Phil Lilley

It was the COOKIES!!! Cookie monster - blame him.

Justin - did you check and see if the image was too big? What was the type of image- jpg? Thanks

If you see any problems on the forum or the new site, please let me know. Thanks for your help.

OK- it should be fixed. If it's not- someone tell me via email asap. Any other problems, please let me know now that I have the tecs ear.

Still waiting on the Calvary (invision).

Funny how some have gotten on a posted... strange!! I just checked who's online... 1 member (me) and 214 guests. I feel like I'm hogging the party!

Yea it is slow... hopefully that will change when we get the old OA off the server and things cleaned up.

I have gotten alot of calls and emails about logging on to the forum. Some can't log on, others log on and can't post. I have to log back on every time I come back to the forum. I have sent a trouble ticket in to the invision people and hopefully will get a response soon. Again, thanks for your patience. Phil

Yesterday we launched, or tried to launch, the new OzarkAnglers.Com site. We knew there were going to be some bugs because of the way we changed things. There were. The OA main site now sits on a new server and the forum is where it always was. But because of these changes they changed the address or url to the forum to: http://forums.ozarkanglers.com They will add a redirect to the old url and direct you to the new one shortly but if you want to change the url in your bookmarks you can do so. I've notice a few bugs on the forum, some images not coming up. Hopefully we'll fix them shortly, otherwise we may have to reinstall a few profile images. Please let me know if you see any broken links anywhere- on the forum or on the new site. The web design people are still working on some of the pages. Some of the text, images and links are still not working. Thanks Phil

You can park at the dock where the Branson Lakequeen and where Short Smalls use to be. It says private but till they rent all the stalls, they don't mind. I've asked the owner, Justin Gage. Have not heard anything about BP and their dock but I'll ask.

Big Trout

Boswell Memorial is a private tournament held every year on the first Saturday of January. Here are the results - Today was a blue bird day, high skies and very little wind. I never imagined they'd do as well as they did... but they all had a great day of fishing. I'd have to look back and check but I believe this was one of the best average of limits (8 trout) I've ever seen at a tournament here on Taneycomo. Totally unexpected. It's not surprising to see 10 pound limits (8 trout). It is, though, when five of 27 teams came in with 10 or better and 11 teams over 9 pounds. Most were caught on jigs fishing straight line I believe but live bait was allowed in this tournament. This was the 30th annual contest. Many of these guys who fished today have been around since the beginning. They're a great bunch of guys, most from St Louis.

The first photo should be on a magazine cover.

No, we had company in town (last minute) and they wanted to go out to eat after church. Sorry I missed everyone.

If the guide drove a red, aluminum boat, it probably was Brett.

Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Col 3:23 One of many things my dad taught me when I was young.

Well, this winter has been a joy so far, as far as fishing weather that is. We’ve had a few cold days back prior to the holidays and the mornings now are crisp but nothing compared to the last few years – snow, ice and cold! They are forecasting 50′s this weekend here in Branson. . . it’ll be a nice time for the trout fishermen as well as others who get out on the big lakes and small streams. With the milder weather and the lakes dropping close to normal levels, the Corp has started leaving the water off at Table Rock Dam this week for most of the afternoon at least. It’s been a little breezy but we like some wind, enough to break up the surface on the water. I would think this generation trend should continue as long as we don’t have any big changes in lake levels and day time temperatures. When the water is running in the mornings, they’ve been doing well drifting bait from Fall Creek clear down past Cooper Creek. Night crawlers have been catching the bigger rainbows but Gulp eggs using white/pink or yellow or orange is doing well also. Big numbers of rainbows are being caught but not big rainbows. We usually get a big load of rainbows from our federal hatchery in Neosho in the winter and they will run smaller than our state trout. Some of these small rainbows don’t even hit the 6-inch mark but most measure about 10-inches. Our trout from Shepherd of the Hills Hatchery average over 12 inches. You can also catch trout below Fall Creek using small to medium stick baits like Rapalas, Rouges and Pointers. Troll or cast and retrieve towards the bluff banks. Rooster tails and Cleos are also working but you may catch mostly smaller rainbows on these. Marabou jigs worked off the bottom using darker earth colors like brown, black, olive and sculpin, 1/8th to 3/32nd-ounce. If using a float, fish them 5-8 feet deep and use small weights– 1/50th down to micro jigs in 1/256th ounce. Same colors. Above Fall Creek, when the water is running, drift a scud, #12 brown or olive have been best colors with an egg tandem. Small to medium stick baits, like I mentioned before, worked against the bluff banks are producing some nice trout including a few browns. Also seeing some bass and crappie up there. When the water is shut down, fishing has slowed mid day but picks back in the evening. Midge hatches most of the day on and off but better late. Zebra midges, #16 rusty midge or red/gold head fished 12 to 24 inches under a float. Also fish that scud under a float and make sure it’s dragging the bottom. Soft hackles, cracklebacks and small woolies stripped on a choppy surface when you see trout midging. We’re seeing a bunch of small, first-of-the-year browns caught using this technique.

Nice report. Thanks

If you go- report back. Don't hold anything back... I didn't.

I was going to put in at K Dock and fish both up and down but mainly up cause I know the lake better. Go about 3/4 mile up and fish the bluff on the right to the flat. Then follow the flat / edge of channel to where it turns into snap. Then go up to the next bluff on the right and fish it. Throw at every piece of wood you see. Not sure how deep they'll be- depends on time of day (deeper in bright sun). Slow dropping jigs - red heads are best. That's what I've heard. Should be able to limit by 11 am.

Chief! Plans changed. I'll be around.

I don't know of any guides who walk in there but i don't know everything... haha Could have been Bret Rader http://charteredwaters.com or someone from River Run. Or could have been any guy who moonlights as a guide.

My guess is that very few people fish down there and of those, very few are on this forum. Or it could be that good. Look at Upper Bull Shoals... I've heard crappie are jumping in the boat down there right now and you don't see many reporting it. I'm going tomorrow and I will report back.

Very nice account of your trip and helpful for those who may think about a trip to Alaska. You'd love KodiAK too. Should check that out if you're thinking of retiring up there. Mild winters.