Phil Lilley

Thank you for posting, Darren.

Charlie passed a couple of years ago.

For what it's worth.... I use plain jig heads, no paint. No real reason. Lazy? But I had no trouble, and usually don't, catching crappie, whites or bass. Don't get me wrong... I like color heads too. I do think they'll work sometimes when plain won't.

I'm not trying to "shame" anyone into posting a report and thanks to those who do. I just think it's basic, common courtesy to say, "Hey! Thanks for posting that report the other day! I did well" or "I learned something" or "I tried your technique several times and finally got it to work for me!" or "I tried and didn't do well... what did I do wrong?" Something! Post something! If you value this forum at all, contribute! Heck, you're not using your real name (most of you). In the end, this site is what it is. I'm not going to change it to keep the "lurkers" out. But I will address this every once in a while.

I'm a little miffed... out of all the people who fished this weekend, that's no fishing reports posted? One by Ryan. One of our guides said Flat Creek was packed with boats. I don't usually light fires but I think there's dozens of anglers GETTING info from this forum but not many GIVING... a lot less than past years. Come on.... post fishing reports if you got 'em. Good, bad, no spots, just say how you did.

We aren't set up with paypal...

I might be very wrong but from what I see most anglers who are on here are fishing the James arm in March and I think a lot of the guys who are interested in this are from the north side of Table Rock, namely Ozark, Nixa and Springfield areas. I think I want to keep it on the north side of the lake for this reason. Plus I want people to bring their catch so we can fry it up for them. Crappie and whites should be abundant on the James arm. But I know it's fishing and they may not bite on THAT day. I should have enough fish by then to help feed a group. I'm sure I will have help too. Does this make sense?

Josh - come to Taney on a weekend... that's common practice!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pentax-Optio-WG-1-14-0-MP-Rugged-Waterproof-Digital-Camera-with-5x-Optical-Zoom-/330793050963?pt=Digital_Cameras&hash=item4d04cd6353 Here's a great camera at a very good price. I just bought one from this guy. It's a referb but comes in brand new packaging and looks new. You've seen my pics - underwater and all. This is the camera I use. For $130, it's great. Take more fish pics and post them!!

OA Spring Gathering, Saturday, March 23 Where: Cape Fair Public Use Area - pavilion. Time: We'll be there about 3 pm to start setting up and we'll go till everyone goes home. The plan is basically to get a bunch of good fishermen together after only being acquainted on a forum up to now. We'll supply the hot oil and cookers, side dishes, water and tea. Eating tools and paper goods. And a few fish filets of our own. Bring whatever you want to eat or drink. Looking forward to a good time.

We've been talking about it.... it's time to set a date and place. Initially we talked about the James River area on Table Rock, specifically Bridgeport Ramp but it will be crowded with anglers on a normal March Saturday so any ideas? I'm willing to come up with $$ for a good spot. Need a big area to park and covered pavilion preferably, close to the water. Was looking at 2 Saturdays in March - the 16th and 23rd. Easter is the weekend of the 30th so that won't work. I have a grandson making his grand entrance the first of April so I have to stay away from that time period. I thought I could set up a cooker and eating tools about 11 am and be there for the duration of the afternoon, into the evening. People can come and go... bring some fish to fry. I'll supply potatoes and beans. Others can bring sweets and other side dishes if they want. At Bridgeport, there are some places on the north side of the bridge--resorts--I wonder if they would have a place we could meet, for a fee of course. I'll check it out or if someone knows, post.

OAF Dots... Just PM me your name and address and I'll send you a few.

I wonder if there's a market for publishing a journal like these? Or putting several together...

No. Only trout parks because that is all there is - trout. Other waters have all kinds of fish. You can keep fishing and catch other species. I guess if you caught every game species in the lake in one day, you'd have to quit... but that would be a trick! Culling if a different subject altogether.

I think you are right.... not many do. I don't. I will though. Yea if you keep a lot of fish, different species, multiple family members, that would run you in to some complicated storage issues! And costly!!

If you caught the fish, your name, address and permit # goes on the ziplock bag, regardless of where the baggie ends up. If a person, who does not fish say, is given crappie, he or she cannot possess more than his or her possession limit of 60. I have to confess - I've never written anything on a ziplock bag except the date... I need to change that practice.

Trout Parks are a different animal. You can't fish after you have caught and possessed (stringered/processed) a limit of trout.

Right. Daily is daily... you can't harvest more than your daily limit even if you give them away. I see this occasionally on this lake. I've had a gentleman years ago go out and catch his limit, come back to the dock and give them away to someone not catching fish, then go back out and catch and keep another limit. Sometimes he'd give 2 or 3 limits away in the same day... he thought he was doing a good thing. May be... but it was against the code and he could have been ticketed for it.

You're right- you are by code over your limit, regardless of your intention.

We were discussing possession limits for crappie on another thread and I wanted to repost it here so that it gets more exposure. We all want to stay legal when possessing our catch. I think there was some assumptions about the legal possession limit for crappie only being 30 fish when in fact it's 60. http://mdc.mo.gov/blogs/fresh-afield/limiting-confusion Here's an article that talks about limits. I don't think a lot of anglers know certain lake limits vary from statewide limits. When a lake, like Taneycomo, isn't listed with special regulations on bass and crappie, the default, state limits are in play. So there's no length limit on bass or crappie on Taneycomo and the state daily limit of 30 crappie and 6 bass, 60 crappie and 12 bass, possession, is correct. So many anglers only fish Table Rock and/or Stockton and abide by the special limits for those lakes- that's all they know and might assume the limits are the same statewide. Many think they only can keep 30 crappie in the freezer because it's twice the Table Rock daily limit when they can really keep 60, the statewide possession limit. As for giving fish away - I believe once those fish are out of your possession, that's exactly what they are and you can replace them. I would advise you to cross your name off those baggies and instruct the blessed friend you're giving them to to write their name on the bag before putting them in the freezer. I wonder if they need a fishing license to have fish in the ice box...?

I'm surprised, after all these years of forum jargon, this hasn't come up. Or may be it has and I missed it. I'm going to start a new topic under General Fishing Discussion and see if we can get more comments and, more than that, get the word out about what exactly possession limits are and how to stay legal. That's a great article - thanks for finding it.

Tried something different (for me) tonight. Left the skin on the crappie fillet and grilled them. Held together fine. No skin - they fall apart when you take them off the grill.

That's a real good question... giving fish away. Also marking your fish/bags correctly. Another question - is the possession limit 30? The STATE crappie daily limit is 30. Possession is twice your daily limit. The code, at least on MDC sites is not clear about possession unless it's a simple as mud... 60 is the possession limit for crappie, period, regardless where you catch them. I'm on Taneycomo where there is no length limit and the daily limit is 30. But I caught my limit on Table Rock. I have 30 crappie in my freezer (minus 9 I grilled tonight). What if I wanted to go out on Taneycomo and catch more crappie (which is very possible because they have been catching them in front of the Landing). Can I keep more crappie and be legal. The way I read the code I can. I for one never want to get sideways with MDC enforcement... I want to be and stay legal. Some of these questions are good ones and should be understood clearly by conscience anglers like ourselves. http://mdc.mo.gov/fishing/regulations

by Darin Schildknecht Fishing in the trophy area has been really good this week! I got out a couple of days and did very well both days. Both days the water was completely off. The Southwestern Power Administration has not really kept to a predictable schedule so it was nice to get down there and do some wade fishing when I had the chance. The first day was either Sunday or Monday I can’t remember but the water was extremely low. I was fishing at the top end of the island just above Lookout Bluff and both trees on the opposite side of the lake were just barely in the water. I stood on the hump in the middle of the lake and the water was only four or five inches deep! This made if riffle there at the top end of the island more prevalent and it moved a little faster. The fish were all around me to the left and right, upstream and downstream, it didn’t matter where I looked there was fish. I was using a yellow Miracle Fly under a Palsa about 4 inches deep with 6x Rio Fluoroflex tippet. The fish were so active I got a strike almost every cast and if I missed the first one I would just let it keep drifting and another one would pick it up. Most of the fish were around ten to twelve inches but they were still really fun to catch. I fished between 10am and 12pm and it was sunny and still. The second day was yesterday and the water was not as low but there were no generators running. I fished the same area at the top end of the island just above Lookout and didn’t do as well to begin with but I still was catching a lot of fish. I was still using the Miracle Fly with 6x and under a Palsa but I had to go a little deeper because the water was deeper. The Miracle Fly needs to be within a couple inches of the bottom to be really effective. After I fished from the middle of the lake for a bit I moved over to the back by the two downed trees where my dad was catching them and I did a lot better just above the trees. Again most of the fish were small but I did catch a couple males that were fat and around sixteen or seventeen inches and dark colored. I fished from 12pm to about 2:30pm and it was windy, cloudy, and cold. Not a nice weather day but a great fishing day! I did see a few redds in the area so be careful when walking around not, to walk right in them because they might be full of eggs!

How does that work? Driving all the way to Tulsa with fish in the livewell... then back to the lake. This may be an obvious, dumb question but isn't that hard if not lethal on the bass? I'm not up on BASS or any other bass tournament practices... so I don't know these things.