Phil Lilley

Thanks Chris... we look forward to your reports. Wish I could check out the crappie fishing but we're too busy and I'm leaving Monday for 4 days pheasant hunting... there'll be plenty of time to chase crappies another time.

They stocked WAY too many trout in the 80's and they literally ate all the food. Everyone speculates why the shrimp all disappeared... if you put too many fish in a pond what happens? They eat most of the food and don't grow. The present stocking levels are derived from a couple of things- fishing pressure and carrying capasity (I had to go to my hunter's safety manual for that one). MDC has balanced stocking levels not to overpopulate the lake so that growth levels are good and so that anglers have enough trout to catch. Size - depends on who is stocking and when. Shepherd trys to stock rainbows that average 11.5 inches. But Neosho doesn't try- they just stock them around 8-9 inches. Sheperd, at times, has to stock rainbows smaller because of situations out of their control (other hatcheries like Roaring and Bennett that have to dump stock because of problems like low water flows). I believe it was this year Shepherd had to dump a bunch of big rainbows (12-14 inch) into Taney and shared them with other trout fisheries because of warm water conditions. When Shepherd's water is warmer than normal, trout grow faster than anticipated and they can't hold the surplus and have to dump them. So to answer your question- yes and no. Shepherd doesn't stock very many broad stock (3-9 lb rainbows) into Taney- they take them to other trout fisheries. They used to before Taney started growing big rainbows on it's own.

I've heard that thread fin shad come to the surface and stay there allowing predator fish to eat them readily. And there a shad called "bottle nose" or something like that that come to the surface and then dive. That aren't as easy to eat. BS has alot of the bottle-shad and few thread fin- so I am told. That's why you don't see the surfacing feeding like you used to and when you do, they don't come up for very long.

a forum on hunting? I'm thinking about purchasing another forum and setting up a hunting forum. BUT- I hunt, like to hunt but I am not an expert by any stretch. AND I can't put the time and effort building a hunting site like I am ozarkanglers. Ideas?

If it did and it bounced, you'll be taken off the list... go ahead and subscribe again.

Did you know in the mid 80's MDC was stocking 1.7 million rainbows??!! (I'm going by memory here)

#1 - Andy William's house is just to my left, below Lookout. #2 - The ditch that dumps into the lake from Pointe Royale is just to my left. Some call it Dry Wash, some the Red House Hole. The dark gravel normally is covered with water.

We have to talk... When you say 4-20 feet, are you saying you threw the jig and you caught crappie (& whites) on the drop at all those depths or did you catch most of your fish at one particiular depth? Were you in the trees? Along bluffs? I don't ask exact locations cause I think that's rude. I did that once to a friend... reported on the net several years ago about a spot that was hot for walleye at night and my buddy had lots of company the next night. He didn't appreciate it at all so he only gives me bits and pieces now... really just kidding- I think he trusts me now... and besides, he reads the forum so he'll see this.

Your ferret was a mink.

This is a pic of a drift rig. You can tie a hook or lure to the end, loop where is shows and bell weight at the end. We use 4 lb line. A snap swivel is tied to your line and snapped onto the loop. Some use a 3-way swivel but in my experience it causes the line to twists up.

Remember this - one of my mottos in life is "never be offended" and I very, very, very seldom am.

I have helped people land 20-inch-plus trout in the past and if they intend to keep the trophy, I politely point out the advantages (and disadvantages) to getting a replica made and releasing the fish. If they want to keep it I try not to show any attitude although it's disappointing to see a fish like that die. But you know it's just a fish. I'd rather walk away friends with the guy and not enemies.

They use well water to help control water temps used in raising trout. I'd imagine well water is warmer than the lake water. Warmer water- trout grow faster. Colder water, they grow slower.

Easy for you to

Sorry gents... soemthing's happened in the network and we've lost the feed. We will try again tomorrow. But it's going to work!! We had it up earlier.

ok guys... you're now our little guinea piglets... We have achieved getting my underwater TroutCam live online for the first time but it's temporary! The way you view it is alittle complicated but it's the best we can do without a couple more pieces of equipment. It's going to be online for just a few hours today, then offline while we reinstall some cat5 line for our computers here at the resort (wireless just isn't doing the trick). So bare with us. Here's how you view the TroutCam- Find Windows Media Player. If you don't have it, you can go to http://microsoft.com and download it. To find it, go to Start/All Programs/Accessories/Entertainment/Windows Media Player. Go to File/Open url In the box type (copy paste) http://208.180.97.140:1200 It will take a bit to buffer and load. You should see the picture. Note- there is a small light in the camera itself so the image will darken the later in the day we go. At night, the camera will be turned off. Let us know what you see and think. I will be able to tell how many are viewing and the bandwidth used. That's what we're interested in seeing.

I caught a sculpin yesterday on an olive micro jig. I used to fish live sculpin for browns but stopped because the brown would swallow them every time. I really don't promote it for that reason.

Hummm.. hatches happen at odd times really. I've never documented exactly when, where and why they happen (we're talking about midge hatches). I've seen them at all stages of generation, all weather conditions- even at zero degrees they are still coming off the water. So to answer your question Chris I'm not sure if prolonged release or rainfall will affect hatches. May be someone else has an opinion.

"A Connecticut Yankee in Phil Lilley's Court"? Huh?! Did you mean "pond"?

I mentioned the level of Taney is really getting low... I'd say the water level at Fall Creek is 12 inches below normal and Lookout it's about the same. This means alot of gravel areas above Fall Creek are out of the water and they shouldn't be. At Powersite Dam, there are 2-3 or 4 drop-down gates that were installed 10-plus-years ago for the purpose of letting more water thru during high water situations- floods. These gates let water run through even when the lake level is at "power pool" or level with the normal top of the dam/spillway. This creates a bathtub effect where the top of the tub is shallowing out and more of the tub is exposed to air. Not good for gravel areas that hold bugs and with little water running, the bugs aren't getting ideal conditions already. They just need to run some water.

Took Mr. Miller out this morning for a half day trip. He wanted to learn the trophy water above Fall Creek from a boat fly fishing so we preceeded to Lookout to start. Water was off and very low. they haven't ran water in many days now (12-23) so the "leak" in Powersite Dam is allowing water to run out and the upper end of the lake is taking the brunt (another post). We started with soft hackles and cracklebacks with alittle success... they weren't midging much at all so I didn't expect much. There was a great chop on the water though. We quickly switched to scuds (#16 thin skin gray) and started getting alot more strikes and hookups. I stayed on the shallow flats and had him cast to 3-4 foot water off the channel and there he caught some nice rainbows. We stayed with scuds till be almost got to the Narrows where there was more surface activity so I had him switch to a zebra on one rod and a soft hackle on the other. Caught a couple but they still weren't excited about that fly selection. Scuds were #1 this morning. I took out another gentleman- a friend's dad who was in town from Iowa. I didn't want to work too hard so we just went above Short Creek, stayed on the shallow side and threw micro jigs, olive, under a float 5 feet deep and we caught a bunch of rainbows fom 2 -4 pm. They were hammering them- lots of fun. Lots of rainbows caught by all today from the way it sounds. Alot of small trout- 6-9 inches long but we caught lots of 12-14 inchers too. Nothing bigger.

You're inbox off the forum or in your email mail box? I sent it on 12/18. Phil

Sad end to a fish that made it to 20-inches-plus... a hook in the tail and a ride to the slaughter house in a WalMart sack. He fought alot of battles and went through alot of abuse to end up like that.

Google Earth Searched Yellville, Ar. Country rd 405 is the only road I see that would fit the description. The RR marking on GE are wacky so I'm not sure. But the road does travel along the river alittle bit. It appears to be about 10 miles from YVille.

Provied by Marty Thompson, guide Walleye are being taken off the face of the dam with Hopkins or Cast Master spoons, silver with a white bucktail is the best color. Slow troll the spoons tipped with a minnow in around 30 feet of water and you'll catch fish. Find the shad schools first and follow them throughout the day. Another good tactic around the dam and the main lake points in the dam area is trolling deep running crank baits such as Wally Divers or weighted stick baits such as Smithwick Rogues or Rebels. Shad imitators work the best. In the Turkey Creek arm, try the same techniques near the Cedar Ridge boat ramp (which by the way is closed, so you'll have to put in at State Park for a shorter run). Crappie fishing has been good in the Cedar Ridge area off the crappie beds with crappie jigs which seem to work best. Minnows are also contacting fish, but seem to be less appealing than just a crappie jig in white or chartreuse (experiment with colors). Mutton Creek area is another good spot for crappie; try the same technique around Chicken Rock and fish the timber in Birch Branch. The lake is 8 feet low, so be careful of the stumps in that area. Small mouth bass: 1/4 oz- 1/2 oz spinner baits in white or chartreuse are showing some good fish around Price Branch. Also tube jigs in white or brown work well. The bigger fish will be in about 25-30 feet of water. Small deep diving crank baits late in the afternoon on the downwind side of points at the mouth of Maze Creek is a good idea. Black bass: if you don't fish slow, don't go. That's the motto. My best luck on large mouth have been on a drop shot rig with white and light blue french fry 4 inch worms. Chunk rock bluffs is a good place to start and remember to fish the irregularities in the bluff as this is where the bass congregate. 25 feet of water seems to be the average depth no matter what structure you are fishing. Late in the afternoon, fish will move up in around 10-12 feet of water and can be taken on suspended jerk baits. Another technique for the deeper fish off main lake points is black and blue 1 oz jigs or Carolina rigged 6 inch plastic worms; dark colors seem to work best.