Phil Lilley

It's been a long day! We scouted the water at and above the 160 bridge. Looked great but there's really no good fly water there except right above the bridge off the gravel bar. Room for 2 maybe and there was one guy already there. Saw him catch a white too. Lots of people there at 4:30 pm. Drove on to Fisherman's Nose Rd and thru the field. Lots of people lining the back there. Headed up to the "Rock Hole" I'm told now... not the Maiden Hole. That's about where the lake meets the creek right now. Duane and Mona Cheri were already there and had half a limit of whites on a fly. But again, only room for a couple so we didn't stay long. Needed a boat to get out to the seams- the whites were definitely there. They were circling some (spawning). Headed back down to the ramp at Beaver, boated up to just below the Tin Whistles. First cast... fish on. But we didn't set it on fire. We caught may be a dozen nice whites on white jigs. Babler, on his last cast, caught 2 on 2 jigs.. DOG! Again, they were on the bottom. I tried a sluggo and a rebel and nothing. They aren't chasing. Not hat many boats out this evening either- I thought it'd be packed. But the banks were!!

Swan Creek- Main lake 40-42. In the creek 43 degrees and good color. 1/8th white jig caught a 23 inch walleye on the bottom. small sluggo caught a white. Rapala caught a white. White jig caught a nice crappie. that's it for us. Left the creek at 8:30 am... got there at 6:30 am. Water is in the field across from the park. Heard their going to flood the late... going to hold it at the BS Dam because of high water on the Mississippi. Beaver Creek- put in at the park and headed up. Slough Hollar- ran into Dutch and he waved us down. He caught whites and continued while we watched. White jig again caught 12 whites. Jig had to be on the bottom and the bite was light. Left at 11 am. Did boat up past Tin Whistles. Water was starting to flood the field on the right but there's people fishing from the bank where the shoal starts. Water temp up there was 47. Closer to the mouth was 50. Good color. Dutch was frustrated with boaters... trollers and I see why. Had to yell at 2 boats that were barreling down on us, headed right where we were fishing. I waved them to the other side which was the wider part of the creek anyhow! One boat ran 5 feet from the bank in front of us instead of taking the 20 feet of water behind us and again, more room. Clueless... that's I call them. There was a white ski boat trolling up and down but have to admit they were catching fish so can't blame them. Others were just in a big hurry to boat upstream.... and then back down just as fast. Orange boat from TX... he has a place on Taney... seen him being bad in the trophy area before. I sound like Babler... gotta get a grip! I never use these things but I thought it was appropriate. Heading back over tonight with Roland and Babler and see if we can find some wadeable water.

I'm torn... Buster tells me he's catching lots of whites in Swan every morning but I want to try to catch them on the fly too. May hit both, Swan first and then either boat to drive to Beaver. Might see you Sam... wave me down- I'll be in the red G-3.

Johnson Hole... on the main lake up from Beaver Creek?

Here's the lower map http://ozarkanglers.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=352&Itemid=94

Hummm... never heard of them. But that doesn't mean anything. May be we should ask an old timer who lives over there. Any one know a person like that? Dutch- can you mark a map and send it to me? When you say right, is that heading upstream or down?

Is the water super clear?

Where is your MH? I was going by what people told me years ago... If there's running water below the dam, I won't go up there. I know how shallow it is- lots of rocks. The gravel bar just above the bridge is a good one but small, not room for many fishermen. I may go down and throw jigs... we'll see.

I'm putting in at the bridge above it all, below the Tea Tables. I'll be heading to moving water- may be there, may be up closer to the TT. We'll see.

I have maps of Beaver posted. http://ozarkanglers.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=353&Itemid=94

I'm heading over to Beaver tomorrow am - get there at daylight and see if I can hook some on my fly rod. Putting in at 160 bridge. I need to an assessment of the water level on Beaver at the different lake elevations... Say if the level is at 654, the lake is backed up to _________. And if it's at 660, it's backed up to ___________. That'd be good information.

No- he's dead. I did steal a good meal from the smallie though.

Outlets #1 and #2. There's very few people there today.

Windy today so it was tough to get a jig down at the dam so it was slow. Babler said he saw tons of shad in the water. Same report for most of the day. I boated up to the dam this evening and fished the last hour of the day. Zero boats out. Four flood gates now, Leonard. No wind - I got the white 1/8th oz jig to the bottom. Fished the south bank. Averaged 5 rainbows before hitting the bottom of the first island. Missed more. They weren't really on them hard but it wasn't bad. Never felt the bite though... had to keep lifting the jig lightly and felt it tighten, that's why I missed so many. Rainbows were all 15 inches or more except for 2. All were fat-fat with shad. Great to see. They're supposed to run gates till Table Rock is back down to 915- that's 3.5 feet from here. Might be like this for 10 days 2 weeks. Won't hurt my feelings! Anglers didn't have any problems catching rainbows drifting from Monkey Island down through the bridges today and up in Roark Creek. Power Bait on the bottom. Lots of surprised people about the size of rainbows... all are nice - 15 inches to 18 inches. Babler said they're stockers... cleaned them this morning and they all have white meat.

Thought it was a brown... till I saw it.

Thought you'd like that!

Man, am I behind. I don't read everything but when a simple fishing report goes to 3 pages, something's usually up. I know it was cold, snowy during most of this thread so may be that explains it. I've used Ann's reply as a quote because I wanted to address it and the response. She brings up some great points about our relationship with God and part of what He put us here for. The sole reason He put us here is for Relationship. Relationship branches off into several directions - relationship with Him, relationship with each other and relationship with His creation. He did give us dominion over the animals. We are to care for His creation but not at the expense of the first two- Him and each other. Ann's statement was her opinion and I thought well written except for a few misspelled words. I'd hate to be the person to go through the forum and point out every misspelled word on every post... especially Cricket's. Before we talk opinions over fishing, we all must love and honor each other whether you agree or disagree. You also have to give people some leeway cause you can't see their heart and they may be misstating their opinion or not being completely clear. Go the extra mile and make sure by asking a question if the statement isn't clear instead of jumping and regretting later. God is misused by so many, especially by the people who say they know Him. God is love. It's such a simple concept but so hard to grasp. Bob- drop the gold fish and put a real fish back in you avatar!

Sure I'll drive up and see...

I made a drift and caught 2- one close to the cable and another further down on white jig. The first was packed with shad. I did not see any shad but they had come thru. Not sure from over or under though. No idea on the bass or walleye question.

Just got the report from some guys who just came in. Lots and lots of shad coming over the top of the dam. Catching fish on white jigs. Trout have so many shad hanging out of their mouths it's a wonder they are still biting. I'm heading up to see for myself

My my my...

Cool your jets guys... you're making a mountain out of a mole hill. As for the pic... it is one of Al's prints. I was showing off his artistic skills too.

The Misunderstood God by Darin Hufford. Me and a couple of guys are doing a study on it. He points out a bunch of modern day beliefs in the church that are inconsistent with what the Word says, things we, for the most part, already have seen and agree with. But he's alittle off on some things too. But so are we, I'm sure. It's a good book for "religious" people with an open mind who won't run the other way when their beliefs are challenged.

Nice! Thanks for sharing. The stripes on your fish aren't broken like a hybrid should be. Funny, we've been catching some whites on Bull Shoals that have broken stripes. Best I've done of hybrids is using crawdad tails on Grand Lake, Elk River Arm.

Here's a couple of pics I got from the club this morning.