Phil Lilley

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1978" title="Taneycomo Rainbow Caught on Dec 9" src="http://www.ozarkanglers.com.php5-24.dfw1-2.websitetestlink.com/lake-taneycomo/files/2011/12/Taneycomo-Rainbow-Caught-on-Dec-9.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="260" /> Generation has been a little sporadic this week. For the most part, they've left the water off for most of the day until today when they ran it all day. Tomorrow, more generation all day. Not sure what will happen over the weekend but with temperatures staying mild I wouldn't think they would run much. Hard to say though. Wading below the dam has been very good. Stripping soft hackles, #14 and #16 red, black or green, on the flats from #1 outlet to rebar and big hole down past the boat ramp to Trophy Run has produced some nice rainbows and a few browns, very few browns though. Drifting san juan worms, natural, red and purple, in the outlets and in the fast water at rebar and below has been good along with using scuds size #12 and #14's in varying shades of gray, olive and brown. Down in the flat water below Big Hole, a #16 rusty zebra midge under an indicator 6 to 12 inches is working early and late in the day when the midges are hatching the best. <img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1977" title="Taneycomo Dec 9a" src="http://www.ozarkanglers.com.php5-24.dfw1-2.websitetestlink.com/lake-taneycomo/files/2011/12/Taneycomo-Dec-9a.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="268" /> If the water is running, drifting #10 or #12 scuds or peach eggs flies using a drift rig or just split shot is working from the cable through Short Creek. Also working the bluff bank using 1/8th oz olive, olive/sculpin, sculpin/orange and purple jigs. Keep it close to the bottom and work it slow. Jigs under a float is working if you set the depth of the float right. It needs to be close if not on the bottom. Use a big carrot float and float a 1/16th oz jig. Seems like the bigger jigs are working better than the smaller ones- fish can see them better and they aren't scared to take the big jig floating by. Rainbows are really eating night crawlers well below Fall Creek. With the water running or not, inject them with some air and float them off the bottom. Gulp eggs in white, orange and pink have been good too. Best areas have been from Cooper Creek down to Monkey Island. Note: Lately our trout are biting short. They aren't being very aggressive and are just pecking at the lures and baits we're using. When fishing a night crawler for instance, you really have to let the fish take the worm in its mouth by giving him the rod tip or even releasing some line after the initial hit, before setting the hook.

You're advice was right one. i love that shoal and can't wait to get back.

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-132" title="White Bass below Norfork" src="http://www.ozarkanglers.com.php5-24.dfw1-2.websitetestlink.com/norfork-tailwater/files/2011/12/White-Bass-below-Norfork.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="271" /> Tom and I arrived at the boat ramp at 7:15 am this morning to find water running, fast and hard. It took 1 hour and 45 minutes to make our trip from Branson, about 15 minutes quicker than I thought. The SWA chart said they'd be running water for 2 hours and the chart was right. We hurried and slid the boat in the water and start throwing jigs. I've only fished this water from a boat once, that was with Gabe Cross many years ago. It was the dead of winter, lots of generation and lots of shad in the water. I didn't have to worry about shallow water of where to go and not to... we had Gabe. This time I was in my jon boat with a brand new 25 hp motor and a slick new shiny prop. It didn't stay shiny very long. We made a drift down to the top of the first shoal and boated two small rainbows on 3/32 oz sculpin/olive jigs. Not very impressive. On the second drift, I was thinking... need to throw a white jig. Then I saw it... a threadfin shad floating right next to the boat! "Oh my gosh!! Put on a white jig NOW!!" We did--didn't get a bite! Well, my guess it was a fluke we saw a shad in the water, not very many coming through or they just started. Bottom line, the trout weren't interested--in anything much. We made 3 drifts and on the third float the water started dropping, fast. We made our way up--and promptly got high centered on a rock. Man I thought I was going to have to go in and get my boots wet (no waders in the boat) but we kicked off. And yes I garbled up the edges of the new prop--but I expected that. The water is dark from Norfork turning over and you can't see the bottom. Fished the eddy across from the ramp for a little while before heading out. I hooked what I thought was going to be a pic-fish. Fought hard--but strange. It fought like a white bass... it was a white bass! Just like Taneycomo... warm water fish up below the dam. We pulled out and headed down to the mouth of the North Fork. The wind had really picked up but we put in to tool around. The water on the White and North Fork were both rolling. We boated up past the rail road bridge on the North Fork and start working our jigs. Tom caught 2 small rainbows before the wind got the best of us. We picked up and headed to Blue Ribbon Fly Shop and the Anglers Cafe for lunch.

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1716" title="White River - Narrows in December" src="http://www.ozarkanglers.com.php5-24.dfw1-2.websitetestlink.com/white-river/files/2011/12/White-River-Narrows-in-December.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="239" /> I had a mission today - to cover as much territory as I could. Wanted to first take pictures of a few places on the Norfork Tailwater and the White River, meet with John Berry for lunch and take more pics on the White - plus catch some fish. We didn't cover as many accesses as I wanted but there's only so many hours in a day. Arrived at the boat ramp below Norfork at 7 am... but that's another report on another forum. After a nice lunch at the Anglers Cafe in Mountain Home, Tom and I headed to the Wildcat Shoal access. We took John's advice and parked at the Narrows Parking area and walked in. The Narrows is the far channel shoal on the west side of the upper island at Wildcat. There are 2 shoals at the island- one at the top and one of the bottom. For time's sake, we only fished the bottom shoal and the water between the two. With less than one unit running, we had no problem wading over to the island. John said you have to watch it- if they are running one full unit, it's tough making the trip across. I think he's had some experience tippy toeing in fast water. Most of us know how that dance goes. <img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1717" title="White River - Walking to the Narrows" src="http://www.ozarkanglers.com.php5-24.dfw1-2.websitetestlink.com/white-river/files/2011/12/White-River-Walking-to-the-Narrows.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="230" /> The shoal runs all the way across the river at that point. There's a shoot on the near side but not deep. I saw one redd at the shoal break and one a little further down. I assume it was a brown redd. While we were fishing above the shoal, I saw about a 6 pound brown come out of the water in the area. Past the shoot, the water runs over the shoal I say slow for a shoal and only about 12 to 24 inches deep- perfect for woolies buggers and soft hackles. That's what John suggested and he was right. Above the shoal, the water was deeper and slower- and slick unless the wind picked up. Tom stripped #14 green or yellow soft hackles up there most of the afternoon and caught 12 trout- 10 browns and 2 rainbows. Most of the browns were about 12 - 15 inches but he had one that measured over 20 inches. Unfortunately we were fishing far enough apart when he caught the big one no pics were taken. I fished mainly in the shoal and did the best on a #16 red/nickel zebra midge under an indicator 6 inches but only caught small rainbows - a bunch of them. Wish we had more time to fish the whole area. Actually I would have loved to put the boat in and fished a jig down the whole Wildcat area but the wind was blowing upstream so it would have been tough. Next time! <img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1715" title="Small Brown on the White River" src="http://www.ozarkanglers.com.php5-24.dfw1-2.websitetestlink.com/white-river/files/2011/12/Small-Brown-on-the-White-River.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="182" />

Call our office in the am 1-800-284-2196. Hopefully they'll read my email to them instructing them of the sale. If not, they won't have any idea what you're talking about CC# name and address. I'll start shipping Thursday. I'm heading to the White tomorrow for a day of fishing and picture taking. And meeting a few people like John Berry for lunch!!

I have a bunch of these cracklebacks I need to dump. They were tied in Kenya years ago. They are not the best crackleback made for sure but they will catch a few fish. $2.00 for 24 flies. That's less than 10 cents each. Assorted sizes and colors. I have orange and yellow. #16's and #18's. Shipping- whatever I pay the post office to send them. I've priced them to sell.

The ramps should be prefect seeing the lake is close to power pool.

I like Al's point of view on this. I wonder what Angel fans are saying? I bet some of them are miffed at the deal too. That's a lot of money for a good player, as Al said. Cardinals got the best production out of Albert. As for the personal stuff... I'd be slow to judge. No one knows his heart and exactly what he does in his personal affairs.

During the past month the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AG&FC) has been doing some habitat work on the Norfork River in the Catch and Release section upstream from the Ackerman Access. This is one of a few projects funded in part by the legal settlement with Trout Unlimited over the Norfork Overlook Estates law suit. The idea here was to stabilize Charley’s island and improve the trout habitat in the area surrounding it. I had heard first hand reports about the work being done from the anglers that fished there during the construction phase. The AG&FC hauled large boulders upstream in the river bed over a half a mile in huge dump trucks. Once on site they moved them around with heavy equipment. During this whole process, anglers were fishing around the heavy equipment. They were undeterred by the traffic and off color water. Many reported success with high numbers of fish caught. During all of this action I chose not to fish there. It just isn’t in my DNA to want to fish under such crowded and noisy conditions. I prefer a bit more solitude. I tended to do most of my fishing on the White River, during this process. On the occasions where I did fish the Norfork, I was located far downstream. I did note that the water was off color but it did not affect the fishing or quality of fish caught. Now that the work was complete, I wanted to see the outcome and see how it would fish. I worked nonstop right up to the Thanksgiving holidays. I then went out of town for several days. When I returned, I was ready to check out the project. I checked the predicted generation and found that the water on the Norfork would be turned off around seven o’clock the next morning. I decided to go. I asked my wife, Lori, to join me. She had a cold and declined. I thought about taking my yellow lab, Ellie, but decided against it because I did not know what kind of conditions to expect. The next day I arrived at the Ackerman Access around 8:00 AM and noted that the water was a bit too high to wade. There was a truck in the parking lot but I did not see any anglers. It was beastly cold (37 degrees) and the wind was howling (there were lake wind advisories). Luckily the sun was shining and it did not seem as cold as it could have been. I decided to go to the Dam and see if the water had dropped out there. When I arrived at the dam, there was only one car there. It was an angler unloading his kayak for a float down the Norfork. I had the place to myself. I fished one of my favorite spots for an hour. I managed to land four rainbows and a nice seventeen inch brown. I decided to return to Ackerman to see if the water had dropped out. I was surprised to see no one else in the parking lot. I grabbed my rod and headed upstream. As I walked up, I could see big changes. The island had been reinforced with large heavy boulders on the upstream side. The channel on the near side of the island had been dredged and the gravel that had filled it during the last two floods had been pushed into a pile near the bank. I took a minute to rig my rod. I put on a hot pink San Juan worm with a black zebra midge dropper, a bit of lead and a strike indicator. I began fishing the near channel and had immediate success on the worm. I kept changing the dropper fly and ended up with a size eighteen red zebra midge. I was now catching fish after fish with about sixty percent on the worm and forty percent on the dropper. The near channel was fishing better than it had in years. I fished far up stream and found plenty of trout wherever I went. It was not just numbers. I was landing some nice trout in the sixteen to eighteen inch range. All of them fought well. I decided to fish the far channel. To access it, I had to scramble over some large boulders. The large rocks formed a barrier to the channel. I walked along the barrier until I found an easy spot to climb over. The channel appeared to be unchanged. I began fishing and caught a few trout. I did not stay long because the bright sun caused a serious glare on the water. I could not follow my strike indicator into the glare. In my haste to start fishing that morning, I had not changed from my regular glasses to my polarized fishing glasses. On the near channel, I had the sun on my back and the glare did not bother me there. I scrambled back over the rock barrier. I resumed my fishing and kept landing trout after trout. I glanced downstream and saw another angler approaching. I looked at my watch. It was one o’clock. I had been fishing the area by myself for four hours. I had truly enjoyed the solitude. It turned out to be Mark, a fishing buddy of mine. We chatted about fishing and the changes brought on by the project for a few minutes and I reluctantly left. I wanted to check on Lori. I had been interested in the stabilization and habitat project. I checked it out and fished the area and was impressed with the results. The area was fishing better than it has for quite a while.

http://www.in-fisherman.com/2011/12/07/another-white-bass-update/ Ned just sent this to me.

http://www.in-fisherman.com/2011/12/07/another-white-bass-update/ Ned just sent this to me.

Can anyone figure out white bass and their population fluctuations from year to year? Back in the 80's, I used to see huge schools of whites on the flats busting shad all summer into the fall months- haven't seen it since. On other lakes, and the ones I'm thinking of are in Oklahoma and Texas, white bass are always in abundance, almost nuisance fish to some anglers. Any ideas? I'm going to post this on Table Rock forum too.

Can anyone figure out white bass and their population fluctuations from year to year? It seems like some years you see whites all over the place in the summer, surfacing and feeding on shad and then others you don't. On other lakes, and the ones I'm thinking of are in Oklahoma and Texas, white bass are always in abundance, almost nuisance fish to some anglers. I'm going to post this on Bull Shoals forum too because there the swing from plenty to bust to more profound. Any ideas?

Yes I would be!! Do you do dropbox?

Thanks for posting. Do you have any more general pictures of the creek? I'm collecting them

Here too. Sounded like there were thousands overhead last night and heard them all night. I kept the window open above the bed and heard them even when I got up at 5 this morning though not as many. I called Duane about 9 pm and he said they were over him too. He was hitting them with a spot light. The ones over us last night were low and circling. Duane said his were too and thought they'd be on the lake this morning. I know where he is right now!

Gosh- I want to go back to Flaming Gorge and the Green River. What a wonderful place! Sorry... the article mentioned it.

Sorry I didn't check the forum all day... Are you staying through tomorrow? I have all you need to fish. I'll check the forum in the am before I head to church for your answer.

<a href="http://www.swpa.gov/generationschedules.aspx" target="_blank"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1901" title="Lake Taneycomo" src="http://www.ozarkanglers.com/lake-taneycomo/files/2011/12/rainbow5_720.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="182" /></a> <P> <a href="http://www.swpa.gov/generationschedules.aspx" target="_blank">Southwest Power Admin's generation site</a> this morning said they were going to run 3 units this morning and one unit for the rest of the day, basically. As I sit writing this report, it's noon on Friday and there's no generation. They didn't get it right today. Most times they do but not all the time. This isn't good for those who depend on this schedule, having to drive down from the Springfield area or up from Arkansas to fish. But that's the way it is. <P> I start my report with this because I don't know what they're going to do with the water this weekend. It's supposed to get colder later tomorrow so they may run more water, BUT on weekend they usually geer down and don't run as much--less power demand on weekends. If I were a betting man, and I'm not in reality, I'd say they will not run much water tomorrow or Sunday, if any. <P> Table Rock has officially turned over and that's good news for our trout and for us anglers. Good news for the Corp too because now they don't have to inject liquid oxygen into the lake water till next fall when the cycle starts all over again. That's stuff is expensive! Measurements have gone from .5 at the beginning of this week to over <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen_saturation" target="_blank">9 ppm</a> which is close to the top of the scale. Our trout should be feeling pretty frisky about now. <P> I do love this time of year here on Taneycomo. There are an abundance of rainbows in the lake, seeing that fishing has been so good the last few weeks and the fishing pressure is the lowest of the year in December. Many days, especially weekdays, you'll find you're the only one on some stretches of the lake. <P> Insects like the water quality change as well. Fish aren't the only ones affected by low DO levels in the fall. Midge hatches this week seems to go on all day and in huge numbers and the trout are responding to them, dimpling the surface of the water for as far as the eye can see. You'll catch these feeding rainbows using either a small jig under a float and only set the float about a foot to 18-inches deep or you can fish a zebra midge under a float at the same distance. Watch and target trout that surface. Try to guess which way they're moving and you'll score more often. Where in the is the best place to find midging rainbows? Anywhere and everywhere. Seriously. I've seen trout midging all the way down to Powersite. <P> Talking to some guys who fished earlier in the week, they struggled Monday catching trout but Tuesday they said the trout turned on and they caught a bunch. This correlates with the oxygen improving each day this week. They said drifting Gulp Eggs from Fall Creek down to Lilleys was very good and it really didn't matter what color they used. <P> I took a trip by boat yesterday to the dam while they were running a couple of units and tossed a jig, 3/32nd ounce, from the cable down to the first island on the south side and caught 4 white bass, a few rainbows, a smallmouth and a blue gill. Back to multiple species fishing again. Three of the whites were nice so I brought them back for Ryan, my nephew and dockhand. Two of the rainbows were good ones--in the 18 inch range. I drifted the bank again and threw an olive jig with less success but as I drifted down the side of the island- main channel- I picked up rainbows all the way to the rebar. The jig would hit the water and I'd have one. These were stockers- 12 inches long but aggressive and fun. Drifting on down to the KOA I only picked up a couple. From Lookout down I didn't catch any. The water had picked up a little and that must have shut the bite down. Never know.

Doesn't make any sense. Jerry Dean makes the statement- Crane Creek was first stocked in 1890 with natural reproduction observed in 1893 (Turner 1980) and hasn't been restocked since the 1960's. But Spence Turner states in his email that he knows of no stockings other than the one's late in the 1800's and early in the 1900's. The reference in his sentence comes before his added statement "and hasn't been restocked since the 1960's." I don't think, he could not have gotten this statement from the source he provides - Turner, Spencer E. (1980). Letter to Dr Graham Gall. October 5, 1980. Not saying it didn't happen... but I wouldn't put much credence in this paper proving it. It is a good read though. Thanks for posting it.

I don't think it does. I've never seen it. Shad kills are caused by cold water temperatures usually. We see them mainly in late December through April and sometimes May.

I'll have one later today. But nothing much has changed since my last report. This time of year fishing pressure is at it's lowest. Water quality is much better than last week and the trout are responding by being more aggressive in biting and fighting. Midge hatches early in am and pm. You can click and see what the water generation has been- no real pattern established. There are lots of rainbows in the lake right now. Plenty of action for the few anglers who are out fishing.

Yes- only one intake.

I've posted an invitation to Naknek River Camp on the Alaska Forum... just wanted to point to it from here in case you didn't see it. I'll remove this post after a few days. http://ozarkanglers.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=31192

Heard from Spence - To my knowledge Crane Creek has not been stocked by MDC since formation of the department. It would be hard not to stock if you had a hatchery nearby...Neosho. My perusal of the Neosho records suggest that it was not stocked past the first few years, but records are limited...wonder if Heinz has completely reviewed the two stocking record books and kept notes on where trout were stocked. Years past I went through the books, but my records have since been sent on to MDC, where I suspect they were "filed." Anyway, the hatchery records from 1889 and 1890+ are still at the hatchery, but I have no idea what condition the books are now in...might be worth pursuing.