Phil Lilley

Had a catch and release certificate request mailed to us for a 29.5 inch rainbow caught on March 5 by an angler from Hollister. Caught on a scud.

Bumping this up. Bill Babler has now committed to be at this event later in the day.

by Darin Schildknecht This week has been great for wade fishing. The Southwestern Power Administration has not run any generators in the past few days, and it has been warm and comfortable to fish. The rest of the week also looks good as far as the weather, but, of course, that doesn’t always mean good fishing. I went out earlier this week and had a great time. I waded the Lookout Island area for about three hours. The weather was nice; it was about 50 degrees and sunny. There were more people there than normal, but there was still plenty of room for everyone to have their own space. The main area I fished was at the top end of the island just above the tree that is in the water, the most upstream one. If you walk out to the middle of the lake there is a hump that is about knee deep and is a great place to fish from. Standing there you can fish all around you. The first fly I tried was the Miracle Fly and the fish did not want it. They would come right up to it and turn away almost every time. I did catch a couple but wasn’t satisfied. I switched to a #16 Rusty or Harvester midge and it was on. Pretty much every cast the fish were eating it. If I missed the first strike, I would just let it keep drifting and another would com pick it up. Most of the fish were small but it was still a lot of fun. Another guy that was fishing close by me came over and we talked for a little bit. He was catching them pretty well, too. He was using a small soft hackle, not sure what size, and he was catching a lot of fish that way. He was casting at a 45 degree angle downstream, letting it swing and then stripping it back. Most of the fish hit it while he was stripping it back. Fishing a midge is very easy. Using a five-weight rod is the norm around here with a nine-foot tapered leader. I always use Rio Fluoroflex 6x tippet when fishing a midge. Just add about two feet of this to the end of you leader and you are set. A Palsa stick on strike indicator is the best indicator I have found to use with a midge. I set it about 12- to 18-inches deep and just dead drift it.

I'll share this story... close to my heart. My dad was a hospital administrator in SE Kansas from the mid 60's to 1990. Kind of a thankless job now a days. He had an open door policy--anyone could come and talk to him for any reason. His office had windows so you could see if he was in. He had a closet in behind his desk where he kept a very good supply of Girl Scout cookies. I used to raid it all the time. Little did I know he used those cookies for diplomacy. When anyone had issues with each other or with him, he'd order a pitcher of cold milk and glasses from the kitchen. He'd bring in the parties involved (usually doctors that weren't getting along) and they'd hash out their differences over milk and cookies, Girl Scout cookies.

If the water is NOT running, you can't hardly get above Lookout Island unless you're running a jet. They have not run water in many days now. Just no reason to run... Browns - what Duane said. But catching rainbows has been good.

Welcome

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/lilleys-landing-resort-1 Set up an account - thanks

I need to find a good streaming service...

Got to run h2o for us to see shad.

I didn't hear about the 22-inch brown... email us a pic! We'll put it on our bragging board.

The feed is only good for 4 hours...

Not sure how long this will stay up. It's created through Google + hangout.

The board has been upgraded and this issue should be fixed.

"Tomorrow Phil and I are walleye guys." No we're not. Someone wimped out...

There's a patch that cures that... I'm working on it. Thanks for pointing it out.

Got me... I don't have a pic of the crowds. It's from the 28th.

Naw... thanks for the thought but google knows when people click just to click. It could even get me in trouble. So carry on... enjoy!

I searched amazon last night for Muck boots. Today I see ads for.... amazon and Muck boots. I make an average of $11 per day on these ads. It helps to pay for the hosting of the site.

Fished from 5 till 6 last evening just above the boat ramp. The trout really didn't want to bite then either. And it was cold, icing in the guides. I videoed but don't like the way it turned out...

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-286" title="Montauk 2013" src="http://www.ozarkanglers.com/montauk/files/2013/03/Montauk-2013.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="320" /> Darrell Bentley of Reed's Fly Shop gives us a run down of the opening day's events, 2013 Opening Day at Montauk State Park. Here his report by clicking <a href="http://www.ozarkanglers.com/montauk/files/2013/03/Montauk-March-1.wav"><strong>HERE for WAV</strong></a> and <a href="http://www.ozarkanglers.com/montauk/files/2013/03/Montauk-March-1.mp3"><strong>HERE for mp3</strong></a>

Brian!!!

The No Wake buoys at Fall Creek Marina are out of the water. Please be advised that all boats need to run at least 50 feet from the dock for safety reasons. That section of the lake is very narrow and can get very congested with boats. Be safe, slow to idle speed and have a good fishing day!

That's a stock photo I use for most of John's articles...

I called and talked to Charlie this morning. Recorded the conversation. Unfortunately, I had trouble with the recording and am not able to post it. He said the water will be a little high due to the snow runoff and discolored a bit but no more than it gets when a lot of people get in the river and wade. He said he thought fly fishers would do better if they'd wait for a couple of hours and let the river clear out. Then use a sinktip line and get some woolies or leaches down deeper. he said he was tying up some "killer" spinner woolies for his shop. He also mentioned the otters... he had talked to some people over the winter and made observations himself about the blooming population of otters in the park and how they were depleting the trout population in the winter.

by John Neporadny When spring arrives, it's prime time for catching crappie at the Lake of the Ozarks. By following crappie through their spawning cycle in the spring, you can consistently catch these tasty fish at the Lake of the Ozarks from March through May. One of the premier crappie anglers on the Lake of the Ozarks, Guy Winters, Camdenton, MO, knows where to find and how to catch crappie during the two main stages of the spawning cycle--the pre-spawn and the actual spawn). The pre-spawn period begins when the surface temperature climbs to around 50 to 52 degrees and crappie move into depths of 8 to 10 feet. "How long they stay there depends on how fast the water temperature jumps up," says Winters. This pre-spawn stage usually lasts until the water temperature rises to 61 or 62 degrees. This period usually runs from March through most of April. "A lot of people think the spawn happens the first couple of weeks of April on this lake, but it doesn't," Winters advises. "I've seen it in the first week of May sometimes before they actually go to the bank to spawn. Any time anybody asks me when they should come down to get in on the best fishing for spawning crappie on the Lake of the Ozarks I tell them the first or second week of May. Of course, there is some awfully good fishing before that but you have to work a little harder." Winters targets cover near pea gravel banks, which are the ideal spawning spots for Lake of the Ozarks crappie. "Crappie will identify with brush piles pretty heavy that time of year," Winters says. "They follow the creek channels or the tributary stream channels pretty close." If the weather has been cold in March, Winters searches for banks with shale or chunk rocks which warm up faster on sunny days. Finding a good area to fish for crappie is based mainly on personal preference. "I've got my favorite places but that's just because I know where I've put a lot of brush," says Winters. The crappie expert mostly concentrates on the Big Niangua close to his home, but he thinks the Little Niangua produces larger crappie than the Big Niangua because it receives less fishing pressure. He also believes the Grand Glaize has more legal-size fish because it also lacks fishing pressure. "You can find crappie in any area of the lake as long as you know where there is some good cover, it's not too far from a creek channel or tributary steam channel and it's within a quarter mile of a good spawning bank," says Winters, who finds fish both in the coves and on the main lake then. "The key is being close to that spawning bank." The best time of day for Winters during the pre-spawn is from 3 p.m. until dark. "Light penetration in the water determines when is the best time to fish. Crappie stay out a little deeper when the sun is up high because there is more light penetration in the water and when the light penetration starts to diminish a little bit, the fish come shallower and you don't have to work as hard for them." During the pre-spawn, Winters prefers Laker Paddlebugs (a cricket-shaped plastic body) and Curlybugs (a cricket-shaped plastic body with a curly tail) because these lures fall slower than the conventional plastic tube jigs. "I like the Curlybug and Paddlebug extremely well that time of year simply because the fish hang pretty tight to the brush lots of times and you have to float your lure right over the top of the brush. I can use those baits a lot of times when other people use tube jigs or curly-tail grubs and have to put a float on them." By keeping his rod tip at the 11 o'clock position, Winters can slowly glide the lure over the brush. He also likes to put a Laker StickGuard over the jig's hook which allows him to crawl the lure through the brush without getting snagged. This technique is especially effective when barometric pressure falls and crappie burrow into the brush. Most of the time, Winters hooks his plastic lures on a 1/32-ounce jighead, which he casts with 6-pound test line. When fishing thicker brush that stands up in the water, Winters sometimes switches to a 1/16-ounce jighead and 8-pound test line. The only time he uses 4-pound test is when the fish are deeper than 15 feet. A quick drop in barometric pressure causes Winters to present his lures vertically to crappie in the brush, but in most situations he pitches his lures to the cover and works them back. Stained water allows Winters to make short pitches to his targets, but clear water requires longer casts to prevent spooking fish. During the spawn, water clarity also determines what depth crappie build their nests. The clearer the water, the deeper the fish spawn. The fish seek some type of shallow pea gravel bank, but the area still has deep-water structure nearby, such as a creek or tributary channel. Winters says the female crappie hold along this deeper structure until they are ready to move in to deposit their eggs. When spawning in the shallows, crappie hang around any cover they can find. "A lot of times I've seen just one little stick sticking up and that's all that was there," Winters recalls. "I would cast there and not feel anything else but I would still catch 10 or 12 fish around it." On a cloudy day, Winters can catch crappie all day long during the spawn. But on bright sunny days he tries to avoid fishing from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. when the light penetration in the water is the greatest. Lure selection is less critical during the spawn. "You can almost throw the kitchen sink at them and catch them then if you move it at the right speed," says Winters. "Lure presentation becomes more important than anything else during the spawn. A male fish guarding the nest is not an active feeding fish. He's defending a territory and if anything gets too close at too slow of a speed, he considers it to be a threat and he'll attack. If it's moving too fast he'll ignore it." Winters recommends keeping your lure 4 to 6 inches off the bottom to keep the jig in the crappie's strike zone. A jig-and-bobber rig becomes more effective during the spawn because the bobber allows you to work your jig slower through the nest and prevents the lure from falling to the bottom. In dingy water, you can set the jig 4 to 6 inches below the bobber since the fish will move as shallow as 1 1/2 feet. Besides the Curlybugs and Paddlebugs, other effective lures during the spawn at Lake of the Ozarks include plastic tube jigs, curly tail plastic grubs and Roadrunners. Winters' lure color selection is based on water clarity. In clear water he favors the following combinations: red and pearl, blue and pearl or yellow and pearl. For darker water, he prefers black and chartreuse, red and chartreuse or chartreuse and silver glitter. The spawn usually ends when the water temperature climbs to 70 degrees. The latest Winters recalls catching any crappie spawning along the bank is the beginning of the third week in May. Weather slightly alters the spawning cycle schedule each year, but if you plan a trip to Lake of the Ozarks during the spring, you'll be picking a prime time for crappie fishing. For information on lodging and other facilities at the Lake of the Ozarks or to receive a free 162-page vacation guide, call the Lake of the Ozarks Convention &amp; Visitors Bureau at 1-800-FUN-LAKE or visit the Lake of the Ozarks Convention and Visitors Bureau web site at funlake.com.