Phil Lilley

Hope you're all wrong... don't need another high water (flood) spring on Taney. I don't mind heavy flows as long as there's no flood gates involved.

Fat female, nice.

Might be good to call all this to the attention of the local press. Let them do a feature story on it and put it in the paper for everyone to see, including the land owners. It'd be good public education.

Trophies were made by Curtis Viscardis, our do-all, go-to guy here at the resort.

Some of the guys I talked to before Saturday morning's start were pretty confident they'd found the mother lode of lunkers and were going to do well. It looks like at least some of them were right. Evidently, MDC stocked some 3 pound brood stock not too long ago off the MDC ramp below Branson and they were holding up around the dock where they keep the stocking boat. That's where 4 of them were caught yesterday. Otherwise, yesterday was slow for almost everyone I visited with last evening. The weights were what I'd call light except for the 3 teams who caught the bigger stockers. Anglers said they were biting light, very light, when they bit. Thursday and Friday's bite was good. You'd think looking at weather conditions it would have been just opposite. Thursday and Friday were sunny- Saturday was cloudy with a front moving in. Fish were caught on a variety of lures and baits from worms, minnows, Powerbait but mainly they threw jigs. The lunkers were caught on jigs. No one fished above Fall Creek - this group decided years ago to close off the trophy area to all fishing during the tournament.

Nice pic.

Take off was at 7:30 a.m. this morning. Thirty seven boats in the friendly contest. Most anglers are from the St Louis area. Private tournament, fishing here since the early 80's. Good fish caught in practice the last 2 days. They had a big trout contest yesterday- I know of at least 5 rainbows and one brown (legal) over 3 pounds weighed in. 3.9 pounds won the contest. Weigh in is at 4:30 p.m..

Surprised no one snatched this up.... Nice rig.

The only weekend we are going to have this event is January 10-11. Don't mix this up with the seminars I'm putting together in Springfield, which I have already booked 3. Waiting on a few others before announcing the whole slate.

Yes

To follow up- long story short- left eye worsened. Never improved. Pressure on eye- very bad. Prescribed glaucoma meds. Nothing helped. Vet here said it looks really bad- take him to a specialists in KC. Took him Tuesday. She said nothing could be done. Remove the eye. Tried taking him back to KC this morning for surgery but roads were terrible through Springfield. Gave up and turned around. Surgery today here in Branson. They'll send the eye off to have it looked at. Hopefully they'll find what happened. Very rare in dogs this young (2.5 years). Right eye cleared up. It never clouded over.

by Darin Schildknecht Lilleys' Landing introducing a “drop shot weight” into our tackle shop. These weights are used for a finesse style of fishing. The hook is about 18 inches above the weight. The weight is not tied on, but the line runs through the keeper which pinches the line to hold it on. They are very effective when the fish are finicky. I asked “Anglers Advantage” guide Captain Steve Dickey why he preferred a drop shot weight over the others. He said, “They give you more options for fine tuning your weight to use while bottom bouncing, and they are very easy to change out with different weights while drifting.” The sizes we have available are 1/32 ounce, 1/16 ounce, 1/8 ounce, 3/16 ounce, 1/4 ounce, 3/8 ounce, 1/2 ounce, and 5/8 ounce priced at $5.29 per bag; quantities vary with weight.

by Darin Schildknecht Before working here at Lilleys’ Landing I had never fished a PJ’s jig, but that changed quickly. Phil invited me to fish with him one day after work, and, of course, I went! We ran up close to the dam and started fishing a white 1/8-ounce PJ’s jig. Once Phil showed me how to fish the jig, the bites were “on.” I’m not sure how many fish we caught but it was a lot! After that trip I was hooked on jig fishing. It is still one of my favorite ways to catch trout second to fly fishing, although I do fish the 1/125-ounce and the 1/50-ounce sizes on my fly rod. PJ’s Finesse jigs not only catch trout but many other species of fish. During the flood of 2011 I caught white bass, smallmouth bass, crappie and trout all on PJ’s jigs along with some other people who were catching some walleyes with them. I have also used these jigs many times on Table Rock Lake for smallmouth and crappie with great success. The unique thing about PJ's jigs is that the head is shaped with flat sides with one side slightly angled. This affects how the jig drops in the water. I believe that this erratic behavior triggers more fish strikes. I recently asked Pam Hall, the owner of PJ’s Finesse Baits, to write a short bio of the company; Pam Wrote: “My husband and I have been fishing with marabou jigs for trout since 1978. We have caught rainbow trout up to 12 pounds and salmon up to 30 pounds on the jigs. We designed the molds and found the company that did the best job with the paint. People have told us that our paint job is very chip resistant. Our heads are bismuth metal, which is environmentally friendly. The tying collar gives the marabou more body, and great attention is paid to covering the hook and collar completely with marabou.” I started tying jigs as a hobby in 1999. Then in 2005, I started trying to connect my business to a mission organization in Honduras. I trained several single moms in an impoverished village in the mountains of Honduras to tie jigs and they did that for several years. The ladies did a wonderful job and took great pride in their work. The last two years there was no one in the mission organization that could work with the ladies, and we have only had occasional production. I like the idea of using my business to help others. Currently I and a single mom in Fayetteville and another lady tie all the jigs and flies. My plans are to connect with another mission organization in 2014. Thank you for your interest and Happy New Year, Pam Hall” Here at Lilleys we carry many of PJ’s jigs. We have sizes 1/125-ounce jigs to 1/8-ounce jigs in many different colors. We also carry just the jig heads if you would like to tie your own. The jigs are $1 a piece and the heads are $0.40 each or $3.50 for ten. Videos of jig fishing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=614Ud-5-AUk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJOKqpWF_Qo

Great Idea.

You might look back at some topics, probably some fairly recent, that address bank fishing on Taneycomo.

This should be my last fishing report of 2013 unless I somehow have an awesome day of fishing tomorrow or Tuesday! That could happen I guess. But this year's fishing here on Taneycomo has been a good one. No floods -- always a good thing. Generation has picked up since a rain a couple of weeks ago, plus some snow, brought the lakes above us up more than a foot. Anywhere from two to three units are running most days, all day and all night long, even with the warmer temperatures. The water temperature coming from Table Rock into our lake is close to 49 degrees, which is pretty normal for this time of year. With heavy flow we could see shad being pulled in from Table Rock, especially seeing Table Rock's water temperature is close to 40 degrees. That's the magic number we need to see to have threadfin shad start to die on the big lake. The lake was busy with boats and anglers this past weekend, and most of the fisher people I spoke to were catching good numbers of trout. I took Marsha, my son Caleb and his wife, Maggie, out fishing Friday afternoon. Two units were running with a lake level about 706 and dropping. We drifted from just above Short Creek to Trout Hollow. They didn't have any trouble catching their limits of nice rainbows, fishing with white and yellow PowerBait Gulp Eggs. Catching was consistently good all the way down to the bridges, drifting bait and throwing a variety of lures including Cleos, jigs and Trout Magnets. Saturday morning I took Jimmy, one of our sons-in-law, his two younger brothers and his nephew out fishing from about 11 a.m. until 2 p.m.. We boated to the dam and started drifting from there, with a little more than two units running with water level at 707 feet. Guide Rick Lisek said he had done well fishing a jig and float, using 1/32nd -ounce marabou jigs, brown with orange heads, under a float 5-to 6-feet deep. That's what I tied on for them and they did well. John, the youngest, caught his first trout ever. He ended the three-hour trip with 10 rainbows. I boated to the dam today at 3 p.m. Again, a little more than two units were running with a lake level at 707 feet. I tied on an 1/8th-ounce sculpin jig, olive head, and straight- lined fished from the cable to Lookout Island. When I drifted in front of the Missouri Department of Conservation boat ramp, I boated my 16th rainbow. They were no really large ones, maybe 13 inches was the biggest. I caught two more rainbows before heading back up. That was at 4 p.m. At the cable, I tied on a white 1/8th-ounce jig . . . nothing. Sculpin/ginger jig . . . nothing. Brown/orange jig . . . nothing. Then back to the same sculpin jig . . . still nothing!! What in the world!?!? It was like a switch was thrown at 4 p.m. There was mp change in wind, no change in water level. At 4 p.m. dinner was over and that was it! I thought I'd switch colors and find something the bigger trout would like but that sure didn't work out!! I went down and drifted the bluff below Lookout and lost three jigs. That called the evening with no fresh fish pics! Taneycomo continues to both amaze and confuse me. After 30 years you'd think I'd be used to her temperament. I'm not. There are a lot of rainbows in the lake right now. There are big trout, too, but they seem very elusive. Right time, right lure I'd say. Talked to a couple of guys yesterday who "slayed" them on brown jigs, several decent browns in the 16-inch range and one fish they "couldn't get off the bottom." Others said they caught lots of rainbows on a variety of Powerbait products. That's not surprising.

Thanks for the report.

I have changed the rates to make it simpler. We are also opening this up to the general public (Lilleys Landing guests) because we need more people to come! See the first post for new rates (which are bigger discounts). Same schedule though Friday and Saturday nights.

Anyone wanting to help John out with a few lures, send me a PM.

Merry Christmas, on this crisp morning. The water is running and there's a slight misty fog rolling down the lake this morning. Not a boat has passed our dock this sunny morning, but there's trout being caught off the fishing pier as I type. There's a father and son readying their fishing gear in one of our units -- their excitement only topped by an anticipation of feeling the first trout on their line. May be a candy bar will be the prize for such a feat - "first fish in the boat" - but it will have to be a legal catch, not just a long-distance release! They boated to the mouth of Fall Creek where they found good, fast current running over the gravel bar there. Cutting the motor, they quickly picked up their rods already baited with PowerBait Gulp eggs (white and yellow if you must know) and cast upstream. With two units running, they were using 3/8th-ounce bell weights on their drift rigs. "We want to make sure we're feeling our weights tick the bottom," the dad told his son. They hadn't drifted 50 yards when the boy hooked the first rainbow. "Grab the net and get ready to hand over that Snickers bar." Grabbing the net, dad had a plan. His first try was making a motion as if he were trying to knock the fish off the line, but then he quickly scooped the 12-inch rainbow up in the net. "Boy, you just about lost that one," joked dad. After a while and more trout hauled into the boat, the conversation wondered from sports to current events, then to sensitive subjects like arguments and disagreements of the past. Unforgiveness festers in so many relationships. It's hard for men especially to express their feeling and admit mistakes. Bringing hurts to light is the first step to healing. The next is to verbally ask for forgiveness, even when you don't feel like it's totally sincere. Another noble thing to do is to bite the tongue and"bury the hatchet" when you know you weren't entirely at fault. Life is so short. There are no guarantees that there will be another chance to mend fences. The morning fishing trip was about much more than catching fish -- it was a time of healing that extended way beyond Lake Taneycomo. Another family is gathering up all the warm clothes they can find, to bundle up for a Christmas morning pontoon ride on cold Lake Taneycomo. They all thought it would be a fun new tradition to go out and see if they could spot a beautiful bald eagle. Dad's in a gruff mood because the kids are dragging their feet. It seems that they want to open gifts before the ride on the lake. But plans have been made and the schedule "needs" to be kept. Barreling forward, he barks out orders towards the group, but in doing so, he puts a cold damper on the festivities. He didn't mean to sound so mean and wouldn't have known but for the glares and silence of the family. On the boat, the quietness was overbearing. Dad knew something was wrong and asked. "You're mean sometimes, Dad," said little Suzie, "but I don't think you know it." He blew it off and pretended like nothing was said. But the kids persisted. "We love you, Dad, you know that . . . But sometimes you're not very loveable." "Ok, ok . . . I'm sorry. I get frustrated with myself because I do talk rough sometimes, but I don't even realize it. How can I change? I really do try!" Mom chimed in, "Kids, dad does love you, and just talking about this really helps. Sharing our heart is the best way to see each others intentions and understand when we sound frustrated and say hurtful things, it's not to be taken personally. "Taking offense to what people say, even if it is meant to cause harm, is a sure way to live a life of sorrow and even sickness. What if there were a way to wear some kind of armor so that when arrows shot from someone's tongue target us, they fall like sticks from a tree. We really do have a choice to take up an offense or not to." After everything was aired, the boat ride was a great success. They saw a pair of eagles soaring high in the sky as well as another perched in a big sycamore tree looking for trout. Two seasoned fly anglers readied their vests and packs for the day's fishing up below the dam. Ed and Marion have been fishing buddies for only a few years, finding each other on a fishing forum. Since then they've traveled to most of Missouri's trout waters, fly fishing for trout. Two turbines that had been running early in the morning were shut down, and the lake had dropped back into Taneycomo's normal level of 701.3 feet. There was good current from just above outlet #2 down through the Rebar to Big Hole, and trout were rising to midges hatching. The winter sun stayed south below the southern bluff along the lake, shadowing the water below the dam most of the day. A slight breeze was blowing over the dam and down lake causing the surface of the lake to ripple just a bit. The two walked in just below #2 outlet. They had decided to fish their way down to the boat ramp and hike back on the road to their truck parked at the hatchery lot. It would be a full day for sure. Seeing rising fish, Marion decided to strip a soft hackle. He tied on a #16 yellow soft hackle, using 6x tippet and a long leader. Casting straight out across the current, he made long, slow strips with only lookers, no takers. Next he cast down current at a 45-degree angle and made slight strips, letting it swing and at the end of the drift, a tug and a hook up. Not setting the hook but just raising the rod tip a bit was the perfect way to hook the trout; otherwise, setting the hook would break off an aggressive fish. Ed opted to try dead drifting a scud. Since the current was so slow, he used 7x fluorocarbon tippet and tied on two flies under his indicator. The first was a #18 rust zebra midge three-feet deep and the second, tied 18 inches down, was a #16 gray peppy scud, slightly weighted. He managed to catch eight rainbows, half on the scud and half on the zebra, before working his way to the top of Rebar. At the top of Rebar, they both found actively spawning rainbows in the fast shallow water there, so they tied on egg flies and drifted them through the bedding fish. Now some anglers would have a problem with fishing for bedding trout, but you have to realize that these trout do not successfully spawn in Lake Taneycomo mainly because of water temperatures. The varied water flows from the dam do not help spawning activity either, so although trout will go through the motions, their efforts are futile. After hooking, landing and some picture taking, they decided to take a break from the action. They were close enough to the parking lot to walk up, grab their coffee thermoses and sit at the table under the pavilion. There they reminisced about past fishing trips and about several fishing buddies who couldn't make the trip for health reasons. Ed, a widower of 10 years, said, "It sure isn't the same without Guss and Don, is it?" "No it isn't," replied Marion. "Life deals us all terrible cards towards the end of life, doesn't it. I have so many aches and pains, it's hard to stand in the cold water anymore. This might be my last fishing trip." "Don't talk that way, Marion. You still have plenty of trips in you!" "Maybe. We'll see. Wish I could get my son back down here and fish with me. We haven't spoken in years," added Marion. "You haven't spoken much of your son. What happened to cause such a gap in your relationship?" Marion then told Ed about how he'd been an abusive dad in his younger years, not physically but verbally. He was frustrated in his work situation and felt like he wasn't doing enough to make their lives better, more affluent. He didn't see until after the kids were grown and gone that he had missed the important parts of their lives, blinded by his own ambition. Now it was too late, he thought. Ed then shared his life, very similar to Marion's family experience. How he had ostracized his kids by expecting too much from them in sports and school. "I pushed them too hard and took the fun out of playing and learning. I thought I had lost them 'till just before Peggy died, when we all sat down that Christmas day and talked about "old times." Boy did I get an ear full!" "Peggy and I started going to a little family church after the kids left home. We weren't too hot on church when the kids were growing up. No time for it. But the kids liked it and seemed to be better for it. But I kept my distance -- too many hypocrites for me, I thought." "But knowing some of the people going to this church, we decided to try it, and we found we didn't know everything -- actually very little about what life is all about. Relationships are the most important thing we have, and they are worthy of doing everything we can to make them better, whether we feel like it or not." "I ended up breaking down that Christmas day and asking forgiveness of all my kids, and my wife, for all the mistakes I had made. And you know what? They all forgave me! It was like starting all over, fresh and new. Ever since then we've had great relationships, although we still have to work through some old hurts but for the most part, we're all healed." Marion sat with a glazed look on his face, as if he wasn't sitting on the bench but back in time, with his family. "Do you think it's too late for me?" "If you're still breathing, it not too late!!" Marion got up and headed towards the truck. "Where are you headed?" asked Ed. "Cell phone reception is terrible down here. I'm driving up the hill where I can call my son and daughter. I need to take care of a few things today. Go ahead down to the lake and fish without me. This might take a while." Ed smiled, and prayed a short prayer for his friend. Ed walked back down to the Rebar area and started fishing. He didn't care if he hooked another trout--this day was a very special day for both of them. But the trout were hungry and aggressive. He swung a #8 olive wooly bugger across and down to the bottom of the run and hooked rainbow after rainbow, a couple pushing 20 inches. We worked his way further down the chute, switched to a soft hackle when he saw more trout rising in the deeper water. Up close to the bank, Ed noticed fish working both the gravel and the surface. They were rooting around with their heads in the gravel, kicking up bugs and then slurping them down. He tied on a #20 olive scud, not weighted, and set a half palsa just six inches from the fly. Casting it gently into the mix, he waited until the indicator shot off to the side and set the hook. "Man, these are nice rainbows--in such shallow water!" he thought to himself. "Marion is missing out . . . no, he's not. Some things are way more important than fishing." ~~ Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Colossians 3:13

That's why we don't let ppl fish behind our dock below the cleaning sinks... too many aren't released. They're fun to watch for everyone. Jigs, jigs, jigs... I'm a huge believer jigs catch bigger trout. Find the right color and be there when the bigger ones are biting. Sometimes it's just the little ones active.

Article by Ned Kehde Larry “Doc” Seger of Kimberling City, Missouri, is a veteran and talented fishing guide. He is also a successful tournament angler, who has been plying various regional and some national circuits for nearly a quarter of a century, and in 2010 he won Central Pro-Am Association’s Angler-of-the-Year award. <Read More>

2 different vets. The one in Springfield was great and I felt like she did the right thing. I just couldn't sit by and let him go blind and not do anything.

My lab started having eye issues a week ago today. Mucus from left eye and swelling. I started putting saline solution in it and cleaning it several times a day. On Tuesday is worsened so I called the vet- took him in on Wednesday morning. They gave us a triple anti biotic drops to put in his eyes. On Saturday the other eye was inflamed and the left eye started milking over which really scared me. Local vet closed so took him to Springfield. They said he had a retina infection and gave me drops with a steroid. This morning his eyes are better, less mucus. The left eye seems to be a little clearer. My fear is he will lose partial sight in his left eye. Has anyone had this happen and will his eye clear up? He can see out of it- I've checked.

General Angling Discussion