Phil Lilley

I was struck by the number of No Trespass signs on the river. Some places they are ignored - were back when I fished it. But there are some places you better watch. About a 1/2 mile above the Green Cabin access I was chewed out continuously for an hour by a guy and gal for stepping on the bank ONCE to avoid a overhanging tree. They didn't leave us alone till we were out of their sight. I think it was a game for them. They enjoyed it. I've heard there are river monitors but never seen them. Below the 4th clay bank there's a club - can't remember the name of it. But they're pretty picky about people walking on the bank.

I'll look at it... thanks. But I'm not looking for free necessarily.

I've been using photoshop for simple applications for years. Yesterday I restored my main hard drive to another drive and lost all privileges... I can't find old serial #'s and I don't want to purchase another copy of it. I've tried fixing it through adobe and it hasn't worked either. Very frustrating... Anyhow, I really don't need photoshop for what I do (I think). What is another photo editing program I can look at. I'm a MAC user. Thanks.

Dock?

No. Table Rock is above 918. Usually that means big flows but none yet. May be because it's summer now instead of spring they're going to conserve water, not expecting more big rains. May be that's why they're not releasing 4 units right now. But that could change. So it's anyone's guess. I'd be surprised if this pattern of 1 to 2 units continues. I'd think they would run more and wouldn't be surprised if they started. We'll see.

I met Jim Johnson, good friend and former owner of the Pere Marquette Lodge just south of Baldwin, in the mid 80's when I started fishing up there in the fall. I've made about a dozen trips up there but none since 2003. He showed me how to fish the river - and yes it's a great river no matter when you fish it. His cousin Steve owns BBT. Jon Kestner (facebook https://www.facebook.com/kestnerflyfishing) is a good friend who guides on the PM. I've been reading that the hex and drakes will be coming off soon- that's some great fishing!! If you contact Jon, tell him I referred you. Here's his site - http://www.jonsguideservice.com/ David Roller is another guide in the area. He spoke at the St Louis FFF last month. His site - http://www.peremarquetteoutfitters.com/ Good information there too. Hope you go... take lots of pics.

Ken, No lunker pin but I did get a patch from Fall Creek Dock I think before I moved down here for a 5 pound rainbow? Can't remember. I did try to find that patch yesterday and failed. It's here - I'll scan and post it when I find it.

I pay a 10% tax on the rods I have made in Harrison.

by John Neporadny Jr. Catering to anglers of all ages and skills, the Lake of the Ozarks has a rich tradition of introducing its visitors to the sport of fishing. Whether competing in a bass tournament or relaxing on a dock and tight-lining for catfish, you have plenty of opportunities to catch fish from this 54,000-acre reservoir. Competitive anglers flock to the lake because they know it contains a quality bass population. The lake's numerous crappie, white bass and catfish also provide lots of action for recreational fishermen throughout the year. But the lake's most abundant-- and probably it's best-- fishing asset is the sunfish. While they pursue bass, crappie, catfish and white bass now, skilled anglers visiting the Lake of the Ozarks probably got started in the sport by catching bluegill, green sunfish, pumpkinseeds and other small sunfish. These diminutive panfish abound in the Lake of the Ozarks and each year introduce a new generation of anglers to the sport. The lake also offers plenty of comfortable and easy places to catch sunfish with it numerous boat docks. When my wife was a child, she caught her first fish at her uncle's dock and our daughters were introduced to the sport by catching bluegill at the same dock. The best time to catch bluegill is a hot, sunny summer afternoon, which makes covered docks ideal spots for kids to fish because the floating structure provides plenty of shade and reduces the risk of sunburn. The docks also offer shelter and food for the throngs of sunfish swimming under the piers. Plenty of sunfish and other gamefish are attracted to resort docks because the owners or caretakers sink brush piles in the wells and along the sides of the docks. These spots provide hours of consistent fishing action, which is necessary to get the beginning angler hooked on the sport . After fishing for bass or crappie from your boat in the morning, you can spend the summertime afternoon on the resort dock teaching your children how to fish. Even though they're on a flat, stable surface, children should wear a life jacket while fishing on a dock. Sometimes the excitement of hooking a fish can cause youngsters to lean over the water to look at the fish, and they could end up in the lake. When introducing children to fishing, I recommend you equip them with a short, lightweight rod and a simple spincast reel, such as the Zebco 202 model, filled with 8- or 10-pound line. Light line works best even for these aggressive sunfish, because the panfish become wary of the monofilament after a couple of fish have been hooked. Since sunfish have such tiny mouths, you should tie on small hooks such as a size 4 or 6 straight-shanked model. You can either drop your bait straight down and tight-line with a BB split shot or without any weight. For the first-time angler, I suggest attaching a small BB split shot to the line and the smallest bobber you can find. This makes it easier for beginning anglers to detect strikes because they can just watch for the bobber to submerge. If you attach too large of a bobber, the float causes too much resistance when the fish grabs the bait, which causes the bluegill to spit it out. Novice anglers tend to let sunfish run too long with the bait and the fish tend to swallow the hook, so you also need a pair of needlenose pliers for dislodging hooks. Despite their small size, sunfish have large appetites and aren't choosy about what they eat. Some baits we have used over the year to catch these panfish include worms, a piece of hot dog, wax worms, corn and artificial baits such as Berkley Power Wigglers. We have even caught some green sunfish (the most voracious eaters in the lake) on bare hooks. When using a worm cut it into pieces, so the bait will be easier to thread on the hook and harder for the sunfish to take off without getting stuck. Putting the whole piece of worm on the hook allows the bluegill to bite off pieces of the worm and avoid the hook. Since cutting worms into pieces creates such a mess, I prefer baiting a youngster's hook with a cricket. Bluegill crave these insects, which are easy to place on a hook without all the mess. Simply stick the hook through the collar behind the cricket's head and thread it through the body and out the bug's belly for the best results. I recommend taking along 50 to 100 crickets for a day on the dock because sunfish devour these bugs in a hurry and you'll also lose some when you're trying to hook them and they jump out of your hand. If you're too squeamish to hook on a messy worm or a fidgety cricket, you can use the easiest and cheapest bait for sunfish. Rolling up a piece of bread and kneading it onto the hook will also catch plenty of sunfish. One trick for catching these little fish when the action slows is to tear up pieces of bread and drop them into the water. The falling bread crumbs attract sunfish from all directions and triggers a feeding frenzy. Have your children drop their pieces of bread on a hook into the middle of this action and they'll immediately get bites. The resort docks at the Lake of the Ozarks are great places to teach a kid how to fish. Spending a couple of hours with them catching bluegill off the dock will introduce your kids to a sport they can enjoy the rest of their lives and then carry on a family tradition by teaching their children when they return to the lake for their summer vacations. 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.

I'm right in the middle of a rain event (again) writing this fishing report for Lake Taneycomo and can only guess what may happen in the next few days or week as to what generation patterns will be. Lake levels for the lakes above Taneycomo (Table Rock and Beaver) had dropped to levels that merited flows to be less here in the last week, but things may change after rain this weekend. The Shepherd of the Hills Hatchery stocked 10 loads of rainbow trout last weekend, so catching fish has been good all week. I'd say 10 loads is about 20,000 trout, and the fish should average about 11 inches each. We've had good reports of most anglers catching their limits all this week here on the upper end of the lake. Generation has been different almost every day, but we've seen fairly long periods of time during the day when there's been no generation, allowing fly anglers to wade and fish below Table Rock Dam. And the trout have been hungry, biting very well for most. Jig-and-float fishing has been excellent, too, especially up above the mouth of Fall Creek in the trophy area. Longtime angler Brad Wright reported that he's started to catch trout up below the dam in shallow water flats on a black ant size #18. He said it has been best with a small chop on the surface. It won't be long before the fish start looking for grasshoppers and beetles! There's also been good midge hatches during the day. Trout are taking a #18 p&p, rusty or black midge under a small indicator. If it's windy, try a wooly bugger #14 black, olive or white or a #16 red or black soft hackle. Steve Dickey, one of our fishing guides, called in this report today. the brown trout images posted in this report are all his clients. Our guests have been using night crawlers below Fall Creek down past Short Creek and doing very well, whether still fishing when the water is off or drifting in the current when it's running. As Steve Dickey's report says, his clients have been catching a good number of nice brown trout drifting night crawlers "on the flats," which means he's not drifting in the channel but on the flat, shallow side of the lake. Remember, brown trout must be 20 inches or longer to keep, and you're only allowed one brown per day. It takes a brown trout about five years to reach 20 inches. If you catch a trophy-sized trout on Lake Taneycomo and want to have it mounted, remember that a replica made of the fish saves the fish and also lasts much longer than a skin mount. I think they even look better. Take a good picture and measure the length and girth of the fish for a replica. Note: Casting Contest is next Saturday, June 8 at the Family Fishing Fair. It's 10 a.m. t0 2 p.m. at the Shepherd of the Hills Hatchery located at the base of Table Rock Dam.

Dave sent me a facebook message the other day wanting to know if I knew of anyone in the Phillipsburg, MO area who liked to fish and would like some company. He's new to the area and somewhat disabled. If anyone has an empty boat seat, drop him a PM. His screen name here is biggobbler65722 Thanks

For all those looking and have struck out... don't feel bad. I've been over 3 times looking for whites and have come up short each time. I'm still trying. "They were here or there yesterday, this morning..." Just have to keep looking.

Sounds like a plan...

They are there but not in the numbers they used to be. I drifted it Saturday night throwing a white jig and caught 2- a 14 and 15-inch. Both in great shape. One other guy said he did the same and caught 2 also.

No. Wool.

I got 4... thanks.

I have 4 packages of sample strike indicator systems to give away to the first 4 people who PM me their mailing addresses. You'll need to try it and then report back to the forum - what you think about it.

The '11 flood wasn't as devastating as the '08 flood. Fall '08 they opened the flood gates and let 70+ degree water loose when browns were either up or heading up to spawn. Since then the numbers have not been there. Brian- I was commenting on the numbers, not condition.

Midwest Carpet Carriers. It's the company I worked for in Springfield before moving to Branson.

I guess if you take 24 hours and say there's a 10% chance of rain, it would rain 2.4 hours? It only rained for 15 minutes.

I'm not quick to share this photo... it does show the beginning of my journey of Taneycomo trout fishing as well as the fishery itself. This was my first summer living on the lake. We bought the resort in May, 1983. Before I moved here, I learned to fish with trout eggs from fishing in the fall below the dam, watching everyone else fishing with them. Bruce Steele used to sell trout roe, both in nylon sacks and just cured themselves but we used them raw most of the time, which was and still is illegal. Kris and I got us early, before daylight, and boated up to the hole just below the MDC boat ramp. Back then you could do that even with the water off. We'd anchor and fish roe. This morning we caught probably the best stringer of trout I'd ever caught- then and since. Unfortunately, I didn't practice catch and release back then. I soon learned of the importance of C&R. Kris did catch and keep a 9 pound brown the next morning. At that time, no one knew of a bigger brown caught from Taneycomo so we called it a lake record.

Like most of the country, we've had some strange weather lately, but it looks like it's leveled out for a beautiful Memorial Weekend and the week following. Generation patterns have been fairly constant. Table Rock and Beaver lakes, both just above power pool levels, are dropping slowly. It's hard to predict what the U.S. Corps of Army Engineers will run this weekend, but I will bet it won't be more water -- if anything, it will be less. One unit has been running in the morning building to 2+ in the afternoon. Water temperature has held steady at 46 degrees, which is nice. Usually this time of year we see it drop into the lower 40's which doesn't thrill the trout. We also usually see a great deal of moss flowing from Table Rock through the dam which we haven't seen either. Both are positives. We just need to tell the trout . . . they haven't been very cooperative lately. "Catching"has been slow the last week or so. For some anglers, it's taking several hours to catch their limits. A few are coming back empty handed. There are success stories, though, and I wanted to key in on some of them. I realize that a lot of people don't like to go above the mouth of Fall Creek, but, honestly, right now that's where the best concentration of trout is. Now you know you can't use Gulp Power Bait or worms or corn up there, but you can use scuds and egg flies, jigs and small crank baits. Take a drift rig and cut off the hook. Replace it with a #16 gray scud (ask us in the fly shop what a scud is) and drift it instead of bait. I think you'll be surprised. Remember the other thing you can't do is keep every rainbow you catch. The size restriction above Fall Creek requires you to release rainbows from 12 to 20 inches. An 11-1/2 inch rainbow isn't anything to sneeze at! And it's better to catch and release nice rainbows and keep average size trout than to not catch anything!! Please don't take this information, fish above Fall Creek and poach rainbows in the slot (12 to 20 inches). Take a picture, handle them with care and release them to be caught again. Details: You don't have to go far above Fall Creek to drift over some good spots. You'll notice about 1/2 mile up the water, if it's running, will be very fast and choppy. That's a big shoal with the channel or deep part on your left. Stay to the left of center and you'll be fine. You'll see some trees that have been cut close to the water's edge on the left bank. Motor up another mile to Lookout Island (big white house on the right) and start drifting. Stay in the middle of the lake and drift all the way to Fall Creek. Depending on how much water is running, use a small to medium bell weight, 1/4 to 5/16 ounce. Flies: Use a #16 gray scud with another attractor fly like an egg fly or San Juan worm in a bright color. Our guides have gone to a #16, which is small for running water instead of a #14 or even a #12, because the trout have keyed in on smaller scuds this past week. Another lure you can try, but a little more costly if lost, is a small floating crank bait. Trout Magnet makes such an animal at a relatively low cost. Use the clear or "Hawk" or a Rainbow color. You can also use a Rebel, blue/silver minnow F-5 floating crank bait. These actually work better drifting them below the dam, but they will catch trout anywhere when drifted off the bottom. The jig-and-float technique also works well, using either a 1/32nd-ounce marabou jig or a full micro jig. Depending on how much water is running, you need to get it down to the bottom. Micro jig colors are pink/chrome head and olive/gold head. Marabou, I'd try white, olive and ginger plus brown with an orange head. Steve Dickey has a good Youtube video on his slip float technique that he's been using lately and doing very well. You might want to watch and give it a try. Throwing marabou jigs straight has been fairly to good, depending on where you're fishing and who you talk to. We had six guys, good jig fishermen, last weekend catch and release more than 400 trout in the trophy area on Saturday alone. Their best colors were white, sculpin, sculpin/ginger, ginger and olive. They used mostly 3/32nd-ounce jigs but also used 1/8th-ounce jigs. Below Fall Creek, you have to work for your dinner. There are pockets of rainbows here and there. They seem to move almost every day, but the better schools are just below Fall Creek, just above and through the Short Creek area, down through Trout Hollow, the Cooper Creek area and Monkey Island. We've been drifting Gulp Power Bait, using white/pink or white/orange combinations. I've been running a white egg up the line, pinching a night crawler in half and hooking it in the middle, letting it hang off both sides, then dropping the egg on top of the worm to make it float off the bottom. There's an eddy on the bank just up from and across the lake from Trout Hollow. I let my boat drift up against the bank in that eddy and toss either Gulp eggs or the worm/egg combo in the current and let it swing into the slower water. This caught several nice rainbows yesterday. There seems to be a good school holding in this slower water. You also might find other slow water against banks where trout are holding and do the same.