Phil Lilley

MOsmallies -this is over the top. I don't keep track but there must be some history between you guys. I disagreed with Eric but respect his opinion.

They do a great job... how can you match it?

Am I right? Didn't Crane all but dry up sometime ago? Even the biologists thought the McCloud strain was finished. Big sections of it disappeared altogether because of a drought--and that's in recent memory. That's not going back almost 100 years of droughts and floods and still the little rainbow thrives in Crane. I didn't think this would go on or I would have mentioned it before. Crane's fishery is not fragile. Report your fishing trip on Crane- that's totally up to the angler. One out of 100 people who fish Crane don't write reports and post them on forums. The tiny fraction that do won't hurt it. That's just my observation and opinion. It's not better than anyone else's opinion though.

Crane's been written up in national publications I believe. It's a pretty famous place, what with the McCloud rainbows there. And it runs through a town. Shouldn't be any reports? I don't think you're going to get your wish. Thanks, Mic for posting reports. Post what you want to post and don't worry about the negative comments. There will always be more of those who appreciate it.

I believe all were caught on jigs in the trophy area. I know the last one was - a 1/16th oz sculpin jig. #2 line.

Haven't read all the posts but most. I think the law DOES say the FEDS have to provide coldwater species of fish for those tailwaters that lost their warmwater status. Probably not the proper way to put it but it gets my point across. Clint Hale touched on it in our meeting the other night. He said Shepherd COULD come up with the trout if Neosho went away but he said the FEDS are required by mandate or law to provide a certain number of trout for Taneycomo. MAY BE the feds would pay Shepherd to produce the trout but why would they close Neosho after they just spent millions of dollars in renovation and upgrades. Clint said Neosho is the oldest coldwater hatchery in the country? Or the West... one or the other. I think he also said the Norfork raises other species of fish and that there's no other hatchery that could pick up that slack. I could be some what wrong on that.

<p><img src="http://ozarkanglers.com/podcast/podcast.jpg" width="300" height="300" align="right"></p> <p> Clint Hale, Shepherd of the Hills Hatchery manager and Shane Bush, MDC Fisheries Biologiest share great information on Taneycomo's fishery and future projects with members of the Branson Chapter of Trout Unlimited. <p> <p><a href="http://ozarkanglers.com/podcast/TU_2-19-11.WMA">WMA Version Link Here</a></p> <p><a href="http://ozarkanglers.com/podcast/TU_2-19-11c.mp4">mp4 Verson Link Here</a></p>

I bet we can make one of the meetings and record it- post it here.

If you ever want to send me any fish pics of fish for the forum, my number is 417-337-4130

Sent to my phone. Technology- it's so cool.

Taney's not a trout park. We've covered this a dozen times in the past. I've called the local agent - it's been a number of years ago (the forum is over 5 years old) and he assured me that it is legal to chum anywhere on Taneycomo.

It's NOT illegal to shuffle or chum for trout in MO

Cause you have 112 posts. It will change.

Took me a bit to figure out PITA

Chief- you and Stoneroller need to go have a cup of coffee together and then may be go fishing. You buy. You've been here longer.

Peppy is the name of the dubbing. It's gray dog hair mixed with gray antron. Tie it like any other scud - dub and brush.

I drove to the dam- wanted to fish the spin cast rig and jigs. #2 outlet - casted a jig and float using a olive and then a tan micro with no luck. Walked and fished down to the stairs near #3 outlet and nothing. Wind was blowing upstream. Tough conditions for I wanted to do and that's throw a jig straight. Drove to the boat ramp. Walked up a little. Tried a olive micro and caught a few rainbows. Fished it under the float 24 inches. Tied on a sculpin 1/32nd oz jig - nothing. Tied on a brown 1/32nd oz jig and they liked it! Tried to stand on rocks out in the lake alittle and casted up lake, with the wind, along the bank. Caught the biggest and most rainbows in front of the big rocks. Had one pushing 17 inches. Several others around 14 inches. I worked the brown jig for quite a while - missed a bunch of strikes. Went to take it off and noticed the point was broken off. Darn! Then put on a float and fished a 1/125th oz brown/black jig about 24-30 inches deep and caught 3-4 more rainbows. They liked brown. Fun time. The lake wasn't as crowded as I thought it'd be. Rebar was covered up but up and down from there waders were spread out pretty well. Some some fish caught, mainly small rainbows. The wind was tough! Hate when it blows up lake.

I arrived Wednesday at 1:30 PM and fished rebar to big hole with no generation and 70 degree weather. It was a great day to be out wading! I used a size 18 gray scud at rebar and landed eight rainbows. When I got below rebar I switched to a cream colored crackelback size 12 and stripped it through the slower water. I landed another 15 rainbows, the largest about 16 inches. The horn sounded at 6:00 PM and I went back to the room for dinner. At 9:00 PM they were running two generators when I got to the upper parking lot. There was only one vehicle in the lot and and the fisherman was walking up from the water. It was a pleasant surprise to meet Leonad Kenney for the fist time. He gave me a couple of flies and told me to follow him down to the cable. We fished for a couple of hours and I landed three rainbows as I watched him landed many more. Thursday we rented one of your johnboats as they ran 2-3 generators all day. We started at the cable and drifted down to the old KOA. I was throwing 3/16th oz jigs in white and gray/white on 2 lb line. I would catch two or three fish on each drift. After several drifts we floated from lookout to the bend above fall creek. The fast water at Point Royale to just below Andy William's house was the most productive using the same jigs. After lunch we went back to the cable and I fished a small egg sinker with a size 10 white fly. It was the best action I had all day, especially from outlet 2 to big hole. I broke several off on the bottom and it was at that time you hand delivered the white jigs to our boat. (You can't beat that for service!) You said they were working for you so needless to say we tied them on and continued to catch fish until dark. Friday at 4:30 AM I went back and fished from the cable to above outlet 2 using the same white weighted fly Leonard gave me. There was a light mist most of the morning as they ran one generator. I ended up landing eight fish with the largest being 18". Most of the fish were caught between outlet 1 and the railroad tie on the bank. When it got light I swithced to a 1/8th scuplin colored jig on 2 lb line. I caught anther six rainbows and quit at 9 AM so I could get back and check out of the room. At 10:30 am I went back to rebar and fished an 18 tan scud below an indicator. I land seven more rainbows and called it a day at 1:00 PM as the crowd was stating to build as a result of the upcoming holiday weekend. I had a great time and caught alot of rainbows, but not one brown. The largest was 18" and there were another half dozen that were over 16". There were an unusually large number of the small silver bullets that had recently been stocked. As always it was a great time to be at Lilley's Landing catching trout! I hope to be back again in March. Thanks, Bill Howe

In some places, say, on Taneycomo below the dam, there's enough slow current to carry scuds and other bugs downstream when you step. Kick up the gravel and it sends lots of bugs downstream. Drop your fly in that cloud of bugs and the feeding frenzy that occurs and you'll catch a rainbow. It works real well. Couple of things that are negatives. One is kicking and dislodging bugs probably isn't good for the bugs, although I think it's not devastating as some make it out to be. I think if you asked 100 fly fishing anglers if it's unethical, I would guess about 70-80% would say it is (IMO). And thirdly, if you're fishing close to 2-3 or 4 people kicking wildly in the stream, it's a good guess that most of the fish in that area are below those guys kicking and not in front of you. Did I miss anything? BTW- saw 6 people kicking in Rebar this morning. Some were obvious, some tried to make it look like they were just fishing downstream of their feet. Bottom line, until MDC makes it illegal, there will be people who will kick cause they don't think it's bad, they like to catch fish and/or they have trouble catching trout any other way.

You should see the boat traffic this morning... If you sat and watched the webcam, you'd be amazed by the boats heading upstream. All our boats are out except 3 pontoons - that's 12 jons, 4 bass boat and 1 pontoon. It's gotta be pretty crowded from Short Creek up. I may go out and mosey around but have to take a pontoon. I bet the area below the dam is crawling with waders. I may go up there instead and take my spin cast rig and jigs. See if I get any ugly stares.

Anyone have any good stories... this is getting pretty depressing.

Got to wash them, don't you?

Deep freezers may be for mushrooms, might they?

This is the hatchery intake, not the turbine intake. They were cleaned last fall.