Phil Lilley

Matthews... no he's in Dallas. Tom Johnson, performer out at SDC. One of my best friends.

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/yzs8jJcwnBY?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Afternoon trip.

Southwest Missouri Fly Fishers Annual Banquet February 26, 2011 Please join us for this year’s banquet-- It will be held at the Millwood Golf and Racquet Club 3700 E Millwood Dr Springfield Doors will open at 5:30p.m. and cocktails start at 6:00 p.m. and dinner will be served at 7:00 p.m. Menu Bistro Tenderloin w/Demi Glaze, Mushrooms & Onions Baked Cod with Lemon & Dill Sauce AuGratin Potatoes Wild Rice Blend Chef’s Blend of Vegetables House Salad Cookies and Brownies Rolls & Butter Iced Tea and Coffee $18.00 *** per person (discounts taken @door if applicable) everyone welcome to attend Raffle and auction after dinner RSVP: smyoker@prodigy.net

Clint Hale, hatchery manager and Mike Bush, MDC fisheries biologist will speak at the Shepherd of the Hills Hatchery Visitor's Center on Saturday, Feb 19 starting at 7 pm. Hale will visit about Taneycomo's trout populations, their health and what's going on at the hatchery. Bush will speak about MDC's plans for new fish habitat to be placed in Lake Taneycomo this year. You don't have to be a member of Branson TU's Chapter to attend this meeting. It is free to the public.

We didn't take pictures of all the fish we caught... not even close. On some passes, it was all we could do to get one fish off, cast back out and to have another one on within 5 seconds. The first drift of the morning (11:30 am) we caught rainbows almost down to the boat ramp but the water was dropping from 4 units to 2 and the bite lessened from the Big Hole down, then it stopped at the bottom side of the island. Didn't see any shad but the gulls were thick at the dam face and today we saw rainbows with buldging bellies and hearty appetites. Not many small rainbows caught until we went back out at 4 pm- then we picked up a few smaller ones but again, we caught quality rainbows till dusk.

This male wasn't that big but his colors were impressive. The white on the tips of his fins and the white under his gills and lower jaw isn't typical of most male rainbows I've seen. Not that others don't have white markings but this one- the white was bright and stood out. Very pretty rainbows today.

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/mCR2MoF-bkA?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> This was one of those days you dream of... fish after fish and most quality rainbows on white jigs. And there was no one else up fishing below the dam, at least from a boat. More pics and videos to come.

1 degree last night. 40 degree water temp. They both make ice crystals in the trees in the morning.

No, we're good.

<iframe title="YouTube video player" class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/hdkqLkLMUyE?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowFullScreen></iframe> Quick trip to the dam this afternoon. It was cold but the sun was out - wasn't that bad. They ran 4 units hard this morning and I think some shad came through. Some of the rainbows I caught had big bellies. But for the life of me I can't figure out why I couldn't get bit below outlet #3. Must be the day...

Lake of the Ozarks’ Tournament Strategies By John Neporadny Jr. This is the second part of a two-part series on tournament winning patterns at the Lake of the Ozarks. Part One focused on how to pattern bass throughout the spring from pre-spawn to post-spawn, while Part Two will discuss the top patterns for summer and fall tournaments at the lake. The massive size of Lake of the Ozarks plays a key role in tournament strategy for the summer and fall. The heavy recreational boat traffic becomes a burden for tournament anglers throughout the warm-weather months, so they usually have to compete at night or in the upper arms of the major tributaries. Most daytime tournaments in the summer and early fall take off from the Drake Harbor access in Warsaw, which is the extreme upper end of the Osage arm. This end of the lake provides the best daytime action during the heat of summer and has the least amount of boat traffic. Night tournaments are popular throughout summer and early fall on the lower end of the lake where the winning catches are frequently five-fish limits weighing more than 20 pounds. These nocturnal events usually take off at Grand Glaize Public Beach 2, Shawnee Bend and the Coffman Bend access. Here’s a look at the best summer and fall patterns to help make you a winner at the Lake of the Ozarks. Summer In June, a short-arm, ½-ounce spinnerbait with a single number 5 Colorado blade takes bass at night. Best colors for this spinnerbait pattern are black or black-and-red skirt with a gold blade. This tactic works best pumping the lure off the bottom and letting it flutter down along chunk rock points. The fish will be holding anywhere from 1 to 15 feet deep throughout the night. From mid-June to the latter part of July, nighttime action for bass turns on in the Big and Little Niangua arms where the fish hold in brush piles around docks. Flipping behind docks can also be productive after dark on the Little Niangua arm. During the last part of July and throughout August, the brush piles on the lower end of the lake produce the best nighttime action. Some of the most productive areas during this time include the Gravois arm, North Shore area, and the Osage arm around the Lodge of the Four Seasons. The depth of the fish varies throughout the night as bass come up to feed at certain times. Start the evening keying on brush piles 15 to 20 feet deep and when the fish stop biting in the brush, move up shallower to search for bass feeding behind docks. Magnum-size plastic worms (10 or 11 inches) and jigs consistently produce victories during night tournaments. Berkley Power Worms in darker hues, such as black, blue fleck, June bug and red shad work well, along with a brown or black 3/8-ounce jig with a rattle and some type of plastic trailer (craw or double-tail grub) in a bluegill color. Cast the worms beyond the brush pile and slowly crawl the lure through the limbs to trigger a strike. During windy nights, slow-rolling a spinnerbait along main lake chunk rock banks also produces summertime bass on the lower end of the lake. Try a 3/8- or ½-ounce model with a silver willowleaf blade and a black twin-tail plastic trailer for the best results. Main channel brush piles on the lake’s lower end also yield good stringers of bass during the daytime for any anglers with enough persistence to withstand the constant barrage of large wakes. The fish will be holding tight on the brush or the bottom, so slowly work a Texas-rigged 8- to 10-inch plastic worm over the rocks and through the wood cover. The upper Osage offers tournament anglers a break from the daytime pleasure boaters. The main channel of this section provides the most consistent summertime action since bass stay cooler and have more oxygen created by water flowing from Truman Dam. Key areas to try in this riverine section include points, islands and docks on the flats. Lay-downs and shallow brush piles are also prime targets to try for summer bass. When the current flows, throw a ½-ounce spinnerbait with large blades or flip a red shad 6-inch worm to the docks and other shallow cover. On calm, sunny days, pitching a 10-inch Berkley Power Worm deep into the wells of shallow main lake docks usually produces the biggest bass. Fall The upper Osage continues to generate the best daytime action in early autumn. Major creeks in the upper end, such as Proctor, Big and Little Buffalo, Rainy, Turkey and Brush, start to turn on in September. The water starts to cool down quicker in this section of the lake and bass become active in various spots, including the shallow weeds in the coves, along points and flats near the main river or creek channels and laydowns on the main channel. Flipping 8- to 11-inch ring worms (motor oil, pumpkinseed or fire n’ ice hues) into the shallow weeds produces keepers throughout early fall. The big flats in the creeks are excellent spots to catch quality fish on 3/8- to ½-ounce buzz baits. The main lake points remain productive throughout September. Bass remain 10 to 14 feet deep and can be taken on magnum-size plastic worms or black-and-blue or brown-and-black jigs with number 11 pork frogs or plastic craws. Touring pro Randall Hutson relied on a magnum worm pattern when he won the Central Pro-Am Association’s September 2000 Lake of the Ozarks Pro-Am. Hutson pitched an 11-inch red shad plastic worm to docks about halfway back in the creeks of the Osage arm and caught most of his fish bumping the worm slowly along the bottom and through brush 7 to 9 feet deep. An effective lure for taking kicker fish on the upper Osage through September and October is a ½-ounce Tennessee shad Rat-L-Trap. The lure works especially well on points when bass bust the surface. October can be a tough month throughout the lake because the upper ends start to experience turnover and the lake’s lower end hasn’t cooled off enough to activate the big fish. Running a 3/8-ounce white or chartreuse spinnerbait along the sides of shallow docks on the main lake flats of the Osage arm above the Hurricane Deck bridge is one of the most productive patterns for October. Swimming a ¼-ounce white jig with a white pork or plastic trailer is an effective way to catch kicker fish from the same docks. Brush piles on the lake’s lower end still produce some quality fish in October. Work a Texas-rigged 8- to 10-inch plastic worm through the brush in the 10- to 15-foot depth range along main and secondary points. November is the most popular fall month for two major tournament circuits to visit the Lake of the Ozarks. The Missouri BASSMASTER Central Invitational had been held on the lake every November since 1998 until 2002 and the Central Pro-Am circuit frequently runs its Fall Pro-Am Spectacular event there. The winning patterns for the last four BASSMASTER events show how diverse the fishing can be during this month. In all four tournaments, the winners relied on patterns that were different in lure selection, structure, cover and area of the lake. Weather and water conditions played key roles in dictating the best pattern for these fall events. During the 1997 BASSMASTER event, daytime temperatures never climbed above 32 degrees and the water temperature dropped into the 50-degree range so Jay Yelas relied on a slow presentation to catch his winning stringer. Stopping at more than 100 docks each competition day on the Osage arm near the Grand Glaize bridge, Yelas worked a ½-ounce black-and-blue Berkley Rattle Power Jig and a black-and-blue Berkley Power Frog along the bottom next to each dock. His most productive docks were on points with brush piles at depths of 10 feet. The lake showed why its one of the top bass fisheries in the country during the 1998 BASSMASTER tournament when Dan Morehead won with an impressive catch of 15 bass weighing 60 pounds, 10 ounces. The lake was abnormally high and murky for November, which made conditions ideal for shallow buzz bait action. Morehead keyed on the unusually dirty waters in the dam area and threw a 3/8-ounce Mann's Hank Parker Classic Buzzbait. Positioning his boat parallel to the bank, Morehead ran his buzz bait in water less than 1 foot deep along algae-covered rocks on secondary points. A buzz bait also produced several fish for the other top five finishers in this event. The lake was lower and clearer for the 1999 BASSMASTER Invitational and the bass were reluctant to hit a buzz bait. So tournament winner Randy Jackson headed for the Niangua arm and concentrated on chunk-rock banks and boat docks near channel swings. In the mornings, he ran a white ½-ounce Crock-O-Gator 4x5 spinnerbait along the shallows of rocky banks and in the afternoons he flipped a Crock-O-Gator Heavy Tube (watermelon/red flake) along the dock foam. Relying on a pattern usually applied during the winter, Curt Lytle won the 2000 BASSMASTER tournament last November. Early in the competition, he took keepers running a brown-and-white crankbait in pockets between bluffs in a creek on the upper Osage arm. But as the weather got colder throughout the week and the water temperature continued to drop, Lytle switched to a slower presentation. Positioning his boat parallel to the bluffs in the creek, Lytle slowly twitched a chrome-and-blue suspending jerkbait to catch bass suspended along the rock walls. Another winning technique was revealed when Central Pro-Am held its Bass Pro Shops Fall Pro-Am Spectacular event the weekend before the BASSMASTER Invitational. Relying on a traditional fall pattern, Gary Carrier won this event by keying on wind-blown points on the Osage River above Hurricane Deck bridge. However Carrier avoided fishing the bank and ran a shad-colored Bomber Model 7A crankbait for bigger largemouth bass holding in the 4- to 8-foot depth range. Take your pick. The Lake of the Ozarks has plenty of water for trying a variety of patterns. It’s just a matter of narrowing down those choices to find a winning combination. For information on lodging and other facilities at the Lake of the Ozarks or to receive a free 162-page vacation guide, call the Lake of the Ozarks Convention & Visitors Bureau at 1-800-FUN-LAKE or visit the Lake of the Ozarks Convention and Visitors Bureau web site at http://funlake.com.

I was talking biz... sure- this doesn't hurt the fishing at all.

Ran the Kabota most of the day yesterday. Had to get up on the dock and shovel sleet off later in the day cause the fingers were starting to go underwater. I wanted to get out and fish in the snow so bad... just couldn't pull it off. May be today... but it's not snowing. I love fishing in the snow. We got about 3 inches of sleet, then about 4 inches of snow. The wind never kicked up that bad to no drifting. Hoping we can salvage a good weekend this weekend. Already had several cancel yesterday. I'm sure Cooper Creek's ramp won't be open for days but the downtown ramp is ok to use.

No.

We only got about 4-5 inches at the most on top of 3 inches of sleet. Pushed snow all day - wanted to go fishing. Fish like to eat in snow storms.

OK... this pattern is fixed. Hopefully no more mice will get in and mess up the images on my server... or whatever's been changing things up.

It was an interesting few days of fishing here on Taney. Friday was a great fishing day- breezy and partly cloudy. Saturday was bright sun and not a breath of wind. Sunday was breezy and cloudy. The trout bit good on Friday and Sunday and not so much on tournament day. But it was a GREAT day to play golf, I bet!! My temp gage hit 70 here. The rules are no bait - artificial only. Most used jigs-- jig and float and throwing a straight jig. The guys who did the best fished with 2-pound line, not because of water color (to hide the line so much) but because the trout were biting so light. They just didn't want to do much on Saturday, except later in the day, after weigh-in, I heard fishing really picked up and got good when the sun dropped in the sky. The winning rainbows were caught anywhere from Turkey Creek to Fall Creek but most of them came in the Short Creek area, I was told. Most on earth colors- brown, black, sculpin, ginger, olive. It seems this tournament, the Masters, has been a tournament of repeaters. The Wheelers, Bryan and Josh, father and son from Wichita, Kansas, repeated their performance from 2010 and took first place. They just didn't squeak in but took first with authority, weighing in over 13-pounds for their 8-trout limit. The next closest competitor weighed in at 9.09 and 7.64 pounds and all who followed were close behind. I did hear several "fish stories" of the ones who got away but that's pretty typical for tournaments... big ones most times slip out of the net or pop the line on the side of the boat. Something always happens. "Should have been here . . . tomorrow!" That's a different saying. But ask Pete LaBoube about it. I was told he caught a nice rainbow practicing Friday for the tournament and I saw what he caught on Sunday, a day after the contest. Man, what a day makes! He caught it Sunday morning while trolling a Pointer along the bank down close to Monkey Island. It weighed in at 18.5-pounds, 33.5 inches long with a 22 inch girth. He released the trophy after a couple of pics were taken. Now to slip in a fishing report from today (Monday, Jan 31). John Johnson was up for a couple of days of fishing from Kingfisher, OK. with his friends Steve and Darcy. They fished hard yesterday and told me they caught over a hundred rainbows, mainly on red or black zebra midges under an indicator 18 inches deep, all in the trophy area. They catch and release all their fish. Said they had several in the 17-18 inch range. This morning, after a game of pickup basketball at the college, I boated up to the trophy area and met up with the guys about 8 am. We went on up to the Big Hole. They had been running 2 units but dropped it to one as we pulled up there and after an hour, they shut it off. It was breezy- blowing upstream. Both boats struggled to feel the bite but we landed quite a few rainbows on white or sculpin jigs, both under a float and worked straight-line. After a while and with the water dropping on us, we decided to get out while we could so we boated down to the KOA and fished that area. They bit a white jig pretty good, like they'd seen a few shad. Nice ones too. Went on down to the deep water below Lookout and continued fishing. I switched from micros to zebras to scuds and had trouble for a while getting them to take anything. The wind was till blowing but it was slowing down. There was still some current which was nice and after drifting down about half way between Lookout and the Narrows, we starting nailing rainbows again, mainly on a 1/125th oz sculpin jig. When the wind all but died, I switched again to a 1/32 oz sculpin/ginger jig and they liked it! Any time there came a breeze and small crop on the surface, I put the jig down and picked up the jig-and-float rod and caught rainbows on it. At the Narrows, I picked up several real nice rainbows (pics) on the straight jig. It was noon and time to quite. The boys needed to get back to OK before the weather hit.

Yes- my old minolta cause I didn't have my optio handy. I took 2 pics cause we were in a hurry to get it back in. One was out of focus... I held my breath when I checked the second one and it was good.

Pete LaBoube caught this big brown this morning while trolling down around Monkey Island with a Pointer. He and his partner fished the Masters yesterday and had some decent trout but did not place in the money. They sure would have if they weigh in this trophy! Word is that they caught a nice rainbow on Friday while practicing for the tournament. 33 inches x 22.5 inch girth - 18.5 pounds. It was released immediately after taking a couple of pictures. Amazingly, it didn't need reviving... it swam right off.

Yea Denny- it wouldn't have worked.

Call me next time... I could have gotten it out.

Exactly.

<p><iframe title="YouTube video player" class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="500" height="305" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/nGgNawUFYiA?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowFullScreen></iframe> </p> <p>Funny how things can change in a day.&nbsp; I wrote a lengthy fishing report Wednesday morning, but then stepped away from the computer for an hour and my report was gone. Wrote another report that evening, but Word locked up and I also lost that one.&nbsp; It’s hard to get enthused about writing anything three times, so I quit for the day.&nbsp; Here it is another day and everything has changed -- well almost everything.</p> <p>Wednesday I wrote that generation patterns had not changed for more than a month.&nbsp; Today they changed.&nbsp; It got warmer.&nbsp; I think it hit 60 today, and when it hits 60, the U.S. Corps of Army Engineers doesn’t run as much water and not for as long.&nbsp; Today less than two units ran for a couple of hours.&nbsp; Tomorrow, according to the schedule, there will be no generation.&nbsp; So… I will guess that if it stays warm, there will be very little if any generation.&nbsp; If it gets cold again, and I’m sure it will, look for generation early in the morning and none for the rest of the day.</p> <p>The changes also negated the video I shot (This is what I hate about posting a video and then waiting a day to write about it.)&nbsp; It was cold when I shot the video… the report was a good one but would not apply to, say, this weekend with the expected balmy weather. </p> <p>&nbsp; This morning (Thursday) I launched out with Flip Putthoff of the Northwest Arkansas Times — a great guy to enjoy catching fish with. We started at 8 a.m., thinking we’d have two hours of good generation, so I already had the white jigs tied on.&nbsp; They didn’t stay on for long.&nbsp; I boated up to the Big Hole but decided not to go further since it looked like the water was already dropping. I didn’t think the “white bite” would be too good, and I was right.&nbsp; I threw a one-eighth-ounce white jig and I tied on a sculpin/ginger one-eighth-ounce jig on Flip’s rod.&nbsp; After a couple of throws, I picked up a rod with a sculpin jig on it, and we proceeded to hook a “Double-16” --&nbsp; that’s two 16-inch rainbows caught at the same time.&nbsp; Flip was immediately impressed.</p> <p>The “Double-16” could have meant that we were in for a slow day – if you cater to the catch jinx and all.&nbsp; But it was just the start of an incredible morning of catching rainbows.</p> <p>We drifted and fished down to the boat ramp using the same colors and caught several more rainbows.&nbsp; Then we picked up and boated down past Lookout Island.&nbsp; I advised Flip that since we were in deeper water there, he needed to let the jig sink longer before starting his retrieve.&nbsp; He didn’t need much coaching at all – none, as a matter of fact.&nbsp; The trout were just on the mark this morning, on anything with sculpin that is.</p> <p>We fished all the way down to the narrows, catching rainbow after rainbow.&nbsp; There were slow times, and I did switch colors a couple of times but went right back to either a sculpin, sculpin/ginger or sculpin/orange and kept doing well.</p> <p>About 11 a.m., the fishing slowed way down, so I tied on a 1/16th-ounce sculpin jig and played around with it.&nbsp; The wind picked up but kept wildly changing directions on us. We could hear it swirling overhead in the trees on the bluff but the wind speed wasn’t that bad. It was the changing in direction that was difficult to handle.&nbsp; So we motored down below the narrows and stayed in an area where the wind was blowing us downstream.</p> <p>When using a 1/16th-ounce jig, especially in wind, you hardly need to work it at all.&nbsp; As a matter of fact, I was basically drifting with it, keeping the boat from moving too fast in the wind but enough to keep us moving ever so slowly.&nbsp; This let the jig drift along the bottom. I lifted the rod every five seconds to make sure something had not taken the jig. The rainbows loved it, and we caught some of the best and biggest rainbows of the day. </p> <p>In all, I bet we caught more than 60 rainbows up to 18 inches long.&nbsp; Flip took a lot of pictures.&nbsp; I look forward to reading his article next week.</p> <p><img src="http://forums.ozarkanglers.com/images/2011/1-27b-250.jpg" width="250" height="188" hspace="4" vspace="4" align="right">This afternoon, I picked up a good friend of mine, Vince Elfrink.&nbsp; Vince and I have known each other since I moved here in 1983.&nbsp; We raised our kids together and been blessed to venture on many, many fishing and hunting trips together over the years.&nbsp; He’s my best fishing buddy.&nbsp; Vince is now battling a quarter-sized malignant tumor in the middle of his brain discovered a few months ago.</p> <p>One of these days, I’ll detail his fight with this cancer and how he and his family are standing strong in their faith in God to sustain and heal.&nbsp; God is doing both.&nbsp; But today, we were just a couple of friends, catching trout, laughing and giving each other a hard time as usual.&nbsp; </p> <p><img src="http://forums.ozarkanglers.com/images/2011/1-27a-250.jpg" width="250" height="188" hspace="4" vspace="4" align="right">We caught our fish on a sculpin 1/125th-ounce jig under a float about five feet deep.&nbsp; We fished from above the Narrows down to Fall Creek.&nbsp; Vince hooked and landed the largest trout on his last cast of the day, about an 18-inch rainbow. </p> <p>I talked to others who fished today and most said it was a very good day.&nbsp; Some said the Cooper Creek area was good.&nbsp; One gentleman shared a photo of a rainbow he caught there that looked to be about three pounds.&nbsp; He caught it on a jig but since he’s entered in the Masters Tournament Saturday, he wouldn’t divulge the color --&nbsp; seriously.</p> <p>With the water level expected to be down for the next few days, fly fishing below the dam is going to be pretty popular and rightly so.&nbsp; There are some great rainbows that should be caught (and released).&nbsp; The water is pretty dark, normal for this time of year, so seeing or sight fishing is difficult, but if you move around and cover big areas, you should find at least a few of them.</p> <p>There’s been some big midge hatches mainly in the afternoons, which the rainbows have been keying in on.&nbsp; One encouraging report&nbsp; said fishing a #16 zebra midge under an indicator 10-inches deep was the hot ticket the other afternoon, yielding “a bite on every cast for a solid hour.”</p> <p>I did get out last weekend and fished night crawlers, blowing them up with air and fishing them on the bottom out in front of the Riverpoint Estates’ boat ramp.&nbsp; We did very well but didn’t catch anything of any size.&nbsp; </p> <p>There are lots of trout in the lake right now, so fishing should be very good this weekend.&nbsp; Hope you can get out and enjoy this nice weather.</p>

He fished today- Bull Shoals and then Taney. Then he was going home for a "special dinner" prepared by his wife Becky. He turned down my offer to lunch... I wasn't good enough for him. Love you buddy!

<iframe title="YouTube video player" class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/nGgNawUFYiA?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowFullScreen></iframe> I've typed out 2 full reports and lost them both. My word program keeps locking up. I'll write another one tomorrow...