Phil Lilley

In this first fishing report of the year, I have to be honest and admit that I have not been fishing a great deal for the last month. There is no real excuse except for just taking a break and being quite busy with family and resort stuff. There has not been much generation, so little water flow if at all. Table Rock Lake is very low, and temperatures have been rather mild. There's been a day or two since Christmas when a small amount of water has been run all day, but most of the time it's off all day and all night. The water temperature is 45 degrees, and the clarity is fair. When Table Rock Lake turns over, it gets silty and dark and that's what we get. Water quality is good; dissolved oxygen is high. Low water makes wade fishing below the dam popular, but the area hasn't been too crowded at all. During the week you almost have it to yourself. There are a lot of rainbows in the first couple of miles of the lake, and they're taking the usual flies: midges, scuds, worms and streamers. The Mega worm is reported to be a hot fly, especially around the outlets. This is a yarn-type, fluffy white material that breathes real well in the water. You can buy it at some fly shops or at Wal Mart. It's called baby blanket yarn. Tie on a 3769 #10 hook. You can see this white worm fly in the water, and when it disappears, set the hook. Rusty and Primrose & Pearl midges, #16, have been hot as well as #16 brown, gray or tan scuds. Cracklebacks or soft hackles have been good when there has been a chop on the water. From Lookout down, throw either a marabou jig or fish one under a float. I've done well using sculpin, olive/sculpin/ black, white or brown jigs either in 1/8th down to a 1/16th ounce -- if throwing straight-- or 1/80th to 1/125th ounce if under a float. If you're using a small jig under a float, try one with an orange head. Micro jigs have only been fair; fishermen are faring better with a marabou. If any water is running at all, try throwing a small to medium-size crank bait along the banks. There are big schools of small bait fish hugging the banks around moss and structure. Live bait: Gulp eggs have been slow but live night crawlers and minnows have been good. Some anglers this past weekend fished a while Gulp egg above a live night crawler and did well. The best area has been just below Fall Creek down to Short Creek and then at the bend above Lilleys' before the first docks on the opposite side. To the delight of many, there are crappie to be caught on Lake Taneycomo. Several places have held good schools of crappie including around the Fish House, the mouth of Turkey Creek, the mouth of the Branson City water intake between the railroad bridge and U.S. 65 Hwy bridge on the north side of the lake and at the waterfall across and down from Cooper Creek. You'll catch them on a jig and float, throwing a jig or running a swimming minnow through the area. There is no size limit on crappie on Taneycomo but these crappie are good-sized anyway. The daily limit is 30 per person.

Yea- I'm deleting some duplicate posts and when posting and PM'ing it's not leaving the window after hitting "Post".

Dutch- send me one and we'll see. I bet it is.

This last update has been a nightmare for Invision. I have 2 trouble tickets in and it's taking days for them to respond. Their support forum is covered up. They're trying to stay ahead of the spammers and hackers. I sympathize with them... I've just had to be patient.

Yes- not sure what the menu is yet.

Gonna be a nice day to be out. Come out and see how you do on Taneycomo. I think it's going to be a challenge. No one seems like they have a handle on where the big rainbows are, at least below Fall Creek. http://www.lilleysla...ing-tournaments Download an application here. See if any of you bass boys can catch a trout! Ya I know... "who would want to!"

Gonna be a nice day to be out. Come out and see how you do on Taneycomo. I think it's going to be a challenge. No one seems like they have a handle on where the big rainbows are, at least below Fall Creek. http://www.lilleyslanding.com/news/lilleys-landing-fishing-tournaments Download an application here.

Buffalo River Officials Fighting Plant Thefts By: Wayne Powell Posted: Monday, January 07, 2013 The Buffalo National River Parks is combating the poaching of ginseng that grows naturally in the park with a new marking system. The marking system uses a permanent adhesive that includes a dye color specific to the park. The identification system also has a magnetic component and a florescent light signature. This id system allows positive identification of native ginseng illegally removed from the park. The marking system has already proven useful in the apprehension and conviction of ginseng poachers. Ginseng Panax Quinquefolius is a native perennial plant that is highly valued for its medicinal qualities in the herb trade. The dollar value of the root makes it a prime target for poaching. http://www.khozradio.com/16200/buffalo_river_officials_fighting_plant_t.html

Guys who pre fished on Thursday and Friday were wondering if there were any trout in the lake. Flat, high sun conditions were brutal. Saturday's cloud cover and breeze helped but they reported catching a lot of small rainbows. Lots of fish caught on jigs and trolling crank baits but the top finishers used mainly worms and minnows between Short and Fall Creek with a few exceptions. Lots of crappie caught though, Friday and Saturday. Found them accidently in varied areas. When they found them, they'd catch a dozen nice ones.

That's a framable picture... awesome!

Great to hear.

Fish-cover permits available Starting at 9 a.m. Wednesday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Mountain Home Project Office will offering 50 fish cover permits for Norfork Lake and 50 for Bull Shoals Lake to individuals to cut or sink up to six, small-diameter (6 inches or less at the stump) cedar trees for fish habitat. The free permits are available on a first-come, first-served basis from the office at 324 W. Seventh St. in Mountain Home. Trees may be cut from designated areas of the shorelines, or dead trees may be picked up along the shore. For information, call Natural Resource Specialist Ty Fowler at (870) 425-2700, extension 133. http://www.baxterbulletin.com/article/20130105/NEWS01/301050027?nclick_check=1

Great report- thanks!

My son works for a firm in Boston. They're looking for help. http://blog.erecruit.com/application-senior-level-net-web-developer Contact Caleb Lilley through his email - caleblilley@hotmail.com

http://blip.tv/talkinoutdoors/fishing-the-current-river-with-commissioner-brown-6493076

It's the same. 1-3 people. $29 per night. I can't go any lower...

Bumping this topic up from 2006. Same special. Same rules. PM or email me if interested.

I love to see this recent increase in activity on the Little Red forum. And really love to see pics of nice trout being caught. Thanks for posting!!

Yep.

by John Neporadny, Jr. When you want to escape from bone-chilling winter weather, you move inside and sit in from of a warm fire. Crappie also search for a winter haven when the water temperature plummets on Lake of the Ozarks Unable to find any warm spots in the shallows, crappie move to deeper water where they seek shelter in manmade brush piles during the winter. Brush piles provide both food and cover for crappie throughout most of the year. "About the only time you don't find crappie tight to brush is when they go to the bank to spawn, but usually even then they aren't far from it," says Guy Winters, a crappie expert from Camdenton, MO. Crappie seek deeper water in the winter because it provides a comfort zone with more oxygen and warmth. During early winter, shad eat plankton off the limbs of sunken brush and crappie hide in the brush to ambush the baitfish. Winters has built brush piles for years and knows the key locations to find these crappie condos. The most productive brush piles are usually found along certain types of bottom structure. "If you find them very far from a creek channel, river channel or some kind of a break on the bottom structure, they are not going to be as productive as the ones close to that break line," advises Winters. "If you are lucky enough to find a spring that has some brush in it, that rascal will hold fish year-round. They'll really congregate there in the wintertime because that water stays warmer." Weather determines if the crappie suspend over the top of the brush or burrow into the cover. Winters relies on a barometer to tell him how the fish position around the brush each day. "Any time you get a strong low pressure system, those fish are going to suck back tighter into the brush simply because the low pressure causes them to lose their equilibrium so they get into the brush to lean up against it and hold themselves upright," says Winters. "Anybody who does any serious wintertime fishing should watch that barometer real close." During high-pressure conditions, crappie tend to suspend over the top of the brush at various depths. "On bright sunny, calm days in the winter, even if the air temperatures are as low as 20 degrees, those fish will move up," says Winters, who theorizes crappie move closer to the surface either seeking the warmth of the sun or a comfort zone along the edge where the sunlight penetrates into the deep water. During calm, sunny weather, Winters has caught crappie suspended as shallow as 8 to 10 feet deep from brush piles where the fish had been suspending as deep as 20 feet on previous winter days. While barometric pressure influences how crappie position in the brush, finding crappie becomes easier since winter experiences fewer severe weather changes than springtime. "The weather doesn't change on you as fast day to day, consequently those fish tend to stabilize more," says Winters. "So if you find a hole where you can catch them suspended over the brush out of 25 feet of water one day, chances are the next two or three days you can do the same thing during the winter." Using a slow vertical presentation is the best way to catch wintertime crappie from the brush piles. "Once the water temperature gets into the low 40s those fish get pretty lethargic and you really have to slow that presentation down to be successful catching them," says Winters. The crappie expert positions his boat over the brush and drops his line straight down into or above the cover. A depth finder helps you determine whether crappie are suspending over the brush or holding tight to the cover. For anglers without electronics, Winters suggest trying different depths until they get some hits, then they should concentrate on the most productive depth. When he finds the right depth to fish, both Winters hardly moves his lure. "You're trying to imitate a minnow and minnows aren't moving very fast then," says Winters. "None of the fish are move very fast in cold water." Lifting the rod tip causes the lure to move too much. "A lot of times I'll let my lure down to where it hits the brush, and let it lie there for about the count of five," says Winters. "Then I just make two turns of the reel handle and hold it still. If I give it any action at all I get the line on my finger, just twitch my finger and don't even move my rod tip." Winters primarily uses tube jigs in cold water, but he does experiment with different colors then. Color combinations that work best for him include red-and-pearl, black-and-chartreuse glitter or red-and-chartreuse glitter. "Another color combination a lot of people overlook during the wintertime is pink-and-pearl," he says. "I find that to be an excellent hot- and cold-water color." Since he wants his jig to fall slowly, Winters selects a 1/32-ounce jighead tied to 4-pound test line. Waiting for the light-weight jig to fall down to the brush requires patience, especially in cold and windy weather. While cold weather makes it uncomfortable for fishing, you can still catch a mess of Lake of the Ozarks crappie during this time by delivering your lures to a crappie's favorite winter haven, a deep-water brush pile. 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 & Visitors Bureau at 1-800-FUN-LAKE or visit the Lake of the Ozarks Convention and Visitors Bureau web site at funlake.com.

Yes it was cold. It got colder as time passed through the noon hour. I didn't dress well enough either. Poppers were wonderful, snacks abundant, peach cobbler!! and sensational Jambalaya!!! It's snowing now... I just beat it home. Brian - be careful driving home today!

It's really not that cold out this am. No wind. I was expecting cold and ice this morning.

Doty- you had me going for about 2 seconds... "You got snow!!??" Then I recognized the shark from LAST YEAR...

I got out for an hour last evening... first time in 2 weeks. Boated to above the narrows and started with a #16 zebra. Trout were all over the surface- tiny midges coming off in clouds but my midge was too big. Too lazy to change... caught one and missed several. Then discovered my hook was bent. By then I was at the flats. Tied on a #12 scud and worked it on the bottom, mainly on the channel drop and caught several rainbows- a couple of nice ones.