Phil Lilley

Good morning guys. Sorry I haven’t been part of the conversation. We’re trying to fix our sprinkler system ... digging in the dirt. Anyone else get hail yesterday? We got pounded.

You’re right... yesterday stunk! Sorry it had to on a Saturday.

Yes any small minnow jerk bait. I honestly don't know what to call them. They're more like a minnow to me and I guess you could jerk them back... I just think of a bigger lure when I say jerk bait. So I'm including both terms. A small flickershad should work too.

Four units full has kinda put the trout in a funk the last few days. Early and late are very good though. Duane has been hammering big browns and rainbows using his jerk bait on guide trips early. But the schedule says 2 units tomorrow - much welcomed news. Lots of boats on the lake today, more than we've seen since mid March. Dragging those small jerk/minnow baits has been the hottest thing going, and the new "hot spot" is Monkey Island down to 65 bridge. Bill Babler has been dragging these minnow baits for years but it's not till lately that we've seen them catch some nice trout. May be because of the flood gates and inflow of so many threadfin shad in to the lake.... who knows. I do believe there are more trophy trout in Taneycomo since the 60-70's hayday. When the water drops, it will be much easier to fish and get the bait to where the trout live. We'll see some good stringers in the coming weeks. More later.

Went late afternoon. Started close to the last dock on SE side of the lake and ran it almost all the way to the end. Fished a pearl slider, 3/16 oz head. Caught probably 20 bass, mostly K's, all short. Several LM, 2 keeps - 18 and 19.5 inches. Lots of fun.

Went late yesterday (Thursday). Put in at Long Creek. Boated to State Line Cove and started towards the back. TONS of shad... must have just hatched? Ended with 5 keepers and 6-7 shorts, all off the bank suspended maybe 4-6 feet deep. All were spawned out. 66 degrees towards the back, 62 on main lake.

Somehow they try to balance Beaver and Bill Shoals. In think.

It’ll be fine. But if they’re running 4 units like this afternoon, you’ll find some stretches harder to climb mainly in the upper lake.

You sure?!

And I like @N9BOW too. And yes I've fished with them both.

For what it's worth, @ColdWaterFshr is a pretty good dude. I'd trust my back to him any day.

Report came in this afternoon that a 15-pound brown was caught in the Branson Landing area today. No real other information. The call came in from a friend who works for MDC.

Finally . . . Table Rock Lake is down far enough that generation has been reduced on Lake Taneycomo. The last couple of days we've seen two units running at about 7,000 cubic feet per second of water flow. The flood gates were shut Monday morning. Wednesday more rain fell over the White River Basin in N.W. Arkansas and S.W. Missouri, but it looks like that precipitation won't raise the lake levels much at all. Thursday morning the rain subsided and all three lakes have only risen less than six inches. Water temperature is 46 degrees. Less generation means fishing is easier for most anglers no matter how they choose to fish. The current is less turbulent and the water isn't as deep. Big trout are still being caught on Taneycomo. I believe if there were more fishermen, there would be even more big trout caught. Captain Steve Dickey's client, Randy, caught two trophy trout Tuesday, a 25.5-inch brown and a 22-inch rainbow. Both were caught on a float and fly rig. The fly was a shad fly. Both fish were released. Since there are few fishing right now, it's hard to know what all is working. We can report, though, what's been working for us. We're throwing marabou jigs. Good colors have been white, sculpin and sculpin/peach, but those are just the colors I've been throwing. The size of jig depends on the conditions -- the wind, current and depth of water. We've caught trout on a jig and float using a white jig. This has worked best from the dam down to Short Creek. Dragging a small minnow bait on the bottom is catching some bigger trout. These minnow baits are those like a floating Rapala F-5 using a bell weight or even a split shot to get the lure to the bottom. Most of these baits have two sets of treble hooks, but we take the front set off and only leave the back set. This will still hook the fish but won't catch the bottom as well. A shad color/pattern has been the best. Some guides are still throwing the MegaBass 100+ and +2 in shad colors and catching browns. I've heard browns are chasing shad on the surface in the Monkey Island area on down through and past the Landing. Remember, there's an abundance of shad in our lake right now because of the gates being opened so long in March and April. Once the water down lake warms up, a lot of those fish will move further down but until then, they will be everywhere. Hardly anyone has been doing this, but drifting minnows and night crawlers, I predict, will be the killer bait when anglers show back up in normal numbers. We will see a lot of two-pound rainbows being caught below Fall Creek. We're seeing big midge and mayfly hatches all over the lake but I don't see the trout keying in on them . . . yet. The other evening on the lake there were a huge swarm of barn swallows feeding on midges on the lake's surface. I thought it was our resident birds come home after a winter migration, but the next day they were gone. Just grabbing a bite to eat on their trip south, I guess. I'm look forward to some fly fishing in the coming days. With lower water slows, we can drop a San Juan Worm and a scud under an indicator and fish the flats both above and below Fall Creek. We've tried to drag those flies using a spin cast and drift rig in the heavy flows with very little success -- which is surprising. We'll see if the slower water will change things. Watch One Cast, our daily fishing video, and you'll find out exactly what we are (and aren't) catching trout on. You'll find it on Facebook and on YouTube. Images courtesy of Captain Steve Dickey. View full article

Should but you never know. Check before you head up

Our shop is open to window service

gates are off. Shut down Monday

I haven’t been on much but I did read this morning. You guys are real good about keeping it civil and away from the P word. I understand frustrations and am willing to let ppl vent once in a while. By now, most of is know where each other stand and know no one is going to change our minds. We’re in this together.

For those who are willing to take the chance, there might be some real deals on the AK experience this year.

The governor of AK declared sport and commercial fishing essential yesterday. But I'm sure the fight is not over. Then there's flight ramifications... and housing and work conditions (commercial). It's a mess. Too many people asking for bailouts too. Feds seemingly can print money but the states can't. Plus AK's income is sport/commercial licenses and tourism taxes. Pipeline is closed so not making any money on natural resources. Not sure how many ways you can say ZERO.

Tourism keeps Alaska alive.... its their #1 industry. To cancel it for a whole year-absolutely insane. But they almost did it. Thousands of cannery workers are shipped out to King Salmon and Dillingham. They’ll have to figure that out too.

My friend Sean Guffy has been keeping me up on developments up in Alaska. The villages there have tried to keep outsiders from traveling to remote areas, trying to keep the virus at bay. In doing so, it would have canceled all commercial and sport fishing basically for the season which would have been unimaginable. All hunting too. Yesterday, the Governor declared Fishing essential. Now they have to figure out how to fly out of Anchorage to these places. The main airline, Ravn Air, went bankrupt already. Plus they have to figure out the quarantine thing. Theres talk of charter flight out of Seattle to King Salmon. They’re all in quite a predicament. If you ever want to go to Alaska for an extended 2 week trip that may not cost an arm and leg, this might be the year.

I see. I saw everyone spooning in the current. Didn’t know it was walleye they were trying for. sorry you didn’t find ‘em. I really didn’t see them on the livescope either. Just would catch one here and there.

Must be high water down river... they were running a lot of water before the rain. Nice catch! Thanks for posting.