Phil Lilley

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Ron... I appreciate you looking out for me!!

Don't know if you've seen this but I could only watch it ONCE. It REALLY makes you think.

Phillip, You can post here anytime... we need guides to post more. Babler has proven that providing fishing information on this forum benefits his business as well as bettering the image of fishing guides in the public's view. I honestly don't know why guides don't post here more often... I get over 15,000 pageviews a day, 24,335 unique visitors in the last month. And it's free!! I see guides posting on their facebook pages... they only reach a fraction of their "followers or friends" and that in itself is limited. It's a no brainer as far as I see it.

http://www.news-leader.com/article/20130221/LIFE06/302210025/ken-white-February-is-big-trout-time-at-Lake-Taneycomo?odyssey=nav|head&nclick_check=1

I'm going to post a combination of reports submitted by people who fished here the last few days and add some thoughts of my own. Generally, trout fishing here has been very good with a mixture of weather and generation conditions all week. Generation has been sporadic with one exception--the Corp has been running some water at least every other day for several weeks. Last Thursday they ran one to two units all day, off Friday and Saturday, one unit all day on Sunday, off Monday and one unit for a half day on Tuesday. Off today. No rhyme of reason but consistently they are running something one of three days. It gives everyone their favorite fishing conditions. Here's a report by one of our fishing guides, Rick Lisek: Lake Level: 904.0 Water Temp: 47.5 Degrees Water Clarity: Clear The trout fishing here on Lake Taneycomo has heated up. We are averaging anywhere from 55 to 90 trout in a four hour guided fishing trip. The really big trout have been hard to come by, but the 11 to 14 inchers are everywhere. Generation schedules vary and that determines what how we fish, but whether you fly fish or spin fish you can’t go wrong right now. Above fall creek the best baits have been micro jigs and scud combinations and/or weighted eggs and midges. The best colors for jigs have been ginger and olive with an orange head. 1/100 oz has been the best weight. Olive and dark grey scuds as well as olive and black colored midges are the ticket as well. As far as egg colors, yellow, and peach have worked the best for us. Four to 6 foot leaders under a strike indicator work well most days. Below Fall Creek, drifting pink and white power bait combinations have been taking numbers of fish. Use as light a weight as you can get by with. The best bet for larger fish is fishing a trout magnet in cotton candy and black colors 7 to 8 foot under a float. Stop by Lilleys Landing and take care of all your tackle needs at their heavily stocked tackle shop. See Phil, Darrin, or Lisa and they can get you fixed up. For the trip of a lifetime on Lake Taneycomo, come take a trip with us at Branson Guided Fishing Trips in Branson, Missouri. CATCH FISH GUARANTEED! And here's a fly fishing report by long time guest and veteran fly angler, Edward Spence, who fished on Monday of this week: There was no generation and I fished below the dam from 9:00 AM until about 11:30. I was the only fisherman not fishing with an indicator. I used a black woolly booger at the Rebar area at the edge of the deep hole. I had lot of strikes and couldn't hook them. I finally caught two nice bows, a 13 inch and a 15 inch, and realized I was fishing with a barbless hook I had used on the White. I had two fish break me off, and lost several. I landed two more. All were rainbows between 13 and 16 inch. The indicator fishermen were catching only stockers bout 12 inches. I had one guy tell me he caught a lot of fish on an artificial hatchery fish pellet. I couldn't believe it. What will they think of next? I guess there is a big difference between fishing and catching. I'm editing a video I should post later today. Phil

This will be ready shortly.

That one unit generation is perfect for jig fishing above the Narrows... I love it. Glad you had a productive weekend. It did get a bit crowded below the Narrows at times... seemed like no one wanted to venture past the tree, like you said. The Narrows is SO narrows it's hard to get by everyone fishing IN the narrows without making someone upset. But they have to consider those fish go on a feeding frenzy every time a boat goes through and stirs things up. I think most everyone caught a lot of rainbows this weekend. A jig with orange in it, either marabou or head color, was the hot lure. Thanks for the report.

Water levels are running at 277 cfs at the spring and water clarity is clear. The Spring River because it is feed by one massive spring, always has a green tint to the water. This keeps the water from becoming crystal clear like local tail waters. The green tint allows fly fishers to use heavier tippet like 4x when fishing. This allows for less break offs and a better chance to land a big trout. Y2k's, Guppies, and olive woollies have been hot this week with fly fishers and hot pink and purple haze trout magnets and rooster tails have been hot for spin fishers. When using the trout magnets, take a little time before your fishing trip to super glue some bodies to the hook. This prevents the bodies from sliding down. Trout magnet also makes and excellent indicator for using the trout magnet that also works great with fly fishing. Check them out at trout magnet.com. Awesome products for fishing for trout in our local waters. Trout magnets do not have flavor, so the trout are not as likely to swallow the hook and helps greatly with catch and release. The jigs themselves work great for making micro jigs that a lot of fishers like to use in trout parks. It can still get cold out so layer up, dress warm and have a great time.

I know Buster has been putting in there so it's clear, no issues.

The ramp at Cooper Creek should be ok but it depends on what we get and when. Friday's high is 35 and sunny which will melt a lot of what's on the ground. The concrete should be fairly warm but I'm sure some will stick. We will spread salt on the ramp today before it starts. The city ramp is our backup ramp. It's less steep and the city attempts to keep it clear.

Sounds brutal!

Thank you for posting, Darren.

Charlie passed a couple of years ago.

For what it's worth.... I use plain jig heads, no paint. No real reason. Lazy? But I had no trouble, and usually don't, catching crappie, whites or bass. Don't get me wrong... I like color heads too. I do think they'll work sometimes when plain won't.

I'm not trying to "shame" anyone into posting a report and thanks to those who do. I just think it's basic, common courtesy to say, "Hey! Thanks for posting that report the other day! I did well" or "I learned something" or "I tried your technique several times and finally got it to work for me!" or "I tried and didn't do well... what did I do wrong?" Something! Post something! If you value this forum at all, contribute! Heck, you're not using your real name (most of you). In the end, this site is what it is. I'm not going to change it to keep the "lurkers" out. But I will address this every once in a while.

I'm a little miffed... out of all the people who fished this weekend, that's no fishing reports posted? One by Ryan. One of our guides said Flat Creek was packed with boats. I don't usually light fires but I think there's dozens of anglers GETTING info from this forum but not many GIVING... a lot less than past years. Come on.... post fishing reports if you got 'em. Good, bad, no spots, just say how you did.

We aren't set up with paypal...

I might be very wrong but from what I see most anglers who are on here are fishing the James arm in March and I think a lot of the guys who are interested in this are from the north side of Table Rock, namely Ozark, Nixa and Springfield areas. I think I want to keep it on the north side of the lake for this reason. Plus I want people to bring their catch so we can fry it up for them. Crappie and whites should be abundant on the James arm. But I know it's fishing and they may not bite on THAT day. I should have enough fish by then to help feed a group. I'm sure I will have help too. Does this make sense?

Josh - come to Taney on a weekend... that's common practice!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pentax-Optio-WG-1-14-0-MP-Rugged-Waterproof-Digital-Camera-with-5x-Optical-Zoom-/330793050963?pt=Digital_Cameras&hash=item4d04cd6353 Here's a great camera at a very good price. I just bought one from this guy. It's a referb but comes in brand new packaging and looks new. You've seen my pics - underwater and all. This is the camera I use. For $130, it's great. Take more fish pics and post them!!

OA Spring Gathering, Saturday, March 23 Where: Cape Fair Public Use Area - pavilion. Time: We'll be there about 3 pm to start setting up and we'll go till everyone goes home. The plan is basically to get a bunch of good fishermen together after only being acquainted on a forum up to now. We'll supply the hot oil and cookers, side dishes, water and tea. Eating tools and paper goods. And a few fish filets of our own. Bring whatever you want to eat or drink. Looking forward to a good time.

We've been talking about it.... it's time to set a date and place. Initially we talked about the James River area on Table Rock, specifically Bridgeport Ramp but it will be crowded with anglers on a normal March Saturday so any ideas? I'm willing to come up with $$ for a good spot. Need a big area to park and covered pavilion preferably, close to the water. Was looking at 2 Saturdays in March - the 16th and 23rd. Easter is the weekend of the 30th so that won't work. I have a grandson making his grand entrance the first of April so I have to stay away from that time period. I thought I could set up a cooker and eating tools about 11 am and be there for the duration of the afternoon, into the evening. People can come and go... bring some fish to fry. I'll supply potatoes and beans. Others can bring sweets and other side dishes if they want. At Bridgeport, there are some places on the north side of the bridge--resorts--I wonder if they would have a place we could meet, for a fee of course. I'll check it out or if someone knows, post.