Phil Lilley

The water was off all morning this morning. I'd say good chance you'll see down water over the holiday.

Welcome!

Hard to say. Very hard...

Generation patterns have changed drastically since my last fishing report. Table Rock Lake's levels have dropped back to "safe" levels and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has reduced the water flow in the last few days. The flood gates were shut down last week and most days with only two units usually running. This has allowed for easier fishing for most, even fishing off most docks. There's been several stocking boat sightings in the last few days, too, meaning more rainbows have been stocked. I'm sure Missouri Department of Conservation and Shepherd of the Hills Hatchery folk are readying the lake for the holiday weekend around the corner. Our annual Guns and Hoses benefit trout tournament was a success. Just short of $4,000 was raised for the benevolence fund for Branson police and firemen families. Exactly $1,000 was raised in the raffles, money going to a young policemen's daughter with leukemia. We weighed some heavy rainbows. It took over nine pounds to win in a field of 24 teams. Tom Burckhardt and Bill Freise won first place with 9.32 pounds, and Tom caught the biggest trout, a 2.32-pound rainbow. John Hittler and Frank Dietl weighed in 9.02 pounds, good enough for second place, and Mike Riffel and Greg Multisch took third with 8.78 pounds. All these fish were caught on marabou jigs. When the flood gates were opened last week, lots and lots of shad came over the top from Table Rock, and our trout ate very well. Since they were shut, the water has cooled back down to 48 degrees, and the trout are now looking for small, silver shad. Back in 2011, after the flood gates were shut down, we still saw schools of shad swimming in the eddies of Lake Taneycomo, at least in the first five miles of the lake. Although I have not seen any yet, I'm sure we still have shad up here and our trout are gorging on them. I fished Monday with a couple of friends, Brian Wright and Joe Cermele. Joe threw a big streamer while Brian and I worked our marabou jigs. The morning definitely was the best time, and the trout liked our white jigs. Joe's efforts garnered lots of looks and follows but not many strikes. They trout we caught were larger than normal, fatter than normal and very colorful. We also caught quite a few medium-sized brown trout in various areas. I cast a hopper at the banks for part of the day Tuesday but didn't get one rise. However, Steve Brigman said he caught four really nice trout on a hopper yesterday, mainly on the bank on the south side of the lake from the cable down to the first island. The hopper bite just hasn't taken off for me yet on Taney this summer. While the gates were opened last week, our guides reported finding higher than normal numbers of freshwater shrimp in the bellies of their rainbows, caught below Fall Creek. Some started bottom drifting #10 gray or brown scuds on drift rigs from Fall Creek to Trout Hollow, staying on the shallow, flat side of the lake, and not the bluff side. Anglers are also faring well drifting a cerise-colored San Juan worm in tandem under the scud. I took some friends fishing late Sunday afternoon. We drifted either from Fall Creek to Trout Hollow or from the River Pointe Estates boat ramp to Trout Hollow and stayed middle/shallow side. We used one white PowerBait Gulp egg over a half a night crawler, and they caught about 20 rainbows and two small browns in less than two hours. It was an effective way to drift bait since the Gulp egg floated the worm off the bottom. Two gentlemen who stayed at the resort from Tuesday until Friday last week told me they caught and released 185 trout. They even had a clicker/counter to keep exact count. Their secret? They drifted from the dam down to Fall Creek using a 1/8th-ounce Kastmaster spoon. They reported having the fishing trip of a lifetime even though they have been enjoying Taneycomo for years! Today, it appears generation will be geared down with less than one unit during morning hours building to two units by mid-afternoon. That's a very good pattern, if it holds. But I expect the water will be shut down down altogether at least sometime during the day on the weekends. If we don't get any rain between now and next weekend, we should see quite a bit of down water on Labor Day weekend.

I don't know if Cooper Creek does tent camping. They used to.

Yes. No problem boating - just stay in the middle of the lake going up. Fishing this evening was ok. Didn't catch a bunch but they were nice ones. Nice brown caught at the cable today- 21 inch brown - white jig. Released. A big rainbow hooked and lost down around the bridges- 4 pounds or so. Lost at the boat. On a jig of some color... Just a beautiful day to be out, for sure. And the Cards won... Look at the brown belly on this brown... and the contrasting white under the gills. Very unique and pretty. Didn't enhance the colors either- sun brought the colors out. Terrible way to photograph rainbows but wanted to get them back in the water as quick as possible. These were 4 of 8 rainbows caught this evening... they'd go 6 pounds together. All caught below Fall Creek on the bluff on white jigs.

Spill gates were shut down this morning and generation cut from 3 units to 2. The lake here at Lilleys' Landing is much lower and incredibly slower. Off color which is surprising since it was gin clear before the spill gates were opened. Rick Lisek just came off a double guide trip. He said they really bit early, drifting from Fall Creek down using Gulp eggs. Stayed in the middle of the lake. Then this afternoon, he drifted the same area using a #14 light colored scud, an egg fly and/or a cerise San Juan worm. He said they were on the flats- from the mouth of Fall Creek to the end of the FC dock, in front of the yellow sign on the Hollister side of the lake and from the Riverpointe Estates dock down to Trout Hollow, staying on the shallow side of the lake. Anywhere there was flat gravel, those rainbows wanted those flies. Said they had 80 trout this afternoon. He used both power bait and flies on a drift rig, no float. I'm going out and trying a few things and will report back.

According to SPA's online schedule, generation drops to 100 mw at 8 am tomorrow which I assume the gates will be shut down sometime tonight or at 8 am. Water temp will go back to 48ish and no more shad. But the trout will still be looking for them for, I bet, the next month. I fished for 90 minutes late afternoon today. Tried some small crank baits with only a few follows. Even white jigs were slow. They just weren't hungry. I did catch one rainbow in some back water on a jig and it was a toad. I bet 19 inches and thick. I tried to take a pic but my nice Canon camera would not cooperate. Wanted to take it with the flash and the way I was holding it (leaning over and trying to take a side pic of it), my hand was covering the flash. I was afraid I was going to drop it in the lake so... back went the fish and no pic. Sorry. Need to take the Optio Camera next time!! Guides reported a good morning this morning. Bill Babler's group caught some real nice rainbows from Fall to Short Creek on night crawlers.

We slid it back in the lake... I knew they were out of season PLUS I don't eat them.

I know we have them in here- just don't see them up here. But this one came through the gates and there's been more reported since. Other stories of big fish seen this week swimming around too - not trout. May be walleye, gar, spoonbill or... ?? Who knows.

I have but no luck yet. Will try again today.

Took out a couple of friends on the upper lake last evening. Boated to the dam about 6 p.m. and fished till dark. Three units and 5 spill gates at Table Rock dam, 10,000 cfs release. I read 75 degrees on the south side and 58 on the worth. Most of the water down from Trophy Run is about 60 degrees. We drifted mainly down the middle of the lake using 1/8th ounce white jigs. My 2 friends have fished with me before but I would still call them novice jig anglers. I had them throw out to the side and let the jig go close to the bottom, jigging up and letting it fall as it worked to the upstream end of the boat. When the jig gets close to the bottom, it's taken upstream because the water close to the bottom is moving slower because of friction--the bottom is slowing it down. We boated may be 25 rainbows and a couple of browns. We had a mixed bag of sizes--from 12 to 18 inches. The browns were 12 and 17 inches. We missed a lot of strikes and a bunch of fish got off on the retrieve. This morning I took Ryan and his little brother Joey out. We left the dock at 6:45 a.m. and headed to the dam. Same flow conditions as the evening before. On the first drift, the rainbows bit good, taking their #10 white wooly buggers. It was going to be a great morning if they kept biting like this! But the second drift wasn't quite as good, and it got slower as the morning went on. Not sure if it's boat traffic that shuts them down or just a morning thing... but they had a good trip regardless. We did switch to a Y2K and an egg fly and caught some on both. Also taught them how to work a white 1/8th ounce white jig which they caught some on too. We worked the eddies around Lookout Island and caught a couple. I'd think they'd be all over that slack water and might be but we couldn't get on them. I believe they ended up with about 23 rainbows for the morning, the biggest being about 16 inches. In the past, we've seen some crazy fish come down the spill gates in to Taneycomo. We've seen carp, bass, catfish, crappie, white bass, blue gill and more. And we've seen spoonbill. This time I didn't think the gates were opened wide enough for any big fish to come through but I was wrong! This spoonbill was floating against the south bank just below the first island this morning. The gills were ripped and it was dying. We pulled it in the boat and took some pics. Joey, I know, had never seen a spoonbill before. It was a cool experience for both guys. Rick Lisek had a couple of trips this morning. They fished the same area and patterns. His young client caught this nice rainbow this morning and the second pic is of another rainbow caught this afternoon. Bill Babler also had clients this morning. He said they drifted red San Juan worms and light peach egg flies from Fall Creek down to Lilleys' and did pretty well, catching 8 rainbows on one drift at the end of their guide session. Bill also heard that other guides were telling their clients to throw out a 1.8th ounce white jig, not letting it sink but reeling it in slowly but quick enough to keep it within a few feet of the surface. They were catching fish too. Bill reported some of his rainbows, after being caught and while he was unhooking them, coughing up lots and lots of scuds, and big ones! He said they were dark brown in color and as big as a #8. That's something to try tomorrow!

"I didn't know it was possible to vaporize yourself, including past activity, as though you'd never existed. I assume you'd need admin help to accomplish that?" Yes, at his request...

Haven't measured the front of my Grizzly yet but - that's a big Spoonbill! It's gills were damaged real bad but it was still alive. Wonder what else has come over the top?

There's a cable. I think 600-800 feet?

Kory handles all that stuff but I know he said he has more donated prizes to give away than ever before. I have a custom made spinning rod from Mike Riffel he donated, same as last year.

Come compete in our last tournament of 2013 on August 17th! It’s our fifth year hosting the Guns and Hoses fishing tournament here on Lake Taneycomo! The proceeds go to the local police and fire auxiliary funds. The entry fee for each two-man ream is $75. We are offering 50% off boat rentals again this year. There will be trophies awarded to 1st through 3rd places and big fish. Raffle tickets will also be given to each team and more will be available for purchase. You can register up till 8:00 a.m. Saturday morning! Click HERE for the entry form and tournament rules! Call the office to reserve your boat – 888-545-5397!

Word is they are keeping the gates open at least through the week, may be into the weekend. We are seeing shad in the lake all the way down to the Branson Landing and trout spitting up shad that far down. This is UNPRECEDENTED in the years I've been here - for this many shad to enter the lake from the spill gates. Rick Lisek said he was one of the only boats up below the dam this morning and they had over 80 trout caught before 10:30 am on shad flies. I caught some real pigs last evening. Some of the biggest were just up and down from the Fall Creek line. All on white 1/8th oz jigs. KY3 did report yesterday or the day before on how dangerous this high water is to swimmers and boaters... they do this every time they spill water over the gates, although no boating accidents have occurred, at least on Taneycomo. I'm all for warning the public about dangerous situations but to disregard the positive side of the high water is poor. Of course I am bias in my observation!!! We do our best helping our people be safe on the water. I sent 5 guys who rented a jon boat for 3 days out in one of our pontoons instead, for the same money, because I wanted them to boat to the dam and experience this incredible fishing event. Not that jons are unsafe up there - they are as long as you don't do anything stupid like anchor or drift into trees... it was just easier for 5 to fish from a pontoon than a 5-seat jon boat... and safer. Know the rules!! A party of three here were going to the dam and fishing with the right lures but kept rainbows in the slot. They didn't know. But they know now. Release rainbows longer than 12 inches and and less than 20 inches. Over 20-inches... take a pic and release 'em, if you please. They'll get bigger for you next time. Browns have to be 20 inches to keep lake wide.

417-335-0357

There's been a bunch of freak rains in the area. Friday evening about 7:30, a rain came in here at the resort. It poured for about 5 minutes. One the other side of the ridge to the north (other side of 76), it rained over 2 inches in 30 minutes causing local flash floods. It was so localized that no one in town knew what happened expect in a small neighborhood which had a wall of water come down the small drainages. Last week, a small area south of town close to the airport got 8 inches of rain in an hour causing Turkey Creek to come out of it's banks. It blew through several businesses, taking out walls and leaving a foot of mud in buildings. Heck- it may rain in uninhabited areas but the wash may flood houses and bridges - no one even knew it rained and may be flooded out. Sounds like this what happened here. These rain events have been something else.

No indicator. Straight line to the jig or drift rig. I tried a float this evening. The turbulants are such that it takes at least a 3/32nd oz jig to get down. I set the float at 8 ft. I know it's not on the bottom. I think I got several bites but no hook ups. Straight line is so much better- so I went back to it and caught fish.

First post - a fishing report and pictures attached?! Everyone should take note! Thank you very much for the post!

There are fishing clubs in the Springfield area - trout, bass, fly fishing, spin fishing... most have fishing outings and tournaments, classes, fly tying sessions. http://smff_fff.tripod.com/ here's one.

Mike- it's tough. The water is high and in the trees close to the dam. Not impossible though. Just have to go up there and see.

Just got back in from a quick trip with my nephew Ryan. Ran to the dam and made 2 quick drifts. White jig- they hammered it. We had doubles on the entire drift to Trophy Run. 1/8th ounce. Second drift, I tied on a 1/8th oz krocidile spoon and caught 3 but Ryan did better with the white jig. Most were 17 inches plus. Most now have big ol' bellies full of shad. They're catching on! It usually takes a while for them to find out the shad are food. This is way better than a shad kill... they're just pouring over the dam.