Phil Lilley

Serendipity Hook: TMC 2457 #14-20 Thread: UNI-thread 6/0 color to match body Body: Black Z-Lon twisted into a cord Thorax: White or natural deer hair cut with a little stub left on top TYING INSTRUCTION Start your thread and tie in z-lon and wind to the back. Advance your thread to the front again. Twist the z-lon until it is real tight. You almost want it to be so tight that when you relax the z-lon it wants knot up. Wrap the z-lon all the way up and tie it off. Get a clump of deer hair ready and tie it in. Do not spin the hair though. You want to do a few lose wraps and then cinch the hair tight. Now you will have to cut the hair to length and that is up to you. Just try to make the front portion smaller than the other half. Whip finish the fly and your done.

troutgnat - you're asking questions about fishing very early in the week seeing you're coming this weekend. Alot can happen betwen now and then- we could get a downpour bringing the creeks and rivers up, making them unfishable. We have local rains where the James basin may get 2 inches and Swan gets nothing. Watch for reports later in the week- watch weather reports and USGS water gages linked off the forum for water/lake levels. And be patient- watch for reports Thursday-Friday. They'll give you a better idea than reports from today.

On the Taney forum page - http://ozarkanglers.com/forums/index.php?showforum=4 there's a pinned topic - Corp water level site - http://ozarkanglers.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=373 You can see what they've done for the last week. No generation.

Loop Wing (Thread body) Emerger Hook: TMC 3769 # 14-18 Thread: UTC 70 black Tail: Z-lon (white) Body: Thread Wing: Z-lon Head: Antron color to match body TYING INSTRUCTIONS Tie in the piece of z-lon. The only thing you want to remember is you only want half of the piece of z-lon you cut off the card. Tie it down the whole shank of the hook until you get to the bend. Once you are at the bend you can go ahead and cut it to the size you desire. Go ahead and advance your thread up until you almost get to the eye. Just make sure that you have a nice smooth thread body. This is where floss thread come into play. If you use a wax thread you will not have a smooth thread body and you will definitely tell the difference in the two. Now with the other piece of z-lon you split in half, go ahead and tie that in. Once you have tied it in you are ready to fold it over to the desire loop you want. Just try not to make to big of a loop. trim the excess off and you are ready to dub the head with some antron. You don’t need a lot of dubbing, just enough to cover the thread and make a nice little ball at the front. Whip finish the fly and that’s the loop wing emerger. Very effective pattern on tail waters in the Ozark. If you notice my loop. I don’t want it to be the same length as the shank. Maybe half of it should be fine.

Loopwing (Biot) Hook: TMC 3769 # 14-18 Thread: UTC 70 olive Tail: Z-lon (white) Body: Turkey biot Wing: Z-lon Head: Antron color to match body TYING INSTRUCTION Start your thread somewhere on the hook shank. When you cut the z-lon off the card you need to split that in half. If you use the whole thing you will have to big of a body when tying this in. I like to tie it in at the front and wind to the bend so I don’t create an offset body, you now a big ridge(thread dam) in the back. Once you are at the bend, go ahead and trim to the desire length you want it. I don’t like to long of a tail. You have to always keep in mind about how proportion the fly is going to look. Kow get you a turkey biot and tie it in at the tip with the flat side facing down. This is how you get the rid in the body when winding the biot up. Also don’t overlap the biot or you will lose the rib look. Wrap the biot up past the middle and almost to the front. If you go up to far it is ok. I like to go up a little far so I know that I can tie back over and it won’t come undone or slip out and unwind. Tie in the z-lon and again only half of one strand. Don’t worry about the length because you are going to fold it over and cut the excess off. So when you fold it over depending on how big you want your loop is up to you. Just make sure it is proportion correctly so it looks right. Once you have folded it over trim the excess off and you ready to finish the head. Just get a little antron dubbing to make a nice head and your finish. Match the color to the body of the fly. this is what it should look like when you are finish. Glue the head and that’s it. Have fun with it because I sure do. Fish it up on the banks where you see fish midging on the surface.

I am not an authority on cats on TR but I've been told they spawn towards the backs of coves in June. I'm sure someone else can speak to it better than I.

Not sure if I'd seen whites caps as big as they were on Sunday in front of the resort. I thought we may lose a dock to it! It was windy! I told someone asking what they could throw in the wind and you used exactly what I suggested.

Sorry Brian - what is that?! I think I know what a MOAT is but the other...

He told me he was as far up by boat as he could get- up by the maiden hole.

RS2 Hook: Standard Nymph #14- 20 or 200 R Thread: UTC 70 color to match body, olive Tail: Dun hackle fibers, use about 8 to 12 strands Body: Thread Wing: CDC white or gray Thorax: Antron TYING INSTRUCTION Start your thread and tie in about 8 strands of some hackle fibers at the bend of the hook. once you have tied the tail in you need to make a smooth thread body up the shank until you are almost up at the eye of the hook where you are going to tie in the cdc. You will need the cdc puffs. You will only need to tie in one cdc puff per fly. Don’t worry about what it is going to look like because you will be cutting to size. You wont need a lot of this antron, just enough to cover the thread to make a nice thread body thorax. You can use what ever color you want. I just like mine to match the body of the fly, but I have sen it tied with another color to offset the fly. It is up to you. Whip finish the fly and your ready to trim the cdc puff. When I trim the puff I like to flod it to where it almost meets up to the bend, but NOT past the bend and hold it tight and make one solid cut and it should turn out perfect. This is what it should look like. These aremeant to be tied real sparce. Don’t over due it or they will not look right to the fish. Midges are to be small in profile.

Pheasant Tail (Bead head) Hook: TMC 3769 # 14,16 Thread: Uni- thread 6/0 Red Bead: Tungsten 3/32 or 5/64 depending on the size Tail: Pheasant (natural) Rib: Copper wire (BR) size Body: Pheasant tail Thorax: Peacock herl Back: Flashabou accent (pearl) TYING INSTRUCTION Of course you need to slide the bead on first and then start your thread anywhere on the hook. Tie to the bend and get ready to tie in your strands of pheasant tail. If you notice when I tie it in I use the whole piece to tie in the tail and the body. It can be tricky because if you tie to much thread to secure the tail you will see your thread and it will build up. And you don’t want to see your thread so only tie the tail in about three turns. If you notice that I went ahead and tied in my wire at the bend as well. When you tie it in just advance the thread up and secure the wire. Just try to keep the back from building up in one spot with thread. Now you ready to wrap the pheasant up the shank. Wind the pheasant just past the middle of the shank. Cut the excess off. Now wind the wire the opposite way you wrapped the pheasant up. Trim the excess off. Tie in the diamond braid or about 8 strands of flashabou accent. get about four strands of peacock herl and tie those in. once you have done that you are ready to wrap those around about two turns and cut the excess off. Fold over the flash and tie it in and cut the excess off as well. One thing you will notice in the picture 18 is I like to fold it back over and tie in front of it also before cutting it. I think it really helps lock it in and get it pushed in close with the bead. Whip finish the fly and glue the thread and your ready to go fish it. Good luck

Swan is clear and running pretty good. Lots of whites moving in and out. Historically, whites will move into Swan at night to spawn because of the clear water. During the day it's tough catching them because of the crowds and clear water. MDC agents were busy over the weekend nabbing people who were grabbing whites instead of hooking them fair. I'm sure after 2-3 years of no whites, and now the whites are biting, local just wanted some fresh meat for the dinner table. Do what us trout guys do when the fishing gets tough- go small and lite. And fish at night.

Good trout fishing. As you read from the tournament, at least 14 guys caught trout Saturday and a couple of them did real good. Several browns caught in the contest- not unusual I guess just don't hear about it I guess. Short Creek area produced 7-8 short browns and one 20-inch+ brown on night crawlers. One thing I noticed about some of the rainbows from the tournament- they were long and skinny. I don't like to see long skinny trout. These rainbows were as long as 18-19 inches but weighed less than 1.5 pounds. My guess they moved out of the trophy area and now reside in waters where they aren't finding food as readily. Low generation periods have shown the same results in the past. Will keep an eye on it. Speaking of bass... a bass was reported being seen under our dock on the TroutCam yesterday. Our water here is just like any other water on area lakes since they're not running water- it's warming up! I'm sure it's in the 60's at the dock and soon we'll see bass and blue gill moving in to spawn. We had 3 beds between our docks and the bank a few years ago during low water- kinda different. Huge midge hatch this morning- small midge #22's but the rainbows were all over the surface early. Fun to watch. Nobody taking advantage of it.

wow.... I thought bass fishing had picked up on TR. Where and how did you fish? You said 18th... what was your weight? Later today I'll go get and post the results. Thanks for getting back to us on the tournament.

"and looking forward to your presence" Brian... running out of lines??? You're so funny. 4fishys- This is a great place to retire... hopefully it won't be as crowded as Chicago when that magic time comes to retire. Pray for an early retirement buyout... prayer gives you a much better chance than the lotto. Welcome.

Sent some friends down to Gages this evening. They fished a cove up in Long not far from the ramp. Caught 3 keeper crappie. With the wind it was tough but I thought they'd do better. They were males and close to the bank- within 4 feet. It will happen real soon. I hope to fish there within the next couple of days.

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/mo/nwis/uv/?site..._cd=00065,00060 Above is a link that's pinned at the head of this forum. It's the water level on the Osage below Truman Dam. It tells me they haven't ran water in a week so don't look for them to run water anytime soon. The fishing... I couldn't tell you. We need some more Truman Tailwater fishers on the forum.

How was the water? Cleared up?

83 today and it IS blowing!! Things are definately going to take off real quick now.

Our water temp is climbing here and wouldn't doubt if we see some bass spawn on our bank this spring. Never thought about seeing them on the cam though. May have to change the name of the cam!!

Sure- it's looking downstream from Sun Valley. The high lines are the ones just up from our place.

I'd call the chamber and see if they know of any retirees that'd want to at least usher for you... parking attendants. They usually have the handle on that crowd it seems. Talk to the ones in the visitors center.

Have to share a story I was told by my father-in-law, who is in the know around here. We just had a Home Depot open here. Normally, a new Home Depot likes over 125 applicants to apply for new jobs at the store. Only 25 applied at the Branson store- in January and February! If that doesn't say something for the worker shortage in this area! I don't know about the new Target (opened same day next to the HD).

7 teams weighed in. Everyone weighed in their limit. A good time was had by all... especially a couple of green-horns from College of the Ozarks! Jimmy Cummings and John Cartwright thought they were having a pretty good day of fishing. Little did they know how good it was! Although both guys, did I mention they are room mates?) hadn't had allot of time on Taneycomo, they'd both grown up fishing. And Jimmy had been introduced to trout fishing by my daughter, Megan, who he's dating. Now you know most of the story. My father-in-law, Dave Woolery, paid their entry, I gave them a jon boat, a map, some worms, a blow bottle, showed them how to enject air into the worms, told them to anchor on Short Creek and stay there all day. They missed Short Creek by about 100 yards- they anchored above the gravel bar. But it turned out- John landed a 22 inch, 4.46 lb brown and together they weighed in 8 trout weighing 12.14 pounds. Yes- they would have won the contest without the brown! They didn't have a clue they'd weighed in one of the largest weights in years, at least for of our tournaments. The rainbows they caught were all over 16-17 inches up to 19 inches but didn't have alot of weight on them. If they had, add 3-5 pounds to the total. Everyone else had respectable weights. 1st - Cummings/Cartwright 12.14 (big brown 4.46 lb) 2nd - Shawn & Garry Pingleton 5.70 3rd - Tom Johnson & Chuck Puckett 5.46 4th - GT & Randy Bracy 5.12 5th - Brower/Branneky 5.10 (big rainbow 2.50 lb) 6th - Hanson/Huston 4.50 7th Woolery/Waldo 4.14 All Cummings/Cartwright's trout were released including the brown. John Cartwright

Why isn't Bill smiling?