Phil Lilley

Water still in the mid 50's?

These are some of the articles I have to edit because of losing links and images from the old OA. I didn't think they'd show up in the feed though.

I was prepared to offer a not-so-good fishing report this week, but there's a glimmer of hope emerging. It's been tough for most of the main lake anglers. Blame it on the cold water (but it's been the same all winter). Blame it on the constant 6,500-cubic-feet-per-second flow, (but it's been the same for weeks.) Blame it on the wind, rain and bright sun. I've run out of things to blame for the slow fishing! May be we haven't found what they want. I'm a jig fisherman -- that's what I do. And I tend to give up if they're not taking a jig in a way I think they should take it. I mean, there are time-tested patterns that are established, proven to work! And if they're not biting, well, they're not hungry. So Monday, I caught trout on a small, 1/32nd-ounce black/olive jig, black head using two-pound line working an inside bank where the current was slower than the main channel. I thought I had found a pattern I could build on. Tuesday morning, I hit the same bank, same jig and had the same luck. But I hadn't tried this pattern any other place on the lake. No time... on to work. Tuesday evening I had some time before meeting the family at Thai Thai, so Jackson and I took a jon boat out, up to the same bank I had worked two times prior. And yes, they were still taking my jig. But this time I worked it fast and shallow, not letting the jig sink much at all. And the trout liked it very much! Just after I passed the pump station building, I saw a good-sized trout take a midge mid lake, behind me. I threw at it and caught it. Cool! Threw to the middle again and caught another. Boated back up, but this time I guided the boat to the bluff bank. But I didn't work close to the bank or the eddies. I threw way off the bank and worked it fast and shallow and -- I caught some nice rainbows. Lots of them. The last trout was a good brown, about 18 inches, which snapped my two-pound line. Of course, I had not re-tied the jig on after over a dozen fish, so I asked for it. OK then, I established a good pattern that was working not only in slower current but mid lake. Granted, no wind and cloudy skies helped the bite, I'm sure, but the trend was a sign of good things to come -- I'm hoping. The idea of a small jig is that in these conditions, the jig isn't sinking very fast. The fast, jerky action of the jig must bring trout out of the deep, and the dead drop triggers the strike. The water is clear enough that you can see the flash of the fish, slashing at the lure. It's pretty fun. I wonder if a fly fisherman could imitate this action with a beaded woolly bugger? I bet so. The other hot spot has been the warm water feeder creeks. Our lake water temperature has held at 43-44 degrees for weeks -- that's cold even for trout. These creeks, namely Turkey, Coon and Roark, have a lot of rainbows in them. What I have heard is that either a jig or a Berkley pink worm under a float only two to three- feet deep is catching them. Guide Chuck Gries said Tuesday that his clients had been doing pretty good catching bigger rainbows and a few browns while drifting up below the dam with a variety of flies under an indicator. He's using a tandem which consists of a scud, zebra midge, egg fly and a San Juan worm. He said the numbers are low, but the quality of trout netted makes the trip up worth it. View full article

I went out to prove fish could be caught and was pretty successful. Watch One Cast... but I fished 2 lb line, light jigs and slower water. They're there... Fished the bluff bank afterwards and didn't do well at all. Even in the eddies. But I think if you're after bigger fish, have to stay on the deeper water and just keep banging the bluff banks. Did have some chasers... may be throw a jerk bait early.

Honestly don't know why it's so slow. Can blame it on a lot of things but none make sense. Yes the water is cold but it's been cold most of the winter. And the DO (o2) is excellent. You can find and catch a lot of stocker rainbows up in the creeks right now. But if you don't like that (and I really don't personally), there are some quality trout to be caught if you want to work for it. But you have to get out early and stay late, especially on these bright days.... although it looks like we're in for some weather which should be good for catching fish. Hit the banks, the eddies, with black and brown jigs. And hit everything with jerks baits, especially early and late. On One Cast, I generally try places I haven't fished in a while. Or I'll hit places where I know I have a better chance to catch something... it's split about 50/50. I'll be writing a report today so watch for it.

WOW that's incredible. Thanks for posting that.

One of my guides has been catching crappie in Beaver for 2 weeks.

Naw... the app is down too.

I bet that thing would pull...

We deleted the wordpress part of ozarkanglers.com yesterday and redirected http://ozarkanglers.com to the forum site... There's several reasons, the main one was I hadn't updated WP in a long time and it locked me out. Plus almost all the content there had been moved to the forum content side. So there's some images that were hosted there that have gone away, mainly banner ads it looks like. I'll work on that in due time. Thanks

I know... it's a new toy and I'll phase back to just fishing and use it when I need to. This is totally new to me... I've hardly ever even used a depth finder before. Sure don't need it trout fishing. And I don't chase those "stinkin' bass".

Almost... one does count? Duane and I put in at Cricket Monday evening and tried out the LiveScope. Duane kept telling me to fish the way I fish and don't watch the screen... problem is I'm not a good crappie fisherperson and I haven't had a lot of luck there. So confidence was waning and I wanted to cheat! So we floundered for the most part. Did find one leaning log with fish under it in which DD snagged one out of. Water temp I think was mid 60's. Very few people out which was amazing. This am I put in at Long Creek. Not crowded either. Now I have had success several places there so I went to my go-to spot. There at first light and water temp 61 I threw to the bank first thing to make sure they weren't there spawning. Nothing. So I backed out and ... yes watched the screen. DD wasn't there to police me. I saw fish, all over the place. Around structure and on the bottom. Schools moving around, shad balls. it's pretty cool. But as far as getting anything to eat the hook... notta. Saw those little peckerheads swim all around it and nip at it but no takers. Moved around some. Found a big brush pile full of fish near the state line. But alas... I don't have anything weedless in the box so I lost and lost and lost. Did catch one short crappie over the top of that pile which was cool. Thought... this is it!! I'll go back with the right stuff... it's fun to figure it all out. Man, they're working like mad men at that place. Tent cabins, cabins, tin cabins which really look strange. All kinds of wacky outdoor overnight places. I love the concepts! Gotta dodge all the road work getting in and out.

It's been hard to sit down and write a fishing report because of the uncertainty of conditions lately. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened four spill gates last Monday and left those gates opened exactly one foot each for one week. I speculated that the opening of the gates would be temporary, only a couple of days, but that was not the case. So now that the gates are closed, and the work has been completed at the dam, I can evaluate future conditions . . . maybe. The release rate presently is 6,500 cubic feet per second (C.F.S.), Taneycomo's lake level is at 707.6 feet. Dam operators are running it around the clock, and Table Rock Lake's level is dropping about two inches per day, 915.42 feet. Power pool is 915 feet. Beaver Lake is shut down and holding at 1,120 feet. Their seasonal power pool is 1,120.43 feet. Our water temperature is 43 degrees. I would speculate we will see this flow for the next few days, until Table Rock's level drops to 915 feet... but you never know. Our trout did see a good number of threadfin shad flow into Taneycomo from Table Rock through the spill gates, and now they are looking for about anything that looks like a threadfin -- white jigs, white hard baits, white flies. Even spoons and spinners will work. These fish can be aggressive in their feeding, especially the bigger browns and rainbows that are used to eating bigger meals, like other trout and forage fish. So wake baits and larger jerk baits seem to be the ticket if you're fishing for trophies. With two units running, you can easily boat up to the dam, but just stay in the middle of the lake. We're using 3/32nd- to 1/16th-ounce white jigs, throwing them straight with no float and smaller 1/32nd-ounce jigs under a float four to seven-feet deep. Switch out the color if they're not taking white to sculpin, sculpin/ginger, black/olive or white/gray. Those who are throwing big jerk baits are throwing a Megabass 110+ in shad colors. If you don't want to spend the big bucks on a Megabass, throw a Rouge or Rapala. Suspending baits seemed to work better than floating or sinking. This is the time of year when we start to see a lot of green moss on the bottom of our lake, so drifting anything on the bottom is hampered by the green stuff. But that's not to say you can't catch trout by drifting a gray or olive scud, egg fly, San Juan Worm or a shad fly on the bottom. I'd recommend using very little weight and no weighted flies, if possible. Better yet, use a float and fish any of these flies under it four- to eight-feet deep. Below Fall Creek, night crawlers are doing about the best along with minnows. Minnows would be excellent because we know the threadfin shad have made it all the way down past Fall Creek, so those fish have seen and eaten a bunch of them. White jigs are also pretty hot, even past Lilleys' Landing and Cooper Creek. Our guides are back to using the pink and red Berkley's PowerWorm under a float eight- to 10-feet deep. The best area is from Monkey Island down past the Landing, according to Steve Dickey who had just brought in a happy group of clients. He said they're having to thin through smaller stocker rainbows to get the nice ones, but they are for sure there! Another group of guys staying here brought in some nice rainbows which they caught drifting down by the Landing on white/orange PowerEggs with a pinch of worm on the hook. You can't argue with success! I did overhear some talking yesterday that they tried trolling and were surprised they did very well. They were using a blue Rebel. Here are some pictures of trout caught over the weekend by anglers who fished in our CAM benefit tournament. These were all 20-inches-plus, the last one 24 inches caught on a white jig. David Beal and Seth Turner. View full article

Here's the results of our CAM tournament (all inches): Novice - 1st Jason Doty 310.5 2nd Neal Bloom 194.5 3rd Mona Cheri Doty 191.5 Intermediate - 1st Allen Slater 349.5 2nd David Doty 349 3rd Tom Johnson 227 Pro - 1st Seth Turner 726.5 2nd Duane Doty 344 3rd DJ Beal 308.5 Here are the numbers (which are always interesting) Total fish 345 --- Total inches 4483.5 Average 13.0 inches

Had to beat 726.5 inches... Seth blew away the competition.

You should be in our tournament...

Oh I think it'll get much better.

Boated to lookout tonight and started One Cast. 3/32nd oz white jig - tore them up! Couple of decent 17-19 inch rainbows were the biggest but better quality rainbows than yesterday. They were pretty aggressive. Boated to the dam after I got done. Didn't get into them until past outlet #3 but then, it was on again. Nice rainbows. Videoed again but won't get it loaded till tomorrow. I was the only one up there... no wind, beautiful clouds and nice sunset. Saw one shad in the water and several "hits' around me - I assume fish taking shad off the surface. Still not sure why they're still running 4 gates... and why they shut a turbine down again mid day. but not complaining!!!

Yes... They shut down a turbine and kept the gates open from about 11-5 today. Weird!! That's another first... One turbine and 4 gates. Went up about noon and fished... caught a couple but they must have been full. Saw no shad in the water but DD said he saw shad at Monkey Island this morning.