Phil Lilley

Spoke to Duane today. Neither of us are going to make it this year. Too many things on the books. You guys have a blast... hope for decent weather.

Considering all things, I don't think you can ask for better fishing conditions on our lake this fall. Lake Taneycomo, a tail water, is subject to low oxygen conditions because it is a tailwater. We get our water from the depths of Table Rock Lake where the dissolved oxygen bottoms out this time of year. But when the water is run through Table Rock Dam, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers adds liquid oxygen to the water in the turbines, bringing the oxygen levels up to fish-livable levels. But in our present case, our lake water continues to register at high levels of oxygen. Just today we measured 8.0 parts per million -- which is incredibly high. Our water temperature remains low, which is also helpful, at 53 degrees. The other thing to consider is generation. For fly fishermen who like to wade and fish below the dam, this fall season has given them just what they love - low water conditions. They've been seeing many trophy browns - and rainbows - and they've been hooking a few of them. Personally, I don't venture up below the dam anymore to wade and fish. The main reason is that I don't like crowds. I take the option to boat to where I want to fish and thereby find good numbers of trout of all sizes to catch . . . without the crowds. But if I did, I'd fish this way: My friend and fellow fly shop owner, Tim Homesley, drives over from Crane and his home water, Roaring River, and fishes our tailwater several times in the fall season. He likes to fish the "skinny water," which is my favorite, too. Rainbows especially hug the banks with their backs out of the water sometimes, digging in the gravel to pick up a bug or two. Casting a small sow bug or scud, even a big mop worm or mega worm, and working it in and around these feeding rainbows will catch them. These trout are typically veterans, too, full of colors and larger than the young stockers just arriving on the scene. In the past, I know anglers have scored big browns and rainbows stripping soft hackles and cracklebacks well below the hatchery outlets and below Rebar and the Chute (below the Missouri Department of Conservation boat ramp) where the current is still moving from the area but is slower, not calm. If there is a breeze and a chop on the surface -- better yet. And then there's the streamers like sculpins, Hybernators, leaches, woolly buggers and Pine Squirrels. Strip these in the bigger, deeper pools out in front of outlet #1, the pool below outlet #2 and from the Rocking Chair down to the Chute. Is it time to go to 7x tippet? Maybe. I did for a little bit last month, but our water seems to have some color to it now, so I've gone back to 6x fluorocarbon, and it's worked pretty well. With the leaves dropping pretty fast now, we're starting to fish the Zebra Midge under a small float 12 inches deep and targeting midging trout around the leaf clusters on the lake. There's something about these leaves that attracts fish -- whether there's bugs on the falling leaves or midges that attach themselves to the leaves before flying off. We're doing this about any place on the lake right now, especially towards evening time. I've been fishing with a scud (fly) a lot this week and doing very well! So much so that I videoed some of my fishing and posted it to show exactly what and how I was catching rainbows. We've been throwing 1/32nd-ounce jigs with two-pound line and catching some good fish around the dock and up lake around Short Creek. Sculpin/ginger or brown/orange with a brown head best colors. If you're using four-pound line, throw a 3/32nd-ounce jig instead. We've had some requests for fly tying demonstrations, so Duane and I did a few this morning and posted them. Bait fishing, for whatever reason, has been slow -- not terrible -- but slow. Anglers have had to work to catch them off the dock, but there have been spurts where you'll have a bunch biting, and then the bites will slow down. Again, two-pound line will catch more fish, especially if you're fishing with a night crawler or Powerbait. Air-injected night crawlers have been the best though. View full article

What are you trying to find, Dan?

Email from David Pitt: We've added a new feature that will notify you, with a text message, when water generation changes up or down... Text "w table" to 913-270-0360 and you will be texted current generation when release/discharge changes. You can still text "g table" and "s table" to get current and scheduled generation. It supports all tailwater's on the white river system, bull, beaver, littlered, norfork, and more... Here's a web site with more documentation on this utility. Feel free to share. https://keyholelabs.com/convo/cfswater Thanks, David Pitt

Our flight was pretty much full... but I'm sure the tourist travel to Iceland will slow down very soon.

Ice caving today. It was cool in more ways than one, but after it was said and done, I'd say the company needs to do a better job of letting clients know the risks. Our guide, a nice guy - common sense kind of guy - only does this part time. The last time he'd done a tour was 2 weeks ago. These caverns are created when small lakes form on top of the glacier, then gets flushed down through a hole made at the bottom and then out the side or end of the glacier wall. These "caves" don't last long. The collapse due to melting. And if you were in or near one when it did... you'd be dead. The guide was spooked, especially when we walked over to a water fall that was up in a small cavern (no pics, just a video). We had to walk up into a cavern, not a cave, but the walls were high and there were chunks of ice dangling above our heads. About the time we got up in there, he was telling everyone to turn around and head out. Of course, not many paid any attention. Standing out where it was "safe", he told me 2 weeks ago the wall of the glacier and the water fall was 10 meters closer. In another words, the water fall had moved, and lots of ice had fell and melted, more than 25 feet. Walking back to the bus, the guide said he wasn't coming back again this year... it was too dangerous. He didn't think the cave would last much longer. Another little thing that happens - when these "lakes" drain out, they usually drain out all at once causing a flash flood. Depending on the size of lake, the river of water could be substantial. Last year, a flash flood cut some tourists off from their bus for about 2 hours. Not sure I want to be in that business...

OK... I checked on a fishing trip for Friday. Not many outfitters fishing right now I guess. Contacted a couple and they said season was over for them. Last one said it was "prime" for char on the Varma River between Hella and Reykjavik. Said they could pick me up in Hella, where we're staying tomorrow night, and supply waders, equipment and license for 1190 Euro. I'll let you google what that is in the usd. I said no thank you.

Yes we did. $600 non stop out of St Louis. Not bad... Greg was searching google flights the other day and said we could fly to London for $100 round trip from here if we wanted to... Not this time.

They do charge for all plastic bags... like in grocery stores. Good idea

All heating here is from geothermal water. It's pumped in and runs through radiators in each room. Hot water is also heated by the same. All electricity is generated by geothermal too

This is a headwater rivers runs into one of the largest lakes in Iceland. I saw 30-36 inch Brown’s everywhere spawning. No fishing. Area is protected.

What do you think of when someone says you’re going to Iceland? My wife, son and sis-in-law planned this trip a year ago and here we are in the middle of a ten day tour. Spent 3 days in Reykjavík. Fascinating city. Almost every building is made on concrete. Got in the country yesterday. Wasn’t what I expected. Rolling plains with mountains always in view. Lots of sheep and horses and few cattle. Farms are large and spread apart. Good road system. Climate isn’t far from ours. A little less daylight right now. Language is very difficult, both hearing and reading. But almost everyone speaks English too. This is a headwater rivers runs into one of the largest lakes in Iceland. I saw 30-36 inch Brown’s everywhere spawning. No fishing. Area is protected.

Made it down to beautiful Lake Taneycomo over the weekend October 10-14. Overall I felt fishing was a bit slow compared to my last fall trip I made down catching numerous browns. Made the best of the weekend with the rainy and chilly conditions we had. It was mainly cloudy and rainy the whole time we were there. Didn't get skunked by any means but had to work a bit for them. Didn't see a whole lot of rods bent during the trip either especially the combat fisherman at war of Outlet 2. Only managed one brown while I was down out of all the fish we caught and the rest were bows. We got to the parking lot of the darn most mornings around 5:30am and the amount of cars in the parking lot day and night was absolutely crazy! Managed to do some night fishing as well and caught a few on white woolybuggers, red leaches, purple and black pms and green mega worms under an indicator with a glow stick. The biggest numbers came on the green mega worms during the day. Also caught fish on midges, scuds, dark brown san juan worms, tigertails, egg flies in pink and yellow. All in all was fun to get away and down to stand in the water for a few days and chuck a fly rod. Tight Lines! View full article

I'm not sure what's going on with you guys but it's annoying. Seriously.

Spammer... I deleted the post and the quote - so that the links are not live on the site. Thanks for the heads up.

So that was you guys I saw a little while ago... sorry I didn't recognize you all. I actually thought it was another guy, a local. I struggled out there this evening.

Megaworm... I'm really not the one to tell you cause i haven't fished it that much. I did today though and while I was fishing it, I thought "I need to write or video something on this thing". Confirmation! Today while the water was coming on, I fished a white one under a float 8 feet deep and fished along the bluff bank across from Short Creek - caught 2 rainbows and missed another. Jeremy Hunt is probably the best to say and I'll ask him next time I talk to him. He catches a lot of trout on it here and in Arkansas. I've sighted fish for trout using it, throwing it in shallow water and twitching it back, watching for it to disappear. I'll get on this and try to have something before I leave next week on vacation.

Yes I do. I have them on a 220R hook as well as the 3769. I wrap a small copper wire over the dubbing too.

First - temp and DO levels. Note the rise and fall (blue lines). It correlates to generation and daylight. Night time is the lowest and rises when they turn the water on. It also heads up after dawn. This is down by our place. Note the drop AFTER they started running this hard generation. It basically pushed the colder but low DO water down from the upper end. I caught a couple of rainbows yesterday that didn't fight well but only 2 out of 18. The rest fought well. Why are they running it like this? I have no idea. I did ask that question a couple of weeks ago when they were running 35 mw 24/7 and didn't get an answer. Scuds are king in the trophy area. Brown, or mink, has been the best color the last couple of days. And bigger ones - #14's or even #12's. And using 6x tippet again... ditched the 7x. I fished late morning today from above the dock to almost the bend up lake on the shallow side. Started throwing a sculpin/burnt orange/orange head 1/16th oz jig, 2-pound line and caught some real pretty rainbows. Did One Cast. Then I got the fly rod out and fished a mink scud, #14, under a float 6 feet deep and caught 6 rainbows - missed several others. Switched to a brown #16 zebra midge under a float 5 feet and caught a couple. Then I tied on a medium mega worm, cream. It's not the big fluffy mega but a medium (thinner) worm tied at the head only with a nickel bead, not a jig hook. I bought them from a guy who sells a lot of flies to the trout parks. They worked real good! Fished them deep enough to get to the bottom. Missed more strikes than I connected with though. I think they were taking them short. One rainbow I caught had a half dozen brown and gray snails in its mouth. I noted most of the trout had big bellies... are they all eating snails now!? Interesting.

Just for fun, sit and watch the "fishing" in outlet #2 for a while. Note the ratio of legal hookups verses foul hooked hookups. Fouls will win. But what I noticed is that these were "normal" drift-stop-set hookups and not throw-and-jerk (for the most part). The guys using 2 flies snagged fish almost every time. So it's not necessarily the fault of the angler foul hooking fish... it's the nature of the beast - fishing the outlet. So many fish there that you can't help but snag. Keeping a foul hooked fish... that person lacks a moral conscience. He's gotta believe it's ok to do it and block out the fact in his own mind that it's illegal plus it doesn't take much skill to run a line of hooks over a back and catch a fin.

They've always been around. Actually don't see as many as I used to years ago. Duane said he saw fish busting on minnows at Fall Creek the other morning... that's unusual!!

It's amazing those nice ones get by all the bait in that area to grow that big and beautiful! Nice!