Phil Lilley

"And you're a jerk for questioning my common sense."

The arguments are getting more and more senseless... the degree that one person tries to make a point, like if Mtn Lions are breeding or not, is amazing. When in reality, no one can prove it one way or the other. It's all conjecture. It all boils down to-- "my common sense is better than your common sense."

Have I seen that report?? If they're biting on LOZ, then why aren't they biting on Bull Shoals or TR? Or hasn't anyone been trying? Guess I need to - try I mean. I REALLY need to head to LOZ for a winter crappie fix. Bill? How about it??!?

It's been going on for along time. But put it in perspective- 6500 members and there's only a handful who are always the ones who take the arguments to heights of attacks and endless points when no one's mind is changed and no one really cares besides the 3 or 4 doing the posting. One thing I would point out though - this forum is like a TV. There are stations you like to watch like the Outdoor Channel and those who don't like - MTV. I never tune into MTV cause I know I won't like it. If you don't like the bickering... don't click the topic. I don't till someone brings it to my attention that member #1 is bashing member #2.... again. I'll keep warning members, closing topics, advising members to edit their posts and even deleting topics. I don't want to micro manage the forum and I don't want to start deleting members. Would like to hear from others on the subject- thanks for bringing it up.

<p><img src="http://forums.ozarkanglers.com/images/2011/flip-rainbow-500.jpg" width="500" height="223"></p> <p>What a difference a week makes.&nbsp; Seven days ago, we were setting record low temperatures below zero.&nbsp; Yesterday we set a record high of 73 degrees, and the forecast is looking like spring is here.&nbsp; But it’s not.&nbsp; Don’t be fooled.&nbsp; It’s mid-February.</p> <p><img src="http://forums.ozarkanglers.com/images/2011/jigbox-350.jpg" width="250" height="175" hspace="5" vspace="5" align="right">But for now, boating on the lake is better than tolerable; it’s quite nice.&nbsp; This morning we&nbsp;&nbsp; actually had fog on the lake from the cold water and warm, humid air, just as in summer months.&nbsp; Generation has ceased except for a weird two-unit all-day run yesterday, which made no sense to me.&nbsp; I’ve told lots of people that the Corps probably wouldn’t run any water until this warm spell passes and we’re back to winter weather, but yesterday the Corps made me a liar . . . again.</p> <p>Speaking of the Corps and running water, here’s&nbsp; a link to a video showing something you won’t see every day.&nbsp; It’s an underwater video of the intake grate, 130 feet below the surface of Table Rock Lake on its dam face.&nbsp; The first video shows the grate before it was cleaned.&nbsp; The obstruction:&nbsp; channel catfish.&nbsp; The second video is the grate after it was cleaned.&nbsp; Officials have had to clean the grate twice now in five years, and, surprisingly, before the first cleaning, had not had to clean the grate at all.&nbsp; Does that mean there’s a boom in the catfish population?</p> <p><strong><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/JRNr7GVz8NaPXAiT0Q8E8CB8Jz7oqZipt2qmCJXt_54?feat=directlink" target="_blank">Video One</a></strong> <br> <br> <strong><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/G7wzXQwKVupOJpfvuLQvFCB8Jz7oqZipt2qmCJXt_54?feat=directlink" target="_blank">Video Two</a></strong> <br> <br> <img src="http://forums.ozarkanglers.com/images/2011/phila-250.jpg" width="250" height="262" hspace="5" vspace="5" align="right">I’ve done quite a bit of fishing this week, so some of my report is firsthand.&nbsp; The funniest and most successful trip was Wednesday when I got to fish with Guide Vince Elfrink.&nbsp; We took the boat out and went up past Short Creek to the Riverpoint boat ramp (south side of the lake), kept the boat a little south of center and fished to the deep side using an olive micro jig, two-pound line and a float, setting the depth at five feet.&nbsp; Between the boat traffic and a breeze every once in a while, the surface was broken enough to keep the jig moving. The rainbows liked it!&nbsp; We caught rainbows, one after the other, for two hours.&nbsp; Surprisingly, some of these rainbows were larger than the rainbows I caught earlier in the week in the trophy area, but there were a lot of dinks, too.<br> The Missouri Department of Conservation’s Shepherd of the Hills Hatchery has stocked its fish once this week down in the Landing area, while they have stocked rainbows from the federal hatchery in Neosho several more times this week.&nbsp; These rainbows typically are smaller although, learning the almost all our rainbows stocked in the last three months have come from Neosho, I know they’ve stocked some decent rainbows too.&nbsp; <br> Our water temperature is very cold for this time of year.&nbsp; I think our normal water temperature for February should be in the mid- to upper 40’s.&nbsp; Clint Hale, hatchery manager, told me they’re getting 42-degree water from their intake.&nbsp; I’m getting 39 degrees when I’m out in the boat below the dam while the water is running.&nbsp; We usually don’t see 39 until May.&nbsp; Colder than normal temperatures will slow the rate of rainbows’ growth.&nbsp; That may be the reason Shepherd is holding its rainbows and letting the Neosho ones take up the slack.&nbsp; Rainbows stocked in Taneycomo are supposed to average more than 11 inches in length.</p> <p> Earlier in the week, I fished between Lookout and Fall Creek and threw 1/16th-ounce jigs using two-pound line.&nbsp; With no generation and very little wind, the trout bit fairly well.&nbsp; We caught a couple of rainbows pushing 19 inches, but most of the other trout were closer to 14 inches.&nbsp; We threw sculpin-, sculpin/peach- and sculpin/ginger-colored jigs. </p> <p> <img src="http://forums.ozarkanglers.com/images/2011/philb-250.jpg" width="250" height="298" hspace="5" vspace="5" align="right">With the water running yesterday, we drifted pink 1/125th-ounce marabou jigs under a float four feet deep from Lookout to Fall Creek and picked up rainbows here and there.&nbsp; We stayed from the middle to the shallow side of the lake.&nbsp; I bet if we had tied on a red San Juan worm and a #12 gray “peppy” scud on two-pound line with a small split shot, we would have slayed the rainbows drifting in the same area.<br> Below Fall Creek, fishing with a&nbsp; jig-and-float or throwing a jig straight should be one of the best techniques in catching fish this weekend.&nbsp; Use two-pound line if you dare but four-pound is okay.&nbsp; If you’re using two-pound line, throw a 1/16th-ounce jig, but if you’re using four-pound line, throw a 3/32nd-ounce jig.&nbsp; Keep several colors handy to try—sculpin, olive, brown, ginger and the combo colors with sculpin, ginger, peach and orange.</p> <p> Night crawlers are catching larger rainbows than Power Bait but either bait is good.&nbsp; Inject the worm with some air to get it off the bottom and only use half at a time.&nbsp; You could slide a Gulp floating egg up above the night crawler to float it off the bottom, too.&nbsp; Gulp colors that have been good are white/orange and white/pink.&nbsp; Yellow nuggets have been hot, too.<br> One more pointer—when handling rainbows in the boat or on the dock, if you’re going to release the fish, handle the trout with a WET rag, not a dry one.&nbsp; All a dry rag does is wipe all the protective slim from a trout’s body, leaving it susceptible to bacteria and disease.&nbsp; If the hook is down deep in the trout’s throat, cut the line; don’t pull it out.</p>

I'll changed this to Lake Taneycomo forum. What creek are you talking about?

Vince was diagnosed with a tumor in his brain last August. Inoperable. He's had 2 biopsies, 3 1/2 rounds of chemo and radiation. He's had blood clots twice in his legs and once in his lungs. Latest report is that the tumor has not changed at the least, in more than 6 weeks. It's either in remission or dead, doctors believe the latter. But swelling has caused his mind to be fuzzy. His stamina is not very good but improving. His frame of mind is excellent. He and his wife, kids and a host of friends believe God has done a miracle in Vince's body. One doc last fall said, "No one survives stage 4 cancer of this kind". It's amazing to see him in the boat fishing. He doesn't miss a step. God is working in this deal, in me, in Vince and many others. Sometime it takes sickness to bring us back to what is important in his short life. I praise God for what he's doing in Vince... and in me. Thank you! http://ozarkanglers.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=26691 (video)

Should have laughed at him and catch a rainbow in front of him. I'd take it as a challenge. All "these people" are like that at all. Just the one who said it. Don't let it bother you. Just have a great time. You should try throwing some small marabou jigs when the water is low. #2 line and 1/32nd oz sculpin jig will catch alot of trout up there when the water is low. They don't see many small jigs like that. They see alot of scuds and san juans.

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="510" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/7gmteUt9hV8?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> This is from yesterday. Vince and I fished yesterday from about 2-4 pm and today about the same time period. Yesterday the water was off all day, alittle wind and cloudy. We sat just above the Riverpoint Estates Boat Ramp in the middle of the lake and cast to the middle. We used olive micro jigs with a gold head under a float 4-5 feet deep. The trout wouldn't leave them alone - it was great! Today we boated to the cable below the dam since they're running 2 units today. Of course we started with white jigs. They weren't on them like last week but they bit. Vince and I both landed several rainbows about 18 inches and fat but we also caught lots of smaller rainbows. Wind was tough but not too bad. Gusty. I threw a 3/32nd oz jig straight and Vince used the fly rod, fishing a 1/16th oz jig under a carrot float 5-6 feet. No pics today. Had to concentrate on keeping the boat straight for Vince. Not sure why they ran water today... hope they got it out of their system for the weekend. Looked like there were a bunch of people on the banks expecting low water.

Uh... back to the question...

If someone from, say, New York, wanted to talk to some Ozarkians about our way of fishing down here, where would be a good place to go?

"Keyboard Warriors" - like that.

Babler said he and others had an extremely hard time today on TR. He's guiding again tomorrow so he won't post till at least Friday.

In a perfect world, you're probably right. But it's not perfect and there will be situations when gilling a fish may have to be done to control the fish. May be the action won't be premeditated. . . but what gilling the fish may keep it from could be worse. Gilling a fish is not a death sentence. It certainly isn't good for it and could easily kill it but it's not automatic. I wouldn't do it on purpose and wouldn't do it unless it was a big fish and circumstances warranted it.

That's the nature of forums, unfortunately. When a forum gets as big as this one, you've got all kinds of people who believe different ways and some aren't afraid to say so. I have seen a move away from posting on forums, especially fishing guides who are on the water more days than most, who see fish patterns and who's knowledge is invaluable to the common angler. But they get bashed by a few who don't like guides, they make too much money, they lie about their reports, la di ada da... Then you don't see them (the guide) posting anymore (look at Table Rock). They post on facebook and get only a fraction of the exposure they would on this forum, at least from outside their realm of patrons and friends. There's no easy answer here. Honestly, the way I see it is that guides who want to and continue to post here or any other public forum have to have thick skin and take what a few dish out while others who APPRECIATE what guides do here thank them over and over as well as drowning out the negative posters with positive comments I am in the process of getting OA completely redone, and there will be a place where contributing guides will be able to post reports without comments from members. The forum itself will not change. This will be in addition to the forum.

Did for mine either. Not sure why.

Got our webcam up and hopefully running. But need for others to check and see if it is on their machines. Right now, should be able to see it using firefox and ie. We're working on Safari. http://www.lilleyslanding.com/live-cam and http://ozarkanglers.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=283&Itemid=102

Fished from 8-noon with Mark Tobin. Nothing huge at all - alot of dinks. Caught them mainly on 1/16th oz sculpin jigs and I threw a olive micro under a float for a while too and did just as well. Fished from Lookout down through the Narrows. Some wind now and then. Neosho has been stocking almost all of the rainbows here in Taney in January and February which speaks to the size of the stockers we're seeing. We caught alot of 6-inch rainbows today. We did muster 2 rainbows about 18 inches but none between 18 and 13 inches. I know some days you just don't see many larger rainbows and then all of a sudden that's all you're catching. Today was "dink day".

Just across from Berrier Cove.

Wasn't me was it? I thought I was in a meteor shower.

That was Thursday... they were pretty full Friday through the weekend. It was a good weekend.. everyone was enjoying being outside, frying fish and Bar-B-Q'ing last evening. Besides all the piles of snow, it felt alittle like spring.

Just a reminder of the meeting this Saturday. This really should be interesting if you're a Taneycomo fan.

Annual Shawnee Boats, Inc. Trout Tournament Hosted by: Cotter Area Chamber of Commerce Saturday, March 26, 2011 7:00 AM - 2:00 PM at the Cotter Ramp on the White River Entry Fee — $100.00 per Team (2 People) Entry fee covers 2 meal tickets per boat for cookout after Tournament and one (1) entry in the Shawnee Boat Drawing. Extra meal tickets are $10.00 each and can be ordered when entry fee is paid. Limited to the first 125 paid entries. Open to all makes of boats. Extra entry forms – CotterArkansas.Com PRIZE FUND (Pro-rated based on 100 entries) 1st Place: $1,000 - 2nd Place $800 – 3rd Place $600 4TH Place $400 -5th Place $300 – 6th through 10th $100 ea. SEPARATE BIG FISH POT - $25 Entry (Based upon 100 entries – Payout $2500) SPECIAL BOAT DRAWING (Only Tournament Entrants eligible – must be present to win) A New 2011 Shawnee Deluxe Boat, Trailer and Seats (Donated by Shawnee Boats, Inc. – Motor available at cost) Valued at $6900

I didn't get any flags...

Talk to a corp guy who's been out of town this week. He heard that they put in at Indian Point today with some trouble. State Park should be clear- they blade it. Thought Kim City ramp would be ok since it's not real steep and it faces south. Other ramps- it did hit 40 today so I bet they might be icy in the am but good the rest of the day.