Phil Lilley

Water levels are running at 284 cfs at the spring and water clarity is clear with a green tint. The trout have been biting really well. Y2k's and trout magnets fished below indicators are great for high numbers and Guppies and woolly buggers, fished with a tight line or stripped, are better for bigger trout. Some of the best catching lately has been during the nastiest of days. If the weather forecast is for bad weather then the trout are probably biting.... If it is a sunny, nice day it can get tuff. The trout are there just gotta get down deep.

Oh gosh... the lake has only froze once in 30 years I've been here and that was after a week of no generation and sub zero nights. It froze over night one night and the next morning they ran water, breaking it up. There was only a very thin sheet on the surface. This was back in the 80's.

I see where temps are forecasted to be in the 20's at night and 30's daytime. I don't think the ramps will be an issue. We have been known to throw icemelt on the ramp if needed. As long as the sun is out, it won't seem that cold.

Big Brown Trout Pot Hits $1,000 Branson, MO - (Monday, Feb. 11 2013) -- The last public winter fishing tournament on Lake Taneycomo sponsored by Lilleys' Landing Resort and Marina in Branson is scheduled Saturday, Feb. 23. Cash prizes and trophies are awarded to the top four two-person teams in this catch-and-release contest which is open to all novice and expert trout anglers alike. Formerly called the Team Tournament, the Vince Elfrink Memorial Tournament was renamed last year to honor an outstanding fishing guide and avid competitor in the tournaments. Elfrink was the longtime facilities manager of the fieldhouse at College of the Ozarks who died in October 2011 from an inoperable brain tumor. "Many of us miss Vince," said Phil Lilley, tournament organizer, "and cherish all the memories enjoying God's great creation with him. We thought this was a good way to honor his memory as a wonderful outdoorsman, husband, father, and friend." Fishermen will take off at 8 a.m. from Lilleys' Landing, returning at 4 p.m. for the weigh-in and a free meal. The entry fee is $50 per each two-man team; usually between 25 and 40 teams enter. It's a catch-and-release, so anglers can only use artificial baits. Since no one has weighed in a brown trout for four years -- they must be 20 inches or longer to net on Lake Taneycomo -- the prize pot has rolled over, now reaching $1,000. Marabou jigs have long proved to be a mainstay on the lake, because they are inexpensive at $1 each, and can last through a dozen or more fish. Lilleys' Landing tackle shop carries jigs in several different size of weights to vary with Taneycomo's generation schedule. Scuds and midges are also great to try in the upper lake, sometimes with a tandem rig tied with an egg fly or a San Juan worm 18 inches below the scud. Entry forms for both tournaments are available at the Lilley's Landing office, 367 River Lane off of Fall Creek in Branson, or at the website, http://lilleyslanding.com. as are weekly fishing reports. There are only a few boats left to rent through the resort, which may be reserved by calling (417) 334-6380. Media Contact Megan Cummings - Marketing, 417-294-0406, megan@lilleyslanding.com

Duffy is first class. Glad you had a good trip. Thanks for the report.

Boated up to the dam and picked up Duane. He'd been fly fishing there for a few hours and had caught quite a few rainbows using a shooting line, pencil lead and a pine squirrel sculpin, running one unit at 704.5 feet. Just as I picked him up, they blew one horn and turned on another unit. We tied to the root wad near Rebar and Duane tried to fish the chute using a bead or egg. Several takes but no hook ups. We boated down lake as the water rose and did better off the tip of the island just above Trophy Run. This video is showing technique. We use this technique (chuck-n-duck) is Michigan and Alaska in fast moving rivers.

That's what I thought. I couldn't put the swimming minnow down for a rattle trap but I had a feeling if we threw it we'd get some.

A friend told me water up in Long (Cricket in Arkansas) is pretty muddy. He only caught one crappie- and he's a native, knows what to do. Very slow.

I did hook one white (didn't see it but sure it was a white) yesterday while fishing in 14 feet of water.

Nice afternoon to get out except the west wind played havoc with the jon - blowing me to the bluff side. No trolling motor so kept the outboard running and moving back a lot. Wanted to drifting some flies. Scud/egg tandem for a while till I lost the scud. Didn't matter - they wanted the egg. Small pink or peach egg with a 3/0 split, fishing the shallow side. They were hammering it. Nothing big though... actually nothing even "medium". I thought the video turned out pretty good except Jackson kept bumping the chair and finally knocked the camera off.

Yea TR's charts and levels are down. Even SPA's is down. Weird. Looks like they've slowed it down some but still moving... may be one unit? Try to swing a pine squirrel using sink tip along the bank between outlet 1 and 2 or wade out (be careful) at and below outlet 3 and do the same without sink tip. Point Royale, if you can get in the gate. Go down and swing soft hackles. Boat up to Lookout and get out and wade around the island. Good soft hackle below. Good dead drifting the riffle towards the top, outside the island. And I'd try a pine squirrel there too.

Boy, they're really mixing it up. The days they're running it are random at best. No rhyme or reason. Fishing seems to be very good this morning though. Guys are drifting bait and catching them. Jig fishing should be very good in the upper end. Cloudy, hardly any wind and good current.

On the flats? We almost got to 10 feet of water on that flat but EVERYONE was out deep so we didn't go on in.

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Taking out now. Six keepers Crappie and about four shorts. Several real small Bass. Caught them in 20 foot of water just up river from the mouth of flat Creek on the Bluffside. Caught them on a one 16th oz Leadhead with purple swimming minnow. Water temp 49 late afternoon. Good color. Dictation courtesy of Siri

At the ramp. Talked to agent who's checked a dz bts. 1 bt had 2 limits. Couple others had a few and most didn't have any. Water temp dropped from 48 to 45. Am putting in now. Fish till dark.

Another big male rainbow - this one 30 inches and 15 pounds, caught and released yesterday by Eric Brown from Idaho.

I like this... Shotgun, rifle, handgun - shotgun Kayak, boat, canoe - boat River, Pond, Lake - river Flyrod, spin, or baitcaster - (hard one) flyrod Lure - jig Fly - dry Color of Jig - sculpin Color of plastic craw/worm - green pumpkinseed Live bait or lures - lures Only catch Smallmouth, Crappie, Largemouth, trout, catfish, panfish - (sorry, got to add one) - salmon (and if you make me...) - trout

This week, the U.S. Corps of Army Engineers is back to running water like last week. There is a pattern now -- running water mid-week, all 24 hours at various speeds. It's slower during mid-day and harder early in the morning. No generation on weekends. Not sure how long this pattern will last. Table Rock Lake came up a good solid two feet from the rains last week but still is very low for this time of year. Catching trout and their size has steadily improved this winter so far. Earlier in January, we were only seeing small rainbows being caught, but as the weekends past, we saw numbers and size improve. This last Saturday, we had 54 teams compete in a trout tournament. Weighing in that many fish gives me a good sense of what's out there, as well as fishing on my own. This week, a sinus infection kept me inside until this morning. Here's a short video of a few trout I caught. Again, I was getting short bites and not many hook-ups. I trimmed the marabou on my jigs, which helped, but still missed many more than I hooked and landed. I was surprised to catch much nicer rainbows below Lookout compared to below the dam. Maybe this generation is moving some of those better trout downstream, which it normally does. I tried the combinations of white, sculpin/olive, sculpin/ginger and brown/black and the brown/black did the best. The wind was blowing upstream closer to the dam, but in this video, when I was fishing below Lookout, it was blowing me towards the bluff. Some guys are staying with us from Ozark Fly Fishers (St Louis). They were up drifting and using what I believe were Miracle flies under an indicator four to five-feet feet deep and doing quite well despite the wind. When it's that windy on the lake, using something under a float is easier than straight-lining a jig. I also saw a gentleman throwing a silver Cleo from the bank and doing well. He was fishing about 50 yards below the cable on the north side. Guys fishing around the outlets today (with water running) were doing very well, probably using scuds or egg flies under an indicator. Below Fall Creek this weekend, which is where all but one team fished, there were a lot of trout caught on night crawlers. Teams are given a choice to fish up or down. Fishing down, where almost everyone chooses, means you don't go above the mouth of Fall Creek. We sold a bunch of blow bottles, a tool to inject air into a worm to float it off the bottom. There is a big difference between fishing a worm with and without air. Some people use Power Bait to float their worms. I also witnessed some anglers using minnows. The Missouri Department of Conservation is stocking larger numbers of rainbows each month this winter, building up to their biggest numbers of around 90,000 in the summer months. There does seem to be a lot of trout in the lake right now. I will end this report by posting this image of a angler and his lifetime catch. It is reported he caught this male rainbow while fly fishing below the dam one night this week. He weighed it on a boga, (12 pounds) took pictures and released it. His name is Mr. Keener and he lives here in Branson. The image and story is from a facebook post.

It's not real close to Jonesboro - probably a couple of hour drive. There are places to wade but mostly it's floated, then getting out and wading the bars and flats. It's a great river. Welcome to the forum. If you have any other questions, please ask. Brian Sloss is our authority for the Eleven Point on this site. Also, see information on the Eleven Point here - http://www.ozarkanglers.com/eleven-point/

Thanks for the report, Dave. Wish I could have gotten out and joined you. Gotta shake this head cold first. Haven't been outside in 2 days.

The James River arm has always been one of the best places to catch crappie- that's no secret. And there's tons of places to find them. I've always wanted to be a "crappie slayer", since my youth. I envied those guys and gals I see in their simple v-bottom boats, fishing almost every day and most of the time coming in with limits of crappie (not just on TR but all over). I always thought the one characteristic you have to have to be a crappie slayer in patience and lots of time on the water. That's what it takes to find them and learn their patterns. Through the years, I have gained some knowledge and experience catching crappie although I don't spend a great deal of time on the water chasing them. But I do ok most of the time. I find flats, laydowns, transition banks and coves that look "fishy" and work them slowly, even trolling to locate fish. Still not a slayer by any means but I've had my share of great catching trips on Table Rock and Stockton. God willing, I'll have a few more, mixed in with trips I won't catch a thing... that's fishing.

Power outage should have happened at the beginning of the show... that would of been great!

Gator and his son took first place (Bob and Nick Wehnert). "It only took 23 years to win this tournament," Bob told me.