Phil Lilley

Since I got the text notifications on my phone as to when the Corps changes generation flows, and they're on the 35 megawatts 24 hours a day pattern now, they change the flow slightly every hour at about the 20 minute mark. It's like they can't let it run the same without changing something for more than an hour. Interesting.

Since they're running water the next 2 days, if you want to take a jon boat out and try it, let me know. PM me.

OK... I'm trying to figure out why @Flysmallie reported this topic. I don't care for Alabama either.... kinda like the New England Pats.

Alright! But they're @Rolan Duffield 's mink scuds.

Using 6x. On the bottom. They're more apt to hit it on the bottom but probably would if close to the bottom. Move it some too.

Mink Scuds - I bought some cheap mink pelts on Ebay and cut the fur off them, mixed it with brown antron in the blender. That's the dubbing.

This is my favorite time of year to fish Taneycomo... hardly anyone fishing, the bigger trout just seem to come out from hiding, spawning browns and rainbows... but it's COLD! Just have to push through and bear it. Got out yesterday afternoon with a couple of friends from OK. No water running, we boated up past the Narrows about 500 yards and started there. The wind was blowing pretty good out of the north so good chop and fish were very active. Midges were coming off and they were hammering them on the surface. But I wanted to throw scuds. I tied up a half dozen #12 mink scuds, 3769 hook with 8 wraps of .015 lead. That's what has been working and they liked them still. The takes were not light, they'd take off with it. By the time we worked down to the top of the Narrows, the wind had died some - the sun was dropping behind the trees on the west bank. But the rainbows were being even more aggressive. Me and John were using our fly rods but Steve still had his spin cast rigged with a big carrot float and a sculpin jig/orange head about 3 feet deep. But under that, he tied a mink scud about 2 feet from the jig and winged it out to the far side of the channel. I'd been lecturing John about not casting too far out so that he could see the light bite... too far and you couldn't see it. But Steve's was way out there - but it didn't matter. Those fish were yanking the float under and he was catching some big trout!! We had 2 nice ones in a row - a 18- then a 19-inch rainbow, both in dark spawning colors. Most of the rainbows we caught were far from stockers... chunky and good colors. And fought very hard. So we are looking forward to this winter, off season on Taneycomo. Hopefully we'll move out of the deep freeze so it'll be alittle more bearable to get out and fish.

My friends in SE Kansas did very well Saturday and Sunday, mallards mainly.

When exactly are you moving? It looks like you asked the same question back in May.

Redirect... I did talk to my guy in the biz about that. I need to do something - you're right.

Yea - I just quit keeping it up when I started posting "Articles" on the forum side of the site. And yes it's time consuming double posting, twice, to get it both places. And I feel bad about it too. http://ozarkanglers.com wordpress site is a great site and setup well I think. I've been thinking about it lately and am at a loss to what to do about it. I keep thinking I'm going to do more with OA but just don't have the time. Right now I'm building a new site for the resort using Wordpess/Elementor. I've learned a lot and it's pretty easy - almost done too. Facebook is also kicking OA's butt. I can't compete with that. I've even given into the FB monster and neglected to post on my own site. I'm sure there's a way to combine it all and make it easier... but ultimately it's time and know how I lack. If anyone has any ideas I'm always open to suggestions.

This is the same post I made last month. Just spreading it around and pinning it.

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

That area is ok to fly... but I can't fly it here at the resort any longer without going through a bunch of permissions. Because of the C of O airport. What a pain!! I should fly and video that area. Good idea!

wow

I ventured up to the dam this afternoon, not by boat but by truck. I put on my waders and fished below the dam for the first time in, I think, over 2 years. I don't like crowds, and it's too easy to hop in a boat and have tons of places to fish verses putting on waders and be limited to where I can walk and fish. So, I had not seen this area with no generation in a long time. It's changed. For those who fish up there, this comes as old news. But there's a new chute to the middle of the "lake" beside the flow at rebar. It's wide and shallow but deep enough to hold fish. The flow at rebar might be half, and according to some, doesn't hold the fish it used to. I fished the new chute. Have no idea what to call it. Does someone have a name? Rebar, Jr. Anyhow, I walked to the bottom and drifted several sizes and colors of scuds and caught 5 rainbows, nothing big at all. But did see some nicer rainbows and 2 big browns. The browns were moving all around and were hard to get a bug in front of. Outlet #2 is super shallow. I saw that when I was up there Monday night fly fishing. Seemed like the flow was less too but that might be because the water fans out so bad instead of being funneled down. Gordon Proctor must have gone down and moved some rocks around. Yes, there's a story there. Crowds weren't bad at all. And yes, I think I won't wait 2 years to go back.

Shane is a good friend. He has always been attentive to what I have to say - and all others in the room. I know A.J. Pratt and a few others. They've always been very helpful when gathering information on different fisheries. I know I'm not going to get everything I want here on my fishery. I've asked, they've listened. What I have seen in the 35 years here is that the guard changes and so brings in new ideas and a changed directive. May be it won't happen in my lifetime but that don't mean it will never happen. In the meantime, I think we have one of the best conservation programs in the country - not perfect - but darn good. And well funded. Better hope that never goes away too.

I'd like to get over and fish one day and stay into the evening but I can't do overnight. May be, may be I can drag DD over. He planned a hunting trip the week before I think and I have a guy coming in from GA to teach a spey clinic the following week. Plus we have a major remodel job on a unit at that time which has a limited window to get it done. December is supposed to be our down time, to rest after a busy season but it never works out that way. Gotta get things done while we can. But would love to get over and see everybody. We'll see if we can make it happen. DD thinks you guys only love him for his walleye fillets...

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.