Phil Lilley

Quick and concise... recent rains have brought our lakes up to levels which warrant some concern. Beaver Lake is now approaching 1125.5 feet, only 4.5 feet from its flood pool while Table Rock hovers at 920 feet, that magical level that calls for flood gates and flows at 20,000 c.f.s.. But Table Rock Dam is now running 3 turbines full while one turbine is down for maintenance so 5 spill gates are open 1 foot each to make up for the 4th turbine, equaling 15,000 c.f.s of flow. Four gates were open for about 24 hours yesterday when Table Rock's level reached 920.3 feet but dropped below 920 feet this morning. All the while, Bull Shoals is rising and is now at 672.7 feet, almost 10 feet higher than a week ago. Taney's water temperature is 54 degrees on the spill side, 44 degrees on the turbine side. When the extra gates were open we saw 60 degree water and a push of threadfin shad, just not as many as we'd like to see. I think we got a deposit of warm water fish too, white bass, walleye and small mouth bass. White jigs have not taken off like we would have hoped with the spill gates open but fishing is fairly good. Some are fishing a 1/32nd ounce white jig under a float 10-12 feet deep the first 3 miles of the lake while others are throwing 1/8th to 3/32nd ounce jigs straight, 4-pound line. I'm also using our sculpin/peach jigs and doing pretty good too. Spoons - silver Cleo or Boyaunt - are working well too. Work the eddies all the way down to Fall Creek using an 1/8th ounce earth color jigs like black, brown or sculpin. Below Fall Creek, drift minnows, night crawlers and Berkley Powerworm in pink, red or while on the bottom using drift rigs. The word is the trout are not in the creeks right now for some reason but if you're out and want to try, I would because they really should be in there. The water isn't going to be as fast down at the Landing so fishing down there will be easier. With this high water, watch where you're drifting and stay mid lake. Don't anchor in current and wear a life jacket if you're at all uncomfortable in swift water. View full article

Just found out they finished 9th over all... that's 9th out of 320.

I've pinned this topic because I believe it's going to be an ongoing issue through the summer.

Did I see you around Moonshine yesterday?

I had the honor today to captain a couple of Jr High boys from Springfield in the aforementioned tournament today on Table Rock. I had William and Sam Kuzemka in my boat. We launched out of State Park, first cast at 6:35 a.m. on the first point NW of the ramp close to the Branson Belle. They started out throwing a swim bait (grub) but I quickly switched them to a ned and it was on. They fished my smallmouth banks in Jakes, Powerline and Clevenger Coves... all the ones I could remember. I don't think I got over there any last spring so I was going off my long-time memory. Set the boat in 16-20 feet most of the time until the fog burned off about 10 a.m., then we backed out to 30 feet. I had them fish the bottom although every 3rd or 4th cast came back with the green slime. They had about 13 keepers, all smallies expect one spot. We culled a couple of 16-inchers and had one kicker brown about 3.5 pounds. All bass except the spot appeared to have spawned - they had no pouches at all.... but what do I know, I'm a trout guy. Had may be the same number of shots plus 3-4 nice gogs (which I'm going back for this week!!). The boys weighed in at 13.58 and took 2nd out of 60 teams. 260 teams in the high school division... weigh in at White Water. Needless to say there was a traffic jam getting into the lot, which was basically full when I left at the beginning of the High School weigh in period. I hope they pulled it together cause .... well you know. Ulrich was there with 2 pontoons/tanks for the catches. Babler said they do a good job keeping them alive and back in the lake. View full article

5,000 cfs to be released this afternoon at Table Rock to make up for one turbine being off line. Flow will equal 4 units basically. If Table Rock reaches 920 ft. they will increase the flow from 15,000 to 20,000 cfs. They have not started releasing Beaver Lake yet. 49-19 TR CORPS TO BEGIN SPILLWAY RELEASE AT TABLE ROCK LAKE MAY19.pdf

Looking west from the Amish store on Gretna Rd. Branson i saw 4-5 funnel clouds but none came down out of the wall cloud. We got 3 inches.

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.