Phil Lilley

3:14 Did that guy say he ate a 3-pounder out of Taneycomo??? Oh my!!! 4:40 Show Off 6:02 The guy 3 down on your right wants you to stringer that one so you'll LEAVE!

I'll tell ya what I've seen and heard... Yes there's threadfin shad coming through the turbines and into Taney. I think there's been a good number of them but they're not coming through all the time. And all sizes too - small and big ones. Was up there yesterday from about 2-4 pm and saw them as I pulled up to the cable. And I saw them as I finished my first drift at Trophy Run. But didn't see many at all from that time forward- they stopped coming through. They come through in schools so it makes sense that they're not coming through all the time. I caught a few fish yesterday and this morning, but not a lot. They were all over a white jig like you'd think. Did catch some rainbows that had big bellies but caught others that only had medium sized bellies- they'd been eating but not pigging out like the plump ones. Excited though... sure is fun when we get a shad hatch. Table Rock is now dropping. It's high point was 916.48 this morning at 2 am and it's not 916.38 and falling .02-.03 feet per hour. They have backed off on generation from oh so slightly, not enough to see much change in elevation or flow. The other hot spot is the creeks. Turkey, Coon and Roark are full of trout. And I'm sure they'll be full of boats by the weekend. Be careful with these high floats... we almost lost a couple of guests this morning. Jon boat lodged against a dock above Trout Hollow's dock. They got it free only to over steer and sped into the resort's dock and over turn. The owner, Lineal, happened to be watching, and was able to pull both men out of the water before they rolled under his dock. He's a lifesaver x 2.

One of the Boswell tourneys had a 13 pound brown I think. That 8 yesterday might be the biggest in a public tourney.

I said they ran 1700 cfs all day... I was wrong. 24FEB2018 0800 911.35 703.96 1479 21 24FEB2018 0900 911.47 704.19 1886 27 24FEB2018 1000 911.56 704.52 2379 35 24FEB2018 1100 911.66 704.34 2464 36 24FEB2018 1200 911.77 704.11 2137 31 24FEB2018 1300 911.91 704.24 2162 31 24FEB2018 1400 912.08 705.26 3439 50 24FEB2018 1500 912.18 705.69 4222 61 24FEB2018 1600 912.34 705.23 3560 51 24FEB2018 1700 912.52 705.16 3304 48 24FEB2018 1800 912.66 706.14 3546 51 24FEB2018 1900 912.80 706.76 5971 92 24FEB2018 2000 912.85 706.75 6062 93 24FEB2018 2100 913.02 706.46 5988 92 date ` ` ` ` time Table Rock Level Taney Level CFS ` ` ` ` ` `megawatts They were all over the place.

I guess you have to fish down there or know someone who does... I do neither. There are guys who fish these tourneys that do regularly but they don't speak much about it and I don't ask... they may tell me but then they'd have to silence me. They know me all too well.

The board tells is all. Tough fishing. This is the toughest water conditions we've ever experienced for a tournament. Three inches of rain last night and about 2 inches today. Lightning chased them off the lake about 1:30 - 2 pm. But it cleared off and fishing picked up, especially uplake close to Fall Creek where the water was clearing. Duane said we had 8 inches of visibility at 8 am. They ran 1700 cfs all day so it pushed the dirty water down, until the rain came again and it dirtied back up again but not as bad. We had 50 teams sign up but I think 4-6 teams either cancelled or had issues getting started. Out of those that did start, 9 are fishing "UP" which means they headed for clearer water above Fall Creek. They're restriction is that they can only weigh in rainbows under 12 and 20 inches and over. Browns of course have to be over 20 inches. The winning fish was caught on a jig below the Branson Landing... it's the only bite Jim had until late in the afternoon. They weighed in 4 trout. 25 inches. 8.36 pounds. They kept it in good shape and it was strong when we released it. Yes it was a triploid. Winning rainbow was a 2.34 pound trout caught by Nick Whiteman.

This is the toughest water conditions we've ever experienced for a tournament. Three inches of rain last night has left the lake a mess... it's not as bad as I've ever seen it by far but it's not good. Duane said we had 8 inches of visibility at 8 am. He checked a little bit ago and it was about 18 inches. They're running 1700 cfs so the clear water is pushing the dirty water down but it's slow - the lake is backed up from the rains. We had 50 teams sign up but I think 4-6 teams either cancelled or had issues getting started. Out of those that did start, 9 are fishing "UP" which means they headed for clearer water above Fall Creek. They're restriction is that they can only weigh in rainbows under 12 and 20 inches and over. Browns of course have to be over 20 inches. Early reports say fishing down is tough but one guy texted me a pic of a big brown they had caught. The anglers up are catching but only slot rainbows... so far. The water at Fall Creek is clearing so I would think that's the area to be this afternoon. It's raining right now... should stop about weigh in time - 4 p.m..

For locals: Brett lost all his fly tying equipment and material. All of us have extra stuff laying around we'll never use, or can spare. Go through it and box up what you can give. Keep in mind that Brett ties a lot of small flies - scuds, midges and such. Bring it by our shop at Lilleys' and we'll get it to him.

Today through Sunday... 6-10 inches is a little exaggeration.

Brett lost his house last night to a fire. They got out only with the clothes they were wearing. He's asked for fly tying equipment and materials. Nick started a Go Fund Me account for them too. https://www.gofundme.com/rader-family-fire-relief/donate Do what you can. Thanks

Just saw @Ham on KY3... you're 4 second claim to fame!

Wonderful trip. Thanks for taking us along!

Lake Taneycomo - we have a fishing tournament scheduled this Saturday at Lilleys' Landing. 2-person team $50 entry per team Big Rainbow $200 and Brown Trout $200 Cash Prize Artificial Only Contest 8 am - 4 pm weighin Big Feed after the tournament Rain is forecasted for Saturday but the fish don't mind.... they're already wet!

We don't rebuild them... we send them in.

That 10-spot keeps getting closer to SW Missouri.

7 day accumulative.

They said almost all the jon boats had damaged props Saturday - that's 10. Either rebuilt or we file them out. To answer your question - a bunch.

Did I mention we had a willow tree in our back yard?

My neighbor had 2 nice maples trees in their front yard about 20 feet apart. I got the bright idea to make a very long rubber band, secure each end to each tree, made gigantic spit wads and shot them at cars going by - at night of course. I only did it one night... I got caught.

Unfortunately, I can't control (or I don't know how to) ads that appear in the google ad spaces on OA and OAF. They are viewer driven - what you browse on your computer shows up in ads. You can click on them and object to the content or use an ad blocker. I will point out though that when you post an image of the objectionable ad, it does show up and viewable to everyone.

I haven't been out on the lake on a Saturday, in the winter, in a long time. After yesterday, I know why. And for some reason the trophy area was the place to be! We did have a couple of groups who collectively wanted to fish the trophy area this weekend - one from Arkansas and one from Oklahoma. Together they probably had 20 boats and most were fishing between Lookout and the Narrows Saturday afternoon. And I don't think the trout appreciated the traffic. The group did fish early in the morning and was able to boat past Lookout, some to the cable, and fish before the Corps drop the levels back down to 35 megawatts. They said fishing was very good - white jigs was the best lure. Some did drift a scud on the bottom and caught some nice rainbows. We're still seeing a lot of rainbows in spawning colors - real pretty. I got out about 1 pm and joined the floatilla. Did ok on a 1/16th black jig until the wind nixed my jig fishing. The guys did ok fishing a scud under an indicator (fly fishing) but as the afternoon dragged on and more boats made it up to the area, the bite shut off for us. Sun came out too which didn't seem to help fishing but it did warm us up - I think my guys got sleepy. Yea- this weekend espcially is a busy weekend on the lake - always has been. It was fun though... watching all the yea-hoos barrel up the crowded Narrows channel through traffic only to plow a row through the shallow gravel. If they only drove a little slower we might have told them.