Phil Lilley

I'm going to have to design and have made some OA bumper stickers just for you guys so you'll find each other at the next gathering.... or bright fluorescent hats or something.

When are you coming? We do have rooms open this weekend... kinda of a slow time. I have fishing buddy special available that may work for you. Fishing-wise... spin or fly? Bait or lure?

Carolyn Scott just emailed and informed me that at the Riverpointe Ramp there is to be a $3 launch fee go into affect very soon.

Be safe. Keep a journal. Take lots of pics... and keep a backup!

Put in at Cricket Creek Marina at 8 am this morning with Bill Babler and heade up past the mouth of Long and into Cricket. Fished the flats on the right, sitting in 12-15 feet of water and doing best when throwing paralelle to the bank- sink to the bottom and reeling real real slow. 1/6th oz head with chartruese swimming minnow. I caught 5 short and 5 keeper crappies and Bill caught one keeper. They were biting light. I left at 11 am and Bill stayed and fish longer. Buster was fishing upstream in Long with clients this am. We talked to him on the cell phone a couple of times and he and his party limited by 11 am. They were short of Yocum fishing the first tree line off the bluff bank using white or chartruese grubs close to the bottom in 10-15 feet.

It's not limited to fly- only artificial. Here's the link to the flyer. http://ozarkanglers.com/masters_06.html

It's coming up quick... after seeing what the Boswell group did yesterday, I'd say it's going to be an interesting contest. In the Masters and Team, the contestants have to declare if they are going to fish up or down. If they chose up, they can fish anyplace but can only weigh in rainbows under 12 and over 20 inches. If they chose down, they can weigh in any size rainbow but cannot fish above Fall Creek. If you fish up, you have to weigh in a 20-inch-plus trout to have a chance of placing so it's a gamble. Both tournaments are open to the public and articial-only, same rules as fishing the trophy area.

You had beautiful weather for it... Who went? How was fishing? Wish I could have been there- next time!

I'm going to beat some to it I'm sure and if they (and you know who you are) want to tell their own story, they can file a report too. I know of numerous crappie limits caught out of Long/Cricket yesterday and I'm sure it's excellent again today. The ones I heard were caught on the bottom in 10-12 feet of water on mud flats in Cricket and Long Creeks, mainly in Arkansas. A few whites and blacks mixed in. Most were caught on grubs and jigs, white, chartruese and motor oil, red heads. Lots of people out too- parking lot was full yesterday at Cricket Creek Marina. Mark at the marina carries all the swimming minnows you can imagine and the lead heads to match. Just hope they all aren't caught out before I get down there.

I haven't generated any new maps, only fix a bad link and threw in a link to a host of maps, some duplicates, but all the maps I've worked on. I'll add a link to the maps to the Table Rock forum. I hope to have the rest of the lake done this year. It does take alot of concentrated time to do these maps. Although I scan them, it takes alot of clean-up and marking to get the final product. The crappie spots on Long Creek should help this spring. http://ozarkanglers.com/trmaps/html/tr_map.html

Well- some of our tournament guys today caught blacks in the Branson area on jigs while trying to catch trout. One measured 16 inches weighed 3.5 lbs. The team asked me where they could go bass fishing on Taney and I said from Branson downstream- I guess- seeing what they did today. Taney has some humungas bass, as you know. Welcome- we need more Table Rock guys to report on the forum.

Fishing was very good today. Just ask one of 54 anglers who fished today- all day- in the 24th annual Elmer Boswell Memorial Trout Tourney. Mostly from the St Louis area, anglers held their private contest taking advantage of a beautiful day. The winners used night crawlers and power bait, fishing between Short and Fall Creeks. Second place guys went artificial only- jigs- and fished down around the bridges and even as far down as Rockaway Beach. They finished 2/100 of an ounce apart. Lots of beautiful rainbows- lots of dark males, more than I've ever seen at one time. I told the guys in a meeting last night that the male rainbow weighed more than the others and I guess I was right- the 2nd place team weighed 7 dark males and 1 silver trout. Here's are the teams/weights/big trout (all rainbows) 1. Hampton/Lentz-----7.16----1.36 2. Hittler/Dietle--------7.14----1.10 3. Benz/Ochiltree------6.98----1.14 4. Boswell/Lucasek----6.76----1.50 (big trout caught by Tony Boswell) 5. Schuler/Spain-------6.40----1.24 6. Haller/Ndina---------6.24----1.24 7. Collins/Mazdra------6.14------.92 8. Manske/Myers-------6.10-----.86 9. Schmidt/Weaver----6.06----- 10. Gomos/Stinchcomb-6.00----1.36 27 total teams 8 trout were weighed per team

Should have known.... and I think I sold you it too!!

Never used them- I guess I have to try. A rep dropped off some http://www.blueskyfly.com/ leaders one time but they're still in a box someplace. Am interested to see where this topic goes- may have to carry them in the shop.

Nice to see you here... and looking forward to seeing you on the dock. If you're tying jigs... you have to buy your marabou someplace?! Remember "sculpin"!

Brent- John has all the phone numbers... didn't you know that!! Need I say more!??!? We have alot in common- I was born in Denison and grew up fishing the lake with my grandfather- mostly trolling for sand bass and setting trotlines. Been back fishing the tailwater for stripers but it's been along time since then. I'm sure you have some good Texhoma stories to share! Thanks for being on the forum- looking forward to spring softball!! Side note - the pics you attached are too big... downsize them and edit the post and they'll come up better. If you have problems editing the pics, send them to me and I'll do it for you phil@lilleyslanding.com Phil

They've been stocking walleye in TR for years... it just takes so many stocked fish to make a dent in the overall population. But I believe we will start to see a good population in TR in the next few years. Both Kings and James, esp Kings have great March spawning runs... kinda of a well kept secret in these parts.

Ramps - MDC ramp below the dam, access road close to the hatchery. Steep to get to and fairly tricky to put in. Lake is not over 4 feet deep at access point when water is down. During generation, very difficult to take out because of current. North side. Riverpoint ramp off Acacia Club Rd, Hollister. This ramp is "private" but is used by the public. Fairly shallow. Not much traffic. Ramp in on an inside bend in the lake so when water is running, taking out isn't too bad. South side. Cooper Creek Access - MDC access. Restrooms, handicap access. Very nice, extra large parking, lite. Large ramp, very nice. Off Fall Creek Rd (off 76 1 mile off 65). North Side. Downtown Ramp - located south of the city campground and south of the Branson Landing, next to Scotty's Trout Dock. North side. Rockaway Beach Ramp - located in Roackaway Beach. North side. Ozark Beach Ramp located at the bottom of Lake Taneycomo. North side.

I'll look into it when I get a minute... thanks for pointing it out to me. I need someone to double check my work alot of the time.

Wooly Bugger Jeremy Hunt Recipe: Hook: 5263 TMC size 2-10 Thread: Uni-thread 6/0 color to match body Tail: Marabou that matches body. Add crystal flash if needed. Rib: Gold, sliver, or copper wire Body: Flash dubbing Hackle: black saddle color to match body Weight: .20 lead wire Go ahead and wrap your lead on. I like to weight most of the shank when tying mine, but you can do whatever you desire. You will need to leave enough room in the back to tie in a tail. You don’t want to tie in your marabou tail on top of the lead wire. I also leave some room at the eye so I don’t have any crowding when I finish the fly off. For those who don’t know what size wire to you use for what size hook here is the rule of thumb. Whatever size around the hook shank is, that’s how big the lead should be that you’re using. For most streamer hooks in a size 4-8 typically you will use .20 and .25 lead wire. Make sure that the lead is center before you start you’re thread. Now start you’re thread in the front and wind on top of the lead at angle to the back locking the lead into place. We call this thread dam. It’s when you build thread wraps on each side of the lead in one spot keeping the lead from sliding. Cut the tag end off and your ready to tie in your tail. Measure the tail to be a shank in length. Go ahead and cut it before you tie it in. Butt the tips up to the lead in the back and then tie it in. Make sure you wind all the way to the bend. You will notice that once you’ve tied down the marabou side that was cut and tied down on the shank. The lead and the marabou around the shank next to the lead wire are still the same size in diameter keeping the base even and smooth. Tie in your wire, but make sure you tie in enough along the shank so when you go to wind it forward it doesn’t slip out from applying to much pressure. I like to cover the whole length of the shank when I tie mine. Now with the front section of the feather you are going to pull back and split the barbs evenly on each side. You want to be as close up to the tip as you can. You only need enough of the tip section to be tied in at the front. Tie the tip section in about three to four turns of thread. Make sure that you tie it in concave (Shiny side facing down). Now what I want you to do is slide the feather back so that the barbs you split are even with where the marabou tail starts to flare at the front where the thread wraps start. Look in picture 8 and you can see what I am trying to explain. If I fold down the feather you can see the barbs are even with where the tail starts. We are going to make a dubbed body instead of using chenille. You can really use whatever you want for the body. I am using some new flash dubbing that Wapsi is experimenting with called Angelina. It is the softest flash dubbing on the market. It is not out yet but I’m sure it will be in the near future. It is real easy to dub with. Once you dub your thread you are ready to wrap forward to the eye. Palmer the hackle up making each space the same all the way up the fly. You can do as many turns as you want. I don’t like to do too many though. If you start to see your hackle barbs going every direction instead of the nice laid back look. I can probably tell you what caused it. You twisted the stem of the feather around. When you wind the feather up make sure that you don’t twist it from turning it around the shank. You can’t really see this step, but when you wrap your wire forward make sure you go the opposite direction then the way you went with the hackle. This will prevent the hackle barbs from getting smashed or tied down. Go slow when you advance the wire up. You can tweak the wire back and forth as you wind forward. This will also help you from catching so many of the barbs. Tie the wire down and whip finish the fly. Keynotes: Using flash for the body is a great night fly pattern that really produces a lot of strikes. I like pearl and shades of olive greens for the bodies. Also I wanted to touch on marabou’s. There are all types of marabou but the one I have found to work the best and really makes a good looking tail for wooly buggers is the “Wooly Bugger marabou”. It really cuts out the guessing game on how much and how long. That has already been done for you. Just grab a piece and you’re good to go.

Soft Hackle Jeremy Hunt Recipe: Hook: 3761 TMC size 16-22 Thread: UTC 70 color to match body Body: Thread Thorax: sow-scud dubbing Collar: Hungarian Partridge Rib: UTC wire (BR) Tying Instructions Secure the thread on the hook shank. Tie in at the front. Only do enough turns to get the thread started. Get a piece of wire and tie it in at the front too. You want the wire down the whole shank. One to keep the body the same shape and to also secure the wire in solid. If you hold the wire at a angle as you wind back, because of the way you’re holding the wire and winding back it will slide down the wraps butting each wrap by side. This is important when you only have a thread base for the body of the fly. By using a floss thread you will definitely like the way the body looks verses uni-thread wind to the bend. Advance the thread forward still making each wrap next to the next wrap. This will build the thread wraps making the body smooth. Wind the wire forward what I like to do on the first turn. Try not to pull hard because this will shift the wire down that is tied in making the body uneven at the back. Once you do the first turn around then you can apply more power on the rest of the turns. I like to do the turns even when I space them to create the segments on the body. I’m tying on a size 18 and I have six wraps of wire. That will give you a idea on my spacing. Once you tie the wire in then heat the wire from moving it back and forth and it will break and will not leave a tag of wire. This step is kind of tricky. You only want to use a little dubbing. Just enough to make one turn around for the collar. Select a partridge hackle. Make sure you’re picking one from the very front section of the bird. Down by the face of the bird. You will need a whole bird to get the best selection of feathers. If you go the cheap route by loose feathers then your flies will not turn out to good on smaller sizes. The hackles are all too long. Good for size 10 and 12's. What you want to do is grab the tip of the feather with one hand and with the other hand pull back split the barbs evenly on each side and with the tip section you are going to tie in the middle where you split the barbs. Now if you tied the feather in right the tip side should be facing in front of the eye. One thing before you go on is you only want the barbs for the collar and not the shaft stuff on the very bottom of the stem. Pull that off. With your thumb nail push back on the tip creating it to force up so you can get a close cut on it. Cut it off close. Now do about two more turns securing the tip down for the feather to be palmered around. This part will definitely give you practice on your hand coordination. You cannot give this too much tension or you will break the feather or pull it out when you go to wind it around. Make you’re first slow with not a lot of tension when you go around on the first turn. Try not to twist the step around when you go around. You want the hackle laying in the back direction. To make the collar look palmered, you need to work on this part and get used to working with small feathers. You’ll get it in time. Once you tied all the hackle in. Tie the stem in and cut it off. Whip finish the fly and gloss coat the head. Soft Hackle

Mo-Hair Leech (Woven) Jeremy Hunt Recipe: Hook: 5263 TMC size 4-10 Thread: Uni-thread 3/0 color to match body Body: Mo-hair yarn (two colors woven together) Tail: Marabou color to match body Tying Instructions I already secured my lead wire. Build your thread down on each side of the lead locking lead into place. This is to prevent it from sliding up and down on the shank. If you ever question how much lead to use. It kind of is up to you, but if you want to know what size to use, here is the rule of thumb. They say whatever diameter of the shank size is the lead should be the same size around too. I usually use .20 and .25 for most my streamers. Measure the tail to the length of the shank. Cut the tail and tie it at the bend. Butt the tips that you cut off with the lead at the back. This will keep the base even along the whole shank. Look at Pic 4 and Pic 5 to get an idea. Cut two different colors of Mo-hair yarn about six inches in length. Advance you’re thread to the front and tie in each one of the strand on the sides and wind them to the bend. Advance the thread back to the eye. Whip finish the thread and know you’re ready to start the woven technique. Before I forget to tell you. Depending on what side you tie the color that you want on the underside. You need to tie the one that will be on the bottom on the side of the shank opposite of you’re side. The side on you’re opposite side is the one you are going to fold under and the one on your side is going to be the top. Ok. I hope I can explain this step to you. It’s difficult to do this looking at someone in front of you. If you notice that one strand is olive and the other is black. The one that is olive is tied on the opposite side facing away from me. The black one is on the side towards me. With your right hand you are going to hold the olive and the black one with you’re left hand. Now say this to yourself when you’re doing this step, over under. With the olive one you are going to go under and with the black one you are going to go around the olive yarn and then staying on the top side. Repeating this step all the way up the fly. Olive always staying on the bottom and the black always staying on the top. The key is not to do a full turn around the hook shank with the olive. You just do half turns on the bottom with the olive and go around the yarn with the black. Tie the thread back on while holding the two strands with you’re other hand. Tie the strands in and whips finish the fly. Glue the head. If you have a dubbing brush you can really pick out the hair to create the fly to look messy. Make it look as rough as you can. Mo-Hair Leech (Woven)

Wilson’s Trout Crack Jeremy Hunt Recipe: Hook: 2457 TMC size 14-18 Thread: .004 mono Body: Antron (sand for the color) Back: UTC V-rib on spool Now I don’t know if you have really tied with monofilament thread before, but it sure doesn’t want to hold like other threads. This will slip if you don’t secure it right. You really go to wind over the tag and with a lot of thread turns at an angle. Once you get it secured you will want to tie in the vinyl rib. I tie it in at the front and wind the vinyl to the bend. Pass the hook point. Once you are at the bend wind you’re thread back up to the eye(front). You’re ready to dub the fly. This part can be tricky. You only want enough dubbing to hide the shank. Too much dubbing will make this fly look bulky. The key is a sparse body, not a big body. Wind to the bend and you’re ready to start the ribbing with you’re mono. Your thread should be at the bend. Fold the v-rib over and start segmenting the body until your up at the eye. Make sure you space them evenly. Whip finish and glue the head. Wilson’s Trout Crack

V-Rib Midge Jeremy Hunt Recipe: Hook: 2457 TMC size 12-18 Thread: UTC 70 color to match body Body: UTC V-rib on spool Head: Tungsten bead 3/32, 5/64 Tying instructions. You can see we already started the fly. Slide a bead on and start you’re thread behind the bead. Also tie in the vinyl at the front right behind the bead. Andance you’re thread wraps back making each wrap next to the next wrap until you get to the bend. Advance thread back to the front right behind the bead. Grab the v-rib and wind it up to the bead. The only thing to worry about on this step is to make sure the wraps are side by side and not over lapping on top of each other. Another thing to mention is the vinyl you’re using should be the shape of a “D” not a circle or round in shape. Make sure when you tie this in that the flat side is facing down when you first tie it in. You don’t want the flat side showing when you are winding it forward. You will notice that the rib “segments” won’t look right. Also don’t turn to tight or you will pull the rib to hard and you won’t to see the segmentation. Only do enough turns with the v-rib to get to right behind the Bead. Try not to overlap the vinyl once you get to the bead. Tie in the v-rib and whip finish the fly. Glue your thread wraps at the eye and your ready to catch some fish.

Hunt’s Hybrid Crayfish Jeremy Hunt Recipe: Hook: Di-Riki 700b size 4,6 Thread: 6/0 Uni- thread color to match body Mandibles: Spanflex SX4 color to match body Antennae: Sili legs (speckled flake) Claws: Barred squirrel (Wapsi product) Shellback: Swiss straw Body: SLF (Dave Whitlock) The crayfish color blends Legs: Grizzly Hen saddle Rib: UTC wire size (BR) Tail: Swiss straw Weight: .25 lead wire TYING INSTRUCTIONS Secure the lead on the bottom portion of the hook shank. I do about twelve wraps of .25. Tie your thread at the bend of the hook and do enough turns to get the thread started. Cut the tag end off. Cut two strands of span flex and tie them in at the bend of the hook. You will otice how long mine are. You can trim the excess off or tie it in around the hook shank. I like to cut mine off. Make sure the antennas are cut even at the tips. This is an easy technique to learn if you don’t know it already. If you look at picture six you will get a idea about this step. Fold the sili legs around the thread with one hand. You’re going to hold the bobbin with the other hand and the hand holding sili legs you’re going to hold it while turning the bobbin around the shank. If you keep tension as you go around with the bobbin (thread). By making that first turn around you will see the sili legs slide down the thread as you make the turn. Look in picture seven. The sili legs are going to be on top of the hook shank once you made a complete turn with you’re thread. You will be able to adjust them once you tie them in. You will notice that they are sticking straight up . Go ahead and wind on top of them once you have tied them in. This will force them to lay back with the spanflex. Cut a strand of swiss straw to the length of one fold on the card. Poke one end of the swiss straw thru the hook point. Make sure that when you poke this thru the swiss straw you’re at the end of the swiss straw. If poke it in the middle of the swiss straw you will not have enough for the shell back that goes across the whole fly. You also will have a tail hanging off the back with the same piece to. This step is kind of complicated at first. Since you don’t have a lot of excess swiss straw to tie in around the shank after you poke it in the hook point. I have notice that you have to make sure with the first wrap that it grabs all the swiss straw when you go to tie it in. Now if you’re going to add eyes now is the time to do so. I don’t mess with them so I skip that step all together. Now dub a little ball of SLF dubbing around the thread. You don’t need a lot, just enough to make the pinchers flare out when you tie them in. You will need to cut two pinchers the same length using squirrel. This is a newer material, but you can find this in shops now. If you notice, I like to strip a few hairs from each end of the hide and tie that hide piece in. Tie in the squirrel strips right behind the little ball of dubbing make sure that you really tie them in securely and butt them up to the ball so you get that flare from the pinchers. Split the barbs evenly on each side of the feather at the tip section of the of the grizzly hen saddle and tie it in with tip end of the feather hanging concave to be palmered up to form the legs later. Note when tying the feather in make sure not to wrap any of the barbs that form the legs when you start to wind the feather forward. Tie in the feather where you split it. Once you tie in the feather and its hanging off the back, form dubbing loop. You will need to make a fairly good loop because you will need a lot of dubbing to fill in the loop. I like to make the loop about three to four inches long. And you will fill that whole loop with dubbing. Make sure you don’t put to much in one area. You will need to spread it out evenly. Spin the dubbing with some kind of dubbing twister. Once you got the loop tight and dubbing secure. Tie it around to form a small to big and back to small tapered effect. Tie it along the whole half of the shank until you get to the first bend in the hook. Which is the middle section of the hook. That is key to the fly. That is your main reference point to proportioning the fly correctly. palmared the hen saddle forward to create the legs. I do about four to five turns until I get to the middle of that first bend on the hook. Cut a piece of wire. Tie it in at the bend in the middle.After you have tied in the wire go ahead and advance the thread up to the other half of the shank where you see all the lead wire and tie that in. Build thread dams on each side of the wire so it doesn’t slide or move, make sure that you don’t push you’re lead to close to the eye or you will not have any room for the swiss straw to be fold over and tied in. Always Leave a space of metal showing between the lead and the eye. advance you’re thread back to the middle where you see the bend. Grab the swiss straw and fold it over and tie it at the bend in the center of the hook. You only need to tie it down with two to three turns. If you tie anymore you defiantly start to see your thread wraps on the outside of the straw. Fold the swiss straw back after you make your two or three wraps. Go ahead and dub the fly up and make a smooth even body all the way up to the eye. Fold the swiss straw over the dubbed body and tie it down at the front of the eye. Wrap the wire up until you get to the eye and tie it off. I do about six to seven turns of wire and you should be at the eye. If you’re not it’s because you wrap the wire to tight to the next wrap. Make you’re angle bigger abd that will fix the problem. I don’t like to use scissors to cut the tag. Please use dull ones or bad ones. Or you can move the wire back and forth fast and it will brake off from the heat of moving it. It will make a clean brake with no tag end hanging. Fold the swiss straw over and tie off. Whip finish the fly. With some curved scissors cut the swiss straw. Note: I epoxy the whole swiss straw to make a nice shell back plus a durable fly that will not tear up. I also like to brush out the dubbing on the under side with a dubbing brush (if you have a gun cleaner wire brush that will work the best.)