Phil Lilley

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.

Fun to do... and I remember you. Remembering is a feat for me now a days

Hey- you got to be good to do snag trout! haha

2 days so far

OK... Duane and i boated to the dam earlier and boy did we see a TON of threadfin shad!!! All over the place. Live and dead ones. Stunned ones. Big balls of live shad drifting down with the current. That!... I've never seen. We caught a few on white jig. Then we boated down to Lookout Island - fished down a ways. Still lots of shad in the water. We ended up seeing shad in the water clear down at Trout Hollow. I'm guessing the south wind blew shad up against the dam today. Excited about the days ahead.

We fished last evening. Fish didn't act like they'd seen many shad. Water temp was 46, 3 degrees warmer than normal turbine flow which should help the bite. We didn't see any shad in the water, no gulls. But we did catch fish... mainly down from the cable. Best was below Rocking Chair where we caught 6-7 smallies. DD had 3 in a row at one time. One I caught down at Trophy Run off the rock bank had a sculpin hanging out of its mouth. Some of the rainbows had pouched out bellies but that could be from just getting good food, no shad. Just not sure. But they weren't excited to bite up by the cable where you'd think they'd be the hottest on white if they're seeing shad. We'll see what today brings.

Just got an email. Corps will open 4 gates 1 foot each for 24 hours starting at 9 am this morning.

Lots of good food afterwards

I think it's just that page the way the thing reads... but ads are still there too. I don't think there's anyway to take the ads off that page so... I can't do much. Not really worried about it either way.

May be not. Everything is back online. Even Bull Shoals is back to dumping water Were back to 3 full units. I wonder when they’re going to finish the work on the head gates.

Yea- I need to rewrite my whole report now...

Not sure what you mean by "mess up"... I guess there are some resort/dock owners that will gripe if the conditions don't go their way but i for one wouldn't mind them dumping water just after the lakes turn over and run some water out of these lakes at the expense of high water through the winter months... oh wait, it's been running all winter. They have been running a lot of water all winter but not as much as they could have (without gates). But today- the water is off here. Also at Bull Shoals Dam. Beaver's still running one. According to USGS, the Mississippi isn't high where the White runs in so I'm not sure why they've stopped releasing water through our system.

So Google flagged this topic (page) as violating their policies-- listed it as "shocking content" and is restricting ads on this page.

So as soon as I write a report and surmise why they're running so much water, they shut Beaver's gates and drop Taney's generation from 3 to 1 unit this morning.

Generation is about as constant as it gets. With one unit down, the U.S. Corps of Army Engineers is running the other three units at full tilt 24/7. My guess (for what's it worth) is that officials are trying to run as much water as possible through the system (through Bull Shoals) because soon it will all have to be held back due to the mass of water heading down the Mississippi. So they're running turbines and a little flood gates at Beaver Dam -- and Beaver is a little less than two feet above power pool. They are running three units full at Table Rock Dam, and that lake is a little less than a foot above power pool. Bull Shoals Dam is running four full units and the lake is a little less than one foot above power pool. We just had about a half-inch of rain yesterday, so all the lakes are holding at the moment, with no rise or fall. Lake Taneycomo's water is 43 degrees and clear which is about normal for this time of year. Our trout seem to be in great shape, fighting hard when hooked. We're seeing midge hatches early and late in the day which the trout key in on at times. We are not seeing any shad coming in from Table Rock through the dam. The best bite area has been drifting from Monkey Island through the bridges downtown Branson using red, orange or pink PowerWorms on the bottom. Depending on the wind, anglers are using 1/4-ounce weight to get the bait to the bottom. PowerBait is also working okay, as well as worms and minnows. There are some slower parts close to the bank where people are anchoring and straight-lining bait and doing well. If you try this area be sure to pick a slow spot AND have a knife ready to cut the anchor rope if you get in trouble. The "white bite" is a thing of the past I'm afraid, at least until the next time officials open the flood gates. We didn't get a long enough run of threadfin shad for those trout to stay on the white bite this time. They're back on darker colors -- brown, black, sculpin, sculpin/peach and sculpin/ginger. It's not that you won't catch a fish on white, but just not as many. Work the jig in slack water against the bank from the dam down and in the middle on the bottom. Use 1/8th- to 1/16th-ounce jigs, depending on line size and what you're working. Also, the wind becomes a factor. If it's breezy, switch to a heavier jig to control it, and/or two-pound line. Fly fishermen are drifting a scud, egg fly or San Juan Worm on the bottom in the trophy area and doing pretty well, too. A great group from Oklahoma are fishing this week and catching nice rainbows on those flies. Their best area has been the Narrows, about 1/2-mile above Fall Creek. Make sure you're on the bottom there, or you won't garner bites. View full article