Phil Lilley

There are fishing reports that are hard to write, and this is one of those hard ones. Why? Because up until this morning (Wednesday), catching trout on Lake Taneycomo has been fairly difficult when it really shouldn't be. I have learned not to discourage people from coming because of fishing reports because if I do, and fishing all of a sudden picks up, some might miss out on a fishing trip of a lifetime. This actually happened before -- and I was scolded by a man who didn't take my advice to cancel fishing here. He ended up catching fish, a lot of fish. So you never know . . . that's why we call it fishing and not catching. From the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Little Rock Division this morning: Generating Units 3 and 4 are both going to be offline for a time today. As a result we will augment release by opening spillway gates 6, 4, and 2 at one foot each. The total spillway release will be increased from 5,088 cfs to 8,141 cfs (cubic feet per second); however, the total outflow from the dam will remain around 15,000 cfs. Once unit four is back online, we will close gates 6, 4 and 2. So the Corps plans to open three more gates this morning. That would make eight gates at 8,000 cubic feet per second, plus two turbines at 7,000 c.f.s.. The water temperature coming over the dam is 49 degrees and 44 degrees through the turbines. We haven't seen any shad coming over the top so far, and the trout are hardly biting on white at all. Very, very strange indeed. There is no doubt some small forage fish are coming over the top, including threadfin, but not many or we'd see something. We are catching a few bass but not like in past years. More gates open should help our trout fishing, if not now, at least when the flow slows down and the fish are more accessible. Table Rock is dropping .3 feet per day right now. That will increase as the flow into TR decreases, which should increase to six inches a day. TR is at 918.3 feet right now and should be below 918 feet Thursday, 917 feet by Saturday -- and maybe, just maybe 915 feet by the middle of next week. But there are a lot of factors that could change that -- flow from Beaver Lake, more unexpected rain or decrease of TR flow before then. Fishing has been tough, no way around it. It is frustrating, too, because the techniques that usually work when we have this kind of high water event have not been fruitful, at least not yet. We generally do look forward to high water with flood gates because that does warm the water and puts more food in the lake for our trout, but so far the trout just haven't turned on to these prime conditions. We are catching trout, but just not the numbers we think we usually expect. Starting at the dam in the trophy area, 1/8th-ounce jigs are catching some fish, both cold- and warm-water species along the banks in the slower water and close to the bottom. Good colors are white, white/gray, sculpin and sculpin/ginger. Also drifting shad flies, #12 gray scuds, red San Juan worms and egg flies on the bottom are picking up some nice rainbows. Duane Doty came up with a technique last year during our high water event that's catching big trout right now. It's drifting a crank bait along the bottom -- but not just any ordinary crank bait. He's pinpointed a certain crank bait that works better than others. The only problem is that they're hard to come by, at least so far. It's the Bomber, Fat Free Fingerling in shad or pearl color. Yes, that's its name. While drifting, throw the Bomber out behind the boat like a drift rig and reel down a bit, but not far. The natural action of the bait will take it to the bottom, and it will stay there, digging its bill into the gravel bottom. Brown trout love it, or hate it enough to clobber it as it goes by. And, yes, you do lose baits, a lot of baits. Some anglers won't think it's an even trade, to have the chance for a trophy brown versus the cost of losing baits at $6-7 a pop. Yes, jigs are much cheaper -- drift jigs even more so -- but this technique has been proven to catch good-sized brown trout! Your rig must be heavier than the average trout rod and reel. You need to use at least six-pound line or even heavier. And your rod needs to be fairly stiff to handle the pull of the lure as is plows a row under the water. Writer Ryan Miloshewski has written an article about his experience fishing with Duane last week and catching some really nice rainbows and brown. You can read it here on OzarkAnglers.Com. The Missouri Department on Conservation have been stocking rainbows routinely in the Branson Landing area, and some of those trout are showing up in the creeks down in that area, but not like they did a month ago when our water was high. That doesn't mean they won't find the slower and warmer water of Turkey, Coon and Roark creeks, so it's always good to check those places out. The best way to catch them in these creeks is something under a float, such as a jig, a Berkley Powerworm (pink) on a small jig hook or even a Gulp Egg on a jig hook -- that works, too. They'll also chase a spinner or a spoon since there are a lot of minnows in these creeks. There are anglers doing fairly well just drifting either Gulp or Powerbait on the bottom from Cooper through Monkey Island. Boaters need stay in the middle or inside of the bend and away from the outside of bluff bank where the water is faster. Working the inside bank should be pretty good, too, with Cleos, jigs and small to medium stick baits. The water is really slow enough to anchor (very carefully) and tight line a minnow or night crawler behind the boat. Anchor off the front of the boat, not the side or back. In yesterday's One Cast, I show and explain how I'm anchoring and fishing with minnows. Stay tuned to all our media outlets for current fishing reports and especially changed to flow patterns - Youtube, Facebook and Ozarkanglers Forum. Also! Don't forget about out benefit fishing tournament this Saturday, April 7, here at the marina. Don't let the cold weather keep you off the water! View full article

You're exactly right... I don't like the cold but I like the drier air.

You can off load on the docks as well as fish from them.

Yes they have 5 open. 3 units going.

We are looking at mirroring OAF's data on another service as a backup...

I can up the limit... didn't know there was one.

Well, it appears we have most images back. I'll check more extensively in the morning but after reinstating s3 service in my amazon account, the bucket still has stuff in it. Praise God! Thank you.

The adipose fin is clipped on triploids.

My service has been reinstated. I'm seeing some images but not all. It may take some time... I'm sure I lost some data. Just hope it's not as much as I am fearing. It is what it is though. I'm sure sorry about this guys and gals. 12 years of images may be gone.

They shut down a turbine and opened 5 gates. Still running the same water.

Just hoping there's a grace period... waiting for them to reply. Could be a while.

I have made a pretty big error... About a year ago, me and my server guy decided to send all the images from the forum to Amazon Web Services instead of clogging up his server. Yesterday I closed that AWS account by mistake. Yea... this could be bad. I have a trouble ticket in to AWS and they are supposed to call me later this morning. There is a chance my data has not been released or deleted.... we will see. I did this one other time- hit the wrong key and started reformatting a hard drive instead of a SD card. It's a bad, helpless feeling for sure.

I can't see most member's avatars... DD's isn't showing up now. Not sure what's going on. Server issues or forum issues. I'll turn in a trouble ticket and see what happens. Anyone else see anything? More info the better.

I got a friend in Kingfisher, OK that's very jealous right now.

It’s stuck in West Oklahoma.

I don’t like to go over on that side when someone is fishing on the bank but next time I see the canoe I’ll come over and say hi. Did you see me almost knock Jackson (black lab) out of the boat? I misjudged my speed and ran under the cable. Freaked him out and almost push him in the lake.

Trying to find some catchable fish today. Duane found them behind the big island above Lookout in the river right and in the big eddie in front of Andy Williams' house. Caught them on dark jigs - he can report. Babler's client caught them stripping a brown bugger against the slack bank before Lookout - he can report too. I'm going out and anchoring (safely) in slow current along choice banks, usually where there's an eddie, and tight lining a minnow behind the boat. Using minimal weight - split shot - #10 hook and hooking the minnow up through the lower and up through the upper lip. Got to let the fish have it to hook it. I anchored in front of the lower C of O waterfall first and then anchored below the small point just below that. There's good eddie water there. If it stops raining, I'm going back to that eddie and try a couple of things. I'm going to try some more spots too.

I got it via email. Not sure about a presentation.

Not too much though. Might put Beaver over limit and they'll have to start dumping.

Looks like Table Rock has crested... finally... at 919.02 feet. Looking forward to seeing it start dropping. They're running 15,000 cfs... unless they start dumping Beaver, we should see TR drop pretty quickly.

Are you in a green canoe?

OK, I edited and updated the report.

Well... this wasn't supposed to be posted till I finished it. Sorry about that.

Recent rains have brought our lakes up in elevation again. On Wednesday, 3/28, The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened 5 gates and released water at a rate of 5,000 cubic feet per second, along with running water through 3 of its 4 turbines totallying 15,000 c.f.s.. The Corps is required to release 15,000 c.f.s of water if Table Rock rises above the spring time power pool level of 915 feet and they will continue releasing that amount until the lake is back down to that level. On Thursday, mid day, the 4th turbine came back online and 4 flood gates were closed and one left open. We are also watching Beaver Lake's level. They typically hold Beaver's release until it gets above 1128 at which point they will release water to keep it from going any higher. In the past, Beaver's lake level is held even at this high level until Table Rock and Bull Shoal's levels are equal to it's capacity, or I guess they think it's safe to start dropping Beaver. I've never been real clear how they handle Beaver Lake. It's all a little hard to understand but everything the Corps does in managing our lakes is mandated by congress. Bottom line, we are going to see heavy generation on Lake Taneycomo for quite some time. The question is what future rain may be heading this way and how would that affect additional releases over our flood gates. Lake water temperature is about 45 degrees at the dam. Four units of water is a lot of water and pretty intimidating to a lot of anglers. There's no a whole lot you can do bank or dock fishing - the water is just too fast to present your bait or lure to the fish. Boat fishing, on the other hand, can be very good. The best way to catch trout when there's this much water is running is to drift with the current and drag something on or real close to the bottom. That goes for anywhere on the lake -- at the dam or the Branson Landing area. Trout will be heading to the creeks during high water. Typically Turkey and Roark Creeks are prime targets for rainbows seeking less current and warmer water temperatures. A few weeks ago, anglers found fishing in both creeks excellent including catching some bass, crappie and blue gills. As of right now, they have not found the creeks. There's a few in them to catch but not the big numbers like there were a couple weeks ago. Generally, it takes these rainbows a few days to settle in to a flow pattern. The Missouri Department of Conservation stocked a couple of days ago down in the Branson Landing area but so far our guides haven't located them. They are looking... Freshly stocked rainbows will stay together for a few days and are easy to catch. We have had some anglers boat down and catch them around the Fish House, the floating restauant at the Landing. Some of the trout people have caught and cleaned from below the dam are full of scuds so drifting #12 or #14 gray scuds is the go-to fly right now. One complaint is that the trout below the dam aren't being aggressive right now. This should change, I just don't know when. I took a couple of guys up there yesterday afternoon and we found the rainbows biting but taking our jigs short. We were getting bites but missing them. Our guides reported that their clients were hooking fish but some of them were coming off before getting them to the boat, another sign of not being aggressive. I had several rainbows follow my jig to the boat, just not acting like they wanted to engage. This "attitude" is not uncommon at all... it's all part of fishing, and it will change. We're going to keep at it and figure out what these trout want and report back. View full article