Phil Lilley

The 2 rod sets in the boxes are pristine... never used.

I have a series of pics of rods a gentleman brought in for me to investigate. He's wanting to know if there's anything valuable in his collection. I can offer descriptions if needed. But here are the images.

The graph does look suspect... 6 days and not drop, no leveling off at all? That means nonstop rain every day and that hasn't happened. Not saying it NOT high from rain but it just doesn't look right. Hopefully you'll get someone who drives over the creek to report.

May be... we had one rigged on one of the white rods.

Bait fishing off the dock is still pretty slow... jigs just catch more fish!

Yesterday marked the first day that the water was completely down, with no generation on Lake Taneycomo, in more than a month. This was a welcomed sight for at least fly fishermen who like to wade below the dam. I think this establishes a new pattern we might see for a few days. We might see even less generation for the weekend, too. Thursday morning when I came down to the dock, I was amazed by the clouds of midges flying just above the surface of the lake. Trout were excited, too -- they were snatching as many as they could swallow for almost an hour. When they're surfacing like that, you need to fish closer to the surface as with a lure that swims or something under a float set shallow -- not more than three-feet deep. When we're throwing jigs, we don't let them sink hardly at all before retrieving them. I think jig fishing for trout here has become a trend. I've seen more people throwing jigs in the last couple of days than I've seen in a long time, except during our trout tournaments. There was a gentleman casting a jig off the dock this morning. I gave him a 3/32nd-ounce jig because he was throwing an 1/8th-ounce which I considered too big for no generation. It sinks too quickly and causing you to work it too fast. It wasn't any time before he caught his first trout on a jig -- followed by another and another. Duane Doty and I are always devising ways to share our trout fishing with the world in fun ways so we set a challenge to see how many fish we could catch off the dock in five minutes. Why five minutes? Because that's about the average length of our One Cast videos; I think people will lose patience if they're longer. So we tried it: I lost count but Duane was right -- five trout in five minutes, all successfully released. If I would have connected on a couple of my bites, it would have been more. Today, after the water started, these anglers ventured out on the lake at 1:30 p.m.. They caught their limits of nice rainbows drifting Gulp Eggs on the bottom from the resort downstream. Shepherd of the Hills Hatchery is stocking some real nice rainbows right now, measuring well above 12 inches. We're also seeing some in the 16-inch range. So in the mornings before they kick on the water, fish with something under a float four- to six-feet deep. Either a jig, Trout Magnet or fly on two-pound line are best because our water is getting pretty clear. If fly fishing, use a Zebra Midge under an indicator anywhere from one- to four-feet deep and target fish that are surfacing, eating midges. If you're throwing jigs, cast a 3/32nd-ounce jig with either two or four-pound line. The best colors are mottled brown with brown or orange head, brown/orange, sculpin/ginger or peach or straight sculpin, brown or orange head. After the water starts, drift Gulp Eggs, minnows or night crawlers on the bottom from our resort down to the bridges; the best area has been close to the resort. Thursday evening after we closed I boated out with our new dockhand John. We boated up to Lookout with four units running but not full. The lake level was 709 feet. We started by throwing 1/8th-ounce jigs, targeting slack water along the bluff bank. I caught a couple but it was tough. I wanted to feel something at the end of my line, so I made a couple of drift rigs sporting a #12 gray scud and an egg fly on my rig and a red San Juan worm on John's. Drift rig: A line (two-pound Vanish is what I used) with a bell weight tied at one end and the flies on the other, 18 inches apart. Then a loop is tied about 12 inches from the bell weight. Total length is 48 inches. Tie a snap swivel to the line and attach the loop to the snap. We drifted from the Red House down past Fall Creek and caught some nice rainbows including the one John is holding. We boated down to the ramp at Riverpointe and drifted down to Short Creek, catching more rainbows. All but three rainbows were caught on the scud. Two came on the egg and one on the San Juan. It was fun since I don't drift that often.

Woke up to no current this morning on the lake. Schedule says one unit at 2 pm, building to 4 units by 6 pm. Huge midge hatches are coming off the lake and the trout are hammering them. Very nice to see.

There was a fund raiser last fall http://www.projecthealingwaters.org/NewsMedia/RegionalEventsBlog/tabid/173/post/st-louis-jefferson-barracks-phwff-fundraiser/Default.aspx They may do it again... but this is something you can donate to or you can give directly to the organization. Gofundme site take a portion of the money raised but a donation directly to the group- they get all of it. Very generous- thanks!

Jigs would be great too!! Thanks

Did you mark it on your rod and measure later? These kinds of questions will have to be ironed out by Clay I'm sure....

I think you're right on the honest part and the losing people part BUT I still think it's a program that is set apart from the other fish award programs out there. If it's done like the others, then why would you do it at all? If you catch a fish of that size and want to keep it, then get one of the other awards that allows for killing the catch. As far as honesty, I don't think there's an answer for that... you do your best to make it a believable program with reasonable safeguards. You're always going to have a few cheaters regardless.

Water may be off for you this weekend. It's off today. If you're wanting to fish something different, I'd suggest fishing something under an indicator like a jig, Trout Magnet or fly- or a combo. If you go back and look at some of my reports like - http://www.ozarkanglers.com/lake-taneycomo/2015/03/05/lilleys-lake-taneycomo-fishing-report-march-6/ Trout Magnets under a float have been hot! Pink/white, pink, white and chartreuse are the best colors on a gold hook. Fish them starting at three feet deep and move down until you find where they’re holding, which could be as deep as 10 feet. Dockhand Duane Doty is catching rainbows off the dock using his spey fly rod and fishing 11-feet deep with a Trout Magnet. I’d use two-pound line or 6x tippet. Micro Jigs and marabou jigs are also working under a float. Best colors are brown, sculpin or brown/orange with an orange head, sculpin/ginger, olive or brown/orange with a brown head. Best sizes would be 1/125th, 1/100th, 1/50th-ounce. For micros, use olive, sculpin or ginger, again, with two-pound line or 6x tippet. If you feel comfortable doing so, add a Zebra Midge under the jig using 6x tippet–about 12-18 inches from the jig. Use a #14 or #16 red or black Zebra. I say “comfortable” because this rig is a little difficult to cast without getting tangled.

Have him name businesses that are hurt by this relationship...

Duane thinks he had a hold of this same trout the day before, fought it almost to the dock when it pulled off.

Bet Duane can stir you in the right direction.

From William Morris, MDC MDC is recruiting volunteers for Discover Nature-Fishing. If you aren’t familiar with it, Discover Nature-Fishing is an educational program designed to introduce youths and families to fishing. It consists of four lessons, covering everything from casting and basic tackle to fishing with lures and fishing regulations. Each of the four lessons includes at least on hour of hands on fishing time. Lessons will be taught in Branson at Shepherd of the Hills Fish Hatchery throughout the summer. We are currently recruiting volunteers in the Branson area to becoming fishing instructors. Contact William Morris at william.morris@mdc.mo.gov

Duane, Mona Cheri and I put in at Cricket 3 pm yesterday. Headed up past Yocum and found some brush in 12 feet of water. Caught a few but nothing great. Short story- we found the crappie well off the banks but close to timber 3-4 feet deep. Water was stained, may be 18 inches visibility? Caught our fish on Crappie Magnets. Ended up doing the best just casting in open water and not letting it sink very far. Hit a few structures going out- main channel, deep timber, transition banks. No pattern really. Ended with 8 keeps. May be 12 shorts. 67 degree water. Disappointed we didn't find more close to banks. Looked like they had eggs- Duane will clean them this morning.

Very nice. Thanks

I haven't been on that stretch in a couple of years... didn't think about it changing. So better disregard my observation.