Phil Lilley

Can't get rid of me that easy... WIFI is free here in Anchorage so have to take advantage of it. Have a 4-6 hour layover here. May get on an earlier flight but this place (Penair) is busy this time of year. Lots of overseas workers trying to get to the canneries. No hitches so far in travel. Very nice flight to Anchorage from Chicago. It was clear flying over the mountains south of Anchorage- very majestic. Weather here is nice- 58 and cloudy. WE'll see what it is 250 miles SW of here. Hope the wind has died down. First couple days in camp will be interesting... I know there's no extra beds so I may be tenting it on the tundra tonight. Pic of Penair...

We have lots of white jigs... the shop is just up the hill from our dock.

Long time no hear from.... your reporting is appreciated.

Leaving Springfield tomorrow 6 am to Chicago, then to Anchorage and on to King Salmon. Will arrive there at 7:30 pm AK time- 10 pm your time. Looks like I'll be ordering items for camp. Jim said they haven't had time to do much other than bare essentials. I feel like Santa with 3 big bags of goodies for them. Thanks for all the flies- well over 800 flies have come in from Francis Steffen, Tim Homesley, Michael Maples, Leonard Keeney, David Cook, Rolan Duffield, John Jackson and a lap top from Pat Nelms. They will be thrilled! Camp has had 50-60 mph winds for the last 2 days. Very little fishing but at least no bugs!! Temp is 52 today. It'll be different than this 90 stuff we've had today. But I'm ready for colder weather. Don't like the heat. Will post when I get a chance. Take Care!!

Oh yea- mostly in December. 200k of them

You'll have to call the # and ask for sure. He said it was a JR and it had a pedestal.

Average - some will be smaller and some larger. That's not counting the feds rainbows coming in at a whopping 8 inches.

Brad Wright is trying to sell a new vise. I said I'd try to help. Dyna-King Jr. new in box. Everything with it. Retail $250 Asking $150 417-230-6703 for more details and want to buy it.

Generation on Taneycomo hasn't changed much over the last couple of weeks until yesterday when we saw a break. Because of high lake levels at Beaver and Table Rock, the Corp has been running four units at Table Rock Dam for pretty much 24/7 for the past couple of weeks, plus the fact that we keep getting these rain events in the water shed. These haven't been wide spread rains but small cells but lots of rain. This week we've seen a 2-inch and a 4-inch rain in our immediate area but it didn't affect Table Rock's lake level much. But they have to keep running water so eventually drop the lake to manageable levels. Table Rock is almost down to 926, 11 feet above power pool. Trout fishing has been fairly consistent the last week or so. Not real good but not real bad. Because of the fast water, you just about have to get out in a boat and drift to do well. Bank fishing in the downtown area is pretty good, as well off the dock at Rockaway. Here at the marina, we've been sending people downstream for the better part of a month to catch trout. Drifting from Cooper Creek down, staying in the middle of the lake and using Gulp Power Bait in white, yellow or pink. Our guides are still fishing down close to the bridges in downtown Branson for the most part. Bill Babler reports doing good on nice rainbows this morning drifting below Scotty's Trout Dock down to the Branson Landing. Also doing good are spoons- Spin-a-Lure in gold or silver casted and retrieved or let go to the bottom and jigged off the bottom. Cleos- same thing. We'd asked some friends over to eat last night. I got the bright idea to go out and catch dinner for us. This idea has bombed for me so many times you'd think I'd learn but I'm a so learner. It was an excuse to get out and fish, is what it was, but we were going to be in trouble if we didn't come back with the bacon. Vince and I boated up to Fall Creek at 6:45 pm. We started casting white 1/8th oz jigs (Vince) and a F-11 black/silver rapala (me), first in the mouth of Fall Creek. Vince hooked a fish immediately next to a downed tree- a small brown trout. At the same time, I had a huge brown swipe at my lure right at the boat. Might have gone 6-7 pounds. We worked on down and I had no more action on my stick bait so I switched to a white jig. Vince had caught 4 more browns and missed several more bites so the white jig was the ticket. We'd try to hit every slow pocket of water against the bank and almost each time we'd get a strike. We missed 6 takes to one hookup. They do that sometimes- bite short. We trimmed the feathers back on our jigs and began to hook a few more fish. More browns. Vince landed 3 trophy browns over 19 inches (pics). But thankfully we started hooking and landing some rainbows!! We ended our drift just past Short Creek with 2 limits of rainbows measuring from 13 to 16 inches, just right for my hot grill waiting back at home. Not bad for an hour and 30 minutes, one drift. One thing I will mention about our retrieve... we would cast our jig as close to the bank- in eddies or slack water- and let the jig drop a foot and then jig it up. Let it settle back down and jig it again. Most bites were on the first two jigs. We'd work it out another 15-20 feet and then drop the rod tip and reel real fast. As soon as we could see our jigs, we'd stop to see if we had a fish following the jig. I'd say half the time we did and the fish would take the jig as it started to drop. One of my fish was a white bass- about 1.5 pounds. Pretty cool. But this technique works- try it. White jigs are also working up below the dam, working them the same way- off the bank in slack water. We're seeing some awefully nice rainbows being caught. All our rainbows are fat and thick and fight harder that I've seen them fight in years. It's because of the hgih water running all the time- they're just stronger. I did get down and fish the lower lake a couple of times last week. Boy, if you love catching blue gill on a fly rod, you need to try the lower lake. Down below Rockaway Beach, get off the main lake and fish the back waters where the water is warmer and not moving. I casted red humpies and stimulators at pods of blue gill along the tree line and caught them at will. Nice palm sized too. Bass fishing on the lower end is fair. We threw small topwater lures in 1-2 feet of water on flats and caught a few largemouth bass. Also caught them in deeper water using sinkos. I am leaving for Alaska tomorrow morning. Be back on July 29th. I will try to post reports while I'm there but they may be spaced more than a week apart. It all depends on when I can get to town to the public library in Naknek where there's WIFI available. And yes, I'll have some pics from Alaska too.

I'm posting a new detailed report shortly- I'll tell the tale there.

There is a ramp at the dam and it is open. If they are generating, it's fairly hard to launch and trailer a boat. Cooper Creek would be much better.

Don't understand this at all. First, rainbows stocked average 11.5 inches now. That means alot of rainbows are already over 12 inches. It would give them a chance to "get smart" and not be caught? Hum... I doubt it. Gulp is just too yummy. The slot is designed to grow fish to "trophy size". Not trophy size is defined differently to each individual. To some it's 15 inches. To others it's 20 inches. MDC thinks it closer to 15 inches and if you go out west I think you'll find a 15 inch rainbow would be coveted. Here- we're spoiled having all the great trout fisheries. Before the trophy area, if we caught a 15 inch rainbow we'd be ecstatic. Eighteen inch- oh my! Now it's common, very common. Plus it's the intent of MDC to see these "slotted" rainbow to migrate downstream for all anglers to enjoy, not just the "blue blood elitists" they call us that only fly or lure fish. That's what they called us when we tried to pass the new regs in 1995. OK- to tackle adding fish to the pond. Consider: catfish eat what- shad, worms washed in after a rain, blue gill and other forage fish. Is there a demand on these food items already? Is there an abundance of these food items or is the lake "stable"? Carrying Capacity is the phase MDC uses to define the used of land and/or lakes and their resources to provide sustenance for wildlife and fishes. Right now, is Taneycomo "balanced" where all species of fish are eating well and not starving? Is there an abundance? Is there a surplus? To say there's room for more fish means there's an abundance of that food for the species you're putting in, namely catfish. If you put catfish in the lake, it will put more of a demand on their food. Resident fish will have less. Catfish compete with bass I'd think. So this action will affect bass somewhat in a negative way- right? Same with yellow perch, walleye, even stripers. They will all compete for the food that's in the lake. You're not adding to the food base, you're adding predators and thinning the food base. This is what a fisheries biologist would look at when considering a change in how a lake is managed. Our trout are somewhat different though. Because this is a put and take fishery, the food base isn't considered as strongly as it would if you were stocking a lake, say for, catch and release. You'd have to stop or slow stocking at some point because you'd starve your trout. MDC was fearful back prior to the implementation of the trophy area because they didn't know for sure what the trout would do exactly above Fall Creek. Would they all heard up there and starve because of the lack of food? They didn't think so but this hadn't been done before so there were questions. They felt like the trout, if there wasn't enough food for the masses, would migrate down till they found food, OR get caught. And fortunately, they were correct. They didn't all go to the dam but are dispersed throughout the lake for all to catch and enjoy. The trophy area and slot has worked. Can there be changes? Sure. I've thrown out there ideas- change the slot to 13-24 inches on rainbows if you want larger rainbows. Create a slot below Fall Creek. MDC had a campaign back in the 80's where it was suggested that anglers released 12 to 16 inch trout (I think that was the numbers) voluntarily. It worked I think for a while but fizzled out about 1990. But if MDC didn't do anything, I'd be just a happy with what they've done so far. Looking at the numbers, there's no way to deny that for what it is, Taney is a premier trout fishery. I'd love to see more wading areas, riffles and pools but that's just not the character of a tailwater like ours. In saying all that, this high water event is going to beef up that claim... wait till the water goes down! There's a bunch of new, BIG trout out there waiting to be challenged.

John- that's the brown caught in July. The current record was caught in October the same year and yes they were close to the same weight. Micheal knows the guy who has the current state record and that's the mold he has. Dano- you're right. We caught rainbows this evening that were 13-15 inches and fought hard. These are rainbows that you usually see above Fall Creek. But no one is fishing this area- we're not sending anyone up there cause it's been tough. But not everyone can jig fish like Vince.

How about these babies... worth traveling 5-6 hours for? Seriously, Taney is a great trout fishery. AND as far as catching that 15 pounder- the BEST way to catch one is to learn the technique of TROLLING. I know a guy who catches 10 pound browns all the time. And it's not Trav.

Had to post this before we put the fish on the grill... mainly because of the debate going on over on the species.. poll.. thing. Here my buddy Vince cleaned up on nice browns this evening- 45 minutes of fishing. Had our limits of 13-14 inch rainbows on white jigs started at Fall Creek and floated to Trout Hollow fishing the bluff side. Tossed back 8 more browns and one nice white bass. Got to go eat!

I know you guys know but these phases are MDC's not mine. This is how MDC labels Taneycomo, not me. And the figures like 30 days are not mine either- they are MDC's. I'm just not that smart.

You might mention ozarkanglers... we need more guides on the site.

Had to double check you since you flunked your last diction quiz. dissonance 1. inharmonious or harsh sound; discord; cacophony. 2. Music. a. a simultaneous combination of tones conventionally accepted as being in a state of unrest and needing completion. b. an unresolved, discordant chord or interval. Compare consonance (def. 3). 3. disagreement or incongruity.

Cooper Creek. No ramps at Fall Creek.

The water has been high enough you don't have to worry about the channel. Stay in the middle of the lake and you'll be fine. As for tying up- don't!! Don't anchor in ANY current. If you want to do it, go behind some of the islands or in pockets where there's no current.

"1/1,000,000" You have a much better chance than that of catching a 15 pound brown here. "Phil again, what is the approximate amount of trout that the lake could support if all were catch and release? " I have no idea. That's a fb question (fisheries biologist). As for your comment about 14 inch rainbows... IF you're a good fisherman, and you have the means, you should be able to catch numerous 18-inch rainbows in a day's time on Taneycomo. At least they are there in abundance RIGHT NOW. They aren't always though.

done deal.

They release about 12 to 15k browns in Taney per year. ??????? Sometimes, Trav, I don't know where you're coming from. Congruity means to agree. Why would people be intimidated by us if we agree? I didn't think we did ALL the time. Actually, it wouldn't very interesting if we did. And yes- I had to look congruity up!!

Was bored and wanted to take a close look at this pic. A- clear smallmouth B- not sure what this is C- clear smallmouth D- not sure E- could be trout F- smallmouth G- smallmouth H- could be trout I- smallmouth J- smallmouth Oh F and J could be same fish

No- there isn't enough food for 750,000 rainbows. But that's part of the management plan. Most of the lake is "put and take". The average rainbow only lasts 30 days in Taney, below Fall Creek.