Phil Lilley

I called Pointe Royal Security as soon as I got home. He immediately knew who's dog it was. Dr Zeller and his wife are life long Branson residents. Awesome people. She teared up when I handed her Zoe. It was amazing.

Ah... I didn't think of that. That would have been epic!

Any of you all would have done the same thing. But thanks. Glad to entertain 😝

@navery found some nice crappie back in the brush after you left but it took along time to put 11 in the boat. Nice to meet you.

I missed some good fishing because of this mut

HAHA... I know the question was vague and suspicious. Shane Bush told me a couple of weeks ago the city of Branson happened to inform him that they were finding high levels of manganese in Taney since last fall. It improved when they ran spill gates in March and has been ok since. He said it's caused by leaves and such decaying on the bottom of TR, which isn't a new thing. Coincidence or not, this is the period of time that our fishing tanked. And since the spill gates it has improved - back to normal. My guy feeling is had nothing to do with it BUT the lack of bite for that long was unprecedented. We've had 2-4 weeks of slow bite in past years but not 5 months. It got to the point that we were questioning the number of fish in the upper lake so MDC did a shock survey and found "normal" numbers in late March.

Anyone know what high levels of manganese does to fish in a lake?

OK... I'm going nuts. This video is all from yesterday (Sunday). Two different trips.

I see the finger close to the gills... Nathan and Ryan assured me they were aware. Luckily the fish didn't bolt and it wasn't hurt. It never faltered in the tank before or after release. I've warned our guides not to bring big trout to our dock unless absolutely necessary, esp in the months when water quality is not good.

And then there was this one today - A triploid. Here's Nathan's description - Paige just had the fishing trip that everyone dreams of. Her first day on a fly rod produced this 30.25 inch long, 13.9 lb. brown trout! She and her husband were on a guided trip with Captain Brett Rader of Chartered Waters Trout Shop & Guide Service and caught the fish using one of his custom flies. The brown beauty was released and swam away strong. Paige is now the 2nd person to qualify for the Lake Taneycomo Hall of Fame this year. We've created 3 new award divisions for our catch and release. We added a 24-, 27- and 30-inch class award. https://lilleyslanding.com/trophy-catch-release/

The first part is from last evening. You can fast forward through the long fight... I didn't edit it out. 14 minute fight.

I got out this morning cause I knew they were going to increase the flow. They did. And fishing was great, as I thought it would be.

Buster Loving is "having the best white bass year" of his life. He keeps sending me pics of 5 pounders he's catching on stick baits - for 2 weeks now. Tony W said he's waiting on them to run up in the fields below the 76 bridge. I'm for that!! Topwater action.

Let’s not go down that road…

I agree. That is what I was thinking - the difference between the shelters here and there. Neutering animals is a good thing for almost all pets.

I’ll get that info from you when they’re ready to move on it. Thanks

I'm sure every area/community is different. You get out of the cities into the rural areas and it may be different. Caleb would have definitely bought a lab up there if he could have found one. But he said it was cheaper to buy the dog and fly it back than buying one up there.

I didn't know what else to title this as... I hope this doesn't go in a bad direction but it's worth mentioning. It's an interesting mindset people have at least in Beverly, MA. My son married and stayed in Beverly after attending a school in the area. They've been there for over 10 years. They have 3 kids and wanted to get a lab last year. Their choices - go to a shelter and pick out a dog. But there aren't any actual dogs at the shelters... they see dogs from other states that are available, mainly in the Midwest. And they start at 4 figures, plus transportation. Then you have to go to a school and they determent if you're the right person to own a pet. And of course, the animal has to be fixed. That's true here locally too, if the animal comes from a shelter. Caleb bought a lab from a friend of mine who lives in SE Kansas. He picked it up last summer while they were here visiting. Getting the dog back home on the airline was a challenge, not to mention the dog locked him out of the van at the airport in Boston... at midnight. They're visiting this week. They didn't bring the dog. Getting someone to board the dog was difficult. They want to have one litter with River, a female, so she's not fixed. No boarder anywhere will take a dog that's not fixed. Maybe it's for different reasons other than they wants all dogs fixed... may be it's a pain to have a female in heat at the boarders, not that River was in heat. I don't know. But this is what made me scratch my head. Their friends, neighbors and family members (Maggie's) really have taken issue with them NOT getting River fixed. It seems to be the general attitude in that area. Caleb said that people think the only people who should own dogs that aren't fixed are licensed breeders and even they're called "puppy mills" and are looked down on. He said it's crazy... a lot of people WANT to own dogs but it's so hard and expensive. And there aren't enough animals in New England because all dogs are fixed to they have to go to places where dogs aren't fixed to buy dogs.... even muts. Regardless, they have to be shipped in from places other than New England.

He’s pulling down some serious ad money with his channel. Somebody likes his content. I’ve always thought if One Cast was on a bass lake like Table Rock, I’d have more traffic. I told @Bill Babler he should start it but he’s too techno deficient. 😝

I'm waiting for One Cast to finish and thought I'd throw up a report. Running 7k over the top and 7k under the bottom. Two units are still not working but no one is complaining! I still haven't taken a temp reading at the dam but the spill water should be at least 7-8 degrees warmer. Some shad have been seen in the water and they are hitting white jigs a little but not like they should. Scuds are super hot right now. 3/16 oz weight on a drift rig but make the leader 5 feet from the weight to the first fly. Then another scud 24 inches apart. #12 or #14 gray or tan. Watch today's one cast. Blake did well from FC down. I'll post the link when it's uploaded.

Oh my gosh... they've cut the water back now on both dams, right? Our fish are gorging themselves with this high water. It's crazy how fat they are.

Awesome rainbow. But I thought you were talking about a trout.

This is the time of year we get the most traffic on the forum. Why? We are coming out of the winter cold weeks and the fishing is getting good - some would say the best of the year. And everybody wants to know the golden answer to the question - are the fish biting.... where and on what? We are starting to see more fishing reports as well as lake/river condition reports which are just as important. That's a good thing... I hope more members will come of out their "lurker" status and post more reports. I do appreciate those who post year round including fish24/7. I for one need to post more often. We do a video every day so I don't think of writing a report as often. Hey - a lot of people do not like tournaments. I'm conflicted about the ones we do. We have ALOT of ppl ask when they call for reservations if there's a tournament that weekend because they WON'T come if there is. The thought is that if there's a tournament the lake will be busy - rude boaters running over everyone. Truth is it's that way every weekend in the winter regardless if there's a tournament but you can't convince ppl of that. Tournaments in general get a bad rap from those who don't fish them... and they do deserve at least part of that reputation. Bad boat educate happens every day on our lakes by all classifications of ppl. Tournament boaters eek out regular boaters in the rude category probably because they're in more of a hurry.

Looks like they are going to hold Beaver, run Table Rock at 14k for a while and hold Bull Shoals. That has been the trend going back a few years now. Beaver will go to the top of their pool, then dump. They'll try to keep Table Rock at about 920 feet till June. BS is the big bath tub that will hold it all. The reason TR Dam is running spill gates is evidently 2 units are down. If TR hits 920, they'll open more gates and wider.