Phil Lilley

Just got back from Genada. Lake is full of fish... lots of gizzard shad and big crappie. I'd like to go back and try some things other than spider rigging. It is an interesting lake though.

Not sure.... I have not talked to Linell. But I know they have a problem keeping boats away from their dock... and they can't seem to keep buoys anchored there in front of the resort.

Anyone else have any ideas. Your operating system or browser doesn't like the forum's something... I don't know enough about this to give any thoughts.

That's most of the reason I haven't been up there fishing in a couple of years. I remember may be night fishing 2018... All week last week, there was ONE guy in a v-bottom boat boating from below the Narrows, to the Narrows and I think up to Lookout -- getting out and wading. He was the ONLY one doing it. He had a mile of awesome wading water all to himself. I have mixed feelings about even writing about it... because I don't want the word to get out. But there again I have been talking about it for years and still... no one wades this area. I personally don't really care about real big trout. I'll take those 15 to 22 inchers all day long and lots and lots of solitude.

Talking to a guy on the lake this morning, fishing up from Short Creek -- he said he's catching fish on a white 1/32nd ounce jig. The lake is super low this morning. Powersite must have generated all night after TR shut down. I've never seen the gravel bar out of the water this much at the Narrows other than when they pull the lake down for maintenance.

Good to see that many medium sized browns.

Time is flying . . . it's fall and fall weather is here! Rain and barely 50 degrees Monday with 6,200 cubic feet per second of water, which is different. They ran one unit all day, again a break from the pattern. Today (10/20), they are running some water later in the day. This was the pattern a couple of weeks ago. We'll see what they do the rest of the week. It's hard to say at this point in time. Trout fishing this past week has been fairly slow for most anglers. Not sure why since the dissolved oxygen content in the lake has been normal for this time of year. Weather has been seasonal with some wind and mild temperatures. But we see this all the time here on this tail water fishery. Our trout seem like they "get smart" every once in a while and decline what we have to offer. The best thing that's been working this past week has been night crawlers, fished on the bottom with a little air injected in them to float off the bottom. The fish will see them easier, quicker and then bite. Four-pound line is still fine. Our water clarity is still a little turbid so they don't see the line. Normally this time of year we're going to two-pound line because the water is much clearer, but not this year. The best areas to fish have been from Fall Creek to Trout Hollow, but there are a lot of rainbows holding in the stretch above our dock here at Lilleys' Landing. Trout have been midging quite a bit, but it's been hard to catch them with the usual flies. I've done fairly well using a black Zebra Midge or a Rusty Zebra, sizes 16 and 18. I'm using 6x tippet and fishing the midges under a small indicator 12 to 36 inches deep. Sunday I added a trailer midge with the first about two feet deep and the second about five feet deep. I caught a couple on the deeper and one rainbow on the shallow fly. I've been fishing the Mega Worm with some success. I'm using the white mainly but also fishing the chartreuse and peach under a float three- to five-feet deep depending on the depth of water. Using 6x tippet, I'm fishing in the trophy area as well as just below Fall Creek. I'm getting a lot of short strikes and missing fish lately. As I instruct those who watch One Cast, keep an eye on the yarn -- make sure it hangs straight off the hook and does not ball up. The Mega Worm comes in two sizes -- 1/80th- and 1/100th-ounce. And it's tied in several colors -- white, peach, pink, yellow and brown. If the water is off, we use the smaller jig head, and if the water is running, the 1/80th-ounce. If the Mega doesn't seem to be staying down in current, add a split shot. You may have to go to a bigger float, too. Use this rig on a fly rod or a spin rod. But the most important thing with using either is keeping up with the slack between the rod tip and float. If the trout bites, you have to be quick on the hook set. And if you have a lot of line out off your rod tip, all you'll be doing is pulling line and not setting the hook. We're throwing marabou jigs with good success, using white, sculpin, sculpin/peach and black. Now that the water is running, we switch to heavier jigs depending on how much water is running. On Monday (10/19), Duane and I boated to the dam to do One Cast. They were running the 6,200 c.f.s. of water I mentioned before. We threw white jigs and did pretty well. Later in the day, I went up and fished a white 1/16th-ounce jig, four-pound line, and caught more nice rainbows. Fishing was actually much better, almost like it was in the spring and summer. At one point I had four casts and four rainbows to the boat. I did catch a couple of warm water species, too -- a nice smallmouth and a really fat spotted bass. Blake was up fishing with Levi late in the day. They were throwing jerk baits and having little success. They also tried a white jig under a float, as did I, again with little luck. These fish were wanting to chase -- we had several follows to the boat. But why white jigs this time of year? It's almost like they're seeing shad or some other small forage fish. If there's a population of warm water fish taking up year-round residence below the dam (bass, walleye) then it's plausible to think there's shad or another small minnow species up there, too, besides sculpin which have always lived lake wide. So if the water is running -- enough to get a boat up to the cable -- you really ought to run up and throw white jigs.

Read through the topic. Bo has had trouble since I updated the forum. He can't see pics or "like" topics/posts. I changed his membership and it didn't help. Thoughts?

I don't know anything about stocking ponds and warm water fish... I wish I did... and would love to have a couple of ponds.

If it's a newer model Yamaha, I bet I know what happened. The tilt lever on these motors is horrible to flip when the motor is in full tilt. All my newer 25's have them and I hate them. I've written Yamaha and told them so. It caused a mom and 2 boys to drift into the island below our dam this spring. They couldn't get the motor down to move. You have to stand on your head and have a rubber wrist to reach the lever and then it's actually hard to flip. My motors are 3 years old I think and they haven't changed the lever... yet.

Well, if you like crappie you should put them in your pond, no matter what anyone says. As a kid, I caught huge crappie in a pond in south OK with my uncle. I caught them as a kid in ponds in Kansas. If I had a pond, I think I'd stock it with crappie and no bass. And minnows... lots and lots of minnows.

We've been enjoying a lot of down water (no generation) here on Lake Taneycomo. Nights and mornings there has been no generation with a little flow added late in the afternoon/evenings for about three hours most days -- just enough to clean out some of the leaves falling from the trees, at least on the upper lake. Dissolved oxygen content on the lake has been fair to good. Most days the level has read at about six parts per million, but I did take a reading the other day that was pretty low -- 3.6 p.p.m.. The fish were pretty sluggish that day. I can't make any sense as to why it's low some days. . . . it just is. Lots of leaves fell today with the wind blowing hard out of the north. Leaves and boat motors don't get along. Leaves will cause a motor to cavitate, which sounds like the motor is slipping out of gear. We tell anglers renting our boats to try not to run through a pile of leaves, explaining that if they do, and the leaves get stuck behind the shaft of the water, it will force air down to the prop and make it spin without power. They are instructed to stop, put the motor in reverse and blow the leaves out. Bugs are on the leaves when they fall in the lake. Fish like bugs. We like to tie flies that looks like bugs. And we like to fish around floating leaves where trout are feeding. I use a small jig-and-float rig when using a spin cast, and if fly fishing, I use a small Zebra Midge under a float. I target trout midging around patches of leaves on the lake, especially in the evening. It's loads of fun. If fly fishing, I'd use either a four- or five-weight rod, nine foot with a light to medium light tip action, weight forward line, 12 foot, 5x tapered leader and 6x tippet. Spin fishing, it's best to use a longer, medium action rod like 6'6" or 7'0." The length of the rod provides more power when you set the hook on a fish. I like the Turner Micro Jig in the half micro or a small marabou jig, as small as 1/125th ounce. We also carry PJ's Finesse Jig, and they do come in two small sizes, perfect for this application -- 1/125th- and 1/50th-ounce. Good colors are black, olive, sculpin, ginger and brown. Good flies would be the Zebra Midge, Prince Nymph, Soft Hackle, or even a small beaded scud if you're fishing close to a bed of pond weeds. I'd use nothing bigger than a size 14. Our water clarity has been dirty lately, so using 6x or 4 pound line is okay, but especially when the sun is out bright and the surface is still, you might need to go to 7x tippet or two-pound line. If there's no chop on the water, you'll need to give the jig a little action by nudging or popping the float every five seconds or so. Look for very subtle movements of the float for the bite and set the hook fast. Fish around the leaves and especially look for rising fish feeding on midges and other bugs on the surface. Target them. You'll find these feeding on the surface trout throughout the lake, not just in the upper lake. You may specifically find them in the Branson Landing area when rainbows are freshly stocked at least once each week of the year. Using the same application as small jigs and Zebra Midges, fish a marabou jig or micro jig under a float but deeper. Also try the Berkley Pink PowerWorm under a float four- to seven-feet deep. Brown caught on a MegaWorm. Guide: Lisa Bellue. We've been doing very well using a Mega Worm under a float, both below and above Fall Creek lately. Same application as the jig and float, fish it either with a fly rod or spin rod and get it close to the bottom. We carry two weights of Mega Worms -- 1/100th- and 1/80th-ounce. The larger of the two is mainly for when the water is running and the smaller is for when there's no generation. Our shop carries several colors -- white, peach, yellow, pink, brown and chartreuse. I've been using the peach and white and catching nice rainbows (no browns yet) on them. I've used them when doing One Cast a couple of times, showing how they work. This is an example of some of the beautiful rainbows we're catching. White jigs have made a comeback. We're throwing 1/32nd- and 1/16th-ounce white marabou jigs using either two- or four-pound line (I use Trilene XL clear or green) and work the jig mid depth or close to the bottom. I've been fishing them in the Fall Creek area, both in and below the Trophy Area. Fishing off our dock has been very good for the past couple of weeks, as well as fishing above and below the dock. Night crawlers are still catching the best rainbows, injected with air so they'll float off the bottom and using four-pound line, #8 bronze hooks and a small split shot.

Thanks for posting, Bob. How's the fishing?

No bats. Three different times, ppl set their car alarms off before going to work... very early. Bet the neighbors loved it.

Boated to the Narrows this morning. Was fishing by 4:30 am. Tried skating a mouse. No takes. Went to my go-to night fly, the blood leech. Caught 19 rainbows before 7 am between 11 and 17 inches. Lots of misses. Moon was bright but not bad. They all fought hard and we’re in great condition. Fat

Our generation pattern has changed here on Lake Taneycomo but I'm not sure what it's going to be in the coming days. They've gone from running it 24/7 to no generation during the day, or at least in the morning, and running it one unit in the afternoon. I say I'm not sure what it will be tomorrow because the schedule and what actually happens has not been the same Monday and Tuesday. But at least the generation schedule is making everyone happy... with times of running and not running. The dissolved oxygen in the water seems to be holding up pretty good. Fish have been active--feeding well and fighting hard. Trout fishing down in our area (Lilleys' Landing Resort) has picked up and most are catching good numbers of decent rainbows on Power Bait and night crawlers. Orange Power Eggs have been working, drifting them on the bottom using 4-pound line. Dock fishing has been good too using night crawlers. Almost everyone is getting their limits in the morning. The Berkley pink worm is making a come back. Guides are fishing it 4 deep deep in the mornings before the sun gets up over the water, them 6-7 feet deep when it gets sunny. There's a lot of rainbows down in the Branson Landing area and on down to Blue Haven. The pink worm is catching them as well as a spoon. In the trophy area, we're doing well using a white or peach Mega Worm under a float. Either with the water off or running, drift it under an indicator 4 to 6 feet deep, but best to fish it when they're only running less than one unit or about 3,000 cubic feet per second of water. Use the 1/80th-ounce if the water is running and the 1/100th-ounce if it's not. Marabou jigs are working pretty well. We used white 1/16th-ounce this evening and caught some nice rainbows above and below Fall Creek. Sculpin/peach with an orange head has been working with one unit running from the cable at the dam down to Trophy Run. Anglers drifting a tan scud under a float caught some nice rainbows below the dam while boating. Nathan told me one gentleman caught and released 5 "trophies" this afternoon on the tan scud. More details coming I hope.

I signed in under your account and everything is fine... images came up and so did the like buttons.

Bo Sent you an email. to merc1997bassmaster@hotmail.com

I know a person who caught (and released) 5 browns a couple of nights ago below Powersite - all between 20 and 24 inches. Locals have always been pretty quiet about their catches there... and for good reason. It's a great fishery in their back yard that would be inundated by anglers from all over if it got out that stripers/walleye/whites/big brown were being caught at any given time. You don't see much here about it... there's a reason for it.

Bo I changed your group. I don't think that will help but I thought I'd try. Do you look at the forum on more than one device? (computer, phone, pad?) If so, does it happen with all of them? I'd rather not delete and start over... it will be the last resort if that's what you want to do. Sorry for your trouble.

I emailed AJ Pratt about a question I had about BS stripers and got this nice email back from Nathan Recktenwald. I thought I would share it. MDC has been stocking approximately 16,000 Striped Bass on every odd year since 2013. That equals approximately 1/3 of a fish per acre (Bull Shoals is about 48,000 acres) every other year. This is an effort to continue providing a bonus fishery to anglers that was most recently created by a one-time 1998 AGFC stocking, that produced our current state record Striped Bass. We still get a few fish heads/otoliths from anglers that have caught 45 pound plus fish over the past few years which equates to 20 year old fish still in Bull Shoals! The University of Missouri and MDC has also partnered together to research this fishery and is currently working on a doctorate level project. Below I have a link that will direct you to a Missouri Conservationist article that describes the project, and I hope you find it informative and interesting. https://mdc.mo.gov/conmag/2019-05/striped-bass-bull-shoals-lake

Browns move out of the lake to Bull Shoals during high water. The samples show every year there's high water the number of browns go down. They sample the same water every year. That's so when they compare numbers they should show some consistency.

MDC performed their annual survey a couple of weeks ago. Here are the results: 2020 Lake Taneycomo Trout Sampling Summary.pdf View full article