Phil Lilley

In 2018, MDC reduced 20% from 700,000 to 560,000. And I've already said they were 60k short in 2021 because of water quality issues, mostly fish that were to be stocked this winter. I agree with you on drawing down the lakes in the winter. Living below a dam, I know firsthand that gut wrenching feeling of being told to evacuate, several times now. And here we are again heading into spring and the lakes are being held at power pool instead of being drawn down, even a bit. But there is this - in 2011 (I think that's the event, could have been 2008), Table Rock was at 907 feet. The whole watershed got 15 inches of rain in less than a week and they released what was a record release at that time... may be 64,000 cfs.? They've beat it by 10k in the 2015 winter flood. Call it global warming or climate change.... whatever. We are seeing more rain systems just sit on the central midwest in the last 15 years and flood the heck out of some areas (North Fork of the White River). I would like to ask the management at the Corp - why don't you draw down the lakes like you used to in the 80's and 90's. I've been told it was the long time manager at Table Rock back in those years and I can't remember his name... anyone??? He was there for a long time.

https://lilleyslanding.com/trophy-catch-release/

Trophy Trout Catch & Release Totals - Sheet1.pdf https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TXEZKuXhiMyyU1sWA6adai4H0eKJZ9SPbZSzWA6RDf4/edit?usp=sharing I don't think you can take this data and make anything official of it. It's voluntary and shows it was only utilized by anglers who had knowledge of the program. I see images of trout caught and released on FB, esp fish caught wading below the dam, that are not part of these numbers. It may though give an indication of numbers of lunkers in Taneycomo during specific periods.

April, 2020, we closed. We got some work done but mostly we gave our staff a break and they enjoyed some paid vacation. But most of us fished... a lot. We had Taney to ourselves. We went up to Table Rock and it too was vacant of boaters. I made a trip to Truman though and it was packed with crappie fishermen. May was slow but towards the end we started to see normal traffic. Mid June we saw the beginnings of a record boat rental season. But vast majority of the new boaters were recreational. They were spillovers from Table Rock. No rentals available up there. Some of them rented rods just for the fun of it and they caught a few rainbows. But their impact on the fishery was minimal. Fall and winter were normal pretty much. But spring time, 2021 we saw an influx of spring breakers and the crowds didn't stop till October. I'd say there was an increase in lake traffic by 15%+ in the summer season but again a lot of this increase was just boaters, not anglers. Our fishing license sales - 2016 - 84k 2017 - 76k 2018 - 80k 2019 - 67k 2020 - 81k 2021 - 86k You have to take in consideration the increased usages of MDC apps, bypassing buying licenses at the store. So far this winter's traffic has been average at best.

Just to be clear, the figure 300,000 is not the number of trout missing from last year’s stocking numbers.

Healthy fish for sure. Congrats

We have their ear... they really don't "see" anything. The only way they see anything is through their shock survey. Missing 60k fish is something they see. Just not sure how they can do anything about it now.

You're right - I didn't know anything about trout fishing in 1983... but I got eyes. And ears. I was at the meetings with MDC. We formed Friends of Lake Taneycomo to draw attention to the problems with the lake. At the time, they (we) blamed pollution, septic tanks and run off. But the problem was overstocking. They upped the numbers and the food base plummeted. Plain and simple. Since then it's been trial and error, along with a lot of things that have changed the lake. I disagree with you on the floods. USACE didn't mismanage the water. We got flooded. They actually held off water that would have put a bunch of ppl and property underwater.... me included. The gravel got washed in from the banks that are not shored up - not the Corps responsibility. It's more MDC's responsibility since they own the land below the dam. But I don't think they think it's a big enough issue to tackle. High water doesn't affect the scuds population in a negative way, at least in the long term. I've observed, between floods, the gravel flats below Lookout become somewhat packed down and settled. The high water and hard current "rolls" the gravel, loosening it up. When you walk on it your feet move around a lot. I'm not a fishery biologist either but I'd think this would create a better habitat for bugs, at least that's what I've seen as far as in their population swings.

MDC will point to the survey they took. For 2 years (I think), they asked ppl in boats and on docks which would they prefer - more small fish but sacrifice size or more big fish and sacrifice number. They chose the latter. So MDC changed their stocking numbers and it worked. 60's and 70's were good but why? I don't know the stocking numbers back then but we had big trout because of the food base. Scuds were abundant. When I bought the resort in 1983, ppl were already complaining about the lack of scuds. Stocking rates were well over 1.2 million but I didn't hear anyone say it was because of over stocking. They wanted to blame pollution. But that really didn't add up. BTW I didn't think the 80's were that good personally. We've had some good years when our trout grew, for whatever reason, and we had a good number of 2 pound rainbows to catch. But then they'd get caught out and we were starting over. Not until MDC dropped the stocking rates to below whatever that line is for the food base to stay good and our fish grew to what they are now. I agree, and I believe MDC now agrees, stocking numbers need to be tweaked. But they can't do it overnight. I think summer will get better because all the fish should come from Shepherd so there won't be a lack of numbers. Most of the shortage has come from winter stockings. I agree about poaching. When the water was down for as long as it was this year, there were alot of fish taken below the dam, mainly at night. Poachers load up. They're breaking one rule by using bait -- why not keep all you can and break all the rules??? Yes poaching has always been there and will always be but at some point you gotta put your finger in the dam and slow down the leak. I'm not faulting agents themselves. They can't be at 10 places at the same time. The easiest thing they can do is up the fines and make it hurt.

Crappie? What crappie? At the Landing in front of the fountains there's the old steel bridge underwater. They're around that till they go to the creeks to spawn.

I have. It works. I think better than dragging a scud on the bottom with a weight, straight line.

So here's the deal. Stocking was down 60,000 in 2021. 550,000 was the allotment. So roughly 12%. But most of that was supposed to be stocked in the winter - November and December. Reason - water quality issues. These issues might have happened months ago, even years. It takes about 18 months to grow a rainbow to 11.5 inches. No word on how this year will look like. Most if not all rainbows and browns stocked in the winter are stocked in the lower lake - always been that way. They swim up... that's the reason they're stocked down. The ppl who own resorts down there need trout too. They wouldn't have many if all the rainbows were stocked up here. And they can't stock down there in warm months. This is the rainbow stocking numbers per month.

Increased food base because of fewer trout stocked, yes. That and the increased popularity of catch and release for trophies. Older fish are wiser fish to some degree.

I fished a few hours yesterday afternoon. Dragging night crawlers was the best from Fall Creek through Trout Hollow. Did catch a couple dragging #12 gray scud.

Rain and cold have dominated many days this past month. We've had snow, ice, sleet and rain, all amounting to some sloppy weekends of travel and fishing here on Lake Taneycomo. But the diehards stayed tough and enjoyed some great days fishing for trout (and crappie!) Generation has been nonstop since the first of February. But the lakes have only risen a little bit and are holding even with the runoff from the last sleet storm. Beaver and Table Rock lakes are less than a foot above their power pools and Bull Shoals is up 18 inches. There is no rain in the forecast this week but there is some on the horizon. And with spring three weeks away, unless we have a dry spring season (which we haven't had in eons), we'll probably looking at nonstop generation for quite a while. Flows have been bouncing at between two to four units. That has made for plenty of water to run just about anywhere on the lake including a run to the cable below the dam. Water temperatures have fluctuated, too. I've measured 45 to 46 degrees, but someone Saturday read 43 degrees while fishing the Vince Elfrink Memorial Tournament. The colder water tends to slow down the trout bite at times -- at least that's what some have blamed for their slow fishing. Most mornings, dam operators are running four units, then dropping to three or even two units by noon. They continue that flow until late in the evening, bumping it up to four again into the night. I recommend some of the same tips as those in my last report with a few exceptions. Drifting scuds and eggs are by far the best way to catch both rainbows and browns in the trophy area and below Fall Creek. That's been the case for months. And there are two ways to fish them -- with a float or no float. The best seems to be with a float but that technique is a little more complicated Capt. Steve Dickey is one of our guides who has perfected this. He uses a nine-foot fly rod with floating line and runs a long, 12-foot leader from his fly line to the first fly with a slip bobber. The leader slips through the bobber and stops when it hits his fly line. And he fishes it all very close to the boat. Here is a Youtube video I shot where he explains this technique. Trout caught between Fall Creek and Trout Hollow, when cleaned, yield lots of scuds in their stomachs. So our trout are feeding on scuds on the bottom in the upper end of the lake. Heavy generation causes scuds and sow bugs to be dislodged from their hidden places on the bottom, and trout are keen to watch for these bugs when washed downstream. Use a rig like in Steve's video or just drag a scud on the bottom using a drift rig or just a split shot, but be sure to get it on the bottom. Scuds found in these trout are various sizes, but some are as big as a #12 fly. Most are gray, but some are a brown/gray or olive/gray. And I would stay away from the bluff or deep side of the lake and fish from the middle to the inside bend. With the flow of water pretty heavy, jerk baits cast and worked along mainly the bluff banks early and late in the day are yielding a few browns and rainbows. You do have a good chance at a big fish using this method. Throw a 110+1 Megabass in shad colors, or if you're using a Doty Signature Series, use either a juvenile rainbow or a french pearl. Dragging jerk baits on the bottom with a drift rig can catch good trout, too, but lately it's been slow going. Use a 639 suspending bait in shad colors. It's a short, shallow diving bait that floats. Of course, you can use these baits anywhere on the lake including the trophy area because they are hard baits. There has been no reports of shad coming through the turbines at the dam, but we have been catching a few trout on white jigs in the trophy area. They could come through at any time, or may not . . . we never know. Guides on Monday were drifting night crawlers on the bottom from Fall Creek down, and they brought in limits of decent rainbows. There have been reports of anglers drifting white or pink Gulp Eggs on the bottom down at the Branson Landing and finding some nice rainbows, too. When dam operators have dropped the water flow to two units some afternoons, the bite has been better. The depth of water and flow is easier to manage. The marabou jig bite has been slow, but there have been some good reports coming in randomly. Early Monday morning, good rainbows were caught up close to Lookout Island in the slower water there and just down and across the lake on 1/8th-ounce, brown-head sculpin jigs with the red thread. I was told the red thread made the difference. Black is also been working on the bluff side from Fall Creek to Short Creek. View full article

I'll check and see if we have any coming.

Tough day of fishing yesterday for the tournament guys... all except for a few guys. 42 teams and only 16 weighed in. Did have a 25 inch brown brought in and released. Caught dragging a live sculpin.

It won't be uploaded till about 8-9 pm.

It's on Youtube too

I mentioned you on FB this afternoon. I think I passed you... Man I couldn't get bit today. Stayed with sculpin - should have did white again. But you have to keep trying different colors to see what they like. Tough for me. Great conditions though.

You might of pinched the tail and got 20... I think I'll give it to you

Dutch is right. You're picking tailwaters and everything is based on generation. We could write a book for you... actually I have written several articles on fishing various flows on Taney on this site - but we can't tell you right now what generation will be. Chances are it will be high no matter where you go - with spring rains - but you never know. Wait till closer to the date (2 weeks to 10 days) and you'll have a better idea what you're looking at.

It's there... first page.

I got it somewhere...