Phil Lilley

Caught this morning, July 30 on Lake Taneycomo, 8:30 am. Phil Lilley, Lilleys' Landing Resort & Marina 29-inch rainbow Caught on a 3/32-ounce brown/orange/brown head marabou jig, spinning tackle. Hooked about 500 yards above the mouth of Fall Creek. Released just below Fall Creek Marina's dock, mid lake. Fishing this morning with Tom Burckhardt and Gerry Dwiggins, a couple of the best jig fishermen I know. Both are from St Louis, came down for a couple of days of fishing. Yesterday they caught over 100 trout each using straight and jig and float techniques. We caught quite a few this morning... but this one was pretty incredible. This is my largest Taneycomo rainbow to date.

For the past two seasons, Bob Cooke has been wrestling with the same weather anomalies as his fellow bait-and-tackle business owners serving fishermen at Lake Barkley, Taylorsville Lake and the Cumberland River. Too much water last year, not enough this year. “It’s been kind of rough,” said Cooke, who owns the Blue Ribbon Fly Shop, an Orvis-endorsed outfit near Mountain Home, Ark., that’s ground zero for many trout anglers who journey here to fish the famed White and Norfork rivers. “We didn’t have any wadeable water last year because of all the flooding, and this year has been a drought. But things are getting better.” http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20120728/SPORTS09/307280076/The-Norfork-s-hot-Arkansas-tailwater-offers-trout-action-match-weather?nclick_check=1

Guide Jeff Moore of http://arkansastroutguide.com had a fisherman land this fish. 36.7 pounds. Released. Near State Park below Bull Shoals Dam. Pic sent to me by Jimmy T. No other info. There's a thread on John Wilson's site started about the fish. http://flyfishingark...sh#.UBU0e0RciSw

Leaches were the ticket last night on Lake Taneycomo, fly fishing with guide Michael Kyle. They fished from 10 pm till 4 am and sounds like they caught quite a few trout fishing Kyle's leaches. Hear his full report by clicking HERE. By the way, Lilleys' Landing now carries Kyle's leaches, along with a large array of night time streamers.

The ONE thing I've been saying is go light line. My last report about gave all our "secrets" away. Unless you're wanting to do a particular type of fly or spin fishing, info is here. If you're wanting something specific, ask away. Thing is... you have to post a report, with pictures!!

I think there's a group of ppl down here in the Branson area that are exploring a church plant using some of those ideas. There's a church in the St Louis area that's grown pretty large that focuses on the outdoors, fishing and hunting. Anyhow, I think it's a good idea. The only issue is for those of us that are committed to our own churches and other activities, carving out time for another group (in my case at least). But I'll support this effort on the website all I can.

Here on Lake Taneycomo, every day is different . . . and every day is almost the same. The same in that it's been generally hot and sunny, good for White Water and jet ski rentals and tough for theme park goers. But different in trout fishing methods and the varying conditions that dictate whether it's a good catching day or a slow one. There are plenty of rainbows in our lake, thanks to Shepherd of the Hills Hatchery and the federal hatchery in Neosho. Just getting them to eat is the issue most days. Weather conditions play a major part, as they have this past week, this past month. You could say trout fishing has been tough this week, and you'd be right in some cases, but you could also say it's been incredible -- and you'd be right again. The bottom line is that if there's a breeze at all and a chop on the water, our trout will bite. If there's not, if the water is slick and clear, catching is tough. You get what the weather gives you. The heat actually doesn't play a major part at all here. I just saw a pontoon come in to our dock with a couple of men and four or five boys. They pulled all their rainbows out of the live well, hung them up on stringers and held them all up for a group photo. Estimating that there were six in the group, I figured there were 24 rainbows altogether -- an impressive sight flashing their colors in the sun! Catching was good this morning for this group. Memories were made and captured on film. Guide Bill Babler reported his clients caught more than 50 rainbows yesterday morning on a trip above Fall Creek on olive/orange head micro jigs under a float. He said the breeze was perfect and the trout responded accordingly. He said it's been like that for the last month. Wind/chop equals catch lots of rainbows. Gray and ginger micro jigs have also done well, but remember to use two-pound line/tippet. Set the float about four-feet deep. Fly fishing below the dam continues to be very good. Again, a chop on the water dictates the behavior of the trout and how to go about fishing for them. When you have that chop on the water, strip soft hackles (red, olive, black #18) and woolies (olive, purple, black #10) and try #16 black ants, #14 adams or #8 hoppers. With a glass surface (these also will work with choppy water), use scuds (#14 - #18 gray or mink), sow bugs (#16 - #18 olive), thread midges (#22 - #24 red or black), RS2s (#18, #20 olive), WD40s (#18, #20 cream), and San Juan worms (micro red, white, purple). Use 6x tippet if you're fishing moving water like at the outlets, Rebar Hole or the chute below the ramp, but use 7x - 8x if you're fishing still water. I recommend using fluorocarbon. I've done well throwing hopper patterns late in the afternoon, but the water level has to be just right for it to be good. It appears that when the lake level is 706 to 707 feet, the run between Lookout and Fall Creek fishing the bluff side is perfect, and the trout are looking for bugs to come out of the grass and trees. They've been aggressive taking hoppers. Those trout are much larger than you'll find taking other smaller lures and flies. But if the lake level is higher, the bite is usually not there. You have a better chance if the water is lower, but the best level is about 706 feet. Hopper patterns that have been working are Rainy's Hi Viz yellow, flesh or brown #8, Furimsky's Hot Legs chartreuse #8, Goodman's Mosh-pit tan hopper #8, and Doman's Insect brown Hot Rod #6. In the evenings when the dam is generating, one-eighth ounce marabou jigs have been working well, fishing from the dam down to Fall Creek and even farther down past Short Creek, working the deeper, channel water. Brown/orange, sculpin/ginger, olive, black and white are the best colors. Work them close to the bottom and slowly. Strikes have been fairly hard and aggressive. Night fly fishing has picked up. The fog at night has been minimal, so it's not as damp and cold as normal. Stripping woolybuggers (#8 - #10 black, olive, purple, white), leeches (#8 blood red, purple, black, ginger), articulated streamers (Galloup's Dungeon (black, white, olive, natural), Circus Peanut (yellow, brown) and Galloup's Bottom's-up (cinnamon, olive, white, black). Some anglers are also throwing mice patterns, too.

Micheal Kyle put in a full night and day of fishing here on Lake Taneycomo. Sounds like he did pretty good too! Hear his full report by clicking HERE.

by John Berry Last week I had a two day guide trip with Roy and Devonne, two anglers from Houston. On the first day, we fished the White River in the Catch and Release section below Bull Shoals Dam. The upper White has been fishing better than the rest of the river and this day was no exception. We tried a lot of different flies with limited success in the morning. It was brutally hot and around 2:30 PM when the guys were ready to pull the plug. I knew that early afternoon was generally the worst time of day to fish and that things would generally improve later in the afternoon. I talked them into staying on the water for a while longer, with the promise that if the fishing did not improve soon we would quit for the day. On the next drift, we picked up several nice fish. The bite was on. Over the next couple of hours we caught several nice trout and finished the day with around twenty five nice fish. They were pleased with the results and were glad that they had stayed on the water until 5:00 PM. I suggested that we try something different for the next day. I wanted to take them to the Norfork but I had not seen the Southwest Power Administration’s generation prediction and was not sure what the conditions would be. I explained this to the guys and suggested that we get an earlier start to beat the heat. We agreed to meet at six. They were up for anything. We were on the Norfork a little after daylight. It was cool and there was a dense fog on the water. We knew that the temperature would climb to over one hundred degrees with plenty of sun. We made our way upstream to the Catch and Release section. The water was low and gin clear. I put Devonne in a fast stretch of riffle water and rigged his rod with a black zebra midge, a bit of lead and a strike indicator. I placed Roy downstream and rigged his rod with my green butt on a twelve foot leader tippet combination ending in 5X tippet. Devonne was into fish immediately and over the next few hours caught fish after fish. From time to time the action would slow down and we would change flies. This generally produced more fish. Over the course of the morning, we fished zebra midges (size 20) in red and black, pheasant tail nymphs, copper Johns, brassies, Y2Ks, disco midges and worm brown San Juan worms. We caught trout on all of them. A small egg pattern had no takers. Roy caught about ten rainbows on the green butt but was ready for a change. There was a midge hatch coming off and I saw a few mayflies. I was unable to catch one as the hatch was very sparse. Roy wanted to try a dry fly. We talked about the hatches coming off and agreed on a size 22 parachute Adams. The problem was that I had a difficult time tying it on. My eyes were not up to the task. I borrowed Roy’s reading glasses and was finally able to thread the hook. I put some fly floatant on it and Roy was ready to go. He was an excellent caster and a good dry fly fisher. He was into a nice trout immediately and was quite pleased. Devonne was steadily catching fish but was ready for some top water action. I suggested a hopper and he agreed. I removed the strike indicator, lead and nymph. I cut off the 5X tippet and tied on some 4X. The leader tippet combination was the nine feet long. I tied on a Dave’s hopper and added a black zebra midge as a dropper on 5X tippet. He only had one take on the hopper but was catching trout after trout on the dropper. We fished till noon. The generation prediction had been for the water to come up at eleven. For once, I was glad that it was wrong. We went back to the access and had a nice lunch on a picnic table in the shade. After a brief break, we decided to return to the water and waded back to our spot. It was getting pretty hot (102 degrees) and I was beginning to regret not wet wading. Roy stuck with his dry fly with the exception of having me tie on a larger fly, a size sixteen Adam’s parachute. He was on fire and caught trout after trout including a nice cutthroat and several fine browns. Devonne had a single goal; he wanted to catch a brown trout on a dry fly. I took his leader, cut off the flies, added a three foot 5X tippet and added a size sixteen Adam’s parachute. I applied some floatant and steered him to some good dry fly water. He was fairly new to dry fly fishing but was interested in honing his skills. Over the next couple of hours, he was able to land several nice trout including a fat fourteen inch brown. I spent my time mostly netting fish and taking photos. I watched the water level carefully. I felt like the water would come up at any minute. About three o’clock I noticed the water creeping up. I told the guys it was time to leave. They reluctantly left and we walked back to the access with no problem. The early start had been a good idea. We had caught most of our fish in the cool of the morning. I was also nice to get into some nice dry fly fishing. They caught and released around ninety fish. Not bad for a brutally hot day!

I'm wearing one of the new OA long sleeve tees...

Linc and I arrived at Dally's place at 3 p.m. sharp. We were to meet our guide, Marc Poulos to do some more hopper fishing. Linc bought another 3-day license and we were off to Wildcat Shoal access. Put in and ran up river to the White Hole access and worked the banks from there down. They weren't running a lot of water--Marc said they were running less than what was scheduled which I think was 65 mw. I'm not use to gauging generation on the White like I am on Taneycomo. It was enough water for us to get above the shoals in his Supreme river jon. I had on a small, thin hopper pattern Marc had given me, about a size 8. Not sure what Linc was using but it was slow going early. Marc said they were bringing the water up which was a good thing. I did notice that there needs to be a certain amount of water running for there to be enough current on the banks, close to the edge of the bank, before fish move in and start looking for bugs to drop in. We picked up a few small rainbows to start, a lot of lookers and misses too. The sun was dropping behind the bluff and it got good about 7 p.m.. We found a great bank, one we'd fished last week, with trout holding right on the edge and grass overhanging the water. We plopped our hoppers (I'd changed to the pink Hi Viz Rainy's hopper I used last week and Linc again was using something Marc gave him), within 12 inches of the bank and wham! the action started. Linc had 3 or 4 nice 17-20 inch browns to the boat while I had one decent brown and several misses before we knew it. I think we had a couple of doubles but it was hard to keep track--we were too busy fishing. Linc was landing a nice brown and I was thinking about getting the camera when I looked up and saw that where my fly had been, now there was a big ring in the water. Yes I had had a take and yes I was extremely late on the set but the fish was still there. At first sighting, this brown looked very large... and 22-inches is a nice brown! He put up a great fight, took me around a big rock which we had to run above to get unwrapped. Had a big head and good girth, unlike most of the other browns which were fairly skinny. We finished out the day with more browns but that bank was the highlight of the afternoon. We only ran it once... didn't want to abuse the run for others who were fishing. Linc did put it to me, getting me back for last Wednesday's trip. But he was back next to the guide who's instruction and netting ability I'm sure made the difference! Marc talked about catching smallmouth bass on poppers--they'd been fishing Crooked Creek and doing well. He said he wanted to try the lower Buffalo River... sounds like another trip to Arkansas! My camera is hiding from me this morning. I'll post pictures as soon as I find it!

Welcome to the site...

Night fly fishing on Lake Taneycomo sounds pretty appealing considering the day time temperatures right now. Micheal Kyle gives us a report today of his fishing last night on upper Lake Taneycomo. Hear his full report by clicking HERE.

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