Phil Lilley

You mean Jimmy Houston, right? The Harris boys said they were chasing the sculpin style jerk bait this morning pretty good. Yep- tons of boats out running up and down the lake.

Good day. Lots of boats!!

Well, just goes to show the Corp's hands are not tied when it comes to Table Rock's level vs Taneycomo flows. I've always been told that when TR gets to 920 feet, they are required to release 20k cfs. Not so. Make mental note. They aren't supposed to look at the forecast either. "Water on the ground..." Table Rock is at 922 and rising slightly and they're only running 6300 cfs. That's great for fishing but it's a head scratcher for me. Oh well. But no real rain in the forecast so... I guess they are counting on the weatherman being right. Oh my. But it's June and it doesn't rain a lot in June, right? I've been gone most of this week so I didn't see the transition between 21k to 6k but I hear the bite never dipped too much. Water temp is about 48 coming through the turbines which is decent. That's a warmup of 3-4 degrees from when the spill gates were opened a month ago. Water quality is very good with very little algae coming from Table Rock which is a blessing. The scud bite is still good - actually a lot easier seeing the water is down 5-7 feet. In the trophy area as well as below it down to Trout Hollow, you don't have to do the fancy slip float technique to catch fish. A simple drift rig with a 1/8th oz weight or less will get it to the bottom and get bit. You should go to a little smaller size scud though - may be a #14 or #16. Four pound line is still good but if they get fussy, you might think about going to 2 pound. Jigs are doing pretty good, although I haven't been out enough to get a good read on it. I'm sure a 1/16th oz jig would work in most places, as slow as the water is moving. White will still work from the dam down to Trophy Run. I heard black/olive is working plus olive or sculpin always works. Again, 4 pound like is ok but if you're use to using 2 pound, you'll do better throwing smaller jigs. Night crawlers are catching a lot of nice trout from Fall Creek down. The pink Powerworm is making a comeback too, under a float or drifted on a drift rig. I'm going to be looking at the dry fly bite in the coming days. Stay tuned.

I've always wanted to bring back a bunch of peat from Alaska. Pretty awesome stuff and lots of it.

They were set up for fishing. They put in Monday when we were pulling a boat out. Not long after I saw them heading back to the ramp. If they pulled out, they didn’t last long.

Not the same brown. Way too far away from where I saw it. DO is excellent right now. We don't see low DO till late July at the earliest. Water temp is great too. About 54. Not sure what it will be with the gates off.

I was wrong. Again. They’re closing all gates by 3 pm today

Phil Stone said he saw fish busting the surface yesterday behind Eagle Island. I helped a couple of guys with a big brown yesterday morning (One Cast). Big triploid male. He tried to measure it but I think he got it wrong. He said 30 inches but it was more like 32-33. I figured 20 inch girth. Handling these huge fish is so hard for the novice… and 99.9% of us are novice at catching fish like this. Before I could get over to help, he has already held the fish up for a picture holding it using its gills. The fish bled a little but seemed to stop before releasing. Not sure it will survive. Made me sick but that’s reality. I don’t blame him. He actually was trying to hurry to get it back in the water. I had to give them my net because theirs was too small. Surprised they even netted it. I edited out the bad part from the video because I know it would have drawn allot of criticism plus no one wants to see that.

Don’t hijack this report please. Don’t make it about gas prices. By Wednesday, Table Rock will be down close to 920 and we should see a big reduction in flow. Gates should be shut off. But there are 2 days of rain predicted. We’ll see. I agree with the observation that our browns moved with the shad but I’m not sure about the scud theory. Scuds we’re dislodged not just at the dam when the gates opened… but throughout the upper 5 miles. But… something happened that I’ve never seen in 40 years, that’s for sure. Almost 70 trophies registered May 1-15. That’s double last month’s number.

Politics is banned here not because of the nature of politics, it’s banned because this is a fishing forum. But because this community consists of people who have been here for almost 2 decades, it’s easy to drift there, especially in such polarizing times. But somehow we still get along, and get back to talking about fishing, right?

This has been a strange month, fishing wise. Nonstop 21,000 cfs isn't unusual... it's the way the trout have acted that's strange, at least compared to past events like this. For the first 2 weeks (at least), about the only place to get a bite was between the cable at the dam down to the MDC boat ramp - on scuds. And they were picky about how the fly was presented too. The regular rig didn't work as well. But using a slip bobber and a 20-25 foot leader did work. Most regular people won't/can't do that. It takes a fairly long spin rod or fly rod and the know-how to rig the slip bobber. We/I fished from Lookout down, from Fall Creek down trying to find a bite - it was tough. But then all of a sudden, they started biting below Lookout on scuds. It was really good. Then we started catching fish below Fall Creek. Other flies started working - big fluffy san juan worms and egg flies. Shad flies below the dam - and white jigs - started working because more threadfin shad were coming over the dam. The guides said this morning the bite all the way down to our place is good, mostly scuds. Fish being cleaned are packed with the bugs. So my question, and I know I'll never know the answer, is did these trout head to the dam at first spillgate run, then gradually move back down or did they never move, just didn't bite for a couple of weeks.?? I'm grateful they're biting again - mainly for the common angler who just wants to catch a few trout to eat. We went a long time where very few trout were cleaned here at the dock. The guides were catching fish but very few below 12 inches in the trophy area. We're in for an awesome summer fishing season! When this water slows down, fishing will be much easier and there are a TON of nice trout in the lake. And they're all over the place. We're had several 22-26 inch trout caught in the Monkey Island area this weekend. The big ones have spread out!

Classic comeback.

Ah... so I brought the fish on the right in closer to the camera. I see. Just a little bit made a big difference.

Smells political... Wrench... where in the world do you come up with these pics. That's amazingly gross!!

Different fish. I thought I was in the same spot each time. I don’t usually hold a fish over the boat rim in case I drop it but maybe not.

Which fish is longer? Screen shot from my GoPro. Same angle but 2 different rainbows. The one on the right was caught first. I guessed the length at less than 20 inches... may be 19. The one of the left was caught later. It was for sure well over 20 inches, I guessed 22 inches. I was surprised when I saw the video and took the screenshot - how much they look the same. The one of the right actually looks a little bigger but they weren't really that close. The left one was a beast!

Not yet. I've been looking. He might have moved.

We've (me and most guides) have been drifting and fishing the stretch below Fall Creek with little success. Why? Where did they go? I guess they didn't go anywhere. But they finally got hungry. Yesterday Jeremy Rasnick told me he did well on a trip so I tried it doing One Cast. It was pretty good.

Not asking for a pass.... and I do rub Jackson's ears.

Classic... may be you should write. You have a gift.

I see I didn't post it here - the tournament itself - but I know some have mentioned it. We only have 4 signed up. And it's supposed to storm... and high water... so we're going to do it another day. No, we're going to reschedule it when @Seth and @JestersHK can come.

Pushing 30 inches.

Refresh my memory... I don't remember that column.

No. Been by there a few times and tossed a jig in the area. Have not seen him.... yet.

I hope it doesn't move north like it normally does.