Phil Lilley

Did you go?

We've enjoyed a lot of down water this fall here on Lake Taneycomo. And with the long cold spell in late October and into November, Table Rock Lake has turned over. Now we're benefiting from the great oxygenated water when the dam turbines are running. We're anticipating a very good winter trout fishing season. Fly fishing below the dam while the water is off has continued to be pretty excellent. Lots of browns have been caught during the annual spawn as well as nice rainbows. We're starting to see a few reds where rainbows are cleaning their spawning beds. But the majority of the winter rainbow spawn happens later in December. If you're having trouble catching fish while fly fishing, change flies. Change tactics. I'm guilty of fishing one fly way too long with little success. My mindset is, "They should bite this! Why aren't they biting this?" You can't force feed fish if they don't want to eat your presentation. Change! I think zebra midges and the mega worm have been at the top of most fly fishers' lists for go-to flies. Scuds, for me at least, have been slow except when drifting with the water running. Then the egg/scud combo has been very productive. My "have-to-have" flies for Lake Taneycomo right now are: Zebra midge in black, red, olive, prism and primrose in #14, #16 #18's. Mega worm in white, peach, chartreuse. Scuds in various shades of gray (w/ flash), tan and olive in #14, #16 #18's. Micro jig (Lilley's) white, brown, sculpin (orange head). Woolies in black, olive, brown in #14, #16. Tippet -- 6x fluorocarbon and mono, 7x fluorocarbon. We're selling a crystal egg that Jeremy Rasnik showed us that's done really well when fished with a #16 or #18 gray scud. It's working from the dam clear down to Short Creek. I've seen some nice trout below the dam while stripping woolies, cracklebacks and soft hackles, especially if there's a chop on the surface (with no generation.) Also, stripping sculpin on the bottom, all above the Missouri Department of Conservation boat ramp has been successful. I've done well with a white mega worm under a float from Lookout through the Trophy Area, then on down to our place. The peach and chartreuse mega worm is working, too, at times. Strangely, working scuds with the water off has worked poorly. The zebra midge continues to be one of the best flies to flat catch fish. Most of the time I have to switch colors and sizes to find out the best one that the trout prefer at that given time. It's surprising how picky they can be. I'm using 6x tippet for the most part, either mono or fluorocarbon. The pink Powerworm is still our guides go-to lure to catch fish below Fall Creek, either with no generation or with up to two units running. They're fishing it from four- to seven-feet deep under a float. Night crawlers and Powerbait are catching a lot of stocker rainbows from Cooper Creek up to Fall Creek. They stocked a ton of rainbows off both Cooper Creek and Riverpointe Estate's boat ramps before the holiday weekend. Fishing for most of the weekend was very good. The stockers were chasing everything moving. Spoons like Cleos and Bouyant, as well as rooster tails, were very good. I saw people trolling very slowly and picking up fish fairly often. When I was out, I had a lot of rainbows chase my jig all the way to the boat. On our daily One Cast video we try to feature all the ways to catch fish that are working that day. We don't fish bait very often simply because they work most of the time. View full article

I'm sending her a screen shot... just so you know.

I remember that house... the guy was working to fix the washed out gravel driveway with a small tractor. You should pave it... save you a lot of work. You'll have to hire a maid now. Becky doesn't need to clean house 24/7

https://lilleyslanding.com/on-sale/ We're moving some fly rods and reels.

For those who have questions about the lake turning over, here’s an article.

I’m sure it will

Looks like the big lake is turning over. https://www.swl-wc.usace.army.mil/pages/data/tabular/htm/trdo.htm With the cold and wind the last 2 days, it's send the surface level temp down. The temp at the bottom is 58 so it doesn't have to drop too much to get below that. I got 7 ppm the other day at the dam. The fish have been pretty aggressive, biting pretty good and fighting hard. I'd say the low DO period has past for 2022.

I ran this by our local agent. He said basically what @BilletHead just posted.

The initial bid fell through. The bid is at $5,100 presently.

Thanks for caring! 🥰

That's what is so great about the White... there's miles and miles of awesome water to fish and quality trout even way down there. I'd never heard of the access. I do love the Buffalo area though. Thanks for all your reports!

Here’s a link for you. https://interland3.donorperfect.net/weblink/WebLink.aspx?name=E358532&id=1 This just gives to CAM, no strings attached.

I inserted the wrong link. It’s correct now.

Shhhh…. 57 right now

I’ll keep that in mind 😂😂

Send a check? CAM 2400 Highway 165 Branson. 65616

As many of you know, I’m on the board at our local food pantry, Christian Action Ministries. The group is doing a lot of great work in our county. This is your chance to give a little, or a lot, to a good cause, plus see me go in Taney. I’ve never fallen in, even after almost 40 years jumping in and out of boats on our lake. But I guess that changes soon. We haven’t set a definite date but it will probably be right after the first of the year- first week in January. The event will be held here here at the resort and probably be broadcasted on Facebook Live and YouTube. If you have any questions, please ask. Thanks! https://interland3.donorperfect.net/weblink/WebLink.aspx?name=E358532&id=14

The DO levels are great down lake. Seem to be decent even below the dam. No real issues reported.

Should be good now

We did some upgrading on the server today, then the forum. I think that's what did it. I have a request to my site host to make the change. Should be good in a little bit.

Congrats! Lovely couple. My son from Boston decided to book some cheap flights ($99) from BOS to KCI that week (bringing the kids) so I guess I'm out unless I bring Caleb over for a day's fishing. Blake I think is out too but I need to let him do his own talking. He said he may be fishing with someone in a tournament Saturday.

Nice smiles!

No fishing, just visiting. Was in Beverly, MA visiting the kids and traveled to Camden/Rockport, ME for a night. Beautiful weather, like ours. Flowers were still out as well as lots of green leaves on the trees. Big difference when we got back to all the leaves basically gone here.