to the top of Trophy Run, then from Lookout Island down to the Narrows. I'm doing fair fishing the bluff bank from Fall Creek Marina down to Trout Hollow and not as well fishing the bluff bank from the old Sun Valley Resort down to Cooper Creek. BUT yesterday afternoon was the exception, and confirmed something I have believed all along. I took Darrell Bentley, a friend of mine, out fishing yesterday from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m.. The sun was out and very bright. They were running 80 mw with the lake level at 705.7 feet. The wind was calm. We started at the cable. I threw an 1/8th ounce white jig and Darrell tried his gold tinsel 1/16th ounce jig. Darrell works at Reed's Fly Shop just outside Montauk State Park. I've never tried any tinsel jig before and gold is for sure something I've never thought about using. Darrell said he uses gold when it's sunny and silver when it's cloudy. I had my doubts that our trout would find his gold tinsel jig appealing. I was wrong. Darrell put 2 rainbows in the boat before I got a bite on my white jig. I was impressed. Then I caught one, and then another. We hadn't drifted past the island yet and already put 5 very nice rainbows to the net. We continued to drift down and did well. Made a couple of drifts before our time had ended, catching some quality rainbows up to 17 inches. So they're still up there! Again, it's being in the right place at the right time throwing the right lures, flies or bait at them! And that includes gold tinsel jigs!

Buster Loving 417-335-0357

Clay Goforth did a great job getting these together - thank you Clay. I want to make these available to as many members (and non members) as possible...for the lowest cost (to me). I'm referring to shipping costs. The best way to do this is to mail packages to key places where people can pick them up. These places would be tackle shops or sports retail stores. It could be just someone's house where he could distribute them to many members in that town or area. I need addresses and the contact person's name- make sure they have been contacted and are willing to receive the package. I'd like to wait till Wednesday, 4/9, before mailing out individual decals. I have plenty to go around. But if I need more, I'll reorder. Here are the 3 decals that are available: MemberDecal_1.pdf MemberDecal_2.pdf MemberDecal_3.pdf

Here are some pics we took way up in Flat Creek.

Friends went to Long Creek Monday- they said they found crappies close to the bank on spawning banks. Should be real good by now!

I think that's pretty much the rule presently... but good idea!

Thanks for that, James. You showed class. When I said I didn't think we should address or care about exaggerated reports, what I meant is that reports are made everyday by anglers with screen names like r2d2 and jjksl357 (not real names, identities) either naming waters or spots - or not - and telling about what they did or didn't catch. There's no way to know what's accurate and what's not. Yes I hope that all reports are 100% accurate but I know that will NEVER happen, right fellas!! Heck I can't even keep count of the trout I catch in my own head so I always say "about". Then there's those with counters... and those who keep and clean their catch. They know what they've got and/or caught. What I'm saying is serves NO purpose to call someone into account on a report here. Yes we can ask if they took pics - I ask because I want to post an image when reporting an article and/or fishing report. If it's a float trip somewhere, I love to see pics of the river, bluffs and trees (and fish). Everyone if different, I acknowledge that. For some of us, it burns us up to see someone "brag" about catching fish you know there's no way he caught but that's really on him. If that person wants to live a fictitious life in his own mind, then I feel sorry for him.

I'm going to address this issue later today in a well thought out post (don't have time right now). The issue of calling out a person on a public forum is pretty serious. Fishing is fishing... if someone has a banner day while everyone else is not - and this happens! - who is anyone to call that person a liar? Now if someone posts an exaggerated fishing report (God forbid!!!) - so what?! Where's the line you step over to be called a "fisherman" or a "liar"? No one has the right to police fishing reports and judge who's telling the truth and who's not. I'm the only person who has the "delete" button here and I'm certainly not going to use it on reports. If I allowed people to call other fishermen on this forum LIARS, then I might as well shut it down because no one will want to post anything in fear of being called out. So- heed this warning. Please be respectful... let it go next time. And I apologize for missing issues that happened that I missed... I don't read all posts. Ham- sorry I didn't know you were called into question on your reports. Anyone else- I apologize.

Severe storm watch till 1 pm. That will make it interesting.

Seems I mis spoke about the rain. Should have checked my facts before posting.

The clearer the water, the deeper crappie will spawn. A 12-year study conducted by the Missouri Department of Conservation came up with this conclusion after determining with a secchi disk the depths at which crappie spawned. The department discovered that at a water visibility level of 10 feet, the crappie spawned about 2 feet deeper, and below 10 feet the fish made nests 3 to 4 feet deeper. While the study’s findings probably hold true in many instances, I have seen crappie on nests in 2 to 3 feet of water and sight-fished for the spawners many times on my home waters of Lake of the Ozarks. A crappie veteran who has caught these spawning panfish in the shallows of Lake of the Ozarks’ clear water is Terry Blankenship, a local guide. If he had his druthers, Blankenship would fish for shallow crappie in stained to murky water. But he has encountered situations on his home waters of Lake of the Ozarks when the water was dirty and the crappie made their beds in the shallows but then the lake cleared enough to where he saw fish on the nests. He has noticed the fish will remain in The clear, shallow water (6 feet deep or less) as long as the lake level remains stable. “The clearing of the water doesn’t affect them as much as the level of the water,” Blankenship says. “If the water is fluctuating a lot it just seems to back them off and they may even re-bed.” On his home waters, Blankenship finds crappie spawning along pea gravel pockets or flat banks with a mixture of pea gravel and chunk rock. Any shallow brush along the bank usually holds nesting fish in clear-water situations. When he can see the nests in the shallows, Blankenship can occasionally trick some fishing into biting, but he prefers to target these fish during low-light conditions or windy days. “When you have a calm, clear day and you can see those fish they are hard to catch,” Blankenship admits. Since he is also a construction worker, Blankenship gets off work on those cloudy, rainy days so he has plenty of experience fishing in those conditions for shallow crappie in clear water. If he has to fish on a sunny day, he prefers trying in the early morning or when the wind creates a constant ripple on the water. When the water is calm or there is a slight chop, Blankenship tempts shallow crappie in the clear water with a jig-and-bobber setup. His favorite lure for clear-water crappie is a Bobby Garland Baby Shad in the blue ice hue with a 1/16-ounce jighead. Whenever he sees a shallow brush pile, Blankenship casts his bobber and jig well past the cover to prevent from spooking the fish and slowly twitches the combo up to the brush. “Typically you want to be moving it at a slow pace to control your depth,” he says. “But there are times when you know you are in a good area where you just let that bobber sit for a while. I have caught a lot of good fish by just letting it sit.” A Baby Shad attached to a 1/16-ounce spinner jighead produces best for Blankenship on windy days when the fish are most aggressive. He casts close to the bank and retrieves the jig at a steady pace with occasional jerks to imitate a fleeing baitfish. Blankenship is also an advocate of using high visibility line in clear water. Since Blankenship prefers line-watching to detect bites he opts for 6-pound test fluorescent blue Berkley Trilene line. “I feel like I will miss more crappie if I can’t see my line than if I had a real low visibility line because crappie tend to hit a bait and push it forward,” he says. “So a lot of times you won’t feel the bite, you will just see it.” Being able to see male crappie on the nests also gives Blankenship an idea where to look for the larger female crappie. When he sees the males, he backs off into deeper water and looks for brush piles in the 6- to 10-foot range. He usually finds the females suspended just above the cover. “Try to fish a little higher than whatever the brush is,” suggests Blankenship. “If the brush is 12 feet deep, then fish 10 feet.” Clear-water crappie will come to the shallows to spawn in certain situations, so sight fishing is an option if you use a stealthy approach and make the right presentations to catch these skittish fish. For information on lodging and other facilities at the Lake of the Ozarks or to receive a free vacation guide, call the Lake of the Ozarks Convention & Visitors Bureau at 1-800-FUN-LAKE or visit the Lake of the Ozarks Convention and Visitors Bureau web site at funlake.com.

What about the rain coming. 3 inches predicted tonight? Warm rain though.

Schedule said 2 units this morning but they only ran may be one-and-a-half. Wish they ran 2. Boated to the cable and started with white 1/8th oz jigs. Still not catching anything till I get almost down to the boat ramp, then it's good down to the chute above Trophy Run. Then nothing through that area. Fishing with friend Micheal Maples and his friend Shon Mallard from Fair Grove (MO). Starting at Lookout, we picked up some more trout. One nice brown. Another bigger brown hooked but came off. Shon caught his first brown trout. Changed colors to sculpin and immediately started hooking more fish. Drifted down to Fall Creek. I hooked something real big at the ramp above the creek. Came undone. Wish I could have seen it. Boated down to Turkey Creek hoping to find some white bass. Heard they're in there. Nothing. Called it a morning. With rains coming in, we might see some heavy flows coming. We'll see.

They've been ordered. I'll let you know when they're here.

They've been ordered.

File it away... If you're competing against Doty, don't listen to a word he says.

Taneycomo is still ahead of Table Rock... Alright!!

I told Frank to post these... he's a good friend who lives in Washington, MO. It's a home business he's built up from scratch- good quality stuff. I told him most anglers would love to buy their stuff from small companies - they put more effort in to their products because most of them are fishermen and know what works. Frank- and others here- fit that bill.

Generation patterns right now are all but impossible to predict, except for the fact that Table Rock is on the rise again after a good rain Friday night. My guess is the the Corp will try to keep lake levels down close to power pool. That means we'll probably see more generation from Table Rock Dam for at least a week, I'd say. Frequency and how much flow is a whole other set of guesses. Warmer spring temperatures should keep power demand at bay, so flood control kicks in as the primary reason to run water. Seems like the water is running early in the morning and less during the day and on into the evening. That could be the pattern for a while. Water temperature is holding at 43 degrees from Table Rock Lake. While trout aren't crazy about this cold water, they're pretty active except when 3-4 units are running full. Then the fish hunker down and don't do much eating. That's when most anglers have been heading to the creeks, where they're finding good numbers of rainbows and just a few browns. Heading down lake is another move fishermen are making when the water is running hard. Monkey Island through the bridges has been consistently very good all this week, drifting either Powerbait or minnows on the bottom. Shepherd of the Hills Hatchery has been stocking some very nice rainbows lately. This picture was taken Thursday afternoon as people were bringing their catch in to be cleaned. The biggest of these rainbows were 16 inches, and they were freshly stocked -- note the color of the trout. Average size of rainbows stocked in Lake Taneycomo is 11.5 inches, so this is pretty special to see this size rainbows being caught. These rainbows were caught mainly drifting minnows on the bottom between Monkey Island and the bridges. The creeks are still hot. We took some boys from a boys' ranch in Kansas fishing last Tuesday. Taking three pontoons, we squeezed in between a couple of boats close to the first bridge in Roark Creek. Steve Dickey, fishing guide, and his son were helping in one of the pontoons with four boys. I had just put a brand new anchor and rope on his boat and he promptly dropped it in the water to hold the boat in place. The wind was blowing out of the north pretty hard. Our anchors were no match, and we all drifted toward the rock bluff bank. Steve noticed his boat was moving way too fast in the wind, then saw that his anchor rope was untied. Then he remembered a couple of boys getting tangled in the rope just a few minutes earlier and before he got back to them, they were free. Trouble was they had untied the rope to get loose but didn't tie it back! At one point, all three of us were pushed against the south bank together by the wind, playing bumper boats while trying to keep the boys from making an absolute mess of their lines. We got freed one by one and ended up tying off to the trees on the north side of the creek ... forgetting the anchors. Did we catch trout?! Oh yes. Each of the boys almost caught their limit of rainbows and some were nice ones! We used minnows under a float four feet deep and only cast 10 feet off the boat onto the mud flat, not in the channel. That's where Steve had been catching them. With one unit running yesterday, Bill Babler's clients caught good trout drifting from Short Creek to Trout Hollow and fishing a pink Trout Magnet under a float five feet deep. They were using fly rods. Guides have also been going up in the creeks and fishing a jig and float using fly rods. Steve Dickey, fishing guide, called in a new fishing report for us. Here's the voice recording (flash required). Late Saturday morning I fished for a couple of hours until noon, drifting and working an 1/8th ounce white jig mainly against the bluff banks from the dam down to the Narrows. I did try darker colors but didn't do well at all. The best stretch was Lookout to the Narrows. The fish were holding on the drop off from the bluff bank, not in the channel and not on the banks. I found them on the edge of eddies, too. Almost all of the trout I caught were quality rainbows and browns, with only a couple of small rainbows. I worked the jig extremely slow, daring it to get hung up on the bottom -- which it did a few times. The video shows catching some of the nicer trout. It also includes an amusing close call. Stepping off the elevated deck, my foot slipped on the wet boat floor and I almost fell backward over the side of the boat. It would have been the first time I'd ever fallen in -- but I did manage0 to stay in the boat. I was so rattled I didn't notice breaking my rod until I went to cast it again. If I ever make a blooper video, this will be included, for sure!

My friend who lives in Neosho says he thinks there's more whites up in the Neosho than the Spring, at least right now. He's not sure why but that has been his experience so far this season. Says it's unusual.

Haven't seen stocker rainbows this big in a long time. And there are a lot of them being caught the last week, mostly down around the bridges and in the creeks. These are 16 inches in the foreground.

Love this post!

In Fisherman posted an article on Flicker Shad Pro. http://www.in-fisherman.com/2014/03/26/berkley-flicker-shad-pro-series-crankbaits/ I'll be posting it on OA this morning.