Phil Lilley

Wow- hopefully we'll see the pic. That's only 3 pounds off a state record. I assume he released it since he had a pic and not the fish itself. It's hard to catch and release a trout that big right now with the 02 so low.

Yeah I saw you fishing on the south side. We fished towards the outlet side.

Where were you fishing? Was up there in the white grizzly from 10 till noon. Fishing jigs. Caught a few rainbows but the wind made it tough. Didn't see a lot caught even in the outlets. More caught in one than two. Fish I had my fly rod... they were midging good as the water was dropping out. They would have taken a soft hackle or crackleback I bet.

I haven't seen green yet... They are putting Christmas lights up on the strip already...

When you buy the forum software, IPB, you buy a license. It basically says you can only use it once. Then there's support you pay for every 6 months. Optional but worth it if you crash your forum or something. I bought 2 licenses years ago, thinking I'd start a hunting forum. I did but it didn't go. So I still have it.

I actually have another IPB forum license... I could create a completely different forum, set it up and never look at it (I wouldn't anyhow). I'll think about it.

Duane and I left the dock last night at 8:30 and boated to the dam. Water still running good. We drifted and fished the north bank, throwing mice and big streamers. Nothing. We made to runs before drifting on down and fishing the bluff from Lookout down. Still nothing. Duane switched to a streamer - I'll let him tell you what he used. He caught 2 rainbows. I switched up and threw smaller streamers, sink tip, still nothing. The water was dropping out fast and we were slowing down. Switched banks below the Narrows and I caught 2 rainbows on a black Hybernator, sink tip. Duane caught 3 more rainbows before Fall Creek and we called it quits about midnight. Got entertained at the Fall Creek apartments on the water by some wacked out guys... electric guitar full volume outside for about 6 minutes. Quite a show. Followed by shouting and breaking of furniture and dishes on their deck. Waiting for police or security or a neighbor protest - nothing. I guess everyone is used to it??? Rock On!

Don't know about the red light. So bright out right now you don't need a light. I tied on my last fly last night without using a light at all. Tippet- depends on the fly. I used 4x on a leech dead drifting it. But it was cloudy. Moon lit- 4 or 5x. If you're not getting bit, you might think about going lighter. Mouse and other big flies you have to go bigger - to throw it and not to get broke off on the hook set. Also flies like mice and big streamers you're working fast to you can get away with big line - 1x and 2x.

I thought this thread might get messy... fun at first then turn political. I guess I should lock it before it gets out of hand? Are we done with the "list"?

Nice.

Thanks for posting, Tom.

Where was it sold? Trout parks or a bait shop someplace? What town?

After watching the Cardinals take game four in the NLDS, I had a choice--go to bed and get up at 5 a.m. to play basketball at the Rex Plex at 6 with the guys or pull the waders on and drive to the dam and do some night fly fishing. I chose fishing. Mind you, I usually pick basketball but the conditions for fly fishing were too tempting last night. Conditions: Cloudy and some rain, but ever so slight. There was a breeze which is a big plus when fly fishing, day or night. The moon last night was waxing gibbous which is a couple days away from full. When I pulled up to the main parking area, I really wasn't surprised to see may be 10 cars. Other anglers had the same thought I did. I had planned to start up at the cable so I turned right and parked in the upper lot which had zero vehicles. Cool! Confession time. Walking in just above outlet #1, I felt like a rookie. I have not waded or fished this area (from the cable down to outlet #2) in probably over a year and I assumed there wasn't many changes. There are! There's deep water and new rocks I hadn't experienced before! No I didn't get wet . . . but I didn't wade out as far as I thought I would. And the rocks that were placed above and below the outlet are working! Quite a bit of deep water where there wasn't a year ago. And it's holding fish!! Browns were jumping out and down from outlet #1 but no current up there to speak of. I couldn't get a drift which I believe is key to a good bite. I tried a few different night time patterns and as many retrieves as I could think of. I got a couple short strikes (probably a trout knocking the fly with it's tail) but no hook ups. I moved down. I hadn't waded far when I noticed the water was moving ever so slight down lake. I continued to vary my retrieve till I paused to adjust my hood, put the rod under my arm for a minute and wham! I got a hard take. I had allowed the fly to dead drift for a good 25 seconds. Humm . . . was I on to something? For the next couple of hours, I worked downstream fairly quickly because I wanted to fish the whole area from outlet #1 to outlet #2. My normal pace is to fish in one place too long, so even though I was getting bit, I kept moving. The dead drift was the key to the bite last night. If I stripped it even a little, I wouldn't get bit. After discovering the retrieve they wanted, I settled on using a #8 black/purple UV Hybernator (Leonard Keeney's pattern). It has a bead head and just enough weight to roll across the bottom with the amount of current and depth of water I was fishing. I would have to pull or strip a little once in a while to pull it off the bottom. Got snagged up twice but was able to wade out and free the fly. I found some interesting holes, deep holes in that stretch, I was not expecting. That whole area had filled in with gravel after the 2011 flood but since, generation has carved out good, deep pockets. I'm glad to see these because they do hold fish. I think with the rocks MDC has placed, this stretch will only get better. I does present some wading challenges though, especially at night! I ended up catching close to 25 trout last night, all but one were rainbows. One brown caught just up from outlet #2 and he was about 17 inches. The rainbows were mostly small--12 to 14 inches--with two or three pushing 16 inches. The takes were fairly hard but I missed 2 for every fish I hooked. If you're night fishing up below the dam, here are a few helpful tips: 1. Watch your light! Historically, these fish spook with the slightest light at night. If you shine your light in the water you're fishing you greatly diminish your chances of hooking anything there was probably 30 minutes. Turn your back on the water you're fishing if you have to turn your light on. And please don't shine your light at another person fishing. 2. If you're not getting bit, keep switching colors and size flies, keep either moving or casting in different places and vary your retrieve. I believe the latter is the most important. Trout are moody. Sometimes they're aggressive and will like an aggressive retrieve. Sometimes they're lazy and want very little action. And they'll change through the night. You have to stay ahead of the their game. Sorry - no more pics. It's hard to stop fishing to take a picture. And when I do, I don't like to flash others fishing. I never pull the fish out of the water, especially this time of year. The oxygen is low and keeping the fish out of the water for a pic may kill it. Just have to be mindful.

Dental Floss. You know what Macgyver could do with dental floss!

I was impressed with the stretch I fished and the trout were NOT dumb. I threw some small stuff at them using 7x FL and most didn't pay attention to my offering.

I arrived at Montauk State Park on Saturday shortly after noon for a noon meeting with representatives from Trout Unlimited, Mid Mo Chapter, Gateway Chapter and the Missouri Council. John Wenzlick, Garry Teeple, Jeff Witten, Bill Lamberson, Matt Tucker and Spence Turner were there at the lodge cafe. We took care of T.U. business and adjourned about 2:30 p.m.. I headed up the hill to Reed's Cabins and checked in to my cabin, visited with Kelly and Dakota at the fly shop and then drove back down to the park to meet Darrell Bentley who was fishing just above the dam. There was a fair number of people wading in the area but room to step in. Trout were all over the place, cruising the slow moving river and taking small insects under the surface and on top. Darrell handed me an olive Caddis Emerger which worked well. I varied my retrieves from dead drift to stripping fast/pause and they took both. Nothing big but it was fun. The next morning we met at the lodge for breakfast at 8:30 and headed to the upper springs about an hour later. We walked up from the hatchery parking lot to where, Darrell said, the Current River starts. If you haven't been there, Pigeon Creek meets the springs and forms this very nice trout stream, one like you'd see in Colorado. The first fast riffle was full of rainbows. Darrell spotted a couple large bows holding close to a log laying in the fast current. He tried for them, drifting several bugs by the pair to no avail. I drifted a combo of flies- a #18 Primrose and Pearl and a #16 Green Butt soft hackle using 6x fluorocarbon tippet, no float and a small split shot. I caught 7 rainbows before losing the flies on a stick on the bottom. They took both flies equally. Moving down, I switched from nymphs and drifting with and without an indicator to using a #18 brown or olive Elk Hair Caddis, depending on how I saw the trout moving and feeding. If the pools were slow and deep, I'd tie on something I could dead drift. I did well using a #24 red blood midge as well as a #24 black thread midge. I also caught rainbows on a Miracle fly (egg pattern) and a Mega Worm (white yarn worm) under an indicator. I followed Darrell's instructions and let the fly sink to the bottom, then move it slowly and the trout would pick it up. We had hatches all throughout the day including blue wings, brown caddis and midges. This whole stretch is fairly east to wade and there were trout throughout. Darrell said it was awesome to fish during the catch and release months. Might have to go try it!

Thanks Al. You nailed it.

http://www.kansascity.com/2013/10/11/4547503/boaters-can-float-on-ozark-national.html Darrell is out of pocket this morning but he sent me this link. Still looking for something online about the guys ticketed for accessing the river.

Not true... I fished with Darrell Bentley today at Montauk and he told me they are arresting anyone who tries to float or wade any part of the river from the park to Van Buren. Federal agents told him this. 2 guys were arrested yesterday Friday trying to put a canoe in at TanVat.

I believe the forum software reduces the upload. Facebook does the same thing. It's to save hard drive space I guess. There's nothing I can do in settings. If you really want to post the best pic, email it to me and I'll upload it and post it. lilleyslandingresort @gmail.com

Generation patterns the last week or so can only be described as follows: Unpredictable. Unexplainable and erratic would be other adjectives. One day 25 megawatts will be running, or about a half unit all day, 24 hours, and then the next day they'll leave it off all day except a few hours in the evening. The last couple of days it's been coming on about 11 a.m. and running into the evening, 25 megawatts, about 1/2 unit. It's hard for people to plan a trip if you want to wade fish below the dam when you really don't know what the generation will be. But that's the nature of tailwaters. Trout fishing generally has been good for most people. Some days are better than others, and it doesn't seem that generation has anything to do with the ups and downs. Wind, I think, plays a role in whether fish are biting. The chop of the water's surface triggers a fish's belly cramps more than anything. It also triggers insect hatches and, of course, that rings the dinner bell for our trout. I'll start with fishing below Fall Creek using live bait. Gulp Powerbait has been the best bait, either fishing it on the bottom tight line or under a float placed on a small jig head. White and pink are the best colors. You can get away with using four-pound line, but a two-pound short tippet will catch more fish. Air-injected night crawlers seem to be catching more larger rainbows but not as many. The best spots have been just down from Cooper Creek on the west side of the lake, just up from Monkey Island down through the island and below Scotty's Dock to the landing. The lower area mentioned is the best place to use the PowerBait Gulp Eggs on a jig head under a floatfive- to six-feet deep. If you see trout midging or eating insects off the surface on the lake, try throwing a Little Jake's spoon and keep it close to the surface. This is what some of our guides are doing early in the mornings. I would think a Rooster Tail would be just as good. Above Fall Creek by boats, our guides are using an olive or black micro jig under a float four- to five-feet deep with a #16 or #18 zebra midge tied on as a dropper under the jig 12 inches. This has been a go-to rig for them for the past couple of months. They're using a rusty midge, P&P or a black midge. Also white thread jigs are working in place of the micro jig. Most people have been using 6x tippet unless they're going to really small midges or scuds, and in that case they're dropping to 7x. Steve Dickey, one of our guides, said they've had luck bouncing to dragging a 1/16th-ounce sculpin or brown marabou jig on the bottom, as long as the bottom is gravel. The fish have been aggressively picking it up and eating the jig. The best time has been early in the mornings. Rolan Duffield and his brothers, Ed and Gary, have been making a fall trip to Taneycomo for the past 28 years in a row. They're here this week and mainly fly fishing above Fall Creek out of Roland's boat. They've done well using an egg fly tied on a small 1/100th-ounce jig head fished under a float five- to six-feet deep. We sell these flies in the shop -- we call them Miracle flies. The Duffield boys are using 6x tippet. Ed told me yesterday he caught several "20-inch" rainbows on the egg fly. In verifying the report with Roland and Gary, the rainbows shrunk to 14 inches rather quickly. Fly fishing below the dam is, of course, very popular this time of year. It can get pretty crowded on weekends in October and November mainly because of the brown trout run. We are seeing a good number of browns in the upper lake. They make themselves evident by jumping in the air for no apparent reason. Tim Homesley owns a fly shop close to Roaring River and has family in the Branson area. He fishes quite a bit below the dam and shows why he is known for his trout fishing skill and knowledge. He caught several nice browns one morning earlier this week using a tan leech. Brett Rader, a long-time resident guide specializing in wade fly fishing, has been scoring both nice browns and rainbows using very small scuds that he ties and sells in his shop. He is using scuds as small as #24 but catching rather large trout. I think most people would be surprised what some of the big trout will take as far as flies down by the dam. These fish get pounded pretty hard by anglers wading around and offering all kinds of flies to them. They get weary after a while and shun almost anything that drifts in front of their face. A good presentation and tiny flies are the key to catch the big ones in the fall. There are a good number of browns caught on surface or film flies such as cracklebacks, woolies and soft hackles. They also will take a dry fly. On the other hand. . . big stick baits are a good way to hook a big brown as long as the Corp is running at least one unit. I reported a few weeks ago Steve Dickey caught a few nice browns throwing a Mega Bass stick bait one evening. If the water is running fairly hard, cast and work a suspending or floating stick bait along the banks and in the middle of the lake from the dam down, really, to the Landing. But especially the upper mile of the lake because of the higher concentration of browns right now. Night fishing below the dam is a completely different experience than fishing during the day. I've been doing it since the mid 1980s, but it doesn't ever get old. Usually there not a whole lot of other anglers out, and it's quiet except for the small animals on the bank making eerie sounds. Some people use glow-in-the-dark strike indicators and drift scuds and leeches in the outlets and faster water, but I like to just throw a streamer of some kind, swing it through the slow current areas of the tailwater and wait for that tug on the line. I've found these trout can go long periods of time without biting. I have learn, somewhat, to change flies often and keep moving around to get more bites. I do try varied retrieves to find out what they're liking at the time. I think the more creative you get with retrieves the better. Sometimes just letting the fly drift slowly, even bumping on the bottom, gets more strikes than stripping it. Streamer size and color does make a difference when you find the right combination. Usually they either like something in a light color or a dark and they stick with that shade most of the night unless there's a change in ambient light. If the moon sets or it gets clouded over, colors sometimes change. This week on OzarkAnglers Forum, there is some good information on the brown trout run in regards to the hatchery outlets and in about triploid browns stocked in our lake.

The majority of the people who fish this lake use bait, fish below Fall Creek and really don't care to change their methods of fishing to help grow bigger fish. Yes they'd love to catch the big one... but overall they just want to fish with bait and catch their limit. Bait is the key... you can't do much in the way of slot restriction or length limit restriction without making some kind of bait restriction and bait restriction (the way tourist fish) I don't think can be messed with. Of course, from a resort owner's position that sounds self serving and it may be but trout stamp revenues pay for most of the trout put in this lake and tourist buy most of those trout stamps. If I had MY way, I'd restrict the whole lake if I thought it would grow bigger trout (and it would) but I understand the marketing and politics of the area and I know that will never happen.

I loved watching Jim Edmonds hit homers... Adams reminds me of Edmonds - put a lot of top spin on the ball - but with more power.

Not sure how you'd extend 30 days into 90 without more restrictions on limit, lures and size- like the trophy area. 30 days is a number MDC came up with through their creel surveys back in the 80's and 90's. That's when there was a 5-fish limit. They also found that people wanted bigger fish rather than more fish. So they increased the average size of rainbows from less than 10 inches to 11.5 inches and reduced the limit to 4. I don't know what the growth rates is on rainbows and I'm not sure you can say the food supply is great. I know the scud population isn't what it used to be. I wouldn't call is "bad" but I don't think it's good enough to grow these fish any faster than the hatchery. Shane and Clint have agreed to speak to a TU/Ozarkanglers meeting this winter to talk about Taneycomo's trout fishery. I have not scheduled it yet but I want to hold it at the Springfield Nature Center probably in January.

In my experience, I catch very little on the big stuff. Others have had more luck. Big streamers work better when the water is running than not. But even then, I've never did well using big streamers.