Phil Lilley

First let me qualify that our water situation here on the White River Chain of Lakes doesn’t compare to what Joplin and other tornado-ravaged communities have endured these past weeks. We pray for those who have lost loved ones as well as possessions, homes and businesses and hope to help sustain the vast outpouring of help coming their way. The past couple of weeks have been quite a roller coaster ride for us. With five days of rain, some days we didn’t know what was going to happen hour-to-hour. Our lake level rose to 724 feet, four foot shy of the record level and releases from a month ago. Each day the water was rising, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers met with their water management specialists at 9 a.m. and again at 3 p.m. to decide whether to release more water or to wait and see if the flow was adequate for that time. We waited anxiously for word, especially when the water was already high and ready to flood our lowest units again if raised further. The rumors were the worst: We were told at one point that they were considering raising the flow to a record 100,000 cubic feet per second, more than a third more than was released in April. That would have flooded the whole resort. After the meetings, we had a two-hour notice to get ready for more water. Now the flow from Table Rock Dam has been slowed to 20,000 cubic feet per second, which is very manageable for us. The lake is now safe to boat and fish, our ramps are out of the water and we’ve restored electricity and gasoline to the dock. We are renting boats again—actually all were out today. Fishing is pretty good considering the dam is still releasing a great deal of water. Five flood gates and four units are running, so the current is fast. They will release this amount of water from Table Rock until the lake level is down to 928 feet. At that point they will back off the release quite a bit. If they do the same thing as they did back in April, we’ll see only two units running around the clock. I did make a trip up to the dam yesterday after the water dropped from 10 gates to 5. Water temperature varied from 51 to 55 degrees depending on what side of the lake you were on. The water still has a lot of silt in it. It’s a normal green color, but it has a chalky tint to it, versus the clarity Taneycomo is known for. I’ve always said that I loved fishing when the floodgates were opened. The water pouring over the top from Table Rock is chock full of shad, minnows and other nice morsels for our trout. Plus it dumps other types of warm-water fish like white and black bass, crappie and walleye into our lake, which makes catching very interesting. And the constant flow of water benefits the food supply for our trout -- sculpin, scuds and sow bugs. Guests are reporting that the rainbows have been good sized the last two days and hard fighters. The trout we’re catching up close to the dam are aggressive on the take, so there’s no question when you get a hit. The color is white -- white jigs, white shad flies, white or silver crank baits are all working well. Our guides have drifted using medium-to- small floating crank baits like Rebels and Rapalas on a drift rig, getting them close to the bottom. They have also worked the banks with these crank baits as well as white 1/8-ounce jigs. We found white bass, crappie, small mouth and spotted bass along the bank holding in eddies or slower water yesterday and caught them on white jigs. We caught more warm-water species working the bank this way than trout. We did better drifting and working the middle lake on trout, catching mostly rainbows but also a couple of browns. I suggest drifting and using #12 gray scuds, peach egg flies and white San Juan worms from Lookout Island to Fall Creek, staying in the middle of the lake to catch rainbows. Make sure your fly is on the bottom, though. Below Fall Creek, orange and white Gulp power eggs are working the best the last couple of days. Night crawlers have done well, but the eggs are working better. Try the mouth of the creeks for trout, too. Before the water level dropped yesterday, we were sending people down to Cooper Creek access, telling them to hike through the woods to the creek itself and fish there, the closer to the mouth of the creek the better. We saw some nice rainbows caught out of the creek during the few days of extremely high water.

Wow- that's too bad. Where was the boat when it happened? Did the law enforcement say this was common lately? I've never heard of that happening.

http://ozarkanglers.com/tablerock/tr_ramps.pdf

No. Just couldn't get to the docks.

Change!! 4:30 pm They are backing off releases presently until it's down to 40,000 cfs this evening. Starting at 8 am tomorrow, they will lower it to 20,000 cfs and it will be down there by noon. They will run 20,000 cfs 24/7... forever.

Yea- I see where Beaver's level started inching back up.

Looks like they've shut Beaver down last night. Nice if anyone can drive down there and get some pics. I bet it's different.

Chance of rain Saturday. Then no rain all next week. This will give time for all the lakes to drop but only to the point where the Corp will hold them again. Maintain till the lower Mississippi Valley drains out. Can anyone find in the news where there's estimates when this may be?

Leonard- pretending to be a weatherman. Don't quite you day job! Sorry. Had to comment on your prediction.

Yea. Bill said something. Bill does fly. So does the other guys. 3 in a boat is tough for fly fishing but chuck does a great job. So does Bill.

The shoring you're thinking about is upstream about a half mile from this. This si below fall creek where their dock is located. Shot rock is good for shoring up dirt banks if it's done right. The Corp will have good instructions online. But you have to watch what you do up and downstream from the rip rap. Case in point, a house up in Pointe Royale. Both neighbors up and down from him shored their banks with rock. His dirt bank eroded away big time last month during high water. He now has rock on his bank.

I never saw it but we taped it... Last fall? Can't remember for sure. Nice guys and we did catch a lot of trout.

As far as I know it's still on. Weigh in may be tricky sine BP's dock won't be back in place but we'll figure something out.

I'm sorry I reported this, and I won't let it continue.

Just checked the BS level. It looks like it has crested. They shouldn't have to increase the flow.

I don't want to get into a conflict with the officers story here but I got my info from a close source. The gender part really is confusing. They fought the guy for quite a while- up close. What makes to sense in the story is why the guy would be at the bottom of a 250 ft cliff on his own and why the officers were down there to if they were not pursuing him. The news story has alot of holes in it on it's own merits. Whatever the case, a young man is dead and that's a very sad thing.

I agree, Rich.

HOLLISTER — Taney County Sheriff Jimmie Russell said Wednesday at 2:10 p.m. that a person who fell into Lake Taneycomo this morning has yet to be found. Western Taney County Fire District Assistant Chief Bruce Bjorge said that the fire department was called to Acacia Club Road and Lowell Street in Hollister at about 7:30 a.m. to assist Taney County Sheriff’s Office deputies with retrieving someone from an embankment. Upon arrival, the victim could be heard calling for help as deputies moved to assist the subject. “There was a 70-percent grade, very muddy, rocky,” Bjorge said. The subject then rolled down the embankment and into Lake Taneycomo, according to officials on the scene, and was witnessed about 30 feet from shore in the waterway’s current. Firefighters were immediately deployed along the shoreline at the point of entrance to Turkey Creek and launched a boat from the creek to assist with the search. Water Division of the Missouri State Highway Patrol launched a boat from Branson to assist. Fire department personnel remained a part of the search until about 9:30 a.m., when Water Division officials released the fire department from search and rescue efforts. Bjorge said he can’t officially confirm the subject’s gender, but he did say sheriff’s deputies were already on the scene investigating break ins at a nearby apartment complex. Responders from several agencies assisted with the search including Taney County Sheriff’s Office, Hollister Police Department, Branson Police Department, Missouri State Highway Patrol and Taney County Ambulance District.

Man that's alot of water. You may not recognize your river when it's all said and done. Lots of gravel will shift and banks will change. What does that do to places just below the dam- Gastons and others? They all seems to be pretty high off the water and they are on the inside bend.

Here are some pics of Fall Creek. Excuse my finger in the one. These two are of the building ABOVE the dock. It's new erosion. This is below the dock. Not sure if there more gone from the bank- hard to tell. The pontoons in the stalls are taking a beating. I hope they don't flip- don't think they will. The other boats are doing better. Lots of strong current there.

We saw them too. They went up once and drifted back by us. We all thought it looked like trouble. Fortunately they were the only ones we saw except for one guide with clients. I would suggest anyone with little experience get on this lake, at least up here, until the water drops. Ryan and I took a trip up to the dam this afternoon. Nothing new except more bank at Fall Creek Condos have eroded away and another building is compromised. We got to about Big Hole and decided not to go further in our G-3. The rollers are about 3 feet high up there. I was even spooked.

I found out.... The catwalk on the lake side of TR dam is at 935. At 936, surface water on Table Rock Lake can splash the electric motors that open and close the flood gates. If the motors are not able to function, then they (Corp) lose control of their control. They will NEVER let the lake get to 936 under any circumstance. TR is supposed to crest at or just below 935 tonight, baring no more rain. Beaver is dropping. They are going to leave everything as it is still at least Saturday to get the levels down on both Beaver and TR. That's what I was told. Very good news for us.

This is second-hand, not an official report. A young male adult was sleeping in a car belonging to a gentleman who lives on Acacia Club Rd up the bluff from us. His son saw the man in the car while waiting on the school bus and got his dad. They tried to wake him and couldn't. They dragged him out of the car and stood him up. He was on a controlled substance and/or drunk. The people called the Hollister police and told the man to hold on and they'd take care of him. Then he fought them, trying to get away and eventually did. He ran into the woods across the street, on the top of the bluff close to a cabin owned or was owned by Johnny Morris. When the police got there, he bolted down the bluff, stopped and hide once but bolted again when the policemen approached. The last time he was seen, he was in the water trying to swim, about 30 feet from the bank and disappeared. Water rescue came up and looked for him. No sign.

You know, this has been a learning experience, at least for me. I didn't know how high Table Rock could rise before getting over the top of the gates. I thought since the top of flood pool was listed as 930 at Table Rock, I thought that was the top end but it isn't. Would be interesting to know what it is. 935.something was the highest it got back in April. So, Bull Shoals is listed at 695 feet. It's just above that level and rising. Sounds like they don't want it to get much past 695 if they're going to release more water.

Just had a scare... an hour ago someone called (who's been the go-between for us and the Corp/county) and said they were meeting and they were in panic mode. May raise it to 80,000 cfs. We started calling out the army... get more sand bags and build the wall to 4 feet. But after they met, the determined it wasn't that bad are going to leave it where it is right now. What scares me still is that they'd go from 56,000 to 80,000. That's a big jump. That's what we may be looking at tomorrow if we get more rain. That's 3 feet higher than last month's record level. It's crunch time. But in light of what others have gone through and are going through in Joplin and other places, this is nothing. We still have a bed!