Phil Lilley

Leonard- send me an email - phil@lilleyslanding.com

If I could find someone to report on the Meramec River/Park, I'd love to put a section on the forum just for the Meramec. Anyone? Anyone know anglers who frequent this river?

Did alittle fishing today. Met friend from my home town, Kelly Stammer, at the dam for a couple of hours of fishing - 7:30 am. he was spinning and me with a fly rod. Fishing was slow for both of us- not much going on. I caught 3 stocker rainbows on a #16 gray thin-skin scud under an indicator 4 feet. Kelly tried a jig and a rapala and go skunked. I told him to go back to the resort and take a boat out. He did but I didn't see him before he left. He usually does well. After cleaning the church and getting ready for our Thanksgiving dinner after the service tomorrow, I boated up to Short Creek and fished from 2-3 pm before I had to work the office. Again, not much activity. The lake was 6 inches higher than normal. I tried a zebra and missed a couple of short quick bites, then a #16 thin-skin scud and caught 2 small rainbows. Then stripped a #14 brown crackleback- nothing. Midges started coming off just before I left so I finished with a black zebra but didn't draw a strike. Bait anglers caught alot of trout between Short and Fall Creek today- best was night crawlers followed by white or yellow power eggs. Several said they had a very good day catching some really nice rainbows.

It was just a couple of days ago I shared about my friend's 50th birthday celebration. Don't they say the eyes start going at 40... I mean the doc informs us we might think about bifocals... What happens at 50??? I'm sure Chuck didn't see it coming... pardon the pun. Yesterday he started seeing double and this morning he had surgery for a detached retina. Doc told him he may lose some sight in the eye. Fifty is way too young for that- right?? But you know, the day we are born our bodies start to die slowly... some slower than others but you get my point. Life is a vapor that lasts a second in comparison to eternity. Chuck is on his belly with orders not to lift his head for 2 weeks. They glued the wall of the retina like wallpaper (the tear), gas is injected in the eye to put pressure on the wall till the glue dries. Keeping the eye ball pointed down also holds pressure on the "wallpaper". This is a fairly new procedure- before people who had this condition would just lose vision in the eye so I'm sure he's grateful. Marsha and I prayed this morning... these things happen for a reason- we either learn what God has for us to learn or we don't learn anything - suffer through for basically nothing. We prayed Chuck would learn and learn good! He said he would be spending alot of time praying... and I'm sure he will. He can't read- we're going to make sure he has books-on-tape. We also asked God to help the docs in their procedure. I know without any doubt God could just do a creative miracle and fix the eye without the help of the docs... and we did ask for that... but at the same time trust Him to do the best for Chuck and his wife Terry, whatever that may be. Tomorrow we have church... then Thanksgiving dinner afterwards. It won't be the same without him. We may have to go over to his house and harass him... on his belly.

It's a thought... How far would trout water extend? The minimum flow would have to increase for sure if PS would be taken out. If not, in summer months, during low flows, water would warm up quickly even in our area. Preditor fish - walleye would have a field day on trout but there's no difference than this scenario and Beaver Tailwater where they have striper and walleye. The real question is what would it do to resorts and marinas... private docks and such. It would change the whole make-up of the river. Branson Landing would be screaming bloody murder- all the money they are sinking in the fountain and boardwalk... it wouldn't be a board walk- it would be 100 feet off the water instead. In reality- it will never happen. Branson Landing would have too much to lose and they are the power brokers on the lake now.

Is the park only open on weekends? I wouldn't mind going over but weekends aren't good for me.

It's so amazing the difference in climate between north and south.... Missouri. I don't see how people stand the wind and cold up there, let alone further north in Iowa and Nebraska. Tuesday- blowing snow 30-40 mph and totally horizontal. Wednesday - 15 degrees and winds 30-50. Thursday am - 5 degrees but thankfully no wind. Sitting in a stand was incredibly tough and the lack of deer was worse. Too much cover- too much woods where we hunted (east of Trenton about 30 miles). But it was a great trip with my fishing/hunting buddy Vince.

You should have a great time. Crowds should be thin- we are less than half full.. first time we've been this way since December last year. We only have a couple of weekends a year when we don't fill up and the weekend before Christmas and Thanksgiving are two of them. Lots of trout! If you fish Arkansas, you should do well here.

Heard more stories about the whites at Bridgeport - still excellent. Also crappie are being caught along the rip rap at the ramp and on the bluff across the lake from the ramp... cooler weather should school them up better. If you hear anything or have any report at all, please let us know.

Just talked to a guy who fished last weekend in Long Creek- put in at Cricket and fished the trees in 20 feet of water. Two of them caught their limit both days using ?? probally jigs, vertical fishing. Caught them in 8 to the bottom, scattered. Didn't throw back many- biggest was 13.5 inches. Water temp was 63 but should be cooler due to the cold front. Colder water temps should group the crappies but better.

Back from the cold country on north Missouri... Tuesday - blowing snow, winds 25-40 mph and 30 temp. No deer moving. Wednesday - no snow on the ground, wind 30-50 mph and 20 temp. No deer moving. Thurday - no wind (yea!) 5 temp in the morning (cold!!) a few deer moving but not my way. Vince - 0 Phil - 0 But we both already have deer in the freezer so that's ok.

It is much stronger than any 2 lb line I've tried... stronger than most 4 lb lines. I guess you need to try it for your self to see what we're talking about.

They have been running water every morning and afternon this week... surprising to me really but not unusual. Table Rock jumped up a tiny bit after the rain Tuesday but the rain didn't fall on enough of the water shed to make a dent in the lake level. But tomorrow and Sunday my giess is that they won't run as much if any at all. Temps are up alittle, there may be some generation in the mornings for a while but don't let it ruin a good day of fishing. Sunday looks to be the best day - cloudy and a chance of rain.

http://ozarkanglers.com/useful.php Hope this finds you in a timing fashion. I don't think they will run much water at all this weekend. And if they do, it won't be enough to run waders off the water.

Nice to see everyone's getting along while I'm gone... good conversation. I think the C&R idea for the first mile has merit. May be limit it to the fall. I don't think that would ruffle too many feathers. I'll run it by a couple of people. As for the outlets... you need a black line between right and wrong for a good case in court. Placing a cable across a creek and saying, "no fishing above this point" is a black line. Not much wriggle room to that rule. "No fishing in the hatchery outlets" and "No fishing above the present lake level" is a black line but isn't as clear as the cable, I guess. Motivation - what's the movtivation for the cable at outlet #3? My guess is to keep anglers from taking advantage of hearded browns. Or fishing up in the outlet when the water is high from full generation. So if the motivation is to keep anglers from taking advantage of trout in the outlet, then the "No fishing above the present lake level" is another cable with the same purpose. Then why aren't both rules enforced? As for enforcement, I think the present agents do an exceptional job in all fields of game enforcement... they just can't be in all places at all times. The question about police writing game tickets - they can't in Missouri. They can hold a person for an agent but they can't write the ticket, not sure why. You can call them and have them radio an agent. But I've found you have to have good information, just like reporting any crime, for the agent such as descriptions of the person(s) and/or vehicles involved. As for keeping trout, the rules in our trophy area were designed for keeping rainbows under 12 and over 20 inches. The problem is very few rainbows are kept, unless the water is running and boaters are drifting the area in which alot of those anglers will keep a limit uner 12 inches (esp guides).

Gone deer hunting - be back late Thursday. Keep fishing and keep reporting!

When we moved to Branson in 1983, we knew a couple of people - Rex Grady, a resort owner who befriended us while trying to sell us his report down on Lakeshore Dr, John logan, the realitor who sold us Rosadaro and Lulu Roman who's husband had a hair salon on the strip at the time. We started attending a church - Branson Hill Assembly of God - where we met more people, people who became life-long friends to this day. One couple was Chuck and Terry Puckett. They had a little girl like us and went on to have 2 more... we had 3 more. We became best friends, took vacations together, changed churches together, started a church together, and yesterday by best friend turned 50. Wow! How time flies. Chuck is the pastor of our church, Covenant Life Church. He has a pastor's heart... he helps everyone that calls, he's compassionate and patient... all the things I'm not. I've always said Chuck's there to help people who I loose patience with- I'd just as soon slap them on the third or forth go-around. Chuck is passionate about life and about God. He has walked the walk long enough to have God's wisdom on a lot of life's situations. The world would be a great place if everyone had a friend like Pastor Puckett We don't call him that cause it sounds so corny.

Bill & Becky Babler had a dream and that dream became a reallity in June of this year... they opened the doors to their dream lodge on Table Rock Lake. If you want a gorgous place to take your wife for Christmas- check this place out. It rivals anything Big Cedar has with the personal touch of the Babler's handywork... not to mention a yummy breakfast and breath taking views. http://whiteriverlodgebb.com

You got that right! Taney's more boat-friendly - that's what I've been promoting for years... fly fishing out of a boat on Taney is extremely productive no matter what conditions. That in itself helps with the "crowds". But does Taney get crowded as far as boats - oh yes. But the trophy area is still one of the best places to fish out of a boat around and it doesn't get that bad even on busy weekends.

Mike Scott told me he used vanish line made by Berkley for his leader and tippet material. He uses 6-4-2 lb only, building his leader from the 6 and 4 and uses the 2 lb as tippet. The 2 lb is .005 diameter which is the same as 5x Rio. And he told me he caught tons of trout this weekend on it using zebras and scuds. I thought... 5x! And I've been using 7x just to get bit more!! So I tried it this morning (see fishing report under Taneycomo 11-14) and I had no problem fooling fish- no problem at all!! I'm going to have to keep experiment with this- I've used it on spin cast rigs but I like mono better because of the stretch and feel it gives me. I use flourocarbon tippet... but this is bending my idea of tippet diameter and what I have to use to get bit. Any ideas?!

Just got back from the dam. They are running (were running) 2 units but only 3 feet high (704.3). Great water to fish even from the bank. I missed Mike Scott and his friends... miscommunication. I think they went to the Beaver Tailwater on the way back to Tulsa- they missed a great morning of fishing here but from what they told me last night, they might have been tired of catching trout. I walked into the Rocking Chair Hole from the north side and started below where the falls used to be- 9 am. I tied on a black #16 zebra with a copper head, 20 inches of line between the fly and indicator and flipped out on a few feet from the bank and let it drift- hookup! That happened 3 times in a row. Worked the water out further from the bank and down and caught trout after trout- 13 in all before I got down to the big rock at the sycamore tree. I jumped up on the rock and started casting out up to 50 feet and continued to hook rainbows- another 12 landed. All on the same fly at the same depth- I didn't touch a thing. Size- I had a couple at 16, a couple at 15- many from 13-14 and a few small ones. All were colored up real pretty. No one was fishing within site except for a few up by #3 outlet I could see. Three guys walked in just before I left across the lake from me. Mike was right- they are tearing up a zebra at the Rock Chair Hole. Water was dropping out the last 40 minutes I fished but was slow in dropping. Still running when I left at 10:30 am. Sorry I didn't take the camera- threat of rain.

Unfortunately, there's a lot of people who share your sentiment. It does get crowded at times and there are rude people. But for every crowded day, there are 3-4 days conservatively that are not crowded, based on weekend/weekdays and on the time of year. And for every rude guy, there are 10 that will respect your water. I think it boils down to preferences and everyone has the right to his or hers. I like both tailwaters but I live on Taney. I would love to get down to the White more often just for a change of scenery.

You know if you sweet talk your brother in law, he may be able to help you. Or else- make a trip to Taney and I'll help you with it. With leaving for north MO tomorrow for 3 days of deer hunting, I don't think I'll be able to slip down your way for a while.

Less people - why is that??? The White is world famous and offers so much more than Taney. As for regs... your suggested rules have been brought up to MDC many times... barbless, kicking... but they have said both are "social" issues and they won't regulate that way. MDC considers barbless more of a "cosmetic" issue than a "health" issue for trout. They won't regulate ethics either unless it develops into a fist fight- then call the police.

Rolan Duffield was successful NOT to delete his pics before putting them on a disk so we have pics from our trip. Enjoy. http://forums.ozarkanglers.com/images/2005/san-juan2