Phil Lilley

Who would I talk to to get a good forecast for opening day at Bennett? Someone who has a shop there close to the park who would know conditions, esp after the snow they just had.

Water levels are running at 400 cfs and water clarity is poor. We received about 1.5 inches of rain on Monday night and it did make the Warm Fork of the Spring River mud up. The Warm Fork runs into the Spring River just below dam 1. It usually clears up quickly and the river should be fine by this weekend. We have had plenty of rain lately and the river is back up to normal levels. The river has been very low over the last several months and now that it is back up, I just want to remind everyone wading the Spring River to carry a wading staff and be careful out there. A fast current and slick rocks can make for a wet experience. Sunny days have been a little tuffer lately and on overcast days the trout seem to go on a feeding frenzy. Guppies, snails, and two tone woollies have been doing great. Hot pink and red trout magnets are working great also. With water levels at 400 cfs a little more weight may need to be added and mend the fire out of it..... Tightlines and good luck, Mark Crawford 417-280-0927 mark@springriverfliesandguides.com www.springriverfliesandguides.com

Anyone have any experience with covering a slick boat deck (a Grizzly)? I don't want to do carpet or vinyl. This is a metal bottom boat. Rhino Lining? I'm afraid it would be slick too.

Ask the same question when it looks like they're getting good. There are some spots on upper Bull Shoals I've done good - depends of water levels there. Taneycomo may be a place too, believe it or not. Of course you have a better shot at white bass when they're running from the bank. They'll be info on the forum at that time too.

They're resting...

Here's a pic of the striper.

You're pretty much limited to the dam to Lookout. By boat, you can wade the Narrows and the bar below that almost to Fall Creek.

Not as good. You can go back and see results either on the forum or on Ozarkangler.com

http://www.joplinglobe.com/topstories/x273850532/Much-work-takes-place-to-get-250-000-trout-needed-at-Roaring-River

Good day, good tournament. 32 teams. Mike Riffel and Jeff Timms took first with 7.58 pounds (8 trout). Bob Dwiggins and Bill Freise 2nd with 7.46. Gerry Dwiggins and Bruce Wucher 3rd with 7.08 and Tom Burckhardt and Fran Biermann 4th with 7.06 pounds. All 4 top teams fished marabou jigs from Short Creek to the end of the docks down, south side and 90% of the time threw a straight jig, no float. Jig colors were olive, sculpin, a tri-color olive jig, sculpin, brown and combinations of sculpin, ginger, orange and olive. It seemed like a lot of teams brought in one good rainbow (about a pound) but had nothing to go with it (smaller rainbows). Most of the nicer rainbows were males in spawning colors. The big rainbows of the day was caught by Gary Hirsch of St Louis. He caught his trophy, another male, 20 inch rainbow, at the city ramp next to Scotty's on a while 1/8th oz jig first thing in the morning. His partner, Tony Boswell, was sick with the flu back at the resort. He never got out to fish so Gary could only weigh in 4 trout. No one fished above Fall Creek in the tournament. Should have photos up on the resort site shortly.

Only sanctioned bass tournaments are allowed to legally cull fish and sanctioned tournaments are all catch and release with penalties for dead fish. My public tournaments are catch and release, no deductions for dead fish (except the natural deduction - a dead fish weighs less than a live fish). I know of only one time where anglers were ticketed for replacing fish on a stringer during a tournament - that was a long time ago, prior to 1997 and new regs. There were guys who had boated to the dam, got out, were wading and fishing with bait. They were culling and were ticketed. Participants cull at their own risk.

Yes. Legally, once you have 4 trout in your livewell or stringer, you can't keep any more. Can't cull (release and keep another). You can keep fishing. Catch and release trout or catch, keep or release other species of fish.

http://www.northarkansasflyfisher.org/sowbug_roundup.html

http://www.ozarkanglers.com/lake-taneycomo/jig-fishing/ I cover jig and float fishing in this article. Babler is also a good source. After reading this, ask any questions you have.

They SHOULD be out in the main lake there in the mouth of Cedar - that's been the pattern in years past. I've found them in front of Snap too. I need to get over there and see if I can find the stumps in front on Snap and see if there's crappie close to them. Back out in channel and might find some whites/walleye. It's time.

That's a tough question.... I'm on the grounds in my office but not in the tackle store/resort office much. They don't let me touch the new POS system (never thought it would come to this...). BUT I CAN be. Let me know when you are coming over.

EVERYTHING is thawing. There is no ice left on roads or ramps in the area.

May be I can join you for a short outing. Got to start shopping and cooking for Saturday.

Gopro. I bought a digital recorder a couple of years ago. I use it to record programs and reports. I bought a external mic and wear it when recording. Takes a lot more time to edit, separate audio and video.

Running water tomorrow. Need a boat?

Looks like it's all moved out of SW Missouri. It's been melting all day. The roads they've bladed are pretty much clear. They probably will freeze tonight but tomorrow the sun is out and above 32 - it's all be gone quickly.

Boated up to Lookout 4 pm today. They had been running water at 705, one unit, but they kicked it back to 703, 1/2 units about the time I got up there. Wishing to fish one full unit. Started with a 1/8th oz olive/sculpin jig working the bluff bank. Not much. So switched to a while which really was my first choice. Caught several small rainbows right off the bat, then slowed down. The current didn't seem like it was moving as fast so I blamed the lack of bites on that. I got down about half way to the Narrows and hung a really big fish. Big head shake. One 3-4 seconds and snap--broke line. Wasn't the knot... just a bad place in the line. Man I wish I could have at least seen it. Was running the gopro so would have gotten it on camera. Worked on down using the white, then switched to sculpin/peach and caught some more. Fished all the way down to the boat ramp above Fall Creek and called it. Lots of rainbows under 10 inches, a few from 11-13 and probably a half dozen 14-15 inch. Light midst, very dark, slight generation and a little breeze- that's perfect conditions to catch trout, especially on jigs. They just weren't that hungry!

Cooper Creek Ramp is clear.

Cooper Creek Ramp is clear.

Like I said... only could watch it once. I saw myself in that video... wanting to go just a little faster. It's not worth it.