Phil Lilley

3-4. Tough part is having to wait for the fish to settle down. I'm not holding or touching him at all, just holding the line so it takes a while for him to stop trying to get away and just sit there. Then I have to get the light right and try to take the side where the fly will show up. Takes a lot of fishing time!! But it's cool.

Tomorrow morning Linc and I head out for the White River to cast some hoppers at big browns. I thought I'd practice here on Taneycomo this evening. Glad I did! After talking to Tim Homesley this morning and hearing his story about fishing from Cooper Creek to the Landing the other day AND throwing hoppers and big ants against the bluff bank and catching a bunch of blue gill and small bass, I got to thinking about trying them on the upper end where I've tried smaller stimulators with little success. Boated to to Lookout and changed my tippet to 1x, tied on a Dorman's Insect brn/orng Hot Rod Hopper (Rainy's) #8. One unit running but was dropping out. Still good current when I started. First cast had a rainbow come up a slurp it up in fast current against a tree. I thought about first cast jinx... oh no!! But it wasn't to be this evening. Drifted the whole bank down to the Narrows... took about 90 minutes. Thirteen takes and 10 rainbows to the boat. One pushing 20 inches and another about 18. Others were decent and in great shape. Most strikes were hard and violent but some were soft takes. All came within 10 feet of the bank. I think I'm ready for those White River browns!!

Heard a guy by the name of Tim Homesley (Tim's Fly Shop outside of Roaring River State Park) may be up fishing below the dam this morning so I ventured up there about 8:30 am. Walked in above outlet #2, looked around and didn't see him off so I started fishing. Don't think I've ever introduced Jackson to our OA readers yet. He's a male black lab out of my daughter Megan's litter. Her dog Darby, a chocolate lab, threw 9 puppies last August and Jackson was one of the males. We've had labs before here at the resort and my dad was missing his last dog, a lab/chesapeake mix who died a couple of years ago so we went in halves. Jackson is a great fish dog--minds well. Anyhow, Jackson was along for his first trip to the dam, on the bank that is. He's been up in a boat before. I tied on a #24 black thread midge with a #18 tan Trout Crack (scud) using 7x fluorocarbon tippet, palsa indicator 24 inches from the first fly. I could see a number of rainbow cruising around not too far off the bank. I ended up hooking and landing a couple nice rainbows before moving upstream. I saw Tim at outlet #1 so I walked up to say hi. We stood and talked for about 30 minutes. He and his wife come over to Branson when they want to relax. He told me he'd stay with me (at Lilleys' Landing) if we had a spa... I said no, we won't have one anytime soon either. We don't want to compete with Chateau on the Lake. Tim was hooking quite a few rainbows. They were thick, stacked up in the outlet flow, nosed up to the flow rolling over the gravel flat and falling into a deep hole off the bank. He was using 5x. "I don't care much if I hook anymore fish and I don't want to lose anymore flies... I've had to tie on too many this morning", Tim explained. But his 5x wasn't spooking too many trout. Along with a scud, he used a white chammy worm. He was using barbless hooks... I got the feeling he used them all the time. After visiting about Roaring River and Alaska fishing, I took off and walked back to my truck. Wanted to drive down to the MDC boat ramp before having to go to a noon lunch meeting. Lots of cars in the lot there and I thought, what the heck! May be I shouldn't report on this area quite so much. But when I got down to the water, most of the crowd were at the ramp and down. Strange! They were waded out to their waste and fishing out further. I'd rather fish 2-3 feet of water than the deep water. May be they were catching fish, I didn't notice. I walked up a bit and started. Wind was blowing a little and chopping up the water but I still could see fish out just past the flat rock bed on the chunk rock. I used the same setup but this time I ran 8x from my first fly out to the second. Bright sun, very clear water. I talked to Chuck Gries yesterday and he said he was using 8x so I thought I'd try. It worked! Caught some nice rainbows and only broke off once. And 8x wasn't that bad. I thought I'd have to really baby the fish but it wasn't any worse that 7x. Nice morning. Jackson really like being out there too. Interesting pic... just interesting to look at, nothing more.

Thanks, Kevin.

In this episode of Ozark Trout Bum, Phil Lilley breaks down Lake Taneycomo and Tim Homesley get camouflaged up to fish small streams on the July episode of Ozark Trout Bum. Then T.L. Lauerman, conservation director of the White River Chapter of Trout Unlimited, discusses his group’s effort to plant cutthroat eggs in the Norfork and White rivers. And John Berry talks about becoming a guide and fishing big streamers for brown trout. Podcast Powered By Podbean

I have a ton of stickers so RSP if you need more I can mail them. Send me an email at the address above if anyone does.

For those who don't do FACEBOOK, send me your address and I'll mail you some stickers.

Darrell Bentley say their water levels are low and trout are spooky. But they're still catching a few rainbows and browns at Montauk. Hear his full fishing report by clicking HERE.

Yea- You're exactly right. Pinch the ends off till they latch on to the hook. And never cut with scissors!

Been playing around with the underwater camera... I need to take the gopro and see what it does... but I really need to attach as light. The flash on the camera does a lot, esp in low light like the second pic.

Got out last evening--boated up to Lookout about 7 p.m. and started working the deep water. Generation was winding down from running only one unit. Water was dropping slowly and there was still good current, perfect for throwing and working an 1/8th ounce marabou jig. I'd seen, last week, a big school of what I think were darters at Lookout Island. They have a brown back and dark, reddish stripe down their sides. So I tied on a brown/orange/brown head jig and worked it close to the bottom. I haven't been fishing with jigs like this much the last month. When I had, it wasn't working very well so I've laid off throwing a straight jig. It's one of my favorite way to fish for trout, or any fish for that matter, so it was nice to jig a jig again. This area from Lookout Island down to what we call the Narrows (where the channel gets very narrow and not very deep at the bend) has changed somewhat since the 2011 high water event. The upper half of this section is much deeper and the channel is much wider than it was. The bottom half is just the opposite, less deep and not much of a channel at all--flat most of the way across the lake. This upper half yielded the best fishing for me last evening, landing 12 trout including one brown. I didn't concentrate on the bluff bank as much as I did the whole, deep channel. I set the boat off the bluff bank about 130 feet and my cast was off the bank more than 50 feet. I let the jig get down close to the bottom before starting to work it. The strikes were coming about half way back to the boat. The trout were taking it on the drop--the strikes were solid and aggressive. After hitting the start of the bottom half and shallower water, I quit getting hits so I picked up and moved down below the Narrows. I've been fishing this area using jig and float and seeing a lot of trout but they didn't like my straight jig. I only picked up a couple of small rainbows. Moved again before getting dark, this time below Fall Creek's dock and worked the deep side again. They were short-hitting me down there but did manage to catch a few rainbows and another brown.

Did anyone go last night?

I got some 2x and 3x. "Supplies while they last" I'll have the link up this afternoon on our online tackle store.

I'll send you OzarkAnglers Stickers if you write a recommendation on OA's Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/ozarkanglersdotcom Guess you have to have a facebook page AND like the thing first. Then send me a mailing address. lilley @ lilleyslanding.com Oh, BTW, I have received new Ozarkanglers shirts. They're in the resort office being priced. I think about $9 for short sleeve and $14 for long sleeve. They're white tees with OA's logo across the back. x-Big sizes are more $$$. I'll have pictures of them on the site shortly - and a way to order them.

This is Phil Lilley with the Lake Taneycomo fishing report. Trout fishing has picked up dramatically this week with the Shepherd of the Hills stocking several thousand rainbows this week in the Branson Landing to Cooper Creek area. According to hatchery manager, Clint Hale, his rainbows has been averaging 11.1 inches long which is above average for our lake. Water temperature is 47 when the water is running from Table Rock but it warms up quickly in our hot sun. Today the water in from of our resort was 59 degrees before they started running water about 6 p.m. Generation the last few days has been different almost every day. The SWA schedule has NOT been correct so it's anyone's guess what they'll do with the water, especially in the afternoon/evening. Mornings--they've been leaving the water off and it's been off by 10 p.m. each night. Two of our guides called in fishing reports within the last 24 hours and both have said trout fishing has been very good on a numbers of different baits, flies and lures. Steve Dicky said in his REPORT that he's been fishing both morning and evenings and catching fish on #18 copper dun and black Zebra Midges as well as weighted gray #18 scuds when the water is not running and worms, orange Gulp eggs and Trout Magnets when the water is running. Best area to drift and bait fish is from the Cooper Creek flat down through the Landing and the best area to fish fish in around the Narrows down to Fall Creek. Kris Nelson says in his REPORT that micro jigs in any colors was his go-to lure yesterday, keeping it on the bottom as close as possible. Fly fishing was slower today because of a bright sun and no wind but he caught them on Zebra Midges ruby, rust, black and copper colors probably #16 or #18. When fly fishing, best to use fluorocarbon 6x or 7x and if you're using monofilament, definitely use 7x. Our water is very clear. If there's no wind, our trout will look any fly over twice before taking it. Line size makes a difference. I've been driving to the dam this week and wet wading, fly fishing during the day. If there's a chop, no problem catching fish. If the surface is slick, it's a challenge. Best to seek out some current. I waded in above the MDC boat ramp a couple of times late morning and did fair, catching a few rainbows on small midges. Again, 7x is a must. This morning I broke off 2 trout on the hook set and landed only 3 rainbows in a couple of hours of fishing. Don't get me wrong--I love a challenge and I love sight fishing. In other words, I don't mind not catching very many fish if I'm seeing fish and they're responding to my presentation occasionally. Midges that were working the best were #22 and #24 black or gray thread midges, #24 olive WD40, #18 Trout Crack and a #20 black/cooper Zebra Midge. I was fishing in 3 feet of water or less, setting my fly 3 feet under the foam indicator. Trout were picking it up and running, thus a quick hook set meant a break off if not careful. Fished in the Rebar area yesterday and did fair. Trout appeared to be feeding on something subsurface but I couldn't duplicate it. I caught a few on a #18 dark Trout Crack. Lincoln, who was fishing the faster water at the end of the chute, was picking them up by casting over to the south side of the stream, into the dead pockets with a #18 black Zebra Midge and mending his line so the rig would stay in the pocket long enough for the fly to get down to the fish. Others were catching trout below their feet in the fast water... I won't elaborate. Today, I fished the heart of the afternoon, boating above Fall Creek and stopped short of the Narrows. Bright sun, intermittent wind. Using spin cast, I tied on 5 feet of Vanish 2-pound tippet to the end of my 4-pound line, slid a carrot float up the line then tied on a 1/125th-ounce brown/orange head marabou jig, setting the float at 5 feet deep. Catching was good! Even with a slick surface, those rainbows were sucking on our jigs and we caught quite a few rainbows in the 3 hours we were out. We stayed between the end of the Narrows and the boat ramp above Fall Creek. Best for last...

Sunday's not good for me... I play basketball on Monday mornings at 6 am. I'm too old to pull an all-nighter. Am thinking about going tonight though.

Video went viral... 1.6 million views.

When I posted this it only had 1215 views. It's over 416,000 now. Glad they put an ad on it... make some bucks. Pretty cool.

They looked like darters, about 1 to 1.5 inch long minnows, at Lookout today. Thousands of them moving up on flooded gravel and grass on the island as the water rose from generation. Linc pointed them out to me. I tried to get a picture of them but it came out blurry. What I did see was a dark line on one side. I've never seen this many in the upper lake before. Our trout have to key in on them for food--they'd be easy to ambush or move through when they're schooling. I'll try to take a net with me next time and catch one. See what they are for sure.

They keep shutting the power off here at the resort to cut the generators on and it kicks the computer off. I'll reboot and it should work. pl

A group of conservationists have banded together in the last 18 months in hopes of fixing that issue. At the direction of legends Dave and Emily Whitlock, around 30 volunteers from Trout Unlimited, Federation of Fly Fisherman, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and the Norfork National Fish Hatchery worked Saturday to restore cutthroat trout populations in the Norfork. http://www.nwaonline.com/news/2012/jul/04/group-introduces-new-trout-norfork/

Optio 720

Yea... send me a message. I miss things sometime. Thanks

The bite on Bull is as hot as the weather!! We had two limits in 3 hours today. 27 FOW. Silver spoons and bouncing crawlers. Dead calm out there where we were fishing, didn't matter. Great boat control, the fish showed up on the graph and BAM! They are ready to eat. Used the cooler today, much better for the fish and cleaning the fish. Drink plenty of water, tea, or whatever. http://colronguide.com/