Phil Lilley

Yeah we're in a catch 22... no good answers. But we're in better shape than many, many others in the Midwest. Well... I guess Rockaway is in that category. Although they are high and dry, it's caused by flooding. How ironic.

Low Water... Gate #3 at Powersite is stick in the down position - air hose is broke. Can't be fixed till Bull Shoals is lowered down past 687 feet. The Corps is going to "pulse" 2 units of water for an hour starting at 9 am today, tomorrow and Thursday to keep the upper end watered - the gravel flats above Fall Creek are exposed to air/sun and heat killing all the bugs. Release policy may change starting Friday and they might start dumping water from Beaver and Table Rock. We will see.

Generation has taken another turn this week, one that will make our fly fishing buddies happy. There is no generation in the mornings right now, but then operators are cranking it in the afternoons. But there is a catch . . .let me explain. In my fishing reports the last couple of weeks, I've mentioned problems at Powersite Dam, Taneycomo's lower dam. There's a baffle gate system that runs on top of the spillway part of the dam, let down in case of flooding. One of the baffles is stuck in the down position, allowing the lake to drop an additional three feet when there's no generation. And when one or two units are running, our lake level here on the upper lake is still pretty low and the current is fast. When our lake is drawn down like this, a vast area of gravel above Fall Creek is exposed to air -- hot air and sunlight -- which cooks the bugs (scuds, sow bugs), not to mention the sculpin that get marooned in small holes that dry up. This morning, no water was run to help this situation, but I'm told tomorrow dam operators will "pulse" water throughout the morning to keep this area watered. We will see. Boating this low water is tricky, especially above Trout Hollow. Take it very slow and stay in the channel to Fall Creek. Pick your way through the Fall Creek bar, then at the narrows, really take it slow. Just consider that the water is two to three feet lower than normal and a lot of these areas are already pretty shallow. But our water is clear, and you can see the bottom. A young man reported that he had caught a lot of trout just below Fall Creek on Power Bait . . . I just did not ask him what color. Another guest here at the resort, a seasoned jig fisherman, said it's been tough for him and his dad yesterday and today. He said he's been getting short strikes. I sympathize with him. I've had the same problem. I told him that that's fishing and that these trout will go through spells when they're just not aggressive. Taking some friends on a boat ride this morning, I saw some of our guides catch fish down at Monkey Island on the pink worm under a float. Then I saw something I reported back to those guides -- a bunch of trout midging on the surface just upstream of Main Street Dock, at the Landing. These typically are a school of freshly stocked rainbows, easy to catch with something under a float (jig, pink worm), a spoon, spinner or a small jig. Another report I got this morning was from a fly fisherman, wading and fishing below the dam. He caught a lot of nice trout on an olive wooly bugger up around outlet #1. One last thing -- I've been told that we may see heavy generation here on Lake Taneycomo starting next week. At some point, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will be cleared to start releasing some of the water from all three lakes in this system. This may not be the big release but it could be the start. View full article

I know it's only been two days since my last report, but conditions have change so much that hardly none of the June 26 report holds true for fishing Lake Taneycomo. Here's why. The short answer is that the spill gates at Table Rock Dam were closed yesterday morning. In just a matter of a few days, Beaver Lake was dropped from a high of 1,131.5 feet above sea level to its present level of 1,129.1 feet I think the release was about 25,000 cubic feet per second of water at the heaviest flow. This was in response to a four-inch rain over the weekend that sent the upper White River and other feeder streams out of their banks. Just north of the basin, flash floods sadly inundated the towns of Anderson and Cassville, Missouri, as well as other communities in the area. All of this runoff water eventually feeds Table Rock and that sent its level from 917 to 921 feet -- its present level. When Table Rock hit 920 feet, 10 spill gates were opened to allow a little more than 20,000 c.f.s. of water to pass through to Lake Taneycomo. Only after a few days, the inflow of water into both lakes became manageable through only turbine releases, so spill gates on both dams were closed (Thursday morning.) Presently, Table Rock is releasing 6,000 c.f.s. (two units) of water in the mornings and 10,000 c.f.s. (three units) of water in the afternoons. Water temperature is about 47 degrees and clear. And with little to no rain in the seven-day forecast, I believe this is the most water we'll see for a while. We may see even slower generation in the near future. One other thing about lake levels. Note that Bull Shoals is now at 687.9 feet and rising. Beaver and Bull Shoals are being held at high levels because of the flooding on the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers. Once these rivers can take water releases from the White River basin, both our tail water, Beaver's tail water and the White River tail water will see heavy flows, probably through the month of August. When the spill gates at Table Rock Dam were open, we saw an influx of warm water that affected our scud population (freshwater shrimp.) They had babies basically . . . lots of babies. It's amazing how fast they multiply given the right environment. We also saw a pretty good flow of small threadfin shad and other small forage fish. Yes, the "white bite" was on! And so was the scud bite. And boy was it good!! And it still is. We are seeing some of the most beefed up rainbows in all my years of fishing this lake. We are catching 17- to 19-inch rainbows that weigh three to four pounds, in some cases, and it's not all just big bellies either. These fish are brutes -- big shoulders -- just big. And fight . . . I've always said the Alaskan rainbows we catch fight harder than any trout I know, but these are giving them a run for their money. It's exciting. Fishing from the cable below the dam down to Trophy Run, stay in the middle and drift, using a drift rig, 1/8th-ounce bell weight, four-pound line and either a single or double fly rig -- #12 or #14 scud in dark gray, olive or brown. You can run it with an egg, shad fly or San Juan Worm as the second fly also. Some are using a white or cream Mega Worm and catching fish. You can drift these flies all the way down to Trout Hollow but stay either in the middle of the lake or on the inside bend -- stay off the bluff side. Jigs - white, of course, have been working, but as the "white bite" lessens, switch to a sculpin, olive, sculpin/ginger or peach, brown/orange or black jig. Use four-pound line when throwing 1/8th- or 3/32nd- ounce jigs and two-pound line when throwing smaller jigs. Try a smaller jig under a float. Drifting night crawlers or orange PowerEggs from Fall Creek down to Short Creek has been good. I've been fishing the inside bank from Cooper Creek down to Monkey Island throwing a variety of jigs and catching some real nice rainbows. View full article

My last cast last evening... a surprise brown. Hooked it right at the top of Trophy Run. White Jig. My box is exactly 20 inches long... he fit perfectly.

Yeah it's still more than 10 feet of water. No problem!

They are shutting down all spill gates at Table Rock. Not sure about Beaver. They will continue to run 4 turbines, I bet for several days. White should keep working for quite a while now. Man... I don't think we've EVER caught this many quality rainbows ever as we have these past few days. Our rainbows have really bulked up. An 18 inch rainbow weighs 3 pounds... and it's not because of what they have in their bellies... they are just solid. I've always said no trout fights harder than a Naknek River rainbow but these now are challenging that statement. It's been fun! If you can, you need to get over and fish upper Taney.

The 4th turbine is back online.

This will be a quick report -- mainly because conditions have been changing almost hourly here on Lake Taneycomo. We've been on quite a ride the last four days. Lots of rain this past weekend sent Beaver Lake into emergency dump mode, opening flood gates and releasing water at a rate of more than 25,000 cubic feet per second. This inflow, along with rain from the system, jumped Table Rock to up over 920 feet and triggered another flow of water at 20,000 c.f.s. into Taney. We were a little concerned about the temperature of the water coming over the top of Table Rock Dam since the surface temp on the upper lake now exceeds 80 degrees with summer here. I saw 72 degrees below the dam while down lake, but after the water mixed with water coming in from the turbines, we saw about 60 degrees. While 72 is pretty warm for trout, they could easily move to cooler water. Today, Table Rock Dam operators shut off three of the 10 spill gates, knocking down the flow to 19,000 c.f.s.. While they shut down some gate water, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers brought the fourth turbine back online, so we're still seeing about the same amount of water running without three gates open. Our water temp at the dock went from 60 to 57 degrees, and the water level dropped about 18 inches. When water comes over the spill gates at Table Rock Dam, it brings a whole host of warm water fish, including threadfin shad (which our trout love to eat), needle nose gar, walleye, crappie, white bass, smallmouth bass and all the other types of bass, too. In May of this year, five spill gates were open the entire month, but we didn't see much evidence that threadfin washed over the dam. But this time, with 10 gates open 12 inches each, our trout are attacking anything white -- meaning they are seeing and eating these small shad. We are catching nice rainbows from the cable down to Trophy Run on white jigs, small shad stick baits, spoons -- plus drifting scuds, egg flies, San Juan Worms and shad flies on the bottom. We have not tried drifting a crank bait on the bottom yet. Four-pound line is perfect. Images are from Duane's guide trip this morning. One young man landed two rainbows longer than 20 inches on white shad flies. From Lookout down to Fall Creek, I have drifted a #12 gray scud and caught some nice rainbows. I think that bite is still slow but will get much better as time goes on. I used an 1/8th-ounce bell weight to get it to the bottom on four-pound line. A guest said he did really well today drifting from Fall Creek to Short Creek using orange Power Eggs. He caught a three-pound rainbow among other nice trout. Right now I have nothing else to report, mainly because not many people are out fishing, especially below Fall Creek. Dock fishing is, well . . . very hard with the rapid flow. It looks like we're going to see this water for about a week, maybe a little less. We aren't supposed to see much rain, which will help, but with Beaver so high and water still flowing into the system, it will take about that long to get Table Rock back down to "safe" conditions. View full article

Paul42 Been a member since last July. 13 posts, all with links. Sounded like an interested angler. He was good! He's from Ukraine...

Never apologize for giving out good info... thanks for what you do!!!

My understanding is that TR is supposed to run water, keep it below 920 feet. I don't know if it's always been this way but if the level goes above 920, they run 20,000 cfs till it's down below 920, the 15,000 till it's down close to power pool, 917. It's varied some but not much.

Oh.... my..... Dries..... I am so jealous of the White.

Water flowing right now is pretty yucky... dirty, lots of moss. I got 67 degrees on the south, spill side. Not too bad. First fish was a smallie. Couple of rainbows, then the other 5 kicked open and it was over... for a while. Got to clean out, then it'll be good. Saw tons of needle nose gar on the south side. Tons. One cut my friend's line. No shad visible. Lots of top water action though.

713.4 feet

From the Corps Please open gates 3, 5, 7, 8, and 9 to one foot (1') each at 0700 in the morning. At 0800 please open the remaining gates (1, 2, 4, 6, and 10) to one foot (1') each. When the openings are complete we should have all 10 gates opened to one foot (1') each. The total spillway release will be 10,500 cfs. Combined with three hydropower units, the total release through the dam will be 20,000 cfs. Please let me know when the gate openings are complete in the morning.

From the Corp: CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIEDWe are looking at beginning spillway releases at Table Rock tomorrow. The purpose of the spill will be to supplement hydropower releases under normal flood control operations. We still have 1 unit down. We are not sure of the timing or amount, but it will likely be the 5,000 - 10,000 range sometime tomorrow morning. I will provide more information as I receive it tomorrow. Rodney RaleyDeputy Operations Project ManagerUS Army Corps of EngineersTable Rock Project Office 4600 State Highway 165Branson, Missouri 65616(501) 340-1932

Looks like Beaver increased flood gates discharge at 10 am. Tailwater level rose by 2 feet. But Beaver is not rising now.

Wow - that's a lot of water for the Elk!! That's more than they're running out of Beaver Lake.

Looks like Beaver hasn't crested yet. 1131.17 feet. They're running just under 20,000 cfs. TR is only rising about a tenth per hour. It's not rising like I thought it would.