Phil Lilley

Might be totally unrelated to this. 3/11 is in a week. The turbines are free standing at the base of the dam. Doesn't make much since. I'm hoping for a couple of weeks at least. When one turbine is down for maintenance it takes weeks.

From the Corp just now - With plant outages scheduled during work at the Table Rock Powerhouse, The Corps will need to pass inflows using the main spillway. This spill should remain constant during the duration of the plant outage. If the units come back online, the spillway gates may be shut and releases be made through the turbines. Tuesday morning, gates 9 and 10 will be open 2 feet each. The flow over the spillway will be roughly 3,900 cfs. Please contact me if you have any questions. The way I read it, all turbines will be down for this repair. 3900 cfs will be running over gates 9 and 10 for the duration. What does this mean? 3900 cfs is equal to about one unit flow. And shad should come over the spill gates for most if not all the time. Good fishing ahead!!!!

I sat back and watched this group of friends and saw what a fishing group of men should be. No egos, no offenses, sharing stories and life. Appreciating the time together at a nice lodge on a great river with lots of fishing prowess present ready to teach the ones who aren't as versed in jig fishing. Thanks Jeff for all the coordinating, putting this together, as well as the One Bass on Table Rock. You deserve a big thanks to many members on this forum for your effort. Kudos! Ham, I'm amazed at your humbleness, how you shirked off that big smallie like you were embarrassed you'd caught it and not someone else. And your willingness to teach anyone how to "Ham those trout", sharing the skill that's taken a lifetime to perfect. You are a gentleman. Thanks Curt for fishing with me. It was good catching up since our Alaska trip last summer. Thank you Richard for sharing your Zig Jigs. They truly are fish catching jigs! Thanks Les for your stories. And yes we missed Rick and others that didn't make it. The fishing was pretty incredible, seeing we caught world class small mouth bass just outside the mouth of the Buffalo, I guess in their wintering hole. I don't think we knew exactly what we had at the time, not being avid bass anglers. Duane and I are always joking about the "stinkin' bass" we catch while trying to catch a trout but we couldn't say that about these bass. Pretty neat. And the trout -- they were much more colorful (esp the rainbows) and bigger on average than the fish in past years. Not as many though... there were pockets holding a ton of fish but in years past, I remember catching rainbows all through the river, just smaller and all silver. This year was very different. Very impressive. One thing has to change, though. Duane and I told each other we're going to have to invest in a White River trout boat --- with a jet! Plus a drag chain. I ran the motor most of the time and about poisoned myself with fumes from the motor while back-drafting, trying to keep the boat straight while fishing pockets along the banks. If the wind was right, my head would start throbbing... took me a while to figure out why. And the prop limited my ability to go places I needed to go. I was happy I didn't damage the prop.

Here's what Clint Hale sent me on Missouri trout strains. Trout Strains (1).pdf

Deleted the tampon posts... started to delete more but I wouldn't know where to stop.

Disappointed this topic took a turn to the nasty side. And by some who have been on here for a lot of years - and should know better. The ice is getting thin... spring is almost here. Now knock it off.

Fishing with Duane I bet we had 6 pushing 18-19 inches. DD had one 19.5. It was crazy - almost all out of the same hole Thursday. I asked what was the SM regs for the White River. I'm sure they're not the same for the Buffalo, which those fish came out of.

These are from Thursday. The trout are from the White Hole area. The smallmouth came from near Buffalo City. \ Only pics from Friday. Again, White Hole area.

Background alert!!

Only pic I took on my phone. From this morning. Measly 18-inch brown.

Ok. Limited lifted post away

Waiting on my server guy to lift the attachment limit on uploading images.... setting were change on an upgrade.

You were saying....

Thanks for all your organizing work on this, Jeff.

Any reports of shad coming through? That would be a game changer I guess.

I know the dam area gets hit real hard, esp in February. White Hole may be a better place. Would love to fish down at Buffalo City but not sure there's enough water during the day. I fell in love with that area.

Duane and I plan on being at a ramp on the White River early Thursday morning. We also plan on pulling one of my jon boats/25 hp motor (prop). We don't have the luxury of having Duane's old jet boat... man I miss that thing. If generation stays the same, say or it was today, what should we do? Water comes on at 6 am and drops back down at 5 pm. We could just stay up close to the dam, venturing down to Gaston's, White Hole. Not knowing the river, would be get in to too much trouble running with a prop? We can plan something different Friday after seeing what's going on with everybody else. We will pull out Saturday morning after fishing for a few hours.

Trophy Brown... and great fish on a fly rod!

Oh I think I'll make it over there sometime... I'd think they would start generating though pretty soon.

We've had lots of excitement on Taneycomo the last few days. Here at Lilleys' Landing we have had a fun time keeping up with all the social and news media coverage and comments about "Frank," the new brown trout state record caught by Paul Crews of Neosho, MO, on Saturday. I know Paul, a quiet, mild-mannered person, is not accustomed to all the attention, calls and interviews, but he's handled it all with great grace, knowing the publicity just comes with the territory of breaking an almost 10-year record, especially with a fish that many have sighted but never enticed. This fun fish story has so many facets that it's hard to cover them all at one time. Paul used one jig -- all day -- including the last fish he landed, the state record brown. The wind was gusting up to 40 mph that afternoon. Catching anything by throwing a jig should have been nearly impossible. I could go on and on Of the trout brought in for the weigh-in on Saturday, the brown, of course, took the spotlight. As for the other trout, we didn't see any of the good two-pound-plus rainbows that have been caught in previous contests this winter, only one weighing 2.25-pounds. But the rest were solid one-pound to 1.5-pounders. Even the Crews/Rayfield's seve-rainbow weight was impressive at 7.84 pounds (minus the brown trout). Most of those fish were caught on spoons and jigs. And most of the teams fished down lake, from Monkey Island down past the Branson Landing. For two weeks now, the area in front of the Branson Landing has been holding a lot of trout, most of which were probably recently stocked either down at the Missouri Department of Conservation ramp/dock or by boat in that area. These stocker rainbows are good sized, most approaching a pound each. Some of our guides have been fishing down there, throwing the Berkley's pink Powerworm under a float five- to seven- feet deep. Again, that's one of the best lures used to catch rainbows on this lake in years. They're using four-pound line. Anglers are drifting Powerbait and doing very well, too. Use the smallest weight to get to the bottom. We're suggesting an 1/8th- ounce bell on the drift rigs because dam operators have only been running two units all the time now. That's pretty slow current, especially down towards the bridges downtown. Night crawler and minnows are catching fish, too, and you'll have a better chance catching a bigger trout using natural baits like these. I fished yesterday with local Pastor Richard Marks, boating to the dam and throwing jigs, straight, with no float. We used white and white/gray for the first drift from the cable down to Lookout Island and only caught a handful of trout (and one smallmouth bass.) We made a second drift and switched to darker colored jigs, a black and a sculpin/ginger 3/32nd-ounce jig. The fish liked these jigs better! We caught quadruple the number of fish and missed many more strikes. The difference was amazing! So with only two units of water running, we're not seeing any shad come through the turbines, no sign of any fish eating them. It's been my experience that shad come through when four units are running rather than with less generation. I think the power or flow of the current on the topside of the dam pulls more baitfish into the intake, and that's why we see shad during heavy generation rather than during slow generation. So will we see shad when they crank up the flow from Table Rock Dam? I hope so. Fly fishing has been pretty good. A group here now from St Louis are fly fishing out of our boats, drifting mainly in the trophy area and doing pretty well. They are drifting scuds, San Juan worms and egg flies under an indicators four- to six-feet deep, staying on the inside bends and drifting over shallow flats, trying to stay away from the deeper channel. View full article

I got to tell you, I was a nervous wreck from the time I opened his livewell to him swimming off. He was so hard to even handle, move around. All Paul wanted was a picture of him and the fish... just one. Unreal set of events: Documented the fish for 3 years, identify his markings. Fish caught on a sculpin jig. Fish caught in a tournament by a guy who only fished Taneycomo once a year. Fish caught in high winds. Fish landed using 4 pound line. The landing was videoed. Fish survived the fight, handling, transport, handled, transported again and handled one last time only to swim off strong.

Because there are so many facets to this Lake Taneycomo trout story, it's hard to know where to begin. The prime fact is that Paul Crews of Neosho, MO, landed the biggest brown trout Saturday anyone's ever caught in the state of Missouri to date. It was officially weighed by Missouri Department of Conservation Fisheries Biologist Shane Bush and documented at 34 pounds and 10 ounces. That beat the previous state record by a little more than six pounds, caught by Scott Sandusky of Arnold, MO, in November, 2009, also on Lake Taneycomo. Crews and partner, Jimmy Rayfield of Salem, MO, were fishing together in a trout tournament hosted by Lilleys' Landing Resort & Marina on upper Lake Taneycomo. It's called the Vince Elfrink Memorial, named after Vince who was an avid sportsman, husband, father, and friend to many of the participants of the contest, including Crews and Rayfield. Vince passed away in 2011 of brain cancer at the age of 52. And just so happens that the pair won last year's tournament, sealed by a 21-inch brown trout Rayfield had caught. The pair beat out 36 other teams to win this year's event. The day started out foggy and wet, but the afternoon brought out the sun and wind. We all were watching for thunderstorms early but anticipating the high winds forecast for later in the day, and they did arrive about 2 p.m.. Fishing in wind gusts up to 40 m.p.h. is not easy, especially tossing a small 1/8th ounce, sculpin-colored jig around. Working a lure that small in high winds is tough, even with four-pound line, but feeling a bite is virtually impossible, unless it's a huge fish, I guess. Crews and Rayfield had had a good day up to the minute the big fish was hooked. They had been fishing down from Lilleys' Landing most of the day but ventured up to the mouth of Fall Creek to make a drift, working their jigs along the east bank. Crews said they were in shallow water, able to see the bottom under their boat as they drifted. Table Rock Dam was releasing water at a rate of 6,850 cubic feet per second, generating two units at 3 p.m. Even with the difficulty of the wind blowing his line, Crews still felt a "tap" and set the hook. That's when the excitement started. The fish came off the bank where it was hooked and ran toward the duo, swimming under their boat. Crews had to scramble his new rig, spinning it around so that his line didn't catch the edge of the boat or trolling motor. The trout stayed down almost the entire fight, so Crews didn't really know what he had until the very end, but he knew it was big enough "to probably win the tournament" if he landed it. Little did he know . . . "Frank'' eventually headed across the lake to the bluff bank, then switched back to the middle and eventually returned to the inside bank where docks dot the shore. Yes, the fish has a name explained later in the story. Frank then headed to places he's probably familiar with -- the docks. Crews said he swam under at least two docks. That heightened the high risk that the line might be cut on the dock itself or boats in the docks. Crews, a seasoned angler, kept his rod way down in the water to keep the line from rubbing on anything that would end his fight. At one point, Crews said that Frank quit moving. He thought for sure Frank had wrapped his line around something and escaped. But Frank was just resting, and a fish that big can do whatever he wants to do. Eventually, he came out, tired and ready to give in. Rayfield worked their net over his head and the pair hoisted the fished into the boat. They were just above Short Creek when the fight ended. Crews had just bought a new boat and this was its maiden voyage. Fortunately, the live well was just big enough to fit Frank in, but he filled every bit of it. Word got back to me that they were boating in with a huge fish, so we had everything ready to receive the package. Frank was immediately placed in a large, aerated tank on our dock to rest after his ordeal. We determined right off the bat that we'd try to keep Frank alive regardless if he was a new record or not. Once he uprighted himself and was swimming around, we pulled him out and recorded a quick, unofficial weight of 33.4 pounds. He was easily a new Missouri state record. Now we had to come up with a plan to transport him to the hatchery to be officially weighed. We filled a stock tank full of lake water and that's where Frank rode, guarded by admirers in the back of my truck on the five-mile ride to the Shepherd of the Hills Hatchery. Shane Bush was there with hatchery personnel, ready with their official scale to see if Frank made the record books or not. Everything was done quickly and carefully, pulling him out of the stock tank to the scale, verifying his weight at 34 pounds, 10 ounces, and then moving him to an aerated tank in Shane's truck. We still had no pictures out of the water, just shaky videos, but the goal was to return him back in the lake as quickly as possible. We caravaned down to the boat ramp access, less than a mile from the weigh in site. Shane needed to get some official measurements before release -- 38 inches long with a 27-inch girth. He confirmed our observations that the adipose fin had been clipped, which identified Frank as a triploid brown trout. I'll explain what that means later. The sun was about to set over Table Rock Dam, so we hurried to the edge of the water to take a few pictures -- Crews and Rayfield with the new Missouri state record brown trout. We slipped Frank into the water, and Crews gently held him there until he swam out of his hand. We followed him a little ways downstream until he turned and swam close to the bank, holding his own in the swift water. Frank dashed the record books, survived being fought, handled, trucked, weighed, trucked and photographed and before sundown was back in Lake Taneycomo -- we hope to keep growing and maybe, just maybe, give someone else a chance to catch a state record fish. Crews lives with his best friend and wife, Rita, and their son Matthew in Neosho, Missouri. They own Crews Construction and specialize in wastewater treatment plant construction. He is an avid outdoorsman, but his home waters are the Spring and Neosho rivers as well as Grand Lake, so he rarely fishes for trout except in the annual tournament honoring his fishing buddy. Frank's story - we've always had trout hovering under our dock, feeding on pieces and parts of fish discarded from our fish cleaning facility. And on occasion there will be a big trout, either brown or rainbow, stop by for a treat. They move up and down the lake seeking out the best meal, never staying in one spot very long. One day about three years ago, Duane Doty (dockhand and guide for Lilleys' Landing) spotted a very large brown. He stood out from the other trout. He was a brute. Duane called him Frank. Shortly after Frank showed up, another brown trout showed up and he was much bigger! Duane changed Frank's name to Frankie and called the new addition Frank. We have since videoed and photographed Frank many times when he has trolled by, so we have good records on him. To sum up this incredible story up, fishing in a memorial tournament, named after his best friend, Paul Crews hooks a fish in extremely adverse conditions, fights a 34-pound fish on four-pound line for 20 minutes around docks, logs and boat traffic and lands it using a small trout net. He fits it in his live well and keeps it alive while transporting it to be officially weighed, measured and photographed and released back in the lake successfully to keep the story alive. And Crews says, "Praise the Lord!" Credit: Ryan Miloshowski for pictures. View full article

Thanks for posting, Travis. Paul and Jimmy brought the fish in about 3:30 pm and we had already started weighing fish so I couldn't do a lot to get the word out. Then we rushed it to the hatchery because we were losing light in the day for a picture, IF it survived the ordeal. I'll sit down and write down the whole story hopefully today. Heck, it's 3:30 am right now... I might write it while I'm up. It's a good story!