Phil Lilley

Me, Jeff @Quillbackand now Rick @Terrierman

I've had some good conversations with a couple of members here and we fell like it's time to lay down rules - again - and enforce them - something that hasn't been done in the past. I admit, I'm a softy. So I'm not going to be the one doing the dirty work. Rick has volunteered @Terrierman to enforce the rules. There shouldn't be much drama in fishing, right? Well... So here's the rules: 1. No profanity - people purposely misspell words to get around that all the time. I would give one warning and then ban the offender for a week. Next offense a month. Third offense permaban. All in the open for everyone to see. 2. No politics and/or religion on the main forum. There are only a few people that ignore that. I would PM those people, and let them know you're serious. If it keeps up after that then I would give one warning and then ban the offender for a week. Next offense a month. Third offense permaban. Again, all in the open for everyone to see. 3. Personal insults should be off limits if they're not already. With the same enforcement actions I suggested above. This is a pretty good fishing forum and it's visited by almost 40,000 "users" each month. But clearly, a vast majority do not post and have not registered. Thank you for making this a fun place to come and share fishing stuff.

We're still in experimental mode... we may try anything.

6 ready to go

Hummm still will rip a jaw if it’sa big enough trout. The smaller ones are fine. Great for controlling them. I’d rather see these than the metal bogas

No it’s 12 high. We used the cnc machine to cut the hole for handles.

First one is done 24 inches long

Had this brown brought in this morning - released. 26 inches 9.5 pounds. Caught on a scud trophy area. The adipost was clipped. So I sent a pic to Shane. This is what he said - Last stocking of trips was 2015. They were 2 year old fish. It had to come from that year class. So I'm guessing the heat treatment didn't take on this brown. I don't think it's a true triploid. The fish would be 8 years old. Thoughts?

I used a boga in Alaska on big rainbow… 30” plus. Yes they worked fine until one big rainbow bolted so hard the boga, applied the proper way in the lower jaw split the jaw. It broke the lower jaw bone clean in two. I never used one since. The lower jaw isn’t tough enough to take the weight off a big fish when it bolts. Even a smaller 20”+ trout can shake its head hard enough to break the jaw. But allot of these guides are applying the boga inside the gill plate and that causes damage to the soft tissue and gills themselves when they shake, thus the blood line.

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.