Phil Lilley

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/155821202...5Fencoding=UTF8 Dave Whitlock's Guide to Aquatic Trout Foods Excellent!

Don't get me on gambling and casinos... they destroy thousands of lives each year. They breed crime and violence. Yachts are only an inconvenience, dumber than dumb if they want to drive them up a small river but nothing campared to casinos. Plus - you think casinos will stop at Rockaway- if they get in? You'll have them at the Landing... then you'll have casinos and yachts. Think about it.

May be other trout park guys can answer this better but... 4 lb line, small hooks, small weight and patience. Don't go out and buy a bunch of new stuff. Tie on a short piece of 4 lb leader to what you have, as much weight as it takes to throw it out and a #12 bronze short #89 hooks and a night crawler should work wonders. Enject alittle air in the worm, make it float, and you'll catch trout.

I really don't like to dwell on the negative- so I won't post much on the development in Branson. I think it's unstopable- it is the way of progress. The convention center is needed if you want to bring more people here and compete with other convention venues in the country. Branson has to stay ahead of the curve to compete. I understand all that. I have a problem where they located the convention site. It's not about the lake necessarily- it's about the smartest place to put it. I think it should have gone out off Gretna/Shepherd of the Hills area- out where there's not much development- easy to get in and out to major roads/areas. Instead they spent alot of money buying up property and businesses and homes on land that's cramped and hard to get in and out of... no room for expansion unless you buy more land/buildings/businesses. Being on a lake a lake is nice but will it bring one extra person because it's on water and not on a hill? I don't think so. Condos- it does matter... to me and it should to others. If you treat people right, do the best with your property you can, people will come back to it- seek it out. It's the personal touch that matters- condo don't do that for people. They have their place- but so does B&B's and family-oriented resorts... and there are many of us left. Branson is still the best place because of it's people- very friendly for the most part... unlike other vacation places I've been to.

Illegal - 35 No change - 12

I can get them but need alittle lead time. I've tried to keep some in stock but the demand for them is so small they keep dying before I sell them.

I didn't say that Put your glasses on, Bill.

I agree. The alderman and administrators don't seem to have a lick of sense and they don't listen to anyone.

Talked to Bill Sheriff the other day. He and his wife Roberta sold their resort of 24 years to a developer that is going to raze the place to build condos. Another family resort bites the dust.

The first time a "yacht" heads upstream, hits the floatilla of boats anchored at Money Island, trys to turn around and finds itself literally stuck inbetween anchored fishing boats, word will get back to the mothership that rough waters are ahead!! "Don't go upstream!"

You'll love it here. Lots to do, great fishing and even better people.

They usually shock as far upstream as they can go down to the Barker Hole but they are not tagging and don't need that many so hard to say where they went. But fishing has been very good at night- so says Quinton. Haven't talked to any actual fisherpeople.

Back up and running.

The color is much better today on the lake, at least in our area. Fishing has picked up too.

Coy and I (TexomaOkie) headed to the Spring River yesterday at highway 10 bridge. We met Paul Crews, another good friend, and we headed upstream in search of some whites. We found them all over. We went up past the first gravel bar, then the second to the third. We caught whites most everywhere but we tried to fish the deeper sides (4-6 feet deep) and around the fallen trees. If we caught one we'd usually catch 3-5 more in the same place before they'd move on us. We used either 1/16th or 1/8th oz leads heads and swimming minnows in blue, smoke or chartruese. Didn't seem to matter on the color. The white ranged from 4 inches to 2 lbs. We kept 35, 12 were sows. Water was 53 in the am and 57 later in the afternoon. We fished from 9 till 4 pm. Water was stained- just right. Very little current even in the shallow riffles.

Talked to Quinton- MDC shocked last week and there were "walleye everywhere". He said they were catching them mostly at night. No other details. It's been very quiet on this forum on pothole walleye- I guess those that know don't want the word out!! It's out! Please, if you go let us know what's going on.

Tony Wededle just told me he caught 3 19 inch white bass at the first bend up in Beaver the other day on a shad rap, along with some largemouth and walleye. I'm sure they will be making false runs in and out of the creek for the next several weeks until spawn.

Attention - Changes to the tournament- This will be a benefit tournament for the junior and senior class trip of the Faith Christian Academy here in Branson. All proceeds, as well as a donation for each team participating, will be donated to the trip. There will also be a smoked chicken dinner served after the event. All proceeds from the dinner will also be donated. Cost of the dinner has no yet been set. Questions- let me know!

You may want to clarify your question.

I'm guarding my raincheck with my life

This is an easy one - 99% - no water. No generation. Not much to run and no reason to at this point.

... but I'm in the office and not sure how much time I really have to type. Been working on several things of interest. I'm speaking at a FFF chapter in KC next week and have been putting a midge fishing piece together. Lots of studing on the internet- it's been fun and informative. I'll post it on OA as soon as I'm done in KC. The troutcam has been down- not sure where the problem is but it does seem like it's in the wiring. But the visibility is poor so there's not much to see. Spring fishing is just around the corner- can't wait till everything blossums out and the fish head to the banks. The weather has given us a preview of spring already- 2 tornados and hail. Not complaining about the rain though! Am thinking about changing the name of my newsletter from the White River Journal to something more appropriate to the present site. It started out being Taneycomo, then added Table Rock and Bull Shoals, then more and more and now it's the Ozarks-plus. So I'm trying to come up with the name. If anybody has any ideas- shoot them my way. The only problem is writing enough to cover some/all of the waters we cover now. Part of my problem my ideas get too big and I can't keep up with them. I have to fish sometime!!! I have a daughter graduating from College of the Ozarks and a son graduating from high school (my last kid). Man- it's all going so fasts. May will be here and gone and so will our kids... almost. They are still close and of course they will be for the summer working. But gosh- it's gone quick. C of O won the boys basketball national championship naia2 yesterday. Dad and I watch all 5 games. It's such a blessing to have mom and dad here and get to do things with him. He's 70 and in excellent health- probably better than me. We don't really know anyone of the boys team but do know one of the girls that plays for C of O - Becca Howard - who's team lost in the final game of the championships. She's good friends with my oldest son Caleb. My 30 year HS reunion is this summer... I'm in charge of getting it together. Go figure- I'm from Parsons, KS and I'm in charge? But I was told no one in Parsons wanted to do it and I wanted to see some friends so- I'm doing it. It's not really that hard. I'm heading to Parsons tomorrow for a dinner/meeting with some of the guys to talk about plans. Gonna hit the Spring River on the way over! We're having a "wild game feast" at church on Sunday night. If anyone is interested in deer, pheasant, fish and whatever else we can find between now and then, feel free to come. Covenant Life Church behind Empire Electric on Main in old downtown Branson. Around 6 pm I think.

since my last entry- sorry. It's been a hectic winter, believe me. But my intentions are to keep this up at least a couple of times a week. In saying that... I'm going to make this entry short because I have many things to do and the evening is going fast. We've had several entries and new blogs but no first-posts. It's alittle tricky getting your entry to post for the first time so I'm going to send an email to those who are having trouble. Later I'm going to catch up by blog.

Matt- it should be good. You'll catch crappie for sure. Go out towards Blair and you may see some whites.

$69 per day, 18-foot jon w/ 25 hp, 4 seats. Plus Gas.