Phil Lilley

Slipped that one in... Good one.

Great to see you here...

Both Parker's shop and Gries's shop on 165 are good fly shops with ample tying materials and excellent flies for Taneycomo and other trout fisheries. River Run or Anglers and Archery.

good one. I'm going to play golf!

Watch it.... Tim's shop is closer than 200 miles. I love his shop!!

Not belittling anyone's position or what's been said... just saying

Are we ready to get back to fishing?

Micheal Kyle, fishing guide, called in a fishing report last night after a trip on upper Lake Taneycomo. Kyle fly fishes and guides almost exclusively at night, either wading below the dam or drifting using his drift boat from one location to another on the lake. This is his first fishing report for OzarkAnglers.Com. Click HERE to hear is full report.

This is Phil Lilley with the Lake Taneycomo fishing report. Yes, it's summer and yes, it's hot but the mornings and evenings on our lake are quite pleasant. Our water temperatures are hovering around 50 degrees so the temperatures on the water are very cool, almost cool enough for a sweatshirt, if you can believe that! Generation has been pretty consistent everyday--they're running 1 to 2 units starting about 3 p.m. and running it till about dark. Each day is different. Some mornings trout are moving around and looking for things to eat and some mornings they're not hungry... just sitting there not paying attention to anything. That's fishing. One thing that helps trout with their craving for food is movement. If the water is moving all at, trout are usually looking around to see if there's food involved. Movement can come from the US Army Corp running water, but in our case, in the morning anyhow, we're looking for the lake to"shift" or the wind blowing. Yes, Lake Taneycomo shifts, ever so slightly at times. Watch the leaves on the surface--you'll see them moving up or down lake knowing they're not releasing water from the dam. You'll see this more often further up lake, for instance around and above Fall Creek. Shifting could be caused by water being release at Powersite Dam, the dam at the bottom of Lake Taneycomo, or it could be caused by water just moving--it just shifts sometimes. Regardless, trout are sensitive to it and usually react positively to it. Wind is our best friend. If there's a chop on the surface of the lake, fish are more apt to feed. I've seen this time and time again--even this morning below the dam while fishing. It was absolutely dead still early. I could see almost every fish in front of me, like they were suspended in air, not water, and they weren't moving at all. If there was the slightest of movement in the lake (shifting) in front of me, I targeted that area. And sure enough, when a breath of air blew through and disturbed the surface in the slightest, trout moved and I got a strike. Too bad the wind didn't blow much this morning! I managed though. Night crawlers are king! So says most of our fishing guides who make their living putting their clients on fish. Now there are some, mostly fly fishers, who would never stoop so low (said in jest) but to use a live worm but if everything else fails, there's always the "inflated worm". Visiting with Bill Babler today about his fishing success this week, he said he had to rely on the inflated night crawler to bring trout to is boat several days. He said Power Bait wasn't doing it and neither was using jigs and micro jigs but most of the time our rainbows can't resist a big juicy worm. Why inject air? To float it off the bottom so the fish can see it quicker and bite it harder! And if you want to get more bites, tie on a piece of 2-pound line to the end of your line and attach the hook to it. Bill said the water is so clear right now you can see a dime on the bottom of the lake in 20 feet of water - he tried it! It cost him a dime though. Babler said they're catching rainbows in the Monkey Island area as well as below the Branson Landing out in front of the mouth of Roark Creek. They're also catching a few nice sized rainbows between Fall Creek and Short Creek. The trophy area has been tough most days but not impossible. Almost everyone has gone to using 6x or 7x fluorocarbon tippet up there because the water is so clear. There seems to be a good school of rainbows in the Trophy Run area, the Lookout area and in the Narrows area. They've also seemed to have migrated to deeper water, deeper holes especially after the sun gets up over the bluff. If the surface of the lake is choppy and there's some wind, try a jig and float, either a marabou 1/50th oz brown with an orange head or an olive micro jig under a float 4-5 feet deep. Also try a #16 black, rusty or red Zebra Midge 3-4 feet deep. There's always current at the Narrows and next to Lookout Island. That's a great place to get out and wade. Use #16 and #18 gray scuds and sow bugs, #20 to #24 thread midge or micro red or white San Juan worms. If there's a chop in these areas, strip a black or olive wooly, #10, or a #16 olive soft hackle. Afternoons when the water is running, hit the bluff banks using hopper patterns. They've started working very well. I've been told even below Branson, blue gill and bass are hitting them very well. Also working 1/8th oz marabou jigs along the bluff banks and deep channels. Good colors have been olive, sculpin, brown/orange and black.

Drove to the dam on Lake Taneycomo this morning to meet a friend for some visiting and fishing, two things that always go together. Craig and I have been purposely meeting since our common, very good friend, Vince Elfrink passed away last fall. Vince and Craig spent a lot of time fly fishing below Table Rock Dam. He was a good fishing buddy to both of us. The parking lots at outlets #1 and #2 were full and I could tell the waters above Big Hole were covered up with anglers so we ventured down to the MDC boat ramp and to my surprised there wasn't any cars parked there! We hiked down the trail and dropped in at the tower, walked up lake a ways and started looking around for feeding trout. It was still, very still. The water wasn't moving at all, no current. We could see almost every fish, suckers and trout, appeared to be suspended in air instead of water, the water was that clear. And nothing was moving around. I started with what has been working for me this past week -- 7x tippet to a #18 Trout Crack and 8x to a #24 red or black thread midge. Tippet - fluorocarbon. I asked Craig if he had 7x and 8 x and he said he did. We fished, walked up lake and fished again. Not much. I broke off a rainbow, not on the hookset but on the strike! Enough of 8x!! At least for this morning. I ended to across from the entrance to Rocking Chair where I found some movement. The water was moving down lake out towards the middle so that's where I casted. I'd set the first fly about 24 inches below a half palsa, no weight. The flies were sinking just fine by themselves. I could see small schools of rainbows moving and cruising and that's what I targeted. They picked up the thread midge real well, even using the 7x instead of the 8x. Nice! I landed a dozen rainbows, mostly small ones around 12 inches with one pushing 14 inches. Had other strikes and even more long distance releases. Craig didn't fair so well. If was only after we were done that he revealed he was using mono for tippet. I gave him a spool of 7x fluorocarbon and told him to be sure to use it next time. Catching for everyone else up there was very tough. Just saying... go small, be patient and use fluorocarbon!

Linc and I drove down to the White River today for some hopper tossing. And the fish liked them!! We got away early--8:00 am!! Arrived at Steve Dally's place just before 10 am. Had some questions about flies, where to fish and needed to get a shuttle. Steve helped us out with all 3. We bought an assortment of hoppers from Steve and started out to the dam access. Called John Berry on the way and got some more advice. He and Lori were on their way to Branson of all places!! It is Lori's birthday and they were going to do some shopping and dining in the big city! Arrived at the powerhouse side of the river at the dam to launch my Shawnee river jon and found the ramp was a bit too shallow. They were running 25 mw or a 1/2 unit at the time so note to self: Use the Rivercliff ramp from now on. Our destination was Wildcat Shoal access. We drifted out of the trophy area without wetting a line--it took us that long to rig out lines. We had an assortment of hoppers: Rainy's Hi-Viz Pink Grand Hopper was the best of the day, catching more trout than any other pattern, #10. Ross' Repeat Offender - Tan #8 was another good one as well as Dorman's Insect Brown/Orange Hot Rod Hopper #8 (all Rainy's Flies). We used 1x tippet. They increased the flow mid day to 65 mw which pulled junk off the bottom of the river and from the banks but it cleared after an hour and fishing got better. We fish the bluff sides mostly but did hit some grassy shallow banks too. Didn't find any certain pattern where they were holding - caught them on the banks and as far as 15 feet off the banks. Our first fish came close to Newland's and the next come from across from Gaston's. Both were nice browns from 20 to 23 inches. Heads were big but bodies were thin. Good fighters though. The rest of the browns on down river were fatter and in better shape, just not as long. Thunderstorm hit about 6 pm. Rained for 20 minutes, then the fog set in. Pretty much killed the hopper fishing... that and they dropped the flow and level about 2 feet. But it was a great day. We brought 14 browns and 8 rainbows to the boat and about the same number of misses and pullouts... all on hoppers. First brown. Second brown Third brown Fish on! One of Linc's browns. Pink Hopper

3-4. Tough part is having to wait for the fish to settle down. I'm not holding or touching him at all, just holding the line so it takes a while for him to stop trying to get away and just sit there. Then I have to get the light right and try to take the side where the fly will show up. Takes a lot of fishing time!! But it's cool.

Tomorrow morning Linc and I head out for the White River to cast some hoppers at big browns. I thought I'd practice here on Taneycomo this evening. Glad I did! After talking to Tim Homesley this morning and hearing his story about fishing from Cooper Creek to the Landing the other day AND throwing hoppers and big ants against the bluff bank and catching a bunch of blue gill and small bass, I got to thinking about trying them on the upper end where I've tried smaller stimulators with little success. Boated to to Lookout and changed my tippet to 1x, tied on a Dorman's Insect brn/orng Hot Rod Hopper (Rainy's) #8. One unit running but was dropping out. Still good current when I started. First cast had a rainbow come up a slurp it up in fast current against a tree. I thought about first cast jinx... oh no!! But it wasn't to be this evening. Drifted the whole bank down to the Narrows... took about 90 minutes. Thirteen takes and 10 rainbows to the boat. One pushing 20 inches and another about 18. Others were decent and in great shape. Most strikes were hard and violent but some were soft takes. All came within 10 feet of the bank. I think I'm ready for those White River browns!!

Heard a guy by the name of Tim Homesley (Tim's Fly Shop outside of Roaring River State Park) may be up fishing below the dam this morning so I ventured up there about 8:30 am. Walked in above outlet #2, looked around and didn't see him off so I started fishing. Don't think I've ever introduced Jackson to our OA readers yet. He's a male black lab out of my daughter Megan's litter. Her dog Darby, a chocolate lab, threw 9 puppies last August and Jackson was one of the males. We've had labs before here at the resort and my dad was missing his last dog, a lab/chesapeake mix who died a couple of years ago so we went in halves. Jackson is a great fish dog--minds well. Anyhow, Jackson was along for his first trip to the dam, on the bank that is. He's been up in a boat before. I tied on a #24 black thread midge with a #18 tan Trout Crack (scud) using 7x fluorocarbon tippet, palsa indicator 24 inches from the first fly. I could see a number of rainbow cruising around not too far off the bank. I ended up hooking and landing a couple nice rainbows before moving upstream. I saw Tim at outlet #1 so I walked up to say hi. We stood and talked for about 30 minutes. He and his wife come over to Branson when they want to relax. He told me he'd stay with me (at Lilleys' Landing) if we had a spa... I said no, we won't have one anytime soon either. We don't want to compete with Chateau on the Lake. Tim was hooking quite a few rainbows. They were thick, stacked up in the outlet flow, nosed up to the flow rolling over the gravel flat and falling into a deep hole off the bank. He was using 5x. "I don't care much if I hook anymore fish and I don't want to lose anymore flies... I've had to tie on too many this morning", Tim explained. But his 5x wasn't spooking too many trout. Along with a scud, he used a white chammy worm. He was using barbless hooks... I got the feeling he used them all the time. After visiting about Roaring River and Alaska fishing, I took off and walked back to my truck. Wanted to drive down to the MDC boat ramp before having to go to a noon lunch meeting. Lots of cars in the lot there and I thought, what the heck! May be I shouldn't report on this area quite so much. But when I got down to the water, most of the crowd were at the ramp and down. Strange! They were waded out to their waste and fishing out further. I'd rather fish 2-3 feet of water than the deep water. May be they were catching fish, I didn't notice. I walked up a bit and started. Wind was blowing a little and chopping up the water but I still could see fish out just past the flat rock bed on the chunk rock. I used the same setup but this time I ran 8x from my first fly out to the second. Bright sun, very clear water. I talked to Chuck Gries yesterday and he said he was using 8x so I thought I'd try. It worked! Caught some nice rainbows and only broke off once. And 8x wasn't that bad. I thought I'd have to really baby the fish but it wasn't any worse that 7x. Nice morning. Jackson really like being out there too. Interesting pic... just interesting to look at, nothing more.

Thanks, Kevin.

In this episode of Ozark Trout Bum, Phil Lilley breaks down Lake Taneycomo and Tim Homesley get camouflaged up to fish small streams on the July episode of Ozark Trout Bum. Then T.L. Lauerman, conservation director of the White River Chapter of Trout Unlimited, discusses his group’s effort to plant cutthroat eggs in the Norfork and White rivers. And John Berry talks about becoming a guide and fishing big streamers for brown trout. Podcast Powered By Podbean

I have a ton of stickers so RSP if you need more I can mail them. Send me an email at the address above if anyone does.

For those who don't do FACEBOOK, send me your address and I'll mail you some stickers.

Darrell Bentley say their water levels are low and trout are spooky. But they're still catching a few rainbows and browns at Montauk. Hear his full fishing report by clicking HERE.

Yea- You're exactly right. Pinch the ends off till they latch on to the hook. And never cut with scissors!

Been playing around with the underwater camera... I need to take the gopro and see what it does... but I really need to attach as light. The flash on the camera does a lot, esp in low light like the second pic.

Got out last evening--boated up to Lookout about 7 p.m. and started working the deep water. Generation was winding down from running only one unit. Water was dropping slowly and there was still good current, perfect for throwing and working an 1/8th ounce marabou jig. I'd seen, last week, a big school of what I think were darters at Lookout Island. They have a brown back and dark, reddish stripe down their sides. So I tied on a brown/orange/brown head jig and worked it close to the bottom. I haven't been fishing with jigs like this much the last month. When I had, it wasn't working very well so I've laid off throwing a straight jig. It's one of my favorite way to fish for trout, or any fish for that matter, so it was nice to jig a jig again. This area from Lookout Island down to what we call the Narrows (where the channel gets very narrow and not very deep at the bend) has changed somewhat since the 2011 high water event. The upper half of this section is much deeper and the channel is much wider than it was. The bottom half is just the opposite, less deep and not much of a channel at all--flat most of the way across the lake. This upper half yielded the best fishing for me last evening, landing 12 trout including one brown. I didn't concentrate on the bluff bank as much as I did the whole, deep channel. I set the boat off the bluff bank about 130 feet and my cast was off the bank more than 50 feet. I let the jig get down close to the bottom before starting to work it. The strikes were coming about half way back to the boat. The trout were taking it on the drop--the strikes were solid and aggressive. After hitting the start of the bottom half and shallower water, I quit getting hits so I picked up and moved down below the Narrows. I've been fishing this area using jig and float and seeing a lot of trout but they didn't like my straight jig. I only picked up a couple of small rainbows. Moved again before getting dark, this time below Fall Creek's dock and worked the deep side again. They were short-hitting me down there but did manage to catch a few rainbows and another brown.

Did anyone go last night?

I got some 2x and 3x. "Supplies while they last" I'll have the link up this afternoon on our online tackle store.

I'll send you OzarkAnglers Stickers if you write a recommendation on OA's Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/ozarkanglersdotcom Guess you have to have a facebook page AND like the thing first. Then send me a mailing address. lilley @ lilleyslanding.com Oh, BTW, I have received new Ozarkanglers shirts. They're in the resort office being priced. I think about $9 for short sleeve and $14 for long sleeve. They're white tees with OA's logo across the back. x-Big sizes are more $$$. I'll have pictures of them on the site shortly - and a way to order them.