Phil Lilley

When I start my fishing reports, the first thing I do is look at Beaver and Table Rock Lake levels plus generation flows, then I can gauge what Lake Taneycomo's flow should be in the near future. Right now Beaver is holding at 1,120.37 feet, just above its seasonal power pool level of 1.120 feet. Operators are running water for about eight hours a day, but the level isn't moving either way. Table Rock is running about 7,000 c.f.s. or two full units 24/7 and its level isn't moving much either. It's almost 12 inches over its pool. My forecast for Taney's flow is more of the same for at least a week, but I wouldn't be surprised if the flow dropped to one unit for a time, maybe this weekend. There's very little rain in the seven-day forecast, so when Table Rock drops close to 915 feet, we may see a serious reduction in flow. Phil Stone's client with a beautiful rainbow caught on a night crawler a couple of days ago. Released. With this 7,000 c.f.s. flow, drift fishing is the norm. But you can do so many things drift fishing. Drift something on the bottom like bait (minnows & night crawlers are best, as well as Gulp Eggs, pink PowerWorm) or flies (egg fly, scuds, shad fly) or small jerk baits. Drift and throw marabou jigs. Drift and fish something under a float like a pink PowerWorm or a marabou jig. Drift and cast a jerk bait, cleo or spinner. Drift and fly fish stripping a streamer or floating a scud under a float. What's the best? The best is the technique you enjoy the most and catch some fish with. Do we always catch? Nope. But it's always fun. What's been working lately? We threw 1/16th- and 3/32nd-ounce jigs yesterday afternoon on One Cast and did pretty well. But I noticed I had better luck using two-pound line over four-pound. I haven't been using two-pound much, but our lake water is getting pretty clear, so it may make a difference in some applications as when throwing jigs. We did catch fish on white and sculpin/peach in the trophy area, but later towards evening I threw a 1/16th- ounce ginger jig with a brown head down closer to the resort and caught some really nice rainbows. I stayed towards the middle of the lake and worked the bottom. Today's One Cast verifies my ginger jig story. Some of our guides have been out this week. They're drifting below Fall Creek and using night crawlers and catching some nice rainbows and an occasional brown trout. Our Missouri Department of Conservation recently stocked about 15,000 brown trout averaging about 10 inches. These trout won't have a lot of color and may resemble rainbows. You'll need to look closely to see whether you have hooked a brown or rainbow. Browns won't have many or any spots on the tail and a rainbow will have lots of spots. View full article

MDC added boulders a few years back and they've created pockets in the gravel where fish hold. I'm not if anything further can be done except put more boulders. It does no good to dig out gravel because it will fill back in. And smaller riprap rock will move when they open flood gates creating possible something that will hurt instead of help the tailwater. The best thing MDC can do is shore up the banks directly below the dam so that more gravel won't wash in when the flow is high.

Pretty little thing... caught 2 of them. Perfect bait fish size. We took the kayaks out today - should have done this earlier in the week. Ended up with 19 trout. Mostly "stocker" size, but fun to catch. Caleb caught a few too. Moving out past the grass line was the ticket. Lots of fish out there that would hit my jig!

Caleb and I went out in the kayaks this afternoon and got out past the moss line. Caught a lot of speckle trout, not very big but lots of fun.

What’s this?

Front moved through last night. Cooler and windy this am with wind out of the north. But still in the 60's. Not complaining. High tide last night at midnight. I went out to the pier at 10:30 and fished for an hour. I finally was able to get bit, catching a speck, 2 catfish and 3 lady fish. Had my line cut once. All on black 1/8th ounce jigs. All released.

Here you go John. Identify this.

Thanks. I released it. Was something else with the 4 pound line. I was ready to break it off if he made a long run. Caught a croaker and a catfish this evening. Saw another dolphin. I tried shrimp, trying to catch some fish for the kids but nothing... strange nothing would touch shrimp. I thought everyone likes shrimp!!

Can you see these videos?

https://www.facebook.com/503474464/posts/10160598525694465/?d=n

https://fb.watch/3fR_rqLOhC/

Not my first speckled trout. But first in a long time

Englewood

https://www.facebook.com/503474464/posts/10160592333534465/?d=n

First morning and already some excitement. The water at the end at the pier is about 4 feet. Caught a sea trout first. Red/white jig. Then a big school of I think amberjack came through busting along the bank. I hooked one and of course he broke off. 4 pound line. Hooked another and played him for a while. Then another dolphin came in and creamed the fish I had on... First morning...

We are back to low-flow releases here on Lake Taneycomo after a few weeks of a higher release rate, which has brightened the fishing prospects for boaters and waders alike. Area lakes rose almost four feet after a series of rain events caused releases from all four dams in the White River chain. We saw flows up to 8,000 cubic feet per second here on Taneycomo, which is a little less than three-quarters capacity through our dam's turbines. Now that the lakes are below their seasonal power pool levels, flows have been reduced to a "trickle." Beaver Dam's turbine is actually off-line and operators there are releasing a little water over one spillway. Table Rock Dam is releasing about 2,000 c.f.s. of water. The big question now is . . . will the water be turned completely off for Taneycomo? The simple answer is, "Who knows?" Officials might, but they did not turn it off the last time lakes levels dropped below 915 feet on Table Rock, so it seems unlikely. But, during the early morning hours Saturday, they did shut it down for a couple of hours. One can only hope. At this current flow, wading and fishing below the dam is possible, all along the banks at the hatchery outlets, down past the boat ramp and along the chute to Trophy Run. You can also boat up and wade the trophy area at Lookout Island and on down, wading the shallow side of the lake to the Narrows, then again across from the boat ramp at Fall Creek condos. I've also been seeing people wading in at and above the boat ramp at Riverpointe Estates. The park area above the ramp is now public, and the lake can be accessed there. Blake and friends have been going up to the dam and wading the hatchery outlet bank at night,doing quite well throwing streamers. They're also throwing jerk baits and jigs and catching good rainbows, a few browns and an occasional warm water fish like a walleye or small mouth bass. With the reduction in flow, this fishing should only get better. Here's a report Blake wrote on his night wading experience: Over the last six nights in a row I have been fishing streamers up at the dam. The flow each night was approximately a half unit, give or take a few cfs. Learning how to get the streamer into position through the drift took a few nights of playing around with and a long conversation with @duckydoty! However, after some adjustments to my technique, which included a five-foot slow sinking leader and a short, two- to three-foot piece of 2x tippet on the end of that -- also learning that my rod tip was supposed to stay in the water -- my success and hook up rate increased drastically over the last few nights. I had one night in a three-hour period when I caught more than 20 fish and one trophy! All primarily on the black pine squirrel streamer. I tried other colors, but black seemed to be the hot color this past week. Also, each night I fished from the cable down to Outlet 2 -- that is where I fished every night! Scuds still rule catching big trout. We're still seeing a great population of scuds in the lake, in the gravel as well as in the vegetation along the banks and in some main channel areas of the lake. Dragging a scud using just a tiny bit of split shot on the bottom is working pretty well, but a better way to fish the scud is under a float, either using a fly or spinning rod. Add a split shot to get the scud down or tie your scud on a small jig head. Best colors are gray, olive or brown right now, and you may have to use a smaller fly with the lower flow, say, a #16 or #18. You can drift a scud anywhere between the dam all the way down past Trout Hollow. I would suggest fishing them under a float even down to Cooper Creek. We know there are scuds living in the vegetation along our bank at Lilleys' Landing. You can use four-pound line and do okay, but I'd go to two-pound and catch more fish. Fish them at different depths, from four- to nine-feet deep. Jigs have made a comeback, at least for our crew and others who have been reporting on Facebook. With this low flow, smaller jigs should be working better than the heavier ones we've been throwing. The 1/16th-ounce jig, with either two- or four-pound line, has been the best, working it just about anywhere on the upper lake, trophy area and below. I have noticed that you have to fish close to the bottom to get bit. I haven't had any luck fishing jigs either close to the surface or even mid-depth. The fish want them almost dragging the bottom. Good colors have been brown, brown/black, brown/orange, sculpin and sculpin/peach. Orange heads seemed to be working better than brown or sculpin, at least by the number of jigs we're selling in the shop. White also have been catching a few brown trout, mainly up close to the dam. Drifting minnows on the bottom from Fall Creek down to Cooper Creek has been very good. Use the smallest split shot to get to the bottom, hook the minnow in the lips and let it drift. The trout we've been catching have been pretty aggressive on the take. You have a good chance of catching a brown trout with this technique. Also, drifting Berkley Power Eggs and night crawlers on the bottom is working. We're seeing some very nice rainbows caught, not just in the trophy area, but all over the lake. View full article

May be some shad.... report back if you go. Hope it's awesome!

My app says they are running 400 cfs over the top this morning? True? If so, why?? 400 cfs? That's a trickle.

I still have some salmon. But if there's enough warm stuff, I'll bring smoked salmon.

He hasn't seen the political forum yet...

We didn't look at a lot of stuff... I'd caught them on the flat in the winter before so we headed there and found them. No need to look at more cover.

When you say shallow.... how shallow?