Phil Lilley

Dang... do I need to start a forum just on Flicker Shad? There's quite a following.

I mentioned to Duane the other day- is this a new fade... the old fade for paying $25 for a bait. Now it's the cheaper baits? These costs me $2.75 wholesale!

BTW- I do have and can get more of the big see-through stickers but they're costly (in RSP's post). Costs me $20 each to have them done locally. If I can find a place to get them done cheaper I'm open to it. I'd pay shipping.

I'm making an order... need to know the best colors. Quick... making it today.

Thanks Jeff.

There's a bunch of those old looking males right now.

Please do!

Thanks- I love this place too!

Early!!! Should have let Early take the last shot.

Working on it...

Commentator called a banked 3 "rhythm"? Come on! It's called "SLOP".

Duane's probably still cleaning his crappie... so I'll beat him to starting the report. I met DD at Bridgeport at 3 today. He already had a load in his livewell. We went up in the mouth of Flat Creek and starting trolling as he had been doing most of the day. He told me to pick up some Flicker Shad, #5 purple and/or chartruese. Had a tough time finding any- Bass Pro was packed and didn't want to fight that crowd. Found a few a various places between Branson and Bridgeport. Only the purple firetiger? But it caught a few whites and couple of crappie for me. I'll let DD tell you the rest. I'll post the pics.

Got out the last couple of evenings. Fished jigs, mainly white, from the dam down to Fall Creek. First, Steve Dickey reported seeing shad coming through the dam 3 mornings ago. They tore them up using shad flies but the next day they couldn't buy a bite on white. I went up there Thursday evening with Marsha and we couldn't either. Didn't get bit till we got down to the boat ramp and then we did good on olive 1/8th ounce jigs. Last evening, Duane and Mona and I started at Lookout and fished the bluff with white jigs. Caught mostly browns! Nothing over 16 inches. Caught a couple of rainbows that appeared to be stuffed with shad. They didn't hammer white like they should if they're seeing shad. Not sure what's going on. But if there is shad coming through, it's only going to get better. They're running 2-3 units 24 hours now I'm sure because Table Rock jumped up 3 feet in the last rain/snow. May continue for a week or so. MDC stocked a bunch of REAL NICE rainbows downtown area. We've seen some 14-16 inch stocker rainbow brought in the last 2 days and lots of them. Mostly caught on Power Bait eggs drifting from Cooper down to the bridges.

Hey Jamie!

What's BSC or that one of those creeks...

Been catching a lot of light colored browns- hardly any tan to them. Not the little ones either- 15-17 inch. Usually they're colored up good but not right now.

Really appreciate you posting!

Didn't know about that one.

I use 2 pound for 2 reasons-seasons. 1. For castability. If I need to throw smaller jigs like 1/16th and 1/32nd ounce, I need smaller line. 2. For clarity. When the water gets real clear in late summer and fall, I use 2 pound line because the fish see better.

Tapatalk. It's the only one I have installed on the forum.

Generation here on Lake Taneycomo has been hard to pattern, just like the weather. The U.S. Corps of Army Engineers will run water all day at one or two units for a few days in a row and then change to no water, or heavy flow in the morning and none in the afternoon. It's beyond guess work, even for us veterans. If you're planning on a fishing trip coming up, plan for it all! Hopefully you will experience a generation pattern that fits your liking. Our water temperature is holding at 42 degrees and is cloudy. Visibility is six feet deep. The rain and snow from Sunday pushed Table Rock Lake up from 913.2 feet to 914.5 feet and it is still climbing. I would think the Corps would be looking to keep Table Rock at a reasonable level with spring ahead of us, so generation might pick up here in the next week or so. We'll see. The Missouri Department of Conservation has been busy stocking rainbows. This morning officials dumped in a load off the Cooper Creek boat ramp. Their stocking boat is still down, so they continue to stock off both public and private boat ramps up and down the lake. The size of rainbows appear to be bigger, averaging longer than 12 inches. But I've been told there are still a lot of smaller rainbows in the lake, especially up in the trophy area. My prediction that threadfin shad would come through the turbines at Table Rock Dam has not come true, and our trout aren't very interested in white jigs, at least directly below the dam. I've fished up there this morning with two units running (dropping to one later) and did very little on a white, 1/8th-ounce jig. I did, though, do well on further down lake, below Lookout Island throwing the white jig against the bluff bank. No big numbers but what I did catch was good size (rainbow images). Right at the mouth of Fall Creek, I hooked and landed my largest trout of the morning, a 19-inch brown (image). It, too, came on an 1/8th-ounce jig. Fishing from below Fall Creek's Dock the other day, with the water falling out from running early in the morning, I drifted and threw a 3/32nd- ounce jig and worked the bluff side down to Short Creek. The first five trout I caught were browns and all about 15 inches long with very little color. Several rainbows followed with the last fish being another brown. If you notice in the video, I was letting the jig fall a long time, almost daring it to snag on the bottom. Using a 3/32nd-ounce jig allows me to work a jig much slower than an 1/8th-ounce, but the bite is usually much harder to detect. When there is no current at all, we go to a 1/16th-ounce jig and use two-pound line and do the same thing. With the water off, we have had several anglers boat up to the trophy area, get out and wade the flats fly fishing this last weekend. One father and son duo said they caught more than 100 rainbows between the two of them both days they fished. They used exclusively #14 woolies, mainly olive. Another pair fly fishing out of one of our jon boats today said they caught quite a few average-sized rainbows on #16 scuds, again on the flats above the Narrows. Below Fall Creek, Kastmaster Spoons are catching freshly stocked rainbows from Cooper Creek down to the Landing, concentrating on the boat ramp areas. There's been a lot of activity up in Roark Creek, which is normal for this time of year. Trout seem to like to go into creeks, especially when there's a lot of current on the main lake. Guides have been in and out of the creek for the past week. Today one guest who rented a boat from us said he took his grandsons all the way up to the bridge in Roark, and they caught trout late this afternoon non stop for an hour on spoons and spinners. Look in other creeks, too, for some activity -- Turkey, Coon, Bee and even as far down as Bull Creek. You'll find big schools of rainbows, probably freshly stocked and still hanging together. They usually strike about anything they see shiny run by. Fishing these creeks is also a good way to get out of the wind the main lake has been offering.

Post some pics, Frank!

Wichita State

Posted your report on OA but didn't know who to put down as the reporter so had to improvise... Check it out.