Phil Lilley

Funny you bring it up... FB photos of guides holding big trout with bogas is driving me crazy. Blood lines down the sides of the fish signal real problems. Doty says he's seeing more and more big trout with split jaws. I haven't seen any personally but I don't see that many big trout - personally. I'm in the process of building these display aquariums for our guides. I gave one out a couple of evenings ago and it worked ok. I need to find a way to put handles on them because they're hard to hold up, esp my kids and gals. They're heavy - water and fish together. Then there's the problem with the sides fogging up - cold water and warm, humid air. If I figure it all out, I'll give one to each guide, in exchange for their bogas!

Guessing what our generation pattern is going to be day to day is a crap shoot at best. Table Rock is now below its seasonal power pool but they're still running water -- and it's different every day. It has been off from midnight till early morning the last couple of days which is a nice change. But they're still dumping later in the afternoon and evenings. Big rainbows are still being caught. It's crazy to see them show up on Facebook, on the guide pages. Plus some anglers who are staying here at the resort show me pics of trout they're catching -- random spots at random times. But the best fishing has been starting at daylight (5:30 a.m.) for a couple of hours. There's a couple of stocker "hot spots" -- one is at the Branson Landing and the other is down lake, just above Twin Islands which is just above the mouth of Bull Creek. They're hitting almost anything under a float -- pink worm, micro jig, marabou jig or a jig with a piece of worm on it. Fish them from 4 to 7 feet deep. I personally have struggled lately throwing and working a jig but I've seen some great catches this past week, people catching big rainbows and a few browns on jigs. The color is random. I can't name one color better than the other. A friend came in late last week and said he was doing real well on straight black. One this morning said he caught a nice brown on white... today. And the crazy thing is a lot of these trophies are coming from below Fall Creek. With the water slowing down, you need to reduce the weight you're using when drifting bait or flies on the bottom. Be aware of changes of generation and switch out weights if needed. Four-pound line has been the norm most of the spring and summer so far but with the water slowing down, you might think about sptringing up a reel or two with 2-pound line for throwing smaller jigs and flies. Our water is still very clear and we will start throwing more small jigs (1/32-ounce). Fly fishing should be getting real good with the slower water too. If you like to wade below the dam, there are lots of opportunity and places to fish. Of course scuds will be one of the best flies to use, either in moving water or still water. But there is some current in most places up there. Tippet size -- you should be ok using 6x but as summer moves on and the fish wise up, 7x may come in to the picture. Midges should be good too. We're starting to see more midge activity, in the morning and evenings and even during the day a little, especially on cloudy days. A Zebra Midge under an indicator anywhere from 12 inches to 4 feet will work--depth depends on where the fish are hanging. If we ever get a breeze, a wooly or soft hackle stripped in the film will draw a bite or two. I've been working on our trout this month, trying to get them to "look up" and take a dry. So far very little luck. But I'll keep trying and keep you informed. Scuds are still hot. Our algae problem seems like it's not as bad as it's been but you still have to check and clean your fly off if you're dragging it on the bottom. The best still is fishing it under a float but keeping it deep enough to get to and stay on the bottom. The angle seems to be better at keeping the fly clean. View full article

Ah. I’ll get it

Not sure if I posted this yet. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1d3eTwYwwVMGkqFIGI-rkxMQPXyzLYfiV/view?usp=drivesdk

Walleye are taking over the White River Chain of Lakes.... well may be not Beaver Lake. But Table Rock has exploded with them and Bull Shoals has always been good - but it is awesome right now below Powersite. Then there's Taneycomo. I don't think you can get on a good walleye pattern except in the corners at the cable but they're sure showing up more and more on the lake. In the past, I don't think there's been much call for an exclusive walleye trip on the Rock but I know of a lot of guides right now only targeting walleye and getting limits almost every trip.

This forum has been going for almost 16 years now. A lot of us have become family, although some have never met face to face. So it's always sad to lose a family member. I am sorry I never shared a boat with Bo. May be we should get together more often. The One Bass is one gathering.... may be we can have more gatherings. Just a thought.

In alot of our minds, yes of course. But to get the powers-that-be to officially sign off on it - very doubtful. It would mean raising Beaver and TR's power pool level again and I'm not sure I'd be in favor of that.

Oh my - what a trip. And thanks so much for sharing with us.

Last year we noticed a large number of fry in the upper lake. We’ve unofficially tracked them over the months. I’ve discussed this with our fisheries biologist and we agree that we did in fact have a successful spawn last year. Not sure if it was in the lake or in a feeder stream, or both. There was no incidents of hatchery escapees in the last couple of years, at least not in the numbers we’ve seen. But the number of naturally spawned rainbows does affect any management decisions by MDC. They won’t stock less trout because of any natural occurring trout.

Ah.... you guys should take a listen to yourselves. Calling people idiots and eff'in people off for trying to help... Yeah- if you only wade and fly fish, you're stuck in a handful of places on this lake and yes you'd probably become very educated in that spot. And yes some people are proud of it but so it seems a few guys here are too. So I'm calling this group out. I know for a fact that Wendell and others help out a lot of people who show up at the outlets to fish, some for the first time. I've known Wendell for over 30 years and he's nothing but a selfless, awesome angler who gives away a lot of information, on FB and in person.

Wonderful trip report... truly memorable.

Went to pick blue berries out at Persimmon Hill yesterday. Saw a couple hauling out 2 buckets full of big black berries. Impressive. Blue berries - there are still tons of them.

If you are on Facebook go to trout fishing lake Taneycomo page and ask your question. There’s a guy name Dennis that is not on the forum but he lives at Rockaway Beach and fishes down there all the time. He is very helpful and would love to help you. I wish he was on the forum.

Thanks for sharing!!

Exactly. Last season, the rainbows were huge. Several in the 36-inch range. Lots of 30.

I have one more video to post... I spent a little less than 2 weeks at Naknek River Camp and Katmai Trophy Lodge, owned by the Johnson family the first of June. I helped get both places ready for clients - building a new cabin, putting boats in, hauling junk/trash (big job in AK), putting the docks in the river after the ice wiped them out over winter. Opening day on the river was June 8th and I fished the 8th and 9th, mainly in front of NRC. Every year is different... and I haven't been there opening since 2007. But there didn't seem to be the number of big rainbows around like I'm used to. But did catch numbers... alot of small rainbows. Used exclusively my jigs -- black and purple was b y far the best. There are leaches in the river, along with sculpins, lamprey and of course smolt. It was in the high 60's when I arrived and in the 40's when I left - typical AK weather. But it was a great trip. Hope to go back later in the fall... when plane tickets get a lot cheaper! They're double right now to head north.

Where’s Tyler’s pictures

The weatherman has been busy updating his forecast for our area. A few days ago it looked like rain every day this week, with an expected total of more than four inches, which would have sent our lakes soaring upwards and opened the flood gates again. But it's changed -- several times. Most of the rain stopped south of us and moved to the east, although Texas and Oklahoma are expected to be hammered. Beaver Lake is at 1128.6 feet right now and holding. Officials are running water to the tune of about 3,000 cubic feet per second. Table Rock Lake's level has dropped to 917.6 feet Officials there are running about 9,600 c.f.s., and that's keeping the lake steady, barring any more rain. My guess is that we'll see this flow for at least a week or more, especially seeing some rain in the forecast. The water temperature coming from Table Rock is just under 45 degrees. Dam operators ran the spill gates for almost a month, which dumped a fair amount of trout delicacies into our lake -- threadfin shad and other small fry. So fishing with most anything white from the cable below the dam down to the third outlet has netted some great rainbows and a few browns, along with a bass or walleye every once in a while. Right now, scuds rule. Scuds are the nickname for our freshwater shrimp that live in the lake. The scud fly is a hook with fur tied on it, basically, and yes another name for the fly is a "fur bug" or "furbee." We're drifting them on the bottom using a little weight or floating them under a float close to the bottom. We're using sizes 8 to size 10 in gray mostly but rainbow, olive and brown are working well, too. Four-pound line is fine, and the weight size is dictated mostly by location on the lake -- the farther up on the lake, the faster the current is. You need more weight in faster current but less as you drift away from the dam in slower current. As generation slows, and it will, you'll need to switch to less weight, but more importantly, you'll need to use a smaller scud. The trout tend to get educated and start passing on the bigger scuds, A lot of our guides are using a double fly rig with an egg fly and a scud tied about 24 inches apart. You can also try a San Juan Worm instead of the egg. This technique has worked from the dam down well past Trout Hollow Resort. I caught some rainbows yesterday below Trout Hollow on a jig, but they were fat with scuds. I have had limited success lately throwing sculpin 1/16th-ounce jigs on two-pound line above and below Fall Creek. I'm working the middle of the lake and throwing mainly to the shallow side, working the jig pretty slowly. I'm actually catching quality rainbows below Fall Creek, almost as good as those in the trophy area. Fishing off our dock is fair. The water is still running pretty fast, and it's difficult to keep the bait down on the bottom, but people are catching their limits, it just takes a while. Salmon eggs are working pretty well along with night crawlers. View full article

Looks to me they are going to hold TR's level where it is for a while. Beaver - they won't be in a hurry to drop it either.... they never do till later in the summer. The rain forecast has steadily diminished over the last 24 hours. We'll see what comes next week as far as rain but we might be entering our drier summer pattern.

Release them all! I've been telling people for years they don't taste good. Naw... keep the small ones.

We won our first game. Played guys from Spanish Harlem. Fun guys. But we got killed Wednesday. Bunch of college-proven guys that could play! I missed today’s game but they got beat again. One more tomorrow.

Nathan said they got it all fixed. Let me know if anyone has any issues!!