Phil Lilley

pdf File Attached TABLE-ROCK-LAKE-2010 ANNUAL REPORT.pdf

Report is attached. LAKE-TANEYCOMO-2010 ANNUAL REPORT.pdf

Turkey Creek at bridge in Hollister. Construction guys scramble to secure equipment

I need some golfers to play with me in a benefit here in Branson. May 9-10 Kids Across America is a great organization we support locally. I need 4 golfers to play both days. There's a dinner also at Top of the Rock on the 9th- you can come and bring your wives. This will be a very nice event. Cost you nothing. No obligation. We are sponsors and I thought it would be nice to ask 4 from the forum to come and play. First 4 to PM me. I do need solid commitments to play. I need to fill 4 spots.

But the rainbows were biting good while I was up at the cable...

Took a ride before another wave of rain hit. Took video of downtown (being uploaded) and boated to the dam. Clear water up past #3 outlet. No generation. Pretty surreal... Fish were biting though. Sculpin jig, of course. Blew 2 horns and kicked on units. Started raining before the flood gates came on... not on as of yet. Wanted to them on camera coming on. Calm waters... before the storm - literally! This is just above the Narrows. A chunk of bank let go and a couple of trees with it. And yes- I bet it's blocking the channel here but I doubt if these trees last. They'll be floating past our place later today- hopefully way out in front and not through our dock. Fall Creek Resort has had it's share of rain damage. This is just at the downstream end of their dock. The bank let go- about 100+ feet across and may be 50-70 feet deep. Took part of a parking lot and underneath of a garage. Condos right next to it could be next. Doesn't look good.

http://cjonline.com/sports/outdoors/2011-04-23/topekan-catches-state-record-trout By Steve Bell THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL If Ed Ames hadn’t plied the waters of Lake Shawnee in his fishing boat for many years, he might not have believed what he pulled from the lake on Wednesday. Ames caught a state-record rainbow trout that tipped the scales at 13.65 pounds. The big trout was almost too big for the net Ames and his longtime bass-fishing partner — Gary Day — used to land the fish. “Gary made three attempts at netting the fish,” Ames said. “It was a story of having a small net and a big fish. “It was a (feeling) of relief that it was in the boat.” After catching the fish, all Ames and Day had to do was find a scale big enough to weigh it. “My weighing measure only goes to 10 pounds,” Ames said. Ames contacted Ned Kehde, a former Topeka Capital-Journal outdoor writer, and Kehde brought a scale that accommodates bigger fish — a 50-pound scale. Ames had the trout weighed at The Dock, the Lake Shawnee bait shop at the northwest corner of the lake behind the dam. What followed was a lot of paperwork (there is a mandatory 30-day waiting period before certification), and Ames sounded happy to have all of that behind him. But, the joy of hauling in a state-record fish made up for all the hubbub his catch created. “I had my buddy take a picture and we took that photo by the (Shawnee County) Parks and Rec office at the lake,” Ames said. “They put the photo up on the wall. They were pretty proud of that.” The trout measured nearly 32 inches long and was 17.25 inches in girth. Ames is equally proud of his catch, and he’ll have it mounted. Ames took the trout from the lake using a Kastmaster (basically a silver spoon), which mimics shad, a primary food source for the fish. “We were on them (trout) this year,” he said. “They put some big fish in here this time.” The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks stocks Lake Shawnee with trout every year, and anglers fish for rainbows in the late fall or early spring. Ames said he isn’t sure if the trout he caught was stocked by KDWP this year. “I was looking at the tail, and I think it might have been from last year or the year before.” The Topekan’s fish beat local angler Bob Lorson’s April 2 catch for the state record. Lorson’s 11-pound plus rainbow taken from Lake Shawnee eclipsed the previous best by about three-quarters of a pound. Lorson, a KSNT sales representative, also used a Kastmaster (silver and blue) to hook his fish. The previous state best was a 10 1/4-pounder caught by Eric Chia, of Olathe, in March 2010 at Shawnee Mission Park Lake. Ames is pleased a local impoundment has so many fishing opportunities. “It’s great to have a local fishery,” he said. “I have to travel just 4 1/2 miles from home and I’m there.” Ames has many stories about his bassin’ days with his partner, Day, but he won’t soon forget the date of April 20, 2011. “It must have been the right place at the right time,” Ames said. Steve Bell can be reached at steve.bell@cjonline.com.

The Corp has shut the turbines down because of flooding on Taneycomo. They can't take anymore water downstream. F highway is closed because Bull Creek is over the road- record high. Bull Creek Village has to be underwater. Rockaway may be too. Don't know. I heard they are holding Beaver and Table Rock because of this flooding but they can't hold it for long. I know they're thinking about 2008 and the situation they got themselves into back then... I'm sure that's the last place they want to be so I bet they release water soon. Reminder- in 2008, they basically lost control of water release. They held the lakes, not anticipating what was coming. Since then they've changed their protocol and will release if rains, flooding rains are forecasted. Well.... they are forecasted!!! They're here.

Duane just sent this to me. Said it was over close to Chateau and headed west- our way. Said there were other funnels they could see in the area. Nothing going on here as far as wind...

If there's anyone down there, take some pictures and post them. Babler said the lake is full of debry at the 86 bridge and moving towards the dam. Our concern is that if it reaches the dam face, it will affect flow through the gates. Plus some of it could run over into Taneycomo.

This is really getting bad. They have 100% - 4 units running at Table Rock Dam. Looks like TR's level will hit 920 in several hours. I just came over the new bridge over Taneycomo at the Landing- the road behind the Landing is under water and the water level is almost even with the parking lot on the south side. Four units plus run off is bringing Taneycomo's level past the flood stage in downtown and I'm sure it's worse downstream. Heard of a structure fire - one of the houses on the Branson side of the lake near Highway 65 bridge was on fire.

Table Rock will pass 920 tonight. The Corp is required to release more water than can be pushed through the turbines at that point so they will open gates tomorrow at some point. How long depends on rainfall and flow into the lake. All the docks in Turkey Creek were flushed out, according to my Corp contact. It seems with all the new clearing and construction in the Turkey Creek basin (Branson Creek, airport and soon coming race track) the runoff has increase dramatically. As far as I can tell, the docks are still afloat along with the boats somewhere downstream. We've been getting automatic phone messages telling us (being on the water) to evacuate to higher ground but past experience tells us we're not in any danger. But I have friends who live on the Branson lakefront that are moving out tonight.

Real time

This was taken last week from atop of the bluff across from the resort.

How can a few days of rain change fishing conditions? We've gone from low water conditions to high water in a very short time. That's an understatement! We were looking at no generation most days but now it looks like it will be weeks before we see low water again. Depending on how much rain we get today and the next week, we very well will see flood gates open at Table Rock Dam by Wednesday of this week. Table Rock has risen 4 feet in just a couple of days and the rise continues with more than 4 inches of rain in the 24-hour forecast. What will this do to fishing? Of course, bank or dock fishing will be tough at best. Getting out in a boat, you're looking at drifting only. Tying up along banks and in eddies will be dangerous. Creeks are still high and muddy. These should clear up in a couple of days. With the influx of water coming in from runoff areas, our trout are seeing alot of bugs and worms getting washed in to the lake. They're on a feeding frenzy for sure and if you can get to them with a good presentation, you'll do well. If I were fishing, I'd first head to the dam and drift the trophy area and try egg flies, san juan worms and big scuds. I'd also throw a white or sculpin 1/8th oz jig and get it close to the bottom. Most of these trout will be close to the bottom. They'll also be along the banks in slower water and you can target them with spinners, jigs and rapalas. I wouldn't mess with a float because you'd have to fish your flies or jigs more than 15 feet deep. Below Fall Creek, I'd drift night crawlers for sure. Power Eggs and Gulp Eggs should work pretty good too, especially after the water clears up. Increase your weight if you can't feel the bottom. If they open flood gates at Table Rock Dam, white jigs will be hot! We should see shad come over the dam along with some bass, crappie and walleye possibly. These fish are in close to the dam area spawning right now. Last time they ran gates this time of year, we saw alot of these fish below the dam. Water temperatures from Table Rock won't hurt our trout at all. Actually- they'll like the 60 degree water, I think better than the 40 degree water they've been seeing.

4+ inches the next 24 hours according to the weather channel.

Because the beds will be deep because of the rising water? Won't be able to see the beds?

What may happen is TR rises so much that they start flood gates, which I think will happen by the middle of this week. Lake level will rise but fall quickly, how far it will rise and fall I don't know but falling levels aren't good for spawning fish. Crappie and whites are safe. Depends on when and what levels the bass spawn and what happens to the level after that.

Fishing for others in the trophy area was very good too. One guest here at the resort caught a 25 inch rainbow on a jig yesterday. Haven't seen pics yet but heard it was a beautiful trout.

We got out yesterday from 1-3 pm-- in between storms-- and did real well. I took a pontoon with my uncle Jerry, his son Abe and his grandson Jonah plus Abe's father-in-law Billy up to the trophy area to see what we could do. No generation yet, the water coming out of Short and Fall Creek, as well as some of the other runoff outlets, were running brown so the areas directly below these spots weren't places I'd stop to fish. There was a flotilla of boats right at the mouth of Fall Creek trying to fish the clearer water above the creek outlet. They were doing pretty good. We went up to the tennis court area and started there. The water was off colored but not bad at all. Started them off using micro jigs under a float 4 feet deep, olive half micro with an orange head. About as soon as the jig hit the bottom of their drop, the float was down and catching began. Jonah, I was told, didn't like to sit and NOT catch fish. At 4 years old I guess that's normal. But he didn't have to sit long and had a blast running from one end of the boat to the others either to reel a fish in or net another rainbow. It was pretty much non stop for 2 hours. For something different, I tied on a 3/32nd oz sculpin jig and threw it out on the shallow side, crawled it on the gravel bottom and as soon as I hopped it alittle, wham! I had a rainbow. Most of the rainbows they were catching with the micros were around 11-12 inches. The rainbows on the sculpin jig were nice ones- up to 18 inches. So Abe and Billy switched to the straight jig and started catching nice ones. We ended up with 20 - our limits of small 11.5 inchers and got back in before the rains started again. It looks likes we've had 5 inches here so far with alot more rain coming. Table Rock has come up over 2 feet and the level of rise looks like it going to go over 920 by tomorrow. If it keeps up this pace, I predict we'll see flood gates by Wednesday. In the past, the Corp will start flood gates when the level of Table Rock approaches 922-923. Two more days of rain like this and Table Rock will easily reach those levels. We've gone from very low lake levels for spring time to flood conditions in just a few days.

Cause it's always taken the wrong way by someone on the forum, although most of us get a kick out of most of the satire. YOu guys are entirely right- on both views. Wish we could discuss these things here because they are important for the most part. I do see a change in how at least this thread is progressing - you guys are getting to know each other and with knowing comes respect and less personal issues. If you know someone, you're less likely to say anything in a personal, negative way. Forums are impersonal and are fertile ground for all-out food fights with no benefit or good outcomes. Over and over I've said no politics... but over and over I let new topics go and hope they say civil. This one basically has... but now what?

Good for spawning fish!

After the spawn, blue floating rebels work good- and small sluggos. They're chasin'.

Forsyth side. It's deeper and current isn't as fast.