Phil Lilley

They sucked about 8 feet of water out of Beaver the first of January, then got a 4-6 inch rain and back up it went. Then they held it, through more rains. They've been trying to keep TR down but not Beaver. Doesn't make sense to me but... it is the gov't. They got 15k of water running by my place. I'm thankful for that! I just hoe they don't slow it down when TR gets close to 915 like they did before. Keep it running!!! Drop Beaver and get this water out of here. Like you said, Spring is coming and the spring rains are already here.

I'm sure glad I didn't write an extensive fishing report on Monday for Lake Taneycomo because everything changes today. After more rain fell in the White River Basin above Lake Taneycomo in the past 24 hours, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have decided to open 5 spill gates at Table Rock Dam one foot each this morning, on top of the 3 turbines running at the facility. That equals 15,000 cubic feet of water per second pouring through Taneycomo presently. This equals 4 full turbines. Beaver Lake is inching up and is at 1128.66 feet, less than 18 inches below its flood pool level. The Corps really haven't made any attempts to drop this level since they had it down to 1121 feet about 3 weeks ago. Table Rock Lake has been holding steady at about 916.5 feet but is now rising slowly because of the rains. Its seasonal power pool is 915 feet but with Beaver so high and Table Rock rising, they really need to move some water!! I'm not sure why they aren't dumping Beaver Lake plus they have been only running 2 units at Table Rock the last 5 days. They need to keep moving this water through... please!! Fishing continues to be very good, even with heavy generation. With the spill gates coming back on, there's always the chance of threadfin shad coming over, plus a few bass and walleye. We will be testing the waters!! We have 3 trout tournaments under our belt so far this winter and in the last 2 contests we saw very good quality rainbows come in which is a great sign. Our first tournament was plagued with off colored water after a big rain so fishing wasn't very good. This last Saturday, out of 76 teams, 50 weighed in 7 pounds or more, an 8 trout bag. That's very good. There are a lot of rainbow trout to be caught in the Branson Landing area right now. We've been fishing down there and catching big freshly stocked rainbows that are over a pound each. We were catching them on various colored jigs while fishing for crappie -- yes crappie! Some of the tournament contestants were fishing an 1/8th ounce jig on the bottom down close to the Kanakuk Camp and catching rainbows too. I'd imagine you could catch them on PowerBait as well. With more water running from Table Rock, we'll go back to heavier weights to get to the bottom when drifting baits, lures and flies. There is a pattern we've seen when they first kick more water on and that is scud flies get real hot. It might be because the heavier flows dislodge scuds from the bottom and up into trout's mouths. It's plausible! So we'll be drifting big #12 gray scuds from the dam down to Short Creek this week along with an egg fly and/or a San Juan Worm. If you don't book a trip with Duane Doty and don't have his custom painted jerk baits, the MegaBass 110+ is a good match to throw for big browns and rainbows. Good colors would be French Pearl, Ozark Shad, Perch and Elgy Bone. One of our Outdoor Writers who attended our conference this week brought in a big brown just as I was writing this report this morning. John Neporadny, nationally recognized fishing writer recently inducted into the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame, caught and released this 13 pound brown on one of Duane's jerk baits. He caught it below Fall Creek about a half mile around the docks. He was fishing with Scott Pauley, outdoor marketing representative for Missouri Tourism. So we're back to dragging hard minnow baits on the bottom using the carolina rig, 1/4rd-ounce bell weights and 4 to 6-pound line. We carry several lengths and styles in our shop, knock-offs from China because we do lose quite a few baits to the bottom monsters. These baits are like the F-5 and F-7 Rapala, from 2.75 to 3.25 inches long, floating and shallow divers in perch, shad and sculpin colors. Bill Babler, fishing guide, showed us this week that when he drifts these baits, he takes the front set of treble hooks off the bait, only leaving the back set. He says he doesn't lose as many baits and believes he doesn't miss any fish because of it. We will be throwing 1/8th ounce white jigs up below the dam this week along with other colors like sculpin, brown and black. But white has been a pretty good color lately... white with gray and white with black also. REPORT: They are liking white jigs below the dam! Here's evidence: Snagged in the butt... but still a beautiful rainbow!! View full article

50 teams weighed in more than 7 pounds - 8 trout. Very impressive. Nobody fished the trophy area. All below Fall Creek. A lot of the biggest trout came below Monkey Island. Some great pics taken by Nathan, one of our staff.

I see - it's his Vlog StreamerFest

I just looked at his channel... didn't see anything. https://www.youtube.com/user/flyfishingtheozarks/videos

I can move it if @Walcrabass wants to.

You should come to JigFest next December... it's a blast. You can look it up on the White River forum. There's a few people who post here a lot that fish down there. It's an awesome fishery... when the water is right.

We've set the CAM Christian Action Ministries benefit tournament for March 28th this spring. It will be an artificial only contest, measuring each trout for total inches to win. We've done several of these tournaments and they're catching on (pun intended). Take Off will be at 8 am and end at 2 pm (note I did not say "weigh in"). Food will be served afterwards. See Flyer for Details: CAM Tourney Flyer 2020.pdf

Despite the constant flow of water -- 15,000 cubic feet per second through three turbines and over six spill gates into Lake Taneycomo -- trout fishing continues to be very good for most anglers. That success still hinges on keeping your bait, fly or lure on the bottom while drifting. First, I wanted to clear up something I said on Monday, January 27, when recording One Cast. The dam operators shut down one turbine about the time we filmed One Cast that day and it appeared we were headed for a change in the generation patterns. Table Rock Lake was approaching 916.5 feet, just 18 inches from its power pool level, so it made sense that the flow would be reduced. I was wrong. The turbine was only off line for a couple of hours and the flow at this moment is at 15,000 c.f.s. but at some point in the near future that may change, it's just hard to say when. NEWS FLASH: The spill gates at Table Rock Dam were shut off at 8 a.m. Tuesday morning. Three turbines continue to run at about 10,000 c.f.s. presently. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has not started drawing Beaver Lake down. It sits at 1,127.37, more than seven feet above its seasonal power pool. Back in December the Corps opened spill gates at Beaver Dam and dropped the lake about six inches a day until the lake's level almost reached 1,120 feet but the big four- to six-inch rain on January 10th brought the levels back up to where they are now. We are still catching a few trout below the dam on either white jigs or shad flies, just not the big numbers we'd like to see when the spill gates are open. Speaking of fishing below Table Rock Dam, Blake and I encountered a boat with four anglers fishing within casting distance of the dam face Monday evening, hundreds of feet above the boundary cable marking the 760 feet line from the dam. Here's a screenshot of the code explaining the rule about boating and fishing within the 760 feet line at Taneycomo. Note it says "fishing," not just boating. In other words, you shouldn't even cast above this cable. The boaters, when confronted, said they didn't know about the rule. That's no excuse. If you're going to fish public waters, it's your responsibility to know the rules of fishing and boating on those waters. Ignorance won't work as a defense. And there are safety reasons for prohibiting boating too close to the dam, especially when there are tons of water falling 200 feet off a dam. Back to fishing -- we're catching rainbows and browns on white jigs away from the dam more than below it. White jigs and spoons have been working well along the banks and on the bottom from Fall Creek down past the Branson Landing. I've been working the eddies and slack water on the bluff side of the lake from our place, Lilleys' Landing Resort, down to Monkey Island and doing pretty well. This brown was caught on Saturday by Kelly Stammer, who comes to stay with us from my old stomping grounds of Parsons, Kansas. Bryan Stammer, Kelly's son from the Stammer group, caught another brown on a white jig but it came up a little short of 20 inches. But these browns are fat! Fishermen were dragging minnow baits on the bottom over the weekend and hooking some big fish, it was reported. We have been talking about dragging these baits, using a Carolina rig, for the past month of so. I asked Duane Doty how to describe these baits -- are they jerk or crank baits? He said really neither. They're a hard plastic bait that resembles a minnow. Some of the anglers fishing this past weekend were using other hard plastic baits like Flat Fish. These floating baits do not have diving bills, so they're less apt to dive down and get caught up on the bottom. We hosted our annual Masters Trout Tournament Saturday. And as always, there was lots of conversations afterwards about "the big one that got away." But this year those stories were repeated by many anglers. One contestant said he lost five big trout. Another fought a fish for more than 30 minutes just to lose it in a tree. Interesting . . . We weighed in two legal browns Saturday, one caught on a minnow bait and one on a white jig. We're selling a lot of minnows right now. A couple of weeks ago, we were told they were catching "nothing but brown trout," but we had no legal browns before the tournament either reported caught or brought in to the dock. Minnows will catch rainbows as well. I have done pretty well anchoring along the bank in slow current and fishing them tight-line behind the boat in current. But you have to be careful not to anchor in fast current, and always tie to the very font of your boat, not to the side or to the back. This can be dangerous, so please use wisdom. Drifting with night crawlers on the bottom is also catching mainly rainbows and a few brown trout. Best area is down at Monkey Island, drifting down through the Branson Landing. Also drifting with PowerEggs is catching all rainbows. Drifting with scuds and San Juan worms is still a hot technique to reel in trout both in and down from the Trophy Area. In my experience lately, the scuds are catching bigger, older rainbows on average. I think those trout actually target scuds since that's what they know in the wild. In the scuds, we're using #12 mainly in various shads of gray as well as tan and the best colors in the San Juans are cerise and pink. View full article

Wow... that's the FIRST chapter??? Thank you for being so willing to share what you've learned over the years.

I think I'm setting the CAM tournament for March 28th. It's the one where all trout are counted - measured. I've sent the date to everyone in the office to see if there's any conflicts. I believe with the constant generation over the past year-plus, there are dozens of "monsters" out there, hiding and growing in places virtually impossible to get at. Then there's the ones that have been hooked and lost... so many stories over the last 4-5 days. When they slow down the water and what I would call GOOD trout anglers get here, we'll see some big fish come in.

I added one back. I'll work on the other one later.

Randy - I see you attached pdf's of your articles... I'm glad. The old ozarkanglers.com was deleted a few months back - all that's left is the forum. The old Wordpress site was so far outdated that we were starting to have troubles with it and the company who built and maintained it went out of business. So instead of starting over I transferred a lot of the articles to the forum - but obviously I missed your articles. And on the forum, there's going to be a lot of broken links pointing to the old site. I'd be glad to add your articles to the forum if you'd like. I think they are very helpful - thanks for sharing them.

Turbines and flood gates continued to move water from Table Rock Lake into and through Lake Taneycomo this past week. Rains Thursday and Friday kept the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from making any headway, though. Beaver Lake's level rose slightly to 1,126.5 feet while Table Rock's level remains at 919.1 feet. Operators are running 15,000 cubic feet of water per second through Table Rock Dam, equal to four full turbines. We had a very busy weekend with lots of boats on the lake. Despite the heavy flow, most anglers did exceptionally well. Almost everyone was drifting something on the bottom -- from shrimp (yes, the ones from the ocean) to minnows and worms, and from Power Bait to flies and jigs. Anglers reported catching "nothing but brown trout" drifting minnows on the bottom from Cooper Creek through the Branson Landing stretch. No one bought in or told us of any browns caught longer than 20 inches, though. Scuds (freshwater shrimp) flies continue to be one of the hottest baits to catch trout, both above and below Fall Creek. You'll need at least a quarter-ounce weight to pull down to the bottom and drift basically down the middle or a tad on the inside bend of the lake. A #12 gray is the best size and color. Of course, there are quite a few shades of gray, at least in our shop. And we're using four-pound clear or green line -- no need for two-pound simply because of the speed your fly is flying by the trout. They have no time to snub their noses based on the weight of the line. Those trout only have a fraction of a second to react -- whether to eat or pass. Other hot flies are the medium cerise San Juan Worm and the Mega Worm, reported by Flys and Guide's Lisa Bellue. The best stretch to drift is from Lookout Island down to Short Creek with the Narrows taking the hot spot designation. Last week, Duane (and others) saw threadfin shad in the water below the dam. These small bait fish come over from the spill gates from Table Rock, along with other warm water species of fish, into Lake Taneycomo, and our trout love to eat them. Unfortunately, we haven't seen evidence that many of these bait fish have come over the dam in the last couple of months, but we hope we're seeing the beginning of a "shad run," as it's called. Some of the guides have been drifting white jigs and shad flies below the dam and have been picking up some nice rainbows and a few browns. If and when we get a true shad run, catching will get really, really good with shad lures and flies. I would also suggest to try dragging small stick baits like F5, floating Rapalas in shad colors using a carolina rig with a quarter-ounce weights. We carry a cheap knock-off in our shop -- cheap because we tend to lose a lot of baits to snags on the bottom. For bank fly fishing below the dam, fishing a gray or tan #14 or #16 scud under an indicator at the hatchery outlets has been about the only good access, but fishing those locations has been very good. Also anglers are catching fish on San Juan Worms. Images courtesy of Ozark Trout Runners, Duane Doty. View full article

One big rain and we're back to big generation here on Lake Taneycomo. Beaver Lake jumped 4 feet to 1125 feet while Table Rock rose to 919.9 feet. Both lakes were almost down to their seasonal power pool. Right now, they are releasing a little bit of water from Beaver and releasing water at Table Rock to the tune of 15,000 cubic feet per second. That's a little more than if they were running 4 full units but they are only running 3 turbines along with 5 flood gates opened 1-foot each. At Beaver, my app says there's one gate open one foot at 970 c.f.s.. We are going to see this flow from Table Rock all this week and probably into the weekend with more continuing at 3 units when they get Table Rock down a little. If they do the same thing as previously, we're going to see 3-unit-water for several weeks. Fishing was tough over the weekend because the upper lake was still feeling the affects of Friday night's rain. The lake Saturday was pretty dirty, and when the cloudiness cleared up, anglers had to still deal with leaves and sticks flowing in from feeder creeks. By Monday, the lake was free of stuff and very fishable. There's only really one thing you must do to catch a trout now and that is to be on the bottom. That's where the fish are holding up. That and in eddies along the bank. And they are biting and can be caught. Guide Steve Dickey put 2 of his clients on big trout already. Randy from St. Louis landed this 28” 10.5lb. drifting a Bomber on the bottom in the trophy area. Steve from St. Louis Caught this beautiful 26 inch brown on a #14 gray scud using 6x tippet. Yeah! Both browns! All of a sudden they're showing up which is cool. So whether you're fishing a gray scud, cerise San Juan worm, a stick bait, a Bomber, night crawler, minnow or PowerBait, get it on the bottom and drift away. View full article

I love to see local baits advertised on the forum! And I welcome it all. May I ask what do you use, Bismuth?

And then there's One Cast.

If you didn't know.... we're down to 2 units and the big rain forecasted is going to be a little rain it looks like. Today's been an awesome day to fish. Wow - for January 10th. And the fish bit too. Steve from St. Louis Caught this beautiful 26 inch brown today on a #14 gray scud using 6x tippet. He was guided by Captain Steve Dickey in the trophy area. The fish weighed in at 8.2 pounds and was released to fight another day. John and Frank from St Louis caught and released these rainbows yesterday. Caught on jigs "somewhere" down lake. We understand John's caught another one today. And last but not least, Duane's client caught this rainbow yesterday drifting a cerise San Juan in the trophy area. Released.