Phil Lilley

Spring isn't here yet, but the rain has arrived in the Lake Taneycomo area. Moderate showers continue to move through our area the past four days, bringing our lake up after a week of dropping levels. We're not in trouble -- not even close. But that does mean heavy generation for the next week or more. At Table Rock Dam, one unit is still not able to be operated so the U.S. Corps of Army Engineers is spilling water over five gates at 1,000 cubic feet per second each presently. With three full units running that's 15,000 c.f.s. total, equal to four full units. Table Rock's lake level is at 916.7 feet and rising. On Sunday, Duane Doty and I boated to the dam to see whether our trout would bite a white jig. With the increase of flow over the gates, we were hoping threadfin shad were being washed from Table Rock into Lake Taneycomo. We didn't do that well. Monday morning, though, Duane said he saw several shad in the water below the dam while on a guide trip. So I ran up there to give it a try. While doing One Cast, my first drift down only yielded one rainbow, but it was very fat. On my second drift, I saw several shad in the water, plus I figured out what I think I doing wrong. Using an 1/8th-ounce white jig, I threw out to the side while drifting and let the jig just drift, not working it at all. If I felt it hit the bottom, I'd jerk like setting the hook. Sometimes it was the bottom ,but six times it was a rainbow. And these rainbows were all great trout, measuring between 16 and 19 inches. I needed to get and keep the jig on the bottom since that's where they are. On a really good shad bite, those trout will come all the way to the surface for a threadfin. It's crazy good. But I guess they haven't seen enough shad to make the switch. But we're grateful they're seeing any at all right now. We've been having a terrible time with moss on the bottom of the lake, especially in the Trophy Area. About anything you drift with, if it's on the bottom, gets covered up and the fish won't bite. But with this bigger flow, you can hear the gravel on the bottom of the lake turning and churning in the current, so I guess the moss is all broken free, which is much better for fishing. Captain Tony Weldele, reported that drifting a scud and egg fly from Andy's house down to Fall Creek was excellent Monday afternoon with no problem with moss on the flies. That's huge for drift fishing! We should start seeing less moss below Fall Creek very soon because the gravel will shift with this much flow. The creeks have been on fire lately, with the exception of the periods after these rains. Monday morning and into the afternoon, the creeks flowing into upper Lake Taneycomo were all blown out, but should all be fine and excellent for fishing today. Captain Duane said his clients caught more than a hundred rainbows the other day in Roark Creek, mostly on the Berkley Pink Worm under a float. Captain Steve Dickey said the same thing. You can also catch them on a Berkley's Gulp egg on a small jig head under a float, too. Drifting Berkley's Power Bait eggs or Gulp eggs on the bottom from our place down is producing good catches. We saw several boats drift by Monday with fish on the line. Drifting from Scotty's Trout Dock to Kanakuk Camp has been good, too. Night crawlers are always good after a rain ,so don't forget about them. There are some good places to anchor out of the current and fish with either minnows or worms. The inside bend above our place is a good place as well as well below Cooper Creek by the water fall coming off the bluff and even further down on that east side. Just be very careful to anchor off the very front of the boat in slow current. Be mindful that the anchor could catch and get caught on a tree on the bottom -- you might have to cut the rope and lose the anchor. You'll fish with a tight line behind the boat in the slower current using minnows or night crawlers. All images credited to Captain Duane Doty, Ozark Trout Runners. View full article

You guys know this but I used the Mo Fishing App to find the brush piles.

Sorry late report. Put in about 2 pm. WT 52.6 degrees and pretty calm. Hit some MDC brush piles south of the ramp and caught crappie on all of them. Had 12 keeps and as many shorts. They came on a variety of soft plastic baits - none better than others really. Just had to get the fish activated and then we'd catch 6 in a row. Tried beating the surface with a paddle which did nothing. Snagging the brush and pulling on it did something... and some times it helped the bite. Did see the whole lot of fish slowly leave the pile one time... that was cool. We just moved to the next pile.

They've said the same thing about a lot of things... we aren't prepared for a host of things that could happen. Powergrid Internet collapse Bio warfare No one wants to spend the money and get yelled at for wasting money.

Mike Rowe just shared the Rogan video... Osterholm seems like a guy you should pay attention to. Listen to the full version. Talks about Lymes too. Interesting. City of Branson is having a meeting tomorrow. We'll see what they have to say about shows/attractions.

I'll be posting a report tomorrow... but it will basically say look for heavy generation for the foreseeable future. The lakes are just above "normal" but with rain in the forecast every 3-4 days, we'll see this flow for a while. They are letting water over the gates, yes, but only to the tune of 4 units. We still have one unit not working so that's why the gates are open. This is a blessing... we should see some shad. There doesn't have to be a kill to have them come over. When we have a shad kill (because of cold water on TR), they usually come through the turbines- and over the gates. So I'd rather see some gates open and 3 units than 4 units and no gates. We're seeing some moss from TR but most of it's coming from the bottom of our lake. But with the deeper water and heavier flow, this should start to move it out. We see some of the best spring fishing when the water is running like this... just have to make those adjustments and find where they're holding.

Full version...

I'm sure they will... same thing isn't it? NBA games? Why are they allowing fans to watch? I'm supposed to speak in Dallas at a Fly Fisher's meeting... I bet that gets canceled too. Churches will start canceling services too, especially big congregations.

NCAA tournament games.... no fans. That's got to hurt the cities they're in... hotels, restaurants... that's a big hit. TV ratings will be up... charge more for commercials.

We had our first cancellation yesterday because of this. A teacher in another state said that his school told him if they traveled out of state on their spring break, they'd have to take voluntary quarantine for 14 days. We're bracing for a lull in business. Shows in Branson are quaking in their shoes. But this will pass. Jump in to the stock market and then come fish. There'll be a lot more trout after this is over.

On Table Rock, and Bull Shoals, get the MO Fishing App and find all the brush piles MDC planted. I've found others - they're easy to find with a good fish finder.

Click on and download or view PDF link: 2019 Lake Taneycomo Annual Report.pdf View full article

Click on and download or view this PDF. 2019 Table Rock Lake Annual Report.pdf View full article

The image link I posted is a live image, updated several times a day by NOAA.

At the beginning of each of my fishing reports for Lake Taneycomo, I start with lake conditions of the lakes above and below us because their levels dictate, in some degree, the generation patterns we might see. But at the time of this writing, we're looking at rain almost every day for the next 10 days in our area so conditions on Lake Taneycomo might change; hence, the ways I talk about fishing might change, too. We will see. Beaver Lake, the upper most lake in our White River Chain of Lakes, is now being dropped from its high mark of 1,127.8 feet, 7.8 feet above its seasonal power pool. Dam operators are running about 3,900 cubic feet of water per second around the clock, and the lake is dropping about .4 inches per day. Table Rock Lake is holding at 915.5 feet, and the release rate from Table Rock Dam into Lake Taneycomo is 10,000 cubic feet per second. Wow -- I haven't even finished my report and Beaver has opened spill gates to the tune of 4,000 c.f.s.. Monday alone the lake dropped a whopping six inches in a 24-hour period. Bull Shoals Lake's level is now just above its seasonal power pool after two weeks of full generation at its dam. Its level is at 659.8 feet and dam operators there are still running 16,000 c.f.s. round the clock, dropping the lake about .2 of a foot per day. The seven-day forecast is calling for two to four inches of rain in southwest Missouri and northwest Arkansas, but that forecast changes on a daily basis. It does look like we should receive at least a solid two inches, so that will raise all our of lakes a couple of feet. All this means continued generation here on Lake Taneycomo. If Table Rock Lake jumps past 917 feet again, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will start running about 15,000 c.f.s. of water from its dam. One of our four turbines has not been in operation lately, and operators have been spilling water over the spill gates to make up for the turbine flow. If the turbine cannot be used, then we might see water released again over the spill gates. This would bring more warm water fish into the lake and probably a good push of threadfin shad. I posted a video on March 10th of last year while fishing below Table Rock Dam with the spill gates open. We were catching big, fat rainbows on white jigs because threadfin shad had been washing into the lake through the spill gates. We might see a replay of this very soon. As I said, we're seeing three full units running 24/7 right now on Taneycomo, and trout fishing has been pretty good. With the flow increasing from two to three units, our trout are back to taking bigger scuds and fatter San Juan Worms as they did several week ago when generation was heavier. We expect that with more flow, the freshwater shrimp will be more active and move up out of the gravel, then carried by the current to become easy prey for fish. That seems to be the pattern anyhow. Faster current means flies will move past the fish more quickly with less time to react and inspect the offering. So bigger sizes are permissible, it seems. Our rainbows are still in spawning mode and are taking egg flies, too. So what most of our fishing guides are doing is running flies in tandem -- two flies tied about 18 inches apart, usually with a scud/egg or a scud/San Juan worm. Four-pound line is fine. Use just enough weight to drop your fly to the lake bottom, probably a 3/16-ounce bell weight. Early, fishing guide Steve Dickey reports he's drifting a #12 scud with an egg fly in the trophy area. But later in the day he's switched to a duo scud and downsizing to a #14 or #16. Colors on the scuds are gray, olive or tan and peach on the egg fly. There's some algae on the bottom of the lake in the trophy area, so if you tire of fighting it, use a float and fish your flies about seven- to nine-feet deep. David English, long time Taney trout angler, caught this personal best, 23-inch brown Monday on a Lilleys' white jig while drifting right at the trophy area line by Fall Creek. It was released after a quick picture. Marabou jigs are working fairly well in the trophy area, working both banks, and the middle on the bottom. If you use four-pound line, I'd suggest using a 3/32nd- or a 1/8th-ounce jig. With two-pound line, you could switch to a 1/16th-ounce jig if the wind isn't too bad. Best colors are white (red or white thread), white/blue if you're fishing up close to the dam, then sculpin/peach, black/yellow or brown/orange. Fishing Guide Duane Doty reports rainbows have moved up in the creeks down in the Branson area. The water temperature in Turkey, Coon and Roark creeks is about six degrees warmer than the lake right now, and our trout are seeking out that warmer water. Anglers are catching them on the Berkley Pink Powerworm under a float five- to six-feet deep -- and throwing spoons and rooster tails. Drifting minnows, worms and Gulp Power Bait Eggs from Cooper Creek down through Monkey Island is working pretty well. Down here, the water is moving pretty slowly, so I'd use a 1/8th-ounce bell weight with four-pound line. Duane is still catching some nicer rainbows on his signature series jerk baits early in the mornings, but the bite is short. You can use a Rapala, Rouge or a MegaBass 110+ in shad colors, but make sure you use a suspending jerk bait. Work both the shallow and deep banks from the dam down past our place, Lilleys' Landing. Images: Credit Duane Doty, Ozark Trout Runners View full article

Put in at Bridgeport about 9 am this morning. Hit all the brush piles I hit last week plus a few new ones. Saw fish... but they didn't want to play. Caught 4 keeps and 8 shorts. Pulled out at 3 pm. Did eat at Flat Creek... what a treat!! Did fish back in Flat some. Fished along the channel bank and the brush piles we found. Saw fish and caught one keep there and several real small ones. Water temp 49-50 but not as muddy as the other day. Also fished I think back in Honey Bear (??) Honey something. Can't remember. The water was murky/stained on top. Water was mixing or something? I didn't stay there very long.

The start correlated with Bull Shoals hitting the 660 foot mark the other day. They backed off the flow at BS Dam and at the same time started running at Beaver. They also bumped up Table Rock Dam's flow from 2 to 3 units. Then there's this... hopefully they're wrong. This is 7 days of rain, not one big rain. That will help.

Thought of you Lance as I drove over yesterday with Marsha to see the grandkids in Cave Springs... just got back. Just an over night. Someday I'll have to pull the boat over and take them out on Beaver, a lake I've been on twice. Once for stripers in the mid 90's and once a few years back chasing whites and walleye. With the kids probably growing up there, I'll have to learn a little bit about the lake. May be the son-in-law will buy a boat and get a head start on me.

Put in at Bridgeport 10:30 on Wednesday morning. Cloudy and a little breeze. Water color was fair and 49-50 degrees. Headed to Flat Creek. Water was much clearer in Flat and muddy coming out of James but temps were about the same. There were 3-4 boats below the bridge but saw nothing caught. They seemed like they were looking for crappie on the flats. I didn't go above the bridge. Came back out of Flat and down past the ramp. First cove on the left is where I've fished alot. Found a few fish on the livescope out in 24 feet of water but couldn't get them to play. There was a guide in the middle with spider rods out. Saw them catch a couple - they left. Ventured across the main lake to the other side and sought out MDC brush piles. Found the first one - nothing. Second was really small but yielded the most fish. 6 big keepers and 6-7 shorts. 24 feet of water on the bottom. Next one yielded a few shorts - then MDC agents pulled up and checked me. Kirby and a guy from Barry county. Last one was on the bluff - big pile. Caught 2 more nice keepers off that one and a few shorts. 4:15 had to head back. Could have limited if had more time but 8 is plenty for us. I think there was 3 females in the bunch. Put in at Cricket at 10 yesterday morning. Windy. Water color dingy and 52 most places. I fished up Yocum, above and below the bridge, up Long and up Cricket. Brush piles - some had fish but couldn't get them to bite. Fished the flats. Saw lots of fish on the livescope but couldn't get anything to bite. Quite at 4... too tired to fight it anymore. Others were moving around a lot and not catching that I could see. Just an off day. Did meet the new owners at Cricket Creek Marina. Awesome couple! And they've done a lot of work/improvements to the facility. Young family... wish them well! View full article

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