Phil Lilley

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!

Wanted to get a quick report in before the weekend. Trout fishing has been very good the last few days. It seems like MDC has stocked a ton of rainbows- and I mean a ton this week. But I'm not real sure that's the case. Yes, I do think they stocked but generation has slowed a lot and has made it easier to get to the fish and I think that plays a big part in "catchability". Let me explain my reasoning. When their running 4 units full, the volume and flow of water through our lake makes it harder for most anglers to present a lure, a fly or bait to fish "where they live". Even for us season anglers, catching slows to a snail pace it seems. But as soon as the flow relents, the "catching" picks up because... there's more fish? Or is it because lake conditions are more favorable to "catching". I think the latter. Flows are less, water isn't as deep, trout seem to be feeding on midges where we can see them now and target them. As for catching, it's been good this week. There are a lot of rainbows from Monkey Island down through the Branson Landing, especially in the Landing area. Bill Babler reported catching them on a dry fly while actively feeding on the surface the other day. He said it didn't matter what the fly was as long as it was about a size #14 with a Zebra Midge dropped below it about a foot. Tony Weldele said his clients caught rainbows on a sculpin jig around the Fish House up to Scotty's. So if these fish are actively feeding as reported on the surface, a rooster tail or a spoon should work just as well as jigs and flies. We're still seeing fish caught on white jigs from Lilleys' Landing up to the dam. White is the color... just like sculpin was the color for most of the winter up to now. With the lower flow, I doubt if we'll see many shad come through the turbines but they are still keying in on anything white. Looks like this weekend is going to be pretty crazy as far as boat traffic... I've heard of 2 big groups of anglers staying down lake from us having tournaments this Saturday, as well as our tournament which should have up to 50 boats. One nice thing is almost all of our teams will be fishing below Fall Creek so the trophy area should be fairly sane. Be careful out there!

Sorry I didn't see this. It is a real time level, or as close as you can get.

There you go... It got real skinny this afternoon... I'd pay attention to the flow real close. I didn't think they'd drop it like this. You really can't second guess these guys!! It was 705.21 ft when we went up. Pretty dicy at Rebar.

Yes. Trilene or I use Vanish sometimes

Well, right at this moment, they've dropped generation to less than 1 unit - which I didn't think they would do for a while. So... I should say now that it all depends on how much water they're running! Here's an article that gives you an idea what to look for as to generation.

Nope. Head up the middle with this generation

Need to update my last report for the KC Star fishing report so I though I'd just post it here. We've seen evidence of threadfin shad coming through the dam at Table Rock this week, although we haven't seen any shad in the water ourselves. Trout have been spitting them up when caught and they're pretty bulked up. And they're hitting almost anything white - plus other lures and flies. I would not call it a full blown shad run, not just yet. I've had a lot of questions about the shad - how long will it last? How far down are the trout seeing shad? The answers are I don't know. These runs are totally unpredictable in volume and length. Of course we're hoping for more shad for the next few weeks. Most anglers are heading down lake though to catch their trout. From Monkey Island down past the Landing to Bee Creek has been very good on mainly bait and some lures. Spoon have been good as well as some flies. Guide Bill Babler caught some nice rainbows on a while wooly bugger below the Fish House yesterday. Others this weekend caught fish on midges while trout were rising across from the Landing over the weekend. Area lakes are anywhere from 18 to 30 inches above power pool so we're going to see generation to continue through the near future.

We had a little contest. Dam to the Narrows. He won 16-14.

Got out on the upper lake at 0900 yesterday morning and boated to the dam. Air temps at 26 water was 44.9 I boated up from Branson and did not see a single boat all the way to the cable. Wanted to just use a fly rod and drifted from the cable to clay banks 2 times. Started using a white/grey jig under a float about 12' and nothing the first 2 drifts. Switched to a size 8 weighted shad fly and stripped and drifted it on a straight line again 2 times from the cable to clay banks and had zero. Gave up the long stick for a drift and jerked a 110 plus one in french pearl thru the same water. Again nothing to report. That was 5 drifts on White and not even a bite. I was not fishing a jig like the boys in the video. I saw no shad and the fish I caught were spitting either grey or copper scuds. Seems to be a right place right time deal. Had noticed quite a bit of midging below the Brown Trout raceway so I tied a big dry on with a size 18 black midge about 2 ft. under it. Made 2 passes over that flat and caught one 12" brown on the dry. I had just about had a dose at this point, so I dragged out the spinning rod and bottom bounded a egg and scud from the cable to the conservation ramp.twice. Caught 4 really nice bow's on the size 14 copper/orange scud and lost one that was big, wide and silver. Fish jumped right at the boat and put a nice show on. Moved out of the restricted zone and caught about 1/2 dozen on a pink power worm from Fall Creek thru Trout Hollow on the flat side. Lots and lots of midging going on between the docks on the slacker water. Visited with Phil a bit and did whine some as I really expected the upper end to be a bit better. Moved down town and the fish really bit on just about anything you wanted to throw, from the power worm to a midge to a spoon to a small crank bait. Caught about 30 in a couple of hours. Funnest deal was stripping a size 10 wooley below the walk out just above the fish house. You would get a bite on just about every throw. Best bite was at the end of the drift after the swing, just holding it in the current. They would just thump it. I missed more than I caught. On a side note, folks fishing the docks below Scotty's were catching really nice fish on Power Bait. Looked to me to be very nice fresh Big stockers. Here is a bit of a pictorial of the copper/orange scud that I have had really good success with the past week. Good Luck out there. View full article

My wife uses that to take stains out of my shirts...

I'm 60... I might look into that.

Both browns - one lost and one landed - came from slack water. Interesting... But the ones we've been seeing porpoise down here are out in the middle.

Expound...

Last cast!!

It's a GoPro 4 and Sennheiser ew100 mic system. I have the GoPro 5 but hooking a mic to it is tough. I do need to look and see if they've come up with something better and change over to using the 5's. My 4 is getting pretty beat up.