Phil Lilley

It's nothing out of the unusual... it's not a big jump. Traffic has been climbing for the past week. I was just trying to make light of the Bassin' Bob thing...

Stevan Mayes Lake Tanycomo Fishing Buddy Report - Sunday (2/16), Monday (2/17) & Tuesday (2/18). Originally planned to head to Taney on Monday, but left Sunday to beat the ice storm that was forecast for St. Louis. Arrived at Lilley’s mid-day and decided to fish from the dock. Spend a couple of hours fishing and each got our limit of nice skillet size trout, most in the 12” range. Caught most using orange Power Bait on a treble hook, rigged with a small slip sinker held in place with a small split shot. That was enough to keep in on the bottom even though they were running one unit. Also caught a few using a combo of white and orange power egg. Monday morning we got up early and started fishing from the dock around 8:00 AM, but had no luck, so we headed for the dam to do some wade fishing. As luck would have it we must have hit it during stocking as I have never caught as many fish as I did on this trip in the fifteen plus years I have been making trips to Tany, although I'm not a pro by any means. We got there after generation had been cut off, around 10:00 AM. Fished from the cable to the first outlet. I was using a 1/8th ounce solid gold colored Kastmaster, and my friend was using a Super Duper, gold with a red tip. Both of using six foot medium light action rods and two pound Maxima green line. The wind was really kicking up and causing a considerable ripple on the surface, at times almost blowing us off balance. The fishing was fantastic. We fished for about two hours, catching and releasing over sixty trout. Most were in the slot, and averaging twelve to fourteen inches, although we caught a considerable number of fifteen and sixteen inchers. Got one that went right at twenty inches, and that was our biggest of the day. We released everything, which is made much easier by pinching the barbs. Went back up to the dam around 2:00 PM and started in where we had left off. Still no generation, plenty of wind and catching and releasing one after the other using the same lures. Fished for an hour or so and caught and released at least thirty apiece. Drove down to the ramp and saw a ton of anglers catching and releasing one after the other using fly rods and ultra-lights. Got up Tuesday and headed right up to the dam again, knowing there was no way we could equal the day before. We didn’t, we surpassed it. When we got to the dam there was generation, so we waded in as far as we could, again just below the cable. Fished from the cable to the outlet and caught trout on almost every cast. While generation was on, we threw the same lures at about a forty-five degree angle toward the dam and retrieved pretty quick until a strike. Shortly afterward, generation was stopped and it seemed that resulted in even more action. We starting throwing as far as we could straight across and doing a slow retrieve, again resulting in strikes almost every cast. Broke for lunch as we hit eighty fish on our counter. Went back to the same area in the afternoon and fished a couple more hours with no generation, same lures same pattern and caught sixty more before quitting for the day. Many of the fish we caught Tuesday were bigger size, with many in the sixteen to eighteen inch range. The largest nineteen and a half. All catch and release. For a person who does not fish Tany regularly, this was really a thrill. Packed up and headed home Wed., with sore shoulders, back, feet, etc. But, well worth it. Thanks again to Phill and all Lilley’s Landing Staff for the special lodging rate and their friendliness and first class service. Can't wait to return this August for our regular week at the lake.

Yeah- I know it's fishing fever. Traffic has been building for the past couple of weeks. From now till the end of April is crunch time. it is cool to see the site get busier each year.

No spots, Scott!

We had a record day yesterday here on Ozarkanglers. 2,757 unique visitors, over 4000 visits and 25,898 pages. Wonder if it was Bassin' Bob and his friends?

Oh man... that would be a first I bet!

I can bring some but can't do any business in the library. Their rules. But can afterwards in the parking lot. I can bring short and long sleeve shirts and hats. $10 each.

Just come!

Sweet!

Bob Bennett will speak at the Springfield Library on South Campbell this Thursday at 7 p.m. Free to the public. Bob is a fishing guide on Stockton and has specialized in catching crappie throughout the year. Please plan on attending - tell your friends!

Pics?

Several guides have big enough boats on Taney, they can handle a family of 5. You can call our office at 1-800-284-2196 and ask about rates for guides and our units.

Yep- need flash. Ipads and Iphones won't work.

Buster Loving, guide on several lakes in the Tri-Lakes area, spoke in Springfield on Friday evening, February 7th on mainly walleye fishing on Bull Shoals but touched on crappie, bass, white bass and even striper fishing on that lake. Here's the mp3 player- http://forums.ozarkanglers.com/seminar/buster_seminar_2014.mp3 Bill Babler acted a moderator and added to the discussion. I did my best to edit the audio. The mic was stationary and when Buster moved around the room and other spoke, the audio had to be enhanced. Hope it turns out ok for everyone.

Buster Loving, guide on several lakes in the Tri-Lakes area, spoke in Springfield on Friday evening, February 7th on mainly walleye fishing on Bull Shoals but touched on crappie, bass, white bass and even striper fishing on that lake. Here's the mp3 player- http://forums.ozarkanglers.com/seminar/buster_seminar_2014.mp3 Bill Babler acted a moderator and added to the discussion. I did my best to edit the audio. The mic was stationary and when Buster moved around the room and others spoke (especially Bill), the audio had to be enhanced. Hope it turns out ok for everyone.

We've encountered a snow day, then a nice sunny day, then another snow day -- a pattern that snow boarders and skiers would love. As for fishermen, we would like it if we could get ourselves to the lake or stream! Some of would like it if they could just get out of the driveway! But it is beautiful here. The snow accentuates the outcrops on the bluff across the lake from us. Normally, it all blends in as trees and rocks. Monday morning the mist from the lake frosted the trees on the bluff. I ventured out just to show the effect. The camera picked up some unusual colors in the shade of the bluff. This afternoon I went out again to actually catch some fish and did just that. This past weekend we hosted the Roger's Adventure Weekend, a group of anglers who have been fishing their private tournament here on Lake Taneycomo for the past 25+ years. They hold an "invite-only" trout tournament on Saturday complete with attendance prizes and raffles after the contest. It has always been fun time, no matter the weather. Anyhow, quite a few anglers after the weigh-in told me they had caught an extraordinary number of brown trout that day, some as many as 15 browns, mostly on lures such as jigs. No legal browns were weighed in but, like most tournaments, there were stories of "the one that got away." Mike Riffle said he fought a very large brown for quite a while before losing it when it shot under the boat. His line caught the side of the boat and broke! As in any of our tournaments, teams must designate whether they will fish "up or down." If they fish "up," they are allowed to fish above the mouth of Fall Creek (the trophy area), but they cannot weigh in any rainbows in the 12- to 20-inch slot, no matter where the rainbow is caught. If they choose "down," they cannot fish above the mouth of Fall Creek. Only one team fished above Fall Creek out of the field of 54 teams. So the browns that were caught Saturday all were below Fall Creek. The winning weight was 9.02 pounds (eight trout), caught by Shane Matthews and Brandon Buehler. They beat out Joe Whelan and Chad Martens by only .02 pounds. Shane and Brandon told me they fished several places from Fall Creek to Monkey Island and used Gulp Powerbait exclusively. Joe and Chad boated all the way down to lower Taneycomo and fish close to the cable before Powersite Dam and caught their fish on lures, mainly jigs. Joe caught the largest rainbow of the day. Weighing a little over three pounds, it netted him the big fish pot of $530. First and second place finishers pocketed $945 and $680, respectfully. With so many teams, even 10th place earned more than $110. As a side note, Shane's dad Skip is one of the original R.A.W. guys, and Shane started coming to the tournament with his dad when he was a young kid. Now Shane brings up to five teams with him and enjoys the weekend with his friends. Speaking of trout tournaments, our last winter contest is slated for Saturday, Feb. 22. Entry is $50 per two-man team with the top four finishers earning money and a great handcrafted. cedar trophy made by our own Curtis Viscardis. The heaviest rainbow pays $200 and the heaviest legal brown will pay $1,000! See more information, rules and entry form on our resort site. With milder temperatures, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been leaving the water off most afternoons now for the past week or so. This is nice for those fly fishermen who like to wade up below the dam. Guide Duane Doty reported fly fishing to be very good on Monday. He waded in and fished from the flats below outlet #1 clear down to Trophy Run. He said he fished zebra midges mostly because the trout were all over the surface eating midges. But he also used pine squirrels and a Mega Worm (a big white fluffy San Juan worm) and did just as well. Duane reported catching nothing longer than 14 inches, but there were a lot that size caught and released. In the last clip of the video, I was using a spin cast rod and reel and throwing a zebra midge under an indicator five-feet deep. The zebra was a red #14 midge with a black bead. I tied some 6x tippet material onto the four-pound line already on my reel because I like small diameter line when using flies that small. I hooked and landed quite a few rainbows, the largest seen in this clip. What I'm saying here is that you can use flies with this application just as easy as using jigs and sometimes, that zebra midge will catch older, more mature trout that you wouldn't catch on jigs or even bait.

Should be

Duane- sorry I couldn't make it up there. What a beautiful day to wade fish at Taney!! Thought of it all day while I gutted a unit for remodeling. Hands are sore today. How did you do? I'm really interested in the quality of rainbows you found.

by Marsha Lilley Guide Buster Loving trained for a career in education -- intending to even coach wrestling and football --but the lure of the Ozarks outdoors re-routed him. Growing up in rural Clinton, OK, where he could fish often, his family also vacationed yearly at a relative's DelMar Resort on Taneycomo. "Eventually they would all go to the shows and I would go trout fishing," Loving said. Now he's on the water about 300 days a year, unplussed by half-day trips on different lakes with different clients professionally guiding since 1991. From his home at Rockaway Beach, Loving especially targets Bull Shoals Lake in the winter more than most. "My hope for this year is that Bull Shoals will be lower. The levels there are more of a challenge than the other lakes, especially in the winter." Loving is known for customizing his baits, always looking for improvements to catch largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, spotted bass, rainbow and brown trout, crappie, and seasonal walleye. Although he has experienced many lifetime memory trips for his clients, Loving's personal favorite memory was recorded by K.C. Star outdoor writer Brent Frazee in his "Ultimate Guide to Missouri Fishing" book. "We ran into 20-plus keeper walleye, weighing seven to eight pounds up at the pothole," he remembers -- all recorded on video as well. Loving's son, Buster Loving IV, hopes to continue in the business and acquire his Coast Guard license. He is vice president of the Bass Fishing Club started last year at Branson High School, but plans to first train as a welder after his May graduation. Loving also has a 12-year-old daughter, Rose, attending Branson. His oldest daughter, Sydney, serves as a U.S. Army Medic in Korea since graduating from college. Although Loving used to fish as many as 30 tournaments a year, he has cut that to seven or eight buddy tournaments now. He and partner Greg Dishman of Springfield set a lake record for the Seign the Rock for a CPA Derby in 2012, with a winning limit of five bass weighing 28.6 pounds. "Of course that record was already broken last year," Loving jokes. Although Loving in the past did not mind substitute teaching at Forsyth and Branson and helping his parents, Buster Loving, Jr. and Janice in their former Branson businesses, too, guiding will be his mainstay. "I especially enjoy meeting all the different people -- and being my own boss, " Loving said. "And getting to spend all my time outside rather than in an office. I will just probably do this until I am done." Loving is thankful for his sponsors: Bass Pro Shops, Branson First Stop, Chompers Bait Company, Leland's Lures, Jewel Bait Company, Pro Guide Batteries and Tim Hughes Custom Baits.

Buster Loving will lead a seminar this Friday evening on targeting walleye on Bull Shoals Lake. It will be held at the Springfield Library on South Campbell (south of the James River Express). The seminar is free. It will start at 7 p.m. and will last about 90 minutes. Buster Loving has proven himself to be an authority on walleye fishing, especially on the upper part of Bull Shoals. Actually right now is the best time to target them so come and hear what Buster has to share and then head to the lake!

We watched Danton Abbey during second half... that's about as bad as it gets!

Oh, you must have been on Fall Creek Road....

http://www.kansascity.com/2014/02/01/4792431/resort-is-an-island-of-calm-in.html http://www.kansascity.com/2014/02/02/4793179/so-what-if-its-cold-the-trout.html

It caught all us church-goers this morning here in Branson. The plowers couldn't get the snow off fast enough on 76 so cars pile up on the west bound hill up to the Roark Valley Rd light intersection. We turned off and hid in Bob Evans for a couple of hours. So did a lot of other people. Had planned to have Darin run down in a pontoon on the lake and pick us up at the Landing cause I knew I could get down hill (we're in Marsha's Chrysler 300) but as I pulled up to 76 I saw a clear path between stalled cars so I took a chance. Got home without incident. The roads looked like Atlanta there for a while... My mom, sister and friends are still at First Baptist... fed, warm and going to watch the game there I guess. I REALLY need to get a 4-wheel drive vehicle... been threatening to since the first snow. Lisa's husband Paul will go get them in their Jeep if they want to come home...