Phil Lilley

Got to the ramp at 6;30 this morning. Looked like a great morning to be out. Jimmy, my son in law, drove up from Rogers, AR last night to fishing this morning. Hoping to put him on the crappies. Not to be. Water temp dropped a little from Wednesday but not but a few degrees- and it was morning. Still 62 degrees. Slight breeze, blue skies. We caught a few shorts at all the spots. Bass too. But just couldn't get them to get going like the other few times out. Ended doing the best on a while jig under a float 5 feet deep fishing laydowns on bluffs. One keeper, probably 14 shorts and 7 small bass. Oh and a dozen morels -- Duane took us up on a cedar glade and actually Jimmy found most of them. Duane (Ducky Doty) is still over there. He should have the evening report later today.

I carry them at our shop too.

It's been a while since my last fishing report, but very little has changed since April 6. Generation has stayed steady -- the U.S. Army Corps of Army Engineers is releasing about 7,000 cubic feet per second of water (or two units) consistently for the past month, day and night. There's been small variations but for the most part, it's been very consistent. Water temperatures have not changed either. We're getting 42-degree water from Table Rock, which is colder than our trout like it. Keep in mind, most of our trout are being stocked from the Branson Landing area down lake, and for the most part, they're staying down because of the current and temperature. Our fishing guides are reporting that they are finding rainbows holding in eddies and behind structures to try to stay out of the current. Now if that's all you read of my report, you'll missed the most important thing! They shut the water off this morning for the first time in a couple of months! Why did I not change my report above, written yesterday? Because with rain in the forecast, there's a very good chance we'll be right back in the same generation pattern we've seen most of the winter. This is what happens when I start writing my fishing reports one day and finish the next . . . the Corps pulls a fast one on me! Now that the water is off, I think our trout will be very hungry and eager to get out of their eddies and behind rocks to eat. A jig-and-float rig should be great using the normal colors of olive, sculpin, brown, white and pink. I'd start with setting the float four feet above the jig and push it deeper as needed. Even with the water running, our guides have been adding a short, 18- inch piece of 6x or two-pound line to the jig and tying on a #16 red zebra midge. That's still a good thing to do. To prove my prediction, I called Steve Dickey, who had a trip this morning. He said his party of two caught 96 rainbows in a four-hour trip, all on with the jig-and-float technique. They fished from Lookout down to Fall Creek and used a variety of colors, which Steve said made no difference. The trout bit anything they threw at them. Air-injected night crawlers should be excellent. Not so much minnows, but they might be worth trying, as well as PowerBait Gulp eggs, using one white and one orange or pink. One thing for sure -- there are a lot of rainbows in the lake right now. The Missouri Department of Conservation has been stocking regularly, and the catch rate lately has been low. Now, if -- or rather when -- the water starts running again, the rest of my report will apply to generation conditions. Guide Rick Lisek said Tuesday that he had his clients use minnows close to the bottom and drift from Scotty's Trout Dock down past the Landing. He's also finding fish behind Bass Pro's Fish House as well as downstream from Scotty's and the old gravel bar below the last bridge on the west side of the lake. Earlier in the winter we were finding crappie in the same slow water. Rick said, "They'll always eat a minnow if you put it in front of them." Steve Dickey called in a report for us yesterday. Remember his report reflects generation all day, every day. You'll need to install flash on your computer, if you haven't already, to access his report. Be advised, iPads and iPhones don't run flash, so you won't be able to hear his report on those devices. We've been sending our guests down around the bridges to cast spoons. One-sixth ounce Cleos, 1/8th ounce Kastmasters and Super Dupers have been working well. I took a long-time guests of the Landing out for an hour's fishing yesterday, late morning. Ned and Marilyn Spence are from the Oklahoma City area. I took a dozen minnows along and headed down lake, past the bridges, to the Landing area. I strung a float on the line and tied on a #10 short shank hook and a split shot 12 inches above the hook. Set the float at seven-feet deep and put a minnow on the hook. I usually run the hook through the bottom lip through the upper lip. The trout have been holding in areas where the current is slower, so we started below the gravel bar on the Landing side of the lake above the Fish House. Didn't take long for the float to disappear and Ned reeled in his first rainbow of the day. I wanted to try a few more places, so we boated down to Roark Creek. Mr. Spence caught one there on the same rig. Then we anchored just above the mouth of Coon Creek. Trout were actually midging in the current seam there. He caught one more there before heading back. Fishing at Coon Creek. Notice the zip line above Ned's head . . . the outfitters were testing the wire! Mouth of Turkey Creek.

Schedule says off all day till 5 p.m. Table Rock is below 915 feet for the first time in weeks, months. How long it says off depends on how much rain we get today.

Me and my buddy Paul Crews put in at Bridgeport about 4:30 this afternoon. Water temp 66 most places. Wind I think was out of the east or SE so Bear Den was tough. We went further south and tried a cut in the bluff bank on the left- has a green MDC brush sign. We caught 40 crappie- all way off the bank close to the planted brush pile - all but one short. Just swam a swimming minnow, 1/16th oz head, over the top of it. Got tired of throwing them back to went looking for another spot. Tried some more cuts like that one. Caught a few in each including a couple more keepers. Found a big brush pile in 30 feet of water close to some docks and caught a bunch more crappie- almost all short. Went up in a small cove, first one on the right after the cut, and caught a bunch more crappie, this time some keepers. All were still 30 feet off the bank, 6-8 feet deep. Some were fairly close to the bank but not many. All nice keepers were in deeper water. Paul caught several keeper LM's. All on purple swimming minnows. Headed back towards the ramp. Tried the first place where we caught the 40- nothing. Strange- thought they might have moved in to the bank. Went to Bear Den and the MDC green sign close to the point. Wind really never calmed down so we tied to some brush along the bank and threw out. Fished till 10 pm and caught fish the whole time. Paul caught a 14 inch crappie. Ended the afternoon with 16 keepers, a big male white bass and a nice goggleye. He also caught a big largemouth- probably 4-5 pounds. Crappie never made any move to the bank, even after dark. All of them caught 15-25 feet off the bank probably 6-7 feet deep. We did catch a lot of fish- it was fun. Pics tomorrow. Shot a little video- probably not enough to post.

Garmin Virb

Didn't get that far... sorry.

Duane and I hit the lake yesterday. Put in at Bridgeport and headed south to the brush piles and logs. Water temp 64. We fished both MDC marked brush piles and other lay downs. Tried to find them in fairly deep water, not shallow flats. Used 1/16th oz heads/ swimming minnow, clear with blue sparkles. Duane fished a Crappie Magnet, clear both under a float and throwing them straight. I used a 1/50th ounce white marabou jig under a float. We ended up with only 8 keepers with double the number of shorts. A few bass, mainly LM's. Crappie are still deeper than I would think. Caught them on or in the brush or out deep around structure - as deep as 6-8 feet. They didn't seem to make any move towards the banks at dusk. Here's some videos- not as easy to set up the camera as fishing trout because you're throwing different directions. We caught most of the keepers early, before I set the camera up. Underwater video was an experiment. Didn't shoot it till later. Would be better if the sun was out. But still can see some fish. In the second segment look for Duane's Crappie Magnet dropping down in front of the camera.

The gas station at 76 and Y?

I'm still looking for members to send these to... Send me a PM with your name, address and which decal you want and how many. I'll send extras if you will give them out!

I JUST got back on... well, I've been "looking" at the old server's version. Rick (my service provider) told me to shut down firefox and restart. I was looking at my old cache. The forum has grown to 32 gb's. It was crashing due to it's size when it was being backed up. The machine it was on and outdated- didn't help. We've trimmed it down as best we can and Rick started the process of changing over on Saturday. He didn't think it would take 3 days. He too has a big forum site on the same server and he was adversely affected too. I'm not sure what all was lost... but now hopefully we'll have less problems going forward. And the thing mentioned about ppl deleting posts, I think I've stated this before but - I am the only person on the forum that can delete posts/topics. If my memory serves me right, I haven't deleted anything this year except a couple topics requested by the authors. If I do delete anything, I always let people know what I'm doing and why.

Bet it was a great float- Thanks for posting!!

http://www.ozarkanglers.com/table-rock/2014/04/17/nitros-table-rock-crappie-report-april-17/ You got published!

Cabelas should... they post my fishing report on their board every week. Mention my name Although it might get you thrown out of the store

That's what I like- first post: a fishing report with a picture! Good job!! Thank you!

Still looking for ppl to send these to... I just reordered the OAF Decal. 300 more!

Same general rule as federal parks...

Buster is tearing up the whites right now. Should be great next week too.

I haven't fished the bluff across from the resort in 10 days but I was picking up some when I did. The bluff from Fall Creek to Trout Hollow has been pretty good.

Got my package.

Watch this in HD/Full Screen if you can. The scenery is really pretty.

Don't know... I'll see what I can do. This is a good winter time activity or may be heat of the summer. Let me consider it a while. Remind me if I forget!

Small balloons filled with dye and really smelly stuff... ready to be thrown at the guys who cut you off. Just a thought...