Phil Lilley

Thanks for sharing, Al.

Took 4 little cousins out fishing yesterday for a couple of hours. Boy they can work you! Took the pontoon- beautiful day. Drifted from Fall Creek down. First used night crawlers. Big mistake. Bob Klein caught some nice rainbows the other day so I wanted to try. Problem was they were getting so many bites, I couldn't keep up. A couple of hooks ups but nothing to the net. You have to let the trout take the night crawler- at least the way I hook them which is half a worm hooked one time in the middle, hanging off on both side. The trout will actually follow the worm downstream, munching on it. John's worm was shredded when I had him check his bait. So we went to Gulp Eggs- one white and one orange. Each kid caught at least one. They loved it. Bill said fishing this am was very good below the dam. He said as long as the fog stayed, the big rainbow bit. Guess they like that low light time. I got out this evening- boated to the dam and started below #3 working the bank using a sculpin 1/8th oz jig. Caught a couple in the slack water them 3 more before getting to the boat ramp. Nothing over 16 inches but they were fat. Another 3 before getting to Lookout. Switched to a split shot and red San Juan Worm and 4 more rainbows, 2 before Fall Creek and 2 below. Missed several too. Great evening- had the lake to myself. A little fog, no wind, very peaceful.

Kevin- no fishing above the line- by remote or otherwise. http://lilleyslanding.com You'll find rates and directions. Blue- Not sure about your first question. Maybe someone else can answer. We get a few mayflies and lots of midges. I've been told it's a temp issue. The White has great hatches. Not sure what the diff is between us and them. About the same temps and flows.

Sit down for class-- Our temp always rises in the fall. Summer warms the water all thru the lake but what's different about this year is all the warm rain we got in April. There was one event where runoff from Long Creek hit the dam, mixing the water all the way below the 130 foot level- that's where we get our water from. That's why we had dirty water for most of the summer. Table Rock's layers of water virtually mixed, replacing winter, cold water with warm spring rain runoff. Now instead of water on the bottom of Table Rock measuring 45-49 degrees (normal) it's in the mid 50's. We usually get a 5-7 degree bump in the fall but we may see even more- not sure. But even temps in the lower 60's will be tough on trout, especially browns. Browns can take warmer temp compared to rainbows BUT they stress easier than rainbows and the stress will kill a brown faster than physically tiring it out. DO- I have several articles and lots of posts on low DO in the fall on this site. It's a "natural" occurrence on all tailwaters and something we "suffer" thru each year. Combine the two and you have a deadly mix. This weekend is the drawdown so you may not get to the dam in a pontoon not because of high water but because of low water. We'll just have to see what happens. But regardless, any traffic above our place will be tougher than normal. Water will be very low.

http://www.swl-wc.usace.army.mil/Wcds/Plots/TRDO.jpg Anyone notice the rise in water in? In just a few days, Taney's incoming flow has risen one degree. 56 is pretty high for this time of year. As I said earlier in the summer, our trout, especially browns, are going to be super stressed by these conditions as the fall season approaches. DO is already down to 4 ppm which isn't surprising. The mix of high temps and low DO will play havoc on big browns at rest, not to mention browns hook and fought... some unfortunately to their deaths.

What is the flow like?

Welcome. I know of several other Pitt State people on this board. I grew up in Parsons and have alot of friends who attended there.

Kevin- you're from west Kansas?

http://ozarkanglers.com/fff/nafff-08-08_newsletter.pdf

He was in Branson not long ago- stayed at the Landing.

It would be just a blur....

all lakes are dying, just in different stages. In 50 years, just think what these lakes will look like - I'm sure they will talk about our time as the good old days.

Don't think flushing itself would do anything but ruin the economy on and around any lake. I'm sure it's a wait and see deal.

Wow- where are you flying from to where? What's the url of the place you stayed? What size salmon and what type were you catching? Tells us about the guiding? I really would like to know about this place. Thanks.

Going to move this and bump it up. Not many views at the other place. I have one person interested so far but need at least a couple of make it work. Flights are running about $1100-$1200 from KCI or St Louis to King Salmon right now. Also - can't swing the Ugashik fly out unless we get 4 for the rate quoted. But the Naknek is starting to look real good for rainbows.

Yes- they have 2 turbines.

Every living thing is going to die. But he has a point. What's the chances of a big brown, say 12 pounds, being caught again before it dies? The odds go down the older the fish gets. A rainbow on the other hand, IMO, has a better chance to be caught over and over at, say 6 pounds, because it doesn't migrate downstream 11 months of the year and become harder to find and catch. It stays basically in the same area for most of it's like. I could be totally wrong on this so... And Trav- this isn't a dead horse. If we closed all the topics of things we have discussed on this forum in the past, you'd have half the posts you have cause we talked about basically everything before you joined.

I wonder what the numbers are like at LOZ.

I'm speaking out of hat here (not sure what that means but it means at least here that I'm speaking from memory and that's not really that good) but I remember being told by a local at Lake Erie that the lake was so bad (pollution) that the ZM were good for that lake. But other places it was bad like alot of the streams in North Michigan. I've been told that the impact on Table Rock and Taney and probably BS won't be as bad because our lakes are pretty clean already and the ZM won't multiply to large numbers just for that reason. I guess we'll see, huh?

What can be done to restore the shrimp populations as they once were??? Nothing really. MDC would if there was anything. Why are there very few if any 20" rainbows in the lake? I bet to differ. I think they're more 20+ rainbows in the lake right now than we've had in 25 years. Do bait fishers catch all the 19" fish? Granted brown trout may prey on the rainbows, but at least some should show up more than 20"? This doesn't make any sense to me. Bait fishers catch fish below Fall Creek and they probably will keep the best fish they catch. But why 19 inches? It makes no difference below Fall Creek. Now if would make sense if you said artificialers catch and keep 20 inch rainbows above Fall Creek- and I'm sure some do but most of the 20 inchers are released that I know of.

This one was kept in the water on LOZ year round so it's alittle different. But I agree with you- the premise that there are alot of boats being used on LOZ and then on other lakes without any cleaning at all. ZM so filter the water. But that's the problem in some fisheries- they clean it too good. Plus the problem with attaching to everything and becoming a problem cutting fishing line.

They're already in Taney.

sorry lake. Still haven't bought a new underwater camera yet plus it doesn't work if the water is running all the time.

Rick Osenga, a good friend now retired from CenturyTel, tells the story of working on the old Sammy Lane Boat Dock back in the late 60;s. He said the shrimp were so thick that they'd jump up and down on the dock, knocking the bugs from the foam and start a feeding frenzy- big rainbows eating the shrimp as they fell. That was of course down town Branson.

My memory of fishing at outlet #2 in the year 1975. My dad let me off at the dam and I joined dozens of anglers fishing the area from the hatchery downstream. If you drew a line from the present point of gravel below outlet #2 downstream to rebar, that where waders were lined up, all bait fishing and most using roe. It must have been springtime. The rainbows were spawning and full of roe. I used salmon eggs. There was an old guy- Doc Falkner- who talked to me alittle. He was catching lots of big rainbows and taking the roe for bait. He bragged on having pounds and pounds of "red gold" in his freezer. When someone in the line of anglers would hook a trout, they'd yell something and head downstream fighting their fish. Everyone would reel in and let him pass. Almost every time, they fight it to the rebar hole and break the fish off, come back up cussing and get back in line. Didn't see hardly anyone land one. I remember being able to wade across (no waders) about 100 feet above outlet #2 but it was up to my chest. Downstream is was way too deep. Just talked to Tom Snider, manager at Powersite. He has a pic of the dam in 1911 in which the boards are there. He said he thinks they played around with the heights of the boards from 2 feet to 5 feet but settled on 4 feet about the time Table Rock Lake was built in 1958. He has been at Powersite since 1978 and the boards have not changed. He did say that they may have run the water at Powersite differently prior to his coming and that may have affected the power pool but he isn't aware of it. Anyway- back to fishing. On my last day, in my last hour, I hooked and landed my first big rainbow. It was a nice female, full of roe. I had wanted some roe so bad- I offered to buy some from Falkner in which he declined my offer saying it was too valuable to him to part with (remember, pounds and pounds). When I landed my fish, he was on me like a hawk, wanting the roe. Since I was leaving and had to way to use it on that trip and seeing I wasn't coming back any time soon, I gave him the roe and took my gutted fish home.