Phil Lilley

What we've learned over the years is that no one is going to change a mindset on a forum. The only thing that will be accomplished is we'll get mad at each other. So with that in mind, I'll go ahead and lock this topic. Stay safe!

I totally understand how some feel about what’s going on but let’s keep it civil. These are difficult times.

Well, they are running it at all points. BS is really letting it go so hopefully, with a little dry spell, they'll come down. No real rain in the next 7 days. We can handle these 2-inch rains every 10 days just as long as we don't get a 2-day soaker.

They're running spill gates at Beaver now. Total 11,000 cfs from Beaver and the lake is holding at 1128.8 feet. Table Rock is 918.4 feet. One thing that happened today without me knowing till the evening. They shut all turbines down and opened the spill gates to keep the same flow up. The Corps is probably working on the turbines. But with no one fishing in our group, we don't know what that did to the fishing. But we will be checking it out in the morning!!

Our water situation is honestly unknown for Lake Taneycomo, right at the moment. All lakes in the White River chain of lakes have been dropping over the last week, but Sunday the area received from two to three inches of rain, and the lakes are back on the rise. Where they end up is the question. But one thing is for sure -- there will be much more generation for Taneycomo. Presently, dam operators are running three units at 9,600 cubic feet per second plus five spill gates at 5,300 c.f.s., totaling about 15,000 c.f.s. of water. Table Rock had dropped to right at 918 feet but it is climbing this morning. Beaver has been holding at 1,128.5 feet and is also climbing. If it reaches 1,130 feet, operators will open some spill gates. Table Rock will not increase its flow unless their level reaches 920 feet , which is doubtful. The U.S. Corps of Army Engineers has been working on one of the gates that leads to a turbine at Table Rock Dam this week. They have to send divers down to the intake on the lake side of the dam at a depth of 130 feet deep. At the same time they're running spill gates, they are shutting down all gates on the north side of the dam close to the divers -- to keep them safe -- and opening the five gates on the south side. This flow, 15,000 c.f.s., is equal to all four turbines being open. The magic number is somewhere between 917 and 918 -- the depth Table Rock needs to drop to for the Corps to slow the flow down. A question was asked on Facebook, "Is the state still stocking trout in to Lake Taneycomo?" The answer is yes. Agents are continuing to stock trout as scheduled. The next question could be, "Is there anyone fishing?" Very few boats out these days. It is very, very quiet. "So how is the fishing?" The answer is it is very, very good, when they're biting. Seriously, the quality of trout we've been catching is by far the best I've seen it in my 37 years of living and fishing here. And I'm sure it's because of the constant generation, the spill gates being open for much of the winter and dumping lots and lots of food (shad) in our lake. The absence of hooks in the water doesn't hurt either, although it hasn't affected the quality of the trout, rather more, the number of fish in the lake. Virtually no trout are being taken out right now. The "white bite" is still on although I'm actually doing better throwing a sculpin/peach jig than a white one. But Blake has been dragging the small floating minnow baits in shad colors and catching browns from the dam clear down to the Branson Landing. I, in turn, tried dragging a minnow from the resort down to Monkey Island the other day on One Cast and caught one nice brown trout, although I missed several other bites. Blake and Duane are both throwing the MegaBass 110+ in white or bone color and catching browns. Again, they're fishing anywhere from the dam down to Monkey Island and not necessarily working the banks as they usually do. Blake has been casting and working the middle of the lake and seeing more takes than along the banks. I do have to be honest and report that I have not talked to anyone who is drifting PowerBait or night crawlers this past week. I'm sure they would catch trout anywhere below the Trophy Area. Blake did drift a scud on the bottom the other day and caught a few but not as many as expected. We're not cleaning any trout so we're only assuming they're seeing and eating scuds. They usually do when the water runs this hard. Writing a fishing report these days is very strange. We just don't have enough boats on the water, so there's not much info to relay. But we will continue to do our best scope out our trout and pass the intel on!! Images: Credit Angler's Advantage, Captain Steve Dickey and Buster's Guide Service, Captain Buster Loving. View full article

Pat - if you go down there, walk down the bank till you get to a garbage dump- looks like someone camped there a while and left a bunch of trash. That's a good spot.

I'd like to go back and try minnows under a float around some of the trees along that bank. The crappie was a big one... have to be more of them. I just got through cleaning my fish. 12 whites, 2 were males. All the sows had been spawning, some were done. The crappie was a sow with eggs, not bloody. They were all full of threadfin shad.

Oh I didn't think about that!!!

Been going over to Swan the last couple of evenings trying to catch some whites. Found a few males where the lake meets the creek but that's all. Wednesday was hot and the whites were starting to dance at dark. Saw quite a few but few were biting. They were preoccupied. Thursday night was colder and we saw few whites, nothing moving. But we talked to a couple of kids that had been catching them below the dam so we wanted to try it up there. Got there about 5ish and found where to put in. There's actually a couple of places off the side road 160-125. You can see them to the left of Swan Creek - 2 roads taking off and heading down towards the main lake. Both these places are great to put in and it wasn't too crowded. We headed up and found may be 10 boats scattered around, most were drifting in the current and jerking a spoon. Depth was about 35 feet most places. We saw one small white caught the whole evening but they had to be doing it because someone was or had caught them that way. The 2 kids we talked to were tucked up close to the "cable" on the Powersite side throwing into a pocket close to the bank and we saw them catch a few. We tried over on that bank, saw fish on the Livescope but they were deep and we couldn't get on them. Even drop a minnow down with no luck. We worked down that bank to the trees and again saw a few schools of fish but nothing worked. Threw swimming minnows, blue rebels, marabou jigs and live minnows. Then I thought, there's a bunch of people along the bank on the Forsyth side. It was packed over there. They must be catching some fish. I know Blake said a friend of his is catching walleye off the bank at night - showed me pics. Lots of BIG walleye and frequently catching them this week. That's the only bank fishing anywhere so... we went over and started below the last bank fishermen. The water even right on the bank was 15 feet deep, dropping to 25-30 pretty quick. Was saw big schools of shad everywhere, and other schools, huge schools of something else that were too big for shad. I'm still having trouble distinguishing the size of fish on my Livescope... but Tom hooked up first, and it was a big sow white. We caught fish for about an hour. We didn't move too much, sitting out from the bank about 80 feet and casting into the bank. Using 1/4 oz heads and blue/white swimming minnows we caught about 15 whites from 2 to 3 pounds, one big crappie, a smallmouth and 2 BIG drums. I haven't cleaned the whites yet but some seemed to be partially spawned out. WT was 49. I don't know where these fish would spawn or when seeing the water is so cold. One thing, when Chuck hooked and was fighting his second and biggest drum, I put the Livescope on it. We could see it fighting on the bottom in 27 feet of water and I was amazed how small it looked. We were seeing what looked like spoonbill swimming around on the PS side of the lake... I assume there are a few in BS. If not, catfish? They were huge, much bigger and longer than the drum looked. Hope someone reads this and goes over... that was some great fishing!! View full article

This report is pretty photo heavy, short on text fishing report for Lake Taneycomo. You'll see why. As of Monday morning, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was running 5,000 cubic feet per second of water over five spill gates and about 10,000 c.f.s. of water through three turbines. This is a reduction of 5,000 c.f.s. of water because Table Rock's lake level dropped below 920 feet. Beaver Lake is still more than eight feet above its seasonal power pool, but officials are running water through their turbine, and it is dropping but very slowly. Bull Shoals has risen more than 20 feet since the rains started over a month ago, but operators there are now running between 17,000 and 21,000 c.f.s. of water so may be they'll drop it to decent levels by summer time. The lack of boats on our lakes is so very strange. Marsha and I were on Table Rock around Clevenger last evening and watched one single sail boat out to enjoy the lake alone. I'm sure they were amazed, too. No wakes, just smooth water. Some days here on Taney, we don't see a boat go up lake until mid morning. So you'd think we wouldn't have much to talk about or to refer to for reports. But that's not the case. We have lots to report. Last week when the Corps opened five gates three feet wide to accommodate divers diving on the lake side of the dam to make repairs, it sent a lot of shad into our lake. Some were stunned and floating down, but there were a lot that came over live. We believe these huge schools of shad made their way down lake while our trout ambushed them as they swam by. There are a few guides out and other anglers, as well as Blake and Duane targeting these fish, drifting a variety of shad flies, jigs and lures in areas that we don't usually fish. And the results are eye-opening. Almost every day, it seems, someone sends us an image of a trophy brown or rainbow -- and that's with very few anglers actually fishing the lake. I'm not sure we've seen this many big browns caught in one week, let alone within 24-36 hours. The only other thing I can report is that the fish some guides are cleaning, coming from below Fall Creek, have been packed full of scuds. Now we've tried drifting scuds and San Juan worms and haven't done that well, but with the slower flow we might start having more success with them. While we are sure missing our spring anglers, we appreciate everyone taking the needed safeguards to curtail the virus so that everyone can enjoy health -- and some great fishing memories in the future. Credit Captain Steve Dickey for images. https://www.facebook.com/www.anglersadvantage.net/ View full article

I haven't been following for a while... $290 per test but my nephew said they only do a throat swab so I'm not sure it's the same... This is on the strip in Branson. We were approved for a SBA loan yesterday. Our accountant applied for us. If we qualify, we don't have to pay it back. Otherwise, we'll pay it back later this year after things start back up... may be. Not sure if I posted on here, we are closed. Several reasons but the bottom line it was for my employees. Our neighbors are still open though. Lazy and Ozark. The lake is baron of boats and trout fishing is very good. I'd love to see more news items posted on the latest info - that's what this thread was started for, although I like the discussions too. https://www.foxnews.com/media/immunologist-possible-cure-for-the-coronavirus This was interesting yesterday.

I like it all... except the spider thing. But I've never done it.

You know.... there's just something about the "thump" a crappie makes when he eats your bait.

When I get old, I'll spider rig. May be

I took my go pro intending to make a video too... terrible. Paul took one of the hybrid. I didn’t even ask for it.

Me and Paul Crews met up at Bucksaw on Monday evening for some crappie fishing. Stayed at Bucksaw RV park in Paul's 5th wheel. I pulled my boat up. We put in at BS Monday and fished for a few hours before dark. Didn't go very far... picked a cove (they call them arms) and started casting. We ended up with 8 nice keepers and a few shorts. I lost something very large - wrapped me around one of the millions of trees in the lake. Using my trout gear so I couldn't do much with him. 4-pound line. It happened again on Wednesday but the hook pulled out. Not a cat... no slim on the line. We fished the lake again on Wednesday, full day. We ventures out further towards the main lake but never got to the 13 bridge. So here's what we did on the lake- I have a Garmin Livescope. Paul esp wanted to see it work so we scoped out trees and tried to catch fish... It didn't work like it did on Table Rock. The fish would scatter when we pulled up on the trees. Spooky. But we did utilize the technology... we found them in areas plus we could tell what depth most were holding which was 10--12 feet almost everywhere. We didn't find fish in less than 12 feet of water generally either... all out in deeper water. And scattered. So we did better casting and retrieving, or trolling. Paul used the 2-jig method and made me a believer pretty quick. Depending on what we were doing, we'd use 2 1/16th's or 1- 1/18th and 1-1/16 with the heavier on the bottom. On the river, we used heavier jigs altogether because of the current. We used curly tail grubs, swimming minnows but mainly used Bobby Garland's Baby Shad in anything that had chartruese in them. I tried my marabou jigs... I caught whites on them. Crappie didn't want them WT was 53 early, warming to as high as 60 in the afternoon. Water color was muddy, turbid... I'm not used to describing water like this so... it was good for crappie fishing. Lots of people out all 3 days, just like Bill reported last week. Tuesday we fished the river below Truman Dam. Everyplace there was an eddie, it was FULL of fish and mostly crappie. Up close to the dam, down at the first bend on the right (inlet to a residential cove) and on the left (point). And we drifted and casted on the river right from the line down to the bridge and caught mainly whites and one hybrid. We had no problem catching limits on the river and didn't keep anything under 10 inches but didn't have anything over 12, and the crappie didn't have the meat on them like the lake crappie did. Wednesday on the lake - we struggled a bit. We experimented a bit, moving and fishing bluff banks and cuts where no one else was fishing. And we found them there and caught them but never could get a string of them caught. Here and there. Did do well trolling a transition bank area when the wind picked up. Set the Trolling motor about 1 mph and drug a couple of baits 50-60 feet behind the boat, trying to keep them about 12 feet deep, fishing 24-28 FOW. They're not even thinking about moving to the bank IMO. Eggs were firm and they're still scattered. But they're getting hammered pretty hard my the Livescopers and Spiderriggers. No pics... sorry Bill.

Don't think so.

Crazy... and hardly anyone here to enjoy it.

Most fishermen are chasing whites, crappie and walleye. And those stinkin bass.

From the Corps ALL.Due to installation of unit # 4 head gate over the next couple days, we will be making daily changes to discharges from the Dam. The change is due to the requirement for diving operations to install the gate into the gate slot.When units 2 and 3 go offline this afternoon (1600) Table Rock power plant will close gates 1 through 5 and open gates 6 through 10 to 3' each (5 gates at 3-feet). The spillway release for this setting will be approximately 16,800 cfs and the overall release (one unit + spillway) will be approximately 20,200 cfs. When the units come back online (currently scheduled as tomorrow morning, 3/31, at 0800) plant staff will return the spillway gates to their current setting (all 10 gates at 1'). The spillway release for this setting will be approximately 11,600 cfs, for a total release (3 units + spillway) of approximately 21,600 cfs.According to the outage schedule, this operation will be repeated from 1600 on 3/31 to 0800 on 4/1. /rSteveSteven A. HernandezSWL-Hydroelectric Power Operations Manager

Put in about 5 last evening. I knew Beaver was packed with boats above 160 bridge and didn’t want to join the crowd there... thought the whites were up there they should be in Swan too. Parking wasn’t bad. Not very crowded. Lots of people in the park enjoying a beautiful day. Word of caution... BS Is rising almost a foot a day. You got one more day of clearance to get under the bridge. WT was 63 at the mouth which was hard to believe. 60 at the bend. Upper 50’s most other places. Good color but real clear on up. We boated to just below the next bridge. First cast small male white. Saw a few others. Some schools of trout too. One more small white, then worked out way back out. Fished the mouth till late. Nothing but saw small schools of whites moving around. Won’t be long... hopefully they’ll let people put in off the road at the old lodge.

Just a few picks. Caught nothing but it’s going to get good there pretty quick! wt 51-53