Phil Lilley

Our generation pattern has been unpredictable this last week, mainly because of the increasing rain the area has received. Even though Northwest Arkansas has had a lot of rain, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been dumping Beaver Lake -- now to a full foot lower. Table Rock has held at 917 feet because of the release into Taneycomo. Thankfully, our forecast shows an end of precipitation today for at least eight days but it comes with an expected rise in temperatures into the 90's. We have continued to see a slow flow of 30 megawatts or about a half unit, 704-5 feet at the tail water, which is strange. Years ago, Corps officials said that prolonged slow flows played havoc with the turbine blades, but now it seems that is not the case. Instead of generating for part or half of the day and 1-2 units for the other half, they are running a half unit 24 hours a day, sometimes for many days in a row. The former pattern would be ideal for anglers who like to wade below the dam, so at least part of the day they could wade. But that's the life of fishing a tail water--you just try to make the best of whatever the conditions are. Thirty megawatts of generation is a nice flow to fish for most anglers, though. The current isn't too fast to fish from most docks and is very easy to manage fishing out of a boat. At 704-5 feet, you can get a boat all the way to the cable with a little smart navigation and, thus, have access to fish the entire lake. This flow is great for fishing something under a float. Above Fall Creek, a white 1/32nd-ounce jig is still one of the best lures, along with a scud, zebra midge, San Juan Worm (especially after a rain like we've had this morning), a wooly bugger or a Miracle Fly (egg fly). Our water has really cleared up more and more as the days go by, so we're not necessarily fishing brightly colored flies. We're starting to see good results fishing grays, olives, brown and black again, although the bright colors are working too (orange, yellow, cerise, reds, pink, white and chartreuse). Also with the slow generation, we're dropping to lighter jigs such as 3/32nd- and 1/16th-ounce, but in doing so, we're using two-pound line. This makes it easier to throw and work smaller jigs. Four-pound is fine if you're throwing 1/8th-ounce or even 3/32nd-ounce as far as water color. The fish aren't going to shy away from four-pound line. Our trout are still chasing jigs. Duane Doty and I have seen this while fishing jigs up below the dam this week. While reeling in our jigs after working them out away from the boat, one or even more than one trout will be trailing a foot or more behind the jig. Duane was able to get one nice brown to take his jig at the boat, but most of the time as soon as we stopped reeling, the fish would break off and not come back. I suggested we try a trailer fly or small jig next time, so that maybe they'd take it instead of the bigger, lead jig. Will report back on that idea. Throwing white and sculpin-colored jigs worked well for a group of guys this past week, fishing in the area around Trout Hollow. They reported catching several rainbows from 18 to 21 inches long. I still haven't seen any top-water action along the banks. I'll be trying a hopper this week to see if any trout are looking "up" yet. Over the holiday weekend, we saw an abundance of rainbows brought in and cleaned. Seemed like the Missouri Department of Conservation did a great job stocking the lake for the crowd of fishers we had visit the area. And they were good sized trout, too - some up to 14 inches long. Freshly stocked rainbows are easy to spot. They don't have hardly any red or pink colors on their sides and they have a purplish look to them. Their meat is always white, not orange. Most of these rainbows were being caught from Monkey Island down through the bridges. The mouth of Turkey Creek was a hot spot. The favorite bait was, of course, Berkeley's Power Bait, but I think everybody was using various colors and doing well. There's a Sunrise Power Egg that seems to be the favorite -- at least we sold the most of it. Night crawlers and minnows caught the biggest rainbows. Guide Bill Babler did really well fishing with clients from Fall Creek to Trout Hollow throwing Trout Magnets under a float five- to six-feet deep. He was using pink, orange and white. View full article

The Corps site says we got 1 inch of rain this morning but I bet it was more like 3-4 inches. Between 7:30 and 9 am it poured here sending water over the banks in local creeks and ditches. Soon after it stopped, the upper lake was full of trash, trees and muddy water. Across the lake, water roared as it poured down the bluff--it was almost deafening. They have been running 1 unit all day so it's pushed most if not all the runoff out of our area but I bet the mid to lower lake will be messed up for days. People were still catching trout this afternoon though... I was pleasantly surprised.

I asked someone at the Corps and this is the explanation I got back. "Sometimes we do regulate power thru our generatingunits and when this happens people can see an increase/rise in the water butthe horns don't sound. Rise in the waterwould be minimal compared to when we are actually generating." They now have been given aware of a possible issue with the warning horn and I'm sure it'll be looked into further. They don't want anyone hurt, especially if it's caused by something that can be addressed and changed.

You're in the minority One is good enough for that.

No water running today on Taney. Schedule says some will be coming on at 4 pm. Nice for wading below the dam, boats will have a tough time getting past the Narrows, especially if there's a bunch of boats there fishing. Be nice on the water.

Caught on the Buffalo

Fish on the hatchery side up by the cable... nice eddie and plenty of fish. All kinds of fish... warm and cold water.

Rain is in the forecast! It has been a very interesting winter and spring, starting with a flooding rain event the first few days of 2016, then changing to a relatively dry and warm season from January through April. Now it looks like the rains have returned, but how much is yet to be seen. So far storms have split and gone both north and south of us with little effect to lake levels. Table Rock is hovering at 916 feet, which is normal for May. Generation on Lake Taneycomo has been consistent most days, running 30 to 50 megawatts, 22,00 to 36,00 cubic feet per second. One full unit is 55 megawatts with a lake level of 705.4 feet, about four feet high. Water temperature is 47.5 degrees when the water is running. Trout fishing has also been pretty consistent. We're seeing people cleaning rainbows every day, most catching their limits. There have been two "hot spots" for boat fishermen. One is starting at Fall Creek and drifting down to Short Creek, and the other is starting at the high lines above Monkey Island and drifting down through the bridges. Granted, the drift is very slow down there with what water is running, but that's where most of the rainbows are holding after being stocked. The size of rainbows stocked are very nice, averaging 12 to 13 inches in length from what I've seen. I believe most anglers are very happy with their catches lately. Night crawlers are by far the best live bait, with various colors and styles of Power Bait right behind. Minnows are doing pretty well. You have a much better chance of catching a brown trout using minnows or night crawlers. The main key to fish this slow current is the weight. You don't want to use so much weight that it hangs up on the bottom. Start with a 1/8th-ounce bell weight; if that's too big, pinch on a split shot instead. You want it just tick the bottom, not drag. And, oh yes, inject your night crawler with air using a needle -- or run a Gulp Egg up the line, hook your half crawler on the hook and slide the egg back on top of the worm. If you're doing this, use a larger hook like a #6. Actually, I use #6 all the time when fishing a night crawler but a #8 or #10 is fine as long as you're not adding the egg. Trout magnets have been pretty successful from Fall Creek to Short Creek. White is the best color with pink, pink/white and chartreuse/white close behind. Four-pound line is fine. Set your float about four to six feet above your magnet and change the depth if you're not getting bit. Stay closer to the inside of the bend to the middle of the lake and stay off the bluff side. Above Fall Creek in the Trophy Area, catching has been good but, for me, only in certain areas. Up below the dam is almost always good, but I've been hitting the stretch from Lookout down through the Narrows pretty hard with success only up close to the island and down at the Narrows. This is mainly with that 30 megawatts of generation mainly. I think it's because the current is pretty fast flowing through both these areas and trout are staying closer to the faster water. The stretch below the island and above the Narrows is slow and I'm not doing as well there. The area below the dam to Trophy Run and even down to Lookout is fishing excellent regardless of the flow. I've been throwing jigs mainly, but I have tried a hopper every other time I've been out with no success. I'll keep trying the hopper until they hit it, and believe me, they will. I think this summer will be excellent dry fly fishing because of the clouded water; it just a matter of time. White is still the best color by far, but we've had good success throwing other colors too. Been trying some new color combinations like yellow, yellow/white, chartreuse/white, light olive/peach/golden brown and ginger/golden brown. We've also been trying some new jig head colors like pumpkin and watermelon. Our trout seem to like all of them. Depending on the current and wind conditions, I been using four-pound line with an 1/8-ounce jig, and two-pound line throwing small jigs like 3/32nd-ounce and 1/16th-ounce. I shot an hour long video that shows some of the thought put in on when to use both rigs. Monday night the generation was bumped at 5 p.m. to two units with the lake level getting up as high as 708 feet. Duane and I boated up to the cable, despite a little rain, and fished the north bank down to Lookout. We had that best two-hour outing so far this year on big, quality trout. The numbers weren't bad either. We held the boat in the current most of the way down so we could work each area, each pocket really well. I used an 1/8th-ounce white jig and Duane an 1/8th-ounce mottled brown/orange head jig. Just below the cable, we both caught quality fish. Duane's first three trout were browns, and within the first 100 feet, I caught two spotted bass. We were hoping for a walleye since people are still catching one every once in a while up there. We kept them and showed them off on One Cast before releasing them. The quality of the fish we caught were impressive. Almost every rainbow or brown topped 15 inches -- some up to 19 inches -- plus fat and colorful. We took pictures of a few, but after awhile it was hard to stop fishing long enough to pose! I don't know why the bigger fish were biting so well, except that more water was running than had been in weeks. Running that much water was great for the upper lake because it cleared out a lot of the algae that had been growing on the bottom of the lake. The Kerr family are avid fly fishers. Dr. Albert Kerr, his wife Dawn and son James, make the trip up from Monroe, Louisiana, to fish Taneycomo many times. When the water is running, they take our J-12 up to the dam and fly fish. When they arrived Saturday morning about 10 a.m. to fish, I gave them a hard time about "sleeping in," teasing them that they had missed the best time of the day to fish, especially with the conditions of the day -- high, bright sun and very little wind. No matter, they just love to get out and fish regardless of the outcome. When they returned, they told me they had one of the best "catching" trips ever on our lake. They'd caught "multiple 20-plus-inch rainbows," mainly on a white grub, drifting it under a float and fishing from the cable down to Trophy Run. I know they also fish with San Juan worms, midges (Ruby Red is a favorite) and scuds. And James loves to throw big streamers and has done well when they're running more water. Returning Sunday, Dr. Kerr hooked and landed this 24-inch, 8.5-pound rainbow using a cerise-colored San Juan worm. View full article

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I'd send an email and say exactly what Joe said to say. If they're new, it's totally understandable BUT that excuse only goes so far and it won't make any difference to many who stay there. This business is very hard, especially if you're not the right personality to do it. Sooooo many people buy resorts and marinas that have no business being in that business... they see it when they stay there and think it would be fun - to fishing and float all you want. It does NOT work out that way. And then there's the people who are your customers... you gotta love people and bust your butt for them 24/7.

The Kerr's are avid fly fishers from buyou country. They drive up and fish weekends I bet 20 times a year. When they took off Saturday about 10 am I said it may be tough- high sun and little wind. When they returned they reported it was one of their best days catching multiple big rainbows over 20 inches. I don't what else they caught Sunday beside this trophy.

Albert Kerr caught this 24 inch 8.5 lb rainbow yesterday while drifting up below the dam. Caught it on a cerise San Juan Worm. Released. Fishing with his wife and son, they told me they caught multiple 20-inch-plus rainbows the day before.

Not fishing related... but thought I'd point out that signatures have not been working since the last update. I turned them back on. Sorry about that.

Lots of good memories growing up fishing farm ponds. Thanks for the post!

I've told this to a lot of members so it's not directed to anyone here. Haven't been following so I have no idea what's going on. You can ignore someone and not see that members post or receive private messages from them.

You guys need to meet for coffee and keep this off the forum.

That's a collection... impressive.

Midwest finesse tactics played a role in the first Bassmaster Classic at Lake Mead, Nevada, in 1971, when Drew Reese of Rantoul, Kansas, finished in seventh place by using a Beetle, Beetle Spin, and a jig-worm combo, and those baits were the creation of Chuck Woods of Kansas City, who is lauded as being the father of Midwest finesse fishing. Read More

On April 18, we received an email from Brian Latimer of Belton, South Carolina, and he exclaimed: “I had a blast at Beaver.” That blast occurred during the 2016 Walmart FLW Tour’s event at Beaver Lake, Arkansas, where he was introduced to some of the manifold virtues of Midwest finesse fishing. The day we received Latimer’s email was the same day we received a telephone call from Drew Reese of Rantoul, Kansas, who reported that Jeff Gustafson of Keewatin, Ontario, became a Midwest finesse devotee by using a Z-Man Fishing Products’ green-pumpkin Hula StickZ affixed to a Z-Man’s green-pumpkin Finesse ShroomZ jig at the Beaver Lake tournament.Read More

We published a Midwest finesse column on Nov. 1, 2013, about Andrew Upshaw of Sapulpa, Oklahoma. It was entitled “The finesse ways of Andrew Upshaw.” Back then he was a new member of the Finesse News Network, but he was not a Midwest finesse angler. Instead, he was what some anglers call a standard finesse angler, which means he primarily used a drop-shot rig and a shaky-head jig. Those are tactics some Midwest finesse anglers describe as power finesse, and they are the tactics that tournament anglers employ when they are trying to be versatile. The closest Upshaw got to Midwest finesse fishing occurred when he wielded a grub-and-jig combo. Read More

Humm... that's not correct. They didn't dive yesterday. And they've never shut it down when they dive. The person you talked to was misinformed... imagine that!