Phil Lilley

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?

This is out the back of the house we're renting... I'm excited!

But why? 😜

We looked at structure and didn't see much on it. Up in Flat, just above the bridge, we saw a continuous line of fish right on the bottom. We fished for them and they were interested but not biting. From the size and attitude, I think they were either blue gill or small bass - leaning towards BG. It was cool to see them and how they acted. On the flat on the main lake, the crappie were in small schools sometimes but mainly they were just scattered. When we'd see them, they were in small schools but not tightly grouped at all. They were in 3's and 4's and suspended 15-18 feet deep in 20-23 FOW. Those are the ones we casted to and were more apt to bite/chase. Livescope is an education. You see them and more importantly - you see how they react to what you're doing.

Oh but those dark, crappy days are the best ones to catch the big ones!

Just south of Venice. Marsha's sister lives there so I mailed packages to them.

We’re going to spend a week down in Florida well after next. I mailed some of my tackle down ahead- my trout stuff. We rented a vrbo house on a key, on the inside so we have a small pier to fish from. I’m inexperienced at fishing for fish that have teeth. Any suggestions? Not after big fish, just whatever pulls on the line. Of course I’m taking my marabous...

At Bridgeport. North side of the highway

January is almost half gone, and we've yet to see any down water on Lake Taneycomo. Table Rock Lake had lowered to 913 feet, two feet below powerpool, but after a couple of rains, it has jumped up to over 916 feet. Beaver Lake is in better shape at only one foot over pool, but water is running at Beaver Dam 24/7 which is adding to Table Rock's volume. Today, Table Rock's flow bumped up from two to three units, 6,000 to 9,600 cubic feet of water per second. Table Rock has crested and is starting to fall just a bit. I would guess we'll see this flow for about a week, then a dropping in volume until Table Rock is back down to 913 feet. Whether or not we'll see any periods when the water is all shut off remains to be seen. We hosted a private trout tournament Saturday in which 47 two-man teams competed for cash prizes and plaques. The generation was about 6,000 c.f.s. of flow all day. The trophy area and feeder creeks were all off limits, but live bait was allowed. The weigh in was eye-opening. Big trout after big trout were brought up for weighing. At least 10 trout topped 20 inches, including two brown trout, and many rainbows weighed over two pounds. We've never hosted a tournament in 30+ years with these kind of weights. There are a couple of things to take away from this display: Catch and Release works! And the Missouri Department of Conservation management plan is growing big trophy trout on Lake Taneycomo. In 2020, we had 531 trophy trout (20-inches and longer) registered as caught and released. That's an incredible number. And in 2018, M.D.C. reduced the number of rainbows stocked from about 720,000 to 560,000. Reducing the number of mouths to feed in the upper lake gives trout more to eat, and they are growing bigger. Most of these nice rainbows and the two keeper browns were released, although anglers were not required to do so. A few of them were either kept or the fish not survive. As far as I can tell, these trout were caught in various parts of the lake in a numbers of ways. I think most were caught on artificial lures and some on bait. I heard jerk baits were very productive, either throwing and jerking them back or dragging them on the bottom. Jigs were good. Black and brown colors were mentioned by several people. And even spoons down by the Branson Landing netted some good fish. I just think it was a good fishing day -- the fish were biting! And there were a lot of hooks out there for the offering. With this present flow, I'd be more apt to drag something on the bottom rather than working a jig or spoon, at least on the upper lake including the Trophy Area. Getting your offering on the bottom will take a bit more weight, but that's where it needs to be. For flies and lures, scuds, eggs and San Juan worms versus a medium-size, suspending stick bait should work best. And I'd consider dragging these not just from the dam to Short Creek but on down past Cooper Creek. If you're going to throw marabou jigs, go with an 1/8th-ounce and work the banks. White is still a good color, but I'd also try black/brown and other earth colors. View full article

Water Temp - 41.3 and pretty clear. Yes it was cold yesterday! It just wouldn't warm up to the 41 forecasted. But we caught them. Good day. We boated up in Flat Creek first and looked around on the flat above and below the bridge. Not much. Did see some schools of probably crappie but with the clear water we couldn't get close. They were spooky. Went out and up past point 15 and fished the flat. Found crappie scattered all over the place, from 14 to 24 feet of water mainly on the bottom but some were schooled up in small numbers moving around. We were able to cast to a few using the Livescope and hooking a few which was fun. But we caught the most trolling 2- 1/16th ounce marabou jigs. I tried to stay in 18 feet of water and trolled .7 mhp. And tried to keep them almost dragging the bottom. The bite was light. We ended up with 10 keepers and may be 8 shorts, a couple of SM and spots.

@RSBreth Nice to see your post!

Incredible fish weighed in today. Best overall numbers I've ever seen in any tourney on Taneycomo. Didn't count but had over a dozen rainbows and one brown over 20 inches. Most were released. This is a private tourney. Bait is allowed. Trophy Area was off limits and so was going up in the creeks.

I browsed the topic and found a ton of great info there... no wonder I pinned it on the Crane Forum.

It’s not a boom ... they were thick last year too. We had allot more behind our dock last summer.