Phil Lilley

No question the Landing and BP will bring more business into town and others will benefit by it. Personally I feel no threat at all from BP's presence- I think we will compliment each other. Funny story- I was in Wal Mart yesterday picking up some bass baits with Coy Howry when one of the sport department clerks, whom I know well, came up with a customer and asked if I had flip down magnifying glasses for caps which I said yes we do carry them in our shop. The customer had already picked up power bait and some other items from the shelves- I had already noticed them since they were some of our resort guests. They said yes we are staying at Lilleys- thanks. We can't compete with Wal Mart on power bait and a few other items but we can on most plus carry more speciality items... flies, jigs, accessories. BP's prices will be higher than most of us and still won't carry everything. And yes- both BP and WalMart advertise alot more than I so more power to them!!

Southern Living... ooohhhh, aaahhhhh!!

Coy and I made it 3 evenings in a row- headed back downstream and tried the bank across from Blue Haven again using the senkos- not much luck. We thought it may have been the change in weather and wind- it was out of the north and pretty breezy. But I did land a couple 2.5 lb'ers out of a trees and both of us missed some bites. Then we went over and checked out the place where we saw the fawns- they were gone. We boated upstream a bit and tried the bluff bank on the east side again slow. We got almost to the transision and I said why not try a top water. So I tied on some kind of popper I think Coy called it a mule back. It was jointed with a hair tail. I caught a bass on the first cast... first cast curse? Not really but didn't catch one for a ways. Got to where it started flattening out- there was a tree in the water and a dock- wham! Another hookup. Then Coy hooked one- then we both hook one at the same time. Mine was a nice one but Coy's was strange looking. TWO BASS AT ONCE! My my- never seen that in person. In a rush to get mine in and get the camera, I broke mine off- probably the best fish of the day. Was caught a couple more because it got dark. Lots of fun! Will get the poppers out much earlier tonight!!! May be take the fly rod. Drove to the dam this morning with my mom's cousin from Denison, TX Frankie Lawrence. He's used to fishing for stripers on Texhoma and does fly fish for blue gill but never trout. We walked in above #2 and started drifting thread midges #22 red and brown plus a #18 sow bug Leonard ties. Very slow action but some. Frankie caught his first 5 rainbows on a fly rod which thrilled him. I caught a few before heading up to #1 to see what was up there. Very little water running in #1 now- probably cause of the construction. But there was a few nice ranbows at the tail end of the stream so we tried for a few minutes. I hooked and landed 2 of the nicer rainbows- one in the pic. Not many people fishing but very little action. Hardly saw another fish caught even in #2 outlet. Lots of fish though- as usual.

Kanakuk - I've spent the last 3 evenings down below Branson fishing. Saturday and Sunday there were Kanakuk boats buzzing up and down the lake pulling skiers and tubers. They practically have the lake to themselves really. BL and BP will have to put alot of boats on the lake downstream to make it crowded- and the boats upstream have been few too- at least the last 3 days. Tonight we saw 6 boats below BLanding and 8 boats above. We headed down at 6:30 pm and came back at 9.

Stripers LOVE brookies...

Now you know kinda what Lewis and Clark felt like... smaller stream. Thanks for the painful report.

I agree - blue is the best tasting... for the work of cleaning the little things.

There is talk... I heard Phil Surratt, present chairman, has been talking about it. I have said I'l help or lead it. Just have to get the guys together and see what happens. The regional TU people have talked about combining all the MO chapters into one or something like that. Not sure how that would work seeing there is only one active chapter and that's in Columbia. I'll make a call or two.

Brian- email me the pics and I'll repost them to your report. phil at lilleyslanding.com

I have a relative coming to town today for a couple of days and I'm sure he's going to want to go to the dam at some point and fly fish.

How did you guys do- fishing-wise? Fish for trout, bass? Details man! And happy belated birthday.

They were out... I saw Quinten on the water. I'm sure they made their rounds- just be everywhere at the same time. Alot of people really believe because it's "free fishing" this means- "no rules". Seriously!

Are we studdering? Went again today- actually Coy went this am and fished the same banks and caught a bunch- same size same bait. Coy and I took off at 2 pm and just got back. We fished down further- mouth of Bee on east bank, gold mine and across from Rockaway Beach east bank. Concentrated on trees and had bites in most. Broke off some possible large bass- took us in the brush and wouldn't let go. Largest this pm was about 2.5 pounds with about 10 smaller. Not as good this pm but fun. Saw this pair in a cut across from Bee Creek. The one laying down had a crippled back leg. It's twin ran off- no sign of mom. I called and asked... got the answer I expected- leave it alone. So we did. The cripple will die where it lay I'm sure.

Lots of questions - since I've never floated the Gasconade, where did you put in and take out? What all did you try lure-wise? No canoes... that's incredible. What was the condition of the water? I see that they're getting rain today so conditions I'm sure are changing.

Coy (TexomaOkie), Jimmy and I headed downstream at 7:15 pm - past Branson almost to Bee Creek this evening to look for some bass. We fished the west bluff bank using Sinko's, a soft plastic bait Coy had. We caught a dozen bass and missed as many. We found most of the bass around any laydown or stump in 4 to 6 foot of water. Lots of fun. Will do it again soon.

It's the first of June and already in the upper 90's. Not dwelling there but will say I'm not looking forward to the dog days of July and August. I don't really like the heat. Our dock project continues. I just stepped out and snapped a pic of what we've done so far. We linked the 2 docks and now are adding 2 double stalls for pontoons. The roof will be higher so they can get into the dock with their tops up. We need them. That will just about expend our lakefront space for expansion unless we buy our neighbors out. But are content to stay as we are... for now. The area between this expansion and the bank is plenty of room for a building. This is the dream club house I've always wanted-- fly tying, fly fishing, fishing, hunting library of books, magazines and videos, a big screen TV, fly tying benches, lockers for those who frequent the place and want to leave some tools and material there, a meeting room for local fishing clubs... I'm open for more ideas. We will start on it as soon as the stalls are finished- may be in a couple of weeks. We lost our 6 year veteran dockhand, Jerry Newcomb. He decided to break out on his own and enter the construction market again. He will be missed. Linc Hunt, a young guy from Dallas will be filling in for the month of July. A school teacher from Dallas, he worked for us last summer and will be moving to Seattle this fall to teach up there. Jimmy Cummins, a young man from the St Louis area, is also working part time for us on the dock and office. He is dating our #2 daughter, Megan, and is a junior at College of the Ozarks. He is also working with our #1 son, Caleb, at Camp Lookout at the college for the summer. Jim and I are close to purchasing our new server to handle the trout cam and other cams yet to be invented. It will also be able to handle more capture cards for more cameras. We are waiting for the cards to come in- next week hopefully. We are also looking to getting our own T1 line to host video streaming including clips for OA on fishing. This should be super cool! My 30 year reunion is in 2 weeks in Parsons, KS. and I'm looking forward to seeing alot of old friends. When we think of these people- even now- in our minds eye we still see the young face and voice. It's a real shock to see them as OLD people and then think... 'they are the same age as me!!!'. Forum is going good. I'm deturmoned not to micro manage it and not answer or comment on every topic. I'm wanting it to stand on it's own... there's plenty of people out there that have made the forum their own- that's the way it's supposed to be. It's neat to see how it has evolved. Would like to see the slow areas on the forum pick up- hopefully in the near future. Still trying to decide the best way to promote it. Word of mouth has done well though.

Gerth's near the dam- that's the one Micheal is talking about. 417-334-5849. Ask for George.

But what kind of water do you find big blue gill in? Structure? I don't see them on the surface much in June- small pumpkin seeds you can but I'm after the slabs.

Blue gills on Table Rock are some of the largest around. My experience fishing for them is fairly limited over the years but I have been quite successful most every time I go. I fish the dam area- simply because it's closest. We hit the major and minor points, hunting in 10 to 20 feet of water, fishing verticle below the boat using mainly crickets. I use my trout rods and rigs- #10 hook, 4 lb line and a #5 split shot. I like to get out at first daylight to beat the boaters and skiers- too much wave action later in the am for me but we usually have a mess by 9 am and are heading back to the ramp. This is a great way to catch fish for kids. And these big blue gills fight hard too giving kids a real thrill. And then there's the mystery fish that hits and runs and breaks the line before you have a chance to think. Bass, catfish, carp... you never know what you're going to hook. Any words of wisdom?

What kind of water did you fish? Depth, terrain... fishing from a boat? bank? Fishing these lakes for cats is an untapped resource, just like fishing for carp. Everybody writes about bass fishing- the subject is covered thoroughly but when the bass get tough (like now) there are other fish in the lake!

I was brought up on farm ponds in SE Kansas... I'd ride my bike, walk, run, have my mom drop me off in the am and pick me up in the pm. Brian Rea and I would run down to the cement pond at Ankertite and take some bacon and string and catch big crawdads out of the holes in the mud. We'd fish the small rock quary close to the hospital where my dad worked till the owner ran us out for keeping crappie and bass by the dozens and then we'd sneak in till we got caught. Me and Greg Thompson discovered purple plum plastic worms and though we arrived... we'd had more fun setting the hook on a bass than actually catching them- we'd 'rip their lips out' or 'wallbash 'em'. Those were the days.

Not a whole lot of change from my last report. Fishing has gotten better up in our area of the lake for sure, I think mainly because from Branson downstream the lake has warmed to the point that MDC can't stock down there so they're coming uplake further in their boat. I also heard they stocked at the River Points ramp last week a couple of times so that puts alot of rainbows between Short and Fall Creek. And it's showed. Alot of the rainbows being stocked are larger too- 11-13 inches. I cleaned 32 pretty good rainbows yesterday for 8 people that went out in one of our pontoons. Bait fishing is good using a white power bait or gulp egg and one other colored egg- pink, yellow or orange. Light line is a must. I still argue with people about the importance of 4 lb or smaller tippet. Our water is clear- just look at the trout cam. You can see almost to the other side of the cleaning dock which is 24 feet. Night crawlers or ok but a second to the king- power bait. OK Eddie Ketchum- I said it- happy! Bait fish from Fall Creek all the way down to Monkey Island. Best still is around Cooper Creek. Jig and float using either a micro jig in olive or a 1/125th oz sculpin jig with an orange head (yes we have 300 new ones in stock). Fish them 4-5 feet deep under an indicator and look for choppy water- best. Use these from Lookout (Trophy Area) to Monkey Island. Fly fishing below the dam was been good... kinda fair. When the sun gets up it gets alittle tough but not impossible. Drop to 7x flourocarbon and a #20 thread midge and you can catch fish in the runs above #2 and below the Rebar Hole. Cracklebacks early and late. Trout Crack in the run at outlet #2- lots of rainbows. And in the run in Rebar. Bass fishing- I sent Berkly Rep, Eddie Ketchum and friends, down to the Branson area last evening and again this morning bass fishing. Eddie threw a new bait Berkley has called the Beast, 3 inch in 'brean' color and said they had nonstop action. They fished several steep banks from Branson to Rockaway and caught alot of 10-13 inch bass and a few larger- the largest 3.5 lbs. Sounds like alot of fun- beats fishing 35-50 ft in Table Rock. So I may wonder down there this weekend. I'll report back. I do know the water temp is in the 70's from Branson down- so said Babler last week.

We're seeing some interesting stats for OA. March was the peak, April and May was good but flat. But the last couple of weeks- something's happen. The owner of our server is complaining because we are pulling over 1 gig of bandwidth per day - 1400 visitors - 20,000 page views. This is cool- yes... but now we're looking to get our own T1 line so we don't crowd anyone. It's tough being successful but it's also fun! Thanks guys!

Have a friend who is looking to get a deck boat. He was going to get a BR boat and I said he needed to shop around. So I'm trying to help. He can afford something nice so price isn't really an option. Thanks.