Phil Lilley

Thanks - Babler is in the deer woods and won't come out for a while... It is hard to beat the White River in the fall. Trout fishing here is a bit slow but what we are catching are nice size. Hard to beat a nice float on the Elevenpoint River. Look up Brian Sloss. He also has some nice cottages close to the river.

Gages are fixed/updated.

Kansas or Missouri?

You're right... Fish24/7 has been one of the regular reporters on BS. Did a great job. But you can't expect someone to keeping sharing without some help. If you really want ppl to share general reports again, start sharing yourselves.

@Trav I think of fishing with Trav years ago for bass on the lower lake. He knew how to catch them.

Not sure of the year, maybe 7-8 years ago, Aaron and other pros spoke at the First Baptist Church here in town. It was a banquet. Aaron shared some fishing tips along with his testimony. I invited a bunch of guys staying with us, here for a fishing tournament. It was in January. After the talk, most of my guys went forward and prayed with Aaron to receive Christ as Savior. Over the years, I’ve seen where Aaron has spoken at many events, sharing his faith.

One of my best friends in this world, Vince, died of brain cancer at the age of 53. He was sick for 15 months. It was tough for us, especially his family, to see him waste away, but the whole time, he, his wife, his 3 kids or myself (and many friends) never gave up hope in his healing, either by medicine or a miracle. Through the process, there was pain, hurting and questions, but we never lost our trust in God to glorify Himself through Vince's life, even his sickness and death. There were so many glorious moments up till the end. And after, we all bask in Vince's memory, how he laughed and loved. We laughed, loved, hugged and supported each other, and continue to do so. And we thanked God He gave us Vince for 53 years. This isn't a story about cancer and tragedy. This is a story about life.

Even for someone that calls himself an atheist, that’s a pretty tacky thing to say after an announcement of a death.

Let's steer it off the political please. Thanks

It sounds like you're looking at one unit most of the time which is a great flow to drift and fish. I'm not sure about a shuttle service down there... you could possible motor up from an access and fish back down to your own car. Get out and wade where it looks good/safe. Sounds like fun. Norfork - there's on the dam access and confluence access - nothing inbetween.

Nice. Really appreciate you taking time to post your reports. I think our tailwaters are going to have some great winter fishing.

We have allot of new members. Wanted to bring this topic back so that you guys can share with us where you consider your home waters are.

It’s rare that we have so much down water in the fall. I’m sure you guys are enjoying some awesome fishing. Happy for you guys.

I'd tried this before up there but didn't do well. Today was great. Can't wait to get back and work more area. I know I turned a huge brown. After a strike, I saw it darting around looking for the sculpin fly it had just missed. Pretty cool.

I had them evaluate my eyes about 8 years ago. Told me my "walls" were too thin. It's been long enough, though, and that they may have an answer for that, unless it's a rare thing. I need to go back and see.

It's not, esp with the 2-year deal. But I've spent about $1,000 on PT with my ankle the last few weeks so all of it at once is a stretch. We carry high deductible insurance so we're paying cash for everything. I just thought it was a big jump for $400 to $650. I thought maybe the influx of online glasses might drive the price of clinic glasses down but I guess not. I wasn't ready for it. I am interested in the life time damage replacement lens Pete mentioned!

Wanted to start a conversation about eye wear. I wear glasses, progressive. I have a astigmatism. I've been buying glasses online for a number of years. Last winter I bought a pair for regular living... driving and all. Lately I've had trouble focusing on small things like tiny floats. I explained to the doc I needed to see the the indicator's smallest movement and I'm not seeing it. My prescription did change a bit so that answers some of it. After a long discussion about my cheap eye wear, I've decided she is right. The glasses you typically buy online are a polycarbonate and tend to have distortions in them. Not consistent. And the edges distort. So I decided to buy a pair there at the doc office. I used to pay $400 for a pair there. Online, I started paying $60. Now it's about $125. A new pair at the doc office - $650! But these have a 2 year warranty. I'm hard on glasses... that's another reason I order online.

Duane said he was going. Not sure about his brother. Also Mike Riffle said he was too but he hasn't confirmed yet.

Lake Taneycomo generation patterns have not changed since my last fishing report. Dam operators are leaving the water off most of the day most days until about anywhere from 1 - 4 p.m. when 2-3 units then run until dark. On weekends, though, they are leaving it off until 5-6 p.m. and only running it for 1-2 hours. The dissolved oxygen levels and water temperature are holding the same, too. The water temperature is about 55 degrees and the D.O. is 4-6 parts per million. All in all, water quality has been fairly decent for this time of year. Water clarity did change about 10 days ago. It turned a stain color and just a tad cloudy. This has helped the bite a bit and now it's safe to say one can use 6x for most flies instead of 7x. You will still get more bites using two-pound line when using bait and small lures, but it's not as essential to catching trout. The one great thing our fall season has brought for fishing is wind. That has been the number one thing that has helped our fishing. Most days, the breeze isn't picking up until about 9 a.m. but when it does, I tell people to "chase the chop." It doesn't matter what you're using -- bait, jigs, flies or lures--our fish are biting so much better when there's a chop on the water's surface. Our fall brown trout run is well under way. With the water down, we have easy access to these trout directly below the dam day and night. The Fly Fishing Lake Taneycomo Facebook Page has blown up with photos of browns and rainbows coming mostly from around the outlets. Anglers are catching them mostly on small scuds and tiny egg flies, but I heard some are taking #14 cracklebacks and sculpins. At night, try stripping a dark pine squirrel or wooly bugger. Blake's been scoring big rainbows at night. Friday night he caught his best rainbow-- a 24-inch beauty -- on a pine squirrel. Then he trounced that record by landing a huge 28-inch rainbow on the same fly. He was fishing between outlets #2 and 3 using 2x tippet. I snapped a quick picture and both trout swam away hard and healthy. The boat fishing in the trophy area has been hit and miss but one thing is certain -- you always have a great chance to catch a trophy rainbow and may be a brown up there. Numbers aren't great but the size is awesome. On the last few trips for me above the Narrows, I have not found the rainbows up in the real skinny water feeding on scuds and sow bugs as a few weeks ago. They've been out off the bank in 18 to 30 inches of water rutting around in the gravel. I'm still picking them up on the unweighted scud, mainly #14's in brown or gray, but I'm using 6x fluorocarbon instead of 7x and getting the fish in a lot quicker. I'm also catching fish on the white or chartreuse Mega Worms and Zebra Midges fairly well. They're liking the "snow cone" midges the best -- #16 red or black with a white tungsten head. I will drop down to 7x tippet on the midges, especially if I go to a smaller #18 or #20 fly. We're also catching fish on the small Turner Micro Jig under a float in olive or black. Moving down out of the trophy area, I'm still using the jigs and Zebras and catching fish but maybe fishing a little deeper since I'm getting into deeper water. I'm also going to the PJ's 1/125th-ounce jig in sculpin or brown with an orange head. The guides are fishing night crawlers some, but the bite has been hit- and-miss for whatever reason. You'd think a fish would always eat a worm, but I guess not. The Berkley Pink Worm has made a comeback. They're fishing it on the flat above our dock, at Monkey Island and down at the Branson Landing. The jig bite is getting a little better. With the water off, we're using 2-pound line on our spin cast rigs and throwing 1/32nd- or 1/16th-ounce jigs. We had one report over the weekend of anglers doing well using white jigs below the mouth of Fall Creek. They brought in some real nice rainbows that morning, Blake said. We are still throwing dark jigs mainly though--sculpin or brown with ginger or peach. Someone asked me a couple of weeks ago about what pound test to use on a spinning outfit. I told them if they really wanted to catch more trout they needed to use 2-pound test. They asked if they needed to put 2-pound on their whole real or just tie some onto the end of it. I said to restring the reel with 2-pound test. If you think about it, you're spending a little bit of time and money restringing your reel with 2-pound but I guarantee you you'll do so much better at catching more fish on your trip. We recommend Vanish or Trilene XL clear but there are other good lines out there. View full article

Sounds good, Jeff. Thanks for getting it done.

Guys did good using white jigs just below Fall Creek yesterday morning.

@Bill Babler and Buster Loving gave me the info for the markings. Bill could write a book on fishing Table Rock and may after he RETIRES (haha) from guiding. It'd be one of the best fishing TR books ever, not that he knows more than other long-time anglers, but he's a great writer and usually shares more than he should. One thing that helps, I think, in asking for info on a forum is that the asker comes back and shares his or her experiences. I hope you become a frequent poster here on OAF.

Blake and Levi are in for 3 nights. Maybe Darin. I’ll check.