Phil Lilley

Talked to Bill Sheriff the other day. He and his wife Roberta sold their resort of 24 years to a developer that is going to raze the place to build condos. Another family resort bites the dust.

The first time a "yacht" heads upstream, hits the floatilla of boats anchored at Money Island, trys to turn around and finds itself literally stuck inbetween anchored fishing boats, word will get back to the mothership that rough waters are ahead!! "Don't go upstream!"

You'll love it here. Lots to do, great fishing and even better people.

They usually shock as far upstream as they can go down to the Barker Hole but they are not tagging and don't need that many so hard to say where they went. But fishing has been very good at night- so says Quinton. Haven't talked to any actual fisherpeople.

Back up and running.

The color is much better today on the lake, at least in our area. Fishing has picked up too.

Coy and I (TexomaOkie) headed to the Spring River yesterday at highway 10 bridge. We met Paul Crews, another good friend, and we headed upstream in search of some whites. We found them all over. We went up past the first gravel bar, then the second to the third. We caught whites most everywhere but we tried to fish the deeper sides (4-6 feet deep) and around the fallen trees. If we caught one we'd usually catch 3-5 more in the same place before they'd move on us. We used either 1/16th or 1/8th oz leads heads and swimming minnows in blue, smoke or chartruese. Didn't seem to matter on the color. The white ranged from 4 inches to 2 lbs. We kept 35, 12 were sows. Water was 53 in the am and 57 later in the afternoon. We fished from 9 till 4 pm. Water was stained- just right. Very little current even in the shallow riffles.

Talked to Quinton- MDC shocked last week and there were "walleye everywhere". He said they were catching them mostly at night. No other details. It's been very quiet on this forum on pothole walleye- I guess those that know don't want the word out!! It's out! Please, if you go let us know what's going on.

Tony Wededle just told me he caught 3 19 inch white bass at the first bend up in Beaver the other day on a shad rap, along with some largemouth and walleye. I'm sure they will be making false runs in and out of the creek for the next several weeks until spawn.

Attention - Changes to the tournament- This will be a benefit tournament for the junior and senior class trip of the Faith Christian Academy here in Branson. All proceeds, as well as a donation for each team participating, will be donated to the trip. There will also be a smoked chicken dinner served after the event. All proceeds from the dinner will also be donated. Cost of the dinner has no yet been set. Questions- let me know!

You may want to clarify your question.

I'm guarding my raincheck with my life

This is an easy one - 99% - no water. No generation. Not much to run and no reason to at this point.

... but I'm in the office and not sure how much time I really have to type. Been working on several things of interest. I'm speaking at a FFF chapter in KC next week and have been putting a midge fishing piece together. Lots of studing on the internet- it's been fun and informative. I'll post it on OA as soon as I'm done in KC. The troutcam has been down- not sure where the problem is but it does seem like it's in the wiring. But the visibility is poor so there's not much to see. Spring fishing is just around the corner- can't wait till everything blossums out and the fish head to the banks. The weather has given us a preview of spring already- 2 tornados and hail. Not complaining about the rain though! Am thinking about changing the name of my newsletter from the White River Journal to something more appropriate to the present site. It started out being Taneycomo, then added Table Rock and Bull Shoals, then more and more and now it's the Ozarks-plus. So I'm trying to come up with the name. If anybody has any ideas- shoot them my way. The only problem is writing enough to cover some/all of the waters we cover now. Part of my problem my ideas get too big and I can't keep up with them. I have to fish sometime!!! I have a daughter graduating from College of the Ozarks and a son graduating from high school (my last kid). Man- it's all going so fasts. May will be here and gone and so will our kids... almost. They are still close and of course they will be for the summer working. But gosh- it's gone quick. C of O won the boys basketball national championship naia2 yesterday. Dad and I watch all 5 games. It's such a blessing to have mom and dad here and get to do things with him. He's 70 and in excellent health- probably better than me. We don't really know anyone of the boys team but do know one of the girls that plays for C of O - Becca Howard - who's team lost in the final game of the championships. She's good friends with my oldest son Caleb. My 30 year HS reunion is this summer... I'm in charge of getting it together. Go figure- I'm from Parsons, KS and I'm in charge? But I was told no one in Parsons wanted to do it and I wanted to see some friends so- I'm doing it. It's not really that hard. I'm heading to Parsons tomorrow for a dinner/meeting with some of the guys to talk about plans. Gonna hit the Spring River on the way over! We're having a "wild game feast" at church on Sunday night. If anyone is interested in deer, pheasant, fish and whatever else we can find between now and then, feel free to come. Covenant Life Church behind Empire Electric on Main in old downtown Branson. Around 6 pm I think.

since my last entry- sorry. It's been a hectic winter, believe me. But my intentions are to keep this up at least a couple of times a week. In saying that... I'm going to make this entry short because I have many things to do and the evening is going fast. We've had several entries and new blogs but no first-posts. It's alittle tricky getting your entry to post for the first time so I'm going to send an email to those who are having trouble. Later I'm going to catch up by blog.

Matt- it should be good. You'll catch crappie for sure. Go out towards Blair and you may see some whites.

$69 per day, 18-foot jon w/ 25 hp, 4 seats. Plus Gas.

1. http://www.mdc.mo.gov/ online sales 2. Hard to say how much is too much. It's pretty colored up now but fishing is still good. The whole trophy area is clear. 3. I posted a report yesterday. Jigs have been working very well esp in the trophy area. Jerk baits fair during the day and good at night. If it clouds up and gets windy they will work better during the day. Jigs are still the best way to go as far as lures. Flashy spoons downstream in the colored water.

Registration is alittle slow for the seminar although I hear of a lot people are coming. Five have registered. If you haven't call to registered, please do asap. The reason we need to know how many are coming is to facilitate the meeting the best way we can, ie. refreshments, materials. If the group is too large, we will move it to another location in town. But until that time, it will be held here at the resort. Call 1-800-284-2196.

In the 80's, the construction boom was blamed for the decline of our freshwater shrimp on upper Lake Taneycomo, which is still debatable. But the fact is tons of silt from those construction sites did wash into the upper lake and cover much of the gravel bottom causing some havoc I'm sure. Arkansas authorities have to get a handle on new construction in regards to natural resources--even the developers should be concerned... why are they building on this hill? Because it's close to those natural resources. It's part of the draw to sell properties. To harm it would be bad business.

http://naia.collegesports.com/sports/m-bas.../031506aaa.html #4 College of the Ozarks (Mo.) (29-6) def. #2 Huntington (Ind.) (32-6), 74-56 Girls lost- the naia site hasn't been updated. They lost by 10+ I thing. But 33-2 isn't a bad record.

Kinda hard to forecast what conditions will be later in this week, refering to the water clarity. Right now the lake is clear from just below Fall Creek to the dam. It is pretty muddy below that point. It will move down gradually and the water will get clearer as the week goes on. It hasn't bothered the trout much- only the fisherpeople. But most have been going to in boats and fishing above the clear-water line just because it's clearer. Fishing off our dock is my indicator pretty much when the water is like this. They are still catching mostly on bright-colored power bait. Also silver and gold cleos and other spoons out in the lake, esp downtream near the bridges. Above the clear line, night crawlers have been the best bait along with jigs. Above Fall Creek, micro jigs and other small marabou jigs under a float is very good, esp in this slight wind we've been having. Below the dam, midge patterns are a killer. Zebras as will as thread midges and soft hackles. Scuds in olive or gray in #18 to #20 fished from #1 outlet to the big hole and then at Rocking Chair - very good. Night fly fishing continues to be very good using while woolies and sculpin patterns. Also floating rapalas worked on the surface slow.

I was going by memory - opps! I've never had to worry with the 18-inch or more rule- just knew it was there. Thanks for the correction!!

I didn't do presentation just for that reason- it would get most if not all the votes.

Boys are playing here in Branson, the girl in Sioux City, IA.