Phil Lilley

<p><img src="http://forums.ozarkanglers.com/images/2010/8-22-10_500.jpg" width="500" height="186" /><br />Lake generation patterns have been fairly predictable for the last month. Most mornings there's no water running; then midafternoons one to four units have been runinng until dusk or just after dark. Of course, we have to throw in the days when the U.S. Corps of Army Engineers does its own thing. Just like today and what's on the schedule tomorrow -- one-half unit all morning, then more in the afternoon. The amount of water run in the afternoons and evenings seems to depend on the heat. If it's in the mid- to upper 90's, generation is increased. The last few days, just two units were turned on because of this great, cooler weather we're having. But they're running it into the night longer. Weekends, you can &quot;kinda&quot; count on even less generation. I say &quot;kinda&quot; because you really can't count on anything when it comes to generation patterns . . . never!</p> <p><img src="http://forums.ozarkanglers.com/images/2010/guns and hoses/guns3-250.jpg" width="250" height="167" hspace="6" vspace="6" align="right" />Our water temperature is still a healthy 46 degrees with generation. Our trout are fighting just as hard as they fought in the spring when oxygen levels were at their highest. There are some reports of larger trout having to be worked a bit before being released after a hard fight. I've experienced that myself this week, but that's pretty normal with larger fish. The reports in the area newspapers regarding low dissolved oxygen (D.O.) in our tailwater, in my opinion, were overstated and misleading. It is true we have low D.O. issues every fall season below Table Rock Dam (and below all other dams in the White River system) but it's not new news. Some years are worse than others. Water temperature plays a major part in whether a fall season of low D.O. is very hard on our trout or not. Low D.O. combined with high water temperatures causes extreme stress on trout; then add a lengthy fight and often times is causes death, especially if the angler does not make any effort to revive the fish. But fortuneately, this fall season looks to be favorable. Our water temperatures are low and should continue to be in good shape through December.</p> <p><img src="http://forums.ozarkanglers.com/images/2010/8-24-250.jpg" width="250" height="169" hspace="6" vspace="6" align="left" />I've gotten out this past week and did some fly fishing, as well as jig fishing. We bought some great looking new fly patterns for the fly shop, and I had to get out and try a few of them. One was a Japanese beetle pattern. The beetles made a major invasion this year, up from Arkansas, and are thick around here during the summer and fall, It stands to reason that our trout should see a lot of these bugs fall in the water close to the banks. So I tried them up in the trophy area this week, casting along the bluff bank, under trees and close to the rocks. Most of the time I spotted the rainbow prior to catching it. They sit close to the surface of the water if they are actively feeding on the surface, and a good, accurate cast will draw aggressive attention. And these rainbows aren't small. I believe rainbows grow to learn how to feed on natural foods in the lake, so most of the rainbows along the banks will be mature fish looking for bugs from the overhanging trees.</p> <p>I did increase my chances of success yesterday while fishing by adding a dropper to my #14 japanese beetle. About 18 inches below my foam fly, I tied on a #18 pearl &amp; primrose zebra midge. Later I tried a red, then an olive zebra midge and had some success, so the color might not be really important. I had one rainbow take the dropper but I missed the strike.</p> <p>As noted in other reports throughout the summer, our freshwater shrimp population is incredible right now, so fishing scuds is very popular and effective. When the water is not running, fish a scud on the bottom. When the water is running, fish it on the bottom. Scuds live in the rocks and do swim up but never very close to the surface. They stay down close to the bottom so that's where your fly should be. Yesterday they were running two units but not full, about 50-60 percdent, I'd say, so that might be a little more than one unit. I was fishing from Lookout down, positioning the boat in very shallow water and casting and drifting by fly still in shallow water but towards the center of the lake. I picked up a couple of trout, moved to deeper water and started picking up more numbers. By deeper I mean darker areas where I couldn't see the bottom as well. I was fishing about 11-feet deep, using a large float indicator and two small split shot, 6x tippet. The fly I was using was a #14 &quot;peppy&quot; scud which is gray dog (Shitzu) fur with gray antorn mixed in, non weighted.</p> <p><img src="http://forums.ozarkanglers.com/images/2010/guns and hoses/guns2-250.jpg" width="250" height="167" hspace="6" vspace="6" align="right" />Night fishing below the dam reportedly is heating up big time. One thing nice about the change in weather is less humidity and less fog on the water at night and in the mornings!! Makes night fishing nicer for sure. Guys have been fishing anywhere from outlet #1 down through to the old KOA Campground wading. The other night, I boated up to Big Hole in my boat and started drifting, fishing a jig, down to Fall Creek. They were running two units at about 70%. Great drift but the trout were NOT hungry. Full moon, great night to be out, very pleasant! But only one rainbow. That's why they call it fishing and not catching!!</p> <p>Jig bite is still pretty good. Remember, when throwing a jig straight with no float, the trout will take the jig on the drop, when it's sinking. Watch the line, feel for the slight tap and really set the hook hard and fast. Colors are the same but white is making a comeback. I've heard of some browns and larger rainbows taking white jigs this past week, so add white to sculpin, black, sculpin/ginger, olive and brown with an orange head.</p> <p>The micro jig bite is still very good when the water is off. Guide Bill Babler is doing really well above and below Fall Creek. Remember to use two-pound line when you can, preferrably Vanish two-pound line. Play around with the depth; set it at five feet and move it deeperas needed. Use a pink micro if the water is running and set the depth a little more than the depth of the water.</p> <p>We're still selling a ton of night crawlers because the trout are eating them! Best areas are around Short Creek and down above and below Scotty's Trout Dock. Also try Power Bait Gulp eggs in white/pink or white/orange combos. You can get away with using four-pound line when using bait.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>

Yea, I bet you may be crossing a line. You can't sell certain parts of game... feathers may be part of that. I can find out.

Yea- it's getting harder and harder to get donations. Everyone has their hand out.

I've never asked any companies to sponsor our tournaments... don't really need to. If they want to jump on, that'd be great. Should make it a benefit of some kind... I guess. I'm always trying to raise money for Big Brothers here in Branson.

Yes- about the same dates/weekends.

Got out for a couple of hours in the middle of the day today. They were running less than one unit, breezy and lots of leaves falling in the lake. I boated to Lookout and started dropping a #12 Green Japanese Beetle under the trees on the bluff side of the lake - some flies I just received from Rainy's. They look great too. And there were a few rainbows that thought so too. I had 4 takes and no misses. All were rainbows about 17 inches long. They came out of the shade so they were dark colored. Fought hard. Two of them I saw move and take the fly, the other two I just saw their heads when they took the fly. One came out of the shadows and the other I saw laying in wait and making his move. I love fishing a dry. I look this to get better as we get into fall months.

I'd say August 20 but the guys in charge haven't said for sure. I'll let you know when they decide.

I'd be interested in holding another contest here on Taney. Just don't know how to do it. So many variables... the #1 obstacle is generation. #2 is crowds. Actually right now would be a great time to hold one. Crowds aren't that bad even on weekends and the trout aren't too beat up... yet. Another draw back - tournaments are hated by a lot of people. It draws too many people so if it's crowded, the tournament gets blamed. Some don't like any kind of contest that has to do the fishing cause it spoils the sport. Sorry to be negative... I like any activity that brings anglers together for some fellowship AND I like competition. It's fun.

Here's some pics of the day.

I'll have that info later today. I'll post it.

A search for a floatplane that disappeared over the weekend in Southwest Alaska was expected to enter its fourth day today. Searchers on Monday combed the mountains and Pacific coast in the Katmai National Park area but found no sign of the plane. The de Havilland Beaver vanished Saturday during what was supposed to be a short trip across rugged terrain between Swikshak Lagoon and King Salmon. The plane carried pilot Marco Alletto and three National Park Service employees: Mason McLeod, 26, and brothers Neal Spradlin, 28, and Seth Spradlin, 20. The intensive hunt follows a string of aircraft crashes that have killed at least 17 people since June 1. More - http://www.adn.com/2010/08/23/1421158/search-continues-for-four-on-floatplane.html Personal Note: I've flown with Branch River Air and with Sam Egli, the father of the Egli mentioned in the article. The mountain range they had to fly over to get to and from King Salmon to the Pacific coast is extremely rugged. Combine low visibility and wind sheer currents of wind in those mountains makes flying very dangerous. Hopefully they had a soft landing and are held up somewhere waiting to be found.

Lake Michigan is primed to grow big browns. It was just a matter of time.

I won't start a new topic... I'll just add to this one. I've said this is the best I've seen it ever and it's not just below the dam, it's everywhere. Had more than a half dozen reports Saturday of either seeing big rainbows or hooking and losing big rainbows. No one was fishing above Fall Creek. I got out this evening with Marsha - first time this summer. She caught a dozen rainbows on a jig- both straight and under a float. I threw a jig and caught about the same number but I was busy netting her fish. Right at dusk, below the narrows, I hooked a big fish. Took 15 minutes to land and I really tried to land her quick. 4-pound line too. 23 inches - beautiful! 1/8th oz sculpin jig.

I see a jacket on the young one... must be cool up there. Thanks for sharing your pics and report. Looks like you all had a great time.

I'd told one of the guys the other day I thought it may take 16 pounds to win . . . then after the last couple of day's fishing, I took it back. This morning I said the trout were out there, it just depends if they would eat today. Some did. The top two teams fished jigs in the Short Creek area, but not the same way. Dwiggins/Burckhardt fished straight line 1/8th oz jigs and worked the bottom and Dwiggins/Freise fished their 1/16th oz jigs under a float. D/B team didn't have a rainbow over 2 pounds which meant all their trout were about 1.4 pounds each wile D/F team had a kicker. The Wheeler's, a father and son team from Oklahoma, were close behind with some real nice rainbows. As you can see, we had several rainbows over 2 pounds caught. The biggest rainbow was caught in the Short Creek area but not sure on what. More images later.

Gosh- sounds like UBS is fishing great. It's about time BS's fishing turned around. Is there alot of people out fishing out of K Dock? I bet when the weather breaks, especially this fall, white bass fishing should be awesome.

All he has to do is out run me. My best mile is presently 7:19. Any wagers?

All depends on generation patterns. The way it's going, we may not see much running water. Not a whole lot different than what we're seeing now and what we're doing except there will be more brown trout in the upper 2-3 miles of the lake.

Got out yesterday late morning and found the trout to be tough. MDC shocked on Wednesday night for their annual survey so may be we can blame it on that. But it's been pretty good up to Wednesday. It does seem like the trout have taken a beating from Fall to Short Creek but that's been the case all summer. Some of the out of town guys came in yesterday for the tournament this weekend. They were surprised how tough it was yesterday. I told them it was just a day... today's a new day. Here's the report. <p><img src="http://forums.ozarkanglers.com/images/2010/crooks_brown_500.jpg" width="500" height="200"><br>Just checked weather.com's 10-day forecast for the Branson area, and it says we're in for some lower temperatures this next week. May be we've seen the end of triple digits this summer. Good for the angler even though the trout have not seemed to care. What this will affect is generation patterns. We may see less flows. Instead of four units later in the afternoon, we may see two units or fewer. But you never know with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Today one unit has been running all day with a planned bump up to three units later.</p> <p>Trout fishing continues to be good. August usually is one of the slowest months of the year here on Taney. MDC still stocks a year-high 90,000 rainbow this month, but for whatever reason, they usually don't bite as well in the dog days of summer. But they have been biting very well. Large rainbows are still being caught above and below Fall Creek. Here's at Lilleys' Landing, we had two rainbows weighing more than seven pounds caught this past week, one off the dock and one out in a boat. A 12-pound rainbow was caught off the dock and released.</p> <p><img src="http://forums.ozarkanglers.com/images/2010/crooks_brown_350.jpg" width="250" height="265" hspace="6" vspace="6" align="right">We are selling about 120 dozen night crawlers a week right now and, yes, night crawlers are the best bait for sure. Like this morning, with one unit running, the best thing to do is to start drifting at the mouth of Fall Creek, with four-pound line, a small #8 short-shanked bronze hook and a #7 split shot pinched on the line 18 inches above the hook. Hook the worm one time in the collar and break off the tail leaving the same length of worm hanging off each side of the hook. Inject some air in the night crawler so it floats off the bottom. Set your boat sideways in the current and throw out upstream. If you're not hitting the bottom, increase the amount of line you have out. If that doesn't work, increase the size of the split shot until you get a good roll on the bottom.</p> <p>You can use Gulp Power Eggs the same way, but night crawlers will catch more and bigger trout. Use one white along with one other color--orange, pink or yellow.</p> <p>Some of the guides did find some nice-sized rainbows just up from, through and down from Scotty's Dock this past week, but there are a lot of smaller rainbows down there, too. The smaller ones will take a spoon or spinner cast and retrieved slowly.</p> <p><img src="http://forums.ozarkanglers.com/images/2010/big_rainbow_off_dock_250.jpg" width="250" height="195" hspace="6" vspace="6" align="left">It still amazes me how many large rainbows are down in our area of the lake (by Lilleys' Landing). My fishing buddy Vince was done with a trip on Sunday and was fishing out in front of our place about 1 p.m. I called him to pick me up and we fished down to Cooper Creek -- on the bluff side. He was throwing a Sluggo (plastic jerk bait) for browns and I was casting a 1/8th-ounce black jig. With one unit running the water was barely moving. He had several follows but no takers. I caught a couple of rainbows, then hooked a heavy fish. First I thought it might be a smallmouth bass but getting a look at it, I saw the fluorescent rainbow flash. With two-pound line it took a while to land, but it was a solid 19-inch rainbow weighing more than four pounds. It had avoided a lot of Power Bait over the past eight to 12 months to grow to that size!</p> <p>There should be less fog on the water both in the mornings and in the evenings with cooler temps and less humidity, so getting out early won't be so difficult. Shouldn't be foggy at night either if you want to get out and do some night fishing, either wading below the dam or out in a boat.</p> <p>Above Fall Creek in the trophy area, fishing has been twice as good as normal. Some of our guides are starting as early as 6:15 a.m. when the trout seem to bite best. Fishing a micro jig in black, olive or tan under a float four- to five-feet deep using two-pound line (a must) has been great, but the trout have been alittle picky about how it's presented. At times they like it dead in the water with no movement, but some times they like it twitched every 5-10 seconds to project a little life. The strikes can be slight or hard, so you have to watch the float closely. One problem many anglers have is keeping the line slack to a minimum and keeping the rod tip pointed at the float. If these two things aren't watched, setting the hook is futile.</p> <p>Fly fishing is still very good, out of a boat or wading below the dam. Of course, the water needs to be down, not running, for the best wading, but out of a boat it doesn't matter. They're still eating a scud pattern the best, but you have to get it to the bottom and keep it moving to have the best success. Number 12 in gray, olive and brown if the water is running and #14 to #18 is it's not. You can get away with using 5 or 6x tippet if the water is running but if it's not, use 7x. Zebra midges in red, black or olive are working well, too, especially when the water is off with no generation. Fish close to the surface if trout are midging or taking midges off the surface and fish them 12 to 36 inches below an indicator if they're not.</p>

Gezzz... we have 9 days before we leave and you're already signing off. What are you going into hibernation between now and then?

Sorry for not writing more about our plans. Try to get current on our trip. We mailed 5 packages to Kotzebue last week. Mailed 2 big soft duffle bags, one barely made the minimum size (108 inches) and weighed about 65 pounds. The other was smaller and much lighter. Mailed two boxes - the plano and another utility box. Sent them usps priority mail. Cost: about $390.00. Mailed them on 8/12 and they arrived on 8/17 with a weekend in between. Not bad. We have 2 more utility boxes to take up with us on the plane along with our 2nd check-on bag and carry on. We'll mail everything back except what we need for the second week usps ground from Kotzebue - we'll see how long it takes to get home using ground instead of priority. Our plans have changed for our second week in AK. Instead of going to King Salmon and my cabin, we're heading to Kodiak from Anchorage and spend a week, or may be less. The flight will cost us $100 less than the flight to KS from Anchorage but we'll have to rent a car and pay for lodging on the island. Why the change? I've never been there, Bill has. The silver run should just be starting when we arrive plus the char fishing should be really good. Next fall, we're planning on taking several groups of clients to Kodiak for KAA (Kids Across America) as a fund raiser so we're going to check things out and figure out the best plan of action. The plan is to take couples so we're going to look at bed and breakfast establishments. I had bought a Canon 7D camera a couple of weeks ago thinking that would be the best all round camera for me. I had it 5 days and was totally overwhelmed. I'm not a photographer. I thought I could take a couple crash courses, plus I thought I had a line on a few camera lenses I could take to AK but both didn't work out. I took the camera back. I bought a new Pentax Optio 90w, same as my 20 but newer. For this trip, I'm taking my GoPro, my Flip and my Panasonic minidv camcorder. I've bought extra batteries for all and should be set. Bought a couple of 16g sc cards off ebay too. I bought a GPS and reserved a Sat Phone from this company - GPSphones.com We'll pick the phone up in Anchorage and drop it off on our way back through on the 6th. I don't think we'll need it but it will be handy if we get fogged in on our take-out day. I check the weather for Kotzebue every few days to see if there's any changes on the horizon. None really. The outfitter said they're getting quite a bit of rain. That should help bring fish up into the headwaters. Again, the outfitter will tell us which river would be best for our float. Of course, we wouldn't want one that's high and off-colored. http://www.weather.com/outlook/health/fitness/tenday/USAK0135 Highs are still reaching almost 60 but today's high was only 49. There seems to be wind most of the time which is a good thing- keeps the bugs down.

Yea- never trim marabou after it's been tied on with scissors - you can pinch the ends off though. Thom's tip is what I use. Less marabou is better than too much.

Mike- if you want you can take someone out in one of our john boats. Either Saturday or Sunday or both.

I know this has nothing to do with fishing BUT this will be seen more here than down in sports. I'll move it in a couple of days. Our Big Brother Big Sister Chapter is trying to raise funds. Our director thought this might be a fun way to do it. I guess he plays... I don't. Here's an attachment you can download. 2010 Big Bro Gridiron Classic.pdf Here's the verbiage if you don't want to download it. Ready to dominate community members with your vast fantasy football nowledge and support youth in our service area at the same time? Introducing the Big Bro Gridiron Classic. This league is a weekly salary cap league where total points over the course of the NFL season will determine the league champion. Players may be owned by multiple team owners. Team entry fee is $100 with half of the dollars raised going to support our quality mentorship programming and the other half being awarded as prize money. Interested? http://www4.fantrax.com/ Call or e-mail us and we’ll send you an invitation to the private league set up on the fantrax website. Entries are limited to the first 100 participants. All team registration and fees must be received by 1pm on Thursday, September 9. From there, just set your lineup each week and enjoy the friendly competition. Contact Aaron Newberry with any questions regarding league at 417-294-7593. Good luck and thanks for supporting Big Brothers Big Sisters! Aaron's email is aaron@bigbrobranson.org Thanks

I'd say lower Bull Shoals - close to the White, Norfork and the tailwaters.